Human TorchHuman Torch | Art by Vilhelmas Banys

A handful of cards from the upcoming Marvel Superheroes set were revealed as an early Christmas present, and I was really impressed with a couple of them. The highlight of the reveals for me were the four members of the Fantastic Four that were revealed to have their own Commander precon. I've always had a special affection for Marvel's founding family, and I was not disappointed with their treatment of the Human TorchHuman Torch. In this deck tech, I'm going to try my hand at building a deck worthy of Johnny Storm.

What Does Human Torch Do?

Human Torch is a four-mana 3/2 with two very powerful abilities. First, at the beginning of combat, if Human Torch's owner cast a noncreature spell this turn, Human Torch gains flying, double strike, and haste until end of turn. If this card was printed in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, I imagine this ability would have "Flame On!" printed in italics before the ability's text.

Then, when Human Torch attacks, his controller may pay . If they do, when he deals combat damage to an opponent, he does that much damage to each other opponent. Importantly, just like with Kediss, Emberclaw FamiliarKediss, Emberclaw Familiar and Amarant CoralAmarant Coral, the damage dealt to each other opponent isn't commander damage. This ability feels like it's asking me to build a deck that can kill all three opponents in the same turn, and that's what I'm going to do!

Key Cards for Human Torch

A rare category of card that isn't often used in Commander is pump spells, and Human TorchHuman Torch is excellent at making use of pump spells because of how much damage he can convert them into. For example, if I cast Become ImmenseBecome Immense targeting Human Torch, go to combat, attack and pay the for his second ability, each opponent will take 18 damage! One player will receive that damage in the form of commander damage, but the two that don't have still just had their life total cut in half! Combine a few pump spells together and suddenly all three opponents are dead.

Unfortunately, getting Human TorchHuman Torch into play, generating enough mana to pay for the ability, and sculpting a hand of enough pump spells and extra combat spells is a time-consuming process. Even worse, any opponent that reads Human Torch will probably understand that they should kill you before you do all that.

Dueling GroundsDueling Grounds and SmokeSmoke are stax pieces that can help hold back those opponents long enough to get to this deck's endgame. These stax pieces all have a little tension with other cards in the deck, but they can always be cleared out of the way with removal spells, like Soul PartitionSoul Partition, going into the big combo turn when necessary.

Narset, Enlightened ExileNarset, Enlightened Exile and Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy both give Human TorchHuman Torch prowess, which can be very helpful for finding the last few points of damage necessary to close out a game. They both have critical secondary purposes, however. Narset provides a way to recur high-impact pump spells, like BerserkBerserk and Bulk UpBulk Up, and Jeskai Ascendancy provides a lot of chances to sculpt the hand and graveyard over the course of the game.

Omnath, Locus of CreationOmnath, Locus of Creation is the inclusion I'm the most skeptical of. It makes a lot of sense to me to be able to save a fetch land for the combo turn and use the mana generated from the second time Omnath's ability triggers to pay for Human TorchHuman Torch's beginning of combat trigger. However, casting Omnath and letting it sit in play doing nothing for a turn cycle seems a little off to me. This will be the card choice I scrutinize the most as I get to test with this deck more.

How Does This Human Torch Deck Win?

Additional combats is the cleanest way to win a game with Human TorchHuman Torch. The idea is pretty simple: I don't want to pay four mana into Human Torch's beginning of combat ability very often. If I can squeeze two or three combat steps out of the turn I pay that cost, I'll probably only have to do it once. This frees up a lot of mana in the earlier turns that I can spend on board development.

For example, two pump spells, like Become ImmenseBecome Immense and InvigorateInvigorate, plus an extra combat from Combat Celebrant, deals 52 damage to each opponent. That really isn't asking all that much given how interchangeable the pump spells are.

Jeska, Thrice RebornJeska, Thrice Reborn takes nearly any pump spell and turns it into lethal damage. Paired with one pump spell that can give Human TorchHuman Torch +4/+4, an attack with damage tripled from Jeska kills the table in one combat step. Of course, a pump spell, casting Jeska, and paying for Human Torch's combat trigger still adds up to at least seven mana, but for winning the game, I'd say that's a fair price.

Human Torch Commander Decklist

Conclusion

If the rest of the cards from Marvel Superheroes are as good as the ones revealed this month, this set could very well end up being my favorite of the year. I'm really looking forward to putting this deck together when the time comes and to seeing what cards that haven't been revealed yet that could push this deck over the top. I'm definitely expecting a combat trick called Flame On that I'm sure will replace one of the lesser pump spells in this list.

I'd feel very comfortable playing this deck in Bracket 3, much more so than similar commanders like Najeela, the Blade-BlossomNajeela, the Blade-Blossom. The one-turn kill this deck is aiming for requires just enough noodling around that I doubt it would feel oppressive to a field of similarly powered decks. Plus, it should be telegraphed so far in advance that keen-eyed opponents will be saving interaction for the big turn, and I'll have a blast protecting Human Torch with FlusterstormFlusterstorm and Redirect LightningRedirect Lightning in a dramatic back-and-forth battle on the stack.

Now, it's on the lovely people in the comments to fill me in on the cool cards I missed! I look forward to reading them all.