pie chart

Thromok's All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

Commander / EDH Counters RG (Gruul) Tokens

Captain_Howel


Maybeboard


Tired of eating the same old Gruul? Try our rich variety of juicy tokens! Chef's Special this week: new red-hot Elemental chili! Tuesday is Ladies' Night! Elves must be red-green or over and will be carded at the door. Planeswalkers, Hellions, and Hydras, call in advance for priority seating. Kids eat free on Sundays, and on that note, this establishment wishes to remind everyone that the Skullclamp is not a toy, and parents are advised to keep their children away from it. TONIGHT ONLY: special guest Mycoloth will challenge returning champion Skullmulcher in a token-eating contest, and win or lose, will be buying a round for everyone afterwards!

I'm new to Commander/EDH and this is my first deck in the format. Mycoloth is my all-time favorite card and I wanted a deck that it would fit right into and would be based around similar abilities and strategies. Naturally, someone suggested Thromok, and here we are.

The most straightforward strategy with this deck is to pump out as many tokens as possible to set up Thromok to come out and devour them. Ideally by the time Thromok joins the show, things will be set up for it to have haste and trample, or one of several options for dealing damage equal to its power to target/each opponent. Ideally also opponents will be unable to counter or destroy it, because otherwise, doing so would be their best bet to cripple my momentum. In the meantime, the tokens and other creatures (if not too scarce) would keep pressure on opponents so they don't get too comfortable or set up too easily. Options also exist for winning without a powered-up Thromok, such as overwhelming with sheer numbers of tokens pumped up by cards that assist them all, or using cards intended to take advantage of Thromok's power with other high-power creatures instead.

