Purphoros, God of the Forge

Legendary Enchantment Creature — God

Indestructible

As long as your devotion to red is less than five, Purphoros isn't a creature.

Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Purphoros deals 2 damage to each opponent.

: Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.

Discussion (46)

BertilFalukorv on Need a home for my …

1 hour ago

My favorite card is a black enchantment on the Reserved list that I got two copies of a while back before the prices skyrocketed. But I never found a proper home for it.

The card in question is Tombstone Stairwell

As long as my yard always have more creatures than my opponents it will never be worth attacking me since then I can always outblock their tombspawn tokens.

Below I've listed what some of the colors can do to bring this card to life. (hehe) I know there are a lot more and please don't hestitate to type in your suggestions so that I can add to the list. The reason I list them is to make it easier to think of what kind of deck I could run this in as a "win-more-card" without ruining the deck so it fails of my yard gets emptied. It's also worth noting that the tokens gets Destroyed so if you make your creatures indestructible with something like Eldrazi Monument you get to keep your tokens where your opponents have to destroy theirs.

---

RED • ETB triggers like Purphoros, God of the Forge

• Cool Synnergy with Deathbringer Thoctar which is extra nice since it's also a Zombie

BLACK • Various Deathtriggers like Blood Artist

• Sac outlets

WHITE • Great Synnergy with Cathars' Crusade

• Some Deathtriggers

• Has some nice player protection (To avoiod effects like Bojuka Bog and also nice recursion of enchantments and/or protection for enchantments.

GREEN • Good recursion cards, even on bodies like Eternal Witness to mention one of many.

• Death Presence

BLUE • Draws a lot of cards

• Protects gameplan and has some good Counter Triggered a bility cards like Stifle and Nimble Obstructionist which is extra nice to have on a body that also draws a card.

Basically I've made decks around this a hundred times but when I'm about to finish I feel like I'm lacking something in the colors I'm in or something else, I'm lost in what direction I should go to make the best out of this without having a poop deck till all the stars align.

Best Commanders I can think of as of yet:

• Alesha, Who Smiles at Death Aristocrats

• Kresh the Bloodbraided works well with this too, currently I'm building him in a more traditional direction since I fell in love with this commander for some reason. :)

• Teysa, Orzhov Scion Aristocrat Tokens

• Teysa Karlov Aristocrat Deathtriggers

• Ghave, Guru of Spores w/o going for inf combo wincon

• Grismold, the Dreadsower

• Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

• Varina, Lich Queen Seems perfect in many ways for this too.

I currently run it in a Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver but I never gotten to cast it yet. The boring thing about Zombie tribal is that it's boring to build and somewhat fun to play (Play zombies, play lords, swing) and it leaves for a less interactive gameplay. It's a solid deck but it doesnt feel very spicy.

I don't necessarly need to run the most optimized deck to have fun or run the most expensive cards. I'm helpful for all the Ideas you can bring me as I seem to have hit a wall where I don't know what to do anymore.

Currently I'm leaning towards either of Teysa's or Alesha.

TL:DR What deck or what colors do you think Tombstone Stairwell would do best in?

Much appreciated. :)

VensersJournalist on Commander for Abzan Aristocrat deck

19 hours ago

You mentioned wanting to draw cards as well. Have you considered a Grixis build? Possibly around Nekusar, the Mindrazer? It wouldn’t exactly be built to fit Tombstone Stairwell, but you could include that, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, and Purphoros, God of the Forge all in the same deck.

BertilFalukorv on Commander for Abzan Aristocrat deck

20 hours ago

Yeah Ghave was the first one I looked at, I don't want my graveyard to be targeted so running a lot of recursion is something im trying to avoid.

I feel like I'm probably trying to jam in my Tombstone Stairwell in the deck. The best thing to do would probably be to run Mardu or Esper with Varina, Lich Queen and run a zombie theme. Problem is I have a zombie deck already with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver Maybe I should just expand it to Esper instead of dimir and run more creatures.

