Commander Deck Tech: Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
This week I went with something closer to a budget build and something that was simple and straightforward. We want to mess with all of our opponents at the same time, and doing this in a mono-colored deck can make the deck's mana base very inexpensive. After looking through lists of different Legendary Creatures, I landed on Torbran, Thane of Red Fell.
At first I thought it would build into a Dwarf deck, which would be fun because I love the flavor or tribal decks. However, it ended up turning into more of an Enchantment based deck that would mess with most non-Red decks. All of our Lands except for a flip card are basic Mountains to play around Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. We also have Burning Earth which will do 3 damage per tapped non-basic with Torbran in play. Manabarbs will do the same, but it will only do 1 damage to you. Keep in mind that Torbran's ability only adds the 2 damage dealt to opponents and their creatures.
The rest of the annoying enchantments are: Court of Ire, Maddening Hex, Pyrostatic Pillar, Roiling Vortex, Spellshock, Stranglehold, and Sulfuric Vortex. These all do damage to your opponents for different things, then we add 2 damage from Torbran to each trigger while he is in play. You'll most likely be taking some damage from your own stuff, but your opponent will be taking more. The goal is to ramp out things that keep adding up damage per turn until they are dead. We do have Creatures, but most of them are in the deck due to their abilities, and not necessarily to be attacking. They can still attack of course, and dealing +2 damage with Torbran in play will have your opponent running out of mana to keep up with everything. I think a card like Winter Orb would be great in this deck, but wanted to limit the amount of personal downside effects.
We move onto Instant and Sorceries within the deck, which will consist of some direct damage and or spot removal. We also have cards that can redirect and or copy spells for that last push for the win. Risk Factor and Browbeat at plus 2 damage are nice, but hopefully they'll let you draw some cards. The deck also runs several pieces of Artifact removal to help slow down your opponents as well. We have a few board wipes in Earthquake and Blasphemous Act, which I wish were more foolproof. I considered putting in Hour of Devastation due to the “Loses Indestructible” but I figured the 5 damage in some cases may not be enough.
Of course, what mono Red deck is not complete without a few Planeswalkers? I added in a few different Chandras to help with damage and removal. You can potentially add more Planeswalkers because there are others that are viable in the deck. However, I didn't want to overdo it and wanted to stick mainly to recurring damage or some weird ability that causes annoyance on all opponents.
Lastly we have a plethora of Creatures to support Torbran and the deck's annoyance. Most of the Creatures are like a Prodigal Sorcerer type Creature, or have a triggered ability effect that causes damage. When we have Torbran in play the 1 point of damage turns into 3. We also have creatures like Guttersnipe that make every opponent take 4 damage instead of 2 while Torbran is out. I also added a Magus of the Wheel to hopefully gain some card advantage late to mid game. However most of the Creatures are going to have some kind of ability that either adds to damage, or causes a triggered ability somehow that does damage to everyone or all opponents.
The amount of annoyance this deck creates will cause you to be a target. Hopefully we will be able to disrupt and deal more damage quicker than your opponents and take them out first. When we look at potential weaknesses in the deck, the big one is protecting Torbran. We could add cards like Lightning Greaves or other equipment that gives hexproof, but I wanted to stick to dealing damage and causing issues for everyone. You'll need to be careful when you play Torbran to ensure he makes it in play. Also try to have some mana up to cast another spell to cause annoyance or do damage. In some cases you may not have an option other than to play Torbran, which can take out some of your opponents removal. He only cost 4 so recasting him a couple of times per game will be pretty common. You can also go another route with the deck which would be more storm oriented. You could play cards like Seething Song and Past in Flames, but I personally wanted to lean more towards an enchantment build. Whichever way you decide to go hopefully this gives you a base on where to start.
I hope you are able to be annoying at the commander tables, and am looking forward to some fresh Kamigawa Neon Dynasty Commander builds within the next month.
Until Next Time,
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