A quick introduction:
Hi! I’m fairly new to commander, and magic in general, I played a bit with my dad when I was little, but I didn’t really pick it up until Khans of Tarkir when my roommate went to a Prerelease event and I tagged along with him. I really enjoyed playing, so I looked into it a bit, and tried Commander as my first format, since it doesn’t rotate, and sounded like the funnest! The first deck I made was a Mayael the Anima deck based on cheating big guys out, but after a few games I decided to change it into a Ruric Thar, the Unbowed deck, and I’ve yet to look back.
Now, I’m looking to build my second commander deck, and, after looking for a while, I ended up with Melek, Izzet Paragon. I really like how he is pretty much the exact opposite of Ruric Thar, but in a way, the same. To keep with this I decided to make a burn deck based on him.
From here, I knew I should add more themes to the deck, and so I used a card from when I was little that I always enjoyed using: Hostility. With him I threw in a token subtheme along with Talrand, Sky Summoner, and Young Pyromancer as well.
To cap it off I threw in a lot of draw/draw-like effects to keep myself supplied with burn spells, a bit of ramp (which I was hard-pressed to find, being red/blue), a few ways to help keep melek on the board, and some cool stuff. I ended up with the following list, and still need to cut a lot of cards.
I kept non instant/sorcery spells at a minimum because I want Melek’s ability to go off for as long as possible. (Gelectrode probably isn’t great but he is so cute! How could I resist?)
How I want the deck to work:
I want to win from burn. The best ways for this to happen are via the previously mentioned cards (Sphinx-Bone Wand, Minds Desire, Epic Experiment, Fire Servant, Guttersnipe). Melek helps most of these as well as being a wincon in himself from chaining off a slew of spells. If I can’t do that, then overrunning them with tokens is a plausible option as well.
Where I’m at:
So, now that I have the basic concept all worked out, I want to fix a few things. First of all, I need to cut cards. I don’t know where to start because I don’t know what the right ratio for everything should be. I feel like with a lower mana curve (average of 3 CMC) I can skimp on land, but with how much draw I have I think it will still eat up a lot of mana. Secondly, I don’t know if the burn/draw spells I am using are the right ones to use. For example, I have Shock and Galvanic Blast both in here – Shock is obviously worse than Galvanic Blast. I don’t know if there’s a card somewhere on my list that is actually the inferior of some sort of pairing like that. Also, I don’t want to be missing out on an awesome card just because of my history with magic, or, rather, lack thereof. Lastly, I was curious about whether or not the cards I have in here like Hordeling outburst are worthwhile – they can be cast mid-melek-chain, and provide chump blockers to protect me since I’m light on creatures, but aren’t burn and can come up at inopportune times.
Last thing – I’m a broke college student, so I can’t get really expensive cards, and if a card is more than a few bucks it has to be really worth it
TL;DR
Commander Deck using Melek, Izzet Paragon with main theme Burn, subthemes of Draw, and Tokens
Need to find a good ratio of Draw to Burn
Need to cut cards to be at 100
Are cards like Hordeling Outburst good here?
Suggested cards/replacements?
On a Budget
Does anybody know how to make the deck list work? it isn't loading the cards in it
I fixed the deck list!
I used McDarby's list for inspiration when I made it, but wanted a more burn-approach :/ I like the second list there, and want to throwBeacon of Destruction into the list, but that just emphasizes my need to trim it, ahaha.
The reason I like Shock is that its one mana for two damage, which is more efficient than something like Blaze or Fireball which takes, say, two mana for one damage. You lose cards quicker, but I want to use melek as a way to have a huge card advantage (along with draw spells to remove noninstant/sorcery spells from the top) - to help with this I tried to keep my non-sorcery/instant count really low, and Mana Severance is awesome for this purpose too. Another good thing is that with a higher cards-cast count, cards like Talrand, Sky Summoner, Sphinx-Bone Wand, and Ignite Memories go up in value quicker. I do have cards like blaze/Fireball on the list though, they're nice to have when I don't have a lot of card advantage, and I can cast them for cheap just to have cast a spell (one mana for 0 damage for something like another storm count).
