Conditions Allow - Zalto, Fire Giant Duke EDH

Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

| Art by Zezhou Chen

Enter the Dungeon with Zalto EDH

Hello, and welcome back to Conditions Allow, where I take a legendary creature with a drawback and turn it into a strength. Today, I'm venturing into the Forgotten Realms, to main halls of Ironslag to request an audience with Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

Zalto EDH starts with the Duke himself: Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

Before getting to how to keep Zalto alive, let's look at the dungeons themselves to figure out why. What awaits you in these lost crypts?

Choose Your Adventure

There are three dungeons, which you have access to at all times from outside the game. When an effect tells you to "venture into the dungeon," you choose one, place it in the command zone, and put a venture counter on the first room. Then do what that room says. The next time you venture into the dungeon, you move your counter through the dungeon, following the arrows along the branching paths, triggering each room's effect as you enter. Once you get to the last room, the dungeon leaves your command zone. The next time you venture, you can choose the same dungeon or a different one to explore.

Each dungeon has a different number of rooms, and a different set of effects. The Tomb of Annihilation isn't great for Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

The other two dungeons, Dungeon of the Mad Mage and Lost Mine of Phandelver, are more enticing. Dungeon of the Mad Mage has more powerful abilities, but it takes longer to get through. This makes it less flexible, since you can more easily get stuck without access to the effect you need. It has a more powerful final room, though, letting you draw three cards and cast a spell among them for free. The Lost Mine of Phandelver is shorter, offering more consistent advantage, and can even put +1/+1 counters on your commander. Both, however, make Treasure and creature tokens. These make excellent fodder for Skullclamp

For Zalto EDH, the dungeon's aren't so much the payoff of the deck, but the engine. With a consistent source of damage, Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

Pain Makes You Stronger

Pingers, or creatures that tap to deal damage, are an established archetype. Prodigal Pyromancer

Our Zalto EDH deck is going to need more than just three sources of damage, however. Of all the creatures that tap to deal a single damage, the best is (possibly) Endbringer

The next creature isn't nearly as sturdy. Jeska, Warrior Adept

Payment Up Front

Zalto, Fire Giant Duke

I also want to highlight Coveted Jewel. Adding this card to games has been incredibly fun, and adds a huge political element to any game automatically. It can be daunting to let an opponent draw three cards and gain three mana, but with Pyrohemia, Inferno Titan and some equipment that give flying, its easy to get back. That (semi) consistent draw three a turn is so powerful, on top of the swingy plays Coveted Jewel enables and incentivizes.

For a more obviously powerful card, let's add Unwinding Clock. Seedborn Muse is a ridiculous card and Unwinding Clock might seem less powerful, but its not. It guarantees you'll be able to ping Zalto, Fire Giant Duke for two damage every turn, and combos insanely well with Ghirapur Aether Grid and dungeon Treasure. If Unwinding Clock stays in play for a turn or two around the table, you'll be hard pressed to lose.

Into Battle

But how does this Zalto EDH actually win? There are a couple ways.

One is just by attacking. Hammer of Nazahn, Darksteel Plate, and Shield of Kaldra all make the cut just for indestructible, so it makes sense to add a few more equipment to round out the theme. Zalto, Fire Giant Duke has seven power and trample, making him a natural Voltron commander. He also takes unique advantage of another card from the Forgotten Realms commander decks, Fiendlash. You already want to be pinging Zalto every turn. When you do, Fiendlash will let Zalto deal damage equal to his power to another player. Thanks to the +2/+0, that's 18 damage from two pings. Add Grafted Exoskeleton and take a player out each time you activate Pyrohemia.

Treasures are another win condition. In addition to the Treasures generated by the dungeons themselves, I'm also adding Captain Lannery Storm for some early game ramp, and as another body to have in play. In addition, Treasure Map helps smooth out your draws, and then flips into a land that turns those treasures into cards. Hellkite Tyrant is the real payoff though, straight up winning the game if you have enough artifacts in play.

The final combo is a little more convoluted. You'll need Pyrohemia or Kumano, Master Yamabushi, plus Hammer of Nazahn equipped to Zalto, Fire Giant Duke. Then, cast Mana Geyser to generate at least seven mana and copy it with Reiterate, paying for Buyback. Keep copying Mana Geyser to create infinite mana, and then use it to deal one damage to Zalto infinite times. This lets you venture into the Lost Mine of Phandelver infinite times, choosing the Dark Pool room each time to drain your opponents to death. This also works with just Pyrohemia and infinite mana, but the dungeon helps offset the damage being dealt to you.

Round out the list with some interaction, card draw, and a few more equipment, and this is what it looks like.

And that's Zalto EDH! I was initially a little skeptical of the dungeons, but this deck is really cool. It isn't often that red gets to play like Simic, snowballing advantage throughout the game until you win by sheer depth of resources, but Zalto, Fire Giant Duke can do just that. He's also got the explosive potential you expect from a red commander, thanks to Brash Taunter and Fiendlash.

Let me know what you think though. Are there any cards I left out? What do you think of the dungeons and this build of Zalto EDH? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading.