Combustible Gearhulk

Artifact Creature — Construct

First Strike

When Combustible Gearhulk enters the battlefield, target opponent may have you draw three cards. If the player doesn't, put the top three cards of your library into the graveyard, then Combustible Gearhulk deals damage to that player equal to the total converted mana cost of those cards.

Discussion (47)

volcompledge on Feldon

4 months ago

Discard: Thrill of Possibility Collective Defiance Cathartic Pyre Electric Revelation Change of Fortune Cathartic Reunion Tormenting Voice Magus of the Wheel Faithless Salvaging

Monster im Friedhof benutzen: Dollhouse of Horrors Sundial of the Infinite

Kreaturen: Anger Meteor Golem Etali, Primal Storm Molten Primordial Hoarding Dragon Combustible Gearhulk Triplicate Titan Ruin Grinder Solemn Simulacrum

Mythic42 on Another Black Red Deck

4 months ago

Consider:

• Pawn of Ulamog
• Bolas's Citadel
• Blasphemous Act
• The Cauldron of Eternity
• Chainer, Nightmare Adept
• Shriekmaw
• Combustible Gearhulk

Omniscience_is_life on Wait wait wrong egg WRONG EGG | **Primer**

4 months ago

Here's what I'm currently thinking the plan'll be:

Once and Future will be cut for Noxious Revival

Emeria Shepherd will be cut for Flawless Maneuver

Nyxbloom Ancient will be cut for Protean Hulk

Return of the Wildspeaker will be cut for Brainstone

Sneak Attack will be cut for Combustible Gearhulk

Austere Command will be cut for Winds of Abandon

Should anyone find themselves in a state of astonished disagreement, please feel free to air your grievances in the comment section down below ;)

Omniscience_is_life on Wait wait wrong egg WRONG EGG | **Primer**

4 months ago

Some cuts/adds I'm pondering at the moment, getting back into this deck:

1. My whole recursion package needs to go. Emeria Shepherd doesn't have enough Plains to function properly, and the days of the Zacama, Primal Calamity combo are long since past. Once and Future is overcosted and replaceable... with the lovely Noxious Revival. This is probably the most direct upgrade, all the other cards I'm cutting (e.g. Shepherd) don't have straight-across replacements.

2. Nyxbloom Ancient may well be cut if I decide a card like Protean Hulk, Treeshaker Chimera, Voice of Many, or Combustible Gearhulk is better. The Ancient is just a generic value piece, and I'm trying to cut down as much on those as I can. It does, however, allow for some of the crazy-long turns that I take to work, so I'm really unsure if it's gonna go or not.

3. Brainstone, Kavu Lair, and Flawless Maneuver are all looking really spicy right now. Unsure as to what cuts would allow them to come in.

4. Greater Gargadon might come out for Towering Titan, as cracking into a vanilla 9/7 is a bit underwhelming. The Gargadon is great at being an uninteractable sac outlet, but I do like the trample grant on Towering Titan. Again, unsure.

psionictemplar on All-in Aethermage's breach, 3.0

6 months ago

I like the idea of cutting 1 merchant scroll for a Goryo's Vengeance. The only other main thing I would love to see is a copy of Combustible Gearhulk with your high cmc's.

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 8: Rakdos …

7 months ago

Brothers, sisters, and assorted non-binary siblings, welcome to the riot! You like throwing waves of frothing, hasty lunatics at your opponent AND profiting when said lunatics die? We got you! You like watching the world burn and don’t mind getting caught in the flames? We got you! You like anarchy? The purge movies? Gender reveal parties? We got you! Rakdos is the proud home of those who take pleasure at the expense of others, the sort of people who like to mix Skittles and M&Ms in the same party bowl. If that sounds fun, then just you wait: in the house of red and black, that sort of misbehavior is only the appetizer.

Haste and sacrifice. Vampirism and burn. Discard in both barrels. This is a beautifully synergistic color pairing that belongs in the same league as peanut butter and chocolate. Heath Ledger’s joker undoutably played a rakdos deck: things like Havoc Festival, Last One Standing, and Sire Of Insanity are all up the clown’s alley. There are a number of themes we can cover here, but as usual we’re settling for three: Discard, WAAAAGH, and Pain. As always, please bear in mind that the point isn’t a discussion of the competitive but rather as a celebration of the thematic.

Discard

This is both red’s primary draw resource and a uniquely black removal technique. Combining those aspects makes for a deck that both ruins opponent’s hands and digs through your own cards at shocking speed. Granted, you won’t have a big hand, but who cares? Suddenly you've got an overpacked graveyard at your black-hearted beck and call. Red self-mill and black reanimation, people, with just a naughty touch of haste. Discard a pile of hate and then pitch said pile straight into combat. You won’t be sorry.

A regular teddy bear, Chainer’s second coming is a real treat for anyone who left their graveyard hate at home. Haste on a stick is only a perk: suddenly your graveyard is only as full as you want it to be, and probably full of friendly, group-huggy things like Ravenous Chupacabra or Combustible Gearhulk. Yes, the table will certainly love you and your unending, undying deck of unbearable hellbeasts. Undoubtably.

