Shoot that Adamaro: Adamaro EDH Primer

Commander / EDH* Mono-Red

Draw_Wurm

Artifact (25)

• 1x Anvil of Bogardan
• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Defense Grid
• 1x Ebony Owl Netsuke
• 1x Font of Mythos
• 1x Geth's Grimoire
• 1x Horn of Greed
• 1x Howling Mine
• 1x Iron Maiden
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Sculpting Steel
• 1x Skullcage
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Spine of Ish Sah
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1x Temple Bell
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Venser's Journal

Instant (1)

• 1x Chaos Warp

Creature (15)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x Goblin Welder
• 1x Hellkite Igniter
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Runehorn Hellkite
• 1x Soldevi Sentry
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Viseling
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Enchantment (10)

• 1x AEther Flash
• 1x Bludgeon Brawl
• 1x Citadel of Pain
• 1x Dictate of the Twin Gods
• 1x Pia's Revolution
• 1x Repercussion
• 1x Smoke
• 1x Stranglehold
• 1x Vicious Shadows
• 1x War's Toll

Commander (1)

Land (38)

• 1x Blinkmoth Well
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 27x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Sorcery (10)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chain Reaction
• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Insurrection
• 1x Mob Rule
• 1x Molten Psyche
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Rolling Earthquake
• 1x Wheel of Fate

---

Sideboard

Creature (12)

• 1x Balor
• 1x Clockwork Fox
• 1x Emberwilde Captain
• 1x Howling Golem
• 1x Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Ruin Grinder
• 1x Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Treasure Nabber
• 1x Zenith Chronicler
• 1x Zurzoth, Chaos Rider

Instant (5)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Kazuul's Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Price of Progress
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Valakut Awakening  ^Flip

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Khorvath's Fury
• 1x Ruination
• 1x Wheel of Misfortune

Artifact (2)

• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sword of War and Peace

Land (3)

• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Terrain Generator

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Curse of Opulence
• 1x Price of Glory
• 1x Unquenchable Fury

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Koth of the Hammer
• 1x Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

---

Maybeboard

Creature (17)

• 1x Armory Automaton
• 1x Capricious Efreet
• 1x Colossus of Akros
• 1x Heart-Piercer Manticore
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Manor Gargoyle
• 1x Masticore
• 1x Metalwork Colossus
• 1x Mindclaw Shaman
• 1x Razormane Masticore
• 1x Shield Sphere
• 1x Spinal Villain
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Stormbreath Dragon
• 1x Stuffy Doll
• 1x Urabrask the Hidden

Artifact (11)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Arena of the Ancients
• 1x Empyrial Plate
• 1x Inspiring Statuary
• 1x Ivory Tower
• 1x Jester's Cap
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Thran Foundry
• 1x Universal Solvent
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Instant (4)

• 1x Gaze of Adamaro
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Scour from Existence
• 1x Wild Ricochet

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Custody Battle
• 1x Price of Glory
• 1x Pyrohemia

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Fiery Confluence
• 1x Rupture

Land (1)

• 1x Mystifying Maze

---

A detailed look at a mono red EDH deck built around an underplayed commander; Adamaro, First to Desire.

Outline

This deck is designed to make the table play fun and fair to compete in 3-4 player pods at a local gamestore standard. It's designed to compete and win, but not at all costs, and it aims to support fun, interactive games.

It runs a suite of artifacts and wheel effects that encourage card draw and punish opponents for holding hands of cards.

It does not run any land destruction and tries to run cards that tax all opponents equally but it doesn't prevent anyone doing anything. It does this by running cards like Stranglehold and War's Toll that discourage playing on other people's turns, and limits opponents' ability to take advantage of the extra card draw. It also runs Teferi's Puzzle Box to disrupt tutors and linear strategies, and Torpor Orb to shut down infinite ETB triggers.

It defends on a narrow front through cards like Crawlspace and Maze of Ith encouraging opponents to attack elsewhere.

It also uses Soldevi Sentry and Solemn Simulacrum as cheap early blockers

It builds its mana base and then reacts to the board state to win through the following win conditions.

Win Conditions

Pings from opponents drawing and holding cards: Iron Maiden, Ebony Owl Netsuke, Skullcage, Psychosis Crawler

Resolving an Eldrazi: Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Turning the tables with Insurrection or Mob Rule

Direct damage via Repercussion + Blasphemous Act, Rolling Earthquake or Chain Reaction

Resolved Vicious Shadows + a board wipe

Commander damage

Strengths

Causes huge problems for control decks, decks that rely on instants, flash or playing on opposition turns. {U} and {B} decks that want to hold a lot of cards or play Reliquary Tower also struggle. It's a difficult deck to attack, and the late game of Insurrection, Eldrazi and the ability to win out of nowhere with direct damage make it a threat. It is also perennially underestimated, as it looks like a mono {R} durdle deck.

Weaknesses

It runs limited removal so has vulnerability to aggressive creature attacks and commander damage. It can be reliant on playing politics and other people appearing to be easier or more threatening targets. It's inherent chaos from wheels and Teferi's Puzzle Box means you need to respond to the cards in hand, rather than being able to tutor or create a linear strategy.

Why Adamaro?

I played in a pod once where somebody said "Wouldn't you be better off playing any other {R} legend?". It's the obvious question. So apart from being cute in playing an unusual commander, what does Adamaro offer?

It's not a Voltron commander

When you look at Adamaro the first thing people jump to is it getting huge off opponents card draw. However given that it lacks in-built evasion or any other ETB triggers, there are limits to the value of a large vanilla creature. It's CMC is actually the key. In a typical multiplayer game it's likely to be at lowest a 3/3 or 4/4 for 3 mana but with an upper value of 7+ (likely more depending on the number of {U} decks at the table). So it can recur at least twice while still remaining just about on curve.

What this gives you is a very cheap to recur vanilla creature in the command zone that deters opponents, can sweep up enemy threats and doesn't draw any heat. A large Adamaro is also a viable target for Chandra's Ignition.

Card Combinations and Strategy

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre acts as a graveyard shuffler in the early game. It can be discarded to Anvil of Bogardan or Trading Post. This mitigates against the wheels and allows us to reuse cards.

Repercussion + Blasphemous Act or Rolling Earthquake or Chain Reaction: instant kill with the right board state

Soul of New Phyrexia + Nevinyrral's Disk: one sided board wipe

Notes

Depending on your playgroup's attitude to infect, you can sub in Blightsteel Colossus. It shuffles itself, and can kill the table via Chandra's Ignition

Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 6 Mythic Rares 47 - 12 Rares 15 - 9 Uncommons 4 - 3 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.03
Tokens	Devil 1/1 R, Emblem Koth of the Hammer, Goat 0/1 W, Gold, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Monarch Emblem
Folders	Awesome Decks, Commander, Decks that look fun to play, Commander Deck, edh, Cool Decks, Commander decks, Potential decks, favorites, awesome EDH deck