Mardu is too tempting to run with Triggers like Purphoros, God of the Forge

The thing with Ghave is that It's like Abaques says, it's a known combo enabler and I try to stay away from such decks :)

So maybe the topic is wrong, I should make a thread about Tombstone Stairwell instead :P

Orange+ on The Act of Treason

1 day ago

Thank you for the suggestion, BlackGtitan :)

I agree that Terror of the Peaks would be great in this deck, but unfortunately I think it is too expensive to add to a budget deck. I prefer to not add new cards that cost more than ~5 USD, and will also probably remove cards if they go above ~20 USD.

If I didn't have budget restrictions, I'd probably add Terror of the Peaks, but also Purphoros, God of the Forge, Phyrexian Altar, and Panharmonicon.

TypicalTimmy on Your Favorite Plays

1 day ago

Just won a game with my Lathliss, Dragon Queen deck on Turn 6 against Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Runo Stromkirk  ^Flip and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice.

I had opened with a Spinerock Knoll exiling Dragon Tempest and a Mox Tantalite. Next turn I played a Vesuva, exiling an Utvara Hellkite. On my 3rd turn I topdecked an Ancient Tomb and was fortunate enough to have opened with a Purphoros, God of the Forge so I immediately dropped him into play.

Then we all got wheeled via Wheel of Fortune. Great. Actually, yes quite splendid because I didn't have much else going on.

It sort of became a slugfest of counterspells and the Rakdos player slinging out damage to try and neutralize some of the Planeswalkers Atraxa was dropping. I was just casting Hammer of Purphoros and had literally nothing else going on.

Rakdos' T6, he drops a freaking Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. WOOOOOW...

Gets to my T6 and Atraxa slams down Teferi, Master of Time's -3 to exile my poor Lathliss, Dragon Queen that I had played T5. T_T but but but whyyyy she didn't do anything T_T T_T T_T

I tell her that while she can suspend my poor Lathy, this leaves Kozzy online and a big 6/6 Rakdos, Lord of Riots. I tell her that if she could be so kind as to suspend Rakdos, I can handle Kozzy since that's clearly the biggest threat. I explain to her that while Purphoros, God of the Forge can't deal damage to Kozzy, I can churn out enough 5/5 tokens and pump them with Lathliss, Dragon Queen to kill the Rakdos player - thus removing Kozzy via player removal. All I need is for Rakdos, Lord of Riots offline so my Dragons can get through.

And to my surprise, she bought that lie and agrees. Rakdos fizzles out.

• hehehehe

So, I drop a Scourge of Valkas that I was fortunate enough to wheel into thanks to that Wheel of Fortune from earlier.

Purphoros, God of the Forge sees a Scourge of Valkas and a 5/5 token via Lathliss, Dragon Queen land. Oopsies. 4 damage to everyone's face. But wait, it gets so much worse.

Scourge of Valkas sees itself ETB for 3 Dragons, thus 3 damage. But he ALSO sees a 5/5 token ETB for 3 Dragons, thus 3 MOAR damage.

I direct all 6 of this to the Rakdos, Lord of Riots player who was firmly sitting at around 34 life. Hmm... not quite enough to live up to my end of the deal. EXCEPT...

A player was dealt 7 or more damage this turn. Que my Vesuva that ETB copying Spinerock Knoll. I tap that mfer and drop Utvara Hellkite.

Purphoros sees Utty and a 5/5 token ETB. 4 more global damage to face.

This time, Scourge of Valkas sees an Utty for 5 and a token for 5. 10 damage as I please. All directly toward Rakdos, Lord of Riots who has now sustained 4 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 5 = 24 damage of their 34 life total. Ouchies.

Move to combat, since I have Hammer of Purphoros online. Tap everybody sideways.

• Ooh noes~ it appears I have an Utvara Hellkite with a Scourge of Valkas and a Purphoros, God of the Forge all online together. What eeeever shall I dooo~~

Lathliss, Scourge, Utvara and 2x 5/5s each create a 6/6 for FIVE 6/6s.

