Solphim, Mayhem Dominus - burninate the countryside [brainstorming]
Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2023 1:30 am
I've been doing some deep thinking about what I should do to diversify my commander builds, and one big thing is having more cards that contribute to my win condition rather than being answers for other peoples' win conditions. And what takes more cards to win with than burn in a format with 120 enemy life? Especially if you're planning to burn down every single life point, with no ways to enhance that damage beyond the commander.
There are a couple limitations to that plan. One is that there really aren't very many good player-targeting burn spells in the format. And a lot of the best burn spells to kill players are ones that also wipe creatures, i.e. Rolling Earthquake. And of course the commander is optionally indestructible, so global burn spells are very effective. But that means it's kind of another control deck after all. Every where I turn, it's control.
Baby steps, I suppose.
I've gone through my red cards and had a bit of a think. There are very few cards that ONLY damage players and are decent. Price of Progress is easily the most effective, although it's not very targeted (and it punishes me for running utility lands, boo). I should probably try to acquire some of the better player-targeting burn spells like Flames of the Blood Hand, which isn't currently in my collection.
Most damage spells target either creatures and/or players, so they're by nature flexible. To some extent I think this is maybe okay? I can try to sandbag the burn for a bit blow-out burnination at the end, unless forced to answer something. We'll see how it plays out, though. There are a lot of burn spells that damage all creatures and I imagine that could get pretty tedious.
And then there are cards like Starstorm that can't damage players at all. But they are very effective.
And then there's the question of whether I should commit to the instant/sorcery plan, or if it's better to use permanents to assist. Stuff like Rampaging Ferocidon, Descent into Avernus, Seismic Assault, etc. On one hand, going pure burn seems like it'd be the most difficult and require the most cards. But on the other hand, it means I'm playing my classic "my hand is the wincon" style where I'm never revealing my power level.
Particularly this becomes tricky with ramp, since I probably want ramp. So at least it seems like that will be one exception. With burn alone, a lot of my highest damage spells are X spells, so having big treasure mana could be a good way to go.
The deck I feel like I'd naturally gravitate towards is to play a bunch of planeswalkers and damage-based wipes that also hit players, but that probably ends up very similar to my other decks so probably I shouldn't?
Idk, tough calls. I might build it real quick (planning to play in about an hour) with the all-instants/sorceries build, and minimal wipes, just to see how it plays out.
There are a couple limitations to that plan. One is that there really aren't very many good player-targeting burn spells in the format. And a lot of the best burn spells to kill players are ones that also wipe creatures, i.e. Rolling Earthquake. And of course the commander is optionally indestructible, so global burn spells are very effective. But that means it's kind of another control deck after all. Every where I turn, it's control.
Baby steps, I suppose.
I've gone through my red cards and had a bit of a think. There are very few cards that ONLY damage players and are decent. Price of Progress is easily the most effective, although it's not very targeted (and it punishes me for running utility lands, boo). I should probably try to acquire some of the better player-targeting burn spells like Flames of the Blood Hand, which isn't currently in my collection.
Most damage spells target either creatures and/or players, so they're by nature flexible. To some extent I think this is maybe okay? I can try to sandbag the burn for a bit blow-out burnination at the end, unless forced to answer something. We'll see how it plays out, though. There are a lot of burn spells that damage all creatures and I imagine that could get pretty tedious.
And then there are cards like Starstorm that can't damage players at all. But they are very effective.
And then there's the question of whether I should commit to the instant/sorcery plan, or if it's better to use permanents to assist. Stuff like Rampaging Ferocidon, Descent into Avernus, Seismic Assault, etc. On one hand, going pure burn seems like it'd be the most difficult and require the most cards. But on the other hand, it means I'm playing my classic "my hand is the wincon" style where I'm never revealing my power level.
Particularly this becomes tricky with ramp, since I probably want ramp. So at least it seems like that will be one exception. With burn alone, a lot of my highest damage spells are X spells, so having big treasure mana could be a good way to go.
The deck I feel like I'd naturally gravitate towards is to play a bunch of planeswalkers and damage-based wipes that also hit players, but that probably ends up very similar to my other decks so probably I shouldn't?
Idk, tough calls. I might build it real quick (planning to play in about an hour) with the all-instants/sorceries build, and minimal wipes, just to see how it plays out.