- Do what Gruul does best: hit fast, hit hard, and look good doing it.
- "Double-dip" as many cards in this deck as possible (without sacrificing effectiveness) with a future Temur deck (with Animar, Soul of Elements as the commander) in order to cut costs.
- Keep the number of cards with prices over $10 to a minimum. The running total for this deck is getting further out of hand with each adjustment I make to it.
- Use cards that are not only effective, but have appealing card art. Use the versions of each card with the best card art for that card, within reason for price and availability.
- Fling, Chandra's Ignition, Mage Slayer, Soul's Fire, Stalking Vengeance, and Warstorm Surge all enable Thromok and/or other creatures in the deck to deal damage equal to their power to opponents, forgoing the need for combat entirely (except for Mage Slayer of course). Paired with Thromok, any one of these can potentially one-shot an opponent, and using more than one makes things even easier. What makes these even more appealing is that they work well with all creatures in the deck.
- When the cards above aren't available or aren't adequate, several cards in the deck are dedicated to setting up trample and haste. Arguably the most effective among these are Anger + Brawn . After being played, they can be used to freely swing at opponents without a care for whether they get destroyed in the process. If they're still in play when Thromok comes out, it can devour them. And if extra draw is in place with Skullclamp, Fecundity, and/or Skullmulcher, they can be discarded after intentionally overdrawing.
- I was very picky about Planeswalkers. I started playing MtG when the newest block was the original Ravnica, and the last time I played was shortly after the first Planeswalkers came out (I didn't stop because of them though). So I considered every green, red, and green-red Planeswalker for this deck, and in order for one to make the cut, it had to fulfill several criteria: first, the +1 ability had to be useful on its own, and not an empty effect used only to stall while building up to the ult (hence why Sarkhan replaced Domri Rade). Second, at least one of the Planeswalkers had to produce an Emblem (hence the previous inclusion of Arlinn). Third, while having a useful ult was a plus, it had to not take too many turns to build up to it, and the +1 ability had to remain useful throughout that time (hence Chandra, Torch of Defiance taking Arlinn's place). Fourth, each Planeswalker had to be able to either produce mana (even indirectly like Garruk), produce tokens, or both. Fifth, at least one Planeswalker had to be able to give all my creatures Haste and at least one had to do the same for Trample, making Garruk Wildspeaker + Sarkhan Vol an ideal pair.
- Whispersilk Cloak and Rogue's Passage enable Thromok and/or other creatures to attack without being blocked. Rogue's Passage is great for getting an attack in with one creature that will make a big difference, like Tana, the Bloodsower, while Barrage of Boulders works for all creatures ready to attack.
- Ogre Battledriver turns every token into a more real threat that's ready to go right away, and is particularly formidable paired with any of the better token generators, like Mycoloth, Parallel Lives, Second Harvest, or Saproling Symbiosis. Meanwhile, Overwhelming Stampede basically ends the game if Thromok is in play, but can do the same without Thromok provided a decent number of tokens and at least one high-power creature like Thunder-Thrash Elder or an ideally pumped-up Mycoloth or other creature with Devour.
- Xenagos, the Reveler, Growing Rites of Itlimoc , and Cryptolith Rite all provide an excess of mana if the rest of the deck is performing as intended. While obviously useful in general, these work particularly well for generating tokens when casting Wolfbriar Elemental, Hooded Hydra, or others.
- Hornet Nest is my favorite token generator in the deck, because unconventional tricks can be used to make it produce a lot more than it would just by blocking. Many of the damage-equal-to-creature's-power cards can target it, generating tokens equal to the power of Thromok or another pumped-up creature in the deck. This will even provide an instant recovery from damage-based boardwipes like Blasphemous Act and Chandra's Ignition, spitting out a ton of tokens to get a huge advantage over the now-vulnerable opponents.
- Death's Presence isn't often seen in Thromok decks (13% of decks according to EDHREC), but I think is arguably one of the best cards that this type of deck can have. It enables the player to be much more aggressive with their creatures, as their deaths in combat or otherwise only strengthen the remaining creatures. This is especially great for Thromok in particular, as the player can freely swing with him or Fling him without a care in the world, because as soon as he dies, any creature alongside him will become as powerful as he was.
- More/better options for preventing Thromok from being countered. Currently there's only Insist, and up against a control deck this will basically be up to the luck of the draw.
- More/better options for increasing token production, either in addition to or instead of Parallel Lives. +1/+1 counter doubling is overkill for Thromok, so Primal Vigor wouldn't be a good replacement, but the fact that Doubling Season also doubles loyalty counters on Planeswalkers makes it tempting to abandon the deck budget rule and splurge on it.
- More/better options for pulling selected creatures from the deck to get what's most needed at the time, similar to Signal the Clans.
- More/better cards that have effects based on "the greatest power among creatures you control," or based on amounts "equal to target creature's power," and which are also useful after Thromok is in play, so that they can be paired with him.
- Firstly, when it comes to criticism, no holds barred; make me cry.
- How does my mana base look? I'm not shelling out for those Zendikar Onslaught two-color fetches, that's just ridiculous.
- If possible, if you recommend switching a particular card in, I'd also appreciate a recommendation of what card to switch out to make room for it. Synergy/effectiveness is more important than keeping the price total balanced, but it still ideally shouldn't increase the running total dramatically.
- Convincing me to drop any of the cards mentioned in the Noteworthy Cards panel is going to be a tough sell, but I'm still open to ideas. Make the case if you've got one.
- As always, all feedback is appreciated. Thanks!
Thanks to the creators of the following Thromok decks, which I used for reference while building this one:

Gruul tokens - Thromok!

Commander / EDH commandersbrew

SCORE: 3 | 3 COMMENTS | 989 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS




Hope you know your X^2's

Commander / EDH jakefails

140 VIEWS




Food For Throm

Commander / EDH Julius_Mufasa

SCORE: 16 | 45 COMMENTS | 3544 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS




Savage Banquet

Commander / EDH t1Broccoli

SCORE: 3 | 2 COMMENTS | 324 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER




Thromok EDH 2017

Commander / EDH mikerickson

SCORE: 2 | 490 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS


Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Hi! Please consider becoming a supporter of TappedOut for $3/mo. Thanks!


Important! Formatting tipsComment Tutorialmarkdown syntax

Please login to comment

Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 years
Exclude colors WUB
Splash colors R
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

7 - 0 Mythic Rares

41 - 0 Rares

16 - 0 Uncommons

16 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.25
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Dragon 1/1 RG, Dragon 4/4 R, Elemental 1/1 R w/ Haste, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Goblin 1/1 R, Insect 1/1 G w/ Flying, Deathtouch, Morph 2/2 C, Saproling 1/1 G, Satyr 2/2 GR, Snake 1/1 G, Wolf 2/2 G
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views