Inferno of the Star Mounts

Post by WizardMN 9 months ago

I have been getting into a deckbuilding kick again and decided I wanted to try a build that would focus on lots of noncombat/burn damage. I wanted a Red/Green deck but I couldn't come up with any commanders that made sense for that approach. So, I turned to mono-red which opened things up a little bit for massive amounts of mana with things like Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, and Caged Sun.

I settled on Inferno of the Star Mounts for a few reasons. One, if I have a could get mana doublers out, I can just one-shot people with commander damage thanks to its firebreathing ability. And two, its ability, if I can get its power high enough in one turn, can deal 20 damage to another target. Which will almost always go towards someone's face. I have been playtesting on Magic Online and have played about 5 or 6 games with it so far. I have tweaked things quite a bit since the first iteration but I am liking how this list is playing out so far:

I don't think I ended up with quite as much noncombat damage as I originally thought I would have. I like the way it is playing so far and I think I need to go this route to ensure I can stay alive with blockers rather than relying completely on noncombat damage.

There is a pretty significant treasure subtheme going on since that can help get a bunch of mana in addition to the mana "doublers". And getting Goldspan Dragon on the field as well can help increase that mana production. In addition, there are a lot of card draw options (a fair amount that also give treasures) because I need to keep my hand full. Early testing showed it was pretty easy to run out of cards which then left me dead in the water.

The main idea is to use the first few turns for ramp. Either Sol Ring, Solemn Simulacrum, Scampering Surveyor, or Burnished Hart. Also I have a few things like Captain Lannery Storm or Prosperous Bandit that can get me treasures on attacking or combat damage. I did have Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer but removed him for now because I needed space and he is really only good on turn 1. I might add him back in if I find other cards not working.

Shadowspear is here to help keep my life total up. Adding it to Inferno potentially gains me a bunch of life. Granted, I probably don't need it but I have found myself the target pretty often and I want to keep my life high if possible.

One notable card that has been far better than I initially expected it to be is Umezawa's Jitte. I added it for the -1/-1 until end of turn ability. The reason is because Inferno can trigger multiple times in a turn if I can make his power get to 20 multiple times in a turn. So, getting his power to 20 (and triggering him), then using Jitte to make his power 19, then using his ability to get his power to 20 again gives me two triggers for 20 damage each. Or more if I can keep doing that. The buff has also been good to give me a few "free" options to buff his power. Removing 3 counters to give him +6/+6, for example, saves me 6 mana to get him up to the desired 20 power.

I am still trying to figure out where I want to be on damage doublers. I started with a bunch and now I have none. It would be nice to fit them in to turn that 20 damage into 40, or even 60 with Fiery Emancipation. But, on the flip side, I don't think it is really necessary. 20 damage is already pretty significant and a lot of the current cards are here to try to get to that point. I found the damage doublers ultimately just took up space and didn't do enough if I didn't get to Inferno. I may revisit this again as well. If I do, I may revisit the idea of using Stuffy Doll and Brash Taunter as additional noncombat damage when things like Blasphemous Act happen.

I am hoping I can find a way to allow this deck to be aggressive fairly often as that is the main reason I want it. I want a deck that can come out of the gate swinging but also be able to close out games. The main thing I am trying to avoid is a deck that one shots someone and then sits doing nothing after that because people have answers. I might not be able to entirely avoid it but hopefully I can make a good showing most of the time. Right now I think the right way to play the deck is by being pretty aggressive early on to get creatures and treasures and then wipe the board. Then, to drop in some mana doublers and try to close things out with the commander or whatever else I have in hand

EonAon · Post by EonAon 9 months ago

Adaptive Omnitool Excalibur, Sword of Eden and maybe some of the chonkier other equips. I mean I would REALLY go hard on treasure for both growth and gen utility. Though if you're going normal you may want to consider Mana Flare and Barbflare Gremlin

Post by WizardMN 9 months ago

Omnitool and Excalibur both look like easy includes for the deck. I will try to figure out what else to cut for them. I am trying out Godo, Bandit Warlord and those would give me really good options for the tutor.

I am trying to avoid too much of the Mana Flare effects. If I am being aggressive it can help out but I really hate giving other people mana. And if I can't just win on the spot, doubling every else's mana can be a death sentence. I think I have all the main treasure producers. I did leave out things like Brass's Bounty due to cost but maybe that is something worth including later on.

