Of the five new Amonkhet gods, Hazoret the Fervent is commonly considered the hardest to get online and thus the worst to play. Additionally, mono-red in Commander has been classically considered to be hamstrung by its lack of ability to straight up draw cards and keep them in hand. This weakness has been shored up in recent years with cards like Act on Impulse and Commune with Lava to gain a sort of card advantage while also staying absolutely true to Red's portion of the color pie. However, Red's oldest way of keeping the cards in hand flowing has been the "looting" and "rummaging" abilities, where you draw and discard or vice versa and choose card quality over quantity.
This deck, as encouraged by the design of Hazoret, favors looting to keep cards flowing through the hand, keeping cards that could be played now and pitching cards that just clog up the hand for later. This deck focuses that, bringing in cards Red can use to interact favorably with the graveyard through the long game to be pitched for later while the deck focuses on puking its hand out onto the battlefield in the early game. Cards which help the decks play something earlier than it can turn in later for cards, like Mind Stone and Hedron Archive, are important for keeping the deck running strong. Keeping card flow as the main theme of the deck, the secondary theme is having Hazoret blast out as much damage as she can, and making the quality of that damage beneficial for the long run, so Batterskull, Grafted Exoskeleton, and the like aim to be attached to Hazoret to lengthen the game for us and shorten it for opponents.
Get Hazoret online, start suiting her up and get fatties on board
Keep cards moving through hand, ideally draw and play 3 per turn
Recur and recycle graveyard as able
Demolish life totals
This is not one of those Hazoret decks people have thought up that aims to just run out an infinite number of Raging Goblins and Lightning Bolts because they're cheap and they're fond of Sligh in other formats. No, that doesn't succeed in multiplayer Commander and will get stale quickly. Also, though it looks like a Voltron deck, equipment synergies are here for utility and value, not to win the game straight-out (unless it's Grafted Exoskeleton). This deck is a Midrange deck with a focus of keeping the hand moving fast and staying low to the ground.
In addition to the cards from the Maybeboard, I fully intend to acquire copies of Oracle's Vault and Pyramid of the Pantheon for the deck. They should both do very well in the deck, Vault eventually casting free things off the top of the library to keep the deck moving and Pyramid becoming an inexpensive Gilded Lotus.
Suitable suggestions, constructive criticism, and miscellaneous musings are welcome!
Is the deck built to take advantage of Feldon's ability? Generally Feldon wants to be included in either an artifact-heavy sac deck, or a deck designed to abuse ETB effects with Purphoros and Panharmonicon. Bedlam Reveler wants a decklist with at least twice the instants and sorceries you have here; it benefits from 11% of your decklist.
Impulse draw is preferable to rummaging since the former doesn't increase your hand size while the latter doesn't decrease it. Consider Wolf of Devil's Breach, which provides more discard, provides removal, and plays with everything in your deck except lands. Chandra, Torch of Defiance is good for ramp as well as impulse draw, and if you don't want to or can't cast the cards she exiles, she can compliment Hazoret's shock with her own. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker gives you another beater and an ultimate that helps empty your hand. Knollspine Dragon allows you to just dump your hand outright.
Flashback and madness spells are a good consideration as you can still get use out of them. Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe are always a classy combo, and they ideally work well with many other cards in your deck. Seize the Day works great if you want to break face with Hazoret and other creatures. Insult//Injury as an Aftermath spell works on the same principle as Flashback, though Insult is arguably the better half.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
I like the idea, this seems like the appropriate way to go with Hazoret
- I see you have Avaricious Dragon, why not Grafted Skullcap?
- In that vein Uba Mask is also fairly powerful by forcing everyone to play on your level
- Tenza, Godo's Maul seems kind of just-for-damage, maybe something better could be in it's place? same goes for Pilgrim's Eye; heck even Traveler's Amulet might be better unless you really want the blocker
- Sensei's Divining Top is cheap so it won't fill your hand, and is good with making sure impulse draw hits something you can actually use. also it turns impulse draw into real draw, since you can draw the top card, then impulse draw top and play it.
- I would definitely include Devil's Play as a random finisher, flashback in general seems solid in this strategy.
- where is Caged Sun/Gauntlet of Power? you're playing a lot of big mana creatures and if you plan on using Hazoret's ability it ain't all that cheap.
- I know wheels go against the keep-your-hand-light style of the deck, but they also synergize with it, since that style means you'll get the biggest benefit from them. they also provide a lot of food for Hazoret, even if they make her unable to attack for a turn. i'd include at least wheel of fortune to see how it plays.
- Blasphemous Act seems like an auto-include to save you from dying if the game goes south.
- same goes for Chaos Warp
- how do you feel about damage doublers (eg Furnace of Rath) as ways of making Hazoret's ability more lethal?
- just looking over the list it didn't seem like you had any way to destroy artifacts? Shattering Spree or Shattering Pulse seem like necessary tools unless you really want to go all-in on the attacking and hope for the best (which it didn't seem like you did).
some of these changes may be twisting the deck away from your original goal and turning it more late-game controlly, so feel free to disregard them, just thought I'd add my thoughts on your list. thanks for starting something up, the theorycrafting thread was solid but it's good to move on to a concrete list
Is the deck built to take advantage of Feldon's ability? Generally Feldon wants to be included in either an artifact-heavy sac deck, or a deck designed to abuse ETB effects with Purphoros and Panharmonicon. Bedlam Reveler wants a decklist with at least twice the instants and sorceries you have here; it benefits from 11% of your decklist.
The deck's not specifically built around Feldon, no, but he's good utility. When I pitch my fatties early on, he makes copies of them to keep the damage train rolling. Reveler's also not something I built around but this deck ramps fast enough that getting to seven or eight mana isn't a problem, and the payoff Reveler gives is quite nice.
