Grenzo is the final product of my long, weird relationship with mono-red. Growing up playing MtG, red was probably my least favorite color and when I got into EDH, mono-red was considered the weakest of the mono-colors. I wanted a challenge, and worked to produce a deck I liked in my least favorite and weakest color. These days white is considered weakest, and my tastes have shifted to where I despise blue, but I've maintained some sort of mono-red deck in my collection since then. My first mono-red commander was Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker at the helm of a goblin/combo deck, which my playgroup immediately hated as they were at the phase where any infinite combo was anti-fun. I hopped to Márton Stromgald next which was essentially a combo deck masquerading as a combat deck, and that worked well enough. Márton stayed together for many years until Grenzo, Havoc Raiser was spoiled. I didn't realize just how powerful Grenzo was at first, especially at the helm of a deck designed to take advantage of the board state you want to create with him. People really just aren't ready to handle a resolved Bedlam, and the double takes when I play Invasion Plans are hilarious as well. My Márton deck was already heading in in the right direction, striving to create a lot of tokens quickly and get in there, but Grenzo operates much lower to the ground and builds value early and over multiple turns instead of a sudden explosion and hasty alpha strike with Márton. I've kept Márton in the deck as a second-in-command and finisher, as a nod to the deck's history.

The deck wants to start generating Grenzo triggers early and then be unrelenting in the Goading pressure until your opponents are all low. There is a delicate balance between playing out your hand to maintain just enough attackers to keep all the dangerous creatures Goaded, and keeping some things back to rebuild if the board is wiped. Grenzo is great at providing pseudo-card advantage as after a point, you can survive mostly off playing your opponents spells and keeping a hand in reserve while you keep getting in there with your swarm. Disruption at the wrong time is quite catastrophic, but these are the ways of mono-red.

Est. 2016

> 12/9/2021 Update

I started playing in groups of four again, so Grenzo is off the bench once again! I'm bringing over some things from my Marton Stromgald deck, as well as replacing some cards that have been moved to other decks. Arcane Signet does indeed produce red mana, but it can't attack for Grenzo triggers. Iron Myr can. Stranglehold, while very powerful, just isn't relevant in my meta and so I was able to add Dolmen Gate, an artifact that I gained a real appreciation for in Marton.

> 7/2/2020 Update

> 5/29/2020 Update

> 5/16/2020 Update