Torbran, Thane of Incremental Damage
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 50 | 19 COMMENTS | 9529 VIEWS | IN 35 FOLDERS
There is also these damage doublers but not as efficient: - Curse of Bloodletting - Bitter Feud - Angrath's Marauders
September 28, 2019 8:17 p.m.
i just discovered Warmonger , this card is insane with torbran, remove excess mana do burn everyone and with lot of mana, with a damage doubler and 10 mana you can kill everyone from their 30life points.
September 28, 2019 8:30 p.m.
I considered most of the cards you mention, but none of them made it in for various reasons:
Curse of Bloodletting : It's just a bit too mean to knock one player out of the game before all the others. It is very useful if someone is playing lifegain.
Bitter Feud , Furnace of Rath : These didn't get included because you have to cast them on your main step. This will most likely give your opponent/s the chance to abuse your enchantment.
Angrath's Marauders : Out of the damage doublers you mentioned, this is the one I thought most about including. It doesn't run into the same issues as the previous two. The main issue is that it costs 7 mana in a deck with an otherwise low curve. The effect is also tied to an easily removable creature.
Warmonger : The important thing about Warmonger is that you can't use the effect more than 2 times a turn. It is also super easy for your opponents to remove, having them only need to collectively spend 6 mana.
Thanks for the suggestions!
September 28, 2019 8:55 p.m.
Mirage Mirror has some very good targets in this deck, so I could definitely see it making the cut.
October 22, 2019 10:11 a.m.
TetrAggressive says... #7
Curse of the Pierced Heart for a bolt every turn on a certain player.
Heartless Hidetsugu for a race you win because you're getting an extra 2 damage each time.
Leyline of Punishment for an answer to decks that have options against burn.
Scour from Existence / Unstable Obelisk since mono-red doesn't have many spot removal options for permanents.
November 14, 2019 3:45 p.m.
Repercussion might fall under group slug category, but the element of burst it adds to all damage-based boardwipes, and also comboes well with our commander, doubling his effect. It is a must answer and never stays on board for a long time, though with instant speed 1 damage sweepers such as Electrickery or Volcanic Fallout you can respond before it is destroyed. Personally ive also liked addition of Pariah's Shield and Magebane Armor protecting ourself and our commander from burn damage. In the top-end i also run Flame Fusillade as a noncombat way to finish the game, and although bit pricy Tempt with Vengeance is good token generator, especially with Impact Tremors on field.
November 21, 2019 9:31 p.m.
Out of the cards you suggested, I could see Unstable Obelisk and Leyline of Punishment making it in.
Curse of the Pierced Heart seems like a quick way to make an opponent hate you. If they don't have an answer to the enchantment, they might turn to player removal to get rid of it.
Heartless Hidetsugu is definitely powerful, though it has some rather dampening downsides. At 5 CMC, he will be in the top 10% of the cards by cost. This combined with him not doing anything the turn he is played makes it hard to include him.
Scour from Existence would be the highest CMC card on the list if it made it in. There is a definite usefulness in being able to remove any permanent, but it is just too high CMC to play.
November 23, 2019 10:32 p.m.
Thanks for the suggestions. Volcanic Fallout is currently on my list of cards to try to fit into the deck. Electrickery seems underwhelming in comparison.
Magebane Armor would make a good combo with Pariah's Shield . Other than that I don't often have issues with Torbran dying to my own sweepers, due to his effect's asymmetrical nature. Pyrohemia and Breath of Darigaaz are the only two of my own spells that I can remember killing Torbran.
Tempt with Vengeance and Repercussion would both be effective inclusions to the deck, but they are out of it's price range.
I experimented with Flame Fusillade while I was first putting the deck together, and I wasn't impressed. If the deck was more focused on making lots of tokens, I could see it working.
November 23, 2019 11:45 p.m.
Why do you run swiftfoot boots, do you need the hexproof or can you just swap with Lightning Greaves ?
No Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ? Goes very well with your commander
Myriad Landscape for ramp?
Volcanic Offering - Destroys 4 things with 1 card, at instant speed. Can be used politically as well.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Ramp, Card advantage, removal and wincon all in 1
Stranglehold - Stops fetches, tutoring and land ramp. Very powerful for 4 mana
Any good mono red deck will find a way to refill it's hand, especially with such a low Avg CMC. As such, you should consider the following...
Arch of Orazca - Repeatable late game draw
Commune with Lava - Draw
Endless Atlas - Best card I can recommend for mono red, repeatable and cheap to play, cheap to activate
Hedron Archive - Whole the CMC is high on this one, it might be worth considering
Humble Defector - Politics. Plus it's fun with Homeward Path should you be inclined
Mind's Eye - Repeatable card draw. Yes its 5 mana, yes it doesnt do anything the turn it comes down so I understand why you would not like it. But repeatable card draw is repeatable card draw
Skullclamp - With all the devils and tokens you make, this should be an auto include
Solemn Simulacrum - Does everything you need, card draw and ramp
Tome of Legends - Might be worth considering
Magus of the Wheel - Oh look, you used vampiric tutor on my end step. Cool, pass priority during draw step so I can make you wheel away whatever you discarded. But seriously, wheels can be very helpful. While it does refuel opponent's hands and helps GY strategies, it should not be overlooked
Memory Jar - Yes it's expensive, but a psuedo wheel might be worth considering. It's also reserved list
Wheel of Fortune - Best wheel
December 19, 2019 1:40 a.m.