Flashback and madness spells are a good consideration as you can still get use out of them. Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe are always a classy combo, and they ideally work well with many other cards in your deck. Seize the Day works great if you want to break face with Hazoret and other creatures. Insult//Injury as an Aftermath spell works on the same principle as Flashback, though Insult is arguably the better half.
Oh yeah, I considered them. However, they don't tend to be especially good in this format. For example, with Fiery Temper, would you honestly sacrifice a card slot for Lightning Bolt in any old red deck? It's just not enough value at all for that slot. I was very close to including Seize the Day and Devil's Play though and may yet include them when I get to future cuts and additions.
It's good for recycling, yeah, and I tend to include Elixir in 80% of my decks, but I've got it handled by Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and sacrificing another card slot for it would be overly redundant for me.
I like the idea, this seems like the appropriate way to go with Hazoret
- I see you have Avaricious Dragon, why not Grafted Skullcap?
- In that vein Uba Mask is also fairly powerful by forcing everyone to play on your level
- Tenza, Godo's Maul seems kind of just-for-damage, maybe something better could be in it's place? same goes for Pilgrim's Eye; heck even Traveler's Amulet might be better unless you really want the blocker
- Sensei's Divining Top is cheap so it won't fill your hand, and is good with making sure impulse draw hits something you can actually use. also it turns impulse draw into real draw, since you can draw the top card, then impulse draw top and play it.
- I would definitely include Devil's Play as a random finisher, flashback in general seems solid in this strategy.
- where is Caged Sun/Gauntlet of Power? you're playing a lot of big mana creatures and if you plan on using Hazoret's ability it ain't all that cheap.
- I know wheels go against the keep-your-hand-light style of the deck, but they also synergize with it, since that style means you'll get the biggest benefit from them. they also provide a lot of food for Hazoret, even if they make her unable to attack for a turn. i'd include at least wheel of fortune to see how it plays.
- Blasphemous Act seems like an auto-include to save you from dying if the game goes south.
- same goes for Chaos Warp
- how do you feel about damage doublers (eg Furnace of Rath) as ways of making Hazoret's ability more lethal?
- just looking over the list it didn't seem like you had any way to destroy artifacts? Shattering Spree or Shattering Pulse seem like necessary tools unless you really want to go all-in on the attacking and hope for the best (which it didn't seem like you did).
some of these changes may be twisting the deck away from your original goal and turning it more late-game controlly, so feel free to disregard them, just thought I'd add my thoughts on your list. thanks for starting something up, the theorycrafting thread was solid but it's good to move on to a concrete list
- The reason I've included Avaricious Dragon and not Grafted Skullcap is simply that the dragon is a creature and can attack and block but Skullcap just sits on the field, waiting for the next Vandalblast to come around. It's still a consideration, and if I find Avaricious Dragon is particularly effective during actual gameplay, I'll probably add it later on down the line.
- Uba Mask is good for guarding your hand but doesn't actually accrue any card flow. In this deck, yeah it'll get around mandatory discard effects and succeed in turning Hazoret on sooner, but to really take advantage of it, I'd need about three more similar effects and retune the whole goal of puking my hand out asap. So, if you're building Hazoret and you want to run a more controlling build, I'd say Uba Mask would be good there but it just won't jive well in this build.
- Tenza's mostly around for the evasion it grants, and I probably would've included O-Naginata too if I'd had an extra copy of that lying around. Honestly, it might be one of the first on the chopping block. And Pilgrim's Eye is around for the same reason as Avaricious Dragon - it's a creature. It attacks, it blocks, I can bring it back with Feldon and I can Sneak Attack it in. The difference in mana cost is pretty negligible when they're both pretty low.
- Sensei's Top is nice but I don't run it in my decks (unless I *need* to) for the same reason I don't do infinite combos. It's just good politics to leave them out.
- Devil's Play has been in and out of the decklist frequently through the building process and I've got a feeling it'll ultimately stay in.
- The Gauntlets were a serious question for inclusion, but the more I solitaire with the deck, the more it feels like I won't need them. I've got enough artifact ramp already to run straight into the mid- to late-game. I know, mono-colored decks should almost always run a Gauntlet or two, but this deck just doesn't *need* them and card slots are precious commodities with so many already being invested in card flow and ramp.
- The Wheels haven't been included simply because I need the card slots for other things and because I want to keep my hand very low to the ground. I've been finding that three cards per turn is the perfect draw rate to keep playing things and keep the hand empty, and seven cards makes that difficult to unload. However, using cards that can both Wheel and serve a second purpose (I'm looking at you, Runehorn Hellkite) have too much value to ignore.
- Blast Act and Chaos Warp are both cards that answer other people's shenanigans, which is good, but unless I can get a controlling card back and use it several times in one game, I'd rather give that card slot to something that furthers my position and be the one needing to be answered rather than the one with the answers. If I notice a desperate need for *some* control elements down the line though, these are definitely on the table.
- The main reason I avoid using Furnace and symmetrical effects like it in my decks is because it usually either gets answered before it cane do much good at all, or I get burned by it and burned hard. You live by the Furnace and you die by the Furnace, and I've died more times to it than I'd care to admit. Same thing Pandemonium.
- I'm considering Hoard-Smelter Dragon and Viashino Heretic for my artifact removal if I really need it.
I really appreciate your input here and am glad to see more people being interested in Hazoret. Outwardly, she looks difficult to manage and that turns people off but I think she'll be a fun, hard-hitting commander when you build correctly for her.
Impulse draw is preferable to rummaging since the former doesn't increase your hand size while the latter doesn't decrease it. Consider Wolf of Devil's Breach, which provides more discard, provides removal, and plays with everything in your deck except lands. Chandra, Torch of Defiance is good for ramp as well as impulse draw, and if you don't want to or can't cast the cards she exiles, she can compliment Hazoret's shock with her own. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker gives you another beater and an ultimate that helps empty your hand. Knollspine Dragon allows you to just dump your hand outright.
