Dealing 120 DAMAGE in 4 Turns?! (Purphoros Primer)

Commander / EDH* MagicalHacker

SCORE: 103 | 61 COMMENTS | 16693 VIEWS | IN 19 FOLDERS


BlackyMTG says... #2

November 10, 2014 1:44 p.m.

Warbreak Trumpeter? Might be a little too magical Christmasland, but super late game, it could do a nice amount of damage.

November 10, 2014 1:46 p.m.

BlackyMTG says... #4

November 10, 2014 1:48 p.m.

rorofat says... #5

Love the deck, but a note on the title, the, we, and in shouldn't be capitalized... XD Also, I love the inclusion of Myr Battlesphere: Such a great card... XD +1

November 10, 2014 1:54 p.m.

BlackyMTG says... #6

Also, Goblin Matron is pretty okay! :P

November 10, 2014 2:03 p.m.

TheFanatic says... #7

Mana Echoes seems super powerful given your focus on tokens, goblins in particular. It could really help accelerate you into fast wins by producing tons of colorless mana. I'm not sure what you would cut, though.

November 10, 2014 2:54 p.m.

Sauron_ says... #8

I think you need to find a deck to focus on, it seems as if you have a goblin undercurrent running with a lot of other "good" red spells added, I think you need to focus on just goblins, they work so well with Purph, and you should start researching other low-cost mana creatures to cast with them. Try to find some ed draw cards as well, as goblins can deplete your hand very quickly.

Anyways, best of luck on building this new deck, +1 from me!

November 10, 2014 3:51 p.m.

Norin the Wary and Pentavus would be great as well. Lots of triggers

November 10, 2014 5:45 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #10

Kiora_Fan-01, unfortunately, there are just too many colorless spells and lands that only produce colorless in this deck to take advantage of the Ruby Medallion and it would be a rather dead card in this deck because of that.

As for Hall of Triumph and all similar effects, since the creatures in this deck do the majority of their damage by simply entering the battlefield, and cards like Hellion Eruption, Mogg Infestation, Spawning Pit, Tooth and Nail, etc. need lots of creatures to be extremely effective, I don't really worry about buffing them up for combat damage, so I'd rather the slot containing Hall of Triumph be an actual spell that creates lots of damage with Purphoros.

Because of you mentioning Goblin Matron, I thought about spells like that that replace themselves in my hand, but paying 3 mana for a creature is too expensive (aiming for 2 mana total spent per 2 damage to each opponent), so I'm not liking it enough to put it in the deck. However, it led me to do some exploring, and I found a lot of cards I want to include: Glitterfang and Viashino Sandscout. I was surprised I didn't see Norin the Wary, so when I did a search for him, I found a couple more cards: Conjurer's Closet and Changeling Berserker. When I saw the Berserker, I thought about Cauldron of Souls, which gives me a grand total of 5 cards I want to add it: Glitterfang, Viashino Sandscout, Conjurer's Closet, Changeling Berserker, and Cauldron of Souls. Fortunately, that's exactly how many cards I didn't like in the deck (I'll talk about this more at the bottom).


rooroothepirate, it's not that it's too magical christmasland, its more that I'm going to be paying per token that I make + , which puts be 2 mana above my limit for finding out if a card is good enough for me (2 mana or less invested per trigger off of Purphoros).

I already have Norin the Wary in the deck. As for Pentavus, it fits the rule that I have about 2 mana per trigger, but I can only start it at 7 mana, and I have found that I don't often get to 7 mana, but if I do, I want to have a really efficient creature, not one that is just barely good enough. If I had one more spot in the deck, this would be in here, but I don't feel depressed it's gotten cut.


rorofat, it bothers me when my decks aren't totally capitalized XD I know it's not grammatically correct, but I'm glad that I have it like this (and it's easy to keep all my >200 edh decks nomenclature parallel too) XD Thank you! I really like Myr Battlesphere in this deck, especially with Splinter Twin, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, or soon-to-be-added Conjurer's Closet. ;)


TheFanatic, I really like your suggestion, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think that it will be great in certain occasions, but not so much in others. I think really that it's more a matter of having lots of colorless mana producing lands and lots of red spells at the same time being the reason why I wouldn't get to use that mana for very much too often.


Sauron_, I feel like making the deck goblin tribal would get rid of about 40% of the deck, and replace it with cards that are sub-par in this deck. Sure, it'd be flavorful, and sure, I could run goblin tribal blanket-effects and buffs, but I'd rather just focus on dealing damage with Purphoros to all opponents equally. Being able to win simply because my creatures just entered the battlefield, and being able to kill all opponents simultaneously seems better than trying to force a goblin tribal theme... just cause.


Taking out the spell doubling effects because I RARELY get to cast >1 spell per turn, so out with Reverberate, Increasing Vengeance, Fork, Dual Casting, and Dualcaster Mage for Glitterfang, Viashino Sandscout, Conjurer's Closet, Changeling Berserker, and Cauldron of Souls.

November 11, 2014 7:57 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #11

Taking out those last three for Hellspark Elemental, Pyreheart Wolf, and Hound of Griselbrand because those last three are rather situational.

