I noticed there haven't been any Ashling lists made in a long time so I figured I would post one for my favorite commander. Mono-red might not be the most exciting in terms of card pool, but Ashling's ability to break a large board stall and punish people for trying to remove her(at instant speed no less) is just too much fun.
I'm still new to these forums so forgive my formatting for now.
Cards by Function: For simplicity's sake, I'll try to only list each card once, though some easily fall under multiple categories.
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Avatar of Fury
Hateflayer
Hellkite Tyrant
Homura, Human Ascendant
Inferno Titan
Knollspine Dragon
Myojin of Infinite Rage
Ryusei, the Falling Star
All of these creatures are either massive(All of them), boost themselves(Firebreathers), or provide incentive to not kill/remove them(Homura, Myojin, Ryusei). A few also have some added utility on top of being a large beater either through drawing you some cards(Knollspine Dragon), acting as spot removal(Hateflayer, Inferno Titan), or being a win condition just by existing(Hellkite Tyrant).
Braid of Fire
Extraplanar Lens
Caged Sun
Gauntlet of Might
Gauntlet of Power
Mana Geyser
Sol Ring
Little known fact: Red doesn't ramp. We red mages prefer to just burn our way through the world, but you really need some extra push to do that. Luckily through our fancy artifacts one can easily have a mountain tapping for 2-3 mana by the lategame. This can quickly fuel Ashling explosions or massive kicked Molten Disasters if need be. Of note: A large enough Mana Geyser + a buy-back Reiterate is infinite mana. Use this of your own volition.
Basilisk Collar
Blight Sickle
Blasphemous Act
Bonfire of the Damned
Inferno
Insurrection
Molten Disaster
Nevinyrral's Disk
Repercussion
Sword of Kaldra
Vicious Shadows
Volcanic Fallout
Our goal with Ashling is to keep the board as clear of threats for as long as possible until we can either do one of a few things to win.
1) Smash some faces with a large Ashling and her friends.
2) Drop Hellkite Tyrant with some goodies to win on the upkeep.
3) Launch the fireworks and have everyone drop to close to lethal and pick off the stragglers.
The three equipments here are nearly exclusively for Ashling's personal use, but could easily be picked up by any other creature worth beating with. Each one pretty much seals the deal on any creature hit with her explosion, two of them getting through indestructibility. Basilisk Collar has the added bonus of padding your life to a pretty major extreme.
The multitude of sweepers which also double as burn to players helps to solidify your position when Ashling just doesn't quite cut it on her own. Repercussion and Vicious Shadows both turn our damage-dealing suite of sweeper spells into lethal fireworks displays.
Blood Moon
Burning Earth
Price of Progress
Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Soldier of Fortune
Stranglehold
Stuffy Doll
Sulfuric Vortex
Vandalblast
These cards all very much make life hell on your opponents. Whether it's through punishing greedy mana-bases, straight up COUNTERING spells, or preventing tutoring and library manipulation, you're guaranteed to ruin someone's day through resolving one of these.
Special Note: Stuffy Doll receives some mention here mostly as he is an extremely political move. Stuffy Doll naming the most dangerous player on the table will draw some love your way, at the cost of potentially bringing some hate from that player with it. He also deters the named player from swinging hard your way. Naming a Voltron-player that hasn't found a source of evasion yet is a decent way to avoid some damage for a turn or two until you can find a real answer(or just detonate Ashling).
Browbeat
Cycling Lands
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fate
Wheel of Fortune
There isn't a whole lot of card advantage in red. Browbeat I think is one of the best options available as even if it gets "countered", you've burned someone for another 5 life. It might not seem like much but that 5 life can be completely relevant later on. And then as everyone knows, symmetrical effects are never symmetrical. When we're casting a Wheel, it's always because that hand sucks and we need something better. Bonus points if someone has a hand larger than 7 cards. Wheel of Fate is interesting because it gives a warning before hand on what's about to happen. If your opponents are paying attention it could backfire on you so it takes some planning on your part about when it's best to suspend the Wheel.
