Flame Haze

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer RBW (Mardu)

StopShot

Land (34)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (16)

• 1x Auriok Salvagers
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Butcher Ghoul
• 1x Darksteel Myr
• 1x Duergar Hedge-Mage
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gravelighter
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1x Norin the Wary
• 1x Putrid Goblin
• 1x Reinforced Ronin
• 1x Wall of Shards
• 1x Wayward Servant
• 1x Welcoming Vampire

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Divine Presence
• 1x Flameshadow Conjuring
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Gossamer Chains
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Molten Echoes
• 1x Molten Vortex
• 1x Seal of Cleansing
• 1x Sinister Concoction
• 1x Solemnity
• 1x Soul Snare
• 1x Tectonic Reformation

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Damn
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x GambleGC
• 1x Slaughter the Strong
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Wrath of God

Commander (1)

Instant (16)

• 1x Active Volcano
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Disenchant
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fracture
• 1x Lightning Axe
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC
• 1x Wear / Tear

Artifact (10)

• 1x Blasting Station
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Lion's Eye DiamondGC
• 1x Mystic Forge
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Pyrite Spellbomb
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Balance

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Deck description last updated: 5/11/2021

Important: This deck's description is currently outdated and may contain information that is no longer relevant to the deck as well as lacking new information relating to recent deck changes.

"Carry the cross on your back and run through the flames ready to die!" (Anime: Shakugan no Shana // Lyrics: Yoake Umarekuru Shoujo - Girl born at Dawn)

{W} Backstory, Local Meta, and Crafting the Deck {W}

Current

This deck is without a playgroup. Before college I played very casual EDH with high school friends. In college the meta became hyper oppressive cEDH. My deck went from casual value engine to competitive, wins-by-infinite-combo. I no longer go to my old college as of the Dominaria set and I haven't been able to use this deck ever since. I have no one to play Magic with anymore.

Despite this I've never stopped updating my cEDH deck. This deck hasn't been properly played with in years, so I have no experience in terms of how effective my deck adjustments are. I still have interest in playing Magic and since I invested so much into this deck during my college days it feels wrong for me to abandon it, so I continue to make deck changes even if there's no one to use them against. My deck changes are made as though I'm still in my pre-Dominaria cEDH meta, so forgive me if my deck list appears woefully inadequate with the cEDH meta of today. This deck was always meant to react to faster combo decks before being able to win itself - faster combo decks that may or may no longer be in the meta today. Undeterred by time I will always remain,

𝕣𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖.

Outdated

I recall getting into EDH during the Dragons of Tarkir set. The deck itself was meant for a casual multiplayer setting since it cared little about winning the game through aggro and instead aimed towards amassing value and picking people off in the late game.

This later came to an end when I went to college and my play group changed dramatically. Instead of silly synergies and petty politics I encountered Stax for the first time in the form of Smokestack, Contamination, Pox, Chains of Mephistopheles, and Mindslicer most of which hitting the table as early as turns 2 or 3. I also encountered prison as well which only made spells cost {3} more to cast backed by enough counter-spells to make you lose all hope. Oppression and lockdown became heavy elements that made playing a game of EDH similar to that of watching someone play a game of solitaire with themselves all the time. I no longer won games much less was I even allowed to do anything. Board-wipes were expected every other turn, the combo decks won with as little as a paperclip and a dirty sock, and Uril, the Miststalker was always that 50/50 trample with flicker, indestructible, and haste that everyone would struggle to get rid of.

Unlike most sane casual players who would quit and never look back, or on the contrary; fold into peer pressure from their playgroup to, "run a blue deck with 20-something counter-spells," I stubbornly stayed in Mardu-colors. It was to my reluctance that I chose not to believe that I needed blue to actually be able to play the game, or to need green to ramp into an oppressive boardstate early game like many of the other non-blue decks. My favorite color combo {R}{W}{B} wasn't justified to anyone other than myself and the criticism that it wasn't a valid color combination only strengthened my resolve to prove otherwise. If playing janitor and combo-kill was the only way to get a chance at winning, let alone even playing the game then it's all fair game to me. As it stands its currently my commander versus the likes of: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Arcum Dagsson, Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Omnath, Locus of Rage, Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Zur the Enchanter, Uril, the Miststalker, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Marchesa, the Black Rose, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, and The Gitrog Monster.

{B} How the Deck Works and Win Conditions {B}

The deck's main goal is to combo out dealing infinite damage (or loss of life) to all opponents at the same time to win the game. Due to mass removal of lands and mana rocks in my local meta the deck's average CMC is 2.12 eliminating the need for ramp since the highest converted mana cost of any given card is {4}.

Counter-spells are also highly praised in my local meta, so it's best to run preemptive removal such as Molten Vortex, Seal of Cleansing, Sinister Concoction, Pyrite Spellbomb and Soul Snare to bypass this issue. If these spells resolve my opponents (in most cases) will not be able to counter their activated abilities which effectively allows me to remove any of their combo pieces without much resistance. To add, these ecnchantment spells are all cheap and usually demand to be countered once they hit the stack serving perfectly as counterspell-bait if the plan is to combo out in the same turn.

