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Red Equinox: Torbran Mono Red Superfriends

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Burn Group Slug Mono-Red Multiplayer Superfriends

clonalselection

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Planeswalker (19)

Enchantment (7)

Creature (6)

Land (35)

Sorcery (14)

Commander (1)

Commander: Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

Artifact (14)

Instant (4)

Maybeboard

Creature (8)

Sorcery (5)

Enchantment (7)

Instant (3)

Artifact (7)

Planeswalker (1)

A bit of background: I love unconventional red decks (please see my deck:The Red Terror: Akroma's Manifesto). When I first saw Torbran, Thane of Red Fell I was thinking of making a pinger deck, but these have been cropping up all over the place since he's been spoiled. So I decided to go in a different direction: Mono Red Superfriends.

Obviously Torbran makes every red source you control add 2 damage per damage trigger. This, in addition to making pingers attractive, introduces some sneak that I believe elevates the threat level of the deck. For one thing, lower cmc board wipes like Pyroclasm and Anger of the Gods become essentially asymmetrical, as Torbran's toughness is 4: So here the thought is to keep the opponents' boards swept with small sweepers doing 4-5 damage to each creature with Torbran's trigger.

Obviously, then, the individual pingers attached to many red planeswalkers like Chandra, the Firebrand and Chandra, Flame's Fury become Lightning Bolt or better. Add static punishers like Sulfuric Vortex and Manabarbs and the threat becomes very real very quickly. Also, Torbran essentially gives all your creatures +2/+0, which also adds up when the board is clear.

During playtesting, a number of cards have caught my attention, and highlight the aggressive strategy I am trying to emphasize over being a defensive superfriends deck:

  • Pyrohemia is absolutely disgusting with Torbran. You can get an amazing 9 damage per turn off the enchantment without killing Torbran. Definite wincon here.

  • Flame Fusillade is a card I am highly anticipating. Turning your PWs into lightning bolts, then activating them, then attacking with them (á la Sarkhan the Masterless) is a game-ending situation to be in.

  • Pyromancer's Gauntlet and Jaya, Venerated Firemage add extra damage per ping trigger, and so I will keep them in until I see a reason to take them out.

  • Nesting Dragon may have found a perfect home: Sweeping the board with Pyroclasm and then getting a board of 4/2 firebreathing flyers seems good.

- Passive red defensive cards like Caverns of Despair and Glacial Crevasses have never worked for me. It's just not mono red's style. Also, I don't have access to planeswalker support cards like Doubling Season or Inexorable Tide or Deepglow Skate so I built the deck not banking on getting PW ultimates out. It's nice, of course, but the support is too narrow in red. I might go in this route, see my thoughts on that below. The only truly defensive cards I still have in the current deck is Circle of Flame which protects my PWs and has added benefits with Repercussion and possibly Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. Kazuul is already on the chopping block though, but first I want to see how it interacts with Manabarbs and possibly Burning Earth if I decide to add it.

A number of things come to mind, not yet having played the deck in real life:

  • Torbran is fragile to removal. I'm wondering how much I should invest in protecting him (swords, Lightning Greaves etc.)

  • Neheb, the Eternal seems like a worthy addition, I'll swap him out for Kazuul in playtesting. Maybe adding a few x-spells like Fireball (which receives an upgrade with Torbran as well) or Banefire would make him a staple.

  • More planeswalker support might be called for. Things like Contagion Clasp or Contagion Engine or Karn's Bastion or even Chandra's Regulator were all considered, but I found that they slowed the offense of the deck and made it too passive or mana-hungry.

  • I'm sure I'm missing some things. What do you think?

Upvotes are appreciated!

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97% Casual

Competitive