Karlach, Fury of Avernus

Legendary Creature — Tiefling Barbarian

Whenever you attack, if it's the first combat phase of the turn, untap all attacking creatures. They gain first strike until end of turn. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase.

Choose a background (You can have a Background as a second commander.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (26)

Czarnian90 on Hellegion, Shadows and Flames (Raphael)

3 months ago

Commander Update: Shadows Rise, Flames Burn

After several games against tough opponents, I’ve made a few changes to the deck and, more importantly, swapped the commander of the Hellegion. The Balrog, Durin's Bane is still very much part of the deck—playing him as a commander was fun and flavorful, but I wanted a leader who can impact my board more directly and help set the pace of the game. The Balrog remains a force of nature, and having him lurking in the deck, ready to be unleashed, still feels great. I believe he’ll continue to be a major threat even when he's not always leading the charge.

Raphael, Fiendish Savior steps in as the new commander, supporting the game plan more consistently. He helps stabilize the board, buffs my army, and sets the stage for the Balrog’s arrival. I run several cards that can fetch him straight from the deck—Blood Speaker, Demonlord Belzenlok, Rune-Scarred Demon, Icon of Ancestry, Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted, and others—so even as a lurking horror, he’s never too far away.

I also added more damage-dealing spells for better control and direct pressure on opponents. Beyond classics like Devil's Play, Terminate, and Dreadbore, I’ve added Hell to Pay and Rakdos's Return to punish hands and boards alike. On top of that, I doubled down on devil token synergy and death-triggered burn effects. These little fiends now serve not just as blockers or sac fodder, but as a win condition on their own—especially when paired with Raphael’s lifelink boost. Every dying devil becomes pain for the enemy and healing for me.

I’ve now included four versions of Ob Nixilis — yes, it’s a bit much, but each fills a unique role. This one Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted punishes card draw and bolsters removal. Tibalt, Rakish Instigator is still here too, classic devil support: fueling tokens and preventing opponents from healing the damage my demons and devils dish out. They don’t live long, but if timed right, their impact is massive.

I’ve also added some recursion (Oversold Cemetery) and a spicy alternate wincon in Liliana's Contract.

Some bigger demons were swapped out for stronger synergy or pure flavor—welcome Asmodeus the Archfiend, Balor, Kardur, Doomscourge, and others to the Hellegion.

Sadly, a few cards had to go — Imskir Iron-Eater, Archfiend of Sorrows, some regenerating skeletons, and a handful of artifacts are no longer marching with the legion.

I still have a few cards waiting on the bench—Burn Down the House, Rakdos Keyrune, Doom Whisperer, Overseer of the Damned, Skirsdag High Priest, Spawn of Mayhem, Breath of Malfegor — and I’ll be testing space for them soon.

In the long run, I’d love to add some heavier hitters and staples like Kindred Dominance, Altar of Shadows, Bontu's Monument, Krav, the Unredeemed, Rite of Belzenlok, Demonic TutorGC, Sudden Spoiling, Grave Pact, Dark Prophecy, Attrition, Vilis, Broker of Blood, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Pestilence Demon, Lord of the Void, Archfiend of Depravity, and especially Karlach, Fury of Avernus.

We’ll see where the Hellegion marches next—and who joins, or falls, along the way.

FallopianGolem on Action Surge (Karlach Extra Attacks)

9 months ago

NV_1980, That looks like a Xenagos deck! There's a player in my regular group that has a Xenagos, God of Revels deck, so I wanted to do something different.

There's a few differences in our two decks, and I think it comes down to your deck's focus on mana production as a means to use cards Aggravated Assault and Moraug, Fury of Akoum more than once, and admittedly, I forgot that card existed. I'll definitely be adding it to my own list. I'll also be looking at adding World at War and potentially Relentless Assault. There are a few other cards I may look into swapping out as well.

My deck above has a "cheat creatures into play" sub theme. This allows me to trigger extra combats by cheating in creatures like Anzrag, the Quake-Mole or Scourge of the Throne on the first combat. Then using the second combat to trigger another combat step or two. With Karlach, Fury of Avernus in the command zone, I also wanted to make sure I was playing other creatures that made more combat steps. Like the aforementioned cards and Combat Celebrant. Running Fury of the Horde and Savage Beating helps add to that, but shouldnt be this deck's primary source of extra combat steps.

Generating a ton of mana via creatures attacking is great value, and it works well to allow both our decks to play one or more large creatures ahead of curve; however, there are some differences that appeal to different play styles in both decks. Looking at your list has definitely given me some extra ideas, but all and all, I think both decks have different sub themes that may appeal to a variety of other players. Thanks for the comment!

_AoxomoxoA_ on Veni, Vidi, Vici

1 year ago

09/07/2024 Revisions

Why?

The focus of these changes were to increase the token generation ability of the deck. Many of the removed cards interacted with cards that have been killed/allowing me to profit off of the death of tokens/creatures. Often, this would lead to me having a board of creatures that Caesar couldn't make use of which would stall my boardstate.

11 Card Changes

Removals

Creatures

-1 Alesha, Who Smiles at Death: Limited Graveyard recursion that didn't do much for many of my creatures

-1 Athreos, God of Passage: Tokens are what mainly die in my deck and those can't be in my hand

-1 Deathgreeter: Hard choice to make with this one, but at the end of the day, I wanted to remove this aspect of the deck. I don't care as much about longterm survivability if I can win early.

-1 Desdemona, Freedom's Edge: Similar to Alesha and Atheros

-1 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim: Another hard choice to make, but I want to focus on tokens entering the battlefield and the attack phase rather than sacrificing and graveyard.

