Magic's first block introduced the Weatherlight Saga, and it also gave us the card we're looking at today: Aether Flash, one of my favorite underrated Red Enchantments from that era.

Today, I'll be building a deck based around it. The idea is that we'll shock every Creature as they enter for two damage but keep our stuff safe. Death Pits of Rath will play a key role, too.

There are a few ways we can get it done. We can rely on cards that have protection from Red or Indestructible, stick to tougher Creatures, or bring cards in like Mishra's Factory, a Man Land. If it enters without being a Creature, it won't take damage at all.

We can also run Red direct damage sweepers like Pyroclasm, Earthquakeor Blasphemous Act without hurting our team.

I built this as a 60-card brew in my 100 Combo Deck Challenge a while ago and I waffled between sticking with that old plan or going a different direction. Let's look at how it turned out.

Picking a Commander

I could have stuck with my old school brew, but I liked the idea of splashing White for cards like Powerstone Minefield or Death Pits of Rath. These smack our opponent's dorks for two damage as well, for attacking and blocking.

That does raise the question - who's the right Mardu (//) Commander for this kind of build? I briefly considered going a different route with Gruul (/) using Hansk. It's a four-mana 4/4 that hands out three 2/2 Zombie Walkers to an opponent each upkeep and lets us draw as they die while pinging Creatures.

There are a few other options worth mentioning too. Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot could fit, and Iroas, God of Victory is interesting since he prevents all damage to our attacking Creatures, not just combat damage, which plays nicely alongside the Minefield. Kazarov, Sengir Pureblood is another possibility.

All things considered, I decided to go with Zurgo Helmsmasher. He's a 7/2 Orc Warrior with Haste, gains counters if someone blocks him, and he is Indestructible on our turn.

Lands, Mana, Ramp and Such

Man rocks are one key part of this deck. These cards come in as something else, tap for mana, but can be converted to Creatures. I started with these two.

The first one, Kolaghan Monument costs to play initially, and can tap for Rakdos colors ( or ). But, for six, he becomes a 4/4 Dragon with Flying.

Foriysian Totem is another three-drop. This card can tap for Red, or we can pay to transform it to a 4/4 Giant that can block two Creatures; he'll also gain Trample until the end of your turn if you're ready to swing.

Manlands are another important piece. These are Lands that have ways for us to turn them into Creatures too.

The Desert, Cactus Preserve, arrives tapped but it is able to give us one of any Land that we already have on the board. Then, for , we can turn it into a 5/5 Plant Creature with Reach based on our Commander.

Cave of the Frost Dragon also arrives tapped. We can tap it for White, or pay to turn it into a 3/4 Flying Dragon until the end of our turn.

To round out this section, I have these last two cards.

Desert is our first Land that arrives untapped, but it only taps for colorless mana. At the end of the combat step, we can also tap it to ping a Creature that's attacking us for one. If our Death Pits of Rath is already out, that should end anything heading our way.

I've also included Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. That naturally brings in the Cabal Coffers combo too, though the main reason for Urborg is just to give us extra Black mana for plays later.

Since Coffers works so well with it, I went ahead and added that as well.

Synergies and Win-Cons

Of course, we need synergies and wincons.

I was leaning heavily to Kazarov, Sengir Pureblood here; I like the Rakos color identity but he is a bit pricey. It's to cast him; you get a 4/4 Vampire with Flying and you gain a counter on him every time that an opponent's Creature gets hurt.

Not only is it great that you can grow him uber fast in this deck, you also have the choice of paying to repeatedly zap Creatures for two.

I obviously had to include ways to save our guys, but I'll give you the heads up that these cards a little expensive on the secondary market. To me, they're worth it for the deck.

First up, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, one of the strongest Angels in the game. This is an 8/8 Flyer with Vigilance and Indestructible and it gives all your other permanents indestructible while it's on the board.

The Walls of Ba Sing Se is a 0/30, purely for defense. It isn't indestructible on its own, but it grants the ability to all other permanents under your control.

We also have some more Indestructible dorks to suck up damage and redirect it to our opponents.

That five-drop 1/1 Red Goblin, Brash Taunter, taps with 3 mana to fight target Creature. That's so strong, dealing their power back to them in combat and staying alive. With a Red damage-based sweeper you couldsend that damage to any foe at all.

Stuffy Doll is really fun here, also Indestructible. It's a 0/1 that becomes a proxy for a player and deals damage to the player any time it receives damage. It also taps to ping itself.

For card synergy, I started here.

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell is a 2/4 for . If a Red source we control deals damage across the table, it is increased by two.

The four-drop, Dingus Staff, deals two damage to players as one of their Creatures die. It's going to hit us as well, but it's still pretty good.

Maha, Its Feathers Night and Angel's Trumpet are next.

