Conditions Allow - Flubs, the Fool EDH
(Flubs, the Fool | Art by Adam Rex)
A Foolish Proposition
Hello, and welcome back to Conditions Allow, the article series where choose a commander with a drawback and build a deck to turn it into a strength. Bloomburrow is upon us, and I'm very excited to relive my Redwall days. One commander in particular has grabbed my attention, however, both for its goofy art and its powerful but demanding effect. Today, I'm building around Flubs, the Fool.
Flubs, the Fool has a powerful effect that requires you to play in a very specific way. Whenever you cast a spell or play a land, if you have no cards in hand you draw a card. If you do have any other cards in hand, however, you must discard a card. This means that as long as you have one card in hand, when you play it you get another to keep the chain going. Additionally, as long as you have an odd number of cards in hand, Flubs, the Fool will reduce your hand to just one card all on his own. However, this also means Flubs, the Fool is extremely vulnerable to removal of all kinds.
Of course, Flubs, the Fool is also extremely explosive. The two most popular archetypes for him on EDHREC so far are lands and cheerios. A lands deck will have no problem recasting Flubs, the Fool, no matter how often he's removed, and a cheerios deck should be very capable of casting its entire library in a single turn, drastically narrowing the window it's vulnerable to removal, and while I'm a huge fan of land-focused decks, I'm not really interested in the play patterns that either of these archetypes encourage with Flubs, the Fool. Long turns where you might not win aren't very fun to watch or, conversely, play. In an attempt to avoid this play pattern, I'm going to take a stab at making Flubs, the Fool a burn deck.
Lightning Bolt!
Burn is a famously difficult strategy in Commander. Lightning Bolt is far less impressive with three opponents instead of one, but even more importantly, there aren't enough direct damage spells that are as good as Lightning Bolt. Dragon's Approach is dangerous as a burn spell not only because it deals damage to each opponent, but because you can put as many as you need into your deck. Flubs, the Fool helps alleviate this issue by making it much more likely that you'll draw every burn spell in your deck over the course of a game.
Another problem I've faced when trying to make burn work in Commander before is simply running out of cards. Flubs, the Fool fixes that problem, playing perfectly into a game state that many burn decks find themselves in naturally in 60-card formats. This also mimics the cheerios build of Flubs, where each card is functionally identical. Except in this case, rather than focusing on zero-mana spells, I want as many spells in this deck as possible to deal direct damage to my opponents.
Turning Up the Heat
Unfortunately, there just aren't enough good burn spells to make this work without a little help. To that end, I'm including both Artist's Talent and Pyromancer's Swath. Both of these enchantments increase the amount of damage your spells do. Flubs even plays perfectly with Pyromancer's Swath forcing you to discard your hand every turn. Artist's Talent, on the other hand, comes with a little upside. At level one you can draw your card from Flubs first, then decide if you'd like to discard it to redraw. Level two is a nice cost reduction, and then level three adds a little extra damage to every burn spell.
A more traditional way to add damage to every spell you cast is Guttersnipe, except I'm actually playing the more generic Kessig Flamebreather for this deck. There are a decent number of artifacts and enchantments in the list so far, and I want to deal damage on as many of the spells I cast as possible. I don't want to rely on these creatures too heavily, however. I've always found these creatures to be very fragile, and Flubs, the Fool can't protect them or hold them back in hand. A board wipe at the any point in the game would set you back massively.
So the real heavy hitters of the deck are enchantments. Aria of Flame is the cheapest of these, and even though it gives your opponents ten life each it deals damage fast enough that it doesn't matter, especially in this deck, where you can easily cast eight or nine spells a turn. Sorcerer Class takes a little more setup, but it deals damage to each of your opponents every time you cast an instant or sorcery. If you can get all the way to level three, it's very capable of winning the game on its own. Finally, I'm including Thousand-Year Storm. What's better than one Lightning Bolt? Ten Lightning Bolts.
Always Odd, Never Even
With our general strategy in place, the next thing to figure out is how to keep Flubs, the Fool working turn after turn. You will eventually have to end your turn with a single card in hand. When you draw for your next turn you'll have two cards in hand. Playing one will force you to discard the other, leaving you with nothing else to do. No matter how you choose to build Flubs, the Fool, you'll have to consider how to avoid having an even number of cards in hand.
Perhaps the best way to keep an odd number of cards in hand are abilities that let you draw. You can save Chromatic Star until your next turn, then sacrifice it to fix your mana a little, and put a third card into your hand. Sensei's Divining Top doesn't fix your mana at all, but you can use its draw ability turn after turn. I'm also including both Pyrite Spellbomb and Aether Spellbomb as draw options that double as removal in a pinch.
Another approach is to discard a card instead. One of the most common reasons your spell-casting is cut off is drawing one too many lands. Manabond and Burgeoning both let you still play that land while ensuring you start your next turn with one card exactly. Harvest Mage, on the other hand, lets you discard a card to make your lands tap for any color of mana. Having perfect mana is always good, but it's especially valuable for a deck full of one cost spells. It's pretty easy to run out of a particular color and have your turn cut short.
Finally, there are a few individual cards that help solve the hand size problem as well. Traditional cantrips are bad, but any spell that investigates helps you adjust hand size later on. Secrets of the Key even has flashback, another mechanic that keeps you going if you ever drop to zero cards in hand. And last but not least, I'm including one spell with madness. If Fiery Temper is one of two cards in your hand, you can discard it when you play the other. Then cast it for its madness cost, and Flubs, the Fool will see you have an empty hand and start drawing cards.
Put all this together, and here's the final decklist.
There's a lot of hype around Flubs, the Fool, and for good reason. He's got a powerful effect that supports a variety of strategies. I'm always excited to see what these kinds of commanders make possible, especially if it means bringing a real burn deck to Commander.
What strategy seems most fun to you? Are there any great burn spells I've overlooked? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!
