Death by a Thousand Zaps

Commander / EDH Burn Magecraft UR (Izzet)

Veghelia

Draw (21)

• 1x Archmage Emeritus
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chemister's Insight
• 1x Consider
• 1x Day's Undoing
• 1x Expedite
• 1x Expressive Iteration
• 1x Fevered Visions
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Jori En, Ruin Diver
• 1x Light Up the Stage
• 1x Opt
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Quick Study
• 1x Quicken
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Solve the Equation
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Trail of Evidence

Ramp (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Case of the Ransacked Lab
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Decanter of Endless Water
• 1x Goblin Electromancer
• 1x Izzet Locket
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Lands (33)

• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Desolate Lighthouse
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 8x Island
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 10x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Silundi Vision  ^Flip
• 1x Spikefield Hazard  ^Flip
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stormcarved Coast
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Training Center

Control (12)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Blink of an Eye
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Immolating Gyre
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Ionize
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Snap
• 1x Unsubstantiate
• 1x Vandalblast

Recursion (1)

• 1x Past in Flames

Commander (1)

Main Meat (16)

• 1x Electrostatic Field
• 1x Erebor Flamesmith
• 1x Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch
• 1x Firebrand Archer
• 1x Firemind's Research
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Kessig Flamebreather
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 1x Pink Horror
• 1x Ral, Storm Conduit
• 1x Rockslide Sorcerer
• 1x Sentinel Tower
• 1x Sorcerer Class
• 1x Thermo-Alchemist
• 1x Unruly Catapult
• 1x Urabrask  ^Flip

Support (4)

• 1x Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Wand of Wonder

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Maybeboard

Control (6)

• 1x Expel from Orazca
• 1x Flame of Anor
• 1x Prismari Command
• 1x Reinterpret
• 1x Slick Sequence
• 1x Volcanic Torrent

Main Meat (1)

• 1x Sphinx-Bone Wand

Support (5)

• 1x Galvanic Iteration
• 1x Harmonic Prodigy
• 1x Jaya Ballard
• 1x Krark, the Thumbless
• 1x Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch  ^Flip

Draw (3)

• 1x Dictate of Kruphix
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Frantic Search

Recursion (3)

• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Mizzix's Mastery
• 1x Pull from the Deep

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Why

I want to build a deck "death by a thousands stings" deck, but not have singular wincons like Grapeshot or something similar (a little bit of flexibility goes a long way to make a deck feel more fun to play).

I think the idea of "trying to find out if you have enough cards and mana to finish your opponents off" is exciting, so in some sense I want to add some gambling components to the deck. I do have to make sure that if I gamble, I don't unintentionally drag the game on by making sure my opponents don't win while not actually winning myself (because I'm trying to "randomly" win, rather than with a surefire way).

How

Play creatures that deal damage to my opponent whey I cast an instant or sorcery, then go haywire with the instants and sorceries to kill them. This starts of slow with some chip damage here and there, but eventually I play like 10 spells in a turn and burn them out.

I can get more triggers/value from my burn creatures by making copy tokens of them.

I think this deck also works better if I play it mostly in my own turn, and just consider any triggers outside of my turn as "nice to have", rather than focusing on flash and instant speed.

I don't know yet how to make sure I don't stall the game out without winning it. The only thing I can really think off is "don't play too many board wipes and spot removal".

What

Burn creatures have a high chance of being removed, as people know they become a problem in the long run. That means that I either have to start of slow and not play any, but accrew the resources I need to eventually win within a turn, or play them all the time but have either enough of them that removal doesn't matter, or ways to recur the ones I do lose.

I like the idea of recurring them more than "suddenly winning from hand without a boardstate at the start of my turn", mostly because the meta I play in plays few to no counterspells, meaning I'd have no challenge. Assume that of course is risky, but I'd rather go for a fun game with interactions, back and forths and a hard-earned victory, than a deck that tends to go uncontested.

UR is bad at recurring creatures, so it's going to pretty much come down to "don't make a big target out of yourself at the start" and "accept some loses throughout the game". I can probably add some disincentive effects (Propaganda for example) to stay in a bit longer.

It's also important to have a mix of burn creatures that hit all opponents, and burn creatures that hit only one, so I can play a bit more political, but still eventually burn out everyone.

Date added	6 months
Last updated	3 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 28 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.59
Tokens	Clue, Demon Horror 2/2 UR, Treasure
Folders	Commander/EDH (Paper)