Boiling Blood

Instant

Target creature attacks this turn if able.

Draw a card.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (14)

Azdranax on Useful formulas for deck building

3 years ago

Interesting topic Ramble, I've been meaning to respond for the last day or two but have just been super busy, but let me provide a mana base formula I stumbled on a few years back after noticing a pattern in my deck building - might be something to try out and see if you find similar results, as I find it's very rare to get either flooded or mana screwed using this formula. I'll provide a couple of examples as well - more for the casual-competitive decks, as my cEDH decks don't always follow the formula as rigorously.

The basic formula for mana-producing lands is: Starting base of 30 mana-producing lands, plus additional lands equal to the CMC of your commander, plus additional lands equal to the average CMC of the deck, minus designated values for each mana rock, mana dork, mana spell and draw spell equal to or less than the CMC of the commander.

The first example is for my Zada, Hedron Grinder deck: Yada...Yada...Zada. In this case, the formula is 30 + 4CMC (commander) + 2.28 average CMC, or 36.28. I then subtract designated values for the following cards in the deck: -1.0 for Mana Crypt, -0.5 for Sol Ring (or any other 0 or 1 CMC rock), -0.25 for Thought Vessel (or any other 2 or 3 CMC rock), Battle Hymn, Brightstone Ritual, Traitorous Greed and Dockside Extortionist, and finally -0.10 for each of the draw spells in the deck: Accelerate, Boiling Blood, Crimson Wisps, Expedite, Fists of Flame, Stun and Renegade Tactics for a total reduction of 3.45 and a final value of 32.83 (rounded up to 33).

The second example includes a more aggressive reduction in mana-producing lands based on my Elf tribal Marwyn, the Nurturer deck: Elves Tap and Slap (Marwyn Tribal Counters). The formula here is 30 + 3CMC (commander) + 2.64 average CMC, or 35.64. I then subtract for the following cards: -0.50 for Sol Ring, -0.25 for Elvish Archdruid, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Gyre Sage, Incubation Druid, Llanowar Elves, Llanowar Visionary, Priest of Titania, Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Viridian Joiner, Wood Elves, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Rhonas's Monument, Gaea's Touch and Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip. Finally, I subtract -0.10 for Elvish Visionary, Llanowar Visionary and Inspiring Call for a total reduction of 5.30 and a final value of 30.34 (rounded down to 30).

Although the reduction values could be considered a little arbitrary in certain deck concepts, this formula has held pretty accurate since I started keeping track of it. I hope you find this useful in the future, and happy brewing.

Avlex on Pauper EDH Zada

3 years ago

Thanks for the input. I have actually tested the deck and found it to be oppressively fast and resilient in a very uncomfortable environment. Here are my thoughts on your suggestions:

I will check for a slot for Goblin Tinkerer. It has to stick around for a turn and in cases where I actually care about artifacts of my opponents, I usually require at least sorcery speed. If I don't need the removal, Goblin Replica is the bigger body. However, in the context of what this deck wants to do, the difference is negligable. The Replica actually opens me up to artifact removal, so exchanging it may just be worth a try. I am actually thinking about not playing either and slotting in Destructive Tampering, as I can recur it via Anarchist or Ghitu Chronicler and another option at getting evasion may actually be nice.

I'll also try Boiling Blood, since I managed not find any of my draw spells during the last game and only managed to kill a single opponent because of it. I previously decided against it because of the choice between forced attack or being restricted to play it on my second main phase. Usually, I want to draw into ramp and draw in my first main phase and then decide to go off or not, which in this deck requires an attack phase. Being committing before having the whole picture seems rather dangerous, but then... it's a gambly red deck anyways and I guess I'd rather have the draw spell.

I opted against Titan's Strength, as it will only fix one single draw in a limited (gambling) way, so the slot went to a large buff spell instead for consistency.

I also decided against Raid Bombardment, because I wasn't ever happy to draw it instead of a buff, draw or ramp. It always always seemed like win-more or not doing enough. Raid Bombardment essentially ends up being a +1/+0 buff for the big turn, because the deck rarely attacks before going off, if an opponent has any blockers and in Pauper EDH, they usually do.

Hissing Iguanar and Impact Tremors didn't make the cut, because they just don't do enough in the deck either. They rarely deal more than 5 to 10 damage each and any decent pump spell does more. Pinging your opponents also draws more attention to you, endangering your board state somewhat. I would rather have one more token generator, buff or draw spell in those cases. Also, before going off, enchantments open you up to another kind of removal and while going off, both usually end up being strictly worse up to being dead draws and. I may try Impact Tremors again at some point though, as it has the biggest potential.

Considering the creature count, I am actually playing around 40 creatures (only 2 less than your deck, before storm, doubling and recursion) in those 23 slots, but opted to prefer token generators like Hordeling Outburst instead of actual bodies (successfully, I might add). The reason being, that one card that creates 2-4 tokens will let me recover from a board wipe or focused fire way easier than having to draw and play one goblin a turn. At the same time, potential spot removal in my opponents hands is devalued. This helps me recover and race my opponents into another big turn more easily and heavily increases success rates. Many token generators are instant or sorcery and cards can also be retrieved from the graveyard, in case I need to, adding resilience and recursion. I do lose some nifty goblin abilities, but I found the compromise acceptable. It also opens me up to a bit more board wipes in Pauper EDH though, but since board-wipe pingers seem to not be very popular for their limited usability, I'm not too worried. Crypt Rats and Pestilence being the exceptions, but those rarely trigger for 1 and will usually wipe all goblins off the table anyways.

