Savage Beating

Instant

Play Savage Beating only during your turn and only during combat.

Choose one - Creatures you control gain double strike until end of turn; or untap all creatures you control and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase.

Entwine (1)(Red)

Discussion (43)

taylaw120 on Kamahl, Combat for Days

2 weeks ago

I have an extra combat focused deck too, Seize the Day , Savage Beating , Relentless Assault and Aggravated Assault are some good extra combat pieces that aren't creatures.

McToters on #6 Vega & Winnfield

1 month ago

Hey there! Finally getting around to this. Sorry it took me an extra day.

So I’m mostly a red player at heart but I should have some ideas for you and it’s entirely possible you’ve thought of them before.

I always like to suggest Settle the Wreckage in creature-focused white decks for two reasons: 1) at a minimum it’s a board wipe that exiles opponent’s attackers and 2) at its max it can be a gnarly tool for ramp on yourself (not as ideal on non-token creatures but it’s still a novel idea). The other recent white wipe I rather like is Winds of Abandon . Yes, it ramps you opponents up but more than likely would be used late game. Also, if used you can think about adding in white ramp spells like Kor Cartographer and Cartographer's Hawk that need opponents to have more lands than you to hit those ramps. Seems conditional but that’s how ramp works in white. Again, even excluding those latter cards both wipes are very good to include IMO.

Another creature-focused card that could work here is Sneak Attack . Cost effective and still triggers Bruce’s ETB. Reconnaissance provides your creatures protection and untaps them if you’re in a tight spot.

Combat focused cards like Combat Celebrant , Seize the Day , Savage Beating , Relentless Assault seem more than ideal here since you want to keep attacking to trigger Bruce.

Cards like Chance for Glory and Final Fortune are personal favorites of mine (because I’m a reckless RED player, haha) that give you a quick second upkeep for Ravos, Soultender to trigger again (also one last chance to attack with Bruce).

I think Berserkers' Onslaught could come out for Avatar of Slaughter only because it gives you another creature. Bedlam or Goblin War Drums seem like great adds to a high-octane offensive deck like this too!

I hope these suggestions don’t discourage you. This deck looks awesome, and I’m not saying it would play better with these cards but that it would be the direction I’d personally take it. Overall, the deck looks incredibly balanced with your quantities of sorceries/instants/artifacts/planeswalkers/etc. My only other suggestion at the moment would be to maybe go down 1-2 lands, as it opens another two slots for you. I typically run 34 in most of my decks and everything runs great.

Great brew!

McToters on Hyper Markov

1 month ago

Hey there! I love your unique take on this deck (not sure if there are other Hyper Markov decks out there)! What I notice is that this really plays as a mono black deck barely splashing red and white, which is not a good or bad thing, just different. I am not a big Mardu player or all that familiar with vampires but I’ll do my best to give you some good feedback.

Any heavy creature based decks usually sit comfortably at anywhere between 25-35 creatures slots. Being that your deck is “hyper” in this regard makes sense you are running a lot more—plus as you say the deck runs well, so hard to argue with that. My instinctual feedback here is that you could probably cut down your creatures to 40-45 and still get the effects you want (maybe you’ve already tried this).

You also already have some of the recs I’d give you like Cathars' Crusade and Anointed Procession in your maybeboatd. I think you should 100% include the latter. Because you generate a ton of tokens, Settle the Wreckage would double as unexpected ramp and in crucial times a one-sided board wipe. It does have 2 white in its cmc so probably not for you.

Someone just told me to take out this card from my Pirates deck (and use Shared Animosity ) but it is usually used as a finisher. That card is Kindred Charge . Again 2 red in its cmc and double the cost of Shared but it triggers ETBs.

Maybe Cursed Mirror ? Seems like a good fit, pretty flexible and a nice flavor add.

Chance for Glory , Savage Beating , and Reconnaissance all seem random but could fit into a creature-focused deck.

That’s all I have at the moment, but I hope that helps a little! Again, this is a great brew. Cheers!

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 4: Mono-Red …

1 month ago

At the outset of this article I wasn’t overly fond of pure red as a concept. In my eyes it’s been too aggressive and too narrow in scope to form a deck that would keep me, specifically me, happy. I say this with a double helping of skepticism, because Omnath, Locus of Rage , Okaun, Eye of Chaos , and Rakdos, Lord of Riots all keep me very happy. Today, we’re talking Burn, Chaos, and Sneak Attack as key concepts in mono-red. As always, please bear in mind that our focus here is not necessarily competitive but rather thematic, archetypical commanders.

