Be the Token Burn Player
This week we jump into Murders at Karlov Manor. For all the complaints people had about it, MKM was good to me. This deck actually got sparked from my prerelease kit. Sealed is one of my favorite ways to play these days. I have a pretty tried and true strategy for prerelease and it serves me well. One of the spicier cards I opened and got to play with was Judith, Carnage Connoisseur. I didn't do a lot of burn that night but my other removal spells did double duty leaving behind a fair sized token that Shocks something when it died. I was way more interested in the creature tokes than I was in giving my burn spells deathtouch. As a funny aside, I opened Pestilent Spirit in my Ravnica Allegiance prerelease kit. I was very underwhelmed with its ability and had no interest in expanding it to a commander deck. Look how far I've come.
What struck me about all the discourse around Judith was the death touch ability to wipe the board. Everyone was saying to fill a deck with Electrickery effects and keep the table at bay. I'm a huge proponent of playing more board wipes in the format. I even have a board wipe focused deck that I played and wrote about here. This had more potential. I knew I could hit people coming and going with a deck like this. So that was my bare bones plan: Cast spells, make tokens, use the tokens to hurt my opponents.
So we're staring down a spellslinger build right now. Before I get into the haymakers of the deck I want to talk about setting them up. The best way to do that is with ritual effects. Dark Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, and Desperate Ritual all have it in the name. I front a little mana for the spell and my investment buys me more mana in the moment. A lot of times people save these cards, looking for one big turn to play a lot of spells at once and storm off. That is a viable way to play this deck. But it is not the only way. I like to be more proactive. I will use something like Open the Omenpaths to ramp Judith out turn 3 or 4. That might not seem very fast. What I found most important was having a way to protect Judith after casting her, so I need a little more mana available up front. Once she's on the field I'm less worried as I can turn those ritual effects into Imps to burn opponents. It's not uncommon for me to drop a ritual to cast 1 spell and leave 1 or 2 lands untapped if I can get a couple token creatures out of the deal.
I said earlier I would cast Judith early if I had mana available afterward. I really mean a black mana. Why? To be able to save her with Kaya's Ghostform or Armor of Shadows. These one drops save Judith from destruction. Ghostform is much more telegraphed, but sometimes it's nice to let it sit there so I can dedicate all my mana to casting more spells and accruing value. Ghostform also has a deterrent effect. Opponents tend to point their removal elsewhere rather than get pushed into a 2 for 1 situation. What's nice about cards like Rush of Vitality and Without Weakness is that they leave me an Imp when I cast them. So if I play one in response to a boardwipe not only will my commander survive but I'll immediately punish that opponent. I diversified all these effects. Bladed Battle-Fan does the trick once, then sticks around for a little pump. I like to make blocking a loose loose situation for opponents. Like when I equip the Fan to an Imp. An opponent risks taking 3 damage from the attack or losing a creature and taking 2 damage anyway if the token dies. Math is for blockers.
I have a couple solid instant and sorcery options in the deck I want to spotlight. Cards that I'm never unhappy to see. Kohlagan's Command is my favorite in this category. I get the 2 most relevant modes whenever I cast this spell. Destroying an artifact is always viable in EDH. I've never played a game where I don't have a solid target for that mode. Similarly, with Judith out the ability to do 2 damage reads more like “murder a creature.” I have even returned one of my creatures with this card a fair number of times. Banners Raised advances the Storm plan and does the job of complicating blocking I mentioned before. Gnawing Crescendo works on multiple fronts. It pumps my team for starters. I love turning a little bit of damage into a lot. The card also acts like insurance. If my non token creatures are about to die I can just cast this and mitigate the loss of my board and get some rat tokens back. They can't block anyway, so I just stay aggressive.
With all these cheap spells I have running around I can use them to fuel something big. That's why Storm staples like Grapeshot and Tendrils of Agony are here. With these, I seriously swing life totals in a game. With Haze of Rage I can pump my team of tokens to enable a knock out. Clearing out a couple of blockers to start just moves my storm count higher. This wouldn't be one of my decks if I didn't include Volcanic Awakening. I'm not going to lie or exaggerate and say I destroyed a dozen lands in a single turn with this. But 4 has been very doable and very impactful in a game.
I've found Magecraft to be very rewarding with Storm. Big surprise, right? I get extra triggers from all the copies of the spell, not just the casting of spells. I don't feel as pressured to wait and hold on to my storms spells for THE BIG TURN when I have such a payoff out. Storm-Kiln Artist is a great example. Let's get those treasures early. A little ramp sprinkled across multiple turns is more impactful than a ton of treasure on one turn. Sedgemoor Witch is a real standout. It essentially turns every spell into ½ of Empty the Warrens. I know everyone has been freaking out about Ward recently. 3 mana might be “too much”, but you're not going to get hated out for 3 life, don't worry. The Pests are really nice. The deck likes to get aggressive with tokens. I'm not concerned if all my Pest tokens don't make it out of combat alive. That life gain adds up, keeping me in the fight longer. Spell Satchel is here too. Sometimes it's ramp, sometimes card draw, but it's never a bad choice.
I keep my options open for casting spells a couple of ways. The biggest being Flashback. Past in Flames is a storm favorite. Everything has Flashback all of a sudden, and because it has flashback I get to have a blowout turn a second time. Just watch out for graveyard hate. Don't play this until someone has wiped out a graveyard already. Let people burn their removal then do your thing.
