Wallet Warriors: Firesong and Sunspeaker

Welcome back Wallet Warriors! Today we’re diving into Dominaria with a budget burn deck! Leading the way is the duo Firesong and Sunspeaker!

I have hope that this pair of magnificent minotaur will breathe new life into the Boros color combination. I’m happy to say that this deck was a very interesting build that took some tinkering to get to its current iteration.

Let’s see the deck!

If you want to see the deck separated into the categories I talk about click here: 

Deck Overview

Burn is an archetype traditionally associated with dealing three damage at a time. In commander that’s just not going to get the job done quick enough so we want to go bigger.

What’s better than dealing damage to one thing? Hitting everything at once! Instead of focusing on Lightning Bolt effects we’re more interested in Earthquakes.

Our plan is use our earthquakes to keep the board clear in the early game while incidentally lowering everyone's life totals. Everyone includes us so we have a lifegain sub-theme to mitigate the damage we take while synergizing with our commander.

Let’s get into the nitty gritty with the cards that directly synergize with our minotaur buddies.

Red Damage & White Healing

Single target burn spells like Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Blast typically don’t make the cut in Commander because of their low impact. In a twenty life format, these can be reliable ways to finish the game, but in our format they are almost never worth using since there is so much extra life to work through. In this deck they act as removal in the early game, lifegain when we have our commander and occasionally they will be used to finish someone off if paired with a way to copy the effect.

We don’t have a ton of spells purely dedicated to life gain because we can’t reliably have our commander out all the time. The minotaurs are six mana after all. All of our life gain spells come with some added utility, whether it’s drawing cards, removing permanents or acting as a secondary win condition.

Multi-targeted Burn

This is where you can find the bulk of our firepower. This section can be further separated into three categories: earthquakes, fireballs and board wipes.

Ideally you want to use your low damage board wipes like Sweltering Suns and Anger of the Gods in the early game to clear out small threats and hold onto your X spells for the late game while you have your commander in play to gain all that life.

If you have a few redundant earthquakes in your hand don’t be afraid to use them just to whittle everyone's life down. Remember if you’re able to get just a single one off with the minotaurs in play you’ll be gaining a ton of that life back.

Instant & Sorcery Synergies

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One of the biggest mistakes you can do in a game of Commander is tap out and fulfill half your win condition and hope that the turn comes back around for you to finish it off. In this deck we have ways to help give our big burn spells a boost so we are able to clear out at least a couple opponents in one big explosion.

Pyromancer’s Goggles and Primal Amulet double as ramp and ways to copy our big spells in the late game.

Reverberate and Dualcaster Mage have multiple roles in this deck. Their primary function is to help us end the game more quickly when combined with burn spells. Their secondary role is to counter a counter. Then on top of that they always have the ability to copy a powerful spell like a Time Warp or Fact or Fiction.

Artifact Sub-Theme

This deck is looking for a lot of mana. Mainly because our commander is very expensive at six mana but also because we have a lot of X spells we want to be as big as possible.

Since we’re not in green our primary source of mana acceleration comes in the form of artifacts. When building the deck I realized there were going to be a lot of artifacts anyway so we might as well benefit from our commitment.

Along with our ten mana rocks we also have Blinkmoth Urn which has the ability to give us absurd amounts of mana. This is great for recasting our general if needed but can also help us clear out the table with a big fireball.

Junk Diver, Myr Retriever and Trading Post give us ways to get our artifacts back if they happen to hit the bin.

Then we have a a misers Metalwork Colossus which happens to work very well with our strategy since it has such high toughness. We can wipe most of the board, leaving the colossus around who can then chunk in for the final points of damage.

Card Draw and General Utility

Most of our card draw comes from artifacts which fit well with our artifact sub-theme.

Staff of Nin and Bottled Cloister give us an extra card every turn, the latter with the caveat of not being able to use your hand on your opponents turns.

Urza’s Tome, Sunset Pyramid and Liar’s Pendulum let us invest a bit of mana in exchange for cards (assuming you’re a good enough liar).

Then we have Well of Lost Dreams which is a powerhouse in any deck that can reliably gain life.

In terms of general utility we have a few damage doublers, a couple of removal spells and a garnish of spice.

Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods give our burn spells some extra reach while incentivizing our opponents to attack each other since we will be at a high enough life total to not be worth coming after.

Dispatch and Swords to Plowshares are just too efficient to pass up and can get you out of some tough spots in a pinch.

Then the final bit of spice is our Deflecting Palm. This could be the single most satisfying card to win with in the game although that’s probably subjective. The best part about this spell is that it is both red and white meaning with our commander in play it has lifelink and let’s us deal three damage on top of any damage it flung back at our opponent.

Upgrades

Gisela is a fantastic addition to this deck since she does a lot of different things at once. On her own she is a great defensive tool that incentivizes our opponents to go at each other while dealing ten damage in the air at a time. Combined with our burn spells she mitigates the damage we take while doubling the damage our opponents take. She can even help keep our commander alive from a big explosion they otherwise would have fallen to.

These two five mana artifacts fit with our artifact sub-theme while giving us extra cards and extra life in the case of the archive.

These two planeswalkers provide great utility since they both give us extra mana, have some form of card selection/advantage and have great late game potential if they are able to ultimate.

Wrap Up

And that’s it for our first budget deck from Dominaria. Firesong and Sunspeaker give us a different spin on Boros and I’m really happy about that. I know I’m not the only one hoping we get more legends that explore different areas of the color combination in the future.

Let me know what you thought of the deck in the comments below!

See you all next time, Cheers!