November 12, 2014 8:11 a.m.
January 18, 2015 6:30 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #13

biggestmtgnerd, when I first read that card during spoiler season, I thought it said "target attacking creature", and I thought that I would have to risk another creature for it be any good, but I feel so silly reading it now.

Absolutely! It's going in. Any recommendations for what to take out? My best guess is Rapacious One, because I actually do have to risk him in combat to get value out of him. What do you say?

January 18, 2015 7:55 a.m.

Deruvid says... #14

Deck is pretty well focused. The only suggestions I would add are Kyren Negotiations and I think you're still running enough creature cards to run Genesis Chamber, especially with Norin.

I'd suggest taking out some of the weaker goblin generators like Krenko's Command or Dragon Fodder. Genesis Chamber will probably net you more in the long run. Also, the Rapacious One is probably not going to be a great return on the mana investment for 6.

Overall, looks good!

May 10, 2016 8:58 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #15

Thank you! I ended up cutting Genesis Chamber because I only have 22 creatures in the deck! It's either less than 1/4 of the deck or less than 1/3 of the non-manabase cards, whichever make more sense to you... Either way, I think I've gone so deep into the spellslinger category (Pyromancer's Goggles, Young Pyromancer, Charmbreaker Devils, etc.) that I can't fit any cards for a theme opposite to that.

May 10, 2016 9:42 p.m.

Podma101 says... #16

Spawning Pit gives a great way to "recycle" tokens so to speak, since you can sac them to its effect if they would die, and you can use it to pump tokens if you don't have any better things to do. As for what to take out, that's really hard lol. This deck appears very tight. My best suggestion would be Guttersnipe only because his damage is small-time compared to what the token spawning instants and sorcercies he procs off of will accomplish.

May 11, 2016 1:05 a.m.

Deruvid says... #17

Another suggestion: Burn at the Stake would work great at just burning out an opponent. I see Thopter Assembly is in your maybeboard. Both of these could do well replacing some of your weaker token maker cards as I listed before.

May 11, 2016 9:36 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #18

Spawning Pit was in here at one point as another Tooth and Claw, but having to pay mana to make the tokens turned out to prevent me from using it to seal games as efficiently. If I top decked it, there was no guarantee I would have enough mana to sacrifice all my tokens and make enough tokens. If it was around from the early game, there was no guarantee I would have mana open to get value out of it in response to removal. It got cut because it was basically too unreliable.

Burn at the Stake only hits one player, which makes it either overkill or a dead draw.

Thopter Assembly always seemed to get hit with a creature-removal or an artifact-removal before I got to my next turn. Add to that the fact I now have a few other ways to make thopters and it doesn't really fit anymore.


Sorry guys, I didn't realize this list was this hard to suggest ideas for, but keep the suggestions coming! I promise I am not usually stubborn :)

May 11, 2016 10:17 a.m.

Deruvid says... #19

If you don't think it's worth taking out an entire player for just a single card, I don't know what to say. Overkill or not, Burn at the Stake can end really strong decks, and doesn't draw the ire and aggro of opponents like nuisances such as Burning Earth or Blood Moon. Also, some opponents play a lot of life gain; Burn at the Stake can help keep those players in check.

I can see, though, how Thopter Assembly can be a lightning rod for kill spells, as it is super dangerous in your deck. I agree with the mana cost objection of Spawning Pit being a real limiting factor, which is why I don't think Triskelavus or Pentavus would do real well here.

Lastly, about the Genesis Chamber, you're only running 2 instants and 15 sorceries, which total less than your number of creatures (22) so the argument that there are not enough creatures to warrant inclusion due to the cards that care about instants/sorceries doesn't seem to hold up by the numbers.

May 11, 2016 12:54 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #20

Hmm Burn at the Stake may be powerful enough that 1 card in the deck that does that might do well. Additionally, I couldn't believe I'm running so few nonpermanents! I may have to take out Young Pyromancer, Guttersnipe, Charmbreaker Devils, and Pyromancer's Goggles and abandon the theme of making this deck spell-heavy and go more towards a flicker style deck playing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Conjurer's Closet, etc. I would definitely play Genesis Chamber too of course.

May 11, 2016 1:47 p.m.

Podma101 says... #21

What about Witch Hunt? For pesky lifegain people, and it's funny to chant witch hunt! Same suggestion to remove.

May 11, 2016 3:35 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #22

Witch Hunt is probably good as another copy of Sulfuric Vortex.

What do you guys think about keeping the spellslinger strategy and taking out all the cards that want me to have creatures out for Earthquake effects?

May 11, 2016 4:30 p.m.

Deruvid says... #23

I don't think the spellslinger cards necessarily need to be axed; it's another sub-theme, like the anti-nonbasic land cards. If you find other strong cards that fit your main token-making theme you can trim down the other subthemes to make room. Just like any other strategy, the more focused the deck, the less angles of attack you have, so it's a judgment call.

May 12, 2016 10:32 a.m.

thegigibeast says... #24

After some fast goldfishes, have been able to win twice on turn 5 and a couple more times on turn 6. Gonna make the cut for the list!!! Keep on updating it, nice work ;P

July 15, 2016 11:50 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #25

Thanks, and glad I could help out with the resource!

July 15, 2016 3:22 p.m.

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