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Vial Smasher’s Guide to Masochism

Commander / EDH Burn Chaos Competitive Control Flash Goodstuff Group Slug Partner UBR (Grixis)

mr_chazy

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Lands (34)

Pain and Drain (10)

Oppression (6)

Draw (12)

Ramp and Rocks (12)

Wraths and Removal (11)

Protection (9)

Extra Turns (4)

Commanders (2)

Commander: foil Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
Commander: foil Vial Smasher the Fierce

Clones and Copies (11)

Goodstuff (9)

Recursion (6)

Maybeboard

Instant (6)

Lands (4)

Creature (5)

Sorcery (3)

Enchantment (4)

Artifact (2)

Planeswalker (1)

How to play

Play a Vial Smasher, then play a lot of Vial Smashers thanks to Sakashima.

There isn't a whole lot to this deck, it's just a bunch of Grixis goodstuff that helps you control the board, protect your permanents, and play big, splashy high CMC spells that will trigger your clone army of Vial Smashers to deal a lot of damage.

Combos, WinCons and Explanations

  1. Temporal Manipulation / Time Warp / Nexus of Fate / Karn's Temporal Sundering - The best way to ensure Vial Smasher triggers keep coming up is to continually keep passing the turn to yourself! Make use of it by getting in damage and getting ahead of your opponents.
  2. Kira, Great Glass-Spinner - Your Vial Smashers are lightning rod for removal, this is why I added Kira. It is worth explaining that your clones copying Vial Smasher are not a target and won't negate the protection that Kira offers, which is what makes her a fantastic include.
  3. Krenko, Mob Boss - The fun thing about Vial Smasher is that she's a lovely lil goblin. Having a bunch of copies of Vial Smasher means even more goblins! Why not throw a Krenko in their for good measure to scare and threaten your opponents with a swarm of lil goblin fellas.
  4. Leyline of Anticipation / Vedalken Orrery / Mind's Dilation - Fun thing about Vial Smasher is that he triggers every turn! You can cast your spells at flash speed with Leyline and Vedalken Orrery or cast your opponents spells with Mind's Dilation.
  5. Whip of Erebos / Neheb, the Eternal - Vial Smasher damage is great, but lets turn it into something more! Whip will turn all that damage into life, and if done on your first main phase, turn it into mana.
  6. Dictate of the Twin Gods / Fiery Emancipation - The damaged caused by your fleet of Vial Smashers is a lot, wouldn't it be great if it were doubled? Maybe tripled!?
  7. Exsanguinate / Torment of Hailfire - These are the X spells from hell. These cards will do massive damage by themselves and with your Vial Smashers if you get them to resolve. Make sure to dump as much mana as you feel comfortable with into it, you'll still get the Vial Smasher triggers, but sometimes its best to leave two open for a Counterspell if you want to make sure it resolves.
  8. Archfiend of Depravity / Ensnaring Bridge - Vial Smasher is just a lil' guy, he can't keep up with some of the big meanies in the format. Make sure they (almost) all go away with Archfiend or try and keep them from swinging with Ensnaring Bridge.
  9. Sakashima the Impostor + Dockside Extortionist - This deck is strong, it really doesn't need any infinite combos... BUT, if you're feeling cheeky, why not indulge in this infinite mana combo so long as your opponents have 13+ artifacts and enchantments in play.

Note: This deck may look like it's lacking in lands, however, there are 34 lands (including mdfc lands: Agadeem's Awakening  , Valakut Awakening   and Glasspool Mimic  ), 9 permanents that will net you mana, 4 cost reducers, 8 ways to cheat out spells / free spells, 2 spells that reduce their own cost and lastly a piece of emergency conditional ramp (Mirage Mirror.)

Looking to potentially make the deck more competitive- suggestions are always appreciated :)

Suggestions

Updates Add

Vial Smasher's Guide to Masochism (Mach II) Redux — Jan. 7, 2023
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Included here are the alterations made from the original decklist and why the changes were made:

Removed:

Artifacts: Lithoform Engine - Felt heavily under utilized despite all functions of the card being beneficial to the strategy.

Talisman of Creativity, Talisman of Dominance and Talisman of Indulgence - The medallion cycle will net more mana over time.

Creatures: Gray Merchant of Asphodel - While I love me a good Gary, this isn't the right home for him even with copies and all of the Vial Smasher clones adding devotion.

Kaervek the Merciless - Too high of a mana cost to justify keeping around for its effect.

Kess, Dissident Mage - Felt generally underwhelming... Especially since I could only recast these spells on my turn.

