Fairly standard Valduk loadout, focusing on a large number of low cost equipment to get him online and dealing damage quickly. The budget build is in the cardlist, the upgrades are listen in the maybeboard and marked after // in the description.
- Lands -
For the most budget option, 35 mountains are a perfectly functional loadout, but the first four alternative lands listed here are dirt cheap and can help the deck enough to be worth considering even on a budget.
Basically all we needs, baby! We are running a lowish count due to our respectably large ramp package, but this still might need to go up after some testing.
Probably the most expendable non-basic land in our list, this can sometimes come in handy if our opponent is running artifact removal.
An AoE firebreathing land we can basically always get into play untapped is very hard to pass up for our deck.
The artifact subtype here means it is a Brawl target and we don't mind the colorless mana in our basically colorless deck.
Same as above, only we get colored mana this time.
The single mountain here is fine, but Fair is super easy to get online for this deck and the tutor can be a quite nice bonus.
- Card Advantage -
We are playing as low to the ground as possible here, and red, so card advantage options are few and far between, but here's what we've got!
A combination of everything we want, this is a creature to deal with sac triggers, ramp on etb, and advantage on death. It isn't a lot of anything, but a little of everything.
This will let us turn our tokens into one time card advantage, has a super low price point, and synergizes with Bludgeon Brawl and Inventors' Fair.
The red-est of red card advantage, this will let us turn our tokens into card advantage is basically an auto-inclusion in the deck.
Another fairly obvious inclusion in our deck, since we should be making at least one token every turn, and this is a brawl target.
Pyramid is simply a more limited version of Atlas and a completely worth running for our purposes -- we shouldn't need to draw all that many cards, after all. ;)
Fairly similar to the above, only we need to attack with our commander to keep it gassed up, which, generally speaking, isn't a major problem.
Breach is only good sometimes, but it is very good when it is good, and it provides a means for us to somewhat recover from artifact-wipes. Chandra is a far more expensive card, but she provides ramp, removal, and advantage in a single package.
Less reliable draw options, but they do make us additional tokens! :D
- Ramp -
We are in a bind here, as we want to be as low to the ground as possible, but we also want enough mana to be able to fully suit up Valduk whenever we can, so . . . not sure what to do here. This is what we've got, though.
An absolute all star in our deck, both ramping and pumping our board. An autoinclusion if there ever was one.
Idol enters tapped, which isn't the nicest of things, but it does allow us to choose to animate it, which means it can be animated in response to opponent forcing us to sac, but doesn't die to traditional boardwipes. Mantle provides us a token and lets us use Valduk to ramp, which is fine, since we aren't really out to swing with him.
Sometimes ramp, always token. Not the best of options, but respectable.
Sol Ring is a hard one to pass up on here, especially since colorless mana is basically all we need for our deck, but Manakin works as a ramp option as well.
Sword is absolutely perfect for our deck, but myr is a respectable replacement.
Myr drops quickly and provides red mana and can eat a sac trigger for us, Diamond plays well with Brawl, and Urn can make us silly mana, though we may help our opponents with it and might run through our hand and not even need it. Hard to say the best pick here.
Comes down early and can filter if it needs to.
See above, only this can net us a card too.
See above, only with lifegain.
Ditto.
Honestly a bit icky, but reusable card draw is decent, and those Clue tokens get nasty DAMN fast with Bludgeon Brawl in play.
- Other Support -
These are the cards that make our tokens kill peeps better. Our elementals represent a lot of potential damage, but Commander games are usually multiplayer and we are SUPER low on interaction, so we need to get the most mileage out of our tokens as possible and kill everyone as quickly as possible -- We do not win the long game.
This is very synergistic with our large amount of artifacts and allows us to squeeze all possible damage out of our board.
Makes a token and, without ANY other equipment on him, gives our tokens +3 power. This quickly bulldozes our opponents.
We can almost always Cleave cheaply due to our tokens, and the doublestrike/trample combo means we can sometimes come out of nowhere and kill with commander damage; Pest will make all of our tokens hit harder, adding an effective 1 damage per equipment on Valduk.
Bombardment grants us a free, instant speed sac outlet and effectively adds 1 damage to everything we do. Siege is also a decent replacement here, as it'll do the same damage when our creatures leave, but also offers us card advantage if we want that instead, and has better synergy with the next two cards.
Allows us to make tokens from stuff we were going to sac anyway and is a brawl target
See above, only generally worse. Still damn good, though.
Effectively deals 1 damage to each opponent for each equipment on Valduk.
Oriflamme effectively adds 1 damage per equipment on Valduk; Purph adds 2 damage to each opponent for each equipment on Valduk, AND grants us expensive firebreathing on top of it.
Adds 1 damage per equip on Valduk
Paragon adds 1 damage per equip on Valduk, Banner creates a token and does the same
Punishes peeps with nonbasics, aka basically everyone not us. Also puts a bigger target on our head than Purphoros, and that is a HELL of a thing. >:3
Allows us to keep our tokens! and plays well with Brawl.
Makes a token and grants +2 damage for each equipment on Valduk
I'm torn on this, as I feel it is inferior to a lot of other options since people will often block our creatures and kill some of them, but in the end this still equals out to roughly 1 damage to each opponent per equipment on Valduk and plays well with Brawl.
- Protection -
We, uh, kind of need our commander to stay around. These help us do just that! :D
Pricy, ick, but grants us a token and grants hexproof
Both do similar things in that they prevent instant speed shenanigans from our opponents; Flail provides a token, Mask locks people out of options and draws.
Plate is a fantastic source of protection that is itself hard to remove, while Brute provides similar, albeit inferior, protection that requires a mana investment (but is far cheaper).
Greaves are a free equip for haste and hexproof, while Cloak is more power and comparable defense
Token and hexproof. soso.
Hexproof and a bit of protection
Hexproof
Regeneration
Flat damage reduction, and 2 is pretty solid, especially for an equip cost of 1 mana. :3
Boots are basically the most standard form of commander protection
- Other Equipment -
The boost is irregular, but we don't really care about it, we just want our free token! :D
Same as above; we don't care about the upside as much as the token it gets us dirt cheap
Free to drop, cheap to equip. An amazing turn 1 play.
1 mana token
1 mana token
1 mana token and flying
1 mana token and haste
1 mana token and minor removal
Auto-equip is best equip, and it comes down the turn before Valduk
1 mana and buffs both stats
See above
See above; we can't flip this
We don't need the mill, but we need the token
1 mana for 1 token and First Strike. :D
1 mana for 1 token
Free equip is best equip!
1 mana token
This is disgusting for our commander, giving us a token, Trample, and +3. Ack! X.X
1 mana token, maybe useful scry? :'
