From the Brim to the Trim - Smoldering Budget and Opponents Alike
(Piru the Volatile| Illustrated by Greg Staples)
That's no birdemic, it's a scorchemic!
Greetings and salutations from the country where demonstrations are a national sport! I'm Arnaud, and I’m thrilled to take you on a journey of uncanny brews, budget cards, and usage of EDHREC’s filtering features.
After a hiatus due to the impressive content provided by my fellow writers on The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, we're back to the fray, with a spicy new commander to delve into. Before that though, I'd like to address the results of the last poll.
In my last article, I tried to take a shot at building Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant, assorted with a plethora of +1/+1 counters shenanigans. Long story short, I wasn't 100% convinced by the final result, so I wanted to see if you wonderful brewers wished to see a different take on this pachyderm, maybe inspired by your ideas in the comments. Well, it came close. While our featured commander won with about a third of the votes, Lulu wasn't that far behind, hoarding an honorable 29%. While that wasn't enough to warrant Lulu a second run, I was very pleased to see many of you did in fact like the idea; so much so that I might take another shot at her sometime in the future. Again, my utmost thanks for your commitment.
The other two contenders also sparked significant interest in some of you. Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir came third with 22%, while Abomination of Llanowar earned 16% of the votes. Solid scores, which also highlight the variety of profiles among you readers!
In the end though, these worthy contenders all yielded to the might of Piru, the Volatile. So without further ado, let's dive in and see what this week's winner has to offer.
This might sound like a broken record by now, but I'll say it nevertheless: I LOVE this Dragon.
First, it's part of the Elder Dragon cycle, which gave birth to our beloved format.
Second, one of my favourite cards when I started playing almost 30 years ago was Chromium. I loved the sheer impression of power these huge beasts oozed, and while their stats and abilities are underwhelming compared with today's standards, they remain a solid piece of Magic and Commander history.
Third, I actually own a Piru deck. Granted, it's quite different from what this list will end up looking like, but I've had a blast playing it every single time.
Lastly, in French, "volatile" is a dusty term for "bird". Piru the Bird sounds awesome in my book!
So what do we have to work with? First of all, solid stats. 7/7 flying lifelink is nothing to scoff at. Granted, the mana cost is atrocious, but that just means we'll have to buff up ramp a bit more.
The second ability is where this beauty of a dragon shines though: 7 damage to all nonlegendary creatures. A board-wipe on a stick. With lifelink. Which means anytime this puppy goes boom, it will likely net us a massive amount of life. My deck, centered on creating a slew of tokens, has often net me 150 to 200 life in one fell swoop.
Oh, the joy when you spot the look from your opponents, as they realize that yes, your life will shoot to the stars and no, their board will not survive the burn. Sadistic poetry, if you ask me.
A quick look at Piru's EDHREC page provides a nice 289 cards to work with, when combining the unfiltered and Cheap lists. Onwards then, comrades, let's trim that beast down!
First Trim: The Cardboard Chainsaw Massacre
As usual, we'll cut down everything that's $1 and above, because who said that Commander needed to be expensive?
When trimming all the bling, I was pleasantly surprised to find there were no less than 35 cards standing between $1 and $2. While I won't comment in detail on all of them, this gives you a great pool to dive into if you want to upgrade the deck without exploding over your budget. Following are the top 10 cards that grabbed my attention, from cheapest to most expensive:
- Liesa, Forgotten Archangel: Sad, sad Liesa. At $1.03, she almost made it. Getting your stuff back and exiling your opponents' when Piru goes off is no joke though, and a solid addition.
- Mogg Maniac: Great deterrent, and synergizes well with our commander's dying ability.
- Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: So, so good with Piru! She allows you to sacrifice it with some lifegain to boot, serves as removal on a stick, and won't be affected by the dying damage. Why must you cost $1.09?!
- Hofri Ghostforge: Get your creatures back for another spin with buffed-up stats? Yes please! Also an interesting way to toy with Piru to get additional copies.
- Keeper of the Accord: Give me some more fodder, give me more lands, give me, GIVE ME!
- Boros Charm: Classic protection while still triggering the lifegain. Or give Piru double strike to end an opponent. Ouch.
- Exhume: Get your best thing back. Make friends. Fry their things. Piru's life in a nutshell.
- Felidar Sovereign: Classic lifegain win-con, although it will gather more attention than a copper rod by a stormy day.
- Goblin Bombardment: Cheap sacrifice outlet. The ping is anecdotal to me.
- Living Death: Kill everything with Piru, bring everything back, and then one more time with feeling. Bajillion life anyone?
With all of these exciting and, sadly, too expensive spells out of the way, we're down to a healthy 165 cards.