I would love to include many of the cards you suggested, but I'm trying to keep the deck around $100. If I wanted to increase the budget of the deck, cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx would definitely make the cut. Keeping the deck within this price range has been a fun and interesting challenge. I don't plan on upping the price limit any time soon. Out of what you suggested, some cards stuck out to me:
Myriad Landscape Should be in the deck. Having only 35 lands can get you in trouble real quick if you miss a drop or two. It will be replacing Hellion Crucible in the decks next update.
Skullclamp would probably make it into the earlier versions of this deck. As I play it more, I find that tokens are lacking in power compared to the decks other strategies. Because of this, I've been replacing the worse performing token creation cards.
Humble Defector would be a fun inclusion, but I do see issues with it. The deck tends to make more enemies than friends. I feel I would struggle to find someone to give it back a lot of the time.
Commune with Lava is another card I would consider adding to the deck. I am currently having issues with finding the mana to use Act on Impulse correctly. Either Commune with Lava or Ignite the Future might be replacing it eventually.
Thank you for the suggestions!
December 19, 2019 2:17 a.m.
I completely missed the budget aspect, my apologies.
Regarding Skullclamp , even if you don't have tokens, I think it is still good on it's own for mono red because you need that card draw badly. I would say test it and see how it goes, I am fairly confident it will pull it's weight, especially if your meta isn't past a power lvl 6.
If you are going to replace Act on Impulse , switch it for Ignite the Future . It is much better because it requires less of a cost and it has flashback. Moreover, you don't have the mana ramp to abuse Commune with Lava (assuming you have to choose between the 2, personally, I would add both). Do note that you can cast the cards until the end of your next turn so it's much much better than act on impulse.
Does Endless Atlas go over your budget? Magus of the Wheel and Mind's Eye seem cheap enough.
December 19, 2019 1:36 p.m.
I'm going to try Skullclamp and Endless Atlas instead of Goblin Rabblemaster and Wheel of Fate . They're cheap enough to be able to fit one of them in with a little rejigging. I feel that I will prefer Skullclamp, but testing will tell. Wheel of Fate might also get the axe in favor of Magus of the Wheel . This would help mostly with budgeting.
Mind's Eye is a bit pricey in both CMC and budget wise. 5 mana will make it one of the highest CMC cards in the deck. That alongside having to hold up mana to use it's ability makes it hard for me to see it working.
I'll try out both Ignite the Future and Commune with Lava instead of Act on Impulse . I like that Commune is an instant, so I can hold up mana until the end step before my turn and let it off. It's nice to have the option to use Ignite as a big late game bomb as well. I can see both of them working in the deck, and they might both make the cut.
December 19, 2019 3:35 p.m.
How do you deal with artifacts and enchantments?
I see you run chaos warp but redundancy is very nice. There are a couple other options but they are not budget. Unstable obelisk in your maybeboard is nice.
Mind Stone - T3 Commander, draw and ramp in one. I noticed you didnt care for Hedron Archive or Arch land, but at least consider this.
December 26, 2019 1:08 a.m.
I'm not a big fan of those types of boardwipes in a deck like this. I could maybe see them making it in if my meta got more enchantment heavy. Unstable Obelisk would be my #1 pick for enchantment removal.
Mind Stone might make it in over Foriysian Totem . I find myself rarely activating it's ability, but the red mana is always useful in such a heavy deck.
December 31, 2019 12:47 p.m.
RhythmBeast says... #17
Wanna mess with your opponents and make them play cautiously? Add War's Toll , Manabarbs , and Burning Earth. I became Archenemy in a match with this combination. I had two people kill themselves to Risk Factor and Browbeat just to give the last player a shot to win.
April 6, 2020 1:38 p.m.
Nathanael97 says... #18
It seems like you would have probably thought of it, so maybe I‘m missing something, but wouldn‘t Sulfuric Vortex be an absolute slam dunk in this list..?
Also you could probably run some incidental value lands in a mono colored list like Scavenger Grounds, Desert and Sunscorched Desert.
March 22, 2022 noon
Sulfuric Vortex is a card I loosely bundle in with the group slug stuff I tried to avoid when building this deck. Compared to Manabarbs its nothing too mean, but it kinda rides that line. It's definitely something I would consider if my main playgroup played more life gain strategies.
As for lands, I try to avoid colorless lands because Torbran costs three red pips. Out of those three, I would consider running Scavenger Grounds for the graveyard hate. In general I don't want to spend a turn exiling graveyards rather than playing an aggressive card though. Thats why Anger of the Gods and Kumano Faces Kakkazan Flip are nice. The other two lands don't get their damage boosted by Torbrans effect, so I don't think they make the cut.
Eloniel says... #1
I use a similar tacticts with my Feather spellsinging deck with guttersnipe, electrostatic Field, Thermo-alchemist.
Have you considered Furnace of Rath ?
Now i want to build him... but with group slug effect !
September 28, 2019 8:10 p.m.