Aftershock
Chaos Warp
Grab the Reins
Skred
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Every deck needs spot removal. I've opted to shy away from the red burn-style spot removal, keeping only Skred and Valakut. It allows for easier time dealing with indestructibility and damage-prevention(not super abundant, but it's there). Chaos Warp is also one of red's only ways of dealing with enchantments, even if they still get a card out of it(sometimes). Valakut will usually be hitting creatures, but it does have the possibility of bolting players and planewalkers just for dropping a mountain.
Akroma's Memorial
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Chandra Ablaze
Fetchlands
Goblin Welder
Increasing Vengeance
Koth of the Hammer
Madblind Mountain
Mind's Eye
Mycosynth Latice
Reiterate
Reverberate
Sensei's Divining Top
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of War and Peace
Vedalken Orrery
What a list. Here's a card by card breakdown:
Akroma's Memorial - The important part about this card is it gives all of our creatures pro-red. Meaning, Ashling doesn't blow them up. This is HUGE in our gameplan and means that we can be much more aggressive and not have to worry about collateral damage.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - For when you absolutely have to have something happen.
Chandra Ablaze - I really like this Chandra here. She has a mini-wheel, works as spot removal, and has a potentially game-winning ultimate with how spell heavy the deck is.
Fetchlands - While I feel like the fetchland "thinning" aspect is statistically irrelevant for the most part, there is one main reason to run fetches in a mono-coloured deck. Shuffling. You won't always have access to Madblind Mountain or Soldier of Fortune, and fetches let you shuffle the crap away that you don't need when you spin your Top.
Goblin Welder - This deck is really artifact heavy. From equipment to ramp a lot of the utility is in the rocks. Goblin Welder gives a for of recursion by trading the worst artifact at any given time for the best in our graveyard.
Increasing Vengeance, Reiterate, Reverberate, Wild Ricochet - Copy them spells! Increasing Vengeance may not be able to steal a counterspell or extra turns, but it can cause some MASSIVE explosions when you copy from the yard.
Koth of the Hammer - This guy can run away with a game on his own if you let him. Either by threatening to fuel a huge Molten Disaster, or making all of your mountains into spot removal, he really needs to be answered immediately if your opponents want to win.
Madblind Mountain - Shuffle that deck. Much like fetchlands, this is our form of card selection with the Top. It's a little more difficult to activate as often Ashling doesn't let permanents stick around on our side of the board, but with a potential 9 red enchantments it's not beyond the realm of reason that you'll have two red things out at once.
Mind's Eye - Cards! Even though it's kind of a reverse Rhystic Study, this artifact really makes up for taxing your mana by producing some of its own.
Mycosynth Lattice - Amazing synergy with Goblin Welder. Turn your excess lands into fallen equipment or just bring back a Memorial! This isn't even mentioning the Hellkite Tyrant win. Assuming you don't have 20 permanents to start, one swing with the dragon should be enough to win on your next upkeep.
Myr Matrix - At first I couldn't find a mana dump that wasn't just a one-turn thing. I started thinking into thing that could potentially take over a game and eventually decided on this. Myr Matrix is nice in that it can make an instant speed blocker, fuels our Hellkite Tyrant win, and makes tokens that can be shipped off with Goblin Welder. The biggest downside is the synergy-loss with Repercussion.
Sensei's Divining Top - In a colour where topdecks are king, the Top is your crown. Being damn near impossible to remove outside of a Krosan Grip, the Top is the card selection engine of choice. Combined with a shuffler effect or two you can fairly reliably send bad upcoming draws back multiple times in a turn.
Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of War and Peace - Pro-red for Ashling! Equip one of these bad boys and you can do some serious work, never fearing a self-immolation.
The Gameplan: Get everyone-else's life total to 0 before yours. Or drop a Hellkite Tyrant EoT before your turn with a Mycosynth Lattice and Vedalken Orrery in play. Don't forget to laugh when you do.
