Each post will give a quick overview of the style of the deck, where it's looking to make it's mark, the legends in the deck and the top new cards
General Product Overview
We knew a couple of weeks back that we'd be seeing a lot of Lightning Greaves and a Sol Ring in each deck. What was also obvious with enemy wedges was that, for the product to be playable out of the box a lot of effort needed to go into stabilizing the mana base. What the developers did with this product was go to the best common and uncommon land fixers in the wedges and stuff them in. While this may be disappointing to some who were expecting colour-fixing reprints of rare cards, it allows each deck to have a similiar and stable mana base without taking up rare slots (though I agree that rarity in a product like this is somewhat of a misnomer).What you'll find in abundance are: Ravnica Signets & Karoos, Darksteel Ingots, Armillaire Spheres, Onslaught cycling lands (a mixture of card selection and the assurance of basic colours), Time Spiral stockage lands, Rupture Spires, and a spattering of other fixers (Vivids, Expanses & Zendikar bi-lands). You'll also get a copy of a new multicolour staple in each and every deck: Command Tower.
This new non-basic will be a staple in pretty much any non-mono-coloured deck, guarenteeing you the colours you need. Previous cards in this slot included City of Brass or Reflecting Pool but now you get the City without the pain and the Pool without the possibility of occasionally not having what you need. The other advantage is that it's in each deck and completely useless outside of Commander so there will be copies in circulation, though maybe not enough for all of your 25 decks!
One of the cycles that the Commander product has added is an interesting take on auras (with each deck getting the relevant wedge colours, you'll see them a lot in non-altered games). These are the "Vow" auras. Each aura grants an ability (Flying, Intimidate etc.) and a boost (+2/+2 except in the case of Green's +3/+3) along with the addition that the enchanted creature can't attack you or a planeswalker you control. Of course you can put it on your own creature and ignore the second ability but there's no problem with slapping it onto an opponent's and sitting back to watch the carnage unfold.On your own creature it's just another pump & ability aura with the corner-case advantage that, if it ever gets stolen, it can't attack you, usual aura card disadvantage applies. Any other time, it's more likely to resolve because 1.) you aren't going to counter it or kill the creature in response and 2.) the owner of that creature is less likely to counter it or kill that creature in response as it gives them an advantage over the remaining players. You're reducing the number of players with the willingnes to respond.
It's not as big a card disadvantage as Auras usually are if someone does kill the opposing target creature either as 1.) You lost the Aura, 2.) opponent A loses the creature and 3.) opponent B loses the kill spell leaving 4.) opponent D the only "winner" in the card advantage stakes. Generally any auras you play on opponent's creatures cripple the creature targetted in some way. Leaving it not just fully functional but more dangerous than before actually encourages removal to target that creature thus pulling fire away from your other permanents.
On to the decks! Let's get the ball rolling with the WBR deck in the white packaging, Heavenly Inferno.
Basic Deck Strategy
Turn1: Land, Sol Ring, Signet
Turn 2: Land, Kaalia
Turn 3: Land (maybe some Lightning Greaves?), attack, resolve Kaalia's ability by putting Red Akroma into play attacking.
That's one possible passage of play just from the unaltered product. I'm sure you can see ways to make this a little better by adding to the deck yourself. Dragon Tyrant maybe? Or Demon of Death's Gate, Iona or Knollspine Dragon? Cheating Rakdos in after the "declare as attacker" trigger step is conveniently past seems good too.
In the product itself there are 23 creatures other than Kaalia that you can cheat into play with her ability. That works out, after your opening hand, at 1:4 of every card you draw which is a nice enough ratio for a pre-con. What seems to be the tactical part of playing this deck is deciding whether to cheat in creatures with Kaalia or to cast them if they have relevant abilities that only trigger when you cast them from your hand such as Reiver Demon. Otherwise, it's just beat down with your general as often as you can.
The small drawback with Kaalia is that she's not very resillient at only 2/2, though that's probably good given what she's capable of (turn 3 Iona anyone?). In colour you have access to pretty much any burn, exile or destroy removal you could ever want so clearing a path shouldn't really be an issue, however, if you can't clear away defenders but still need to trigger her, you would be well served by Maze of Ith or Whispersilk Cloak.
At 7, this deck has the most legends: Oros, Kaalia, Tariel, Bladewing the Risen, Red Akroma, Malfegor & Basandra. That's a pretty good starter kit for other decks if you ever decide that you can do without them in this particular build
Pretty much the only disappointing aspect of this deck is the biggest "win more" card doesn't trigger off Kaalia but that's probably for the best considering how early she caould cheat things into play! This should be your top-of-the-curve game ender in any deck that plays red and lives in the red zone. A fat body that doesn't need to attack to do it's thing (though you're probably giving it haste somehow anyway) your miniature army can flat-out win games with the Avatar in play. Add trample to taste.
There seems to have been a printing error on this card in that the name, "Boom! Headshot!" seems to have been changed to read "Mana-Charged Dragon". There's been some derision about the Join Forces mechanic but I can assure you that it's purely down to not having played the cards yet. Once MCD hits play, it needs to be killed STAT. Trust me, there is no bigger threat in play if the Dragon is on-line because there's no-one in the game that can afford not to help kill you if it flies in your direction.
I've seen it happen and it has one-shot killed each player it has attacked every single time because, when the calculations about the possiblity of staying alive are made by each other player, the rest of the table will take those odds every time and pump sufficient mana into it to finish you. Evasion & trample mean that it's almost always going to connect too. If you're the unhappy recipient, I recommend dumping your hand onto the table if you can't kill the MCD yourself and hope that there's something in there that someone else wants you to play and will try to keep you around. It's basically your only chance. This is top drawer multiplayer gold and will be in my top 5 for the set at the end of this series.
Stranglehold
Solutions! Give me solutions!! Apparently these two effects, reducing opponent's ability to tutor/search and stopping extra turn shennanigans, were on the cards for the set from very early on and the lead designer came to Sheldon with a card that brought them together. Stranglehold is the fruit of that union.It's not flashy but it is effective and it's in a colour that needs some really good niche cards to help carve out a bigger piece of the EDH pie. While Red didn't get every single piece of goodness in the set, we're only one deck in and already there's red 3 cards worthy of taking for a spin.
That's all for Heavenly Inferno. It's an excellent aggressive starter deck for a new player while still providing something nice for seasoned veterans. Enjoy!
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