Apologies, forgot to respond to this part too.
The Wolf is a stimulating idea and God knows it doesn't have a place anywhere else in commander. However, assuming I'm attacking with it in the mid game when I have the mana to play the big things I draw, pitching them to Wolf instead of playing them feels tactically bad. If I could guarantee equipping him up with Basilisk Collar and dumping all of my two- and three-drops with him though sounds great, but I can't ever guarantee a Basilisk Collar. Kaladesh Chandra is on the "if I had less bills, I'd invest in a heartbeat" list. If I start feeling like the deck really needs a copy of her, I'll buy her, but I'm probably just going to wait until I can get a good trade for her. Sarkhan does do what I want him to do and hitting his ultimate guarantees regular card flow for the rest of the game, not immediately including him was an oversight on my part. Knollspine, I'm really on the hedge about. He's a big, fat dragon that can draw me cards upon entrance, but if I top deck him while my board and hand are nonexistent, he's just a 7/5 flyer. Then again, I hear 7/5 flyers are pretty good to have on hand. Yeah, I'll probably make a space for Knollspine.
So I recently built Hazoret myself, though in a more control, less aggro style, with less focus on getting hellbent. It's been pretty decent, I especially liked your idea to cram the deck with mana rocks and card draw, I took that on board and it's made the deck run a lot more smoothly and given it a lot more powerful plays. More or less I just replaced a lot of your aggro creatures with more removal and a few defensive cards. I agree with most all of your responses though, your reasoning seems sound especially for a more aggro-oriented list.
How's the deck been playing out for you?
PS On the damage doublers, I think you're more or less right - Gratuitous Violence, however, is asymmetrical and for that reason might be worth including
I've played two games so far with her, one 1v1 and one 3 person multiplayer, and she got really outclassed. She just couldn't take the pressure of 1v1 with the first one, and the second one, she got thoroughly outclassed by my own Omnath deck, but that deck just kind of took over the game anyway. Both of those games, I had decent card flow but somehow just always came up one mana short of what I wanted to do for the turn, so It's been a little rough on my end. I also put in Oracle's Vault, Pyramid of the Pantheon, Combustible Gearhulk, and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker in the deck but they haven't had any impact yet. I did land the Vault and flipped up a Sol Ring from it, which was absolutely ideal, but it ate removal before I could use it any more.
I'm thinking I might backtrack a little bit on my build and go for more of a slow and steady approach, either that or run more lands. With a deck with, say, 42 lands, land drops become way more consistent early in the game and great discard targets later on.
Gratuitous Violence is usually a great idea, so long as you can take advantage of it with your creatures. I think It'll be a worthy include in this deck, too.
Let me know how things play out for you and your deck. I should have one or two opportunities to play more games with mine in the next week.
Hmm yeah she's definitely not ideal for 1v1, and Omnath tends take things over... maybe just not ideal matchups, but I guess we'll see
I played three 4-player games, lost all of them (though one of these was because I miscounted how much mana Comet Storm cost, so that's on me, not the deck). I've found Pariah's Shield and Pyrohemia to be doing good work, especially together. Tbh I think I kinda didn't shuffle that well because I drew both of them in two of the games, but hey.
I guess my main worry is that in a control capacity she'll end being just a worse version of Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, so I'm trying to capitalize on her indestructibility and the possibility of using her discard ability more than once a turn.
I got a couple more games in with Hazoret this weekend with my home meta and they went pretty well. I didn't win either of them, the first was one by a Narset deck hitting Omniscience and Enter the Infinite, and the second I was put into a pretty dominating position but had to leave for work before I could seal the deal. I'm finding that the deck performs best when it's not the focus of attention which, fortunately with mono-red's reputation in Commander, isn't too hard to do when you're with higher powered decks or in a meta where opponents aren't familiar with your deck. Ghirapur Orrery might be the best card in the 99, but Batterskull clocks in at a close second, earning my deck a reputation for being "mono-red life gain" by the end of the night. While I was playing, I found myself pitching all of my aggro-y creatures because there were just more fun things to do with Hazoret, so I'm thinking skewing towards a more controlling build would make for a better Hazoret deck, and of course by "controlling," I mean damaging *everything* for a gazillion.
Cards I'm definitely looking to put into the deck now include: Pariah's Shield, Pyrohemia, Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction, Stuffy Doll, Arcbond, Gratuitous Violence, and seriously considering Sword of Kaldra if Hazoret's getting a lot of exposure in damaging creatures. A note here about Shield and Arcbond: I believe if you have Shield equipped to Hazoret, you resolve Arcbond targeting Hazoret, and you have at least 1 damage by dealt to Hazoret, it should create an infinite loop of Hazoret re-dealing that damage to everyone and everything else while constantly pulling the damage going to your own face to her to blast back out again and repeat the process, killing all of your opponents. I'm waiting on my judge friend to confirm this interaction. Usually I go out of my way to exclude infinite combos from my decks but this one's too cool to not include.
Essentially, I'm planning to take this deck in a direction where Hazoret is essentially a conduit for massive damage, so not exactly *control* and definitely not interchangeable with Jaya (thank you native Indestructibility) but something that digs through the deck fast to inflict monstrous gobs of damage. As a red player to my very core, this deck should scratch a very satisfying itch.
Edit - Also look for a snappy new thread title since "midrange" really isn't the direction I'm taking the deck any more. Suggestions?
Oooo yeah I definitely like this new direction. That's more or less how my build is going too, I'll try to post a decklist soon. I've been playing most of those cards you suggest except Stuffy Doll and Arcbond, and they've all been pretty solid. I'm not a judge, but I'd say you're right about the Arcbond interaction. Might not include it for that reason, but it is a really cool combo so maybe I will... It might be one of those that can't stop resolving though?
