Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church (1862). Hellkite Igniter by Jason Chan.

If there was a day to start writing today's column on the new legendary Red Dragon Inferno of the Star Mounts, it would be today. My handy dandy iPhone weather app has been telling me that it's going to be 97 degrees. That's 36 degrees Celsius for those of you in saner parts of the world. While in some places folks might not raise an eyebrow at heat like that, I'm in New England and we don't often get that close to the century mark.

While it might only hit 95 here in Massachusetts, today I'm going to be bringing the heat. My commander du jour is one of the more interesting Dragons I've seen in a while and I'm going to do my best to break it.

This legendary Dragon is a 6/6 for 6 mana and will have us building in mono-Red if he's in the command zone. He can't be countered, he's got flying and haste, and "Imvaernarhro" has the kind of activated ability that gets my deckbulding juices flowing. I can pour Red mana into him to give him +1/+0 until end of turn. If an activation of that ability pushes his power from 19 to 20, he'll deal 20 damage to any target.

This is clearly going to be a "big mana" Red deck, but is there a way to combo off and kill a table? I think I may have found the way, but it's no cheap two-card combo. I don't think there's any chance this is going to be the next big high-powered or fringe cEDH deck but I think it'll be fun and will win its share of games in its own uniquely explosive manner.

The Plan

The goal with this deck is going to be to try to win in a single explosive turn where we get Imvaernarhro up to 20 power, then edge it back down to 19, then push it back up to 20, and do that back-and-forth again and again until we've killed the table. With three opponents at 40 life each that means we'll need six of those activations or five and one combat step where we attack with our big boy to kill our last opponent.

If you're wondering why that works, Inferno of the Star Mounts doesn't have any limit on how many times it can have its power become 20 from using its activated ability. It just has to reach 20. Since the ability is firebreathing and will only push Inferno's power up, I originally found myself looking for ways to reduce his power.

There are two instants I was able to find that can help tamp down Inferno's power at instant speed. Blur of Blades and Puncture Bolt both cost 2 mana and could serve as spot removal for a 1-toughness creature if I'm not in a position to combo off. Grasping Dunes not only enters untapped but will probably go relatively unnoticed until I'm ready to kill the table.

I was able to dig up an old artifact called Bone Flute that can tap for 2 mana to give all creatures -1/-0 until end of turn. Contagion Clasp costs 2 mana and can put a -1/-1 counter on target creature when it enters the battlefield. I also threw in Contagion Engine even though it costs a hefty 6 mana, as it can help me get there and mana might not be an issue on the turn I try to kill the table. Umezawa's Jitte is a fantastic way to get repeatable -1/-1 debuffs and while it comes with a higher price tag, I think it's worth every penny in this particular deck.

The Twist

So, you think my plan is as simple as making big mana and using a small assortment of -1/-1 or -1/-0 shenanigans to bring Inferno's power back down from 20 to 19 so I can do it repeatedly?

That would be cute, but it's not the best plan ever. For one thing, there simply aren't that many ways to give those -1's to my commander. For this to work I need to reliably be able to edge Inferno back down off of that 20 again and again and I don't think a handful of cute combat tricks is going to be enough.

Fortunately, there's another way to get this done. It's both commonplace and obvious when you think about it.

Equipment! The secret ingredient that was sitting there in front of me as I was brainstorming and looking for cute tricks was Equipment.

I probably don't even need to get cute with all those -1/-1 debuffs because with enough equipment out I can use them to get Inferno up closer to 20, pump him to the magic number, deal 20 damage, remove a piece of equipment, pump him again, and get my repeated damage triggers. I'm absolutely not trying to suggest that it will be easy, but with enough mana, enough equipment and enough debuffs I should be able to pull off a table kill in a single turn.

Maybe it was obvious to you that the key to making this happen was equipment, but for some reason I got distracted by my search to find instant-speed debuffs and it took me a while to realize that removing a piece of equipment will effectively "debuff" a creature so I can hit that magic number of 20 again and again.

Because I want to really make sure I've got a lot of equipment available to me, but I also want to be able to have a board presence early, I'm thinking it makes sense to load up on those artifacts that enter the battlefield, create a 0/0 Germ token, and attach themselves to it. Flayer Husk is a good example, but I'm probably going to run as many as I can get my hands on. I'll be able to play those key combo pieces, have them available as blockers, and then swap the equipment over to my commander when I want to get down to the business of winning.

I'll want to be able to protect Inferno so Swiftfoot Boots makes sense even though it doesn't buff him. Mask of Avacyn gives +1/+2 and hexproof, so it's got to go in. Loxodon Warhammer gives pump and lifelink, so if I'm able to make Inferno do 20 damage to someone it will also help push my life total up 20 points. Locking my opponents out of the turn where I want to try to win is pretty important, so Conqueror's Flail has to be included. It might only give me +1/+1 in a monocolored deck, but it will prevent my opponents from casting spells during my turn.

