Set the world on fire and blaze a trail towards your opponents' life totals with Ashling the Pilgrim. This equipment focused voltron deck looks to augment Ashling's natural ability to grow in power in order to deal lethal commander damage to our opponents. If this idea sparks your curiosity, please read my explanation below.

This is an equipment based voltron deck, looking to ideally deal 21 commander damage with Ashling the Pilgrim, or, failing that, lethal damage with any other creature that can get through.

Ashling has been chosen for a few reasons. As a cheap creature, she can come down early to start attacking. With her ability to add +1/+1 counters, she can grow even if our equipment are destroyed or if we draw poorly. And the potential to clear the board (augmented by some equipment in the deck), can help keep everyone under control while we build our armory.

Equipment decks are always hungry for mana, almost as hungry as they are for creatures in play, so the mana base for this deck tries to sate both those needs.

There are seven lands in the deck that either can be or can make creatures, which can help alleviate the common issue of a voltron deck being wrathed over and over. Inkmoth Nexus is the obvious strong option, as 10 is a much easier number to count to than 21 or 40+.

Strip Mine and friends are present to deal with another enemy of the voltron deck, Maze of Ith.

Tyrite Sanctum helps Ashling get bigger, both for attacking and for board wiping. The indestructible isn't bad either.

Eighteen is possibly too light a Mountain count, since Ashling's ability wants red symbols, but the large colorless presence in the deck puts less of a strain on the colored mana in the deck.

As said before, an equipment deck can really never have enough mana, so there are a few artifacts in the deck to help facilitate that. Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum help by both getting mana and being creatures. Armillary Sphere and Wayfarer's Bauble can search for lands. Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, and Caged Sun all kick mana production up a notch and make Ashling a little easier to manage. Sword of the Animist is an equipment that also grabs lands. Captain Lannery Storm does a lot in this deck, being a cheap haste creature that makes artifacts for some interactions, but the coolest thing she does is make specifically treasure tokens, since being able to stockpile that mana while progressing the game plan can be annoying for your opponents to face down.

There are not as many land ramp spells as other might want to run, but that is because my favorite way to get lands into play is to make sure you can play one every turn.

Red stereotypically has trouble drawing cards, but the bevy of card draw options that Red has gotten in recent years (along with some hits from the past and artifacts) make it a non-issue.

Since this is an equipment focused deck, let's start with the equipment. Everyone's favorite card, Sword of Fire and Ice, does a lot for this deck and drawing a card is an obvious strong point of the card. Diviner's Wand is an atypical card, but the ability to just use it to draw a few cards each turn is pretty useful (and players typically don't destroy cards that "seem weak").

Act on Impulse can show up to give you some gas later in the game. Wheel of Fortune needs no introduction. Reforge the Soul is in because Wheel is so dang good we wanted a second one.

The bevy of Chandras (and Daretti, Scrap Savant) in the deck all work towards the card draw goal as well. While they also do other things, and those other things tend to serve the attacking with equipment plan, the card drawing aspect of the planeswalkers is what can help keep the deck glued together.

Red is a bit light on usable tutors, but Godo, Bandit Warlord can fish out whatever equipment you need for the situation, slam it into play, and even provides you with a creature that is well suited to attacking with a bunch of weapons.

Most Voltron decks plan to use their commander to the lion's share of the attacking. However, most decks run some auxiliary attackers in case their commander becomes nonviable, and this deck is no exception.

The obvious secondary attackers are the creatures that can do little else than attack with some sort of advantage. Akoum Firebird, Stormbreath Dragon, Lightning Runner, and Bloodthirsty Adversary all are pretty okay attackers that bring something else to the table. The phoenixes are haste fliers with some amount of recursion, while Stormbreath Dragon is a haste flier with protection from Path to Exile and a not irrelevant damage ability.

Kazuul's Toll Collector and Fervent Champion are strong attackers because of their equip-cost-reduction abilities. Equip costs can get expensive, and these creatures lets you attack with a large threat while leaving behind mana to develop your board.

Any creature can be menacing with the right number of swords. While they aren't the most competent attackers, Goblin Welder and Heiko Yamazaki, the General can get stuff back as well as carry an equipment into battle.

Kaldra Compleat, Batterskull, Lizard Blades are all a creature and an equipment, making a nice transition into our next category.

Okay, I've alluded to equipment enough, let's actually talk about them. While most of the deck's equipment do more or less the same thing, many bring different things to the table, and others are in the deck for other, more different reasons.

