EDH / Commander Staples : Red (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

EDH / Commander Staples : Red

Commander / EDH* Competitive Goodstuff Mono-Red Multiplayer

KaloShin

Artifact Removal (28)

Card Filtration (23)

Non-Basic Lands (23)

Tutor spells (14)

Spell Duplication / Redirection (10)

Strong Commanders (11)

Stax (7)

Win Conditions (6)

Time Magic (4)

Ramp (27)

Exile-based Card Draw (24)

Recursion (18)

Land Destruction (14)

Field Wipe (13)

Haste (9)

Counter Magic / Protection (8)

Eldrazi Magic (7)

Utility Creatures (4)

Commander (1)

Creature removal (24)

Card Draw (22)

Token/Token Manipulation (16)

Combat Steps (13)

Rule of Law Bypass (12)

Planeswalkers (8)

Creature Duplication (Valuetown) (7)

Evasion (6)

Sacrifice Outlets! (2)

Maybeboard

Other (1)

1x Dwarven Recruiter

This is not a list that says "You need this in your deck.",this is a list to encompass strategies you want to choose from. Need ramp? There's a list for it, need some weird evasion card? It's here. This is just a resource and not here to tell you how to play.

Ramp Show

Strong Commanders Show

Although this resource is not here to tell you how to play, I do believe in portraying things in term of power level. Commanders near the top I consider to be stronger than those below them in the order they are arranged. If you have suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

Godo, Bandit Warlord There was a time where Red didn't have any exceptional commanders, and we all were blasted out of the water with how goddamn effective Godo and Helm of the Host are. Godo is weaker due to the natural eb and flow of MTG power creep than when he was first discovered, but he is still a threat due to just how he works. You can run purely ramp protection and do very well, mainly because in his competitive environment its actually pretty hard to counter Creature spells due to the line up of cards they prefer, and if you counter say, Seething Song, it'll hurt but you're Godo, youve got 40 sources of ramp probably, and given time you will be back. His biggest weakness from my experience is refilling his hand, which is pretty red honestly.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw The most accidental CEDH commander I've ever seen. The reason she's good isn't just cause of consistency from the tutors, but because of an accidental culmination of ultra playable Dwarves. Most of the Dwarves in the 99 are 1 mana, the literal prime mana cost you'd want in a deck that cares for creatures. And some of them really are really useful. Bloodfire Dwarf and Spark Mage gives you utility for field control, while Dwarven Armorer allows you to grind in cases where you can't swing in. Magda also allows you to run Utility dragons to offset issues the deck had. One Magda I fought against ran Utvara Hellkite as a way of beating out his extreme stax meta as an example.

Birgi, God of Storytelling

Requires a very strict deck layout to work. Most of your land slots will be interaction because of how strict your card slots are, as nearly everything you run should be around 1 mana. You can unironically run cards like Spikefield Hazard and have it be a banger here. Basically, you're spamming 1 mana draw card effects to find your solutions. Card's like Magmatic Insight or Renegade Tactics and then a finisher like Aetherflux Reservoir or Grapeshot .

Win Conditions Show

Interaction Show

Reds removal has gotten a lot bettter over the years as old and new cards have circulated and proven their worth. Red still really sucks at it unless it's a damage based sweeper.

Pyrokinesis, Fury, Flameshot

My favorite red removal spell. 4 damage is pretty good and removes a lot of threats. The damage division also makes this a potential sweeper. All 3 of these are very similar cards.

Thunderclap Mine Collapse

After 5 or so lands, Red can start using them for utility/interaction like these spells. It might not seem really awesome, but I promise it is.

Lightning Bolt

This card gets stronger the stronger your meta is. If you don't want this, you're probably in a battlecruiser meta.

Dead / Gone - Chaos Warp - Wild Magic Surge - Introduction to Annihilation - Divergent Transformations - Stingscourger

Completely unconditional removal. They all have their downsides, especially Chaos Warp, but sometimes you don't have another choice.

Deflecting SwatGC

Single handedly the best red interaction. It's powerful enough to even show up in lists outside of red without hesitation.

Electrodominance

It allows you to remove threats while still advancing your own gamneplan. This card can also allow you to cast cards with no mana cost. IE : Wheel of Fate

Fiery Confluence

Solves a lot of problems in one card. Really good in tight lists that need interaction but can't sacrifice a lot of slots.

Fireblast

Not the best in EDH, but I've managed to make some burn lists that turn this card into gas, and being able to be cast for no mana is a big deal.

Cave-In

Playable by virtue of costing no mana.

Tibalt's Trickery, Burnout, Overmaster, Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, Ricochet Trap

The best part of playing red is you are an exceptional color for telling blue to swallow a box of knives. If you're unaware, Ricochet can serve as both protection and a last minute counter spell by changing the target of Counterspell to Ricochet, and by the time Counterspell resolves, it has no targets and will do nothing.

Abrade Goblin Cratermaker

Abrade is a very helpful spell, Goblin Cratermaker is essentially the same card turned into a relevant creature type.

Time Magic Show

Rule of Law Show

Stax Show

Non-Basic Lands Show

Impulse Draw Show

Tutors Show

Suggestions

Updates Add

Edge of Eternities Update — Aug. 2, 2025

Edit

I kept wanting to update more, but I'd wait for the next set to come out, then get really busy in life, and 11 months later, here we are. I've also split up some of the categories so people who view this list can find what they're looking for, notably I've split Interaction into Countermagic/Interaction, Creature Removal, and Artifact Removal.

Removed :

Dockside Extortionist

Added :

Lands

Arena of Glory

Untapped land that give haste let us get a strong-ish keyword with little sacrifice in card quality.

Lindblum, Industriall Regency Black got the best one for sure, but there’s easily some lists that really need that token redundancy from a land like this. This is a unique take on a Tap-Land as well, in the past, the only time you would feel okay running tap lands is if they produced more than one mana, or allowed you to make a spell uncounterable. This is a card that’s 2 cards the moment you draw it, and instant speed so you get to take advantage of it pretty well. It will always stay in the Exile-To-Play zone too until you need it.

Win-Cons

Stormscale Scion

Exile Based Card Draw

Zenith Festival

Seize Opportunity

Instant Speed Red Divination. The 2nd mode probably isn’t gunna get used very much, but it DOES help.

Glimpse the Impossible

Opera Love Song Insane that Seize Opportunity was power crept the literal set after its debut. Red players rejoice.

Recursion :

Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer

Card Filtration

Brass's Tunnel-Grinder ^Flip

Into the Fire Path of the Pyromancer Demand Answers / Thrill of Possibility / Saheeli's Lattice ^Flip / Invasion of Mercadia ^Flip / Grab the Prize / Kickoff Celebrations / Highway Robbery

Cousins to cards like Tormenting Voice.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Card Draw :

Will of the Jeskai

Straight gas. Didn’t think Id see Pyretic Charge get turned into tech from gas this quickly. We get to run past in flames with the ability to filter it away If its not relevant. A+.

Snort A wheel-ish card that punishes people who decide to take advantage of you is a unique space for red, at least in the sense that it’s useful here. You’d want the 5 cards anyway. The flashback is obscene too. If Will of the Jeskai gets to make an appearance, this one does too. Drawing 5 cards for 4 mana is a space not even blue or black gets into either, which are the most direct comparisons for running card draw like this.

Ramp :

Open the Omen Paths / Geosurge

Although they only hit creatures/enchantments, theyre still exceptionally strong. Geosurge is undoubtedly better, but is hard to cast. Before you talk smack, remember that the overwhelming majority of Red decks cannot function without their commander which happen to be creatures unless your name is Daretti. Krenko? Goblins are okay at best, he and Muxus are the reason they see play.

Krark-Clan Stoker / Catalyst Elemental / Crime Novelist

If youre running red artifacts, you probably have stax and an excess of artifacts, you can turn off your stax or turn unneeded artifacts into mana advantage. The other cards have been used to varying degrees of success, with Crime Novelist being the strongest of all 3.

Reckless Barbarian :

Skirk Prospector but slightly bigger, with a lower ceiling. Yes, skirk gets to do more if it is in a goblin deck, but I treat him and this card like bad mana dorks.

Interaction :

Untimely Malfunction

Added new category :

Strong Commanders for the Color :

Purphoros, God of the Forge If you’re still playing the 2014/16 version which just tries to establish consistency with cards like Mogg War Marshal and its cousins like Krenko's Command, he’ll feel pretty fair, but if you load your deck with low cost bangers like Ornithopter and LOADS of card draw, you will backhand the table.

Birgi, God of Storytelling ^Flip Storm is the play pattern. The amount of 1 mana draw/discard and new storm options makes her really strong.

Krenko, Mob Boss Similar play patterns to Purphoros, but we get all the benefits of running Goblins, which means a lot of utility and explosiveness.

Zada, the Hedron Grinder Don’t listen to people when they say you won’t ever get to have a commander. Youre in red, you also have a very strangely worded static ability that is really hard to play around. If you have 6 mana and the right deck, you should be able to draw 6+ cards 90% of the time and make the player who burned removal feel dumb.

Ki-Ki Jiki

He’s only gotten stronger. Mutate effects allow him to become goofy really quick.

Ojer Axonil

Deceptively strong. Uses a lot of strange cards to “oops all 40 of your life” players.

Magda, Brazen Outlaw The singular card responsible for making Tribal Dwarves a threat. Even if Clock of Omens and Changeling Artifacts weren’t around, Magda would be obscenely strong.

Slicer, Hired Muscle ^Flip

No one expected this card to do so well, but essentially having 9 power and “strange” evasion as it swaps around the table is pretty good even for a Voltron Deck.

Token Manipulation

Ral’s Reinforcements / Rally at the Hornburg

Bloomburrow & Others Update — Aug. 4, 2024

Edit

Modern Horizons 3 Updates — June 6, 2024

Edit

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Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 weeks
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	42 - 0 Mythic Rares 153 - 0 Rares 92 - 0 Uncommons 74 - 0 Commons
Cards	361
Avg. CMC	3.37
Tokens	Copy Clone, Eldrazi Horror 3/2 C, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elemental 1/1 R, Elemental 1/1 R w/ Haste, Elemental 1/1 UR, Elemental 3/1 R, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Emblem Jaya Ballard, Emblem Koth of the Hammer, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Energy Reserve, Goblin 1/1 R, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Junk, Lizard 8/8 R, Morph 2/2 C, On an Adventure, Phyrexian Goblin 1/1 R, Plot, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 2/2 C, Treasure, Wicked
Folders	Emrakul, Resources, Help
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