Most of the time, I'm using impulse draw to see more cards in a turn. I have Outpost Siege and Vance's Blasting Cannons to do this statically. The Siege is almost better if you choose Dragons. It's a great way to further weaponize those tokens. Geistflame Reservoir is also flexibile, allowing me to burn out problems or exile a card to cast. I can add a charge counter or two to the Reservoir with Light up the Stage. It even enables the Spectacle cost. I pay 2 and tap it to remove some charge counters and damage an opponent, then pay R to Light Up The Stage and recoup some of the counters I used.
The deck played rather straight forward in the first variation. Playing Cosmotronic Wave with a ton of Imps and Devils out, then sacrificing them after combat is fun but not overly stimulating. It took a little time to develop but I found the secret sauce. The thing that added an extra layer to the deck, gameplay, and play experience. Planeswalkers. There are several Chandras out there that do what the deck is all about: make mana, exile cards to cast, and burn. Chandra, Torch of Defiance does all of this. No other walker has that versatility. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame charges my walkers, moving them to their ultimates faster. My preferred Chandra is actually Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh. The ping is funny and I'm certainly casting enough spells on a given turn to flip her. Once she becomes Chandra, Roaring Flame I'm doing everything I can to get that emblem. It's not a ton for the investment, but 9 damage to everyone else before my next turn can be enough at times. Professor Onyx is another Magecraft standout. Not great with Tibalt, but I don't think I've ever delayed her just because he was out. Finally, I have Zariel, Archduke of Avernus. The deck isn't built around extra combats. But I would never turn one down in this deck.
Once I have a planeswalker out people get a little weird and want to attack it. All my little Imps are great insulation against this type of very warranted hostility. So I'm going to insulate myself even further with Devils that happen to do damage when they die. If my opponents get greedy drawing cards Zurzoth, Chaos Rider will power out those pesky tokens and feed his own ability, then replace any devil token I happen to attack with. It just so happens to work great with an extra combat. Tibalt, Rakish Instigator makes me little devils to burn opponents, but more importantly it keeps people from gaining life. Another reason to use Judith to make tokens and not worry about burn spells. Ob Nixilis, the Adversary is one of the funniest Planeswalkers in the deck. An extra copy of Ob is easy to come by. Sacrificing something with 7 or more power is doable, and I have done it. All of a sudden someone is taking seven and drawing seven. It's even better if that creature happens to be one of the Devils one of the Obs made along the way.
A couple of odds and ends worth talking about, then the deck list. Hedonist's Trove is a powerful effect. I use it on anyone playing lots of ramp or draw spells for the best effect. Either fuels my strategy. I'm less concerned with using it to remove a troublesome graveyard, it just so happens the person filling his graveyard to make trouble usually happens to have draw or ramp spells for me. Phyrexian Scriptures may seem like an odd boardwipe in this deck since there are so few artifact creatures running around. None, really. However, I get to save my prized Judith from the consequences of my own actions. 5 dead Imps and Devils along the way is a great price to pay. Of course, I have a couple 1 damage sweepers in the deck. I wasn't going to forego them completely. Fang Dragon is probably the best of this class of spells. It leaves my board intact and I have a beater in the air later on. It's not as good as Backdraft Hellkite for obvious reasons but I don't have to choose between the two in this deck. Ghired's Belligerence might not hit everything, but I can make sure it hits the most important things. With all my Planeswalkers I can populate them all to their ultimates with this spell and have a blow out turn.
So where does the deck stand? Check It!
Judith, Carnage Connoisseurr
Bitter Ordeal Storm-Kiln Artist Guttersnipe
Empty The Warrens Sedgemoor Witch Young Pyromancer
Grapeshot Spell Satchel Pestilent Spirit
Haze of Rage You Find Some Prisoners Thermo Alchemist
Ignite Memories Geistflame Reservoir Kolaghan's Command
Tendrils of Agony Light Up the Stage Soul-Scar Mage
Volcanic Awakening Outpost Siege Abbot of Keral Keep
Backdraft Hellkite Vance's Blasting Cannons Bedlam Reveler
Flaring Pain Reckless Impulse Bontu, the Glorified
Dark Ritual Rakdos Charm Judith, The Scourge Diva
Pyretic Ritual Zurzoth, Chaos Rider Impact Tremors
Desperate Ritual Fang Dragon Hedonist's Trove
Mana Geyser Ghired's Belligerence Phyrexian Scriptures
Open the Omenpaths Cosmotronic Wave Murderous Rider
Armor of Shadows Tibalt, Rakish Instigator Hero's Downfall
Bladed Battle-Fan Zariel, Archduke of Avernus Greed
Rush of Vitality Ob Nixilis, The Adversary Sign in Blood
Without Weakness Professor Onyx Increasing Vengeance
Kaya's Ghostform Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh Reverberate
Banner's Raised Chandra, Acolyte of Flame Dualcaster Mage
Gnawing Crescendo Chandra, Torch of Defiance Pack Attack
Read the Bones
Castle Embreth Havengul Laboratory Haunted Fengraf
Scavenger Grounds Blast Zone Temple of Malice
Canyon Slough Rakdos Carnarium Myriad Landscapes
Swamp x13 Mountain x13
There are a lot of great avenues to explore with the deck. You can pilot it very simply, which makes it good to pass out to a new player. The nice thing? It goes deeper than that when you want to optimize and storm off. Like when to Ignite Memories or when you have enough Imps to protect another Planeswalker you have in hand. The deck is wide open to customize with more aristocrat effects or sac outlets to weaponize my tokens further.
If you're interested in picking up anything from my list, please use my TCG player link. It keeps these builds possible and lets me experiment with niche ideas like this.
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