Post by WizardMN 9 months ago

After playing a bunch of games with the deck, I wanted to note down some of my thoughts and observations about the deck.

First, a few cool plays I have been able to achieve. Godo, Bandit Warlord into Excalibur, Sword of Eden has been awesome. Excalibur, even when casting normally, has been extraordinarily solid. It is almost always free and it gets me within 4 mana of being able to trigger Inferno's trigger. Saving me 10 mana. And of course that means one-shotting someone is also an easier possibility. And then getting it to 20 power, lowering to 19 with Umezawa's Jitte, and raising to 20 again is cool when I can get it off. The last game I played I was able to do 80 damage total: 20 on my turn, and then, with the 2 counters on Jitte, I could do 60 on the next turn. I ended up having to wait because I wanted to be at 21 power for the Commander damage.

The Walls of Ba Sing Se have saved me quite a few times. Being able to give my board indestructible and then wrath with one of the damage based wraths or Oblivion Stone can really turn the tide. It also has an interesting interaction with Nevinyrral's Disk in that it would allow Disk to stick around since it usually only goes away when it destroys itself.

The treasure production has been pretty solid. I did cut Ancient Copper Dragon due to its cost. I still might get back to it since I added Anger which can help get it in for at least one hit. I might also add Akroma's Memorial as this does quite a bit for me and protects me against all my damage based wraths. And I have a few good ways to get to it. Magda, Brazen Outlaw is a great way to get to both of these, among other things, which might get me back to the Dragon at least.

I have found Gauntlet of Might in particular to be in a weird spot since it works with all Mountains, and not just basics. Gauntlet of Power's effect for everyone is mitigated due to this, but Might has had a few instances of ramping opponents more than I would like.

I have found that this deck really paints me as a target pretty hard. I am not sure the best way to handle that. Arguably, the best way is to slow roll it a little bit. Build the board but don't come out swinging too quickly. The only real way to make this work though is to wipe the board at least once, if not more, before I start trying to do much. The deck does rely pretty heavily on either treasures, mana doublers, or Excalibur to end games. And these things take time to set up.

I am going to keep trying to tweak things but I am not sure what the next piece of the puzzle might be. It has won maybe a quarter of the time (which is probably being generous) and I would like to get that up a little more. But that relies on more ramp I think. I will keep evaluating things to see if there is anything significant that can increase the win rate.

Post by WizardMN 9 months ago

Played another game online and it went pretty well. Technically I played 2 games but I kept an extraordinarily risky hand with 1 land and a Sol Ring with a rummaging card. Of course, I misread which card I had and I thought it was 3 mana and it was 4 so I didn't actually have a turn 2 play. But, my Sol Ring got countered anyway and I didn't draw a land next turn. So, I just scooped it up. My fault for keeping a risky hand like that.

Anyway, the second game was more interesting. It was a little slow going on my part. I started with Magda, Brazen Outlaw and got a treasure which gave me enough mana for The One Ring to keep my hand full. I did attack into probably the wrong person anyway but the person I attacked flashed in a creature and blocked so I lost Magda.

A couple turns later I got Goldspan Dragon into Big Score which was important since this eventually got me 4 treasures for 8 mana total which let me cast Oblivion Stone into Scampering Surveyor into Umezawa's Jitte. Next turn I drew into Jeska's Will and Sol Ring. With 8 lands at this point, I had 13 mana available due to one player being at 7 cards in hand. I cast Inferno of the Star Mounts and Excalibur, Sword of Eden and equipped Inferno. This gave me everything I needed to attack one player for 21 damage and deal 20 damage to another player. This killed one player and put another at 3 life.

Next turn, I was able to do the same thing. I dealt 20 damage to the player at 3 life and dealt 21 combat damage to the remaining player to win the game.

Again, Excalibur coming through huge. This game still relied on mana doubling (treasures vs land). I wish there was another card that would increase mana production of treasures as that could be pretty big for this list. As it is though, I think things are working reasonably well.

EonAon · Post by EonAon 9 months ago

There is but you have to pay for it and its not quite as fast Alchemist's Talent. The second part is what you're looking for but you do have to invest.

