Chandra, Awakened Inferno: Official Thread

Brigby

 Chandra, Awakened Inferno 

(At Level 60)
-2  | -2  | +3  | +7  | +3  
118 HP
Creatures: 7 | Supports: 6 | Spells: 6

"Right after her first planeswalk, Chandra has come to live on a plane named Regatha, where she has been studying at the Keral Keep monastery in an attempt to learn better self-control and mastery of her powers.

The monastery was founded ages ago around the beliefs of another fire-wielding planeswaker, Jaya Ballard. Her quotes and teachings are the core of the Keep's beliefs, championing personal freedom and individual choice over all other things, as long as one was not infringing on another's rights."

Abilities

Awakened Flame - Cost 6 (Cost 4 at Level 3 or higher)
Level 1 - Create a Minor Awakened Flame token.
Level 2 - Create an Awakened Flame token.
Level 3 - Cost is 4.
Level 4 - Create an Improved Awakened Flame token.

Living Inferno - Cost 12
Level 1 - Deal 4 damage to each non-Elemental creature.
Level 2 - Deal 5 damage to each non-Elemental creature.
Level 3 - Deal 6 damage to each non-Elemental creature.
Level 4 - Deal 6 damage to each non-Elemental creature. Your Elementals get +2/+0 until end of turn.

Fireball - Cost 12
Level 1 - Deal X damage to target opposing creature or Planeswalker, where X is the amount of Loyalty you have, divided by 2 rounded up. Lose all your Loyalty.
Level 2 - ...where X is the amount of Loyalty you have. Lose all your Loyalty.
Level 3 - ...Loyalty you have. Then, if X is 18 or more, an opposing Vanguard support loses X shield. Lose all...
Level 4 - Deal X damage to target opposing creature and to your opponent's Planeswalker, where X is...

Tokens

Awakened Flame
Minor Token - [Red] Support Card (2): At the beginning of your opponent's turn, this support deals X damage to your opponent's Planeswaker, where X is 1 plus the number of this support's reinforcement.

Token: - ...Planeswaker, where X is 2 plus the number of this support's reinforcement.

Improved - While this support is on the board, spells in your hand can't have their mana drained or raised....Planeswalker, where X is 3 plus the number of this support's reinforcement.

HomeRn

This version of Chandra is probably one of the best mono-colored PWs to date; absurdly low cost but high impact loyalty abilities, big mana gains from primary color (nearly rivaling those of Koth's), and a decent pool of creatures to rush down Greg with.  Even though she does have a clear "focus" on elementals, I don't think the tribe is going out of style any time soon!

To make Chandra really fire on all cylinders (pun intended...), you'll want to focus on getting her loyalty gains as much as getting red matches on the grid.  Because Chandra's abilities require no more than 12 loyalty to access, you can fire them off with alarming frequency.  At maximum level, Chandra's Fireball causes both damage to a target creature and your opponent at the same time; meaning you have the means to end games both suddenly AND quickly!

Here's what I've been rocking lately for the Awakened Inferno (at maximum level):

Creatures (3):

Ball Lightning (MP)

Thunderkin Awakener (R)

Scampering Scorcher (U)

Supports (1):

Chandra's Regulator (M)

Vanguard Supports (4):

Domri, Anarch of Bolas (M)

Chandra, Fire Artisan (M)

Chandra, Flame's Fury (R)

Chandra, Acolyte of Flame (M)

Spells (2):

Demolish (U)

Electrolyze (MP)

First thing you want to notice is that this is NOT a cheap deck - there's 4 vanguards for crying out loud!  But that's for the Regulator to generate loyalty like crazy.  If all 4 vanguards stick - it's 12 loyalty every turn, or a free Fireball every turn if Greg's casting creatures like a madman.  Also note that there a few Masterpiece rarity cards in the deck; while powerful, they're not critical - so substitute as you see fit!

For creatures, Thunderkin Awakener can cause some massive graveyard shenanigans.  Combine this with Ball Lightning for a constant 26 - 30 damage every turn as long as the Thunderkin stays out!  Don't have Ball Lightning?  Substitute in Skizzik instead or some other elemental that has less than 4 health and has a habit of dying.  Scampering Scorcher is a nasty way for you to go wide - 12 mana for hasty 6/6 in stats, or 10/6 if a certain Anarch is out!

Spells are unusually low in number especially by Chandra's standards - but this is the price to pay for having 4 vanguards and the Regulator.  Demolish is the grade-A, go to support removal spell.  Able to target anything that isn't a vanguard for the most part.  Electrolyze is the hardest of counters to token stack strategies - able to blow up nearly ANY stack (or two!) of tokens for 7 mana.  Don't have it handy?  Then substitute your favorite burn spell that costs 11 or less mana - just in case you need to have the Acolyte of Flame copy it from the graveyard in case of emergency!

