### A Pretty Perfect Pingers Primer

I don't see very many pinger-based EDH decks out there (probably because the idea is terrible and barely-viable) but dammit this deck is my baby and I'm gonna show you why I love it! Now, I don't know a hell of a lot about formatting, so excuse the mess. Just read.

The Deck

This deck is based around pingers, meaning creatures or other permanents that can deal damage to creatures or players outside of combat. Most pingers will do this by tapping ( Prodigal Pyromancer ), while others can ping in other ways ( Magmatic Force, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind ). This deck is based around abusing those abilities to control the board.

The Commander

There are a few different viable options for a pinger commander. I went with Keranos, God of Storms because he's relatively inexpensive, hard to remove, and while his random-chance ability is hard to plan around it will either net you extra cards or keep doing what the deck does best: dishing out pings.

Other Commander Choices

Most other pinger decks I see will use either one of the two Niv-Mizzets, or Nin, the Pain Artist. Niv creates an infinite combo with any Curiosity effects which makes him a strong contender, but this generates something a pingers deck desperately wants to avoid: attention. I have both Niv-Mizzets in the deck list because they're solid cards, but you do NOT want Niv to be the head of your deck, simply because that paints a gigantic target on your head that the deck isn't equipped to defend itself against.

Nin is also a pretty solid card, but for the most part you'll be spending your mana on playing pingers and pingers' tools, so there wouldn't be much left over to dump into her ability.

The new Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is potentially a very powerful option for a commander, due to the decks heavy emphasis on artifacts. I had considered this, but since Jhoira seems to have been picked up as a heavy storm/combo commander I've decided to stick with Keranos to avoid attention from the rest of the table.

The Cards

This deck is made up of two main categories of cards: Pingers, and Pingers' Tools. Pingers need tools to be effective, and tools need Pingers to, well, ping. You'll want to have more pingers than tools, because Pingers can still ping for some damage or at least act as a body, whereas tools are useless without a pinger to use them.

Pingers

- Brimstone Mage: Mana-hungry to be useful, but eventually turns into one Lightning Bolt per turn. May take this out for something better in the future

- Cunning Sparkmage, Vulshok Sorcerer: Pinger with haste. Helpful if you have some tools out and have the mana to play and equip him in the same turn.

- Endbringer: Pings every turn, does even more if you have the mana. Great pinger overall.

- Fledgling Mawcor: Pinger with a flying body. Sorta bottom of the barrel, but there are only a handful of pingers available to choose from anyway.

- Frostwielder: 4CMC is a little expensive for a one-damage pinger, but the fact that she exiles makes her pretty solid for EDH.

- Goblin Sharpshooter: The holy grail of pingers. Get this guy on the field as soon as possible and protect him. Paired with any of the insta-death effects in the deck, you can clear an entire board at once.

- Inferno Titan: Big body that pings on ETB and on attack.

- Izzet Staticaster: Pinger with haste AND flash that can wipe out a token deck pretty easily. A personal favorite of mine despite not being able to hit players.

- Jeska, Warrior Adept: Pings for 1, but a 3/1 with first strike is pretty solid for defense as well.

- Kamahl, Pit Fighter: Expensive Lightning Bolt with haste.

- Kumano, Master Yamabushi: Gotta give him mana to ping, but he exiles instead of kills.

- Living Inferno: Really expensive, but the amount of times I've sacrificed him to wipe out all the threats on the board makes him worthwhile.

- Magmatic Force: Huge creature that pings automatically on EVERY turn.

- The Nivs: Detailed above.

- Vithian Stinger: Basic pinger that can come back from the graveyard once. Not great, but I was in need of another pinger.

- Wojek Embermage: Can potentially clear someone's board when given deathtouch. Just be careful when hitting red or blue creatures.

- Staff of Nin: 6CMC is a bit expensive for a pinger you can't equip with anything, but the extra draw per turn is nice. May consider taking this out.

Pingers' Tools

Other Important Cards

The Game

Play pingers very slowly. You have to be careful of what other creatures are on the field, as most of the time you will not be able to block. Most of the creatures in the deck are very fragile, so unless you happen to draw a fatty or one of the Propaganda effects in the deck you may have to take a few hits to the face before you get rolling.

Once you can get a pinger on the field with deathtouch, start taking out the biggest threats on the table, preferably whatever is currently a threat to EVERYONE. Focusing too much on one person while you have a sparse field might set you up for some trouble you can't defend yourself from.

Overall, this deck is really meant for fun than any sort of competitive victories. Focusing on out-of-combat damage is usually something most people don't prepare for, so you can usually screw up someone's combo or shut out the board pretty easily.

Opening Turns*

Your starting hand is extremely important with this deck, due to it's ability to spiral wildly out of control. Most of the important cards in the deck are CMC3, so ideally you'd like to start with three lands, a pinger, and some kind of pinger tool. The other two cards could be anything potentially helpful; I like to have at least one mana rock on hand to get Keranos out faster.

Regarding Keranos, while he isn't exactly a wincon for the deck, you'd ideally like to get him out as soon as possible. The extra draw on a land card is good insurance against mana flooding, and the 3 damage ping on a nonland card can be good to handle low-toughness threats.

I do plan on updating this deck over time, so please feel free to provide suggestions, or let me know if I should give more detail on a specific area!