All infinite damage combos cost {8} or less mana to assemble and detonate, and many of each combo's pieces can be set up on previous turns eliminating the need to put everything down at once. While infinite damage is the only way to win with this deck it's advised to assemble a draw engine first primarily so if the first combo is stopped you'll still have more fuel to burn on, and draw engines normally draw less attention onto your side of the table rather than starting the game off with an infinite damage combo in the first place.

{R} The Deck's Infinite Damage Combos {R}

The deck runs {5} primary infinite damage combos. For each combo I go in-depth on how they work if any or all are unfamiliar to the reader. ### **Lethal Combos** ### {1}.) Leonin Relic-Warder is in the graveyard, and Impact Tremors is on the battlefield. Cast Animate Dead targeting Leonin Relic-Warder. Leonin Relic-Warder enters the battlefield, which triggers Impact Tremors causing my opponent's to take 1 damage each. Leonin Relic-Warder then exiles Animate Dead with its enter the battlefield effect. Animate Dead leaves the battlefield which forces the Leonin Relic Warder to be sacrificed. Leonin Relic-Warder leaves the battlefield which triggers its leaves the battlefield effect returning Animate Dead back to the battlefield which will target and bring back the Leonin Relic-Warder again repeating the cycle. This process can be repeated infinitely. Dance of the Dead can be used instead of Animate Dead, and Goblin Bombardment can be used instead of Impact Tremors. {2}.) Both Ashnod's Altar and Nim Deathmantle are on the battlefield. I then cast Sling-Gang Lieutenant which produces two goblin tokens - I immediately sacrifice one of the goblin tokens to cause one of my opponents to lose 1 life. Then I sacrifice Sling-Gang Lieutenant and the other goblin token to Ashnod's Altar producing {C}{C}{C}{C}. Nim Deathmantle's dies effect triggers and I can now spend the four colorless mana I've obtained to bring the Sling-Gang Lieutenant back to the battlefield along with the two goblin tokens. This process can be repeated indefinitely. {3}.) Both Wayward Servant and Phyrexian Altar are on the battlefield. Gravecrawler is then cast from hand or graveyard which triggers Wayward Servant causing all opponents to lose 1 life and for me to gain 1 life. I then sacrifice Gravecrawler to Phyrexian Altar to generate one {B} mana in my mana pool. Since Wayward Servant is a zombie I can cast Gravecrawler from the graveyard using the one black mana I generated with Phyrexian Altar. Gravecrawler re-enters the battlefield causing Wardward Servant's life-loss ability to trigger again and I can continue to cycle the Gravecrawler with the Phyrexian Altar infinitely resulting in infinite life loss for my opponents. {4}.) For this combo I'll start with Flameshadow Conjuring on the battlefield along with a Mountain. (Though any mana source that freely produces red mana will also work.) I then cast Felidar Guardian. Upon entering the battlefield I stack the triggers so that Felidar Guardian's enter the battlefield trigger always resolves before Flameshadow Conjuring's enter the battlefield trigger. Felidar Guardian will then "blink" my Mountain causing it to re-enter the battlefield untapped. Then I can tap the mountain to produce another copy of Felidar Guardian with Flameshadow Conjuring. When the copy of Felidar Guardian enters the battlefield Flameshadow Conjuring does NOT trigger since it's a token. Instead I'll always have the Felidar Guardian token "blink" the original Felidar Guardian. This causes the nontoken Felidar Guardian to re-enter the battlefield allowing me to "blink" the same Mountain again to produce another Felidar Guardian token for free through Flameshadow Conjuring. Repeat this cycle until you have hundreds upon hundreds of hasty Felidar Guardian tokens. Because all the tokens have haste I can swing all out dealing lethal damage to all my opponents. ((Do note if the combo is disrupted I can still bring back Felidar Guardian with Alesha, but if I do so I'll have wasted my combat step which makes attacking for infinite damage not possible, however; if I also have Impact Tremors or Goblin Bombardment on the battlefield I can still enable the loop producing unlimited creature tokens which results in unlimited damage to my opponents with either red enchantment in play. Furthermore recurring Felidar Guardian with Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead allows me to restart the loop without wasting a combat step in the first place.))