Post by WizardMN 9 months ago

I am currently trying out Alchemist's Talent so we will see how it plays out. It is a little slow but this deck seems clear to want to be explosive in the sense of just biding time (and maybe wrathing as needed) and then having a turn to just do a bunch of damage. So, it could still work reasonably well.

I just got done with a game and the biggest changes were to remove 3 of the 4 mana doublers. I kept in Gauntlet of Might solely because I couldn't think of anything else to add in its place. I decided to try out some other artifact mana (some of which is likely to get cut) and adding in a couple lands: Temple of the False God and Ancient Tomb. I don't really like Temple but I figured I could give it a shot. I did throw in Sol Talisman and Thran Dynamo but I can see them not sticking around too long. Especially Talisman. I run it in another deck now and just wanted to try it out here just to see.

I think I ultimately want to get to a point where I can commit to the board a little more. I have a fair few artifacts and some ways of getting to them but I am starting to think that I only truly care about one of them: Excalibur, Sword of Eden. In the game I just played, this was the reason I was going to win. Until the other mono-R player played a card that forced me to flip a coin to have someone gain control of Inferno. And I lost the flip. Since I couldn't get it back I couldn't finish the game. I was poised to kill one player and get the other to a low total. Based on the way the next couple turns went, I think I probably would have won if I hadn't lost Inferno.

Anyway, Temple and Thran Dynamo both came up and were helpful. I got a few treasures but never really had anything to do with them. I did wait a turn too long to wipe the board which ultimately contributed to the loss.

I am still tweaking things of course to try to see where the right balance between ramp and actual action. But I think I am liking the removal of the mana doublers so far.

EonAon · Post by EonAon 9 months ago

Updated list?

Post by WizardMN 9 months ago

Decklist is updated in the first post. Here is a list of all the changes. It doesn't include the interim changes I made as I worked to get to this list but it will show the changes from where I started to where I am now:

12/16/2025

CUTS

1 Ancient Copper Dragon

1 Caged Sun

1 Extraplanar Lens

1 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

5 Mountain

1 Shadowspear

1 Soul of New Phyrexia

1 The Immortal Sun

1 Thrill of Possibility

1 Wheel of Fortune

ADDS

1 All Is Dust

1 Call Forth the Tempest

1 Chain Reaction

1 Delayed Blast Fireball

1 Excalibur, Sword of Eden

1 Perilous Vault

1 Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter

1 Sol Talisman

1 Temple of the False God

1 Terrain Generator

1 The Eternity Elevator

1 The Mycosynth Gardens

1 The Walls of Ba Sing Se

1 Thran Dynamo

There is a lot to talk about here but the high points are: the ramp package is focused more on Sol Lands and artifact ramp to keep me being aggressive. Thran Dynamo, for example, only produces 3 mana whereas Gauntlet of Might can produce more in the long run. But, on the turn I drop in Thran Dynamo, I can cascade that into other options potentially. Maybe not perfect but it also removes the issue of ramping my opponents at the same time. The majority of the rest of the cards outside this are for board wipe purposes. The idea is to try to be aggressive with ramp but understand that the creatures will die with board wipes. Once that happens, I can try to flood the board with my own creatures.

I will say that there are still some likely cuts among the additions. Sol Talisman was discussed. Perilous Vault, while powerful to reset things, doesn't give me an option to make it asymmetrical with The Walls of Ba Sing Se nor does it give me the option of getting everything back with Scrap Mastery so it will likely come out at some point. And Gauntlet of Might will come out once I get a different card I want to try.

I have thought about Mind Stone and Mycosynth Wellspring but I have yet to pull the trigger on either one yet.

On a final note, I am at 3 game changers putting me at the (arbitrary) limit for Bracket 3. I don't know what other game changers I would even care about but I would have to weigh any new ones against the existing 3 to determine what is most important. For a fairly fragile deck, it is interesting that it has the most game changers out of all of my decks.

EonAon · Post by EonAon 9 months ago

So since you're playing the more equip version of this deck there are a few things you might want to add.

Two-Handed Axe // Sweeping Cleave
Nettlecyst
Lizard Blades

Lizard blades is my most recommended of the three since its cheap. Admittedly if you need larger creatures, you can always try some more classics like Bonehoard Dracosaur Wurmcoil Engine or even just a Soul of New Phyrexia. There are enough chonky red or colorless artifacts you could slide in for a backup beater.

Another card you may want to play is Goldlust Triad since if you attack one of the weaker/no flyers players and it connects you gain a treasure and if people decide to not block the tokens you gain a treasure off it as well That brings me to the card Reckless Fireweaver and other cards like its ilk that red has. Between that treasure production and general play chip damage can add up. Lastly The Fire Crystal could replace and or be added to Anger in that it helps Excalibur general costs and has a interesting copy ability.

I would have suggested Zookeeper Mechan Iron Myr Ornithopter of Paradise and Palladium Myr as extra mana sources but with the reliance on wrath effects that seems counter intuitive.

Post by WizardMN 9 months ago

A lot of those are good suggestions. I will have to keep them in mind. I like Wurmcoil just for gaining life. That is probably one of the weaker aspects of the deck. Goldlust Triad also looks interesting and I like Reckless Fireweaver and The Fire Crystal. I will say that one of the things I like about Anger is that I am discarding a lot of cards and this is a "free" discard in that I want it end up in the yard.

And yeah, I have been trying to avoid too much creature based ramp due to wanting to wrath fairly early and somewhat often.

Post by WizardMN 7 months ago

I got another game in and it went very well. Though, it was a bit weird. I kept a somewhat risky hand but I had a mountain and an Ancient Tomb along with Goblin Welder, Goblin Engineer. The Walls of Ba Sing Se. Professional Face-Breaker, and Alchemist's Talent. I did draw into another land and into Navigation Orb which really smoothed out my mana.

One of my opponents, on turn 3, cast Show and Tell into Omniscience. I was able to get Walls down which was huge as it wasn't touched the rest of the game. Omniscience didn't do a lot as they only had 3 cards in hand and didn't really get any payoffs.

Because of Walls, my board wasn't really able to be affected. I did tutor for Oblivion Stone off Engineer but another player blew up the Omniscience so I never really needed to get to it. Instead, I used Welder to get back Orb a couple times and just bided my time with Face-Breaker to get me treasures to use with Talent. I was able to get it to Level 3 and that dealt 14 or so damage to the rest of the players. 6 from casting my commander and 4 from casting Will of the Jeskai.

Will of the Jeskai was used for its second mode just to cast a Demand Answers that an opponent made me discard and a Chain Reaction. I didn't want to use the other mode, even though I could have had both, because two opponents were on 2 or fewer cards and I didn't want them drawing anything. Answers got me Umezawa's Jitte and something else (maybe a land?) which was fine. From there, I was able to kill the Omniscience player and had a pretty good board with having the only creatures left and everything being indestructible. The other two players scooped it up.

Because of Show and Tell, this game went pretty well in my favor. Without that, one of the players would have used Orcish Bowmasters to kill Welder (which they still tried, not realizing it was indestructible) and that would have changed things up enough. I wouldn't have gotten Orb or Thran Dynamo back to the field which would have kept me low on mana and I probably wouldn't have been able to get Talent to Level 3. But, it worked out in my favor on a somewhat risky keep.

Bonehoard Dracosaur is a card @EonAon mentioned a while ago and I never got around to doing anything with. I think I want to find a spot for it but I am not sure where. Probably cutting Gauntlet of Might as I have cut every other mana doubler. The only other cards I could see cutting is Sol Talisman or maybe Rolling Earthquake. Both have their uses so I am hesitant to pull; the trigger on them. I don't have anything else to add in right this instant anyway but I will need to keep future changes in mind.

Post by WizardMN 7 months ago

I played another game online and it went pretty well. I played against Errant and Giada, Frodo, Adventurous Hobbi & Sam, Loyal Attendant, and Ephara, God of the Polis

It went on a lot longer than expected but that was mostly because of Frodo & Sam getting to infinite combo. But it still ended up pretty well. I started with a hand with 2 lands and a Sol Talisman. I got Oblivion Stone down the turn before Talisman, put a Fate counter on it the next turn, and then blew the board the turn after. So, turn 6 I cast Jeska's Will (which was countered) and Swiftfoot Boots and passed.

