Vial Smasher: EVERY SPELL IS A BURN SPELL

Commander / EDH yardi

SCORE: 77 | 42 COMMENTS | 22688 VIEWS | IN 41 FOLDERS


VulpesDaemon says... #1

im not 100% sure about this but i believe that Blue Sun's Zenith CMC is 3 so Vial Smasher the Fierce would only do 3 damage, same with all X cost spells the X doesn't contribute to its CMC and since Vial only does damage based on CMC it would only do damage equal to the cost if X was 0

November 2, 2016 11:55 a.m.

yardi says... #2

VulpesDaemon The rules say that when not on the stack X=0 but while on the stack X is treated as what you paid for it.

The specific rule here :202.3b When calculating the converted mana cost of an object with X in its mana cost, X is treated as 0 while the object is not on the stack, and X is treated as the number chosen for it while the object is on the stack.

November 2, 2016 12:42 p.m.

VulpesDaemon says... #3

yardi Ah, yes i wasnt 100% sure about it but it seems i have a few rules to notify my play group of. At least you did the research. Great deck by the way

November 2, 2016 12:49 p.m.

ackack9000 says... #4

Nekusar probably would have a good time in the 99 (er 98) here, an extra mana for klyde and when life totals inevitably get low you can choose to use your draw spells as double burn with the vial smasher, triple in the case of damnable pact.

November 3, 2016 2:48 p.m.

TheACTR says... #5

A deck built after my own heart. I, too, took the Yidris deck and turned it into a burn deck. This gets a +1 from me. A couple of suggestions: Bonfire of the Damned is essentially a second Lavalanche and is worth considering. Also, since your goal is to make huge X spells, Cascade may not be a bad effect for you and may make Yidris an option. If I am not mistaken, Cascading into an X spell should still allow you to set a value to X other than 0.

November 7, 2016 12:24 p.m.

yardi says... #6

Thanks TheACTR! I hadn't seen bonfire of the damned but it looks like it could be pretty fun. I always like miracles in EDH. Also I was looking at including cascade at first and using Yidris and Rashmi, Eternities Crafter but I found out that if you cascade into an X spell the spell can only be cast for 0 :'( so I ended up just taking them out.

November 7, 2016 12:41 p.m.

TheACTR says... #7

Ah that sucks so I can understand why you wouldn't run Cascade then. Another fun spell is Meteor Blast.

November 7, 2016 3:33 p.m.

sweetaction says... #8

So I was looking to see if anyone had a deck list with this combo strictly because I wanted to do a burn deck with it. Very excited to see your deck list. Have you considered Heartless Hidetsugu?

I love your inclusion of Comet Storm, it is one of my favorite burn spells. Burns your enemy, then you can pay more to burn all your enemies.

Generally speaking, I would suggest you consider these burn options as well:

  1. Banefire and Blaze are "staple" burn options
  2. Devil's Play - flashback is fabulous
  3. Manabarbs, pain ads up fast.
  4. Earthquake and Rolling Earthquake Because why not hit your enemy in the face for twice with the same spell, while wiping the board.
  5. Thunderous Wrath, if you miracle it you still burn for 6 from your general.
  6. Vicious Shadows to capitalize on your x spell burn that hits creatures. (such as Rolling Earthquake).
November 7, 2016 7:43 p.m.

ackack9000 says... #9

Knowledge pool in a deck with mostly X spells. Think about it

November 7, 2016 11 p.m.

Firebones675 says... #10

I've been meaning to build a grixis artifact deck with this little guy. "Blinkmoth Infusion dome you for 14"

November 8, 2016 4:01 p.m.

sweetaction says... #11

6/1/2011 If the card you cast without paying its mana cost has an X in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as its value.

No idea why you would WAN knowledge pool in a deck full of x spells.

November 9, 2016 12:54 a.m.

Wouldn't Mizzix be totally sweet in this?

November 16, 2016 10:09 a.m.

Berrin7 says... #13

Mizzix is sweet everywhere.