Prince of Thralls - Too high and restrictive of a mana cost, almost always a dead card in hand (good riddance.)

Sheoldred, Whispering One - This card. almost never makes it a full turn cycle, making the return for seven mana not worth the investment.

Enchantments: Braid of Fire - There was not enough use of instant speed spells to justify the mass amount of mana production.

Omniscience - I love this card and I do still consider keeping it around as my one high-end beater, but inevitably the CMC was just too great.

Instants: Electrodominance - Just felt a little strange in the deck like I didn't know what I wanted for it, instead I opted for another piece of removal.

Rakdos Charm - While I like the flexibility and modality, it felt like there were better options for an instant speed piece.

Reinterpret - Four mana feels a little too steep to pay for solely a counterspell with a conditional effect.

Lands: 4x Island, 4x Mountain and 2x Swamp - Upgraded land package.

Witch's Cottage - Found that it very rarely met the condition to recur creature due to lack of swamps.

Planeswalkers: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - This one hurt to remove. It's a cool high end card with some flexibility, but he too was cut in favor of smaller CMC cards.

Sorceries: Clone Legion - Another flashy card that met an untimely end due to its mana cost.

Cut / Ribbons - This cut was to make more room for more effective cards despite its dual purpose.

Expropriate - This cut was to make more room for more effective cards despite its dual purpose.

Insurrection - This spell too was too big and splashy for the deck for a card that may not do too much in a non-creature heavy meta.

Time Stretch - I rather have two individual Time Warps than the actual one that's twice as hard to cast at once.

Added:

Artifacts: Jet Medallion, Ruby Medallion and Sapphire Medallion - Makes a stronger impact in mana value than the talismans.

Vedalken Orrery - Being able to cast more spells on other turns for Vial Smasher triggers needs more redundancy.

Creatures: Archfiend of Depravity - The deck needed defense against more creature heavy strategies.

Dockside Extortionist - Great way of producing lots of mana early or late game (also see the infinite combo in deck description.)

Sakashima the Impostor - Needed another strong clone that can stand alone (also see the infinite combo in deck description.)

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse - Great way to punish opponents for playing the game.

Spellskite - Great creature protection that could hypothetically be cloned.

Enchantments:

Mystic Remora - Great card draw source that is sure to replenish your hand for as long as you need it.

Painful Quandary - This additional damage and oppression is sure to run opponents' life and hands out quick.

Underworld Breach - A more cost effective way to get any spell cast and out of your graveyard.

Wound Reflection - Increased Vial Smasher damage is an effect that needs more redundancy.

Instants: Force of Will - Free spells are great, especially if they can help you dodge a bullet.

Sublime Epiphany - This spell is a wallop for six mana: counters, clone, draw and remove is great value.

Valakut Awakening  Flip - This MDFC will add another land to my deck as well as fix a troublesome hand.

Vampiric Tutor - Great way to search up whatever you need in a moment's notice.

Lands: Blightstep Pathway  Flip, Clearwater Pathway  Flip and Riverglide Pathway  Flip - Better mana fixing.

Command Beacon - My commanders tend to go "bye-bye," get around commander tax if you need it.

Luxury Suite, Morphic Pool and Training Center - Better mana fixing.

Otawara, Soaring City - Its effect that serves as a removal spell is great and efficient.

Reflecting Poolfoil - Better mana fixing.

Xander's Lounge - Better mana fixing (also the cycling is a big plus.)

War Roomfoil - Another source of consistent card draw was dire.

Planswalkers: Narset, Parter of Veils - The card selection is a great, but the ability is hose your opponents draws is amazing.

Sorceries: Karn's Temporal Sundering - A solid extra turn spell that is affordable and doubles as a removal spell.

Reanimate - Great way to return a creature for cheap (or steal an opponent's threat.)

Cards to anticipate in the future:

Exquisite Blood - Need more life gain effects.

Mana Crypt - More competitive mana rock for a more competitive deck.

Pithing Needle - Excellent, cheap way to stop problematic cards.

Build Back Better — Jan. 5, 2023
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Casual

96% Competitive

Revision 19 See all

(1 year ago)

-1 Chromatic Lantern main
+1 Mox Amber main
Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 1 year
Exclude colors WG
Splash colors UBR
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

21 - 0 Mythic Rares

60 - 0 Rares

6 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.58
Tokens City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Emblem Chandra, Awakened Inferno, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Goblin 1/1 R, Treasure
Folders My Babies <3, Interesting, decks, Grixis UBR, Decks I like, Test Decks, Deck ideas, Inspiration, Tapped Out - User Decks, Saved Decks
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