Pyrohemia, by the way, is mega good, especially since Hazoret makes sure it sticks around. If you land Pariah's Shield it just gets broken. In fact, the shield has been good enough that I ended up including Inventor's Fair just so I can grab it more frequently.
What are your thoughts on Goblin Welder? I'm thinking it has cool synergy with our God, and we play a ton of artifact mana... plus it can deal with opposing artifacts.
As for a title, could maybe just call it 'burn the world'? fits your sig
You could add Dictate of the Twin Gods to Gratuitous Violence; Dictate can be flashed out just before your turn, allowing you to reap the benefits first. Conqueror's Flail is good at stopping other players from interrupting your draw-burn style of play. Inquisitor's Flail is another damage doubler with a drawback that's only situationally consequential. Rings of Brighthearth and Illusionist's Bracers double Haz's activations, which on top of your damage doublers allows her to hit really hard. Also consider spell doubling for your draw spells; Dual Casting isn't a bad choice.
I neglected to suggest Koth of the Hammer earlier; his ramp ability could prove quite useful, and his plus and ultimate can help put pressure on the opponent.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
@aslidsiksoraksi I checked with my judge friend and he confirmed that the interaction between an indestructible creature equipped with Pariah's Shield and Arcbond is correct. It'll cause triggers to constantly hit the stack until everyone else has lost the game, and I believe winning is a state-based action, so it won't be like the Sporemound-Life and Limb combo where it spires on into eternity without anyone doing anything. No, this one could be interrupted at instant speed, but it'd have to either exile or sacrifice the creature or get rid of the Shield.
I've already got my Shield in here (deck update coming soon - I've swapped 20ish cards in the deck) and I'm pretty excited for it. Inventors' Fair is something I'm going to have to consider. Colorless mana is good since I run Endbringer but that artifact tutor will be very relevant since it could fetch me up a Batterskull or Grafted Exoskeleton too.
Goblin Welder I like but not sure how entirely useful he'll be. I'm wary of accidentally turning this into a deck better headed by Daretti and I don't know just how often Welder will actually be useful. I'll keep an eye on future games to see if he'd be worth including. On a side note, I'm also doing this for Hellkite Igniter.
I'm actually thinking something like, "Hazoret's Divine Inferno" will be what I go with. I'll update that when I update the decklist.
@Manite I'm probably going to go with something like "Hazoret's Divine Inferno" and I'll update the name when I update the decklist.
The thing about Dictate of the Twin Gods is that it wants you to keep it in hand until the best moment and this deck just wants you to puke everything out onto the board. I feel like, should it be included in this deck, it'll become discard fodder 99% of the time. Conqueror's Flail is worth considering and I'm sure I will whenever I find myself in a game with far too many Islands for my liking. Flail only doubles combat damage, but if it doubled all damage, I'd definitely keep it. Rings and Bracers are nice but they don't serve any more purpose than just cranking out more damage, and Rings certainly isn't the most budget card ever (I've only just finally gotten a copy for my Kiki-Jiki deck), but if I see that I can land things like Burning Anger on Hazoret more often, I know Bracers could certainly be worth it, so I'll play the deck and keep an eye out for places where Bracers will maximize my gameplay. It's funny, I've been looking for a good place for Dual Casting for years but now that it makes itself apparent, I'm very hesitant to include it, but honestly, there's no better deck than one with a guaranteed indestructible creature and lots of red instants and sorceries. I'll see if I can find a spot for Dual Casting before I update the decklist.
Oh yeah, trust me, Koth went in as soon as I got another copy of him. Koth works extremely well in mono-red decks (I have years of experience with him in Kiki-Jiki and other decks), especially this one with how mana hungry it is. He'll be included in the decklist update.
After several tests with the deck over the last month, I've made many on-the-go cuts and additions to streamline the deck and focus on what makes it good. The first thing to note about these changes is that cut nearly half of the creatures. I did this because they were largely ineffectual and the deck really wants to focus on Hazoret and *maybe* one or two other creatures.
Also, over testing, I've found that focusing on Hazoret's indestructibility is the key to capitalizing on the deck's functions. In the color of straight up damage, indestructibility seriously comes in handy. In the spirit of making it work, I've included one infinite combo: equip Hazoret with Pariah's Shield, target her with Arcbond, hit her with as little as one point of damage. Hazoret will trigger to hit each other creature and each player, including you, and Shield will immediately pull the one damage going to you back to her, triggering her again. The end result, when uninterrupted, obliterates everyone else's life total but yours, and you should win.
The best card to make the deck go is definitely Ghirapur Orrery but the best card to sustain is Batterskull and other lifelinking friends. Throughout my games, I've consistently hit my lifelinking equipment, suited up Hazoret, and went to town, regularly gaining upwards of 60, 70, 80 life. At first, I started joking that this was my mono-red lifegain deck but I'm taking that a little more seriously now. Continuing on this theme, I'm including Aetherflux Reservoir to see just how far I can take it. It's worth mentioning that, when the deck is firing on all cylinders, casting three or four spells a turn is a regular occurrence and Reservoir's pseudo-Storm trigger could be very useful.
Pariah's Shield - Indestructible creatures can take any amount of regular damage like a champ. Someone alpha striking you for 200? Well how about Hazoret takes that 200 instead.
Stuffy Doll - Indestructible's good and his trigger is particularly fun with the shenanigans we're running.
Combustible Gearhulk - Another way to draw cards on an empty hand and deal damage.
Arcbond - Shenanigans. Excellent to target Hazoret with it in response to Blasphemous Act.
Chain Reaction - Good removal since we have less creatures.
Blasphemous Act - Good removal since we have less creatures.
Devil's Play - For when we get to 20+ mana and have nothing else to do with it.
Pyrohemia - Doesn't hurt Hazoret but can keep everything else at bay.
Burning Anger - The dream is to enchant this on Endbringer after equipping with lifelink. This will always let Hazoret axe faces, hand or no hand.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker - We really want that ult but will gladly take 4/4 attackers and Flame Slashes until then.