Next turn I cast Gauntlet of Might into The One Ring and passed. Ephara had gotten down a Rhystic Study before this so they got two free cards off me since I didn't have enough mana to pay for the two triggers. They were the only two triggers I never paid for though.

Next turn I cast Professional Face-Breaker and Goldspan Dragon and attacked with both (thanks to Boots on Face-Breaker) and created 3 total treasures. Other people were building their boards except Ephara as they were on 4 lands still and only really had Propaganda on the field. They scooped shortly after turn 11.

On a subsequent turn I was able to get Goblin Engineer down and found The Walls of Ba Sing Se. I then cast Trash for Treasure to get the Walls back. Sam/Frodo attacked me and I blocked with the Walls and then Ephara put Eaten by Piranhas on it which killed it. I could have returned Oblivion Stone here with the Engineer but I had my Yields turned on and forgot to turn them off so I missed my change. It ended not mattering since the next turn I cast Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer to get it back anyway. This time, no one had a way to get rid of it.

Also, just after this, Sam/Frodo went off with their combo of Peregrin Took, Experimental Confectioner which let them sac 3 Food to draw a card, get 3 Rats and 3 Food, and using Rosie Cotton of South Lane to buff different creatures. They only had 2 that could attack anyway and I could block both. They split them between two of us and since my stuff was indestructible it didn't really do anything.

This did end up with them having a board of about 40-50 Rat tokens and there was one instance where I could have returned Oblivion Stone again to blow their board. I couldn't do it in the middle since they had enough Food to start the combo again. They did cast something that Devoured all their food but they still would have had 12 or so Rats and they had already attacked so I decided to wait. Especially since they tapped out.

Before my next turn I did bring back O Stone to clear everything out. I cast Inferno of the Star Mounts and attacked both players. I could have killed one but I didn't activate Inferno in time. But both players scooped shortly afterwards anyway.

Overall, this game went extraordinarily well. I did get lucky enough that there wasn't much removal flying around. There were a few instances where removing The Walls would have set me back but no one seemed to be doing much in that vein. This game did highlight the power of Gauntlet of Might though. I don't think I would have done nearly as well as I did without the additional mana from it. I don't really know what to take away from this though. I had thought of cutting it before this but I can see the power behind it. But there is the other side where getting it to stick around can be problematic. This deck does want a lot of mana which is why it leans into treasures so much.

If I didn't cut Gauntlet, I don't know what the next cut would be. I mentioned Rolling Earthquake and now I am thinking maybe Akroma's Memorial. I will see.

Post by WizardMN 6 months ago

Here are my thoughts regarding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set:

Red Cards

Casey Jones, Jury-Rig Justiciar - 2 mana "tutor" seems decent. I don't know if I have enough artifacts where seeing 4 cards is going to hit often enough but it is a thought.

Casey and Raph, Hotheads - they create treasures which is great. Or it lets me get a free spell off the top of my library. 5 mana might be too much for this effect though. I will have to see as I do have a few other cards it might be better than since it leaves behind a pretty decent body. I like it but it might not quite be good enough.

EonAon · Post by EonAon 6 months ago

Casey & Raph, Hotheads is an interesting card but I'm not really sold on that vs Bonehoard Dracosaur. One off vs every turn since the deck cant blink. Maybe good for politics but when red needs to politic its mostly in the I wont kill you this turn kinda way.

Justicar isnt a bad idea but I think you dont have a true density that it wont wiff more than hit. If it was direct pick, it be better but that probably not going on a uncommon in a standard playable set.

Improvised Arsenal and Hard-Won Jitte are the two stand out cards in the set for a few deck types. I'd say Arsenal is more relevant here since treasure and general equips.

Post by WizardMN 6 months ago

Yeah, I don't disagree. I think you are spot on with those assessments. I am not a fan of Hard-Won Jitte as I feel like there are better options for Double Strike if I need them. And I don't feel like I need them (though that might change). Arsenal is one I may have overlooked. I do have enough artifacts, especially with Treasures, to make this a real threat. I will probably pick one up and then see if I ever find the room for it.

