Zap

Instant

Zap deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

Draw a card.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (17)

Idoneity on Dark Eyes and Careless Hair (Alela EDH)

3 years ago

I definitely understand that. There is a point in each deck's life where you just feel, "Wait, but I like all of these cards," maugre any good argument against it. Here is the opposing side, whereupon I have some arguments against a few cards, leastway to bring forth my opinion.

If you're not going infinite, Altar of the Brood is lacking, sometimes acting as an affliction. It mills the opponents, thusly furthering strategies such as Chainer or the selcouth and sparsely known Muldrotha (Who plays her, am I right?). The deck appears to have naught in terms of combo lines in its current variation, so meseems this is an easy exclusion.

Now, Unwinding Clock is great, but how are you actually abusing with this untapping? The payoffs seem to be Bident of Thassa, Spear of Heliod, Ethersworn Adjudicator, and a few instants, withal not being enough (There's more, yet I am indolent). Taffy can be interesting, though I think another draw engine would be more potent, or add more reward to the deck for the sake of this working.

Thopter Spy Network... Kill it. Murder it with all of the removal. This is a worse Reconnaissance Mission, for it only triggers upon artifact creatures and at most once. Inutile.

You know what's great? Casting a Treasure Mage and "failing to find." There is distinct lack of 6 CMC tutor targets in the deck, thusly making this a worse Belbe's Percher. Red rum. Following their ensample is the esteemed Trophy Mage, which has a seldom few targets, yet is probably worth it, though notable for the guillotine pile.

I am biased, I don't like voltron, I kind of somedeal maybe perhaps don't quite very much enjoy Mace of the Valiant. It is slow, is bereft of any game betime, and requires much time being upon the table. The mace may very well be of use, though I personally would not run it. Must...keep...drawing...CARDS!

That shall be all, folk. Good luck with your cardboard murder conquest!

Avlex on Pauper EDH Zada

3 years ago

Thanks for the input. I have actually tested the deck and found it to be oppressively fast and resilient in a very uncomfortable environment. Here are my thoughts on your suggestions:

I will check for a slot for Goblin Tinkerer. It has to stick around for a turn and in cases where I actually care about artifacts of my opponents, I usually require at least sorcery speed. If I don't need the removal, Goblin Replica is the bigger body. However, in the context of what this deck wants to do, the difference is negligable. The Replica actually opens me up to artifact removal, so exchanging it may just be worth a try. I am actually thinking about not playing either and slotting in Destructive Tampering, as I can recur it via Anarchist or Ghitu Chronicler and another option at getting evasion may actually be nice.

I'll also try Boiling Blood, since I managed not find any of my draw spells during the last game and only managed to kill a single opponent because of it. I previously decided against it because of the choice between forced attack or being restricted to play it on my second main phase. Usually, I want to draw into ramp and draw in my first main phase and then decide to go off or not, which in this deck requires an attack phase. Being committing before having the whole picture seems rather dangerous, but then... it's a gambly red deck anyways and I guess I'd rather have the draw spell.

I opted against Titan's Strength, as it will only fix one single draw in a limited (gambling) way, so the slot went to a large buff spell instead for consistency.

I also decided against Raid Bombardment, because I wasn't ever happy to draw it instead of a buff, draw or ramp. It always always seemed like win-more or not doing enough. Raid Bombardment essentially ends up being a +1/+0 buff for the big turn, because the deck rarely attacks before going off, if an opponent has any blockers and in Pauper EDH, they usually do.

Hissing Iguanar and Impact Tremors didn't make the cut, because they just don't do enough in the deck either. They rarely deal more than 5 to 10 damage each and any decent pump spell does more. Pinging your opponents also draws more attention to you, endangering your board state somewhat. I would rather have one more token generator, buff or draw spell in those cases. Also, before going off, enchantments open you up to another kind of removal and while going off, both usually end up being strictly worse up to being dead draws and. I may try Impact Tremors again at some point though, as it has the biggest potential.

Considering the creature count, I am actually playing around 40 creatures (only 2 less than your deck, before storm, doubling and recursion) in those 23 slots, but opted to prefer token generators like Hordeling Outburst instead of actual bodies (successfully, I might add). The reason being, that one card that creates 2-4 tokens will let me recover from a board wipe or focused fire way easier than having to draw and play one goblin a turn. At the same time, potential spot removal in my opponents hands is devalued. This helps me recover and race my opponents into another big turn more easily and heavily increases success rates. Many token generators are instant or sorcery and cards can also be retrieved from the graveyard, in case I need to, adding resilience and recursion. I do lose some nifty goblin abilities, but I found the compromise acceptable. It also opens me up to a bit more board wipes in Pauper EDH though, but since board-wipe pingers seem to not be very popular for their limited usability, I'm not too worried. Crypt Rats and Pestilence being the exceptions, but those rarely trigger for 1 and will usually wipe all goblins off the table anyways.

