MTG Salvation

So I've heard little to no talk of this wonderful new commander. I figured I would get the ball rolling with a list of suggestions and discussion.

Valduk, Keeper of the Flame 2R
Legendary Creature - Human Shaman
At the beginning of combat on your turn, for each Aura and Equipment attached to Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, create a 3/1 red Elemental creature token with trample and haste. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step.

3/2

First things first, his ability bears a striking resemblance to Khemba, Kha Regent, but put into a different color. Granted, his trigger despite being similar triggers on Combat rather than upkeep this should allow us for better token shenanigans with red's suite of abilities. Second, his tokens die at the end of turn, but with things like Goblin Bombardment or Sundial of the Infinite we can better use out of them. Fourth (and Finally), he triggers off of not just Equipment, but Auras as well. This should allow us better flexibility in what we run.



This is just a list of generalized ideas, but I'm hoping with this discussion more people can get in the mood with this sweet commander.

Dragon Throne of Tarkir seems pretty good here same with Sword of the Paruns

And if you are planning to have a bevy of ways to sacrifice the tokens Vicious Shadows seems like an easy path to victory.

Hoarding Dragon is a tutor that you can sac.

Fiery Mantle returns if you lose it. Same with Undying Rage.

Warstorm Surge would also work well for hitting creatures with triggers. Mana Echoes might even be useful here for some pre-combat X damage.

His ability is similar to Kemba, but there are some differences. First, you don't have access to Cathars' Crusade, Anointed Procession, or the few cat tribal cards that exist. (Though you will have a few elemental cards.) Secondly, the tokens are mini-Ball Lightnings, so, well, first, this means Coat of Arms won't be as good. But you do have access to slightly better card draw, but still nothing special, and more, but significantly worse, removal. (And you can't deal with enchantments or big creatures easily.) He does have synergy with auras, which is strange and probably not that useful, but something to keep in mind.

Actually, now that I think about it, I can work off of this:

Purphoros, God of the Forge shocks everyone for each aura or equipment attached to Valduk every turn.
Warstorm Surge bolts one player for each aura or equipment attached to Valduk every turn.
Rage Thrower shocks one player each time an elemental token dies.
Goblin Bombardment gives them one last ping.
Goblin War Drums, just Goblin War Drums

And of course, any and all extra combat steps are nice.

You can also run Strionic Resonator to copy the triggered ability.

If you are running Daretti and Welder, you can also add Gamble to your list of tutors since if you happen to discard what you tutored for you can always weld it into play.

I think you should also strongly consider Neheb, the Eternal. You can go infinite with Aggravated Assault, and mono-red can sometimes use the big boost in mana.

If you are looking for more good ways to generate tokens, I would suggest Hostility + Earthquake effects, Tilonalli's Summoner, and Young Pyromancer.

Whelp, he's one of my favorites from the new set. I was actually gonna go hammer-tribal (no really, I am). Most chunk of cards with hammer (or similar, like sledge, etc.) in the card name, art, or flavor text.

The hammer strikes. The flame awakens

Things like Hammer of Nazahn, Loxodon Warhammer, Hammerhand, Burning Anger, Fall of the Hammer, Koth of the Hammer, Goblin Gaveleer, Goblin Sharpshooter, Hammerfist Giant, and, luckily, Purphoros, God of the Forge is holding his Hammer of Purphoros! There's tons more of (bad) cards for this theme!

Shove in all the extra combat cards, fill the rest with cheap equipment or cheap repeatable auras (not sure if Crown of Flames was mentioned yet), and voila!

I considered a quick brew, but discarded the idea since I knew my playgroup would know me well enough to not fall for the trick.

When I see Valduk, I think of playing a slow-stall game, collecting a bunch of cheap 1-drop red aura's in hand (better if they cantrip like dragon mantle). When the coast is clear (after a board wipe or when all the blue mana is tapped down), and once you have about 5(ish), try to EoT resolve dictate of the twin gods, and on your turn pop out Valduk and plug all the auras on him at once. Even better if you could get nykthos, shrine to nix to help crank out more mana and drop another damage-doubler (furnace of rath/gratuitous violence/etc).

The idea is to make the tokens as powerful and as high in volume for just that one turn, so even attacking with Valduk is not needed. Gauntlet of Might/Gauntlet of Power/Caged Sun/Paragon of Fierce Defiance/metallic mimic/homura, human ascendant/Purphoros, God of the Forge/hall of triumph could all also be used to help make the hit harder.


In short, I feel that the color restriction here massively hurts any slow grindy deck, so Valduk is best played craterhoof behemoth style, just going for a massive swing on one turn. My problem is that my playgroup knows me for being a bit of a tricky person, and if I have Valduk in the command zone and don't play anything relevant for the first few turns, they will know that I'm up to something.


One card that will be very good with Valduk in an aura-heavy design is Scarab of the Unseen.

I'm pretty sure this guy is like 900 times better than Kemba because his tokens can attack the turn he hits the board (instead of like, 2 full turns later) and they die to Skullclamp, which somehow has yet to be mentioned in this thread.

It's a little more difficult to grab the clamp in monored, though.

It's also a lot more difficult to grab when you don't have it in your deck in the first place.

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser would be a good card here.

Also, what about Prototype Portal? A Sai of the Shinobi factory sounds pretty sweet.

Descent of the Dragons you can trade out those tokens for some 4/4 fliers.

Indomitable Creativity you can trade out those tokens for some artifact or creature permanents.

Some Devour creatures are an option.

Predator Dragon, Caldera Hellion, Preyseizer Dragon