Maha, for , is a 6/5 with Flying and Trample. While it's out, all our opponent's Creatures have a base toughness of just one. It's not an easy target for removal, either, because it has a Ward cost that makes your foes discard a card.

That means that all Aether Flashes will kill them even without the Death Pits out. Pyroclasm there is nasty good too. You could add Kaervek, the Spiteful or Night of Souls' Betrayal to finish them off too.

Then the colorless three-drop, Angel's Trumpet, is an Artifact that gives Vigilance to every dork on the board. At the end of each player's turn, they have to tap everything that they didn't attack with, and they take one damage for everything tapped this way.

This is brillant with our Powerstone Minefield, among other cards.

These two are both Angels.

For , I've got Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. She's a 5/5 Flyer with First Strike and some solid abilities. It doubles all damage dealt to your opponents and their permanents from any source and cuts ours in half.

That also helps us with Aether Flash. It will deal four damages to our foes, but only one to us.

Adarkar Valkyrie is a six-drop with Flying and Vigilance. We can tap her to bring back a Creature, whether that's ours or an opponent's, and put it on the battlefield under our control.

I also have some damage-redirection here with these two Enchantments.

Repercussion makes it so that any time a Creature is damaged, their controller takes that much damage too. With Pyroclasm, Blasphemous Act, or Aether Flash, that's going to add up fast. I tossed in Beacon of Immortality as a surprise life gain effect we can use to survive if needed.

I have Pariah here, too. We can toss spell on a Creature and send all of our damage to it instead of us. This Aura costs three and can work on a foe's dork with the Repercussion but normally will be to save us.

I also wanted to include some Planeswalkers.

The White one, The Wanderer has a cost of only . She prevents all non-combat damage to our stuff. It has five loyalty counters, and we can -2 to exile a Creature with power four or better.

Chandra, Awakened Inferno comes with six loyalty counters, for . She can't be countered and gives us the ability to ping foes for one damage every upkeep, deal three damage to anything that's not an Elemental, or deal X damage and exile anything that dies from the swing.

Next up, another two White cards. Cho-Manno, Revolutionary is a 2/2 Legendary Creature that can't be damaged. I also included Seraph of the Sword, a 3/3 that can't take any damage either.

Akroma's Will is an Instant four-drop. We usually get one ability from it, but if our Commander is in play, we get both. We can use it to:

• Give Creatures we control Flying, Vigilance, and Double Strike for this turn
• Give Creatures we control Lifelink, Indestructible, and protection from all colors under the end of our turn

That's nasty either way.

And now let's finish synergies here. Blazing Sunsteel is a Red piece of Equipment that we can play for and then equip for . It gives our Creatures +1 power for each opponent, and allows us to send damage sent to us to any other target.

Jade Monolith is another Artifact, this time a four-drop. It lets us spend 1 mana over and over again to redirect to us damage from our dorks. That's good with indestructible stuff, Pariah or its Shield, or to save our stuff after Death Pits arrives. Or Aether Flash generally to keep it up prior to getting Indestructible.

Answers and Card Draw

Now, we need some answers and a way to draw cards. I started with these X spells.

Rolling Thunder lets us split damage however we like, so with Death Pits of Rath out, we can ping each opposing Creature for one and wipe the board or just aim it at a player to finish them off.

Comet Storm is a multikicker Instant. It can hit multiple targets at once, and with multikicker, we can spread that damage around as needed, to as many targets as we can pay for.

Aurelia's Fury is the Boros option, acting like an instant-speed Rolling Thunder. It can divide damage across targets, taps any Creatures hit this way, and also stops players from casting noncreature spells for the rest of the turn.

I also brought on these two sweepers.

Magmaquake is another X-cost instant here. It hits every grounded Creature and Planeswalker for X damage, which is great at Instant-speed for clearing the board.

Rolling Earthquake deals X damage to each player and all Creatures without horsemanship, letting us hit everything at once. Many of my dorks are immune to Red sweeping damage, so nothing to worry about here.

Both of these Instants are super fun and split up damage.

Fire Covenant costs us and X life. The spell will deal X damage divided up however we want. With Death Pits out that's a fast board sweeper that spares us. This could also be good to finish off some dorks or end things without it with low damage after Caltrops or Powerstone Minefield too.

Impact Resonance is a two-cost spell that will split damage equal to the most dealt to any source this turn! And that's split up for dorks. With Stuffy Doll or other damage redirectors, we can finish people off with either of those.

I did toss in Pyrohemia here to ping each player and Creature for one damage per Red activation here too. Remember, it'll die and the end of turn with no dorks out on either side, so just drop something if we swept, but we'll likely have something out that already survived.

Then the four-drop in Black, Pestilence is here too because it works well with Urborg. Task Mage Assembly could be a good addition here, an Enchantment that lets us pay to deal one damage to target Creature, at Sorcery speed.

