Now I am become Fiery Gambit, destroyer of EDH tables.
Introduction
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===panel:General Strategy
Zada, Hedron Grinder is a combo-aggro Commander that plays similarly to Storm and Spellslinger decks, using the Commander as the primary engine. The gameplan is to create a bunch of tokens and then use Zada's ability in conjunction with targeted cantrips to draw a bunch of cards and (hopefully) combo off, drawing the bulk of our deck. We can then exponentially grow our token army with Twinflame and either attack for lethal with targeted pump spells or cast a couple hundred copies of Fiery Gambit to win the game.
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===panel:Why Zada?
Zada, Hedron Grinder has an extremely powerful ability, albeit not one that looks it on first blush, especially given her newfound status as an uncommon. Her ability copies any targeted instant or sorcery that we cast targeting her (and only her) once for each other creature we control, and the new copies target those creatures. This means that if we cast, say, Brute Force targeting Zada, each of our creatures gets their own Brute Force and subsequently each get +3/+3. What would normally be a Giant Growth is instead a one-mana Overrun. This is even better with targeted cantrips: Expedite becomes a red Ancestral Recall with Zada and two other creatures out, and scales in power dramatically the more creatures we have!
This effect is unique. The only other cards in the game that do the same thing Zada does (or, rather, something similar) are Mirrorwing Dragon and Ink-Treader Nephilim. Neither of these cards can be run as Commanders, and Zada's effect is so powerful when built around that we really want her in the Command Zone. The downside of this is that we're limited to mono-red, a color that is notoriously weak in Commander.
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===panel:Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths:
- Good hands are explosive and can win as early as turn 5 or 6, or even earlier if you're lucky.
- Once the deck gets rolling it snowballs quickly and is difficult to stop.
- You can safely ignore your opponents unless they are directly interfering with your game plan.
- Aside from Zada herself, this deck largely doesn't care about counterspells.
- You can win out of nowhere from an almost-empty board.
- You get to play a deck with Fiery Gambit in it!
Weaknesses:
- This deck is very soft to disruption, especially board wipes.
- Without Zada on the battlefield, a lot of the cards are dead.
- Can be prone to excessive mulliganing, and mulligans very poorly.
- The deck is complicated and it can be difficult to plan through a turn, especially for newer players.
- Too inconsistent and a couple turns too slow for competitive metas.
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===panel:Will I Like this Deck?
You'll like this deck if:
- You're a fan of unorthodox strategies in EDH.
- You love making your opponents read cards.
- You like playing Storm-style combo decks
- You enjoy having to think through complicated lines of play.
- You don't mind a fragile--but explosive--strategy.
You may not like this deck if:
- You want to play a midrange or control deck, or even a more classic aggro deck.
- You hate managing a large boardstate.
- You like a more resilient deck that can survive a long game.
- You want to interact with what your opponents are doing.
- You don't want to flip ~300 coins in a single turn.
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Deck Analysis
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===panel:Card Categories
Nearly every card in this deck can be sorted into one (or more) of the following categories: Tokens, Draw, Pumps, Mana, and Finishers. Each category is discussed in more detail below, along with a couple of cards that get their own discussion as they don't really fit anywhere else.
(Note that I left the decklist sorted by type. This is just my personal preference, as I find decklists sorted in other ways to be difficult to follow.)
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===panel: Tokens
These are the bread and butter of the deck. Zada simply does not function at all without a decent-sized boardstate, but the quality of the creatures is unimportant. Token generation is the easiest and most efficient way to build a large enough board for Zada to do her thing.
Generally speaking, we prefer our tokens to be Goblins. Skirk Prospector and Brightstone Ritual turn our Goblins into mana, Goblin Chirurgeon uses them to protect our more valuable pieces, and Krenko, Mob Boss exponentially grows them. This is not to say that we're playing a Goblin tribal deck--we aren't--but Goblins are the most relevant creature type in Red, so it is to our benefit to prioritize them.
Dragon Fodder, Krenko's Command, Hordeling Outburst, Molten Birth -- One-shot Sorceries that generate tokens. Dragon Fodder and Krenko's Command come at the reasonable rate of two Goblins for two mana, and Hordeling Outburst is the next step up. Molten Birth makes the cut despite making Elementals instead of Goblins due to its surprisingly-relevant coinflip ability.
Tempt with Vengeance -- Another one-shot Sorcery, but this one is slightly different from the others. Its scalability makes it good in any stage of the game, and you can often finagle a player or two into accepting the offer and doubling your tokens. If your playgroup is naïve, the whole table might accept! The scaling token generation of this card is also great at helping you rebuild from a boardwipe. If you think a wipe is coming, it's often worth holding this card until afterward. The only downside to the X cost is that it's a non-bo with Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Mizzix's Mastery.
Spawning Breath -- Casting this targeting Zada will create an Eldrazi Spawn for each creature we control, though it will kill any of our X/1 creatures unless we've used a pump spell beforehand. Great synergy with Otherworldly Outburst.
Mogg War Marshal, Goblin Instigator, Thopter Engineer, Siege-Gang Commander -- Creatures that create tokens on ETB. Legacy mono-Red all-star Siege-Gang Commander can serve as a non-combat wincon in a pinch. These cards are important because they all play very well with Twinflame and Heat Shimmer.
