Thoughts on Thromok

Gruul in the mist.

That's not good at all.

Fire up the Gruul.

No. Just no.

You go, Gruul.

Eh, good enough. Moving on.

EDH (Commander) is a tricky format. It's not about just building the strongest deck. The idea is to build a deck that is "interactive." In some ways, this is the opposite of what you want in a deck built for other formats. Visit the official rules page and click on "philosophy" for more info. In my experience, green and red tend to be the two most interactive colors.

With that said, my collection of green and red cards is weak. I play these two colors the least. In fact, I only play these colors when I play a 5 color deck. So, the cards I have tend to be strong support cards, but nothing I can build a deck around. (The green/red color combination is called "Gruul.")



But this guy, Thromok the Insatiable, he's a terror. The deck is spectacular at doing something all Commander decks should aspire to: getting out of hand. This deck gets out of hand in a big way and it's really cool when it happens.

In a nutshell, the deck works like this:

• Generate tokens.
• Play Thromok.
• Smash face.

Classic Gruul.

If you haven't read Thromok closely, go ahead and do that now. You see that "Devour X" ability? That means that Thromok doesn't just get big when he comes out, he gets BIG. He gets X counters for each creature he eats.

Let's suppose you devour 5 tokens. Congratulations, Thromok is now a 25/25. One hit and he's lethal since it's pure commander damage. And devouring 5 tokens is nothing. There are so many cool ways to generate tokens and so many small creatures that give incremental advantage, you're almost always going to see a Thromok that's much bigger than 25/25. Heck, munching down 7 tokens (just 2 more) results in a 49/49.

But it gets even better.



With Warstorm Surge out, someone is about to get smacked. And Fling? Ba-blam.




The best part about Thromok is that green/red is a color combination that I don't usually see. Some of the best cards for this deck are inexpensive, especially compared to some of the format "staples" in the more popular colors. Warstorm Surge is downright scary to play against and can be had for less than $1. Vicious Shadows is a game-breaker, doubly so in this deck, and is also less than a $1. Awakening Zone is $2, generates tokens, AND ramps.




Moving up to slightly less budget cards, there are some amazing options. If you have a newer collection, start trading for both Xenagos cards. They will fit right in. If you're not into trading, they aren't too expensive right now at around $6-$8 each.



Don't get me wrong. There are expensive cards that would fit in this deck. Berserk comes to mind ($50) or Domri ($20). But the heart of the deck is built around explosive cards that don't break the bank. If you're looking for a new commander or just want to give a different color combination a spin, check out Thromok.