Commander Deck Tech - Imodane, the Pyrohammer

Wilds of Eldraine provided a good list of new commanders to the format, and the great majority of them were welcomed by the community in general. However, what no one predicted was that Burn players would be getting an unexpected gift so soon. In Phyrexia, we've had Solphim, Mayhem Dominus as a possible Burn commander, but Dominus is just one of the other 99 cards now that Imodane, the Pyrohammer has been released!

One of the greatest challenges of playing Mono Red Burn is dealing with 120 Life points, which is the sum of your opponents' life totals, without even considering an eventual Life Gain effect. That forces you to, most times, resort to some type of combo or something of that type, with commanders such as Heartless Hidetsugu and a damage doubler.

But Imodane, the Pyrohammer managed to explore this archetypal flaw thoroughly, considering the damage caused by it doesn't affect only one opponent, but all of them instead.

The recurrent joke of how crazy it is to use Lightning Bolt in Commander ends now, as this spell can now deal 12 total damage with Imodane - 3 to the creature and 3 to each opponent, in this case. As the damage is "mirrored" onto the opponents, this deck's build is based on creature Burn, setting fire to everything that shows up on our way to victory.

Imodane is a very consistent win condition, as it can reasonably remove your opponent's creatures, and, on top of it all, it also deals direct damage to each of them. We count on resources to protect her besides the usual Burn cards. We also have a few win conditions that can deal enough damage to end their board.

Accelerators

Mana Rocks

Considering we want our commander down on the board as soon as possible, we will prefer turn 1 plays with Sol Ring followed by Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Ruby Medallion, Fire Diamond or Mind Stone on the following turn.

Following our list, you'll notice we use snow lands - that is because of Extraplanar Lens' access in the deck. By targeting a snow land, other basic lands won't benefit from the artifact's ability. As the use of snow lands isn't as common in most decks nowadays, Extraplanar Lens will most times only benefit you.

Finally, even at a relatively high cost, Pyromancer's Goggles comes in to hopefully create copies of essential and decisive spells to your matches.

Mana Creators and Rituals

This deck needs more than spells to grow and thrive; we need support. For that, we have these mana creators. We'll start with those which are quite straightforward in what they do: Birgi, God of Storytelling, Storm-Kiln Artist and Urabrask.

I'll highlight the rebel Praetor, as it still pings damage onto an opponent. Considering the deck has a very reasonable number of spells, creatures such as these are very efficient at drawing out various plays on a single turn.

But the deck's real star is Neheb, the Eternal. Also used in a few Burn builds due to its incredible mana generation, today it is among our 99 cards precisely due to how we can explore its ability well alongside Imodane.

Finally, we have an almost mandatory creature in many Burn decks around: Runaway Steam-Kin. It is always a good idea to keep an eye on the number of spells cast and your counters to extract as much value as possible out of the mana this Elemental creates.

As for non-creature spells, we'll use these famous "rituals" Red has to offer us: Seething Song, Jeska's Will and Mana Geyser. Having a lot of mana is never enough, so these cards will complement this feature, particularly Jeska's Will, due to its versatility; it possibly offers, besides the mana, 3 extra cards to be played on that turn, if it is cast with the commander on board so that both effects can be chosen.

Creatures which Cause Damage

As we can't count on the commander being present 100% of the time in all our games, we need other ways of dealing damage to our opponents. For that, we have, to bother our opponents slightly, Kessig Flamebreather, Guttersnipe and Erebor Flamesmith, bit by bit pinging damage as spells are played.

To create a real problem for our opponents, we have Toralf, God of Fury, Brash Taunter and Chandra's Incinerator. Brash Taunter can potentially cause a lot of headache to our opponents, considering that, if they protect their own creatures or have none of them, you can just Burn the player themselves and be happy. This card can possibly be a finisher with cards that deal damage at a small or large scale, such as Toralf, God of Fury with a few of these same spells.

Damage Boosters

Let's start with the most dangerous ones, which are Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods. They are the only damage doublers that act on a global scale, which means, that includes you. It is important to stress that, and consider when you'll play them thoroughly.

Dictate of the Twin Gods can still be a sort of control tool when it fits nicely into the right situation due to its Flash, but for Furnace of Rath, the advice is to be careful.