Cuts:
1 Mountain - Replaced with nonbasic land.
Tenza, Godo's Maul - Evasion hasn't been too necessary in testing. This, and cards like it, may be reincluded in the future to grant more evasion if necessary.
Dragon Throne of Tarkir - Great in a creature heavy Hazoret build, but this is not a creature heavy Hazoret build.
Shard Phoenix - Not effective enough. I dreamed of equipping this with Basilisk Collar and going to town but it really just became an overly expensive second copy of Squee.
This Hazoret build has been very fun. I've played it in three different metas and, politically, people tend to dismiss you as "the threat" because you're mono-red and you're purposely trying to keep no cards in hand. Usually by the time they'd realized they should've dealt with this deck, their life total's been halved and you're going for the jugular. It's very good when you're playing against decks that are typically much better. Being underestimated is the position you want to be in when you run this deck.
I think you're right that this slower more controlly type deck is the way to go with Hazoret. I've found that we're open to a lot of attacks if people decide to kill us though, so maybe more boardwipes or even the old Glacial Crevasses tech might be useful. But the deck can put out serious damage once it gets going, and it can also draw a lot of cards and make a ton of mana. Pariah's Shield and Pyrohemia are two of the best cards in the deck, as is anything that gives our girl lifelink (i don't own Basilisk Collar or Batterskull, but I've got to get them for this deck). Things like Shatterstorm really suck though, to the point where I'm considering throwing in Scrap Mastery or some such - it has good synergy with our discard outlet commander as well.
You'll have to let me know how Burning Anger works out for you, it seemed good but also kind of slow and expensive (same goes, but double, for Surestrike Trident). Aside from that, all your additions seem strong to me. I've had good luck with Dragon Whisperer as a mana sink, but I could see her not being the best thing to do with your mana. Sometimes you just don't have the cards to pitch though. Other than that though, your cuts all make sense to me.
Of the five new Amonkhet gods, Hazoret the Fervent is commonly considered the hardest to get online and thus the worst to play. Additionally, mono-red in Commander has been classically considered to be hamstrung by its lack of ability to straight up draw cards and keep them in hand. This weakness has been shored up in recent years with cards like Act on Impulse and Commune with Lava to gain a sort of card advantage while also staying absolutely true to Red's portion of the color pie. However, Red's oldest way of keeping the cards in hand flowing has been the "looting" and "rummaging" abilities, where you draw and discard or vice versa and choose card quality over quantity.
This deck, as encouraged by the design of Hazoret, favors looting to keep cards flowing through the hand, keeping cards that could be played now and pitching cards that just clog up the hand for later. This deck focuses that, bringing in cards Red can use to interact favorably with the graveyard through the long game to be pitched for later while the deck focuses on puking its hand out onto the battlefield in the early game. Cards which help the decks play something earlier than it can turn in later for cards, like Mind Stone and Hedron Archive, are important for keeping the deck running strong. Keeping card flow as the main theme of the deck, the secondary theme is having Hazoret blast out as much damage as she can, and making the quality of that damage beneficial for the long run, so Batterskull, Grafted Exoskeleton, and the like aim to be attached to Hazoret to lengthen the game for us and shorten it for opponents.
1 Hazoret the Fervent
Lands
21 Mountain
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Terrain Generator
1 Mage-Ring Network
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Mirrorpool
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Buried Ruin
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Drownyard Temple
1 Cathedral of War
1 Temple of the False God
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Artifacts
1 Mana Crypt
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Mind Stone
1 Fire Diamond
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Key to the City
1 Surestrike Trident
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Burnished Hart
1 Palladium Myr
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Hedron Archive
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Ghirapur Orrery
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Pariah's Shield
1 Batterskull
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Anger
1 Avaricious Dragon
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Endbringer
1 Runehorn Hellkite
1 Combustible Gearhulk
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Skyline Despot
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Bedlam Reveler
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Instants
1 Arcbond
Sorceries
1 Faithless Looting
1 Magmatic Insight
1 Spark of Creativity
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Wild Guess
1 Cathartic Reunion
1 Act on Impulse
1 Chain Reaction
1 Chandra's Ignition
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Devil's Play
Enchantments
1 Outpost Siege
1 Pyrohemia
1 Burning Anger
1 Gratuitous Violence
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Chandra Ablaze
The tl;dr of how to run this deck:
This is not one of those Hazoret decks people have thought up that aims to just run out an infinite number of Raging Goblins and Lightning Bolts because they're cheap and they're fond of Sligh in other formats. No, that doesn't succeed in multiplayer Commander and will get stale quickly. Also, though it looks like a Voltron deck, equipment synergies are here for utility and value, not to win the game straight-out (unless it's Grafted Exoskeleton). This deck is a Midrange deck with a focus of keeping the hand moving fast and staying low to the ground.
1 Flameshadow Conjuring
1 Burning Anger
1 Prophetic Flamespeaker
1 Stromkirk Occultist
1 Surestrike Trident
1 Capricious Efreet
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
1 Avarice Amulet
1 Words of War
1 Senseless Rage
1 Omen Machine
1 Gustha's Scepter
1 Embermaw Hellion
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Tyrant's Familiar
1 Firewing Phoenix
1 Triassic Egg
1 Distemper the Blood
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Dragon Breath
1 Magnifying Glass
1 Malevolent Whispers
1 Punishing Fire
1 Hateflayer
1 Library of Leng
1 Magus of the Arena
1 Treasonous Ogre
1 Hell's Thunder
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Elkin Lair
1 Reckless Wurm
1 Loreseeker's Stone
1 Generator Servant
1 Dream Pillager
In addition to the cards from the Maybeboard, I fully intend to acquire copies of Oracle's Vault and Pyramid of the Pantheon for the deck. They should both do very well in the deck, Vault eventually casting free things off the top of the library to keep the deck moving and Pyramid becoming an inexpensive Gilded Lotus.