Sorry for the decklist being weird at first, I fixed it now, but, I already have Ignite Memories I like Mindblaze and might squeeze it in somewhere as well. Runechanter's Pike and Spellheart Chimera I had looked at, but I don't want to run too many non-spell/sorceries
I had to cut cards like Hordeling Outburst to get to 100, so I don't have to worry about whether or not they'd be good in here.
My biggest concern are whether or not the Draw spells are the ones I should be running, or if there are better draw spells out there I should be running in their place. Also - should I have more draw? Lastly, any suggested replacements?
The main issue with your deck as it stands is that the burn spells are too small (most deal 3 or less). EDH burn works differently from 60-card burn: rather than gradually whittling down our opponent's life, we want to have a few turns where we deal lots of damage (at least 10). I would replace most of your smaller burn spells (like Lightning Bolt and Volcanic Hammer with bigger ones (more X spells like Banefire or Red Sun's Zenith, or huge damage spells like Searing Wind or Cinder Storm). Your burn theme is helped out immensely by Furnace of Rath. You should also consider Sudden Impact and Gaze of Adamaro.
As for draw, the only one I would replace is Uncovered Clues. Fact or Fiction is a better card and costs the same. You might also want some X draw spells; Blue Sun's Zenith is especially good with Melek, since it can end up back on top of your library multiple times. Concentrate is good too, and Tidings might be pushing it. Ancestral Vision is very strong, but it can't be cast with Melek's ability. I would run it anyway.
The reason I wanted to use some of the smaller spells is how mana-efficient they become with Melek, (Lightning Bolt becomes a one-mana-for-six-damage card, and if I'm able to cast a large number of spells each turn then my cards with Storm go up in value, along with Sphinx-Bone Wand, and token makers like Talrand, Sky Summoner. That being said though, I did add in Red Sun's Zenith to replace Disintegrate since its the same but gets shuffled in as well. So, instead of one big spell I want to use two smaller spells in its place.
I tried putting scry effects in, and the draw cards are there to draw what I can't cast (some even let me put a card from my hand ontop of my library, and from playing with Mayael the Anima I know how strong that can get) and I wanted more, but I didn't know what to use. I don't like Crystal ball because you can only use it once per turn it takes mana and its a non-sorc/instant spell. Fated conflagration is now in! Thassa's only use would be scrying once during my upkeep (with how few creatures/permanents I have), and it going off during my upkeep (before my draw) doesn't sound particularly useful. Soldevi Digger is amazing - I can use it mid-Melek-casting and it is repeatable, so I'll use it. Sensei's Divining Top is a bit expensive, so I'll skip it.
I tried to get mana accelerators in, but i had too few card slots and ended up running cards like Pyretic Ritual instead since they can get melek out quicker, or be insane mana sources if cast by melek, and don't eat up non-sorc/instant slots.
Most of my spells are all focused on the same theme (Burn) so I don't think recursion would be good here, at least, not when its tied to a non-sorcery/instant... rather than relying on having a good card in my graveyard I'm relying on being able to burn my library until I hit something bomby.
I made the uncovered clues --> Fact or Fiction change. Blue Sun's Zenith worries me because of the three blue cost tacked onto it. I have an Ancestral Vision, but was worried about not being able to use it with melek along with having to wait four turns. I probably should have said this earlier, but, in my playgroup is a Heartless Hidetsugu player. so games tend to go really quickly... its the same reason I don't want to use Furnace of Rath Him using his ability, even once, makes all of my burn twice as efficient than in a game without him though, so I won't complain
Oops! I thought because the mana just got turned into colorless I'll swap them out for some mountain/islands. (the temple/reef are a bit expensive )
Also, since it may be a source of confusion, the Gamble, and Bribery I already have from when I was little, so, no, I'm not getting $20 cards
Hi! I’m fairly new to commander, and magic in general, I played a bit with my dad when I was little, but I didn’t really pick it up until Khans of Tarkir when my roommate went to a Prerelease event and I tagged along with him. I really enjoyed playing, so I looked into it a bit, and tried Commander as my first format, since it doesn’t rotate, and sounded like the funnest! The first deck I made was a Mayael the Anima deck based on cheating big guys out, but after a few games I decided to change it into a Ruric Thar, the Unbowed deck, and I’ve yet to look back.