Post by WizardMN 6 months ago

Here are some changes I am trying:

3/13/2026

CUTS

1 Gauntlet of Might

1 Perilous Vault

1 Rolling Earthquake

ADDS

1 Bonehoard Dracosaur

1 Improvised Arsenal

1 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Arsenal is the new one based on the conversation above. I have had Dracosaur and Inti in for a while though I haven't gotten a lot of games in lately. Gauntlet is one that I like having but I am not sure how much it matters anymore. I am not entirely sold on Inti but I felt Inti is a good way to filter cards. But if that doesn't pan out, or I really miss Gauntlet, I might swap them back.

Perilous Vault is primarily being cut because it exiles. I don't mind destroying things since I do have Scrap Mastery (among others) to get cards back from the yard but exiling isn't ideal here. Rolling Earthquake is another I have been discussing and I think this leaves me with the right amount of board wipes. We will see how that plays out practically.

Post by WizardMN 3 months ago

I was able to play this deck in person for the first time ever and it went reasonably well. I didn't win (though, interestingly, might have won, which I will get into) but I felt like I had a couple spots where the deck performed very well. Importantly, the main detractor from being able to do things was mana. I missed a couple land drops somewhat early on, though Ancient Tomb got me over the hump a little. I was able to get down some important blockers and Daretti to start rummaging a bit. He still took a long time to get me to lands but I had plans for Will of the Jeskai to get me a new hand. This ended up not happening due to mana concerns and I went a more conservative approach with things like Unexpected Windfall to build up some mana.

An opposing Kozilek, Butcher of Truth took out a land, 2 Treasures, and Daretti so that slowed me down too but it wasn't the worst. Solemn Simulacrum was big to get me 3 or so lands as well. I just kept grinding things out until I finally got Inferno down and attached Excalibur, Sword of Eden to it. I made its power 20 to kill one player and then swung to kill the other.

The problem here was twofold. I didn't count up the lands the remaining player had since they had Crypt Rats in play and they had just enough lands to activate the Rats a bunch to kill me. Had I dealt damage to them, they wouldn't have been able to do that. The second problem is that we both forgot that all of his black mana was coming from another player's Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and they were now gone so they wouldn't have been able to just straight up kill me. I don't think they could have gotten to Urborg in their turn and I am not sure they could attack for enough. Though, they could have done enough damage to kill Inferno which was probably good enough anyway.

All in all though, I was pleased with the way the deck played. I might try to find room for some additional card draw/rummage effects but, other than that, I like where it sits.

Post by WizardMN 3 months ago

Here are my thoughts on the Marvel Super Heroes set:

Red Cards

Crossover Collaboration - Maybe? It gives me card "draw" and creates a Treasure token which can both be relevant. But the treasure is a single time and the cards don't go to hand. I will have to think on it but I don't think it quite makes the cut.

Death to our Enemies - This is probably a better Treasure producer. It gives me up to 4 Treasures and does so just by me casting a fair amount of my deck. I do still have a lot of creatures though so it might not trigger all that often but it probably does more than Crossover above.

Killmonger, Ruthless Usurper - Another repeatable treasure producer. On Combat Damage might be a little tough but it is still a creature with good stats that can fuel the rest of the deck.

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire - And this is slightly better. Gves me a token every turn without needing to attack. I think I will at least give him a try.

Mjolnir, Hammer of Thor - I mean, this has to be one of the best cards in the set for the deck. It applies to all damage, hopefully kills a creature on enter, and takes almost nothing to equip. It puts Inferno's trigger to 40 damage making it a one-shot in a lot of cases and ensures combat damage is also above 21 while only needing to get its power to 11. No matter what other cards I am thinking of, this is definitely making it in the deck.

Nova Flame - This could be a pretty reasonable board wipe that doesn't also kill Inferno. I will double check the wipes I currently have and potentially slot this in. The main weakness of course being that I need a creature big enough for this to actually work to kill things which could put it in a tough spot.

Stark Industries Executive - I am not sure. Gives me a mana sink early on which I can certainly use. Or lets me ramp a bit as well to try to ensure I hit land drops. I don't know if it is good enough or not but it is, again, another repeatable treasure producer.

The Immortal Weapons - There are a lot of Instants and Sorceries in this deck that I would love to be able to get back into my hand. It is why I have things that give flashback or some other cards I can use to return them to hand. I don't know how this fits, if it does, but I like it.

Thor, God of Thunder - Another spell in the same vein but this one has a better payoff for casting noncreature spells. It also can get me equipment back which is very relevant in this deck. I think this is another card that should find its way into the list. Even at 5 mana.

