I Am The Storm That Is Approaching...
As I play more and more Magic, I've learned that I out of all the colors, Red can be one of the most fun to play; it's fast, easy to use, and gets the job done right. From Neheb, the Eternal to Etali, THE Primal Storm, there are several good mono-red commanders already in EDH, but one of the latest ones from Kaldheim really takes the cake...err..hammer - Toralf, God of Fury
. As a modular legendary creature, he can exist as both an artifact and a creature, but we're not so concerned about the artifact half as we are the creature side; for 2RR, we're able to get a solid bodied legend that gives all our noncreature spells a pseudo-trample when they hit a creature or planeswalker.
This ability can be abused by, of course, blasting the life out of any creatures we see, which is more than easy enough in EDH. In fact, with the assistance of keywords like Flashback, it can be game ending in mid-late game, especially against creature-heavy decks. Naturally, this isn't the most competitive deck in the world, as it literally needs your opponents to have creatures or planeswalkers for most of its payoff. Regardless, it can be a very fun deck to play within particular matchups and niches, because when it works, it'll really go off with a bang.
The Foreboding Thunder Gathers
The mana and ramp of the deck needs little introduction, as it functions much like any other mono-red fast paced semi-competitive deck. Between fast mana spells, cheap mana rocks, and cards like Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, we're able to gain a quick buildup to throw out our larger spells and creatures quickly. You can take a look at the Lands and Ramp and Rocks sections, but it should be pretty straightforward - the one advantage of playing red!
Once we have this buildup set, we want to keep the momentum going - although our best tutor is Gamble, we have access to the best, cheap looting effects in the game, from Wild Guess and Tormenting Voice to great recent cards such as Jeska's Will (which is ALSO a ramp card). The three wheeling effects, Wheel of Misfortune, Winds of Change and Reforge the Soul, are all useful in more of a group disruption degree, as it can reset your own bad hands, while throwing away good ones opponents might have; they're quite useful. Finally, the odd one out is Valakut Exploration, which falls more in line with red's exile-and-play tendencies, but is no less reliable since it sticks around; plus, you can play the exiled card for the rest of the turn, and burn opponents if you can't. Double the utility for one slot in the deck.
Bring Down The Lightning
Once the game gets going, we want to do what red does best: deal the most damage to the most things as fast as possible. This becomes a more interesting point to expand upon, though, because Toralf makes some otherwise overlooked creatures become extremely prevalent to a successful gameplan.
For example, Satyr Firedancer can take a spell cast in our opponent's face, such as Slagstorm or Fault Line, to pick off any creatures that might be vulnerable to the damage. Chandra's Incinerator is another card printed recently that can produce a great doubling effect: by slamming an opponent with noncombat damage through Toralf's ability or another source (like an X spell), we can hit a creature or planeswalker again, just in case they weren't killed off by the first strike; and this isn't even counting the fact you could potentially have a 6/6 for one R mana.
These will almost always synergize with Toralf if he's on the field (even if he dies to a massive X burn spell, since the ability itself will see the damage happen) to trample into an opponent, OR another creature if it's big enough. Similarly, 'trampling' a noncreature source of damage through a killed creature with Torbran on the field can increase the damage constantly, potentially making it even larger if the damage absorbed by the toughness was minimal.
For example, if you you're facing a group of, say five 3/1 creatures, hit one with a burn spell for 3 damage with Toralf and Torbran on board, and get a trample of 2 for another target. This increases to 4, and hits the next, then bumps up to 5, then 6, then 7, and by the time it hits the opponent, that singular 3 damage bolt of damage is now actually 8. On TOP of having cleared their field. Now that's value.
This same reasoning is why doubling enchantments (Dictate of the Twin Gods, Furnace of Rath, and Fiery Emancipation) were added in, alongside the spell Insult / Injury - the greater the damage we deal, the more it will hurt the opponents in the end.
In fact, with Toralf, copying spells becomes increasingly more lethal as well. A copied Rolling Earthquake for X=7 goes to 14, and with sufficient creatures, can be more than enough to annihilate at least one player if they're not protected. With a doubling enchantment on the field, imagine that doubled or tripled again. This is why effects like Bonus Round and pyromancer's goggles are included, to make already dangerous instants and sorceries even more volatile for opponents.
Once all the spells are slung and damage is dealt, however, red runs the risk of running out of gas fast later in the game, with looting spells reliant on discard, and few other effects enabling raw draw or tutoring, as previously discussed. To remediate this, we seek to gather spells that either grant or innately have the keyword Flashback. Past in Flames and Backdraft Hellkite are both amazing for this function later in the game, as suddenly recurring a Blasphemous Act out of seemingly nowhere is in no way a small surprise. Another frequently overlooked card, ignite in flames, can grab three cards from the top of our deck and allows us to cast them - and if we cast it from the graveyard via Flashback, it allows us to play them for free..
