As with pretty much every other EDH deck, the card choices we make dictate our strategy. We utilise a sequence of abilities, usually enchantments and creatures, that deal varying levels of damage to our enemies. These effects may deal damage at set times, such as the upkeep (eg.
Sulfuric Vortex), or they may deal damage based upon an opponent's actions (see
Zo-Zu the Punisher and
Rampaging Ferocidon). Though opponents may not be terribly troubled by any one of these effects at a time, our group slug deck gradually adds more and more of these effects to the table, compounding their effects and transforming them from a minor nuisance into a significant source of life loss that will burn enemies away in short order. This is especially true if
Torbran, Thane of Red Fell is on the board because all our sources of damage are red effects.
Here are the various ways we deal damage to our opponents:
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Creatures & Combat: We’re not a particularly combat-heavy deck and we don’t have the highest density of creatures, but we have some pretty big hosses that can pack a punch if our opponents don’t have blockers. While most of our creatures are chosen because of their static or triggered effects, we are always happy to see threats like
Leyline Tyrant,
Neheb, the Eternal or
Quakebringer connect with our enemies, especially if Torbran’s on the board. We usually use combat to attack with our creatures opportunistically when the time is right, as we generally want to keep them on the board and avoid the risk of combat tricks from opponents’ blockers.
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Creature Effects: This is where our creatures really shine. The vast majority of our critters have triggered or static effects that punish our opponents if they (or we) do stuff. There are too many to list here but standouts are
Cemetery Gatekeeper,
Eidolon of the Great Revel,
Fanatic of Mogis,
Kessig Flamebreather,
Quakebringer,
Rampaging Ferocidon,
Scab-Clan Berserker,
Spitfire Lagac,
Tectonic Giant,
Gimli, Counter of Kills and
Zo-Zu the Punisher, all of which exemplify the punisher/group slug style of play by triggering for increasingly inconvenient amounts of damage for our enemies, particularly if Torbran is in play.
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Triggered Effects: We run all sorts of triggered effects that punish everyone for doing routine stuff in Magic like playing lands, casting spells or taking turns. Annoying under normal circumstances, they become backbreaking for our opponents when Torbran makes them all do X+2 damage (compared to only X for us). Highlights here are
Burning Earth,
Manabarbs,
Pyrostatic Pillar,
Spellshock,
Roiling Vortex and
Sulfuric Vortex. If we have
Repercussion on the table with a decent boardwipe like
Blasphemous Act, we can sometimes kill all our enemies at once if they have enough creatures. Glorious.
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Group Direct Damage: Simplicity is often best so sometimes we just want to throw fire at everyone. We have a selection of instant and sorcery spells that are usually best saved (like most elements of this deck) for when Torban’s around, as they’ll hurt our opponents more than they hurt us.
Fiery Confluence is amazing here as we can choose the 2-damage mode each time (each of which becomes 4 damage with Torbran), making an incredible rate of 12 damage to each opponent for only 4 mana.
Price of Progress is usually equally explosive here as we don’t run many non-basic lands and our greedy opponents usually do.
Flame Rift,
Acidic Soil and
Sizzle are also good, but they hurt us as well, as do most of our boardwipes that also function as direct damage spells (see “Staying Alive” below).
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Damage Doublers: We run several damage doubling effects that, if played carefully, can finish off our opponents out of nowhere. We have to be careful with these as we’re taking a lot of damage too, so they usually work best as finishers during the latter stages of the game, when our enemies are already softened up and their life totals are depleted. A well-chosen
Furnace of Rath,
Dictate of the Twin Gods or
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus can very easily bring multiple opponents within range of some game-ending burn.