==To be continued==
I plan on adding more at a later time. It's late and I'm tired.
I honestly do not see how Browbeat can be that good. If its 5 damage is immediately relevant (i.e. knocking out the last opponent), you'll get to draw the cards; but if you are in a position to knock any remaining player out, or even get them below 10, you have reached a point in the game where you have more mana and thus better options for dealing more damage. 3 mana for 5 damage to one player, except when 5 damage would really hurt, is unimpressive.
So may I suggest:
Heartless Hidetsugu: You say your game plan is to knock all other players down to 0 life before yours. Few cards do that with greater urgency than Heartless, especially when your opponents are still over 20 life.
Acidic Soil: Another possible Browbeat alternative, which punishes ramp strategies (if you didn't stick an early Stranglehold) and tends to catch some players completely by surprise. Compare to Browbeat: Would you rather be dealing 5 damage to a player not of your choosing for three mana, or 6-12 damage to each player for four?
Comet Storm: Same idea, but also doubles as removal, potentially a lot of removal.
Earthquake/Rolling Earthquake/Fault Line: I actually think the deck should find room for two or more of these, as they serve both to fulfill the main purpose and also act as mass removal (with very few creatures that it hurts). They complement Ashling extremely well. An Earthquake effect for 8 or 9 doesn't just clear the board of most creatures, it changes the game from a life-total perspective, which is something most of your opponents won't be monitoring too closely until it's too late.
Loxodon Warhammer (In place of Blight Sickle): Your game plan involves dealing a lot of damage to yourself as well, and Warhammer is not just better for attacking, it also gains huge amounts of life on Ashling, Hidetsugu, Ryusei, etc. to ensure that you survive your own deck.
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I'm still new to these forums so forgive my formatting for now.
1 Ashling the Pilgrim
Land - 37
1 Arid Mesa
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Dwarven Hold
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Madblind Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Smoldering Crater
23 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Ashling's Buddies - 12
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Goblin Welder
1 Hateflayer
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Homura, Human Ascendant
1 Inferno Titan
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Myojin of Infinite Rage
1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Soldier of Fortune
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Blood Moon
1 Braid of Fire
1 Burning Earth
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Repercussion
1 Stranglehold
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Vicious Shadows
Artifacts - 17
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Blight Sickle
1 Caged Sun
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Gauntlet of Might
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Mind's Eye
1 Mycosynth Latice
1 Myr Matrix
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Kaldra
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Chaos Warp
1 Grab the Reins
1 Increasing Vengeance
1 Inferno
1 Price of Progress
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Reiterate
1 Reverberate
1 Skred
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Wild Ricochet
Sorceries - 11
1 Aftershock
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Browbeat
1 Insurrection
1 Mana Geyser
1 Molten Disaster
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Vandalblast
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Wheel of Fortune
Planeswalkers - 2
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Koth of the Hammer
Cards by Function: For simplicity's sake, I'll try to only list each card once, though some easily fall under multiple categories.
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Avatar of Fury
Hateflayer
Hellkite Tyrant
Homura, Human Ascendant
Inferno Titan
Knollspine Dragon
Myojin of Infinite Rage
Ryusei, the Falling Star
All of these creatures are either massive(All of them), boost themselves(Firebreathers), or provide incentive to not kill/remove them(Homura, Myojin, Ryusei). A few also have some added utility on top of being a large beater either through drawing you some cards(Knollspine Dragon), acting as spot removal(Hateflayer, Inferno Titan), or being a win condition just by existing(Hellkite Tyrant).
Braid of Fire
Extraplanar Lens
Caged Sun
Gauntlet of Might
Gauntlet of Power
Mana Geyser
Sol Ring
Little known fact: Red doesn't ramp. We red mages prefer to just burn our way through the world, but you really need some extra push to do that. Luckily through our fancy artifacts one can easily have a mountain tapping for 2-3 mana by the lategame. This can quickly fuel Ashling explosions or massive kicked Molten Disasters if need be. Of note: A large enough Mana Geyser + a buy-back Reiterate is infinite mana. Use this of your own volition.
