Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Gev, Scaled Scorch!

Gev is a two mana 3/2 with a ward of pay 2 life and other creature you control enter with an additional +1/+1 counter for each opponent who lost life this turn and whenever you cast a Lizard spell, Gev deals 1 damage to target opponent.

Gev is an interesting blend of being a burn Commander while also benefitting you by making your creatures bigger, a go tall burn strategy is a pretty interesting way to play a deck.

The plan is to find ways to consistently deal at least one damage to each opponent as early as we can, cast some cheap creatures and rush in to make our attacks.

The first thing we need to do is find ways to consistently deal some damage to all of our opponents to get the most counters we can.

Boltwave is extremely efficient in dealing damage to all of our opponents, and actually a decent amount of damage at 3 for the price of one mana. Sure it is a sorcery and only deals damage to our opponents, but that is exactly why we should have it.

Recently there was a creature type update that made Viashino’s into Lizards, which means that something like Dagger Caster is worth considering, not just because they are a Lizard that can trigger Gev, but also because they deal one damage to each opponent and each creature our opponents control, which can prove to be useful in clearing the board of small creatures or making blocks awkward.

Stormfist Crusader would be an interesting choice to consider because it isn’t a Lizard to help trigger Gev, but it does have each player lose 1 life at the beginning of our upkeep while drawing everyone a card as well all at the cost of two mana.

If we need other cheap ways to deal some damage to our opponents so we still have the mana to cast our creatures, End the Festivities is a solid choice because not only does it deal damage to each opponent, but also each creature and Planeswalker they control. Tectonic Hazard is similar, but it doesn’t deal damage to Planeswalkers, which may not always come up but it is something that may come up.

Fiery Confluence is a solid modal option to consider because it allows us three choices, being able to pick the same mode more than once, in dealing 1 damage to each creature, 2 damage to each opponent, or destroy target artifact. So long as one of the choices is dealing damage to our opponents, then we can be free to choose any of the other options as we need to.

The next thing we should do is make sure that we can get some cheap creatures on board, Lizards if possible to help trigger Gev.

Iridescent Vinelasher is a great example of being a cheap Lizard that we can cast that just so happens to have an ability to deal damage to our opponents. What’s more, we can pay the Offspring cost in order to get an additional copy of it to get an additional way to deal damage to our opponents.

Now if we want a cheap creature, then we can make use of a creature like Clockwork Percussionist, a one mana haste creature that can get a decent number of counters to make an attack fairly early. Not only that, but we can then cast Gleeful Demolition in order to make three Phyrexian Goblin tokens with +1/+1 counters and get an impulse draw from the Percussionist.

Spitfire Lagac can be used as another way to deal damage to opponents whenever we play a land while also being a lizard, Magebane Lizard can be used as a way to hinder noncreature heavy decks, Glidedive Duo can be a way to drain our opponents for 2 life while also having a Lizard that can fly.

As far as non-Lizard creatures we have cards like Witty Roastmaster to deal damage to each opponent whenever a creature we control enters, Zulaport Cutthroat to drain our opponents whenever a creature we control dies, and Murderous Redcap to deal damage to any target equal to its power while also having Persist which means it will constantly recur itself so long as we deal damage to at least one opponent.

The last thing we need are ways to get a ton of damage through, not just through combat but through our plentiful burn.

Rankle and Torbran are excellent examples of us getting potentially a lot of damage through because when we deal combat damage to a player or battle then we can choose any number of either giving everyone a Treasure token, each player sacrificing a creature, and most importantly if a source we control would deal damage to a player or battle, it deals that much plus 2 instead.

This turns any burn done from Gev into Lightning Bolts whenever we cast a Lizard spell, or turns something like a Warstorm Surge trigger into a massive burst of damage that can be used to take a player out of the game.

We also have access to a number of damage multipliers like Fiery Emancipation and City on Fire, and since we should be getting a ton of creatures entering the battlefield with counters on them, then something like All Will Be One can be a solid swarm of damage.

Being a little creative, we can use something like a Bitterblossom while something like Stormfist Crusader is in play in order to continuously get triggers from All Will Be One and Warstorm Surge at the mere cost of one life while also getting a massive Faerie Rogue with flying.

Gev is a neat Commander in that it combines a Go Tall strategy with a burn strategy in a way that rewards you for burning every player. You may have a difficult time as most burn decks do have a hard time in Commander, but Gev is cheap to cast and at the very least has some form of protection in the ward of 2 life, so if you manage to keep burning your opponents it becomes harder for them to be able to remove Gev from being a problem.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual