Thromok: The Vanilla Thrilla

Okay, so out of all the Planechase commanders that have been spoiled, Thromok interested me the most. Krond is cool too, as is Vela and I'll probably build decks around them eventually, but the thought of casting a massive creature, attacking with it, and then flinging it at my opponents for lethal damage was too enticing to pass up. So here we are.















The first cards that I wanted to make the cut no matter what was anything that allowed me to deal damage equal to any particular creature's power directly to a player, as well as anything that granted trample or some other form of evasion. Luckily, in R/G there is a rich bounty of cards that have these kinds of effects; so, with a token strategy in mind, I included:

Akroma's Memorial
Eldrazi Monument
Mage Slayer
Bloodshot Cyclops
Brawn
Champion of Lambholt
Craterhoof Behemoth
Kessig Wolf Run
Skarrg, the Rage Pits
Stalking Vengeance
Warstorm Surge
Fling
Grab the Reins
Overwhelming Stampede (Sweet Jesus!)

These cards should be more than enough to ensure that at some point of the game some massive damage will be dealt to someone. I wanted to include Pandemonium as well, but in the end I didn't have enough room with all the other cards I wanted to run, so Warstorm Surge by itself would have to do. So now that we have our Thromok synergy down, next up is the core of what this deck wants and needs to do: make tokens. So the following cards got invited to the party:

Druidic Satchel
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Dragon Broodmother
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mitotic Slime
Mycoloth
Rampaging Baloths
Ulasht, the Hate Seed
Awakening Zone
Doubling Season
Parallel Lives
Artifact Mutation
Sprout Swarm
Khalni Garden
Kher Keep
Garruk Wildspeaker (Also untaps Gaea's Cradle and gives Thromok trample. Perfect 3/3)

Next up we need to make sure we have our basic functions down: removal, card draw, tutoring and ramp, and maybe a little graveyard hate too.

Tutoring/Draw Power:
Expedition Map
Skullclamp
Fauna Shaman
Skullmulcher
Greater Good (I know the answer to this... its Reliquary Tower... right?)
Survival of the Fittest
Chord of Calling
Momentous Fall (I'll go with D, Reliquary Tower. Final answer Regis.)
Worldly Tutor
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea (Not to be used when we're winning.)
Harmonize
Natural Order
Primal Command (Doubles as graveyard hate if need be)
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fortune

Ramp:
Ashnod's Altar
Gruul Signet
Sol Ring
Primeval Titan
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Seedborn Muse (Awesome with Sprout Swarm!)
Yavimaya Elder
Gaea's Cradle
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach

Removal:
Master of the Wild Hunt
Artifact Mutation
Beast Within
Krosan Grip
Blasphemous Act (Hilariously enough, most of the time this will kill everything except Thromok)

Our removal section is a tad thin, and I'd like to add two more spells at least. I'm thinking of Rain of Thorns and maybe Shattering Pulse. I'd also like to add Tormod's Crypt for some more 'yard hate. So after I give this deck a test drive I'll see what can be rearranged.

Now we've got most everything the deck should need and we'll just throw in a couple more relevant and fun cards and we've got something that looks like this:

Artifact: 10
Akroma's Memorial
Ashnod's Altar
Druidic Satchel
Eldrazi Monument
Expedition Map
Gruul Signet
Mage Slayer
Sensei's Diving Top
Skullclamp
Sol Ring

Creature: 23
Anger
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Bloodshot Cyclops
Brawn
Champion of Lambholt
Craterhoof Behemoth
Dragon Broodmother
Eternal Witness
Fauna Shaman
Genesis
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mitotic Slime
Mycoloth
Primeval Titan
Rampaging Baloths
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Seedborn Muse
Skullmulcher
Stalking Vengeance
Ulasht, the Hate Seed
Yavimaya Elder

Enchantment: 8
Awakening Zone
Beastmaster Ascension
Doubling Season
Fires of Yavimaya
Greater Good
Parallel Lives
Survival of the Fittest
Warstorm Surge

Instant: 10
Artifact Mutation
Beast Within
Chord of Calling
Fling
Fresh Meat
Grab the Reigns
Krosan Grip
Momentous Fall
Sprout Swarm
Worldly Tutor

Planeswalker: 2
Garruk Wildspeaker
Sarkhan Vol

Sorcery: 9
Blasphemous Act
Cultivate
Harmonize
Kodama's Reach
Natural Order
Overwhelming Stampede
Primal Command
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fortune

+37 Land

In this deck alone I decided to run Diamond Valley over High Market since the potential with Thromok was too good to pass up. I have all the manlands that I could find to provide more fodder for Thromok should I really need it, and I tried to squeeze in as many fetches as I could to help trigger Avenger and Rampaging Baloths. Spinerock Knoll and Mosswort Bridge also make an appearance since, in this deck, both conditions are very doable.

