Balin, Hand Grenade by wsampson

Format: Commander

Commander: Balin, Loremaster

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 45

Deck overview

This mono-red deck is built around Balin, Loremaster, transforming Dwarf tribal synergies into an explosive discard-and-burn storm engine. The deck's primary strategy relies on rapidly enabling the Storied mechanic by deploying cheap historic permanents like Sol Ring, Ruby Medallion, and The One Ring. Once Balin enters the battlefield with Storied active, any Dwarf entering triggers a hand-discard and redraw effect that simultaneously burns each opponent for damage equal to the cards discarded. The deck exploits this through copy spells like Twinflame and Molten Duplication, creature bounce loops with Cloudstone Curio, and library stacking via Dwarven Recruiter. Mana acceleration from Treasonous Ogre, Birgi, God of Storytelling, and ritual spells facilitates explosive single-turn finishes without passing the turn. Supported by free interaction like Deflecting Swat and graveyard recursion via Underworld Breach, the deck reliably threatens a same-turn table kill around Turn 4 through rapid burn triggers.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Ancient Tomb
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Arena of Glory
  • 1 Bag of Holding
  • 1 Balin, Loremaster
  • 1 Big Score
  • 1 Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty
  • 1 Blazing Firesinger // Seething Song
  • 1 Brallin, Skyshark Rider
  • 1 Chaos Warp
  • 1 Cloudstone Curio
  • 1 Containment Construct
  • 1 Cursed Mirror
  • 1 Deflecting Swat
  • 1 Desperate Ritual
  • 1 Dori, Bearer of Friends
  • 1 Dwarven Recruiter
  • 1 Electroduplicate
  • 1 Faithless Looting
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Flameshadow Conjuring
  • 1 Flare of Duplication
  • 1 Fíli and Kíli, Joyous
  • 1 Gamble
  • 1 Gimli of the Glittering Caves
  • 1 Glint-Horn Buccaneer
  • 1 Glóin the Mighty // Easy Pickings
  • 1 Glóin, Dwarf Emissary
  • 1 Grinning Ignus
  • 1 Imperial Recruiter
  • 1 Jaxis, the Troublemaker
  • 1 Jeska's Will
  • 1 Lotus Petal
  • 1 Magda, Brazen Outlaw
  • 1 Magda, the Hoardmaster
  • 1 Magmakin Artillerist
  • 1 Mana Geyser
  • 1 Mithril Coat
  • 1 Molten Duplication
  • 1 Molten Echoes
  • 1 Monument to Endurance
  • 32 Mountain
  • 1 Panharmonicon
  • 1 Pyretic Ritual
  • 1 Pyroblast
  • 1 Reckless Handling
  • 1 Red Elemental Blast
  • 1 Reforge the Soul
  • 1 Return the Favor
  • 1 Roaming Throne
  • 1 Ruby Medallion
  • 1 Runaway Steam-Kin
  • 1 Seething Song
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 The Fire Crystal
  • 1 The One Ring
  • 1 Thrill of Possibility
  • 1 Tibalt's Trickery
  • 1 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
  • 1 Treasonous Ogre
  • 1 Twinflame
  • 1 Underworld Breach
  • 1 Unexpected Windfall
  • 1 Untimely Malfunction
  • 1 Urza's Incubator
  • 1 Urza's Saga
  • 1 Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge
  • 1 Wheel of Misfortune
  • 1 Óin the Brave