Ok, this guy is horrifying, as you would expect of the king of Grixis. Anyone not running tokens is going to be mighty twitchy about seeing this guy hit the field, and who needs a hand anyway? Rakdos evidently loves empty hands, and rewards you for ensuring that particular misery has company. Consider, if you will, the fulsome, vicious suite of cards tied to poking those who discard. Consider Experimental Frenzy. Consider all the madness cards you could play (or, you know, just play Anje Falkenrath instead). And, if you get tired of the simple gains synergy can win you, you can always Demonfire someone.

THIS. This is neat. Leave aside the look on the face of that certain someone who steals everything on the board. Pay no mind that Seize the Day and all it’s red cousins can make Blim an unholy terror. Forget that you can pass off Demonic Pact, Grid Monitor, and whatever other obnoxiousness you can think of. None of that matters, no. This, for all you glorious nutters out there, is an excuse to finally play Nuisance Engine. That’s the takeaway here.

WAAAGH

Anyone can run tokens or big creatures, but only in Rakdos do you find the conjunction of boardwide haste and sacrifice. Harnessing right, proper WAAGH energy means not just drowning opponents in a tide of zippy little shits but also capitalizing on all that death to cause even more mayhem. Did you ever want to hold a bundle of fireworks, light them all at once, and watch whatever you point them at turn into a smoking, shredded pile of giblets? Here’s the lighter, fellas.

Treasure tokens. Nuff said.

There are a number of nasty combos here that I’d rather not spread. I’ll just say that long ago, I played many, many depressing games against a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund deck. There was self-milling involved, and Living Death. Evidently, someone decided what the deck needed, rather than burning, was fewer moving parts. That someone deserves a long, interesting life in all the worst ways.

This guy makes me laugh. The idea of ruining the table’s carefully laid plans to off you and instead throwing them into combat with each other is absolutely hilarious. It’s like a Fog designed by someone with pyromania-by-proxy syndrome, and that second block of text the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an already burning house. Get a Conjurer's Closet in there and watch the fun.

Pain

Forget destroy effects. Those are too easy. Direct damage. -X/-X. -1/-1 counters. Life loss. All of the nastiness you can fling at opponents and creatures is under the umbrella of this color pairing. If you like blasting the unholy hell out of your opponents and their minions, this is the arsenal you’re looking to plunder. Stuff like Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge, or Orcus, Prince of Undeath will leave a smoldering crater of a battlefield, across which you’ll doubtless be stepping with appropriate gribbliness. Or launching that demonfire we talked about. Whatever works.

Ah, the original Mr. Stop-Hitting-Yourself. I’ve had my eye on this guy for over a decade. Do I own the deck? No. Do I intend to? Again, no. But the prospect here is so, soooo satisfying to think about. To hell with infinite combo fruitwaffles. Damned be those green jackasses ramming X cost spells down the table’s collective throat. Kaervek’s mean, but keeps it clean. Like, nuclear fire sterile clean, and the best part? It’s all self-inflicted!

We really can’t talk red-black without discussing demon himself (hehehe). This guy’s been piloting one of my decks for years, and for good reason. The lord of riots likes to pass out rewards for smacking people. Do you like to be rewarded for smacking people? I do. Rewarded with free things... Eldrazi things. Eldrazi things that tutor more things (Conduit of Ruin), reanimate more things (Artisan of Kozilek), or… well, you can always go for broke and just ruin someone else's things (Void Winnower). Run artifacts, like Hangarback Walker. Run X drops, like Maga, Traitor to Mortals. Run anything you like. Run everything you like. Just have fun running them for next to nothing.

-1/-1 counters, magic’s analogue for injury and agony. We really shouldn’t talk red-black without talking about Wither, the Everlasting Torment of a keyword that was a precursor to the dark days of Infect. It’s safe to say we all have opinions, for good or ill, about Infect’s place in commander. That said, if you want to play with -1/-1 counters and aren’t fond of green or dealing with those opinions, Scorpy’s first line of text makes this guy an overwhelmingly safe bet. Rocking crap like Black Sun's Zenith is the easy answer: let’s make this fun, discard a crapload of cards, and watch your opponent’s boards melt into obscene card advantage while your Archfiend of Ifnir giggles in the corner.

And for my personal favorite...

There is an unfortunate element of “screw you in particular” to Xantcha: declaring open season on somebody’s life total sends a particularly unpleasant message. This is another commander that, laying aside the card advantage, doesn’t bolster your deck, which makes for an interesting challenge. I’ve said it before, one hallmark of a good deck is the capability of functioning without its commander… though if you build this hateful beast, I suggest you pack lots and lots of ramp. Just ‘cause.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Gruul!

Prior Articles:

Dimir

Azorius

Green, with links to the other mono-colors

Hav0cD3m0n on Rionya, Fire Dancer

7 months ago

Combustible Gearhulk and Tectonic Giant can be kinda neat in the deck I think. There's not much cards in mono red that can make you draw a bunch of cards.

reddeath68 on Everything Has a Price

7 months ago

Lithelain Some interesting suggestions, the problem with Vengeful Strangler  ^Flip is that they just sacrifice whatever you put the curse on. Accursed Witch  ^Flip would work better but she is a bit more expensive at 4 CMC.

Combustible Gearhulk Is interesting but they can be a huge whiff at 6 mana if you hit lands, plus milling can rope you of much needed cards. For instance imagine if you accidently mill your needed board wipe or kill spell, especially if Killing Wave is your board wipe over Choice of Damnations as that would only do 1 damage.

Creeping Chill Would work much better in a self mill deck, something like dredge or surveil.