Odyssey/Theme decks - Pressure cooker (Legacy)

Pressure Cooker is a mid-range black/red theme deck with a threshold theme.

If burning your opponent to a fine crisp makes you squirm, this isn't the deck for you. But if you love fiery destruction and mayhem, read on. The Pressure Cooker deck is designed to keep the playing field clear and finish your opponent off with both creature assaults and direct damage. The deck plays a little like a red burn deck, and though it's a bit slower, it compensates by including some larger mid-game creatures.

Your plan is to hit your opponent with early creature damage. Then, later in the game, you can aim your direct damage cards like Morbid Hunger and Flame Burst at opposing creatures so yours can keep attacking - or you can aim them directly at your opponent's head.

Of course, it's important to use your creature removal spells wisely. If your opponent plays small creatures early on, you may want to wait and take a little pain until you can get out a Chainflinger to pick the little creatures off one by one. However, don't let your opponent keep mana-producing creatures or "symbiotes" for too long, since opposing decks can do nasty things if you let them reach threshold.

This deck does have a tough time dealing with big creatures. Its best creature-killing cards, Cabal Pit and Ghastly Demise, won't be very helpful early on because you need a lot of cards in your graveyard to use them. Try not to use up the flashback cards in your graveyard because several of your creatures and damage cards improve once you get to threshold. Also, don't be afraid to use the sacrifice abilities of Bog Wreckage, Ravaged Highlands, and Shadowblood Egg, even if you don't need the colored mana. They'll help you along to threshold, and the Egg will even get you a card.

If you change the deck, you'll probably want to add in a couple more Firebolts and another Flame Burst, and you should think about replacing a few of the more expensive creatures with wrecking balls like Kamahl, Pit Fighter or the Planeshift set's Phyrexian Scuta. You might also want more efficient removal spells, such as the Planeshift card Terminate, to replace the other black removal spells. After all, it wouldn't be a pressure cooker if it didn't make your opponent sweat.