The Elephant in the Room

All this equipment is going to cost me, so there's a very good chance that any turn in which I am able to pull off this wincon is going to have to be fueled by a lot of mana. I'll have to get the mana to pump Inferno up to 20, I'll have to pay for any debuffs or the equip costs to move equipment around, and I'll have to pay to pump up to 20 again (and again, and again).

I don't know that infinite mana is absolutely necessary, but I think it's smart to build those options into the list just in case. It's not like I've got to worry about mana burn, and going infinite will give me the flexibility to also win with a Comet Storm if that card shows up at the right time.

Throwing in Grim Monolith makes sense if you've got one or you're in a meta that allows proxies, but for a budget build Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith will do nicely to make infinite mana. That mana can be filtered through Stonework Packbeast, Prismite or even Gemstone Array so going infinite can still work to make the infinite Red mana I'm looking for.

Mana Geyser and Reiterate can also make infinite Red mana, which is perfect for this deck, but there aren't a lot of other combos in Mono-Red that make Red mana. I'm also running Caged Sun, Extraplanar Lens and Doubling Cube as ways to try to maximize my mana production. There should be games where big mana will get me there when I'm not able to go infinite.

Budget Inferno Combo

I'm not sure I've ever built a deck with quite so much artifact removal. The reason this build has so much artifact removal is simple. This list is a little light on creatures so I can't guarantee that I'll be able to move a piece of equipment over to another creature when I'm trying to kill the table. In those instances, if I've got the mana available, I'd rather just blow up an axe or sword and then pump Inferno again to do 20 more damage if I can hit that magic number for a second (or third, or fourth) time in the turn.

I suspect this first draft isn't nearly as well-rounded as I'd like it to be, but the goal with my first version of any deck is to focus heavily on whatever cute thing the deck is trying to do. If I play it a few times and find there's just not enough ramp, enough card draw, or enough creatures, I can always tweak it and try again. For me, a lot of the fun in this format is in constantly updating a list to see how changes affect the way the deck plays.

Inferno Combo | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Alloy Myr
• 1 Brass Squire
• 1 Grinning Ignus
• 1 Hatchet Bully
• 1 Ingot Chewer
• 1 Iron Myr
• 1 Irreverent Revelers
• 1 Manic Vandal
• 1 Prismite
• 1 Reckless Reveler
• 1 Ruinous Gremlin
• 1 Serrated Biskelion
• 1 Signpost Scarecrow
• 1 Stonework Packbeast
• 1 Torch Fiend

• Instants (12)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Blur of Blades
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Crash
• 1 Crush
• 1 Mogg Salvage
• 1 Puncture Bolt
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Seething Song
• 1 Shatter
• 1 Shattering Pulse

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Pillage
• 1 Shenanigans
• 1 Slice and Dice

• Artifacts (28)
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Batterbone
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Bloodforged Battle-Axe
• 1 Bone Flute
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Contagion Clasp
• 1 Doubling Cube
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Flayer Husk
• 1 Gemstone Array
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Necropouncer
• 1 Nettlecyst
• 1 Rings of Brighthearth
• 1 Scytheclaw
• 1 Sickleslicer
• 1 Skinwing
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strandwalker
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte
• 1 Voltaic Key

• Lands (38)
• 33 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1 Grasping Dunes
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

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Tuning this deck up would likely involve adding fast mana and maybe a Gamble and some wheels. The more likely you are to be able to hit your combo, the better. This first draft feels a little rough and could probably benefit from a few looters and if I'm being honest - a secondary game plan in case I'm not able to murder people with my commander. I'm comfortable with the idea of playing this list but I'm sure I'd make revisions after a few games. I don't think it's going to combo off as reliably as I'd like, but if the game goes long enough I think it's got a decent shot at doing what it was built to do.

Final Thoughts

When I decided to write about Inferno of the Star Mounts I wasn't expecting to stumble onto this weird combo plan where you edge your Dragon just up to 20, then remove some equipment, and then do it again and again to kill as many of your opponents as possible. I think it's a hilarious idea that might not be very consistent in actual gameplay. The idea of blowing up your own equipment just so you can drop Inferno down below twenty and then edge him back up to that number appeals to me for some reason.

Does "Edgelord Inferno" appeal to you as a neat new approach to building a Mono-Red deck?

As of this writing, I'm only seeing 51 Inferno of the Star Mounts decks on EDHRec.com, so I'm guessing this isn't well-trodden territory. If you've tried to build around this explosive beastie, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Did I miss anything obvious, or give you something you can include in your own list? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Before signing off I'd like to take a moment to thank those of you who leave comments - especially when you catch errors or cards that might not belong in a list. Last week Matt Peterson saw that I had included Anticipate in my Minn, Wily Illusionist list and pointed out that it does not draw a card. Churning out a decklist every week is a challenge, and it's genuinely good to know if I miss something there are folks out there willing to chime in and point out when something is wrong. Major errors do see me reaching out to my editor to ask for a correction to be made. I trust you'll forgive me for not wanting to trouble him with a request to replace the occasional card that is a good card, but just isn't quite in sync with what deck really wants to do.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!