Thorin, Mountain-king: 5 hidden gems for a mono-red equip-and-shoot deck

Thorin comes down, grabs an Equipment from your board, straps it onto a creature, and — if the attack connects — that creature fires off a direct hit equal to its power. This isn't a generic "equipment matters" commander: it's a one-shot trigger that wants exactly two things. First: Equipment that makes the targeted creature ENORMOUS the instant it's attached. Second: ways to re-trigger the ability, since it's an "enters the battlefield" effect, not a static one. Everything else — trample, the dwarven warrior body — is just window dressing. The real question that should guide every pick is: "Does this card make Thorin's single attack more lethal, or let me do it again?"

Run that filter, and a good chunk of the EDHRec lists fall apart. Here are five cards that deserve a second look instead.

Dragon Throne of Tarkir

An Equipment that gives +2/+2, but more importantly has a second mode that turns the equipped creature into a flying Dragon Illusion. The point isn't the defensive ability: it's that +2/+2 at the exact moment Thorin attaches it to the target creature means two instant extra points of damage on the "damage equal to power" trigger. On an already-large body, those two points often decide whether the target dies or survives. In a mid-power bracket, where targeted removal is scarce, this bump can take out a key blocker or close out the game against a table that isn't expecting it.

Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor

Here the multiplier is doubled. Equipping Mjölnir gives +3/+3 and trample — already great for pumping Thorin's trigger damage. But the real gem is the second ability: if the equipped creature already has trample (and Thorin has it natively, on top of anyone who gets the "right" Equipment), it deals combat damage to the defending player even when it hits a planeswalker or another protected target. In a deck whose plan is "single attack, maximized damage," stacking trample on trample with a +3/+3 is the difference between an annoying attack and one that closes out 20-life games in a single swing.

Óin the Brave

A support gem, not raw power. A cheap dwarf warrior that brings incremental value and fits well into the dwarf tribal filler that Thorin wants on board anyway for side-synergy reasons (equip cost reduction, Dwarf count, etc.). It's not the piece that wins the game, but it's the kind of two-drop that casual players cut for something flashier — while in a deck that needs to hit turn five with Thorin already equipped and ready, an efficient two-mana body that doesn't die immediately is gold. It shines most in brackets where the pace is slower and you need minor blockers/attackers to protect the main plan.

Glóin, Dwarf Emissary

An underrated value engine: it provides mana filtering and/or dwarven card advantage at a reasonable cost. The synergy with Thorin isn't in direct text interaction, but in the role it plays within the deck — a deck that wants to recast Thorin after it gets removed (and it's an obvious removal target, being the only way to trigger the ability) needs cards that keep the hand full and the engine running while waiting for the second or third copy of the ETB effect. Glóin does exactly that without stealing too many slots from the aggressive curve.

Iron Hills Stalwart

A respectably-sized dwarf body that comes with an Equipment-support ability (cost reduction or a buff, depending on the build). Why it's a gem and not an obvious pick: most players look at Thorin as "I want powerful equipment" and overlook cards that make it cheaper to reattach Equipment to a new creature after the trigger's target dies or gets removed. In a deck that recycles equipment onto different bodies turn after turn, cutting the re-equip cost is quietly one of the strongest multipliers on the list, especially in brackets where games run long enough to justify two or three waves of re-equipping.

What NOT to add

Generic random ramp (like 2-mana rocks that do nothing else). Thorin isn't a deck that wants to reach expensive top-end plays: the plan is to hit five mana, resolve the commander, and close the game with a well-equipped lethal attack. Ramp that doesn't specifically accelerate toward that turn five, or that doesn't generate any other value, is mana invested that doesn't buy real board state.

Passive card draw like "draw a card at your end step" with no other clauses. In an aggro/combo-attack deck looking to close fast with a one-shot trigger, slow draw doesn't buy you useful time: it buys the table time to find removal for Thorin before you can re-trigger him.

"Vanilla" Equipment with just +1/+1 or +2/+2 and no additional text. These seem like natural picks for an "equip" commander, but without trample, a second mode, or cost reduction, they're weak multipliers: Thorin's trigger rewards Equipment that do two things (buff + something else), not plain raw stats.

What to keep an eye on now

Thorin's real bottleneck is repeatability: a single ETB per copy means the deck lives and dies by its ability to reattach Equipment through other means, or to bring Thorin back to the battlefield. Watch how the deck performs in brackets 3-4, where instant-speed removal is abundant: if your playgroup is reactive, top priority goes to protection and recursion, not shiny new Equipment.