Now we've got some card draw options. Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot is a Boros 2/3 that lets us draw cards whenever we deal noncombat damage to a Creature equal to its toughness. With cards like Rolling Thunder or Aurelia's Fury, that can add up fast.

She can also tap and use X mana to increase noncombat damage to a player or permanent, which gives us a way to finish things off out of nowhere or push extra damage through.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is our six-drop planeswalker. She comes in with six loyalty and lets us draw whenever our Creatures die. We can +1 her to make a 2/2 Zombie, or -4 to have each player sacrifice two Creatures, which helps deal with Indestructible threats -- even if it hits our board too.

Finally, these two in Black to complete the list.

Midnight Reaper is a 3/2 Zombie Knight that costs us to get on the board. When he's in play and a Creature of ours dies, we take one damage and draw a card. Since it's not specifically hitting us for one life, we can use a card like Pariah to redirect the damage.

Then, Harvester of Souls finishes things. This is a 5/5 Demon with Deathtouch, for . Whenever a critter dies, as long as it's not a token, we get to draw a card.

I also like Massacre Wurm here, to draw as opposing dorks die and weaken them by -2/-2 when they come in. The Wurm is also a good choice to get past things with Indestructible too.

Ready for my decklist?

Let's look at the entire deck in one piece.

Zurgo's Mardu Aether Flash Brew | Commander| Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zurgo Helmsmasher

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Adarkar Valkyrie
• 1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1 Brash Taunter
• 1 Boros Reckoner
• 1 Cho-Manno, Revolutionary
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Giver of Runes
• 1 Harvester of Souls
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Kazarov, Sengir Pureblood
• 1 Maha, Its Feathers Night
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Midnight Reaper
• 1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
• 1 Mother of Runes
• 1 Seraph of the Sword
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Stuffy Doll
• 1 Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot
• 1 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• 1 The Walls of Ba Sing Se

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
• 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1 The Wanderer

• Instants (13)
• 1 Akroma's Will
• 1 Aurelia's Fury
• 1 Beacon of Immortality
• 1 Bedevil
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Dawn's Truce
• 1 Fire Covenant
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Impact Resonance
• 1 Magmaquake
• 1 Restoration Magic
• 1 Sejiri Shelter
• 1 Spikefield Hazard

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Earthquake
• 1 Pyroclasm
• 1 Rolling Earthquake
• 1 Rolling Thunder

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Aether Flash
• 1 Dark Prophecy
• 1 Death Pits of Rath
• 1 Lightmine Field
• 1 Pariah
• 1 Pestilence
• 1 Powerstone Minefield
• 1 Pyrohemia
• 1 Repercussion

• Artifacts (14)
• 1 Angel's Trumpet
• 1 Boros Keyrune
• 1 Blazing Sunsteel
• 1 Caltrops
• 1 Dingus Staff
• 1 Foriysian Totem
• 1 Guardian Idol
• 1 Jade Monolith
• 1 Kolaghan Monument
• 1 Orzhov Keyrune
• 1 Pariah's Shield
• 1 Rakdos Keyrune
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thunder Totem

• Lands (33)
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cactus Preserve
• 1 Cave of the Frost Dragon
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Den of the Bugbear
• 1 Desert
• 1 Dread Statuary
• 1 Fountain of Ichor
• 1 Ghitu Encampment
• 1 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
• 1 Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1 Leechridden Swamp
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Mishra's Foundry
• 1 Mistveil Plains
• 1 Mobilized District
• 1 Mutavault
• 1 Needle Spires
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Restless Bivouac
• 1 Restless Fortress
• 1 Restless Vents
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shambling Vent
• 1 Soulstone Sanctuary
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck Export text

There we go! This gives us a bunch of Man Lands in different colors, like Ghitu Encampment.

I added Spikefield Hazard as a modal spell/Land to help finish things off early, especially with Death Pits of Rath out. Sejiri Shelter is another one that can protect our Creatures, and Dawn's Truce and Restoration Magic help with that too.

Lightmine Field is here as another Caltrops-style effect.

I also included Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes as early plays. They can protect our Creatures from damage or removal and help us get attacks through.

Final Thoughts

I could toss in Shatterskull Smashing, but it's a bit pricey on the secondary market. I'm thinking about pulling Bojuka Bog for it, but that's my only graveyard hating effect. Witch Hunter or Fell the Profane could be good too.

I also like Rakdos modal spell Land Bloodsoaked Insight, which can be very cheap if we've done damage to folks or will tap for two colors as a Land.

Archangel Avacyn could be cool here as a flashing protection trick and then when stuff of ours dies, flip to the darker side and deal three damage to each non-Angel too. If you agree, toss her in.

I hope you enjoy this.