Red Herring

Commander / EDH RUW (Jeskai, America) Theme/Gimmick

ClockworkSwordfish

Creature (22)

• 1x Akroma, Angel of Fury
• 1x Blazing Rootwalla
• 1x Chancellor of the Forge
• 1x Crimson Kobolds
• 1x Crookshank Kobolds
• 1x Drannith Stinger
• 1x Fury
• 1x Gathan Raiders
• 1x Granitic Titan
• 1x Horde Ambusher
• 1x Imperial Hellkite
• 1x Kobolds of Kher Keep
• 1x Lava Serpent
• 1x Macetail Hystrodon
• 1x Moltensteel Dragon
• 1x Ridge Rannet
• 1x Rockshard Elemental
• 1x Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh
• 1x Rooting Moloch
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Slash Panther
• 1x Stormwing Dragon

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Cave-In
• 1x Flame Jet
• 1x Fury of the Horde
• 1x Go for Blood
• 1x Inferno Jet
• 1x Lay Waste
• 1x Limits of Solidarity
• 1x Ruthless Invasion
• 1x Sweltering Suns
• 1x Violent Impact
• 1x Volcanic Submersion

Land (38)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Blasted Landscape
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Calciform Pools
• 1x Celestial Colonnade
• 1x Drifting Meadow
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 12x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 12x Plains
• 1x Remote Isle
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Skybridge Towers
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Witch's Clinic

Instant (15)

• 1x Act of Aggression
• 1x Blazing Shoal
• 1x Brand
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Flame Javelin
• 1x Force of Rage
• 1x Gut Shot
• 1x Molten Frame
• 1x Pact of the Titan
• 1x Pursue Glory
• 1x Pyrokinesis
• 1x Raking Claws
• 1x Scrap
• 1x Shredded Sails
• 1x Starstorm

Commanders (2)

 ^Flip

 ^Flip

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Flame Blitz
• 1x Footfall Crater
• 1x Leyline of Combustion
• 1x Leyline of Lightning
• 1x Leyline of Punishment
• 1x Tectonic Reformation
• 1x Unpredictable Cyclone

Artifact (5)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Progress

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Maybeboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Defiler of Instinct
• 1x Hollow One
• 1x Impatient Iguana (Playtest)

Artifact (2)

• 1x Fluctuator
• 1x Rage Extractor

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All of your lands: blue or white.

All of your spells: red.

Your mission: Unclear!!

Something Fishy Is Going On Here

Shabraz, the Skyshark   is a tidy little commander - big, flying, incentivizes drawing cards and gives you access to {W} and {U}. He also has a Partner   with abilities that nicely mirror his own and also gives you access to red. So by running both of these Partnered commanders, you have access to blue, red and white, and an opponent who sees you sit down across from them will plainly see that that's exactly what you're doing.

Or is it? Brallin gives you access to red cards, but you don't necessarily need red mana to clog up your mana base. In fact, all you need to play is Shabraz! In lies the deck's secret: every source of mana you have can add either blue or white, and every colored card you're running in the deck is red. Sounds like a potential problem? Oh trust me, it is. But think of the politics! You can keep cycling your red cards, announcing "gee guys, I'm just stuck on Mountains but I have a hand full of red cards. There's nothing I can play!" and your opponents will be able to see that that much is true. When needed, you can even helplessly flash an opponent your hand to showcase seven 'unplayable' red cards. Being the political game it is, your opponents will then leave your poor, "mana-screwed" self alone.

But you're anything but helpless. Every time you cycle a card you're drawing, which means Shabraz gets bigger. Pretty soon you'll have a gigantic terror that can pound your foes flat via commander damage... assuming they've all knocked each other down to death's door and don't have a single piece of removal among them, of course!

Caught Red-Handed

Okay, so you've made your choice to run nothing but red cards in a deck devoid of red mana. Seeing as you can't play any of them, any old card will do, right?

Not if we get a little creative. Sure, you don't have any mana to pay for things, but if you play your cards right, you can still play your cards... right? Every monored card with cycling makes an appearance here, serving as (very poor) card draw "spells." Pitch spells like Pyrokinesis, Force of Rage and Blazing Shoal can be played for free by pitching some other uncastable red card. Any creature with morph can be dropped as a gray ogre, but a couple tricky ones can even be flipped up! (The rest are mostly high-CMC ones as fuel for the Shoal.) Phyrexian mana cards like Gut Shot, Act of Aggression and Moltensteel Dragon can all be played in exchange for a little life, and the various kobolds are all technically red spells that can be played for free!

Others, like the various leylines and Chancellor of the Forge can do a little work so long as you have them in your opening hand. The same can be said for Blazing Rootwalla - draw to 8 on your first turn, pass without doing anything - and bam! Rootwalla into play for free with Madness! Now your opponent have TWO killer threats to deal with this game...

One Shot at Apeness

Okay, so none of your lands or mana rocks make red mana and all of your cards are red. Simple premise. But wait... we do have one little workaround. The combo-licious Simian Spirit Guide is of course present as a red card that can be used from your hand, making him... your lone source of red mana! And remember, you don't just have one single source of red mana, you only have one single, solitary {R}... period! What will you spend it on? Which one card will have the unique distinction of being cast? Make it count!

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 28 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.64
Tokens	Elemental 3/1 R w/ Trample, haste, Giant 4/4 R, Goblin 1/1 R, Morph 2/2 C
Folders	For the Luls