Basilisk Collar
Blight Sickle
Blasphemous Act
Bonfire of the Damned
Inferno
Insurrection
Molten Disaster
Nevinyrral's Disk
Repercussion
Sword of Kaldra
Vicious Shadows
Volcanic Fallout
Our goal with Ashling is to keep the board as clear of threats for as long as possible until we can either do one of a few things to win.
1) Smash some faces with a large Ashling and her friends.
2) Drop Hellkite Tyrant with some goodies to win on the upkeep.
3) Launch the fireworks and have everyone drop to close to lethal and pick off the stragglers.
The three equipments here are nearly exclusively for Ashling's personal use, but could easily be picked up by any other creature worth beating with. Each one pretty much seals the deal on any creature hit with her explosion, two of them getting through indestructibility. Basilisk Collar has the added bonus of padding your life to a pretty major extreme.
The multitude of sweepers which also double as burn to players helps to solidify your position when Ashling just doesn't quite cut it on her own. Repercussion and Vicious Shadows both turn our damage-dealing suite of sweeper spells into lethal fireworks displays.
Blood Moon
Burning Earth
Price of Progress
Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Soldier of Fortune
Stranglehold
Stuffy Doll
Sulfuric Vortex
Vandalblast
These cards all very much make life hell on your opponents. Whether it's through punishing greedy mana-bases, straight up COUNTERING spells, or preventing tutoring and library manipulation, you're guaranteed to ruin someone's day through resolving one of these.
Special Note: Stuffy Doll receives some mention here mostly as he is an extremely political move. Stuffy Doll naming the most dangerous player on the table will draw some love your way, at the cost of potentially bringing some hate from that player with it. He also deters the named player from swinging hard your way. Naming a Voltron-player that hasn't found a source of evasion yet is a decent way to avoid some damage for a turn or two until you can find a real answer(or just detonate Ashling).
Browbeat
Cycling Lands
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fate
Wheel of Fortune
There isn't a whole lot of card advantage in red. Browbeat I think is one of the best options available as even if it gets "countered", you've burned someone for another 5 life. It might not seem like much but that 5 life can be completely relevant later on. And then as everyone knows, symmetrical effects are never symmetrical. When we're casting a Wheel, it's always because that hand sucks and we need something better. Bonus points if someone has a hand larger than 7 cards. Wheel of Fate is interesting because it gives a warning before hand on what's about to happen. If your opponents are paying attention it could backfire on you so it takes some planning on your part about when it's best to suspend the Wheel.
Aftershock
Chaos Warp
Grab the Reins
Skred
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Every deck needs spot removal. I've opted to shy away from the red burn-style spot removal, keeping only Skred and Valakut. It allows for easier time dealing with indestructibility and damage-prevention(not super abundant, but it's there). Chaos Warp is also one of red's only ways of dealing with enchantments, even if they still get a card out of it(sometimes). Valakut will usually be hitting creatures, but it does have the possibility of bolting players and planewalkers just for dropping a mountain.
Akroma's Memorial
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Chandra Ablaze
Fetchlands
Goblin Welder
Increasing Vengeance
Koth of the Hammer
Madblind Mountain
Mind's Eye
Mycosynth Latice
Reiterate
Reverberate
Sensei's Divining Top
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of War and Peace
Vedalken Orrery
What a list. Here's a card by card breakdown:
Akroma's Memorial - The important part about this card is it gives all of our creatures pro-red. Meaning, Ashling doesn't blow them up. This is HUGE in our gameplan and means that we can be much more aggressive and not have to worry about collateral damage.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - For when you absolutely have to have something happen.
Chandra Ablaze - I really like this Chandra here. She has a mini-wheel, works as spot removal, and has a potentially game-winning ultimate with how spell heavy the deck is.