{RW} Draw Engines and Wheel Effects {RW}

### **Draw Engines** ### In terms of draw power I think it's fair to say {R}{W}{B} is probably the most lacking of all three-color combinations. Though access to black does help a bit, it's not quite enough to carry the other two colors, red and white, by itself. In this case it's very crucial to set up a draw engine as early as possible, so that I don't run out of card fuel in the mid-to-late game. {1}.) Probably the most efficient, consistent, and reliable of the draw engines given the number of fetch-lands I run in the deck, such as Arid Mesa, which allows me to get double landfall triggers for free on some turns allowing me to clamp the bloodghast twice drawing 4 cards for 2 mana. If for some reason I don't have access to Bloodghast I can still use Bitterblossom to a lesser extent to draw cards as well. {2}.) This draw engine comes from the obsolete parfait legacy deck strategy. In order to get this draw engine started I must have both pieces on the battlefield and an opponent must have more lands than me to use Land Tax's effect. In EDH this condition is easily met if I did not start the game going first, or if a green deck has already ramped out a land ahead of me, and even then this deck already has such a low average CMC that I can even afford to miss a land drop if I need to since card draw is in most cases a higher priority. Once the condition is met Land Tax allows me to put three basic land cards from my deck into my hand before my draw step. After my draw step I use Scroll Rack's ability to exchange the 3 basic lands and any other unneeded cards I might have in my hand with that many cards from the top of my deck effectively drawing cards I didn't have in the first place. Then at the start of my next turn Land Tax repeats the process not only allowing me to search for 3 basic lands again, but also shuffling my deck so that I do not run into the cards I had placed on top of my library last turn, which gives me more opportunity to draw more new cards with Scroll Rack and so on. To this extent I'm practically casting Ancestral Recall every time it's my turn. ### **Wheel Effects** ### Though this deck already runs only 2 draw engines having a draw engine get destroyed can still happen, and since drawing cards is the most difficult task to do in Mardu colors it's important that I draw into another draw engine or an infinite damage combination before I run out of momentum and get out-paced by my opponents. Even though wheel effects have their own drawbacks, having little else besides them makes them better than nothing in the long run especially when digging through a 99 card deck for combo-pieces. {1}.) Wheel of Fortune, if we're going to talk about the wheel itself we're going to have to acknowledge that it does give my opponents 7 new cards in hand. I understand why that's enough to turn some people away, but what makes wheel of fortune powerful is I get to choose when to cast it. If everyone is empty of cards in hand of course the wheel is going to be more beneficial for everyone, but if everyone is able to keep drawing cards more than me the difference of them discarding 5 or 6 cards for 7 isn't nowhere near as beneficial when I choose to cast it as my last card in hand. The opposite is true if I have a draw engine up and everyone else is low on cards, but at that point I don't mind having it be one dead card drawn out of the 99 given the power of my draw engines. After all, I'm pretty sure it's better to have some cards do more if you're behind in the game than cards that "win-more" if you're ahead in the game, and that especially holds true for most combo-kill decks. The point is you can't actually look at wheel of fortune in a vacuum. Its power level increases and decreases given the situation and how it changes, so it's best to understand when to cast Wheel of Fortune when your opponents are going to be the least ready for it so that you can make the most value out of it in return. {2}.) Winds of Change is probably one of my more favorite draw spells ever printed. For one mana recycling a hand of duds for bombs is powerful. Usually with this card I stockpile on land drops I don't need given the low CMC curve of my deck that extra cards such as lands can be exchanged for value, especially if Land Tax is adding to the number of cards I can recycle. To boot casting this spell turn 1 before my other opponents have had their first turn sets everyone up for a forced mulligan which can in of itself be one of the easiest ways of ending the game if anyone's new hand is rendered unplayable. Sure this scenario can also happen to myself, but with more opponents at the table compared to just myself the odds of them getting the short straw is often times much higher. By far this is one of my favorite wheel effects. Even if it means exchanging or throwing away my hand the potential to draw more than three cards for one mana can be and is really powerful.

{WB} The Removal and Fortification {WB}

### **Permanent Removal** ### ### **Creature Removal en Masse** ### ### **Creature Spot-Removal Removal** ### ### **Artifact & Enchantment Removal** ### ### **Fortification** ### ### **Answers to Gross Combos** ### ### **Counterspell Decks Hate These** ###

{BR} Too Long; Didn't Read Info {BR}

The deck's average CMC is under 2.5 to maintain maximum alacrity. The win condition is to combo-kill. Combos: (5.5 Variants) 1.) Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead + Goblin Bombardment 2.) Wayward Servant + Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar 3.) Felidar Guardian + Flameshadow Conjuring + Mountain 4.) Butcher Ghoul + Solemnity + Blasting Station 5.) Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond + Pyrite Spellbomb 6.) Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead + Molten Echoes Major Draw Engines: (4.5 Variants) 1.) Bloodghast + Skullclamp 2.) Scroll Rack + Land Tax 3.) Mystic Forge + Sensei's Divining Top 4.) Welcoming Vampire + Norin the Wary 5.) Tectonic Reformation Descriptions on how each combo and draw engine work can be found in the sections above. (I'm always looking for better combos to put in so long as they take out all my opponents at once. New draw engines are also welcomed so long as they can draw more than one card a turn for cheap.)

**The sideboard is used for Burning Wish.** (Burning Wish)

Date added	10 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 27 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.15
Tokens	Copy Clone
Folders	EDH decks, Reading List, decks i like, EDH Group decks, Mardu EDH, Ideas for EDH, Helpful Decks, Copies