How To Build A Themberchaud Commander Deck In MTG

The Wyrmsmith of Gracklstugh, Themberchaud, is one of the most memorable red dragons in the history of Dungeons and Dragons. Thanks to Magic: The Gathering‘s D&D crossovers and the Honor Among Thieves Secret Lair, Themberchaud is also a unique commander for a red “Mountains matter” deck.

The rotund reptile can lead an army of other dragons, with excellent synergy and a focus on big, splashy ways to deal damage. Lacking white’s flicker effects, it takes a little work to keep triggering him, but when the tubby terror hits the table and makes it shake, it’ll all be worth it.

Sample Decklist

The Commander

In The Forgotten Realms, Themberchaud is an adult red Dragon who is employed to light the forges in the subterranean city of Gracklstugh. In return, the city gives him everything his heart desires, especially treasure and food. Virtually endless free food has caused him to pack on some pounds, to the point that he can no longer fly.

In Magic, he’s a 5/5 legendary Dragon with trample rather than flying, because once he gets moving it’ll take a Mountain to stop him. Speaking of Mountains, he has an enter ability to deal damage equal to the number of Mountains you control to all non-flying creatures and all players.

Themberchaud’s last ability allows you to exert him when he attacks to give him flying for the rest of the turn.

A 5/5 with trample and sometimes flying isn’t that big in modern Commander games, especially for seven mana, but Themberchaud’s ability to do a cannonball onto the table for a mountain of splash damage is unique. Give him a bunch of mountains and some flying friends to dodge the resulting boardwipe, and you’ll have an earth-shaking mono-red deck!

How To Build The Deck

Themberchaud isn’t a particularly good Dragon, but his splash ability can be useful if used correctly. He’s an excellent commander for a “Mountains matter” deck, giving you a range of payoffs for having lots of Mountains.

Themberchaud has a big mana cost for a glorified burn spell. To make him really effective, you need a lot of Mountains, but red is better at land destruction than at land ramp. It takes a little creativity to get a worthwhile number of Mountains into play, but once they’re there, you’ll have enough mana for some other bombs.

Access to a lot of red mana and the need to keep your important creatures off the ground means that Themberchaud has some indirect synergy with other Dragons, and leaning into that secondary theme will give you a lot of useful tools and tricks to make sure that you come out on top.

Ramp

Often, red decks want to ramp with rituals, and the sample decklist does include a couple of important ones. But in a lands-matter deck, the ability to search for basic lands and put them into play is vital. Lacking access to green staples like Rampant Growth, red is forced to rely a little more on artifacts.

Burnished Hart can fetch two of your basic Mountains for three mana, and while there’s no good way to get it back into play to reuse, the deck does contain several ways to copy creatures. This allows you to copy your Burnished Hart and sacrifice the copies for land, netting multiple land tutors.

Solemn Simulacrum is in a similar situation, but it finds a land each time it enters and draws a card when it dies. Normally, this would be four mana for a land fetch, maybe an attack or a block, and then a card. However, the same effects that empower Burnished Hart will allow you to squeeze a lot of extra value out if your opponents don’t deal with it early.

For redundancy, Canoptek Wraith is included to provide a similar effect to Burnished Hart. It can fetch two basic lands that share a name with one you already control, but only after dealing combat damage and being sacrificed. It’s unblockable, so getting the damage through should be easy enough.

Redundancy is important, so even if you can’t get your land-fetching creatures into play, you can find multiple basic Mountains through Equipment!

Sword of the Animist and Bitterthorn, Nissa’s Animus do the same thing (because lore-wise they’re the same artifact), which is to fetch a basic land each time the equipped creature attacks. Bitterthorn costs one mana more to play and to equip, but comes into play with a 0/0 Germ to attach to.

Sword of Hearth and Home can fetch another Mountain, but only when the equipped creature deals combat damage. Since it also gives protection from green and white, you’ll likely have an opponent that can’t block it. It also flickers one of your creatures, allowing you to trigger enter effects like Solemn Simulacrum or Themberchaud himself multiple times.

Sword of Hearth and Home can also be used to untap a creature that you attacked with, letting one of your creatures play at having vigilance. Just remember that flickering an equipped creature this way will cause it to drop the equipment.

Draw

Red has a lot of draw options, which are either “discard a card, draw a card” or “exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn.” Both are okay in a pinch (or if you’re playing a discard/madness deck or one that wants to exile cards), but you’ve also got some inexpensive ways to actually draw cards.

Throne of Eldraine and Dragon’s Hoard do double-duty as ramp and draw enablers. Throne of Eldraine can tap for four red mana in this deck, which can’t be used to cast artifacts or activate abilities, but it’s great for the rest of the deck. Or, for three red mana, you can draw two cards. It’s about the most cost-efficient draw option you can find in mono-red!

Dragon’s Hoard is like Commander’s Sphere: it’s an artifact that costs three mana to play, and taps for one of any color. But in a Dragon-heavy deck, you can also tap it to draw cards! Each time a Dragon enters under your control, Dragon’s Hoard gets a gold counter. Tap and remove a counter, and there’s a free card just for playing a Dragon!

In a deck that focuses on a specific basic land, Endless Atlas is almost an auto-include. For two generic mana, you can tap it to draw a card, but only if you control three or more lands with the same name. With Mountains making up a fifth of your deck, that should be an easy box to check.

Another option that does double duty is Ghirapur Orrery. The first ability gives all players the option to play a second land each turn, which will speed up the game for everyone. But it also allows each player to draw three cards at the beginning of their upkeep if they have no cards in their hand.

While this can benefit all players, you can always hold it until it’s the last card in your hand, ensuring that you’ll get to use its secondary effect. It also allows you to play a little more recklessly, knowing that you’ll get half a hand at the beginning of your next turn.

While most of the lands in the deck are Mountains, War Room is an exception. It still taps for a colorless mana when you need it, but for three mana and one life you can also draw a card. It’s a solid include in most nonblue mono-colored decks, which have little drawback and can often use an extra draw option.

Mountains Matter

Themberchaud relies on you controlling a lot of Mountains, and there are several other cards that either facilitate getting more, or give you additional payoffs for them.

Koth likes Mountains, and Koth, Fire of Resistance can put one into your hand each turn, gaining one loyalty counter each time, to make sure you don’t miss any land drops. His second ability can be used for removal, dealing damage based on your Mountain count to a creature, but it’s better to hold off for the emblem to burn an opponent or creature whenever you drop a Mountain.

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle isn’t a Mountain, but it still produces red mana. Like Koth’s emblem, it also deals damage to a target when you drop a Mountain, but only after you have five in play. A free Lightning Bolt every turn is nothing to sneeze about, and that damage can really stack up.

Downhill Charge can give one of your creatures a big boost out of nowhere, giving it a power boost equal to the number of Mountains you control at instant speed. You could also sacrifice a Mountain to pay for it, if that’ll squeeze out the last damage you need to win.

Land destruction isn’t popular in Commander, but it’s usually fine when it’s targeted and only hits non-basics. Demolition Field generates colorless mana, but can also be sacrificed to destroy a problematic nonbasic land like Cabal Coffers. Then you and your opponent get to search for a basic land and put it into play.

On the topic of nonbasic land hate, this is a great place to include Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. Both of these permanents turn all nonbasic lands into Mountains, which means that not only can your opponents not use important abilities on their lands, they also can’t get nonred mana from nonbasic lands.

For multicolor and nonred decks, this can be devastating, but it won’t have much effect on your game plan. Just be aware that you’ll probably be public enemy number one, and be ready for your opponents to throw everything they have at you.

Drag In Dragons

Several red dragons synergize with Themberchaud, allowing you to lean into a red Dragon theme.

Since you want to put a lot of lands into play, Nesting Dragon’s landfall ability should trigger frequently. Each time you get a new land into play, whether by playing it from your hand or by attacking with a creature holding Sword of Hearth and Home, you’ll get a 0/2 Dragon Egg token. When it dies, you get a 2/2 flying Dragon!

Those Dragon Eggs can combo with Themberchaud and Wrathful Red Dragon. Wrathful Red allows Dragons to dish out some damage whenever they take some, so if you have a couple of Dragon Eggs in play for Themberchaud to break, they’ll be able to hit your opponents as they hatch.

Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll also push damage to your opponents without needing any other support. It’s important to push this extra damage, because otherwise Themberchaud could end up killing you along with your opponents.

Terror of the Peaks gives you an extra source of noncombat damage: each time a creature comes into play under your control, Terror of the Peaks checks that creature’s power and deals that much damage to any legal target. This is another reason to play big dragons, and to target them with your flicker and copy effects.

High-cost commanders like Themberchaud present a problem: if they die, the commander tax can quickly become insurmountable. That’s a particularly big problem when you want to cast him multiple times.

Hellkite Courser can help by bringing Themberchaud directly into play from the command zone, gives him haste, and then returns him at the end of the turn. Since you aren’t casting Themberchaud, the commander tax doesn’t increase, even if he dies. Flickering or cloning Hellkite Courser repeats the effect, allowing you to trigger Themberchaud again and again.

Spawn of Thraxes is kind of a backup to Themberchaud. It costs the same seven mana, has the same power and toughness, and also does damage based on the number of Mountains you control when it enters. It only hits one target, instead of all players and lots of creatures, but you can use the same tricks for it as you would for Themberchaud.

Double Dragons

As mentioned earlier, Themberchaud is expensive at seven mana. And you’ll probably want to play him multiple times, which can be a problem with commander tax. The solution? Cast him once, and then start making copies!

Since Themberchaud is a legendary creature, most copies will die immediately upon coming into play. That’s fine, though: You won’t need him to stick around when Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink can use him as a board wipe for two mana, or force the game into a draw by making five copies.

Perhaps the best way to use Orthion is by copying Hellkite Courser, allowing you to bring in Themberchaud and another hasty dragon at the same time. Copying Solemn Simulacrum is also a great option.

Blade of Selves works remarkably well on Themberchaud, allowing you to make two copies when he attacks. Like with Orthion, the copies will vanish immediately because of the legend rule, but it still means dealing a ton of damage to each player and most creatures before blockers are declared.

If you want your copies to stick around, Helm of the Host is the way to go! In each of your combat phases, it copies the equipped creature, but the copy is nonlegendary, so it doesn’t die!