November 16, 2016 10:27 a.m.

yardi says... #14

sweetaction, thanks for all the suggestions. I do really like deviil's play and I could see replacing Red Sun's Zenith with it. Banefire and Blaze seem to end up not doing enough, most of my burning spells also have the ability to kill multiple creatures if need be. Also Heartless will definitely be able to speed up a game but with my low creature count and not many ways to gain life I think it would put me in a dangerous situation. Same idea with Manabarbs considering how much mana I want to cast my spells each turn.

BaronVonBunBun and Berrin7, I thought about adding Mizzix early on but I wanted the decks playstyle to be 1 huge spell a turn for the most part. So I thought that Mizzix would grow too slowly, plus she would have to come down early. After playing the deck a few times though I could try Mizzix out and see how she does in the deck.

November 16, 2016 2:34 p.m.

Xadroy says... #15

You made me realize how strong the vial smasher really is... Thanks

November 19, 2016 7:51 p.m.

TheACTR says... #16

I just thought of two more cards that may prove useful to you as I was looking to better my own burn deck. Firstly, Pain Magnification could enhance all of your burn spells to be resource denial too which could help you have less things to answer. Lastly, Everlasting Torment could be a nice way to prevent life gain decks from reversing all of your hard work, makes all of your damage preventable (VERY NICE) and gives you a reason to burn down creatures you may not be able to kill immediately.

November 22, 2016 12:46 p.m.

pikeer1 says... #17

You should consider Mana Bloom, Wurmcalling. Animist's Awakening. Mana bloom works great early game and can be a bomb later. Wurmcalling with 5 mana is at the very worst a 1/1 and 2 damage. I know seems bad but it can be really great in the early stages to build up a devistating hand.The animist awakening is just freaking amazing in the deck so get it asap lol

November 24, 2016 10:53 a.m.

Tots says... #18

I know your deck is very non-creature oriented, but if you do decide to add more I would highly recommend Rakdos, Lord of Riots. His effect only affects creatures, so I wouldn't add him in right now, but if you change the strategy up a bit this guy could be devastating.

November 30, 2016 12:18 p.m.

debook454 says... #19

A cool card is Constant Mists

December 2, 2016 11:16 p.m.

Enral says... #20

I love how you focus on abusing Vial's ability +1

I like how our deck is essentially flipped on the focus for the partners. I have a few suggestions for Vial, I noticed that Vial's damage is pretty abusable and I would suggest the following which I have used to great success in my pod:

  • Basilisk Collar: Makes Vialsmasher drain life while dealing damage for your first spell every turn
  • Strionic Resonator: Triggers Vialsmasher the second time
  • Grafted Exoskeleton: Makes Vialsmasher essentially a Russian roulette (who gets to die this turn?)
  • Curiosity: Makes Vialsmasher draw you a card while dealing damage for your first spell every turn
  • Leyline of Anticipation: Lets you take full advantage of Vial's damage trigger every turn

My version essentially wheel and cascade to win. Would appreciate if you take a look and +1 would be cool too!

December 9, 2016 2:36 p.m. Edited.

mdndt says... #21

also you can set it so you have two commanders

December 30, 2016 10:40 p.m.

cpu_10 says... #22

Since this is a burn-type deck in a multiplayer format, I could see you needing to get the same spell twice. Might I suggest Vexing Scuttler and Volcanic Vision?

Also, how have your games with this deck been going? Any glaring problems?

January 20, 2017 7:50 a.m.

AwezomePozzum says... #23

You can in fact give both of them the commander tag, by the way. It will make it easier to look at this sweet deck. +1.

January 30, 2017 5:47 p.m.

yardi says... #24

Hey guys thanks for the comments. cpu_10, some problems I'm seeing with the deck is if you don't get your ramp going then you won't have as much impact on the game as I'd like. The deck really lives and breathes its early game, without getting off to an either ramp-y or draw-y start your X-spells don't do very much. Also having artifacts destroyed leads to a huge setback usually with how many rocks I have. That being said, it's usually reasonable to got 2 pieces of ramp and a card draw spell early enough so the deck is still really fun to play.

AwezomePozzum I know that I can set both as commanders but unfortunately if I do that when I search "Vial Smasher the Fierce" in TappedOut's deck search the deck won't come up so I keep Kydele out of the spotlight.

January 30, 2017 6:55 p.m.

AwezomePozzum says... #25

I see. Carry on.

January 30, 2017 10:16 p.m.

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