Now, I’m looking to build my second commander deck, and, after looking for a while, I ended up with Melek, Izzet Paragon. I really like how he is pretty much the exact opposite of Ruric Thar, but in a way, the same. To keep with this I decided to make a burn deck based on him.
Deck Building:
Because the main idea was to use burn, I included a number of ways for my burn spells to scale better to the 40 life in commander: Sphinx-Bone Wand; Minds Desire; Epic Experiment; Fire Servant; Guttersnipe, and, of course, Melek himself.
From here, I knew I should add more themes to the deck, and so I used a card from when I was little that I always enjoyed using: Hostility. With him I threw in a token subtheme along with Talrand, Sky Summoner, and Young Pyromancer as well.
To cap it off I threw in a lot of draw/draw-like effects to keep myself supplied with burn spells, a bit of ramp (which I was hard-pressed to find, being red/blue), a few ways to help keep melek on the board, and some cool stuff. I ended up with the following list, and still need to cut a lot of cards.
I kept non instant/sorcery spells at a minimum because I want Melek’s ability to go off for as long as possible. (Gelectrode probably isn’t great but he is so cute! How could I resist?)
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Flood Plain
1 Halimar Depths
11 Island
11 Mountain
1 Mountain Valley
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Mystic Monastery
1 Rocky Tar Pit
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Non-sorcery/instants
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Izzet Signet
1 Sol Ring
1 Goblin Electromancer
1 Burnished Hart
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Young Pyromancer
1 Hostility
1 Gelectrode
1 Guttersnipe
1 Fire Servant
1 Sphinx-Bone Wand
Draw
1 Amass the Components
1 Divination
1 Faithless Looting
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Uncovered Clues
1 Brainstorm
1 Electrolyze
1 Frantic Search
1 Inspiration
1 Jaces Ingenuity
1 Arc Lightning
1 Arc Trail
1 Blaze
1 Craters Claws
1 Disintegrate
1 Fireball
1 Grapeshot
1 Ignite Memories
1 Lava Spike
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Pyroclasm
1 Slagstorm
1 Volcanic Hammer
1 Barbed Lightning
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Burst Lightning
1 Char
1 Flame Javelin
1 Flames of the Blood Hand
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Incinerate
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Strike
1 Magma Jet
1 Magma Spray
1 Punishing Fire
1 Searing Blaze
1 Searing Blood
1 Searing Spear
1 Shock
1 Sudden Shock
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Wild Slash
1 Yamabushis Flame
Wipes
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Chain Reaction
1 Devastation Tide
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Empty The Warrens
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Notorious Throng
1 Tempt with Vengeance
Wincons
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Bribery
1 Eternal Dominion
1 Minds Desire
1 Epic Experiment
1 Mob Rule
1 Rite of Replication
1 Insurrection
Ramp
1 Inner Fire
1 Mana Geyser
1 Mitotic Manipulation
1 Retraced Image
1 Savor the moment
1 Desperate Ritual
1 High Tide
1 Pyretic Ritual
1 Seething Song
1 Turnabout
Extras
1 Gamble
1 Mana Severance
1 Spelltwine
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Izzet Charm
1 Snap
1 Turn // Burn
1 Stolen Goods
How I want the deck to work:
I want to win from burn. The best ways for this to happen are via the previously mentioned cards (Sphinx-Bone Wand, Minds Desire, Epic Experiment, Fire Servant, Guttersnipe). Melek helps most of these as well as being a wincon in himself from chaining off a slew of spells. If I can’t do that, then overrunning them with tokens is a plausible option as well.
Other ways for this deck to win: Eternal Dominion (Especially cast with Melek out!) letting me use the best cards in THEIR decks; Rite of Replication on somebody else’s big guy; Either Mob Rule, Insurrection, or Blatant Thievery taking their stuff for my own.