Fetchlands - While I feel like the fetchland "thinning" aspect is statistically irrelevant for the most part, there is one main reason to run fetches in a mono-coloured deck. Shuffling. You won't always have access to Madblind Mountain or Soldier of Fortune, and fetches let you shuffle the crap away that you don't need when you spin your Top.
Goblin Welder - This deck is really artifact heavy. From equipment to ramp a lot of the utility is in the rocks. Goblin Welder gives a for of recursion by trading the worst artifact at any given time for the best in our graveyard.
Increasing Vengeance, Reiterate, Reverberate, Wild Ricochet - Copy them spells! Increasing Vengeance may not be able to steal a counterspell or extra turns, but it can cause some MASSIVE explosions when you copy from the yard.
Koth of the Hammer - This guy can run away with a game on his own if you let him. Either by threatening to fuel a huge Molten Disaster, or making all of your mountains into spot removal, he really needs to be answered immediately if your opponents want to win.
Madblind Mountain - Shuffle that deck. Much like fetchlands, this is our form of card selection with the Top. It's a little more difficult to activate as often Ashling doesn't let permanents stick around on our side of the board, but with a potential 9 red enchantments it's not beyond the realm of reason that you'll have two red things out at once.
Mind's Eye - Cards! Even though it's kind of a reverse Rhystic Study, this artifact really makes up for taxing your mana by producing some of its own.
Mycosynth Lattice - Amazing synergy with Goblin Welder. Turn your excess lands into fallen equipment or just bring back a Memorial! This isn't even mentioning the Hellkite Tyrant win. Assuming you don't have 20 permanents to start, one swing with the dragon should be enough to win on your next upkeep.
Myr Matrix - At first I couldn't find a mana dump that wasn't just a one-turn thing. I started thinking into thing that could potentially take over a game and eventually decided on this. Myr Matrix is nice in that it can make an instant speed blocker, fuels our Hellkite Tyrant win, and makes tokens that can be shipped off with Goblin Welder. The biggest downside is the synergy-loss with Repercussion.
Sensei's Divining Top - In a colour where topdecks are king, the Top is your crown. Being damn near impossible to remove outside of a Krosan Grip, the Top is the card selection engine of choice. Combined with a shuffler effect or two you can fairly reliably send bad upcoming draws back multiple times in a turn.
Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of War and Peace - Pro-red for Ashling! Equip one of these bad boys and you can do some serious work, never fearing a self-immolation.
The Gameplan: Get everyone-else's life total to 0 before yours. Or drop a Hellkite Tyrant EoT before your turn with a Mycosynth Lattice and Vedalken Orrery in play. Don't forget to laugh when you do.
==To be continued==
I plan on adding more at a later time. It's late and I'm tired.
So may I suggest:
Heartless Hidetsugu: You say your game plan is to knock all other players down to 0 life before yours. Few cards do that with greater urgency than Heartless, especially when your opponents are still over 20 life.
Acidic Soil: Another possible Browbeat alternative, which punishes ramp strategies (if you didn't stick an early Stranglehold) and tends to catch some players completely by surprise. Compare to Browbeat: Would you rather be dealing 5 damage to a player not of your choosing for three mana, or 6-12 damage to each player for four?
Comet Storm: Same idea, but also doubles as removal, potentially a lot of removal.
Earthquake/Rolling Earthquake/Fault Line: I actually think the deck should find room for two or more of these, as they serve both to fulfill the main purpose and also act as mass removal (with very few creatures that it hurts). They complement Ashling extremely well. An Earthquake effect for 8 or 9 doesn't just clear the board of most creatures, it changes the game from a life-total perspective, which is something most of your opponents won't be monitoring too closely until it's too late.
Loxodon Warhammer (In place of Blight Sickle): Your game plan involves dealing a lot of damage to yourself as well, and Warhammer is not just better for attacking, it also gains huge amounts of life on Ashling, Hidetsugu, Ryusei, etc. to ensure that you survive your own deck.