Suitable suggestions, constructive criticism, and miscellaneous musings are welcome!
Impulse draw is preferable to rummaging since the former doesn't increase your hand size while the latter doesn't decrease it. Consider Wolf of Devil's Breach, which provides more discard, provides removal, and plays with everything in your deck except lands. Chandra, Torch of Defiance is good for ramp as well as impulse draw, and if you don't want to or can't cast the cards she exiles, she can compliment Hazoret's shock with her own. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker gives you another beater and an ultimate that helps empty your hand. Knollspine Dragon allows you to just dump your hand outright.
Flashback and madness spells are a good consideration as you can still get use out of them. Fiery Temper and Lightning Axe are always a classy combo, and they ideally work well with many other cards in your deck. Seize the Day works great if you want to break face with Hazoret and other creatures. Insult//Injury as an Aftermath spell works on the same principle as Flashback, though Insult is arguably the better half.
Elixir of Immortality is a good, cheap graveyard refill option.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- I see you have Avaricious Dragon, why not Grafted Skullcap?
- In that vein Uba Mask is also fairly powerful by forcing everyone to play on your level
- Tenza, Godo's Maul seems kind of just-for-damage, maybe something better could be in it's place? same goes for Pilgrim's Eye; heck even Traveler's Amulet might be better unless you really want the blocker
- Sensei's Divining Top is cheap so it won't fill your hand, and is good with making sure impulse draw hits something you can actually use. also it turns impulse draw into real draw, since you can draw the top card, then impulse draw top and play it.
- I would definitely include Devil's Play as a random finisher, flashback in general seems solid in this strategy.
- where is Caged Sun/Gauntlet of Power? you're playing a lot of big mana creatures and if you plan on using Hazoret's ability it ain't all that cheap.
- I know wheels go against the keep-your-hand-light style of the deck, but they also synergize with it, since that style means you'll get the biggest benefit from them. they also provide a lot of food for Hazoret, even if they make her unable to attack for a turn. i'd include at least wheel of fortune to see how it plays.
- Blasphemous Act seems like an auto-include to save you from dying if the game goes south.
- same goes for Chaos Warp
- how do you feel about damage doublers (eg Furnace of Rath) as ways of making Hazoret's ability more lethal?
- just looking over the list it didn't seem like you had any way to destroy artifacts? Shattering Spree or Shattering Pulse seem like necessary tools unless you really want to go all-in on the attacking and hope for the best (which it didn't seem like you did).
some of these changes may be twisting the deck away from your original goal and turning it more late-game controlly, so feel free to disregard them, just thought I'd add my thoughts on your list. thanks for starting something up, the theorycrafting thread was solid but it's good to move on to a concrete list
Tymna & Ishai, ie Esper Edric
Crosis Turbotrash
The deck's not specifically built around Feldon, no, but he's good utility. When I pitch my fatties early on, he makes copies of them to keep the damage train rolling. Reveler's also not something I built around but this deck ramps fast enough that getting to seven or eight mana isn't a problem, and the payoff Reveler gives is quite nice.
Oh yeah, I considered them. However, they don't tend to be especially good in this format. For example, with Fiery Temper, would you honestly sacrifice a card slot for Lightning Bolt in any old red deck? It's just not enough value at all for that slot. I was very close to including Seize the Day and Devil's Play though and may yet include them when I get to future cuts and additions.
It's good for recycling, yeah, and I tend to include Elixir in 80% of my decks, but I've got it handled by Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and sacrificing another card slot for it would be overly redundant for me.
- The reason I've included Avaricious Dragon and not Grafted Skullcap is simply that the dragon is a creature and can attack and block but Skullcap just sits on the field, waiting for the next Vandalblast to come around. It's still a consideration, and if I find Avaricious Dragon is particularly effective during actual gameplay, I'll probably add it later on down the line.
- Uba Mask is good for guarding your hand but doesn't actually accrue any card flow. In this deck, yeah it'll get around mandatory discard effects and succeed in turning Hazoret on sooner, but to really take advantage of it, I'd need about three more similar effects and retune the whole goal of puking my hand out asap. So, if you're building Hazoret and you want to run a more controlling build, I'd say Uba Mask would be good there but it just won't jive well in this build.
- Tenza's mostly around for the evasion it grants, and I probably would've included O-Naginata too if I'd had an extra copy of that lying around. Honestly, it might be one of the first on the chopping block. And Pilgrim's Eye is around for the same reason as Avaricious Dragon - it's a creature. It attacks, it blocks, I can bring it back with Feldon and I can Sneak Attack it in. The difference in mana cost is pretty negligible when they're both pretty low.
- Sensei's Top is nice but I don't run it in my decks (unless I *need* to) for the same reason I don't do infinite combos. It's just good politics to leave them out.
- Devil's Play has been in and out of the decklist frequently through the building process and I've got a feeling it'll ultimately stay in.
- The Gauntlets were a serious question for inclusion, but the more I solitaire with the deck, the more it feels like I won't need them. I've got enough artifact ramp already to run straight into the mid- to late-game. I know, mono-colored decks should almost always run a Gauntlet or two, but this deck just doesn't *need* them and card slots are precious commodities with so many already being invested in card flow and ramp.
- The Wheels haven't been included simply because I need the card slots for other things and because I want to keep my hand very low to the ground. I've been finding that three cards per turn is the perfect draw rate to keep playing things and keep the hand empty, and seven cards makes that difficult to unload. However, using cards that can both Wheel and serve a second purpose (I'm looking at you, Runehorn Hellkite) have too much value to ignore.