Still considering doubling (or tripling) damage, we use the aforementioned Solphim, Mayhem Dominus, Fire Servant, City on Fire and Fiery Emancipation. A very important factor to comment on is the interaction Imodane has with damage doublers that apply to Imodane: let's assume you deal 3 damage to a creature with any of the damage doublers on board. You'll deal 6 damage to that creature, and then Imodane will trickle down this same amount of damage, but with doublers applied to it as well: which means, 12 damage total. Seeing a Lightning Bolt deal 36 damage total to your opponents has never been more fun.

Damage Sources

Even though this looks like just a handful of spells, keep in mind there are other various resources in the deck, be it to reuse these spells or amplify their damage, so the ones that are here were hand-picked to get us to the victory line.

Starting with Burns that have another effect besides just direct damage, we use Abrade with the option to use it as another removal, and Cathartic Pyre, Fire Prophecy and Volcanic Spite as possible sources of new options for your hand.

Electrodominance is also, famously, a "2 per 1" card. Purphoros's Intervention can potentially deal a lot of damage, and can even be a finisher if any damage doublers are on board.

Now, as pure damage in the most ancient Red-based essence form, we have: Lightning Axe, Chain Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Frantic Firebolt, Seismic Strike, Flame Slash, Spitting Earth, Shivan Meteor and Skred. Skred is another reason we're using snow lands here.

Shivan Meteor with Imodane and any damage doubler practically means the game is finished; it equals 13 damage that become 26 onto the creature and 52 onto opponents. If anyone survives after that, it will be impressive.

Interacting with the Board

Drawing Cards and Other Answers

We use Thrill of Possibility, Faithless Looting, War Room, Valakut Awakening, Unexpected Windfall and Big Score as sources of card draw. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to balance Red's flaws regarding some spells whose downsides are discarding cards, so we use a few others that offer another resource, such as creating Treasures or being cast again;Faithless Looting, for example.

As global removals for emergencies, we have Vandalblast for artifacts and Chain Reaction and Blasphemous Act for creatures, which are, by the way, cards that can end the game alongside Toralf, God of Fury. Deflecting Swat is one of the few answers we have to avoid any issues when we're playing only with Red as a color. Reverberate also has this role, besides another range of possibilities, such as copying a Ramp card, creating an extra turn or even copying a spell such as Torment of Hailfire with a very high X value.

Protecting Yourself and Other Resources

As this deck's main source of damage is our commander, we need to protect her. We use Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves for that, and the newest addition from Lord of the Rings as well: Mithril Coat. Taking advantage of this damage source as well, Basilisk Collar and Witch's Clinic help you gain time, granting you a somewhat considerable number of life points.

To really defend ourselves, Young Pyromancer offers potential blockers for each spell played, and Blood Moon in almost 100% of the cases will delay your opponents and make you a bit more safe until it is removed.

Tibalt's Trickery is present really as a last case scenario tool, to avoid getting hit with a Cyclonic Rift, Teferi's Protection or any other card that might be relevant in the match.

We have these cards to take advantage of the graveyard: Invoke Calamity and Mizzix's Mastery. It is possible to add Past in Flames in this build, but in this particular list we haven't.

Lastly, we have the last two cards that can become finishers: Radiate and Zada, Hedron Grinder. Both have a similar effect, and, added to Imodane and any damage doubler, with 3 creatures, for instance, taking 4 damage each due to a Flame Slash with a damage doubler on board, such as Furnace of Rath, equals 48 damage to opponents.

Imodane, the Pyrohammer's budget list is based on having creatures that ping damage to compensate for the lack of more expensive resources, to hopefully speed up how fast your opponents lose their life points until the right spells show up as the game goes on.

With Imodane, the Pyrohammer, Burn players' lives have become a bit easier and relaxed, considering how easy it is to actually lower your opponents' life points and remove creatures out of the way. But the deck as a whole captures the essence of Mono Red pretty well: damage, damage, and more damage, and even in considerable amounts too. I hope we don't have any more issues with bringing our opponents' 120 life points to zero with this build.

Would you add more finishers? Do you prefer Hidetsugu or Torbran? Do you think there's some essential Burn card missing? Share your thoughts down below in the comment section!