Vision of Love - Another copy of Demand Answers is certainly welcome. Not sure if it is needed but I do like the redundancy. Importantly, it is not an additional cost so it makes it a little safer to counter magic.

EonAon · Post by EonAon 3 months ago

Crossover is too conditional for this deck. Id imagine the only one you REALLY want to tap is Magda.

Death to our enemies. yes, yes please

Killmonger seems too dependent on someone else having a artifact deck unless you do Descent into Avernus which while not a horrible treasure producer isn't really into this decks theme.

Now Luke Cage on the other hand def one that should be considered, at least till Smaug and even then you might want both. Heck id drop Atushi for Cage then add Smaug.

Mjolnir is decent and will win if you have to do the direct way instead of Excalibur, that and just base attacking to hit 21 like you said gets MUCH easier.

Stark industry Executive isnt bad, dont know how actually durdly the deck can be but if you can play her a rock would be more on theme as it were

The Immortal Weapons vs Thor, God of Thunder, Thor wins hands down. The ability to get back Excalibur if it was removed is greater than the amount of buff Weapons gives. Menace is good +2 is fine but inherent flying just a bit bigger body with more flexibility plus inherent removal? Thats gas.

Vision of Love, I mean its fine if you need more draw.

Post by WizardMN 3 months ago

Yeah, agreed on Crossover. I don't think the idea of tapping creatures is bad in itself, but I feel like the effect isn't worth it in this case. Since, as you alluded, there is very little benefit we get from tapping things.

For Killmonger though, the effect I care about is the treasure which doesn't care about opponents' artifacts. Essentially, it reads as "when ~ deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token". Not getting the full effect isn't an issue as the part of the effect I want can always be gotten. I am definitely not arguing that Killmonger is great but it works against any deck for the effect I care about. As mentioned though, it is likely that the trigger on Combat Damage makes it worse than desired. At least other cards trigger on attack or tapping so I can suicide them to at least get an important treasure.

That's fair on Executive. The main idea was that there are certain times when I don't have much to do as I am trying to set up different lines that getting a treasure isn't the worst. But, to your point, the deck doesn't really want to be that durdly. If I am getting a lot of use out of her, something else is probably going wrong.

Yeah, if I can only choose one, Thor easily makes the cut over Immortal Weapons. I might like both depending on what I can fit but I agree Thor is ultimately better.

I happen to like Vision of Love over Demand Answers. Someone countering either of these spells is unlikely but at least Vision is less of a blowout if it happens. Even if I don't keep both, I will probably swap them. But I do like card draw to get me through the deck. Granted, there is also an argument to be made for adding Faithless Looting due to a lot of the graveyard interactions so that one might make more sense than both of these.

Post by WizardMN 1 day ago

Below are my thoughts on The Hobbit and Reality Fractured sets along with any associated Commander sets for them:

Red Cards

Craterclaw Colossus - This could be a pretty decent finisher for the deck and the deck can already be used to cheat it in for cheap. I have enough artifacts, especially with the Treasures, that this could be a huge swing if it lands. I might give it a try if I can find the room for it.

Draconic Visitor - I really want treasures when playing but turning those treasures into 5/5 dragons seems pretty good too. Since there is no limit on here, this could get out of hand quickly. I think this ends up being a solid card to allow the deck to keep doing what I want it to do but lean into a slightly different approach while doing it.

Glóin the Mighty // Easy Pickings - Ramp in mono-red is welcome and can potentially speed things up a little later. It isn't much different than something like Sisay's Ring (other than timing) so I don't think it ends up being good enough to include. But I like the effect. Maybe for other decks.

Koth, the Geomancer - Damage and ramp on every land entering is welcome. Similar to Gloin, it only starts getting better when I get more than 2 lands onto the field at the same time. But maybe the incidental ramp along with the damage to help chip away at life totals ends up being worth it? Seems slow but maybe that is fine.

Last Light of Durin's Day - This deck is really ramping up on the Dragons, especially with some new ones, and maybe having this card in here to get a free dragon (after potentially 6 turns) could be useful. It is really slow though which is the biggest knock against it so it is hard to pull the trigger on it but this, and other effects like it, are starting to become more enticing.