Where I’m at:
So, now that I have the basic concept all worked out, I want to fix a few things. First of all, I need to cut cards. I don’t know where to start because I don’t know what the right ratio for everything should be. I feel like with a lower mana curve (average of 3 CMC) I can skimp on land, but with how much draw I have I think it will still eat up a lot of mana. Secondly, I don’t know if the burn/draw spells I am using are the right ones to use. For example, I have Shock and Galvanic Blast both in here – Shock is obviously worse than Galvanic Blast. I don’t know if there’s a card somewhere on my list that is actually the inferior of some sort of pairing like that. Also, I don’t want to be missing out on an awesome card just because of my history with magic, or, rather, lack thereof. Lastly, I was curious about whether or not the cards I have in here like Hordeling outburst are worthwhile – they can be cast mid-melek-chain, and provide chump blockers to protect me since I’m light on creatures, but aren’t burn and can come up at inopportune times.
Last thing – I’m a broke college student, so I can’t get really expensive cards, and if a card is more than a few bucks it has to be really worth it
TL;DR
Commander Deck using Melek, Izzet Paragon with main theme Burn, subthemes of Draw, and Tokens
Need to find a good ratio of Draw to Burn
Need to cut cards to be at 100
Are cards like Hordeling Outburst good here?
Suggested cards/replacements?
On a Budget
Does anybody know how to make the deck list work? it isn't loading the cards in it
I fixed the deck list!
I used McDarby's list for inspiration when I made it, but wanted a more burn-approach :/ I like the second list there, and want to throwBeacon of Destruction into the list, but that just emphasizes my need to trim it, ahaha.
The reason I like Shock is that its one mana for two damage, which is more efficient than something like Blaze or Fireball which takes, say, two mana for one damage. You lose cards quicker, but I want to use melek as a way to have a huge card advantage (along with draw spells to remove noninstant/sorcery spells from the top) - to help with this I tried to keep my non-sorcery/instant count really low, and Mana Severance is awesome for this purpose too. Another good thing is that with a higher cards-cast count, cards like Talrand, Sky Summoner, Sphinx-Bone Wand, and Ignite Memories go up in value quicker. I do have cards like blaze/Fireball on the list though, they're nice to have when I don't have a lot of card advantage, and I can cast them for cheap just to have cast a spell (one mana for 0 damage for something like another storm count).
Sorry for the decklist being weird at first, I fixed it now, but, I already have Ignite Memories I like Mindblaze and might squeeze it in somewhere as well. Runechanter's Pike and Spellheart Chimera I had looked at, but I don't want to run too many non-spell/sorceries
1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
Land Thirty-Five
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Flood Plain
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Great Furnace
1 Halimar Depths
10 Island
11 Mountain
1 Mountain Valley
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Mystic Monastary
1 rocky tar pit
1 seat of the synod
1 spinerock knoll
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Artifacts Two
1 Sol Ring
1 Sphinx-Bone Wand
Creatures Seven
1 Burnished Hart
1 Fire Servant
1 Goblin Electromancer
1 Guttersnipe
1 Hostility
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Young Pyromancer
Draw Eight
1 Amass the Components
1 Faithless Looting
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Uncovered Clues
1 Brainstorm
1 Frantic Search
1 Arc Trail
1 Crater's Claws
1 Disintegrate
1 Grapeshot
1 Ignite Memories
1 Lava Burst
1 Lava Spike
1 Mindblaze
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Slagstorm
1 Volcanic Hammer
1 Beacon of Destruction
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Char
1 Electrolyze
1 Flame Javelin
1 Flames of the Blood Hand
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Incinerate
1 Izzet Charm
1 Kaervek's Torch
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Strike
1 Magma Jet
1 Skullcrack
1 Wild Slash
Quick Mana Six
1 Mana Geyser
1 Inner Fire
1 Desperate Ritual
1 High Tide
1 Pyretic Ritual
1 Seething Song
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Blatant Thievery
1 Bribery
1 Epic Experiment
1 Eternal Dominion
1 Gamble
1 Insurrection
1 Mana Severance
1 Mitotic Manipulation
1 Mob Rule
1 Rite of Replication
1 Spelltwine
1 Tempt With Vengeance
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Increasing Vengeance
I had to cut cards like Hordeling Outburst to get to 100, so I don't have to worry about whether or not they'd be good in here.
My biggest concern are whether or not the Draw spells are the ones I should be running, or if there are better draw spells out there I should be running in their place. Also - should I have more draw? Lastly, any suggested replacements?