- Blast Act and Chaos Warp are both cards that answer other people's shenanigans, which is good, but unless I can get a controlling card back and use it several times in one game, I'd rather give that card slot to something that furthers my position and be the one needing to be answered rather than the one with the answers. If I notice a desperate need for *some* control elements down the line though, these are definitely on the table.
- The main reason I avoid using Furnace and symmetrical effects like it in my decks is because it usually either gets answered before it cane do much good at all, or I get burned by it and burned hard. You live by the Furnace and you die by the Furnace, and I've died more times to it than I'd care to admit. Same thing Pandemonium.
- I'm considering Hoard-Smelter Dragon and Viashino Heretic for my artifact removal if I really need it.
I really appreciate your input here and am glad to see more people being interested in Hazoret. Outwardly, she looks difficult to manage and that turns people off but I think she'll be a fun, hard-hitting commander when you build correctly for her.
Apologies, forgot to respond to this part too.
The Wolf is a stimulating idea and God knows it doesn't have a place anywhere else in commander. However, assuming I'm attacking with it in the mid game when I have the mana to play the big things I draw, pitching them to Wolf instead of playing them feels tactically bad. If I could guarantee equipping him up with Basilisk Collar and dumping all of my two- and three-drops with him though sounds great, but I can't ever guarantee a Basilisk Collar. Kaladesh Chandra is on the "if I had less bills, I'd invest in a heartbeat" list. If I start feeling like the deck really needs a copy of her, I'll buy her, but I'm probably just going to wait until I can get a good trade for her. Sarkhan does do what I want him to do and hitting his ultimate guarantees regular card flow for the rest of the game, not immediately including him was an oversight on my part. Knollspine, I'm really on the hedge about. He's a big, fat dragon that can draw me cards upon entrance, but if I top deck him while my board and hand are nonexistent, he's just a 7/5 flyer. Then again, I hear 7/5 flyers are pretty good to have on hand. Yeah, I'll probably make a space for Knollspine.
How's the deck been playing out for you?
PS On the damage doublers, I think you're more or less right - Gratuitous Violence, however, is asymmetrical and for that reason might be worth including
Tymna & Ishai, ie Esper Edric
Crosis Turbotrash
I'm thinking I might backtrack a little bit on my build and go for more of a slow and steady approach, either that or run more lands. With a deck with, say, 42 lands, land drops become way more consistent early in the game and great discard targets later on.
Gratuitous Violence is usually a great idea, so long as you can take advantage of it with your creatures. I think It'll be a worthy include in this deck, too.
Let me know how things play out for you and your deck. I should have one or two opportunities to play more games with mine in the next week.
I played three 4-player games, lost all of them (though one of these was because I miscounted how much mana Comet Storm cost, so that's on me, not the deck). I've found Pariah's Shield and Pyrohemia to be doing good work, especially together. Tbh I think I kinda didn't shuffle that well because I drew both of them in two of the games, but hey.
I guess my main worry is that in a control capacity she'll end being just a worse version of Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, so I'm trying to capitalize on her indestructibility and the possibility of using her discard ability more than once a turn.
Tymna & Ishai, ie Esper Edric
Crosis Turbotrash
Cards I'm definitely looking to put into the deck now include: Pariah's Shield, Pyrohemia, Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction, Stuffy Doll, Arcbond, Gratuitous Violence, and seriously considering Sword of Kaldra if Hazoret's getting a lot of exposure in damaging creatures. A note here about Shield and Arcbond: I believe if you have Shield equipped to Hazoret, you resolve Arcbond targeting Hazoret, and you have at least 1 damage by dealt to Hazoret, it should create an infinite loop of Hazoret re-dealing that damage to everyone and everything else while constantly pulling the damage going to your own face to her to blast back out again and repeat the process, killing all of your opponents. I'm waiting on my judge friend to confirm this interaction. Usually I go out of my way to exclude infinite combos from my decks but this one's too cool to not include.
Essentially, I'm planning to take this deck in a direction where Hazoret is essentially a conduit for massive damage, so not exactly *control* and definitely not interchangeable with Jaya (thank you native Indestructibility) but something that digs through the deck fast to inflict monstrous gobs of damage. As a red player to my very core, this deck should scratch a very satisfying itch.
Edit - Also look for a snappy new thread title since "midrange" really isn't the direction I'm taking the deck any more. Suggestions?
Pyrohemia, by the way, is mega good, especially since Hazoret makes sure it sticks around. If you land Pariah's Shield it just gets broken. In fact, the shield has been good enough that I ended up including Inventor's Fair just so I can grab it more frequently.
What are your thoughts on Goblin Welder? I'm thinking it has cool synergy with our God, and we play a ton of artifact mana... plus it can deal with opposing artifacts.
As for a title, could maybe just call it 'burn the world'? fits your sig
Tymna & Ishai, ie Esper Edric
Crosis Turbotrash
You could add Dictate of the Twin Gods to Gratuitous Violence; Dictate can be flashed out just before your turn, allowing you to reap the benefits first. Conqueror's Flail is good at stopping other players from interrupting your draw-burn style of play. Inquisitor's Flail is another damage doubler with a drawback that's only situationally consequential. Rings of Brighthearth and Illusionist's Bracers double Haz's activations, which on top of your damage doublers allows her to hit really hard. Also consider spell doubling for your draw spells; Dual Casting isn't a bad choice.
I neglected to suggest Koth of the Hammer earlier; his ramp ability could prove quite useful, and his plus and ultimate can help put pressure on the opponent.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
I've already got my Shield in here (deck update coming soon - I've swapped 20ish cards in the deck) and I'm pretty excited for it. Inventors' Fair is something I'm going to have to consider. Colorless mana is good since I run Endbringer but that artifact tutor will be very relevant since it could fetch me up a Batterskull or Grafted Exoskeleton too.
Goblin Welder I like but not sure how entirely useful he'll be. I'm wary of accidentally turning this into a deck better headed by Daretti and I don't know just how often Welder will actually be useful. I'll keep an eye on future games to see if he'd be worth including. On a side note, I'm also doing this for Hellkite Igniter.
