A good red deck is therefore a holy grail for me. I’ve tried to break Initiate of Blood so often it’s exhausted from the effort. I’ve worked Immolating Souleater/Electropotence to slightly better effect, but even there, it’s because I’m using the not-very-red Fortune Thief and Pristine Talisman.

As a red take on Propaganda or Ghostly Prison, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs doesn’t feel red by itself. But at this point, so what? Kazuul makes a cool commander, and I haven’t built a Commander deck in a long time. So this article is my very first cards-around-the-apartment shot at figuring out where I want to go with Kazuul.

Initial Themes

Rattlesnakes and Attacking

At the moment, this theme is a lot smaller than I’d like. Curse of the Nightly Hunt is the only card to force attacks. It won me the first game I played with the deck—a three-way in which Kazuul and Curse encouraged Melira’s infect all-stars to take out Olivia Voldaren’s tribal Vampires instead of me, buying me enough time to set up Krenko, Mob Boss, tie up Melira’s mana for denying me Ogres, and flying to victory with Flameblast Dragon. Once I start buying for this deck, Grand Melee will be prime support for this theme; it will take some fine tuning to know how many cards is the right amount for the effect, but it’s so great with Kazuul that I want to get it right.

There are other ways of taking advantage of diverted attacks, of course. War Cadence is among my favorite tricks in the red bag, as you can use it either to force your damage through or to ally with an opposing army to take down a bigger threat. Warpath, a prototype of Fight to the Death, has some tough timing but high upside; it should become better once Grand Melee’s in the deck.

Make Everyone Bad at Things Red Is Bad At

I don’t like giving everybody cards, in part from numbers, in part from paranoia, and in part from my deck running so much jank that I suspect others will draw more individually bombtastic cards from the draws. So here, I’m running the powered-down Jayemdae Tome, Dreamstone Hedron, and the techy Exuberant Firestoker. Jar of Eyeballs is a good match with Kazuul’s Ogres; that’s the closest mono-red will get to Fecundity.

Uba Mask isn’t in the same league as Omen Machine for this task, but it’s close, discouraging players from drawing more cards than they can use, especially on an another player’s end step. That both artifacts leave the unused cards in exile is tasty icing, as many a deck likes to use its graveyard as a second library (as one of my friends calls it all too affectionately), drawing a lot of cards with an oh-no!-I-have-to-discard step. Omen Machine and Uba Mask frown at this tomfoolery, and I admire their sternness.

This theme’s low on cards that can support it, but it was among the biggest reasons I wanted to build mono-red, and from the little I’ve played and tested the deck, it does its job. I definitely want to beef this up to where it shows up most games.

Something to Do with All Those Creatures

To make Goblins, I’ve included Siege-Gang Commander, Chancellor of the Forge, and Krenko, Mob Boss. Krenko needs little help to be silly, but the Chancellor can be a pivotal step to Ridiculousville. Siege-Gang Commander is fine with Krenko, but it’s finer when Rage Thrower crashes the party.

Mana Denial

Currently, aside from Price of Glory, the other land-destruction options are run through Conjurer's Closet: Invader Parasite and Tyrant of Discord. Parasite also assists my small Spellshock theme (Mondronen Shaman, Pyrostatic Pillar, Tunnel Ignus, Afflicted Deserter); I’ve put Parasite in several decks in which it’s borderline useful, but since every deck needs to play its lands to keep up with Kazuul, opponents have to bite the 2-damage bullet for the most part.

I don’t see room for many more cards in this category, but since I’ve shied away from the effect previously, it’s a nice changeup to include it.

Dragons

If I get a Slumbering Dragon, it’s going in for being so on-theme. I’m uncertain about Hoarding Dragon; it’s not something you normally would Dragonstorm for, but it can find Omen Machine and other goodies. My biggest concern is that opponents would make sure it would leave play without dying, keeping my best artifacts exiled in the aftermath. Maybe that’s not a big concern, but it doesn’t make me feel great.

Together with some traditional utility and other support that’s self-explanatory in the main, here’s the current decklist:

"Game Ogre"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs

• Mana (43)
• 36 Mountain
• 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1 Hellion Crucible
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Star Compass
• 1 Foriysian Totem
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron

• 2- to 4-Mana Creatures (12)
• 1 Wall of Razors
• 1 Tunnel Ignus
• 1 Adamaro, First to Desire
• 1 Goblin Chieftain
• 1 Manic Vandal
• 1 Exuberant Firestoker
• 1 Mondronen Shaman
• 1 Afflicted Deserter
• 1 Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
• 1 Hound of Griselbrand
• 1 Havengul Vampire

• 5-or-More-Mana Creatures (15)
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Scourge of Geier Reach
• 1 Flowstone Overseer
• 1 Creepy Doll
• 1 Invader Parasite
• 1 Caldera Hellion
• 1 Earth Servant
• 1 Rage Thrower
• 1 Magmatic Force
• 1 Tyrant of Discord
• 1 Chancellor of the Forge
• 1 Flameblast Dragon
• 1 Moonveil Dragon
• 1 Balefire Dragon
• 1 Hellkite Charger

• Deck-Specific Utility (12)
• 1 Pyrostatic Pillar
• 1 Curse of the Nightly Hunt
• 1 War Cadence
• 1 Curse of Bloodletting
• 1 Burn at the Stake
• 1 Warpath
• 1 Dragonstorm
• 1 Decree of Annihilation
• 1 Price of Glory
• 1 Jar of Eyeballs
• 1 Uba Mask
• 1 Omen Machine

• Generic Utility (17)
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Uphill Battle
• 1 Geosurge
• 1 Into the Core
• 1 Grab the Reins
• 1 Molten Disaster
• 1 Slagstorm
• 1 Chain Reaction
• 1 Jaws of Stone
• 1 Alpha Brawl
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Ring of Valkas
• 1 Relic of Progenitus
• 1 Elixir of Immortality
• 1 Jayemdae Tome
• 1 Conjurer's Closet

Buy This Deck

I tested this basic version against my other decks in simulated four-player games (when you’re between jobs, you have the opportunity to do that, I guess), and while I wasn’t overawed, I was impressed by how well the deck was holding together for being in its mishmash infancy. (The Mishmash Infancy sounds like Dan Brown rewriting The Shawshank Redemption, a concept that even as I type it sounds like something I will regret offering as a thought to humankind.)

It’s centered around Kazuul as commander—there are several cards and ideas I wouldn’t try without intending to cast Kazuul multiple times a game—but enough of the cards stand on their own to keep Kazuul from being a must-have. If I can bring Kazuul out at crucial moments, he should keep pressure off me long enough to bring the other independent threats and answers online. So far, the deck’s been a fun play, and it should become more fun as the list becomes tighter and more unique. If mono-red isn’t your thing in Commander, give Kazuul a shot. He’s much less monotonous than other mono-red commanders I’ve seen, and that goes a long way toward fun.