Purphoros and His Band of Hooligans

Commander / EDH* Artifact Combo Goblins Mono-Red Tokens

Flagellum

Creature (21)

• 1x Beetleback Chief
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Emrakul's Hatcher
• 1x Feldon of the Third Path
• 1x Goblin Matron
• 1x Goblin Recruiter
• 1x Grinning Ignus
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Harsh Mentor
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1x Lightning Crafter
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Mogg War Marshal
• 1x Moggcatcher
• 1x Norin the Wary
• 1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1x Siege-Gang Commander
• 1x Skirk Prospector
• 1x Stoneshaker Shaman
• 1x Young Pyromancer

Land (35)

• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x Kher Keep
• 27x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Sandstone Needle
• 1x Springjack Pasture
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Sorcery (20)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Devastating Summons
• 1x Dragon Fodder
• 1x Firecat Blitz
• 1x Goblin Rally
• 1x Heat Shimmer
• 1x Hellion Eruption
• 1x Hordeling Outburst
• 1x Krenko's Command
• 1x Kuldotha Rebirth
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Mogg Alarm
• 1x Mogg Infestation
• 1x Molten Birth
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Tempt with Vengeance
• 1x Thatcher Revolt
• 1x Twinflame
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Instant (4)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Increasing Vengeance
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Seething Song

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Flameshadow Conjuring
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Price of Glory

Commander (1)

Artifact (16)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Fire Diamond
• 1x Genesis Chamber
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Ruby Medallion
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Star Compass
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Worn Powerstone

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So Why Purphoros?

This is probably my favorite deck and has seen the most play time in my meta/LGS. I like to think of Purphoros as a lit candle: add a little gasoline and it will take off; wait too long and the flame will burn out or be snuffed out by your opponents. That being said you'll love Purphoros if you: enjoy fast games, love goblins, don't care for {U}, like using shenanigans (aka Norin the Wary), enjoy being archenemy, and have a tighter budget. Most of my builds are done on the cheap and then built up over time, this one is no exception (which is why Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon are not in the deck atm).

Strategy

Ramp

This version of Purphy focuses on artifact ramp (because this ain't yo mama's green deck) to get Purphoros out asap. This deck needs to play fast in order to be successful. If Purphoros is out on turn 2 or 3 then things are on track. This deck uses several cards that act similar to Dark Ritual which can lead to explosive plays. These are: Skirk Prospector, Seething Song, Mana Geyser, and Ashnod's Altar.

Devotion

The next step is to keep devotion down since an indestructible enchantment is much harder to deal with than an indestructible creature. We don't have to worry about tuck anymore (thank God) which used to obliterate this deck.

How Does It Win?

After Purphoros is out we just try to cast as many cheap creature and/or token spells as possible. Many of the creatures here produce tokens one way or another which hurts our opponents. Some notable cards and combos are:

Genesis Chamber + Norin the Wary : this ends games fast!

Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer + some other creature in play: infinite Dualcaster clones. Simply cast Heat Shimmer targeting any critter in play. While HS is on the stack cast Dualcaster Mage and let DCM resolve targeting the original HS. Choose the DCM as the new target for the HS copy, let the HS copy resolve using the new DCM clone to target the original HS, rinse and repeat.

Grinning Ignus: basically pay {R} deal 2 damage to each opponent

Krenko, Mob Boss: doubles the goblin count. He's the life of the party!

Impact Tremors: increases Purphoros' effectiveness by 50%

Flameshadow Conjuring: copy a creature for {R} seems nasty! Testing this out.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: can copy any non-legendary creature. Token producers are fair game here! Unfortunately, Kiki racks up the Devotion count. Can pair up with Lightning Crafter

Mogg Infestation: target yourself! You don't need 15 little goblin tokens sitting around waiting for inspiration.

Alternate Wincons

Alternate wincons are few. If the critters aren't enough to kill the table we will be left with a few strategies. The first (and most obvious) and least desirable is swarming our opponents with our hordes of tokens.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Genesis Chamber + Norin the Wary Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.92
Tokens	1/1 R Token Creature Elemental Cat, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elemental 1/1 R, Elemental 1/1 R w/ Haste, Elemental */* R, Goat 0/1 W, Goblin 1/1 R, Hellion 4/4 R, Human 1/1 R, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Myr 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C