Moraug Marauds the Battlefield!

Commander / EDH Aggro Competitive Mono-Red Primer

OmegaAura113

Lands (36)

• 12x Mountain
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Ghost Town
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thawing Glaciers
• 1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1x Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper

Beaters (8)

• 1x Hanweir Garrison  ^Meld
• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1x Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Urabrask the Hidden
• 1x Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor

Ramp (21)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Ghirapur Orrery
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Ruby Medallion
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Storm Cauldron
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Walking Atlas
• 1x Generator Servant
• 1x Leyline Tyrant
• 1x Runaway Steam-Kin
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Neheb, the Eternal
• 1x Geosurge
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Rite of Flame

Card Advantage (10)

• 1x Valakut Exploration
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Wild Guess

Wincons (4)

• 1x Combat Celebrant
• 1x Zealous Conscripts
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Commander (1)

Support (11)

• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Dolmen Gate
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Dictate of the Twin Gods
• 1x Fiery Emancipation
• 1x Furnace of Rath
• 1x Mass Hysteria
• 1x Need for Speed
• 1x Price of Glory
• 1x War's Toll

Removal And Protection (9)

• 1x Harsh Mentor
• 1x Immolation Shaman
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x From the Ashes
• 1x Mizzium Mortars
• 1x Vandalblast

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Maybeboard

Other (12)

• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Goblin Welder
• 1x Inferno Titan
• 1x Nesting Dragon
• 1x Port Razer
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Wayward Guide-Beast
• 1x Undiscovered Paradise
• 1x War Room
• 1x Epicenter
• 1x Nahiri's Lithoforming

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THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS THE #3 DECK ON TAPPEDOUT, 9/14/2020!!!

Do You Feel That Rumbling...?

Of all the legends in our third return to Zendikar, Moraug, Fury of Akoum has to be my absolute favorite - and just spoiled for the day! Although it's optimally played in a deck like Omnath, Locus of Rage, Mina and Denn, Wildborn or Najeela, the blade blossum, I feel like it would be really fun as a commander of its own solo deck - because even if Mono-Red doesn't have the most land-specific ramp spells, it has more than enough potential to bust out Moraug in the first 3-or-so turns and get at least to combats per turn. So, without further ado, let's get to deckbuilding!

Bringing Out The 'Taur

Moraug is a 6/6 Red Legend for 6 (4RR), which gives a boost of +1/+0 to all creatures you control per attack they make per turn; they're big and bulky and hit hard, but that's not the spicy part. Their second ability is a simple Landfall ability: Play a land, and if it's your main phase, you get to untap and get an extra combat. Any land. As long as it's your main phase, you can easily rack up two, three, four, or even more combat steps, just for playing lands! It's actually insane, and more than broken as a game-ender in any deck with green. Its VERY important to note that Moraug DOESN'T grant you an additional post-combat main phase, even though they untap all your creatures. Because of this, you can play spells during your first postcombat phase, but after you finish whatever combats your given, your turn will IMMEDIATELY END.

Example: I play 1 Evolving Wilds in my first precombat main phase, granting me normal combat + 1 additional combat. In postcombat, I pop the Wilds, grab a Mountain, and get an extra Combat again. After that combat, your turn ENDS; you get no additional main phases. Make sure you make every phase count!

The Ambush Begins

So, how do we optimally play the most amount of lands we can? Well, the first step is to bring out Moraug as fast as possible; as this isn't really a combo-based deck, it makes the gameplay after they hit the field pretty linear. But just because it doesn't win the game very shortly after like Narset, Urza or Kenrith, doesn't mean it won't be any less of a target for hate - although protection is something we'll get into in a bit. For now, to get Moraug onto the field asap, the classic cache of cheap artifacts and fast-mana spells is our go-to. Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, and Ruby Medallion are all cheap, fast ways to slam mana on the battlefield. In addition to these, there's all the fast mana spells available in red: Seething Song, Desperate Ritual, Rite of Flame, Geosurge, and Mana Geyser are likewise great ways to pump out Moraug quickly.

The Land Punches Back

Now we can talk about an aspect that serves to both ramp out minotaur, and trigger as many combats as possible: the lands (and card that support a lands-matters theme). Although mountains are the default choice, we want as many triggers as possible...as such, we can throw in all the fetchlands that can help us grab mountains: Scalding Tarn, Arid Mesa, Wooded Foothills, and Bloodstained Mire. Even though it might seem funny, Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse are both useful late game, and great for deck thinning. A fun old and overlooked card is also Thawing Glaciers, which can bounce itself to hand and ramp at the same time, giving a consistently guaranteed landfall of one-two times per turn. These will each give us at least two landfall triggers a turn, for three combats total. Myriad Landscape can give us four combats in one turn, if you active its ability and play a land as per normal. Ghost Quarter is both a way to mess with opponents, and a great way to turn your own extra chaff into another landfall trigger later in the game; Field of Ruin can do a very similar thing, although a little more group-huggy

Although there aren't many lands that can give similar landfall activations alone, there ARE a bunch of classic utility lands that work great. Cavern of Souls for counterspell protection, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle as a classic bolt-in-a-can,Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep for first strike, Ghost Town for self-bouncing, Hanweir Battlements  /Flamekin Village/Hall of the Bandit Lord for haste, and Ancient Tomb/Crystal Vein/Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper for the 2-mana bump, and Rogue's Passage for complete unblockability throughout ALL the combat phases. Overall, the manabase is one of the most prominent parts of Moraug's arsenal, so even though it's also the priciest part, it's well worth the optimization!