Pyre Rhymer // Molten Tide - Ok, here is a pretty solid ramp option. 4 mana to double my mana (or take the riskier route of waiting a turn) but this could be a big turn if I can pull it off. Of the ramp options, I like this the most.

Smaug the Magnificent - This seems like a no-brainer. Already gives me a treasure straight away which is what some other cards are here to do on their own. But then is able to attack and deal damage based on the treasures which seems like a pretty big swing.

Stingcaster Mage - I have a few other cards to grant flashback so I wonder if this is good enough? My thought is "yes" but then also, if I were to include this, maybe just putting in Flashback is just as good?

The Misty Mountains Cold - Another Treasure creator and one that can turn into a pretty cheap Dragon. The biggest thing here is I don't think I care about the Dragon as much as the Treasure and it might only get me 1 Treasure and a Dragon. Still a pretty good rate though. And for when I don't have any treasures yet, this can be a good way to build them up.

Colorless and Land Cards

Memnarch, the Warden - 10 mana is so much mana but it would be nice to get it to trigger even once just to draw a bunch of cards. Unfortunately, it isn't likely to be worth it and would be hard to pull off. And it otherwise doesn't really fit in the theme of the deck so it wouldn't make the cut.

Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver - Because I am going more and more into adding Dragons, this could be a good addition to get more Treasures. Worst case, it buffs Inferno and gets me a single Treasure which isn't absolutely terrible. Because it buffs Inferno, it might be worth finding a slot for it as the ceiling can be pretty high.

Sting, Bilbo's Sword - This relies a lot on creatures my opponents control but if I can get this out with an opponent with 5 creatures, it buffs him +5/+0. Probably not good enough but there is obviously a line where the effect is really good. The problem is getting to that line often enough to be worth it and I don't think that will happen.

Troop of Ponies - Colorless ramp is always welcome. It isn't as good as it could be if it were an artifact but still worthwhile. Needing to tap makes it a bit worse but half the time, I am waiting a turn for Burnished Hart anyway which ends up being the same thing. I think this is a worthwhile inclusion to help ramp.

EonAon · Post by EonAon 1 day ago

Craterclaw- isnt bad but with only 17 creatures and half of those technical ones.... seems a bit risky. Workable as a finisher, but you're not wide enough to really leverage it.

Draconic visitor- is a really interesting card and I can see it being decent. Biggest issue is that it shuts off the main mana production in the deck so some of your higher end cards will flounder. Upside with as much treasure production in this deck that might not matter much if you eat their face with dragons. Would work great WITH craterclaw except craterclaw becomes so much more difficult to cast with the treasure production stopped which in turn lowers the damage output of craterclaw.

Glóin the Mighty & Koth, the Geomancer- yes Glóin, no koth. Glóin does its thing always which is more reliable. Koth does his thing sometimes and pisses the table off. Koth also wants fetchlands to fully leverage what he does like lotus cobra. Glóin people will leave alone since its only a mana source and a 4MV one at that. That being said I wouldnt put Glóin in this deck atm. Your MV at 4 is greater than all others and trying to add a random tech creature like him isnt going to help much.

Last light- would be fine in a koth based or landfall deck, in here WAY too slow.

Pyre Rhymer- cute and could be usefull but its such a oneshot effect that most players would hang on till its too late and prowess with no evasion just gets chumped

Smaug the Magnificent- oh yes you should, This and Goldlust Triad (which should be in the deck) would help Goldspan Dragon in aggroing the treasures out. I would actually take out Atsushi, the Blazing Sky since Atsushi is a die trigger which relevant in the deck is so much more passive.

Stingcaster- yeah no without the flash even with treasure production just play Flashback.

the misty moutains cold- while this isnt a fast deck, unless you have some sort of haste enable its going to come in sac and maybe the token will live long enough to do something. If that's your only treasure production card you should mulligan

Memnarch- not a bad card to try and with the searchability and treasure should be a card to consider.

Orcrist- better The Reaver Cleaver? you dont play the latter though I can see the appeal of the newer version.

Sting- I personally don't play many if any cards that need my opponent to be ahead unless they REALLY equal parity. This one doesn't do that

Troop- basically like you said just isnt a artifact. If you feel the need to be more consistent with your lands it wouldn't be a bad include.

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