The Commander
Trample
When Themberchaud enters, he deals X damage to each other creature without flying and each player, where X is the number of Mountains you control.
You may exert Themberchaud as he attacks. When you do, he gains flying until end of turn. (An exerted creature won't untap during your next untap step.)
Guide
Gameplan
Themberchaud is a mono-red beater whose ETB acts as a scaling board wipe and burn spell equal to your Mountain count. You ramp Mountains, flicker or recast Themberchaud to repeatedly nuke creatures and players, and swing in with a trampling, optionally-flying 7/7 to close games. Lean into mono-red ramp, sacrifice/recursion, and direct damage to grind opponents out.
Strengths
- ETB scales into a one-sided board wipe that spares your fliers and burns every opponent for life.
- Mono-red consistency makes Mountain-count payoffs and ramp easy to assemble.
- Trample plus optional flying makes him a hard-to-block 7-damage clock by himself.
- Cheap to recur via sacrifice/blink for repeated removal and reach to the dome.
Weaknesses
- Color-locked into red, so no real interaction with countermagic, enchantments, or instant-speed answers.
- Damages you too if you have non-fliers, and the symmetrical player damage can race you.
- High mana value and ramp-dependence makes the wipe slow without Mountain density.
- Exert means he can't block or re-attack the following turn, leaving you open.
Key Cards
- Mountain — Literally fuels X for the wipe and burn, so maxing basic Mountains is mandatory.
- Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle — Turns extra Mountain triggers into burn while padding your land count synergy.
- Conjurer's Closet — Repeatable end-step blink retriggers the ETB board wipe and player damage every turn.
- Goblin Bombardment — A free sacrifice outlet to recur Themberchaud's ETB on demand.
- Feldon of the Third Path — Cheaply reanimates a temporary Themberchaud copy to fire the ETB again.
- Caged Sun — Doubles Mountain mana and pumps your creatures while supporting the Mountain theme.
Upgrade Path
Push power by maximizing basic Mountains and adding Mountain-matters payoffs (Valakut, Caged Sun, Wayfarer's Bauble fetching basics), then add reliable blink/recursion (Conjurer's Closet, Feldon, Goblin Bombardment) to loop the ETB. Layer in damage doublers (Fiery Emancipation, Furnace of Rath) so the wipe becomes lethal, and round out with fast mana like Mana Vault and protection like Heroic Intervention or Deflecting Swat to defend your engine.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Repeatedly flicker or recur Themberchaud to burn all opponents out of the game.
- ▸Beat down with a 7-power trampling, exert-flying Dragon while controlling the board.
- ▸Damage doublers like Fiery Emancipation or Dictate of the Twins turning the ETB into mass lethal.
- ▸Valakut and burn spells finishing players softened by the ETB.
Archetypes
- Spellslinger/Burn — His ETB is a repeatable burn spell, pairing with damage doublers and direct-damage finishers.
- Blink — Flicker effects retrigger the scaling wipe and life loss every turn.
- Aristocrats — Sacrifice outlets plus recursion let you loop the ETB as removal and reach.
- Big Mana Ramp — Mono-red ramp into a huge Mountain count maximizes the wipe and threatens lethal trample.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