None of these are quite like the shining star of the Flashback section, even if it doesn't explicitly have the keyword itself: Mizzix's Mastery. Suddenly, your graveyard becomes a literal ticking timebomb of accumulating spells, which can suddenly explode all at once to destroy opponent's boards and life totals. Naturally it becomes more optimal to use later in the game, and with the Overload cost being 8 mana, it certainly will be something you want to save for an ideal moment - unless a large card like Star of Extinction is milled out early, in which case it might actually be cost efficient to hit the single target.
Overall, between Toralf and the various offensive cards we can amass to back him up, every spell cast has the potential for huge - and even lethal - damage to opponents. That leave one more open attribute of the deck, though...
Hotter Than The Sun
While it's important to have a solid offensive gameplan, we need an equally solid defensive backup plan to secure our own safety. Mono-red isn't the best at some aspects of this, with almost no counterspells, and few direct/point removal spells. What we do have going for us in the color, though, is the ability to wipe out massive amounts of creatures through boardwipe-like damage. Anger of the Gods, Star of Extinction, and Blasphemous Act are key to getting the job done this way, although other such X spells will also work, though a little less reliably. What's more, they can also trigger several instances of Toralf's noncreature-trample ability, sending even more damage at opponents directly.
In a different vein of protection, we have Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast to help protect us against pesky blue mages, as well as one of the best C2020 exclusive cards, Deflecting Swat, to both protect Toralf/a larger game ending-effect from a kill spell and potentially disable a counterspell as well. Chaos Warp is another cheap removal spell, one of the few unconditional permanent removal kinds in the deck, that will let us eliminate one of our opponent's most troublesome cards on the field; since it doesn't detroy, you can target cards like Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Blightsteel Colossus with it, and only ever have to worry about Protection or Hexproof.
Lastly, one of the more interesting points of protection in the deck is that of being from other player's combos, but moreso through softlocking them down. Immolation Shaman and Harsh Mentor are very good at their jobs, and though they will immediately become removal targets from opponents, it forces them to waste resources - and potentially even a turn - getting rid of them. This can allow yourself and other players to catch up, or in the best case scenario, stop a combo player from immediately going off infinitely without punishment.
The Final Lightningstorm
Naturally, the point of any deck is to win, and Toralf seeks this end as well, going about it in a more roundabout damage way. As the deck functions to deal huge amounts of noncreature damage, a majority of the ways to win will revolve around that purpose; that doesn't mean we can't get creative along the way, though.
Repercussion is the most basic wincon for the deck, as smacking an opponent's creatures and face for an Earthquake with X=7 will actually be 14 damage to the player, and 7 damage to the creatures themselves. Combine that with something that doesn't normally hit players, like our old friend Star of Extinction, and that is 20+ damage to each player, depending on how many creatures are on the field in the first place. In a scenario like that, it will more than likely be game.
Besides that, we have more creative ways to kill opponents as well. Zada, Hedron Grinder + Arcbond is the more fun, stylish way to go out, as with just a handful of creatures on your field, a mass-damage boardwipe can potentially annihilate all players. It usually will be a draw, but depending on your own house rules, could be a win for the person who cast the game ending spell - you. As a quick note, this works by taking all damage done to each creature in a mass wipe spell, like Earthquake, and multiplying it by all creatures you have: in a hypothetical scenario, we have Zada, Toralf, Neheb and Leyline Tyrant on the field. All are dealt, say, 4 damage at the same time, but each ability will trigger in a specific order you designate. Zada will deal 4 damage to each player and other creature, making the amount Neheb takes be 8; he does 8 damage to everyone, and Toralf will be at 16; he deals 16 (4 original, 4 from Zada and 8 from Neheb) to all other creatures and players, and finally, Leyline Tyrant will blast everyone for 32 damage. It takes a bit of setup, but when you're able to pull it off, there is guaranteed to be no survivors.
This is very similar to what will happen with Chandra's Ignition and the same setup.
The last, more reliable wincon we have is an infinite combo: Dualcaster Mage and Twinflame. Throw out Dualcaster first, and target it with Twinflame, making a token that enters and goes on the stack to copy Twinflame again, targeting itself, rinsing and repeating. It's less bulky than KikiConscripts, and ends up with the same result, perfect for a deck that relies on instants/sorceries for victory.
Until The Next Storm Brews
As you can see, Toralf is a more casual, but no less fun, mono-red burn deck that relies on high damage and big spells to take out opponents. It has equal parts bulk and dexterity to pull out a win, though prefers to stay within the spellslingers-category of archetypes for the sake of noncreatures damage.
If you think you might enjoy the deck, don't forget to leave a +1! Any advice anyone can give would also be greatly appreciated, as I will try to update the deck accordingly to patch any holes.
Thank you for looking and reading!!
