Katilda and LierKatilda and Lier | art by Justyna Dura 

Welcome back to Bottom of the Barrel! This is a series where we pick a theme from EDHREC and look at the “bottom of the barrel.” This means that we look at the least played color-combinations and pick a commander in those colors to brew a spicy new deck around!

Today's episode is inspired by Saffron Olive over at MTGGoldfish - more specifically, inspired around a list he built for an episode of Commander Clash. The list itself seems strange, but he tried to sell it as "simic burn", and that gave me an idea.

Looking at the "burn" theme in EDHREC, to no one's surprise, Mono-red is the most popular color combination (with a whopping 22,000 decks!).

I really scraped the "bottom of the barrel" for this one because the least played color combination has 5 decks! Bant (green, white, and blue) is the least played color combination for the "burn" theme, and that makes a lot of sense. These three colors don't really care about dealing direct damage at all.

I'm sure you're wondering, "how can you build burn without red??"

Well, let me show you!

For our "burn without red" strategy, we will be enlisting the help of Katilda and Lier.

Katilda and Lier is a relatively overlooked commander from March of the Machine, and I can see why. The card itself asks for the player to focus equally on Humans AND instant and sorcery spells, which can be kind of tricky.

For today's deck, our major sources of burn are cards that we can flashback with Katilda and Lier in the late game, so this seemed like the perfect choice!

Unlike our usual explorations into the "bottom of the barrel", today's categories start with 3 specific gameplans with their own unique finishers.

Category #1: "Swamps"

When searching for cards that dealt damage, I came across a ridiculous card with a great name: Karma.

Karma made me think about committing a cardinal sin in commander (in my eyes, anyway): running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in a deck that doesn't have black.

Urborg turns on Karma, which is one of the funniest interactions I have ever seen. Leaning into this idea, I added cards to find Urborg in many different ways (Expedition Map, Sylvan Scrying, and Pir's Whim are the main examples of this).

Alongside Karma, Stern Judge does something similar, but we need to be very careful that we don't accidentally die from activating its ability.

Category #2: Deserts

This category is inspired by Saffron Olive, especially because we are focusing on 3 deserts in particular: Lonely Arroyo, Lush Oasis, and Creosote Heath.

When these deserts enter, they deal 1 damage to an opponent, which is not nearly enough to win the game. This is why we are running every possible "copy land" effect that we can!

Doppelgang lets us pump our mana into copying any problematic permanent our opponents' may control, as well as copy our deserts; Replication Technique lets us copy any permanent we control and demonstrate it to make friends at the table.

Orvar, the All Form turns any "target" spells into ways to copy any of our permanents; Moritte of the Frost can copy any permanent we control.

For the Common Good allows to copy any tokens we already control (this is particularly great after a huge Doppelgang!); and Copy Land, well, copies a land.

One of the best cards to enhance our "desert" strategy is Ancient Greenwarden, as it doubles the ETB effects of all lands we control while letting us recur any lands that go to our graveyard.

Category #3: "General" Burn

In order for us to have any chance of winning outside of our first 2 gameplans, we need to deal damage in unique ways. For this reason, I am including cards like Scrawling Crawler to deal damage when our opponents draw cards; Storm Seeker to punish any greedy blue players; Ankh of Mishra to deal damage when lands enter the battlefield (be careful with this one!); and Jinxed Choker and Squallmonger to provide excellent mana sinks.

Category #4: Recursion

Recursion is necessary to our strategy, as our pieces are mostly single-use spells or easily-destroyed permanents. With this in mind, I included things like Skullwinder to get something back while currying favor with an opponent; The Mirari Conjecture to get back instants and sorceries while providing an amazing way to copy a haymaker; Archaeomancer to pull double duty, as it gets back a spell while triggering our commander's ability; Lier, Disciple of the Drowned to give every instant or sorcery flashback and turn off unwanted counterspells; and Bala Ged Recovery to recur anything while acting as a land in a pinch.

Category #5: "Secret Spice" = Our Finishers

If you look at my decklist below, you'll notice that I have filled this deck with ramp spells, as well as a staggering 40 lands. This is because of the deck's main finishers, and today's "secret spice": Hurricane, Squall Line, and Borrowing the East Wind.

These are green's version of the "X Mana Burn Spells", but they aren't nearly as good because they damage each player. These spells really feel like we're "playing with fire" with this deck, and if that doesn't capture the spirit of burn, what does?

Closing Thoughts

Overall, this deck was a really fun thought experiment that turned into one of my jankiest brews yet! I can't wait to see the reactions from the table when I pull out a "non-red burn deck"!

This brings us to the end of our fifth edition of Bottom of the Barrel! I hope you enjoyed exploring a lesser-played color-combination in the world of burn!

Check out my decklist below!

Nick Benstead

Nick is a full-time educator of America's youth, teaching them to love stories, and write for expression. Outside of teaching, his life is steeped in Magic the Gathering, whether it be through playing commander with his wife, or coming up with wacky brews to take to Friday Night Magic at his local game store.