Purphoros dishes out 10 global damage and Scourge sees FIVE ETB triggers of 10 damage each.

And we haven't even moved to combat damage, much less blockers ;)

Oopsie doodles, looks like my Lathliss, Dragon Queen deck won on Turn 6. Lololol gg frens

---

And this is precisely why this deck is my number 1 favorite deck of all time. Does literally every stupid thing I love about Magic: The Gathering in a horrifically efficient manner.

OnTheCurve on Norin Nonsense (Optimized)

3 days ago

Hi Profet93 and thank you so much for your valuable input on my Norin deck! He is by far one of my favorite commanders. I get t he impression you have been running Norin for some time considering all of the recommendations you have provided me.

I will do my best to address each item:

Yes the Hero's Blade was in there just for that reason but in recent play I have found that it has not provided me with enough value to warrant it remaining in the deck. I also was running equipment protection with Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots, but again the value was not there. Sure they would protect the extra creatures in the deck but did not provide a step forward in the game. I have since removed these and have added one of your recommendations. Heat Shimmer and Dualcaster Mage. These two plus Imperial Recruiter seemed like the right changes considering the Recruiter can fetch virtually half of the creatures in the deck . The additional win con is a nice touch as well.

I find with such a low mana curve I have not run into mana issues. I will also be removing Shadowspear as well adding in Smoke as well as Gauntlet of Power. the mana ramp will assist with the low mana rate as well.

So far out of 18 games I have played Norin as won a Whopping 14! This has come from a variety of ways with ETB Purphoros, God of the Forge, Genesis Chamber, Repercussion + Blasphemous Act or mass creature damage with Glacial Chasm on board. nominal creature damage and of course politics. Norin never really feels like a threat to anyone until he goes off. Evenly depleting everyone for damage without being the aggressor.

some of the items you recommended like Lightning Bolt / Outpost Siege do not tickle my fancy due to the singular damage. I prefer equal damage for political reasons and the simple fact that 1 damage per ETB is not enough for my liking.

Now Terror of the Peaks is on order for me already and Ruby Medallion and Sensei's Divining Top are both great suggestions that I will be scouting out additional copies to add to Norin. Very valuable recommendations!

I Prefer the Curse over the Sword due to the low CMC and lack of equip cost. The Wheel of Misfortune is also a quality suggestion and an extra wheel effect that could prove valuable mid to late game. Light Up the Stage and Ignite the Future do seem good. I did consider them during my initial build but leaned towards Stolen Strategy for the repeat effect. Most games I hold onto Warstorm Surge and Confusion in the Ranks for both their high CMC and lack of board utility. I might give your two suggestions another kick at the can!

I do have an extra Crucible of Worlds on tap that I could use and that coupled with fetches could trim down the deck thoughout the game. I like your idea on this.

I have no budget for this deck so i am also considering the better more powerful Gauntlet of Might but having trouble locating one! My playgroup is ULTRA aggressive hence the style of this build.

All in all I am having loads of fun with Norin. He is slowly becoming my most played deck and with some of these suggestions I am looking forward to seeing how they fair in battle!

I thank you for your beefy comment and time you took with the recommendations my friend. When I have some free time I will check out your profile and decks. Return the favor you gave me :) Cheers!

addictedtoplacebos on Grenzo, Dungeon Warden

1 week ago

I really like this Grenzo deck! I would recommend a Purphoros, God of the Forge as just like Ayara you can kill with his triggers off spamming Grenzo.

Mattio38 on Vampire aggristocrats

2 weeks ago

Hi Last_Laugh and thanks for your suggestions!

I've thought about Purphoros, God of the Forge, as I really like it. I'm only not quite sure what to cut for it. (+ in the meantime I'm trying to get my hands on a copy because I don't own one xD)

now that Reconnaissance is really sweet. I know the card but I didn't know it was possible to perform such a shenanigan after combat! Gotta cut something for that!!

Your deck looks great! I saw you run a copy of Bloodlord of Vaasgoth and I own one too. It inspired me to add it here. What would you cut for the 3 named cards?