Playing With Fire

Commander / EDH* Combo Control Infinite Combo RBW (Mardu)

Internetjay

Lands (39)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Plains
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rugged Prairie
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of Triumph
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel

Damagers (10)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chain Reaction
• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Earthquake
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Pestilence
• 1x Pyrohemia
• 1x Rile
• 1x Shivan Meteor
• 1x Starstorm

Ramp (9)

• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Targets (7)

• 1x Boros Reckoner
• 1x High Priest of Penance
• 1x Mogg Maniac
• 1x Raptor Hatchling
• 1x Spitemare
• 1x Stuffy Doll
• 1x Truefire Captain

Utility (4)

• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Death Pits of Rath
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Amplifiers (3)

• 1x Dictate of the Twin Gods
• 1x Furnace of Rath
• 1x Gratuitous Violence

Removal (3)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Utter End

Commander (1)

Tutors (8)

• 1x Dimir Machinations
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Stonehewer Giant
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Redirection (7)

• 1x Arcbond
• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Master Warcraft
• 1x Pariah
• 1x Pariah's Shield
• 1x Repercussion

CardDraw (5)

• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Promise of Power
• 1x Underworld Connections

Indestructible (3)

• 1x Chance for Glory
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Shield of Kaldra

---

Sideboard

Other (51)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ascent of the Worthy
• 1x Axgard Armory
• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Blazing Sunsteel
• 1x Blightstep Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Brash Taunter
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Chandra's Incinerator
• 1x Commander's Plate
• 1x Crackle with Power
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Fiendlash
• 1x Fiery Emancipation
• 1x Fighter Class
• 1x Flumph
• 1x Furycalm Snarl
• 1x Hellish Rebuke
• 1x Hurl Through Hell
• 1x Immersturm Skullcairn
• 1x Jeska, Thrice Reborn
• 1x Justice Strike
• 1x Lithoform Engine
• 1x Meteor Swarm
• 1x Mythos of Snapdax
• 1x Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Oswald Fiddlebender
• 1x Reconstruct History
• 1x Robe of Stars
• 1x Ruinous Ultimatum
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Shatterskull Smashing  ^Flip
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 1x Solar Blaze
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Spiteful Sliver
• 1x Star of Extinction
• 1x Sunbaked Canyon
• 1x The Akroan War
• 1x Toralf, God of Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• 1x Valakut Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Volcanic Salvo
• 1x Wheel of Misfortune
• 1x Winds of Abandon

---

Maybeboard

Other (27)

• 1x Coalhauler Swine
• 1x Dawn Charm
• 1x Debt of Loyalty
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Guilty Conscience
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Indestructibility
• 1x Lavabrink Floodgates
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Martyrdom
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Parallectric Feedback
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Reiterate
• 1x Reroute
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shaman en-Kor
• 1x Sigarda's Aid
• 1x Simulacrum
• 1x Stonehewer Giant
• 1x True Conviction
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Worship
• 1x Wrath of God

---

---

Damage redirection shenanigans!

---

How It Works

As should be obvious, this isn't really a Zurgo Helmsmasher deck -- it's a damage redirection deck that runs Zurgo as a combo piece and a Plan B. The plan is to make people scared to target you by threatening redirection spells or retaliation with Zurgo, then win by either landing a perfectly timed redirection spell or comboing off with some silly shit.

The combos here all deal with damage redirection. The goal is to play a creature like High Priest of Penance or Boros Reckoner with an ability that triggers when it's dealt damage, give it indestructible, then finish with a combo piece like Pariah , Arcbond , Pyrohemia or Furnace of Rath . The "Damagers" cards can burn everything to keep the board clear, or be used to combo off with a Boros Reckoner ability and a damage doubler like Dictate of the Twin Gods . Instant-speed tutors like Sunforger and Tainted Pact allow you to pull up silver bullets reliably, leading to blowouts with cards like Rakdos Charm , Comeuppance and Master Warcraft . A few of the format's most powerful tutors have been included -- I usually shy away from these for fear of making a deck "unfun," but most of the combos in this deck are 3+ cards, so they feel necessary / not busted. Darksteel Plate is the most important card in the deck for comboing, so several tutors ( Dimir Machinations , Steelshaper's Gift ) have been included specifically to grab it.

---

Combos and Interactions

• Pariah + Stuffy Doll = you take no damage (the classic)
• Pariah + Stuffy Doll + Repercussion + any amount of damage = instakill
• Any creature with a Boros Reckoner effect + lifelink + indestructible + any amount of damage = infinite life
• Arcbond + Pariah + indestructible creature = gg
• Repercussion + mass burn = probably gg
• Any damage doubler + any creature with a Boros Reckoner effect + >9 damage = instakill
• Any damage doubler + any creature with a Boros Reckoner effect + indestructible + any amount of damage = instakill
• Pestilence or Pyrohemia + Death Pits of Rath = 1-mana instant-speed wrath any time
• Pestilence or Pyrohemia + Boros Reckoner or similar + indestructible = 4 burn damage per mana invested
• Pestilence or Pyrohemia + High Priest of Penance + indestructible = destroy any nonland permanent for 1 mana at instant speed
• Stonehewer Giant + 3 turns = gg (fetch Darksteel Plate , Pariah's Shield , Sunforger , tutor Arcbond with Sunforger)
• Zurgo + Chandra's Ignition = boardwipe, 7 damage to each opponent and a potentially lethally-sized Zurgo (thanks to his +1/+1 counter clause)

Aaand you get the point -- there are definitely more combos in there if you look hard enough. Some of these require up to four cards, so they seem unlikely on paper, but the sheer volume of them makes it pretty likely that you'll go off somehow, some way. If you don't then you'll at least be a pain in the ass, and isn't that what commander's all about anyway?

---

Cards I'm Avoiding

I want this deck to be strong, and I want to win games with it, but I also want it to be fun to play / fun to play against. I feel like that's a pretty common goal in commander. That said, I've considered the following cards and decided that they just aren't fun to play against. I'm already toeing the line by running Stuffy Doll , I don't need to give opponents any extra excuses to be salty.

• Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood : this is a cheap win that everyone's sick of seeing. Either one of these cards would be great in this deck, but people assume you're running the combo when they see either and you end up being targeted, so I'm staying away from both.
• Land destruction. Maybe it's a personal preference, but I don't think most people would call LD "fun." Jokulhaups with Zurgo out is too easy.
• Tainted Strike : entirely too cheesy.
• Guilty Conscience : doesn't do enough on its own to justify the slot, unless you get it out with Stuffy Doll , in which case you cheese one player out of the game and then have nothing left on board or in hand to deal with the other players.

---

Any suggestions for further shenanigans to add, or any suggestions to generally make this thing more playable, would be welcome.

Thanks for checking it out!

Top Ranked	Achieved #12 position overall 9 years ago
Date added	9 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Pariah + Stuffy Doll Arcbond + Pariah
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 8 Mythic Rares 63 - 35 Rares 22 - 7 Uncommons 5 - 1 Commons
Cards	99
Avg. CMC	3.13
Tokens	Copy Clone, Demon X/X B, Dinosaur 3/3 G w/ Trample, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders	EDH, Cool Decks, Cool decks , I like it, notdecks, EDH Bookmarks, Edh, EDH Ideas, EDH, Ideas