And lastly, the "Threaten" slots and lands (which kinda go together). The goal of this deck is to: "be quiet and build a board state of small, non-threatening guys that aren't worth the removal and then in one turn draw into ramp that will allow more draw and ramp, then buff the whole team and kill everyone at once (ideally) or just the biggest threat and set up the next big turn". I found, that 6-7 lands in play are quite enough to get the ball rolling as long as you can draw enough buffs and ramp. If anything, I'd actually rather play some artifact ramp to be honest, to accelerate the deck by a turn instead of putting in more lands. Up to now, the deck was consistent enough at 35 lands though.

Now, if I can actually manage to go off as described, my guys usually already have haste via one of the other spells or I have ramped into enough Mana to cast any of the "Threaten" effects on Zada to get there. They aren't that expencive. On the other hand, taking over another creature for its abilities for a turn or to just not have to deal with it in combat on a big turn has shown to be very effective. Additionally, occasionally killing someone with their own commander is hilarious as hell. And finally, 3 of the 5 "Threaten" cards do actually buff your team aside from haste, when cast on Zada, Traitorous Instinct with Menace evasion and Mark of Mutiny actually putting a +1/+1 counter on the whole team, which can also be very useful when you want to cast stuff like Zap on your guys, when you need to save your team or when you need to set up another turn. Both effects you can't get efficiently any other way in red. For this utility, I found paying the premium to be an acceptable compromise.

I'd love to discuss it further. These were my design considerations, any thoughts, found any BS? Let me know!

Spell_Slam on Pauper EDH Zada

3 years ago

Great start! Have you tried the deck out yet? I think you will find that you do not have enough creatures in the deck. You need to have a critical number of creatures out in order to really take advantage of the synergy with Zada and the mana ramp as well. You are running too many pump spells, in my opinion. With a large board, you only need 1-2 pump spells to win.

Enchantments like Impact Tremors and Raid Bombardment can deal a significant amount of damage over the course of a game that bring the opponent closer to being finished off. Tremors in particular hits all opponents simultaneously, which adds up to a lot of damage. Hissing Iguanar is also a great way to deal tons of damage in a game of Commander.

I'm a big fan of Destructive Tampering as artifact removal, since it also doubles up as a way to force through a finishing blow.

Goblin Tinkerer seems way better than Goblin Replica. You have to wait a turn to use it, but it is overall much cheaper to use and can potentially survive to destroy more artifacts if you focus on smaller ones first.

Having a critical amount of mana is super important in this deck. I never cast Zada unless I think I can either protect her or win the same turn I cast her. I would recommend going up to 37 lands to get to the land drops. It is unfortunate that they do become bad draws with the card draw engine. I had some bad running in the past, but it's made the deck much more consistent overall.

I don't fully understand the Threaten theme here. I get that it will remove blockers and add to your attackers, but it seems really expensive to cast on the turn you want to win and could be better used as more of your own creatures.

Titan's Strength is an excellent pump spell just for the free Scry. 3 power for 1 mana is also a great deal.

You are missing Boiling Blood in your card draw section.

Take a look at my own version of the deck. There are a lot of creatures there that could give you some ideas: Zada, Card Advantage Grinder

Spell_Slam on PDH - Zada Hedron Grinder

4 years ago

Oh! I forgot Boiling Blood !

tyedat on

5 years ago

This looks awesome. Have you considered Accelerate , Boiling Blood , Brute Force , Fall of the Hammer , Panic , Assault Strobe , Howl of the Horde , Renegade Tactics , Darksteel Plate or Goblin Chirurgeon ?

Chirurgeon is great to regen/protect and some of the other draw cards like panic and renegade tactics would be insane for drawing and wouldn't affect you much on your own turn.

Hissysnake8 on $25 Extreme Budget Zada EDH

5 years ago

Honestly, I thought that Crash Through said target, so my bad. I guess that explains why you run Boiling Blood The other points still stand,as well as Iron Myr. Not everyone can spend $25+ on a Chrome Mox or Firestorm, so many people look for budget versions of this deck and there isn't a lot out there. I for one would welcome a budget Zada deck, because I think she is under-represented and needs a larger pilot base.

Rogue_Toaster on Floop's Fooglies

6 years ago

Figured that it's safe enough to just slot in Collective Defiance over Reforge the Soul and leave it in the side, since they usually end up serving the same purpose regardless. I also have a huge bias towards Fiery Gambit.

I've also taken out the worst cantrip, Boiling Blood, in favor of Indomitable Creativity. Mainly because it's bonkers with Zada and the art is sweet.

griffstick on Help with Forced Attack Deck

6 years ago

Goblin Diplomats, Illusionist's Gambit, Aggravate, Shipwreck Singer, Rage Nimbus, Norritt, Nettling Imp, Nettling Curse, Magnetic Web, Into the Fray, Incite, Imps' Taunt, Heckling Fiends, Gideon, Battle-Forged, Courtly Provocateur, Chemister's Trick, Bullwhip, Boiling Blood, Basandra, Battle Seraph, Arcum's Whistle, Alluring Siren