Starting with the most obvious members of this deck, the Swords of Blank and Blank. Each of them provides protection and evasion (in the forms of their protection from color abilities), as well as an added bonus with their saboteur abilities. And while some (Sword of Fire and Ice) are more useful than others (Sword of Body and Mind), they all help your creatures get through and can help your game plan in some way.

Sword of Vengeance and Diviner's Wand all help your attacker get through. Sword of Vengeance gives trample and first strike and Diviner's Wand gives flying. They both have other things they bring to the part, ranging from additional abilities to card draw, but the evasion is pretty important to the deck.

Ashling's ability to explode on the competition is accentuated by a few equipment in the deck. Some, like Basilisk Collar help her kill boards when she hasn't had time to build up counters. Sword of Kaldra lets you kill things that are also too big, but the real spicy quality is the exile effect for big scary indestructible things (note that Sword of Kaldra's ability is triggered, so if the creature dies to the damage, it will not be exiled). Grafted Exoskeleton lets you take out a bunch of people at once if they've been prepped at all (remember, this can also kill you, so get everyone else to one poison before going boom). Scythe of the Wretched lets you steal all the creatures killed by Ashling exploding, and can even bring Ashling back if said explosion kills her too.

The scythe bringing Ashling back from death segues well into other equipment that protect our commander from harm. Sanctuary Blade, Hammer of Nazahn, and the red protection swords all keep Ashling from dying to her own ability (and in a roundabout way, Blackblade Reforged can too), which can be crucial to clearing the way and then getting in for tons of damage. There are other standards of the archetype, your Swiftfoot Boots and your Lightning Greaves, that also go about protecting Ashling from various things. The wonderful thing about many of the equipment in the deck is that they pull double duty, increasing power or drawing cards while keeping Ashling from dying.

Every deck needs a pile of stuff that is in because it is cool or does something generic. This deck's pile of those things a bit smaller, but it does still exist.

I love Magnetic Theft for the surprise effect (also, people tend to run equipment in Commander, and borrowing their cards for a turn can be nice).

Chandra's Ignition does a lot, but its primary concern is letting your creature punch pre or post-combat. It might not be the best card, but people focus in on the "block everything to stop them" plan of defense, so they might not see a four mana deal 20 coming.

This deck, like most other commander-or-single-card-focused decks is easily disrupted by an errant Doom Blade, but that burden is alleviated a bit by how cheap Ashling is. The bigger issue if how dependent the decl is on enough of your equipment sticking. The group I play in doesn't have the most artifact removal, let alone mass, so I am able to get away with it. If your group is riddled with Austere Commands and Cleansing Novas, consider running a Scrap Mastery or a Darksteel Forge for added protection.

If you are not as big a fan of this style of deck, it could easily be adapted to a more control-y game plan. A bunch of the equipment and equipment support cards could be swapped out for removal, both mass and single target, and some sturdier threats. I would keep the things that let Ashling run the board, such as Magebane Armor or Sword of Fire and Ice, since the rattlesnake effect of that board wipe can influence players in beneficial ways.

Yes, I know roughly 81 more cards in this deck should be Mountains. I'm disappointed in me too.

Mono-red might not be the most traditional color for an equipment deck, but I feel like Ashling brings a lot to the table that these types of decks want (an early creature with which to attack, a late game threat, board control). I would not fault someone for switching Ashling out for Godo, Bandit Warlord (he's in the deck for a reason), or ever just stapling white to the deck and using Tiana, Ship's Caretaker. White adds a bunch of support. I just wanted to use this commander.

There are some obviously expensive and thus unnecessary cards in this deck (looking at you, Gauntlet of Might). It and everything else is by no means essential to running the deck, so don't jump down my throat for running a prohibitively expensive deck. That Wheel of Fortune could be any other wheel effect, and the pricier swords could be any other equipment you like.

If there is a card I'm not running that you are convinced I should be, there might a very good reason for that (already tired it, couldn't find one, you're wrong). Comment if there is a card I'm missing and we'll talk it out.

Thanks for reading about my goofy and possibly dumb equipment deck. Please let me know in the comments below what you though, if you have an questions or ideas, or if my deck is bad and I should feel bad.

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

18 - 0 Mythic Rares

44 - 0 Rares

19 - 0 Uncommons

2 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.30
Tokens Copy Clone, Elemental 3/1 R, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goat 0/1 W, Goblin 1/1 R, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure, Wolf 2/2 G
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