The Hallar Art (AKA a Lara Bar in Alara) *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Burn Counters Kicker RG (Gruul)

Omniscience_is_life

Land (37)

• 1x Aether Hub
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Copperline Gorge
• 1x Cragcrown Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Fire-Lit Thicket
• 12x Forest
• 1x Game Trail
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Mossfire Valley
• 6x Mountain
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
• 1x Kazuul's Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Valakut Awakening  ^Flip

Ramp (13)

• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth
• 1x Goblin Anarchomancer
• 1x Mark of Sakiko
• 1x Grow from the Ashes
• 1x Primal Growth

Protection (8)

• 1x Snakeskin Veil
• 1x Vines of Vastwood
• 1x Alpha Authority
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Snake Umbra
• 1x Bear Umbra

Kicker (20)

• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Goblin Bushwhacker
• 1x Joraga Warcaller
• 1x Overload
• 1x Reclaim the Wastes
• 1x Skitter of Lizards
• 1x Vines of Vastwood
• 1x Canopy Surge
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Emblazoned Golem
• 1x Flametongue Yearling
• 1x Inscription of Abundance
• 1x Molten Disaster
• 1x Savage Offensive
• 1x Scorching Lava
• 1x Strength of the Tajuru
• 1x Falling Timber
• 1x Goblin Ruinblaster
• 1x Grow from the Ashes
• 1x Primal Growth

Interaction (13)

• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Overload
• 1x Arni Slays the Troll
• 1x Cindervines
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Flametongue Yearling
• 1x Inscription of Abundance
• 1x Molten Disaster
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Kazuul's Fury  ^Flip
• 1x Chandra's Incinerator

Damage (4)

• 1x Quest for Pure Flame
• 1x Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar
• 1x Gratuitous Violence
• 1x Fiery Emancipation

Commander (1)

Draw (13)

• 1x Keen Sense
• 1x Galvanic Relay
• 1x Hunter's Insight
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Light Up the Stage
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Snake Umbra
• 1x Valakut Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Wheel of Misfortune
• 1x Dragonborn Champion
• 1x Ignite the Future
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise

Counters (9)

• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Arni Slays the Troll
• 1x Inscription of Abundance
• 1x Solidarity of Heroes
• 1x Strength of the Tajuru
• 1x Fractal Harness
• 1x Hydra's Growth
• 1x Invigorating Surge
• 1x Visions of Dominance

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Introduction

When Dominaria first came out, in the ancient year of 2018, I was immediately enamored at the idea of a legendary creature being in every pack. Imagine! I didn't distinguish between the rarities, I just loved getting more legends to play around with.

The following year, I took a crack at building Hallar--but I was still relatively new to/bad at Magic, so that initial attempt didn't work out so well.

Then, several months ago (which was, of writing, circa July 2021), I was freshly inspired by this Gruul conglomeration of burn, +1/+1 counters, and the kicker mechanic. Hallar is truly the commander equivalent of a smorgasbord!

(Quick addendum here: Hallar's pronouns are they/them. Just for reference :3)

Hallar requires many moving parts to function; let's take a look at all the gears that make this machine work...

+1/+1 Counters

All the damage comes from +1/1 counters; manipulating Hallar's counters is the simplest way to get high amounts of damage racking up. They, of course, come pre-equipped with a counter-adding engine of their own, however; spamming kicker spells is a fairly effective way of getting decent quantities of counters on Hallar. But adding one little +1 nugget at a time is not enough! Augmenters of this addition is necessary, although not in high saturation. A Hardened Scales here and Invigorating Surge there do wonders.

Kick Spells

As mentioned prior, kicker spells do the triggering of our general and slowly amp up their counters--but that same trigger also burns our opponents' FACES, so we want it to happen as frequently as possible!

In this deck, I've opted to have all the cheapest kicker spells possible; I couldn't care less what they do, so long as they don't make me spend too much to trigger the pain I seek to inflict upon my enemies. Sac a land? sure! Dome myself for 4? sure! Whatever it takes ;)

Damage Increasers

There aren't many of these in the deck, but resolving a Fiery Emancipation hits hard. Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar+Keen Sense/Snake Umbra/Dragonborn Champion is also a sweet piece of tech.

Ramp

We're in green! This should be easy!

All the one-drop dorks are in here, because a T2 Hallar is a force to be reckoned with. A Sol Ring will also get the job done though.

The two kicker spells that ramp Grow from the Ashes and Primal Growth are veeeery powerful in this deck (nothing say combo-off turn like netting -1 mana to dome the table for a total of 66 damage!), but given their cost I don't view them as proper ramp pieces.

Draw

This deck can burn through a full grip very quickly, but drawing cards in green is very reliant on spamming creatures; we only run 18, and most aren't big enough to trigger Garruk's Uprising-type cards.

So we lean heavily to red's impulsive draw, with a few green effects such as Ancestral Recall and Yes this works with kicker spells "kicker" isn't an alternative cost, stop asking, Thomas.

Interaction

I'll be the first to admit it: this deck's interaction package is ass. But we don't have room for much non-ass removal, so we have what we have. 4 mana for 4 damage, anyone? DX

Chandra's Incinerator is a must-remove in this deck, as Hallar is regularly triggering for 11~ every turn. That's three rounds of 11 damage from the Incinerator! Nuts!

Protection

Speaking of must-remove... yeah. Our commander themself is a must-remove. Some people just don't like taking 23 damage every turn -_('-')_/-

Because of this, I had to go out of my way to spend a bajillion dollars on a Deflecting Swat. Life isn't fair.

Besides Def. Swat, I tried to cover all the bases for protection--Targeted Removal? out of here. Boardwipe? try again in a million years. Mass exile? you are simply not strong enough to defeat me.

Land

Kicker spells require a lot of colored mana, so we're running every non-LEA dual under the sun. Ok, that's a blatant lie, but so is the height on your driver's license so whatever.

ETB-tapped lands are awful. Don't play them unless your commander is Archelos, Lagoon Mystic or Hikori, Dust Drinker. That said, the ZNR MDFCs are insanely good and you should run a handful in most decks.

Phew! That was a lot of stuff. It's a wonder it all fits in these 100 cards. I wonder if I did my math wrong...

How to Play This Deck

The type of hand we keep should look roughly like this: a ramp spell (not a fake one like Mark of Sakiko or even Grow from the Ashes, I mean aggressive ramp like Llanowar Elves), 3 lands that together give access to Gruul mana, a handful of kicker spells, and some sort of value card--usually a draw or counter enhancing effect, but occasionally keeping a hand with a Bear Umbra or Goblin Anarchomancer is worth it.

Once we have a hand, the play pattern goes as follows: T1--play a land into a ramp spell. T2--Hallar. T3--generate some advantage with a draw spell or +1/+1 counter spell. T4--continue pinging our opponents with kick spells and +1/+1 counter effects. T5--start really drawing heavy amounts of cards. T6--spam kicker spells into a win!

DON'T FORGET TO UPVOTE THIS DECK MY SANITY HINGES ON THIS ONE CLICK

Love you all ;3

Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Counters 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH RG (Gruul) 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.34
Tokens	Energy Reserve, Fractal 0/0 GU
Folders	EDH, EDH decks i wanna build lol