Second Trim: Cardward Scissorhands
On we go then. Let's see what we have to enable our strategy. Draw? 15. Ramp? 27. Removal? 15. Wipes? 4. Looking good, looking good.
With such a mana-intensive commander, I feel like we need a strong ramp capability, probably around 14-15 cards. The rest we'll trim as usual. So there.
| Draw | Ramp | Removal | Wipes |
That was refreshing. I also trimmed the mana base, keeping as many versatile lands as possible, even going as far as adding a few usually underperforming ones. Yes, Rupture Spire and its clones are not particularly efficient, but given how colorful many of our spells are, we need to make do with what we have in the budget. Remember, you're not in a race, you're playing the long game here.
With all that, we're down to 144 cards. Things are going according to plan, time for some fun.
Third trim: cutting off the rough edges
Let's have a look at the meat of the deck. Basically, Piru wants to go off with as many creatures as possible on the field, to net an insane amount of life, proceed to kill opponents from its safe spot up the mountain, or even use the life gain to obliterate the table.
With what we have though, it seems clear that brewers wished to take full advantage of the nonlegendary clause. As it stands, the list accounts for no less than 22 legendary creatures. While they all have their own merit, I believe there is some fluff we can cut here.
The second aspect that strikes me is the sheer amount of reanimation spells, with 17 ways to take advantage of your graveyard. An interesting take, but a bit excessive.
Then, there is protection. What's interesting is that they all care about bringing back any creature from the brink of death. While it does make sense to bring Piru back again and again, I guess we can trim down the numbers here.
And then there's the miscellaneous rest: niche spells, effects that are just too expensive, weird oddities...on we go then.
| Legendary creatures | Reanimation | Protection | Misc. |
Well, that was an ordeal. So many good spells, so many interesting strats...
I eventually decided to remove the en-Kors along with Martyrdom. While they make a great combination to send all the damage to a redirecting creature such as Ill-Tempered Loner, the interaction just feels too clunky, especially with no tutors.
Most of all of the other cuts were either too slow, not effective enough, or downright painful choices. I guess you could also try to full reanimation route to Piru again and again...
Which brings us to the final stretch. Only 10 cards to go. Bring on the pain.
Final Trim: Heart-wrenching choices and choice additions
"Well, here we are again", chanted the glorious GladOs. Faced with the hardest choices of all, to get to the fated 100. Here are my final 10 cuts, with a bit more context. Bear in mind all of these are solid inclusions nonetheless, despite not making the final list.
- Coalhauler Swine: Six mana is quite a lot for such an effect. While I could see the appeal if you had an en-Kor in play, the payoff here is simply too small.
- Boros Reckoner: Same thought process. Plus the triple-colored pips make it harder to cast.
- Blazing Sunsteel: Very nice, but four mana to equip is too high a price for me to pay willingly.
- Fiendlash: Same as above. Slightly less expensive, but I'm not 100% convinced in this build.
- Arcbond: While it is tempting to double up on the damage dealt to a creature, this also means said creature will strike down all of our legendaries in the process. A bit counter-productive I'd say.
- Defiant Bloodlord: This was a tough decision. On one hand, it's almost guaranteed to kill at least one, if not all players at the table when Piru goes off. On the other hand, seven mana is a lot for a creature that could die to any removal.
- Lagomos, Hand of Hatred: This is a personal decision. I'm not a fan of tutors, especially in budget decks that are aimed at more casual tables. Granted, there are a few hoops to jump through, but it's more a matter of principle.
- Arvad the Cursed: In the end, I think there aren't enough legendary creatures to justify his presence. But it was a close call.
- Djeru and Hazoret: It all snowballs down, doesn't it? Legendary count, underperforming... You know the song.
- Akroan Horse: If you can manage to hit it early, it'll create a slew of tokens. Later in the game, it's more likely to become a dead card. Pass.
And there you have it. Piru, Smoldering Dragon, ready to go in a Blaze of Glory to lay a scorching Inferno to all resistance. Bow to the might of the Elder Dragons!
And now it's down to you. Are you ready to take this monster down to the trenches? Have you built Piru? Which direction did you take that gorgeous Dragon in? Any budget hidden gems that are must-includes? Let me know in the comments!
See you in two weeks!
Arnaud Gompertz
Arnaud Gompertz has been playing Magic since 4th Edition, back in 1995. He's been an assiduous EDH enthusiast since 2012, with a soft spot for unusual and casual Commanders. He'll always favour spectacular plays against a boring path to victory. Aside from mistreating cardboard, he's a dedicated board games player, loves a challenging video game and occasionally tries to sing with his choir.
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