Commander Deck Tech: Tersa Lightshatter

After travelling through the multiverse, we went back to Tarkir for Dragonstorm. There, we met Tersa Lightshatter, an orc from the Mardu clan that deserves her own Mono Red list.

Today, we'll show you two lists with Tersa as the commander. The first one centers around extra combat phases (one of the most fun mechanics in Mono Red lists), and the second is a Good Stuff list.

As usual, let's start by introducing our commander!

Our commander has haste, a second ability that triggers when she attacks, and discards a card to draw a card when she enters the battlefield (a very common effect in red cards). She has all of this plus a 3/3 body, and only costs three mana. Phew!

Tersa might not be the strongest commander in the game, but we can't deny she is very fair and fun.

Her second ability lets you play random cards from your graveyard, but only if there are seven or more cards in there when she attacks.

As her effect states, "you may play cards from your graveyard", you can just get the lands you discarded with it.

Please note that the spell you cast this way goes back into your graveyard after you use her effect to cast it.

So, we built a list for her with lots of cards that discard other cards into your graveyard and create extra combat phases. With this aggressive game plan, you'll carve a path to victory.

This is our main list:

Our Card Draw

The secret to building great decks is to set aside a good number of slots for card draw. This way, you'll be able to filter the top of your deck and get more out of your list. You might even find a land when you're behind in mana or relevant spells that will make a big difference in your match.

For this list, we added the following card draw:

This deck is full of card draw!

Monument to Endurance stands out because it has three effects that interact with the other cards included above. Imagine this artifact is on your side of the board and you just cast Unexpected Windfall. When you discard a card as the additional cost to cast Windfall, you may pick one of the three effects in Monument to Endurance, as long as you haven't chosen it in that turn yet. So, you might be able to draw an extra card, create an extra Treasure, or make your opponents lose 3 life.

Key to the City is another valuable artifact when you want to deal damage to your opponents with your commander. You can tap it and discard a card to make a target creature unblockable that turn. Right then, you can also use two mana to draw a card.

As this Commander list also focuses on extra combats, we'll use Tersa to remove opponents from the match. This card will help us do this.

Finally, we must highlight Brass's Tunnel-Grinder! When this artifact enters the board, you can discard any number of cards in your hand and draw that same number plus one more.

As the Descended mechanic checks if a permanent would enter your graveyard from anywhere, you can use its ETB to fill your graveyard with enough cards to activate Tersa's effects.

Furthermore, when this artifact turns into Tecutlan, the Searing Rift, any permanent spell you cast with its mana will have Discover X.

If you'd like to see more card draw for Mono Red decks, check out this article!

Extra Combats

As we mentioned before, with this list, we want to make the most out of cards that create extra combats by either casting them from our hand or exiling them from our graveyard. Some of these cards are:

Imagine this: you couldn't get a good card with Tersa's effect during the first combat phase. In this case, Aggravated Assault will save you: just activate its ability in the second main phase, and you're done.

This enchantment interacts with other cards in this list and could create infinite combat phases with them. Namely, we're talking about The Reaver Cleaver, Sword of Feast and Famine, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion, and Neheb, the Eternal.

With Agatha's Soul Cauldron, Crucible of Worlds, Underworld Breach, and Mines of Moria, you can filter the cards in your graveyard to increase your odds of exiling one of the cards that create extra combat phases in this list.

Creatures

To win with this type of strategy, you need to make sure your board is powerful enough to beat your opponents. One way to do this is by using powerful creatures that are also quite helpful.

This list includes:

Iraxxa, Empress of Mars is great in this list because it creates 2/2 Alien Warrior tokens whenever you cast a spell from the exile, and you can do this more than once per turn. Laelia, the Blade Reforged will exile more cards for us to cast later on, and also improves the next card we'll draw each turn.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun both discards cards and buffs other creatures, considering you can use it to pick a target and give it +1/+1 and trample until the end of the turn.

Wild-Magic Sorcerer's Cascade is also welcome, particularly when you need to cast spells without paying for their cost.

Accelerators and Mana Rocks

Red isn't known for its ramp, but we managed to add some to this list:

We'll highlight Sword of Feast and Famine, which untaps our lands when the creature equipped with it deals combat damage to an opponent. Furthermore, this equipment forces an opponent to discard a card, so it gives us even more options to exile with Agatha's Soul Cauldron.

Tersa is such a fun commander that we managed to build a deck that works without her. In this alternative list, she is a recursive commander that lets us recycle valuable cards from our graveyard.

Cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos, Ancient Copper Dragon, Terror of the Peaks, and others are old friends for anyone who enjoys red decks. They and many others will support you and offer different ways to win with this alternative deck.

Tersa is a legendary creature that could shine a lot, either as your commander or one of your 99 cards.

We listed two builds, but you can definitely explore different lists with her and stick to the one you like most. She isn't absurdly strong, but I don't recommend her if you're a beginner, considering you need to know how to use your graveyard well to make her work.

This Mardu Orc will be your aggressive companion on many tables!

What do you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!