Hanweir Garrison -- The only token generator here that needs to attack in order to work. Usually there will be at least one opponent with no blockers in the early game, and the Garrison usually ends up making 4-6 tokens before it gets killed or you win. I've never Melded it, but I am sure that day will come eventually.
Krenko, Mob Boss -- The best token generator in the deck, and one of the best in all of Magic, period. An unanswered Krenko will win you the game all on its own. In one or two turns he will create more than enough tokens for you to go off. He is usually the first thing you find with Goblin Matron. Note also the synergy with Kari Zev's Expertise.
Young Pyromancer -- The second-best token generator in the deck. The ability to make a free body with every spell is extremely powerful. Note that if Pyromancer is on the battlefield and you cast a spell targeting Zada, you can put Zada's trigger on the stack and then Pyromancer's, so the Elemental will be made before Zada creates the copies, effectively netting you an extra copy of your spell. If only Young Peezy made Goblins.
Goblinslide -- This deck's sole Enchantment. Goblinslide acts as a slightly-worse Young Pyromancer, but with the upsides of surviving most boardwipes and creating Goblins instead of Elementals. Be careful with the math on this the turn you go off, I've lost games by paying the 1 to make another token when it wasn't really necessary. The cost is effectively free with Skirk Prospector; you can keep the token around long enough to benefit from a Zada trigger and then sacrifice it for mana.
Kher Keep -- A repeatable token generator on a land? Sign me up. Kher Keep can bring you back from the brink after a board wipe and is a great mana sink if you flood out.
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===panel:Draw
Due to the unique nature of Zada's ability, our draw spells are... unconventional. Card advantage in hard to come by in mono-Red, and one of this deck's key strengths is our ability to generate lots of card advantage for very little mana. You won't find any Wheel of Fortune effects here, because drawing seven for is chump change compared to the power of Expedite!
Unfortunately, most of these cards do little-to-nothing when Zada isn't on the field and rely on you having creatures in order to be effective, so a hand full of them with no board means you're going nowhere fast.
Renegade Tactics, Expedite, Crimson Wisps -- These are all mostly the same card, though Tactics is worse than the other two as its a Sorcery and doesn't grant haste. These three cards are the best draw in our deck at the low cost of a single mana. The haste on Expedite and Wisps is usually very relevant, too.
Stun, Accelerate, Boiling Blood -- These are worse than the previous three, as they cost double (or triple) the mana, but or to draw 6+ cards is more than a reasonable rate. Accelerate is the best of these as it grants haste, Boiling Blood is the worst because sometimes you get unlucky and are forced to attack. Instant-speed is no joke, either, since it means you can draw a bunch in response to a wrath or removal on Zada.
Panic, Chaotic Strike -- The worst of our cantrips. The restriction on combat means that if you're relying on one of these to go off, you either need to cast it during an opponent's turn (mandatory for Panic), or win the game without using the combat step. I almost never actually do the coinflip on Strike; it just isn't relevant 99% of the time.
Spark of Creativity -- A weird one. This is an incredibly efficient draw spell at one mana, but the fact that we're forced to play what we exile the same turn we play it or lose it forever means this is a really all-or-nothing card. Unlike the others, you can't burn this card in the hopes of going off the next turn because you will lose everything at the end step. Being a Sorcery isn't doing it any favors, either.
Faithless Looting -- Technically this is card filtering rather than real card advantage, but it says "draw" on it, so it goes here. This deck's curve is really low, so you can afford to toss lands for better spells, and for this is the cheapest filtering that exists. Flashback is always nice, too.
Skullclamp -- This card is just absurd.
Goblin Matron -- Okay, this isn't really "draw." Sue me. 90% of the time this finds Krenko, Mob Boss, because he's just that good. The other 10% is usually Goblin Dark-Dwellers, but occasionally Goblin Chirurgeon. I used to play more utility Goblins to find with this, but I was rarely happy to draw them so I took them out.
Gamble -- Another one that isn't really draw. The Red Demonic Tutor comes at the downside of discarding something at random, but the power of being able to find anything you need--cantrip, Krenko, wincon, whatever--is unparalleled in Red. You can even use this to dump Past in Flames into the graveyard if your hand is somehow empty.
Shreds of Sanity -- One of the worst things about this deck is that sometimes you can draw 15 cards and still not find another cantrip or enough rituals to go off. This alleviates this problem somewhat, letting you dump a useless Mountain in exchange for getting back that Battle Hymn or Crimson Wisps you already used but need again. Using this to dump Past in Flames is a power move, though not usually a good play.
Forgotten Cave -- Playing this as a land is fine on turn one, and after that you can cycle it to try to find something more relevant. I don't like paying two mana for Smoldering Crater and Desert of the Fervent, so they don't make the cut.
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===panel:Pump
The primary method of winning the game is to use Zada's ability to make your token army enormous and attack for ridiculous amounts of damage. In order to do that, we need some pump spells, and fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), Red is spoiled for options. Most of these boost toughness as well as power because I used to play Rile and Spawning Breath in this deck, so increasing toughness was necessary to keep my board. Now that I've cut both of those, I'm looking to revamp my pump suite. Many of these are also Instants, so if you have untapped lands you can kill an unsuspecting opponent during combat by simply swinging with some tokens and giving them all +7/+3, trample, and double strike or some such nonsense.