-1 Morbid Opportunist: Good card but similar to Elas, I want to focus on ETB and Attacking rather than killing

-1 Paladin Elizabeth Taggerdy: I don't want many of my creature cards attacking and honestly the CMC of many of my creatures doesn't make this card worth it

-1 Pitiless Plunderer: Same as Morbid

-1 White Glove Gourmand: Ended up being a card that read: 4 mana create 2 humans, which is not ideal

Artifacts

-1 Ashnod's Altar: Never really panned out how I wanted it to, make room for better cards

Enchantments

-1 Battle of Hoover Dam: Choosing NCR runs into the same issue as Alesha and Desmonda, choosing Legion is fine but also not amazing. I would rather buff all my cards or keep them small to help with McCready

Additions

Creatures

+1 Hero of Bladehold: Great consistent token generator, and it creates soldiers

+1 Iroas, God of Victory *list*: Keep my tokens alive and able to consistently hit face against tall boards

+1 Karlach, Fury of Avernus: I LOVE this card, similar to Isshin being able to trigger Caesar's ability multiple times per turn is super strong. Also, I have many other attack phase triggers

+1 Myrel, Shield of Argive: Better Hero of Bladehold + Grand Abolisher, this card is a no brainer. Plus it has soldier synergy

Enchantments

+1 Anointed Procession: Stupid to not include this card in a white token deck

+1 Court of Embereth: This card is STRONG, consistently generates targets for Caesar to sacrifice if needed, and it does Caesar's strongest ability automatically every turn. Also Monarch is fun and I can consistently fight to keep it.

+1 Warleader's Call: Purphoros and a static +1/+1

Instants

+1 Grand Crescendo: At worst, it's 2 mana to make my board indestructible, at best it generates tokens for me

Sorcerys

+1 Finale of Glory: Token generator

Artifacts

+1 Mana Vault: More fast mana!

+1 The One Ring: Card draw plus protection from everything

Profet93 on Samut, Vizier of Naktamun

1 year ago

SufferFromEDHD +1 because of you, interesting deck.

Dualcaster Mage - For the combo potential with hit shimmer and twinflame, as well as general utility.

At the risk of being winmore, Alhammarret's Archive?

What is the point of squee, synergy with survival of the fittest? Reminds me of when I used to run Genesis for a similar interaction.

Skullclamp - Draw, or is it not needed?

Land Discussion

Do you have enough mountains to trigger valakut? I feel the slot would be better utilized with a Castle Garenbrig?

Command Tower/Cragcrown Pathway  ^Flip - Color fixing

Turntimber, Serpentine Wood  ^Flip - Utility

War Room - Draw

Extra Combat

Have you considered adding some extra combat step cards to trigger your commander's ability and deal additional damage such as Karlach, Fury of Avernus, Relentless Assault, Seize the Day, Scourge of the Throne, World at War, Breath of Fury, Combat Celebrant or my personal favorite Aggravated Assault?

Last_Laugh on Bipedal Beastmode (Éowyn Human Tribal)

1 year ago

Azoth2099 I like the idea of extra combats but that card requiring combat damage to a player adds a really big hoop to jump through. I've considered Aurelia, the Warleader, Karlach, Fury of Avernus, and/or Moraug, Fury of Akoum though and ty for taking the time to post.

king-saproling on The Oncoming Storm

1 year ago

You might like these: The Millennium Calendar, Mizzix, Replica Rider, The Lost and the Damned, Karlach, Fury of Avernus, Aurelia, the Warleader, Tavern Brawler

Crow_Umbra on Isshin, We Couldn't Budget the Second Heaven

1 year ago

You've got a pretty decent looking deck here. I love the name, +1 for that alone.

If you're open to suggestions, I do have some thoughts on potential changes you could make. I get that a lot of the expensive stuff in deck is stuff you already own, so my suggestions are being made with budget not necessarily being an issue:

• I think you can replace Chaos Warp and Mortify, mostly because Mardu has some more versatile options like Anguished Unmaking, Generous Gift, Stroke of Midnight, Soul Partition, and Wear / Tear.

• I highly recommend adding Dolmen Gate and Reconnaissance as additional board protection effects. Reconnaissance basically acts a pseudo-Vigilance anthem that can untap and save your creatures at the end of combat, since they are considered attacking until the end of combat.

• Karlach, Fury of Avernus and/or Aurelia, the Warleader could be potential swaps with Raiyuu, since you aren't limiting yourself to a single Samurai or Warrior attacking, and can swing with the whole team. Both Karlach and Aurelia get some additional mileage with vigilance anthems.

• Chivalric Alliance could be a potential swap with Thorough Investigation or Search the Premises.

• As much as I love Alesha, she was my first Mardu commander before I converted her to Isshin over a year ago, I don't think she really fits this deck. Only ~8 of your creatures have power 2 or less. Perhaps Professional Face-Breaker could be a swap to reward your aggro plays, and also give you another means of (impulse) drawing.

I hope these suggestions are helpful. I'm happy to chat through any additional suggestions or ideas if you're up to it. Best of luck with your deck and its games!

joni1707x on Isshin Double Attack Trigger

2 years ago

Crow_Umbra Thank you so much for you suggestions! This REALLY helps me out a lot!

Aurelia, the Warleader is already included in the deck, maybe you missed this? Do you think, cutting Raiyuu, Storm's Edge and adding Karlach, Fury of Avernus is still good? Or should i consider to add something else in this place?

Dolmen Gate is definately a Card i am going to add in the future! I didn't know this was existing^^ Awesome!

All your other Suggestions speak for themselves. Thank you so much!