I'm actually thinking something like, "Hazoret's Divine Inferno" will be what I go with. I'll update that when I update the decklist.
The thing about Dictate of the Twin Gods is that it wants you to keep it in hand until the best moment and this deck just wants you to puke everything out onto the board. I feel like, should it be included in this deck, it'll become discard fodder 99% of the time. Conqueror's Flail is worth considering and I'm sure I will whenever I find myself in a game with far too many Islands for my liking. Flail only doubles combat damage, but if it doubled all damage, I'd definitely keep it. Rings and Bracers are nice but they don't serve any more purpose than just cranking out more damage, and Rings certainly isn't the most budget card ever (I've only just finally gotten a copy for my Kiki-Jiki deck), but if I see that I can land things like Burning Anger on Hazoret more often, I know Bracers could certainly be worth it, so I'll play the deck and keep an eye out for places where Bracers will maximize my gameplay. It's funny, I've been looking for a good place for Dual Casting for years but now that it makes itself apparent, I'm very hesitant to include it, but honestly, there's no better deck than one with a guaranteed indestructible creature and lots of red instants and sorceries. I'll see if I can find a spot for Dual Casting before I update the decklist.
Oh yeah, trust me, Koth went in as soon as I got another copy of him. Koth works extremely well in mono-red decks (I have years of experience with him in Kiki-Jiki and other decks), especially this one with how mana hungry it is. He'll be included in the decklist update.
Also, over testing, I've found that focusing on Hazoret's indestructibility is the key to capitalizing on the deck's functions. In the color of straight up damage, indestructibility seriously comes in handy. In the spirit of making it work, I've included one infinite combo: equip Hazoret with Pariah's Shield, target her with Arcbond, hit her with as little as one point of damage. Hazoret will trigger to hit each other creature and each player, including you, and Shield will immediately pull the one damage going to you back to her, triggering her again. The end result, when uninterrupted, obliterates everyone else's life total but yours, and you should win.
The best card to make the deck go is definitely Ghirapur Orrery but the best card to sustain is Batterskull and other lifelinking friends. Throughout my games, I've consistently hit my lifelinking equipment, suited up Hazoret, and went to town, regularly gaining upwards of 60, 70, 80 life. At first, I started joking that this was my mono-red lifegain deck but I'm taking that a little more seriously now. Continuing on this theme, I'm including Aetherflux Reservoir to see just how far I can take it. It's worth mentioning that, when the deck is firing on all cylinders, casting three or four spells a turn is a regular occurrence and Reservoir's pseudo-Storm trigger could be very useful.
Adds:
Cuts:
This Hazoret build has been very fun. I've played it in three different metas and, politically, people tend to dismiss you as "the threat" because you're mono-red and you're purposely trying to keep no cards in hand. Usually by the time they'd realized they should've dealt with this deck, their life total's been halved and you're going for the jugular. It's very good when you're playing against decks that are typically much better. Being underestimated is the position you want to be in when you run this deck.
4 Hazoret the Fervent
Creatures
1 Goblin Welder
2 Dragon Whisperer
3 Viashino Heretic
3 Burnished Heart
3 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Obsidian Fireheart
5 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
6 Charmbreaker Devils
6 Runehorn Hellkite
6 Endbringer
6 Steel Hellkite
6 Capricious Efreet
7 Molten Primordial
Artifacts
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
2 Mind Stone
3 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Commander's Sphere
3 Unstable Obelisk
3 Crawlspace
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Trading Post
4 Hedron Archive
4 Ghirapur Orrery
4 Tower of Fortunes
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Null Brooch
4 Grafted Exoskeleton
5 Tamiyo's Journal
5 Pariah's Shield
6 Loreseeker's Stone
6 Staff of Nin
6 Caged Sun
6 Dreamstone Hedron
6 Eternity Vessel
2 Smoke
2 Braid of Fire
4 Pyrohemia
4 Outpost Siege
5 Gratuitous Violence
5 Dictate of the Twin Gods
Planeswalker
5 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Instant
2 Reverberate
2 Price of Progress
2x Comet Storm
3 Chaos Warp
4 Grab the Reins
4 Wild Ricochet
5 Word of Seizing
5 Volcanic Offering
Sorcery
1 Faithless Looting
1 Vandalblast
1x Devil's Play
2 Tormenting Voice
2 Recoup
2 Mizzium Mortars
2x Molten Disaster
4 Chain Reaction
4 Mana Geyser
5 Chandra's Ignition
5 Reforge the Soul
9 Blasphemous Act
0 Drownyard Temple
0 Geier Reach Sanitorium
0 Inventor's Fair
0 Myriad Landscape
0 Mountain (34)
I think you're right that this slower more controlly type deck is the way to go with Hazoret. I've found that we're open to a lot of attacks if people decide to kill us though, so maybe more boardwipes or even the old Glacial Crevasses tech might be useful. But the deck can put out serious damage once it gets going, and it can also draw a lot of cards and make a ton of mana. Pariah's Shield and Pyrohemia are two of the best cards in the deck, as is anything that gives our girl lifelink (i don't own Basilisk Collar or Batterskull, but I've got to get them for this deck). Things like Shatterstorm really suck though, to the point where I'm considering throwing in Scrap Mastery or some such - it has good synergy with our discard outlet commander as well.
You'll have to let me know how Burning Anger works out for you, it seemed good but also kind of slow and expensive (same goes, but double, for Surestrike Trident). Aside from that, all your additions seem strong to me. I've had good luck with Dragon Whisperer as a mana sink, but I could see her not being the best thing to do with your mana. Sometimes you just don't have the cards to pitch though. Other than that though, your cuts all make sense to me.
Long live the inferno!
Tymna & Ishai, ie Esper Edric
Crosis Turbotrash