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By: Leviathan, Mike Morales
May 10 2013 7:15am
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The Deck:

Heavenly Inferno
A Preconstructed Commander Deck
Creatures
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Angel of Despair
1 Angelic Arbiter
1 Anger
1 Archangel of Strife
1 Avatar of Slaughter
1 Basandra, Battle Seraph
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Boros Guildmage
1 Dragon Whelp
1 Dread Cacodemon
1 Duergar Hedge-Mage
1 Fallen Angel
1 Furnace Whelp
1 Gwyllion Hedge-Mage
1 Lightkeeper of Emeria
1 Malfegor
1 Mana-Charged Dragon
1 Mother of Runes
1 Oni of Wild Places
1 Oros, the Avenger
1 Orzhov Guildmage
1 Razorjaw Oni
1 Reiver Demon
1 Serra Angel
1 Shattered Angel
1 Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
1 Voice of All
28 cards

Other Spells
[Artifacts]
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Boros Signet
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Sol Ring
[Enchantments]
1 Pyrohemia
1 Righteous Cause
1 Soul Snare
1 Stranglehold
1 Vow of Duty
1 Vow of Lightning
1 Vow of Malice
[Instants]
1 Bathe in Light
1 Cleansing Beam
1 Comet Storm
1 Congregate
1 Master Warcraft
1 Mortify
1 Orim's Thunder
1 Path to Exile
1 Return to Dust
1 Sulfurous Blast
1 Terminate
1 Wrecking Ball
[Sorceries]
1 Akroma's Vengeance
1 Death by Dragons
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Earthquake
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Syphon Flesh
1 Syphon Mind
33 cards
 
Lands
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boros Garrison
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Molten Slagheap
8 Mountain
1 Orzhov Basilica
8 Plains
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Rupture Spire
1 Secluded Steppe
8 Swamp
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Zoetic Cavern
38 cards

Sideboard
1 Kaalia of the Vast
1 cards
 
Kaalia of the Vast

 

Deck Tech:

So the deck plays 2 different ways.  If you have some good fat creatures in your opening hand, you get Kaalia out there fast and start beating down.  If you don't have any demons or angels in your opener, you sit back and try and play control.  If you go this route you end up hard casting most of your big beaters, and Kaalia is almost superfluous.

For Kaalia to matter in the late game you really need more draw.  Unfortunately, like most of the other precons, this one has a serious lack of card draw.  The only bit of draw is Syphon Mind and that's really not enough.  Black brings favorites like Phyrexian Arena and on theme cards like Promise of Power.  Red can even play Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul or Knollspine Dragon.  There's no shortage of options.

If you end up going the aggro route you will often play into a Wrath.  As such, some recursion could be helpful.  Phyrexian Reclamation would be great so that you could use Kaalia to sneak out some big beaters again.  Oversold Cemetery wouldn't be bad either.

Some of your big beaters really aren't that great.  Fallen Angel doesn't fit with the deck, Razorjaw Oni, Dragon Whelp, Furnace Whelp, Lightkeeper of Emeria and Gwyllion Hedge-Mage all do a poor job of scaring people.  I understand that these are included to provide early beats, but they're still bad.  Oni of Wild Places would do better if there were more Red "enters the battlefield" guys aside from Duergar Hedge-Mage.  And poor Serra Angel is just outclassed in this era.  There are plenty of suitable replacements you can find, such as Baneslayer Angel, Thundermaw Hellkite and Rakdos, Lord of Riots which can all be cast early enough to keep you relevant, or snuck out with Kaalia.

The deck has Akroma's Vengeance to wipe the board, but could use something else to Wrath that's not Evincar's Justice.  The deck also Diabolic Tutor, but another tutor would be nice.  Sometimes you can get color screwed in the early game, so additional dual lands or land search such as Journeyer's Kite would be nice.  Cleansing Beam and Pyrohemia were almost never helpful.

I never pulled off a win, but I came close several times.  The deck can come out the gates fast, but you have to overextend and push the limits as much as possible.  There are some solid beaters in here.  Wraths are a problem though.

Game 1

All right, in this game we have an enchantment based Ghave deck that looks pretty scary.  I don't have any beaters in my opening hand so I play control.  Unfortunately I screw up early and blow up Obzedat's Skullclamp instead of Ghave's Bitterblossom with Orim's Thunder.  When Ghave starts filling up the board with Sterling Grove, Mirari's Wake and a Skullclamp his own things are looking bad.  However Wrexial slows things down with an overloaded Cyclonic Rift.  It doesn't take long before things get back to the way they were though.

Eventually Ghave starts making some tokens, while Wrexial gets his Commander out.  Obzedat tries to Wrath to get things under control, but Wrexial has Foil to stop it.  Wrexial attacks Ghave with his Commander and gets the Demonic Tutor from Ghave's graveyard.  Then Wrexial plays Doomsday.  That's an interesting card to set up a win, and he combo'd out with Laboratory Maniac, Gush, Thought Scour and Azami, Lady of Scrolls.  This happened on turn 10, and honestly if it didn't Ghave would have probably overrun the table.

Game 2

This was a 3 player game, which I don't usually play but I thought I'd give it a shot.  Once again I didn't have any beaters in my opening hand and played control.  Vish Kal had Kokusho, but a Path to Exile got rid of that threat.  Iname tried to get a Caged Sun to stick but Vish Kal blew it up.  I had a Voice of All with protection from Black to help my defense.

Eventually Iname Diabolic Revelations for 3 cards while still at over 20 life.  Unfortunately Vish Kal and I don't have enough guys to take him out.  The next turn Iname plays his Commander, dumping 30 different spirits into his graveyard, then uses Patriarch's Bidding to bring them all back.  He uses He Who Hungers to take a look at Vish Kal's hand and mine to get rid of anything threatening, and wins the next turn.

Game 3

Gotta apologize guys, there's no Game 3 this week.  I had 3 usable games, and was trying to decide which one to pick.  Unfortunately I waited until after the most recent update, and all 3 games were corrupted.  The one I was going to use had Kaalia coming out early and beating down with some demons, but unfortunately I can't show you.

So with a few changes the deck can be pretty good.  It just needs some draw/recursion/better beaters.  I know what sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. There's lots of pinpoint removal in the deck and you should be able to deal with most issues.  It just needs a little push to become more competitive.

Next week, assuming that replays start working, I'm going to cover the last deck: Political Puppets!  Until then, I hope you enjoyed the article!

Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale 32 at yahoo dot com

CONQUEROR & COMMANDER ARCHIVE

2 Comments

Just in cased you guys missed by Leviathan at Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:22
Leviathan's picture

Just in cased you guys missed it, multiplayer Commander games are bugged:

http://community.wizards.com/magiconline/blog/2013/05/08/multiplayer_com...

They aren't going to get to the fix until next Wed. Sad times.

This also means that next week I won't be able to get to Political Puppets. Expect the Dragon's Maze Overview instead! (BTW, why are there no dragons in Dragon's Maze? I want more flavor!)

Card drawing & Tutors by WiseGreen at Tue, 05/14/2013 - 10:02
WiseGreen's picture

I've been toying with the deck for some time, and Bloodgift Demon, Seizan, Perverter of Truth and Rune-Scarred Demon are best at being both beaters and card advantage sources than what comes in the deck. There are other options as well (Phyrexian Arena, Underworld Connections, Increasing Ambition, Planar Portal), but I guess these are MVPs because they can be cheated onto the battlefield with Kaalia, and also do a reasonable job of beating down.