The Best Starter Commander Decks – Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

Last week we talked about the hard-to-beat Alesha, Who Smiles at Death Alesha, Who Smiles at Death First strike
Whenever Alesha attacks, you may pay {W/B}{W/B}. If you do, return target creature card with power 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped and attacking. as one of the best starter commander decks. Their ability to resurrect creatures, constantly attack, and just generally make use of some fantastic graveyard strategies is a great starting point, but that level of strategy isn’t something everyone enjoys.

Sometimes, all you want to do is turn stuff sideways and win. There are some excellent aggro commanders available, but the one we want to talk about today is one that literally just makes damage you deal deal more damage. That’s the kind of thing that’s hard to beat. So, let’s dig into Torbran, Thane of Red Fell Torbran, Thane of Red Fell If a red source you control would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals that much damage plus 2 instead. .

Meet your commander

So, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell Torbran, Thane of Red Fell If a red source you control would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals that much damage plus 2 instead. is a four mana red Dwarf Noble 2/4. Their ability is incredibly simple, “If a red source you control would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals that much damage plus 2 instead.” Basically, any damage you dealt is increased by two, which means you generally want to hit with lots of sources, instead of just one.

Their toughness and casting cost puts them outside of a fair few forms of removal, but it’s usually still a good idea to have a Lightning Greaves Lightning Greaves Equipped creature has haste and shroud. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Equip {0} in your deck to try and keep them safe, because they’re going to draw a lot of hate at the table if you manage to keep them around for a turn or two, especially if you’re going a good job of making the most of their ability.

Despite the seemingly obvious aggro approach, there are actually three fairly effective ways to build Torbran, so we’re going to do a little bit of a dive into each of them. Let’s get stuck in and deal some damage, shall we?

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Torbran swarm

Aggro in Torbran is about getting a lot of bodies out and making the most of that fact as best as you can. That means you want cards like Impact Tremors Impact Tremors Whenever a creature you control enters, this enchantment deals 1 damage to each opponent. , Purhporos, God of the Forge, and Outpost Siege Outpost Siege As this enchantment enters, choose Khans or Dragons.
• Khans — At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card.
• Dragons — Whenever a creature you control leaves the battlefield, this enchantment deals 1 damage to any target. all making sure you’ve got chip damage coming in whenever you play something or something dies.

One of the best things to do though, is to make sure you’re focussing on getting lots of small bodies out. Not only will this make sure you get a lot of triggers off of the above cards, but it also means you can put Cavalcade of Calamity Cavalcade of Calamity Whenever a creature you control with power 1 or less attacks, this enchantment deals 1 damage to the player or planeswalker that creature is attacking. in your deck, which deals one damage to the player or planeswalker that’s being attacked each time a creature you control with power one or less attacks.

Your aim in this deck then, is to stick a few of the cards we’ve talked about, and then use cards like Tilonalli’s Summoner Tilonalli’s Summoner Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.)
Whenever this creature attacks, you may pay {X}{R}. If you do, create X 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens that are tapped and attacking. At the beginning of the next end step, exile those tokens unless you have the city's blessing. and as many Goblin token making cards as you can find, and then just swing in aggressively until you’ve pinged your enemies into non-existence.

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Torbran spellslinger

Next-up is a spellslinger approach. This is based on using as many instants and sorceries as you can to just pummel your opponent. You can either build this to use mana generating spells and then finish off opponents with something like Grapeshot Grapeshot Grapeshot deals 1 damage to any target.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.) , or you can just have fun by pew pewing everyone down.

The key thing with this style of deck is making sure you have ways to benefit from all of your noncreature spells. So, Cinder Pyromancer Cinder Pyromancer {T}: This creature deals 1 damage to target player or planeswalker.
Whenever you cast a red spell, you may untap this creature. , Electrostatic Field Electrostatic Field Defender
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent. , Guttersnipe Guttersnipe Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, this creature deals 2 damage to each opponent. , Firebrand Archer Firebrand Archer Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent. , and Thermo-Alchemist Thermo-Alchemist Defender
{T}: This creature deals 1 damage to each opponent.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, untap this creature. all allow you to ping people as you cast your spells, which is great stuff when you’ve got Torbran out and can deal extra damage because of them.

There are some excellent pay-off cards too, like Chandra’s Incinerator Chandra’s Incinerator This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the total amount of noncombat damage dealt to your opponents this turn.
Trample
Whenever a source you control deals noncombat damage to an opponent, this creature deals that much damage to target creature or planeswalker that player controls. , which makes noncombat damage you deal to an opponent also deal damage to creatures or Planeswalkers they control. You’ve also got Fire Servant Fire Servant If a red instant or sorcery spell you control would deal damage, it deals double that damage instead. , who simply doubles any damage that red instant and sorcery spells deal to your whatever you’re targeting.

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Torbran stax

Finally, we have stax. You’re not going to make any friends with this build, but if you really want to punish your friends for trying to play Magic then we recommend using Zo-Zu the Punisher Zo-Zu the Punisher Whenever a land enters, Zo-Zu deals 2 damage to that land's controller. , Manabarbs Manabarbs Whenever a player taps a land for mana, this enchantment deals 1 damage to that player. , Sulfuric Vortex Sulfuric Vortex At the beginning of each player's upkeep, this enchantment deals 2 damage to that player.
If a player would gain life, that player gains no life instead. , Harsh Mentor Harsh Mentor Whenever an opponent activates an ability of an artifact, creature, or land on the battlefield, if it isn't a mana ability, this creature deals 2 damage to that player. , Rolling Vortex, Burning Earth, Rampaging Ferocidon, and Spellshock to kill off your foes as they try to play the game.

Everyone will try and kill you though, you have been warned.

All of these strategies benefit from having Runaway Steam-Kin in them to help you generate a frankly sickening amount of mana, and also Angrath’s Marauders, which just makes you deal double damage. If you’re feeling really frisky you can even mix and match these strategies, but we recommend committing to one at a time, generally speaking.

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