The main issue with your deck as it stands is that the burn spells are too small (most deal 3 or less). EDH burn works differently from 60-card burn: rather than gradually whittling down our opponent's life, we want to have a few turns where we deal lots of damage (at least 10). I would replace most of your smaller burn spells (like Lightning Bolt and Volcanic Hammer with bigger ones (more X spells like Banefire or Red Sun's Zenith, or huge damage spells like Searing Wind or Cinder Storm). Your burn theme is helped out immensely by Furnace of Rath. You should also consider Sudden Impact and Gaze of Adamaro.
Another thing to think about is synergy with your commander. You're running some scry effects to take advantage of Melek, but I think you could use more, like Crystal Ball, Fated Conflagration, Thassa, God of the Sea, Soldevi Digger and (if you can afford it) Sensei's Divining Top. Some more mana acceleration wouldn't hurt either (e.g., Izzet Signet, Izzet Keyrune, Gilded Lotus). Recursion is very important in EDH, and a deck like this should at least be running Archaeomancer and Izzet Chronarch, and perhaps Charmbreaker Devils.
As for draw, the only one I would replace is Uncovered Clues. Fact or Fiction is a better card and costs the same. You might also want some X draw spells; Blue Sun's Zenith is especially good with Melek, since it can end up back on top of your library multiple times. Concentrate is good too, and Tidings might be pushing it. Ancestral Vision is very strong, but it can't be cast with Melek's ability. I would run it anyway.
Note: Frontier Bivouac isn't allowed in your deck because it has a green mana symbol. Same goes for Mystic Monastery with its white symbol. I would replace them with Temple of Epiphany and Shivan Reef.
Happy deckbuilding!
The reason I wanted to use some of the smaller spells is how mana-efficient they become with Melek, (Lightning Bolt becomes a one-mana-for-six-damage card, and if I'm able to cast a large number of spells each turn then my cards with Storm go up in value, along with Sphinx-Bone Wand, and token makers like Talrand, Sky Summoner. That being said though, I did add in Red Sun's Zenith to replace Disintegrate since its the same but gets shuffled in as well. So, instead of one big spell I want to use two smaller spells in its place.
I tried putting scry effects in, and the draw cards are there to draw what I can't cast (some even let me put a card from my hand ontop of my library, and from playing with Mayael the Anima I know how strong that can get) and I wanted more, but I didn't know what to use. I don't like Crystal ball because you can only use it once per turn it takes mana and its a non-sorc/instant spell. Fated conflagration is now in! Thassa's only use would be scrying once during my upkeep (with how few creatures/permanents I have), and it going off during my upkeep (before my draw) doesn't sound particularly useful. Soldevi Digger is amazing - I can use it mid-Melek-casting and it is repeatable, so I'll use it. Sensei's Divining Top is a bit expensive, so I'll skip it.
I tried to get mana accelerators in, but i had too few card slots and ended up running cards like Pyretic Ritual instead since they can get melek out quicker, or be insane mana sources if cast by melek, and don't eat up non-sorc/instant slots.
Most of my spells are all focused on the same theme (Burn) so I don't think recursion would be good here, at least, not when its tied to a non-sorcery/instant... rather than relying on having a good card in my graveyard I'm relying on being able to burn my library until I hit something bomby.
I made the uncovered clues --> Fact or Fiction change. Blue Sun's Zenith worries me because of the three blue cost tacked onto it. I have an Ancestral Vision, but was worried about not being able to use it with melek along with having to wait four turns. I probably should have said this earlier, but, in my playgroup is a Heartless Hidetsugu player. so games tend to go really quickly... its the same reason I don't want to use Furnace of Rath Him using his ability, even once, makes all of my burn twice as efficient than in a game without him though, so I won't complain
Oops! I thought because the mana just got turned into colorless I'll swap them out for some mountain/islands. (the temple/reef are a bit expensive )
Also, since it may be a source of confusion, the Gamble, and Bribery I already have from when I was little, so, no, I'm not getting $20 cards
Changes:
-Disintegrate
-Uncovered Clues
-Grapeshot
-Pillar of Flame
-Electrolyze
-Izzet Charm
-Frontier Bivouac
-Mystic Monastery
+Soldevi Digger
+Sudden Impact
+Gaze of Adamaro
+Red Sun's Zenith
+Fact or Fiction
+fated conflagration
+Mountain
+Island