Every time a new set comes out, I scour the spoiler for Commander deck ideas. Yes, I want to find something crazy that’s never been possible before, but a new spoiler is also a great place to look for existing themes you hadn’t considered. I had just such a revelation when I came across Pyromancer's Gauntlet.

Reminiscent of Pyromancer's Swath and Sulfuric Vapors, it encourages you to spread the damage around for maximum impact. That got me thinking about cards like Inferno that deal damage to each creature and player, and suddenly, I knew the perfect Commander.

 . . . except that, as Brandon Isleib pointed out, Tamanoa and Diamond Faerie are inexplicably nonlegendary. If your playgroup doesn’t care, I’d recommend going crazy with Vigor and Blaze Commando or Darien, King of Kjeldor. But I have a different commander for the job.

On Fire

Gisela does a lot to make global damage effects stronger, but I like to dream big, and that means more effects like Pyromancer's Gauntlet. Now, you may be asking yourself, “What happens if I have both Gisela and Pyromancer's Gauntlet on board?” These are replacement effects. When more than one of them tries to apply to the same event, the player who’s affected or the controller of the affected object chooses which to apply first and then checks if any others apply. Each effect can only apply once to a given event. Of course, this can be a bit tricky. What’s affected by Pyromancer's Gauntlet—the spell or the thing it’s dealing damage to? The answer, unfortunately, is the recipient of the damage, so your opponents are probably going to choose to take 12 damage from Lava Axe rather than 14.

But there are other ways to increase the damage output of your burn spells.

These don’t work terribly well with Gisela, but given players’ propensities to repeatedly kill her on sight, I don’t imagine you’ll have trouble finding room to use them.

Been Burned Before

But what about the other side of Gisela’s functionality? She halves the damage that you and your creatures take, but when you’re casting Earthquake for 8 with Fire Servant on the board, the damage still adds up pretty quickly. So, how do you avoid dying to your own damage? It’s time to dust off some old timers.

But why stop at preventing damage? Why not make it into a good thing?

Of course, protecting yourself is only half of the equation. Creatures like Fire Servant and Purity are going to have trouble sticking around with fire flying everywhere. There are a few ways to go about solving that problem.

Protection from red certainly keeps creatures alive through a Molten Disaster, but I want to have my cake and eat it, too, and Akroma's Memorial doesn’t let Stuffy Doll trigger. Hmm, Stuffy Doll—why don’t we make things indestructible?

Throw in some ramp, some card-draw, and a metric ton of burn, and you have for yourself a deck that looks something like this:

"Burning Bright"

• Commander (0)

• Intensity (13)
• 1 Akki Lavarunner
• 1 Curse of Bloodletting
• 1 Fire Servant
• 1 Hostility
• 1 Quest for Pure Flame
• 1 Chandra, the Firebrand
• 1 Repercussion
• 1 Sulfuric Vapors
• 1 Furnace of Rath
• 1 Stuffy Doll
• 1 Boros Reckoner
• 1 Spitemare
• 1 Pyromancer's Gauntlet

• Safety (16)
• 1 Angelheart Vial
• 1 Forethought Amulet
• 1 Protective Sphere
• 1 Purity
• 1 Circle of Protection Red
• 1 Rune of Protection Red
• 1 Story Circle
• 1 Vengeful Archon
• 1 Wall of Hope
• 1 Righteous Aura
• 1 Hedron-Field Purists
• 1 Akroma's Memorial
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of War and Peace
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Shield of Kaldra

• Heat (25)
• 1 Bonfire of the Damned
• 1 Cave-In
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Earthquake
• 1 Fanning the Flames
• 1 Fault Line
• 1 Fire Tempest
• 1 Flame Wave
• 1 Inferno
• 1 Kaboom
• 1 Fireball
• 1 Magmaquake
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Molten Disaster
• 1 Price of Progress
• 1 Pyrokinesis
• 1 Pyromatics
• 1 Rolling Thunder
• 1 Shower of Coals
• 1 Slice and Dice
• 1 Starstorm
• 1 Street Spasm
• 1 Aurelia's Fury
• 1 Brightflame
• 1 Torrent of Lava

• Necessity (9)
• 1 Knollspine Dragon
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Pursuit of Knowledge
• 1 Orim's Thunder
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Kor Cartographer

• Stability (36)
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Thespian's Stage
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Thawing Glaciers
• 1 Boros Guildgate
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Ancient Amphitheater
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Naya Panorama
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 6 Plains
• 13 Mountain

Buy This Deck

All Fired Up

So, how does the deck play? I’m glad you asked—er, well, I asked. STOP QUESTIONING ME, AND START ASKING QUESTIONS. Ahem. So, here’s how it all went down:

We sat down and laid out our commanders.

Everything was quiet for a few turns as we played lands, and then Karona and Obzedat started ramping. Those two continued to hold sway over the game as Karona cast Magus of the Moat and Obzedat played Blind Obedience to make sure that nobody was doing much of anything. Obzedat slowly began bouncing in and out of play, draining life, and Karona further locked down the board with a Windborn Muse while Hazezon summoned small creatures and I played Circle of Protection: Red. Finally, I decided to take advantage of the stall with Mind's Eye, but it met with an immediate Return to Dust from the Ghost Council. So much for that plan.

Karona was aimlessly wandering from one controller to the next, never able to attack, and my Hostility wasn’t doing much better. Finally, Hazezon set Windborn on the Path to Exile and entered the fray for himself. That’s when Obzedat decided it was time to take control before the tokens came a-knockin’. Venser's Journal plus Oblivion Stone meant that something had better happen quickly or nothing ever would. Luckily, I knew just the Modern Masters reprint for the job.

With X equal to 4, it cleared most of the board and brought in twelve fresh Elemental tokens from Hostility, but Obzedat’s Blind Obedience took the oomph out of their arrival. Now free to attack, Karona did a number on my life total, but I had payback at the ready. Price of Progress made eighteen more Elementals at Karona’s end step, but I couldn’t send any at Obzedat because he had mana open to use Oblivion Stone, so I named Elemental with Karona and crushed her and Hazezon. Obzedat and I stared each other down for a minute, and then he blew the Stone. The Ghost Council blinked back into play and knocked me down to 30 with an attack; I decided I’d better put a blocker down soon to slow the bleeding. But I had more pressing matters when Obzedat dropped a Vizkopa Guildmage to complement Venser's Journal.

Orim's Thunder dealt with that clock, but it left me without enough mana to cast Spitemare, so Obzedat came in for another hit. I dropped Stuffy Doll, but Blind Obedience left it tapped as well. No worries—it would be untapped with plenty of time to spare.

Or so I thought.

Unburial Rites on Vizkopa Guildmage let Obzedat hit me down to 6. Then, he paid the extortion fee on Thrull Parasite to put me to 4 and delivered the final blow.

So, I guess the moral of the story is: Never be content with Blind Obedience.

You’re Fired

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s look into slinging fire and are finding your own inspiration in Magic 2014. Which cards have caught your eye? Share them in the comments, and you might just see one featured in an upcoming column. Until then, go out and explore the new cards!