Burn

Red patented fast damage output, but the standard RDW strategy has limited viability in EDH. Lightning Bolt and the like often don’t cut it in a format where everyone starts with 40 life. Dig for recurring damage like Irencrag Pyromancer or BIG stuff such as Molten Disaster , though, and you can reach frightening levels of well done and extra crispy.

I am a huge fan, and not just because of the card. Gloriously savage as this card might be, it still pales in comparison to the character in the books. Anyone who single-handedly roflstomps the blue representation on an entire plane and then EATS HIS OWN DEITY should inspire terror even when rendered on cardstock. Make sure that only you have an odd life total, play any Furnace of Rath effect, turn right, leave only blood and ashes in your wake. Seriously. He might pop off the card and eat you if you don’t.

I knew a guy who played Ashling and 99 mountains. I’m fairly sure he never won with it, but nobody laughed either. Hard to laugh at someone whose general is a water balloon slowly filling with napalm.

I don’t like Purphoros. I freely admit to sulking like a teenager with a bad haircut whenever I see him in a game, let alone in the command zone. Indestructible on generals, I can take and even enjoy. Massive damage output tied to creating horde of tokens, I can appreciate (see my favorite in mono-black, hehe). Both of them together, though, is too much for me to take with grace. But who needs to care about grace when you have so. Much. POWA.

Chaos

Some folks aren't looking for anything logical, like winning. Some folks just want to watch the world burn. Such folks come to Red, the color of all true agents of chaos, where they can ensure no plan, no board state, no hand is safe. Planar Chaos , Possibility Storm , and the iconic Wheel of Fortune are all examples of this wild approach to magic. Go nuts, and drive everyone else crazy in the process. Maybe you'll win, maybe you won't, but you'll certainly make a difference and have fun!

Does anything really need to be said, other than a profound sense of pity for opponents who are praying to top deck? Play things like Seize the Day and seize all their goodstuffs as well.

Come the time to discuss Izzet we’ll talk a coin deck, but I don’t honestly think ol’ double-or-nothing here is just for flipping coins all game. No, you come to this guy to truly take your chances. Who should his partner be? Don’t have one. That, and the prospect of a twincast Warp World will drive opponents bonkers. However, point of order (bleh): Krark is also an unholy terror if you want to break storm spells. Just be sure to bring his thumb.

I'd never heard of Diochan before writing this, and... wow. Just wow. Assuming you aren't stocking a suite of boots or maybe Darksteel Plate , how delightfully risky. How marvelously political. Bring Thornbite Staff for EXTRA wow... Wow!

Sneak Attack

This is an odd, but potent one. Next to the whole glorious theme of chaos, Red's most irritating archetype may well be creating/playing/stealing creatures for a turn, examples being Tilonalli's Summoner , Insurrection , or even the ludicrously rare keyword Dash. There isn’t a relevant mono-red general that temporarily steals creatures as yet, but there are still some real doozies in the neighborhood. Just ask Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and his blue ETB untap friends (disqualified for extra-chromatic fraternization, but still).

The raw potential here utterly terrifies me: spam useful cantrips and have a Combustible Gearhulk in play. Or maybe Utvara Hellkite . EeeeEeeeEEEK.

Red has the least graveyard-related cards of any color and arguably the least thematic business to be fiddling about in there, phoenixes notwithstanding, so Feldon’s a bit unusual. Consider the weight of discard/draw in Red’s wheelhouse (see what I did there?). Consider what can be in your graveyard. Consider that it will cost three mana to wink it out. No more, no less. Solemn Simulacrum . Cavalier of Flame . Bearer of the Heavens . Have yourself a time.

We’ve talked graveyard and copies, but red also makes with the actual Sneak Attack . I suppose Lord Okkoto makes for a world class distraction. A favorite red archetype of mine is the extra combat phase, and the high mighty porkiness is a marvelous opportunity to fetch opponents an epically Savage Beating by dropping all sorts of heinous nastiness without actually paying for it.

And, for my personal favorite...

Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Omnath, Locus of Mana are two of my oldest commanders. Evidently those genes shouldn’t be mixed, because that’s how I surmise we got here. What an absolute beast. I started this article down on red, and ended it with a passionate need to build this monstrosity. As you may have guessed and will confirm in the next article, I am a green player at heart. Neheb sings the song of my people. Loudly. Boisterously. Encouraging atypical silliness like Soulfire Eruption and Apex of Power .

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

Prior Articles:

Mono-White

Mono-Blue

Mono-Black

OmniDreamer on Casual Velomachus

3 months ago

I played a 3 player game with this list just to get a feel for the commander which means some of this should be taken with a grain of salt because I don't know how some of the cards would work in a different situation with only one game to base my experience on.

Out of several attack triggers from Velomachus, most of the free spells were a bit underwhelming. I think one I got Mana Geyser as my free spell and had nothing to spend the mana on during combat. I did manage to win the game, but primarily because one opponent had trouble getting lands early on and fell behind, and also because that player cast Song of the Dryads on the other opponent's Golos, Tireless Pilgrim which shut him down from getting lots of card advantage from activating his ability. Justice Strike unfortunately didn't feel useful, most of the creatures I wanted to kill had more toughness than power. Probably replace it with Path to Exile .

Myth Realized helped a lot, so did Boros Charm and Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion . MVP though had to be Valakut Exploration . I got a lot of value from it.

I felt like the deck could use another spell or two that give extra combats. That would be a great thing to hit off of Velomachus triggers. Akroma's Will would also be a nice thing to hit off of his trigger. Also you have a lot of token producing cards, but nothing really to pump the team. Maybe consider Cathars' Crusade , Shared Animosity , Intangible Virtue , or Balefire Liege to make your tokens more threatening. Another neat card that can also be used politically to buff an opponent's attacker is Duelist's Heritage .

Other cards to consider:

• Jeska's Will
• Flawless Maneuver
• Relentless Assault
• Waves of Aggression
• Savage Beating
• World at War
• Deafening Clarion
• Pyroblast
• Red Elemental Blast
• Sunbird's Invocation tons of fun.
• Monastery Mentor
• Shadowspear
• Blackblade Reforged
• Embercleave

Gidgetimer on Aurelia + Port Razer

4 months ago

Neotrup hit the nail right on the head. Of the 18 cards that create additional combat steps, 16 untap some or all creatures as part of the same effect that creates the combat. This means that they untap the creatures immediately when the combat is CREATED. The only two that do not untap creatures immediately when the combat is CREATED are World at War and Moraug, Fury of Akoum . They untap creatures when the combat they created BEGINS.

I was making the distinction because if you Fork World at War you will be able to swing with all creatures on both combats. If you Fork any of Fury of the Horde , Relentless Assault , Savage Beating , Seize the Day , or Waves of Aggression the creature(s) will be untapped twice before the first additional combat is taken and will not untap between the first and second additional combat.

My comment about steps and phases being taken in the reverse order of what they were created was trying to be super exact because the same is true of additional turns. Steps and phases added to a turn will still have the same active player, so as Neotrup said the distinction hardly matters in most cases. Players taking additional turns may have different active players and it matters to keep track of who takes what additional turn.

griffstick on How to play aggro?

6 months ago

You got to take advantage of what boros gives you to be aggressive. The biggest thing boros gives you that no other color pairing gives you is extra combats. Take advantage of that with cards like Combat Celebrant, Aurelia, the Warleader, World at War, Scourge of the Throne, Seize the Day, Savage Beating, Relentless Assault, Moraug, Fury of Akoum, Waves of Aggression, Response / Resurgence, Breath of Fury Hellkite Charger, Aggravated Assault, Fury of the Horde and Port Razer. Along with that you need to speed up the damage output. Boros gives you damage doublers, with cards like Fiendish Duo, Goblin Goliath, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Insult, Furnace of Rath, Gratuitous Violence, Dictate of the Twin Gods, Curse of Bloodletting, Bitter Feud, Angrath's Marauders, Overblaze, Inquisitor's Flail, and Fiery Emancipation.

Also consider other things boros gives you that will speed up damage like double strike. Boros gives you haste, trample, and evasion. You need to consider all of those. All while staying low on curve and fast in ramp. If you do this you'll have a good aggro deck.

CamraMaan on Interaction between Savage Beating and …

6 months ago

Valduk, Keeper of the Flame creates a set of 3/1 elementals each combat phase, so if you entwine Savage Beating will it's double strike effect apply to the second round of creatures Valduk creates?