How To Smash

Now that Moraug is on the battlefield and your lands are working for you, all Moraug needs is the right support to thoroughly beat face! Immediately, the thought is to make him ramp even MORE - Neheb, the Eternal, Burnished Hart, Solemn Simulacrum, Treasonous Ogre, Simian Spirit Guide, Runaway Steam-Kin, and Generator Servant all bust out as much land and straight up mana as you need it. This, combined with all the lands you have, ensures you'll never be left without the ability to play anything. With the ability to pay for costs completely taken care of, all that's left now is the game winning spells themselves. As Moraug enters, we'll also want other ways to give him haste as well, just in case you don't have one of the three special lands on the field; this is very doable with red, as Need for Speed and Mass Hysteria can get the job done.

Now, although many people automatically think of ramp spells like Sword of the Animist to trigger "infinite combats," they sadly don't work, as Moraug specifically needs lands to hit during main phases to trigger their abilities. You know what does work, though? Helm of the Host. If you ever wanted two or more combats for a single land drop, this is the way to make it happen. We can even add in Combat Celebrant in case Moraug is locked down, because everyone needs a failsafe plan! Equipment is actually a really good idea to run under Moraug, as after equipping them with any of the swords, some protection spells and enchantments, and you have a really big boy that's incredibly difficult to kill - it's actually a very viable option, especially as Moraug is his own EC-step engine. Now, although equipments are fun, what's even more fun is the ability to do a ton of damage in one turn; with all the ramp that's on the field, that, too, is no problem. Fiery Emancipation, Furnace of Rath, and Dictate of the Twin Gods can make it so you do double - or even triple - the amount of damage to opponents for even the most simple attacks.

As another backup, we can include the classic Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts combo, in case our artifacts are nuked, or Moraug himself is bound down. This is definitely likely to happen, considering they stick out like a sore-minotaur with that amazing ability. However, since attacking is the name of the game for Moraug, we want to try and make the most of them rather than rely on an infinite combo - Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, Etali, THE Primal Storm, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Scourge of the Throne, and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger all reward us for swinging all out at opponents, while cards like Urabrask the Hidden make it so we can get our phatties through with ease.

Smash Hard, Smash Constantly

Now that we know how to win and what to win with, all that's left is making it happen consistently. Luckily, red's one of the best colors for looting, so we're able to pitch away junk cards for more value whenever we need it. Cathartic Reunion, Wild Guess, Tormenting Voice, Reforge the Soul, and Thrill of Possibility are all ideal; not to mention good old Gamble, one of red's best tutors. Luckily, although tutoring specific cards isn't a strong point with red, the capability exile cards and draw until you you get what you needs makes up for that inability, giving a considerable amount of residual consistency. This can further be supplemented with the inclusion of a titan like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, which will renew your library, can hit the field with all the mana you're creating, and serve as an anti-mill machine. The new card Valakut Exploration is another worthy addition, seeing as it's a way of exile-ramping ourselves every time we hit a land on our field.

Similar to reliable card draw for consistency is the ability to protect Moraug; since they're a beefy boi, but not the most...invulnerable. Luckily, red has some solid board wipes in the form of Blasphemous Act, Mizzium Mortars, and Anger of the Gods, as all are able to wipe the field clean of Moraug's threats (and Moraug too, if you're not careful). Vandalblast can clear out opposing artifacts, and Chaos Warp can target...well, anything. The new land Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass can also flip into a phat burn spell for two targets if you need it (which is just a mountain for the time being as a placeholder). Likewise to all of these, Deflecting Swat from the 2020 EDH deck series is a given, as it's a completely free way to protect Moraug from removal. In a similar way, Immolation Shaman and Harsh Mentor can completely stop opponents who want to combo off, and make them waste resources eliminating those singular creatures. Another final way to mess with opponents is with From the Ashes, which can wipe your own nonbasic lands clear too, BUT let you grab an equal number of mountains to replace them - on your main phase later in the game, this can be a huge game ender for just four mana.

Wrapping Up...

Moraug is definitely a great card for EDH, and probably one of the most powerful mythics in the set for our beloved format. I chose to go more with a lands-matters and mana support theme, but an equipment/voltron theme is definitely something that you should consider if you build around Moraug alone. The setups you can make are insane, especially with the card acting as its own extra combat phase engine; there really isn't a reason to not run it in any aggro EDH deck that has red! Since it's such a new card, suggestions are open as always, as the deck could always be optimized even further with cards that I might've missed. Thanks for looking through!!

Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Aggro 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Competitive 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.27
Tokens	Copy Clone, Goblin 1/1 R, Human 1/1 R, Survivor 1/1 R, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH, Cool decks others have made, Decks I like, ghhgygggujgyhjgyhjyu, Awesome Decks I've Seen