I'm still awaiting the Planechase 2012 decklists to be spoiled on the 28th before I make this list final. Dragonlair Spider for instance looks great and might get a slot, though I can see that with Thromok ready to go and a Warstorm Surge on the field for example, the first spell cast is more than likely going to be removal. So at best it just stalls the game for awhile rather than making tokens like I'd want.

Thats it for today's look at Thromok, if you have any suggestions or secret tech then please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Planechase Commanders!: Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my planechase spoilers review. I decided to only review the legendary creatures as I'm mainly interested in their use as commanders and not so much the rest of the planechase product. I mean, I do play planechase with my friends on occasion, even with some custom planes we found on the internet and some I made myself. So it should be said that I will probably end up including the new planes and phenomena into our planar stack when they are all spoiled but I'm not terribly excited about it.

Anyway, what appears to be the last of the new legends offered in Planechase 2012 is Thromok the Insatiable.


5 CMC for what is potentially the biggest commander out there, Thromok is (potentially) a force to be reckoned with. I suppose Wizards caught wind that aggro decks don't fare so well in EDH and decided to up the ante a bit. Now, if only he weren't so vanilla.

He makes me think of cards like Berserk, and Fatal Frenzy, where, if combined with them for much needed evasion, you are almost guaranteed a one shot kill (and I'm talking in terms of reducing a player to 0 not just dealing sufficient general damage.). You can also use cards like Fling and Grab the Reins if you're lacking in cards that grant evasion.

Obviously, you need to be running a token strategy for him to really shine and luckily, R/G is a great color combination to do it. (Yadda yadda... Doubling Season... yadda yadda)

Also, Thromok just might be the first commander that is able to deal 21 or more general damage in one shot without help. Well, now that I think about it, Kresh can too, though not as easily/quickly.


That's it for the legends of planechase from what I understand, though if any other legends pop up then I suppose that a part 3 would be in order and you know where to find me! =)

The next set where we might have some goodies is M13 in July, maybe not any commanders but perhaps some useable spells at least.

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Planechase Commanders!: Part 1

 Well, spoiler season for Planechase 2012 has begun and I'm kinda late to the party as far as posting spoilers goes but as the old adage says, better late than never. Now, I'll just say that I'm pretty excited for it overall, though, its mainly for the prospect of some potentially good commanders rather than the Planechase product itself. So far we've had some pretty acceptable commanders, I mean, just give me something better than Boris Devilboon and I'll play with it. Anyway though, on to the spoilers!



Well, this one isn't anything especially new as its been spoiled for awhile and we all should be aware of the Avenger of Zendikar/Prime Time sillyness that it is capable of. Though it should be said that this card has a lot more potential for shenanigans than just Avenger/Prime Time. It should make for a decent commander or maybe even as a one of in the right decks. I'm thinking that he fits right in with Animar and Riku. Cascade two free spells and copy each one? Yes please!












Supposedly difficult to cast but with green being a popular color in a lot of multicolor EDH decks these days, and color fixing getting easier, its really not out of the realm of possibility to run this guy outside of just G/W. At least, in my opinion. Anyway, I'm a sad panda that this guy isn't part blue since I would've loved to do some shenanigans with Sovereigns of Lost Alara. (Though I feel I should point out that if you have an unenchanted Krond and a Sovereigns on the field and you attack with Krond then the enchantment from Sovereigns doesn't hit the field in time for Krond's ability to trigger. So maybe its just as well that he isn't blue.) Having said that, I'm still interested to see how a deck with this guy at the helm would do. He's a StP on a stick (even better actually...), which is pretty good, though he dies to pretty much any removal, but thats where the enchantments come in I suppose. He is also a pretty hilarious target for Take Possession and the like.






Neat synergy with pretty much any blink tech out there. I can see a kind of token strategy going for her and I would definitely play her with Portcullis, Deadeye Navigator, and maybe even Pentavus, and abuse the shit out of her LtB ability. Speaking of Portcullis, combine with Bloodline Keeper and Intruder Alarm while Vela is on the field and hilarity ensues!

Oh, and Intimidate gravy is gravy. ;-)











That's all the spoilers for now, there are a couple other creatures spoiled but the images are horrible so I'm going to wait until better images surface before I get to reviewing them.

Hope all you guys are enjoying this spoiler season! Stay tuned for Part 2!

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.