And lastly, the "Threaten" slots and lands (which kinda go together). The goal of this deck is to: "be quiet and build a board state of small, non-threatening guys that aren't worth the removal and then in one turn draw into ramp that will allow more draw and ramp, then buff the whole team and kill everyone at once (ideally) or just the biggest threat and set up the next big turn". I found, that 6-7 lands in play are quite enough to get the ball rolling as long as you can draw enough buffs and ramp. If anything, I'd actually rather play some artifact ramp to be honest, to accelerate the deck by a turn instead of putting in more lands. Up to now, the deck was consistent enough at 35 lands though.

Now, if I can actually manage to go off as described, my guys usually already have haste via one of the other spells or I have ramped into enough Mana to cast any of the "Threaten" effects on Zada to get there. They aren't that expencive. On the other hand, taking over another creature for its abilities for a turn or to just not have to deal with it in combat on a big turn has shown to be very effective. Additionally, occasionally killing someone with their own commander is hilarious as hell. And finally, 3 of the 5 "Threaten" cards do actually buff your team aside from haste, when cast on Zada, Traitorous Instinct with Menace evasion and Mark of Mutiny actually putting a +1/+1 counter on the whole team, which can also be very useful when you want to cast stuff like Zap on your guys, when you need to save your team or when you need to set up another turn. Both effects you can't get efficiently any other way in red. For this utility, I found paying the premium to be an acceptable compromise.

I'd love to discuss it further. These were my design considerations, any thoughts, found any BS? Let me know!

king-saproling on Pied Piper (PDH)

4 years ago

Very cool deck! You might like these: Solar Blast , Warlord's Fury , Crimson Wisps , Expedite , Honor the God-Pharaoh , Dogpile , Goblin War Drums , Inner-Flame Igniter , Wildfire Elemental , Zap , Spark Spray , Orcish Cannonade , Academy Raider , Burning-Tree Vandal , Prophetic Ravings

Alkadron on PDH(R) - Syr Carah the Bold

4 years ago

OH! As to your other points:

You're correct about Solar Blast, I can't cycle it from Exile. :( It's out. (For Pyromatics! Thanks for the suggestion)

As for the doubling-up-on-cards: There's definitely only one of each in the deck. But some of them go into multiple categories. Like Zap gets me a trigger and and draw. and Mana Geode gets me a rock and a scry. That's why some of them are appearing twice on the list. If you sort by Type (instead of Custom), they'll all show up only once.

Alkadron on PDH(R) - Zada is best at hedron-grinding

4 years ago

I am unreasonably hype for Fists of Flame.

Blindblast is going in too - I know other people lean more into the Goblins theme, but I wanted to lean hard into the "Will survive a Rile , Flare , or Zap " side of things with garbage like Orcish Conscripts and Phyrexian Walker. So Blindblast is going to be nice.

There's that new Goblin War Party as well.

Zada's about to get a lot better.

franknot.19 on Zada's goblin shenanigans

5 years ago

here are some changes you could make :

Siege-Gang Commander and replace Goblin Offensive

Loyal Apprentice and replace Goblin Gaveleer

Kari Zev's Expertise and replace Rouse the Mob

Stun and replace Aggressive Mining

Renegade Tactics and replace Zap

Reckless Charge and replace Rush of Blood

Run Amok and replace Distemper of the Blood

Expedite and replace Commune with Lava

Hanweir Battlements and replace Looming Spires

alexjustdoit on Card Draw? What Does Zada Know About Card Draw?

5 years ago

You might like Rile over Zap

Daedalus19876 on Red Scare: Zada EDH [PRIMER]

5 years ago

paytongamer: Hey, sorry it took me a while to get back to you! I've been super busy with my job :/

Cathartic Reunion is valuable because it's a card filtering effect that works without having Zada in play, and can find "proper" cantrips to target at Zada. Cards like Panic were just sorta...odd. They weren't working right when I was trying to storm off, so they got cut - the deck still works fine in my experience. I would agree that Rile probably doesn't make the cut here (much like older ones like Zap). Tilonalli's Summoner has been so-so at the moment. She's only good when I have the city's blessing, which isn't too hard to get, but...she's definitely not amazing, but there aren't enough red token makers as it is :(

I hope that answers your questions! :)