Then we get to the supports, any by supports I mean the vanguards.  Only two of them are critical to the deck: Domri, Anarch of Bolas and Chandra, Acolyte of Flame.  Domri will provide both mana-denial countermeasures as well as extra red gems every turn, plus the option to have your elementals fight your opponent's creatures before combat if burn spells aren't enough to clear problematic creatures.  Chandra, Acolyte of Flame can do a number of things: she can fuel your other vanguards, produce "not-so" Fleeting Elemental tokens, or allows you to reuse spells in your graveyard.  She's literally a swiss army knife of vanguards!

The other two vanguards are up to you as to what you have open or looking for.  If you have Chandra, Novice Acolyte, she makes a great fit as she's just as versatile as the Acolyte of Flame; bonus damage from elementals, 4 mana for your red cards, or some extra burn damage!  Chandra, Fire Artisan gives you the ability to cycle cards from your hand that you don't need (such as duplicate vanguards taking up valuable space).  Chandra, Flame's Fury allows you to constantly deal damage either to enemy vanguards, your opponent's face, and/or your opponent's creatures.

Then we get to the engine of the deck: Chandra's Regulator.  6 mana allows your vanguards to become loyalty generators!  For the Awakened Inferno, it's literally heaven.  Ever want to be able to ALWAYS use loyalty abilities every turn without having to match loyalty gems?  Here's your chance.  Because most decks these days don't run vanguard removal due to deck size restrictions, your opponent will usually have massive problems dealing with 1 problematic vanguard that you manage to stick... let alone 4 at once generating 12 loyalty every turn!

greenmeanie

Deck sounds really cool.  Unfortunately for me I don't hardly any  of those cards. Hopefully I'll get a chance to c it action someday.

HomeRn

greenmeanie said:

Deck sounds really cool.  Unfortunately for me I don't hardly any  of those cards. Hopefully I'll get a chance to c it action someday.

Like I mentioned, it's an EXPENSIVE deck to run.  Especially expensive are the vanguards that requires mana jewels for a chance to get the ones you "want" (at least now the Mythic Rare vanguards can be acquired without risk of getting duplicates now)!

Likewise, I'm going to be a very sad panda when Ball Lightning eventually rotates out; I actually pulled it from a premium pack - and promptly went absolutely nuts due to how powerful that dang card is.

Stormcrow

I'm just going to note here one important fact that I wish I'd realized when I was leveling my Chandra, in hopes that it will benefit others in the future: for the first 3 levels of her "Fireball" 3rd ability, it targets an opposing creature OR planeswalker. At level 4, it targets an opposing creature AND planeswalker; what this means is, at ability levels 1-3, Fireball can be used to target your opponent even if the opponent has no creatures in play; but at ability level 4 it is only possible to use Fireball if the opponent has a targetable creature in play. You can't just hit them with 30 to the dome if they have an empty board (or worse, an empty board but a Vanguard you really wanna get rid of). YMMV but I personally have found this to be a "downgrade" overall and kind of wish I could roll her back to level 59.

HomeRn

Good catch there Storm... hopefully there is a "fix" to allow the maximum level Fireball to be cast w/o creature target.

Anyways, with the recent changing of what blocks are in the Standard rotation, this deck I built earlier is "somewhat" outdated (both Ball Lightning and Electrolyze are out of Standard).  Changes are as follows:

Creatures (3):

Runaway Steam-Kin (R) Ball Lightning (MP)

Thunderkin Awakener (R)

Scampering Scorcher (U)

Supports (1):

Chandra's Regulator (M)

Vanguard Supports (4):

Domri, Anarch of Bolas (M)

Chandra, Fire Artisan (M)

Chandra, Flame's Fury (R)

Chandra, Acolyte of Flame (M)

Spells (2):

Demolish (U)

Electrodominance (M) / Exquisite Firecraft (R) Electrolyze (MP)

With the Masterpiece rarity cards from the original deck rotating out of standard, we'll have to improvise a little bit to fill in the gaps.  Especially since there's NO ELEMENTAL CREATURES in ToE!  Good news is that Ravinca still has a few solutions for us.

Runaway Steam-Kin fills in for the monstrosity that was Ball Lightning, but where the Kin lacks in damage, it makes up in gem conversion.  Even better, every single card in the deck is red - which means it will reinforce itself like crazy!  There is a little awkward problem with the Thunderkin Awakener causing the Kin to self destruct w/o getting to "critical mass" for gem conversion... but it will be back soon enough.

With Electrolyze no longer an option for standard play, we'll have to substitute some kind of direct damage for removal a/o burn.  Electrodominance is pricey, but returns some of that mana to your next card - which is great for the Steam-Kin.  If that's not available, use Exquisite Firecraft instead.  Cheap, highly efficient, and flexible; what's not to love from the Origins classic?

Overall, the deck's strategy is unchanged.  Play lots of cards, especially vanguards with the Regulator in play, and abuse Chandra's low loyalty costs to literally burn Greg to the ground.  Use spells to either remove annoying problem supports a/o creatures.