(Twinflame TyrantTwinflame Tyrant | art by Xabi Gaztelua)

Seeing Red

Mono-red always has been and always will be my favorite color of deck in EDH. Red was already my favorite color in Magic, but there's just something about going up against everyone's high powered, multicolored decks.

All filled with crazy powerful cards in a suite of colors. And there you are with your pile of cheap cards and a dream, somehow still becoming the threat with copious amounts of direct damage and a wincon baked into your commander.

If the crimson curse lives within you. The need for burn, haste, and impulsivity, then this list is for you. A heap of powerful cards that find a home in any Commander deck with a mono-red legend at the helm. Regardless of your play style, these staples will help you to lean in to mono-red's inherent strengths, and patch over some of its weaknesses.

This is The Monolith, the series in which I convince you to build and play more monocolored decks in EDH, and here are 7 cards that will find a home in any mono-red Commander deck.

1. Jeska's Will

There's a reason it's recently been dubbed a Game Changer. Jeska's WillJeska's Will has the ability to create some absolutely explosive turns. For just three mana, you'll be able to pick one of two options.

Either fill your pool with red mana equal to the number of cards in one of your opponents' hands. A surprisingly big chunk of mana usually, especially if you're playing it on curve where most of your opponents will still have full hands from just starting the game.

Alternatively, you can use Jeska's Will to exile the top three cards of your library, keeping them available to play until the end of your turn. Now either of these are relatively good returns for your three mana. You'd obviously prefer to have the cards for longer for the rate, but draw is draw even if its impulsive. Especially in mono-red.

The true power of this card lies in the conditional text at the top though. If your commander is on the field, you can choose both. You get a potentially massive ritual for the cost, or at the very least you'll have cast the card effectively for free. Then you'll put three more cards into your arsenal for the turn.

Jeska's Will has loads of applications, from casting expensive cards early, to helping you storm off. In general, it's just never bad to make a tonne of mana and see three extra cards off the top of your library.

And because you get still one of the effects, even if your commander is out of action, it'll never eat up room in your hand doing nothing. Even if it does suck to only get one of the options.

2. Ruby Medallion

Ramping in red isn't easy. You can certainly flood the board or your pool with one use mana. There's plenty of rituals or cards that dump out treasure tokens at your disposal that'll ensure you can have single explosive turns with a huge chunk of mana at your disposal.

But largely that mana is gone when it's used. In comparison to green's ability to find multiple lands per turn and consistently increase their available mana from turn to turn, red's version of ramping is usually quite lacking.

The medallions are available in every color in magic's pie, but they're even more essential as ramp for the decks that find themselves in this position. No easy access to increasing mana, and a tendency to spin out when they've tapped their last land. And that's red to a T.

The medallions reduce the cost of all spells you cast of their corresponding color. In this case red for ruby. And that's indefinitely. And for just two mana. Whilst they won't help you with the colorless spells in your deck or any cards that are all red pips (as it only reduces generic mana costs), permanently reducing the cost of almost all your spells for the rest of the game is a phenomenal help to a color that can struggle to get more permanent mana available.

3. Arena of Glory

Red has the ability to claw wins out of nowhere. To massively expedite games and go from the weakest player at the table to the new arch enemy in a matter of moments.

Conversely though, red struggles when games go long. The more time your opponents have to assemble their board states, put up walls, and heal any damage your early plays have done, the more your wins can slip through your fingers.

With that in mind, red needs the ability to play fast. There's a reason that haste is a keyword that's so intrinsically linked with red in the color pie. When you get something on the board, you need it to work right away. And with so many red commanders that rely on their flashy activated and combat abilities to do cool things, you want to get your creatures tapping and attacking as soon as possible.

Enter this lovely nonbasic land from Modern Horizons 3. Arena of GloryArena of Glory allows you to exert itself (exerted permanents don't untap the turn after) and pay to then add to your mana pool. If you spend that mana on a creature spell, that creature will gain haste until end of turn.

That's Etali, Primal StormEtali, Primal Storm immediately pilfering the top card of each deck. Or Feldon of the Third PathFeldon of the Third Path immediately making a token. Heck, maybe even a token copy of Etali!

4. Untimely Malfunction

One of the best defensive abilities red has access to is the ability to Bolt BendBolt Bend targeted cards. You can't usually counter a spell in red and it's hard to give your own permanents hexproof or indestructible at instant speed.

That means any kill spells, counter spells, or any other kind of disruption sent your way can be pretty devastating. That is, unless it was a targeted effect.

By misdirecting counterspells or turning kill spells back onto the casters' own creatures, red has a unique ability to not stop a shot but pull an innocent bystander into the line of fire instead. There's a few of these effects to pick from in red but Untimely MalfunctionUntimely Malfunction is my go to pick since the release of Duskmourn.

Malfunction still hits targeted spells and abilities for a nice and cheap rate of just two mana, but also comes with some extra options for when you need it.

You can use it like an AbradeAbrade but with protection attached rather than creature damage. Allowing you to destroy a nasty artifact at instant speed on your opponent's board, or any nonland you like if you have a Liquimetal TorqueLiquimetal Torque on board.

On top of that you can either use it as evasion by stopping your opponent's nasty blockers from taking part in combat, allowing you to squeeze through with lethal damage, or just attack without having to worry about the blocker's best creature. It's a lovely little toolbox and will be useful in almost all situations in a game of EDH.

And with a format with this many different possible game states, having something that can answer a load of different problems all in one card is a surefire hit in any deck.

5. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

One of the best things about playing a monocolored deck is the ease with which you can assemble a mana base for your deck. Having utility lands is great, and you largely won't be punished for running colorless ones in your mono decks, but if you're lazy you can also just dump a pile of basic mountains in sleeves and call it a day there. Even more than that, there's some devilish options in red that reward you for sticking to the peaks with your mana base.

Valakut, the Molten PinnacleValakut, the Molten Pinnacle does one of the best things a staple card can do: reward you for simply playing the game. Valakut itself is just a tapped nonbasic mountain.

A great thing to shove out on turn one when not much is happening. But once it's on the board, your sixth mountain onward will gain a brand new ability. That's right, your lands are now Lightning BoltsLightning Bolts.

Simply playing a mountain, if you have five or more other mountains on the field, will cause Valakut to deal 3 damage to any player or creature of your choice. Now every land drop you make becomes targeted removal for smaller creatures or puts added pressure on your biggest rival at the table.

Combine this card with Koth, Fire of ResistanceKoth, Fire of Resistance to not only reliably make your land drops every turn, but to also turn your 3 damage on land drop effects into a massive SEVEN damage when paired with Koth's ultimate. God I love red.

6. Blasphemous Act

One of the many things that red struggles with in a game of Commander is wiping a dangerous board. Board wipes are the most important thing an EDH deck can have, ensuring that one player doesn't run away with the game and giving you a chance to reset play when you fall behind. And whilst red has some of the worst options of any color in this regard, you should absolutely still pack them in your deck.

As the best sweeper in red, Blasphemous ActBlasphemous Act is a must include in almost all mono-red EDH decks. In what was a perfect synergy of cool card design and flavorful effects, this nine mana sorcery will deal a whopping 13 damage to every creature on the battlefield.

Whilst damage isn't the best way to remove creatures, especially ones sporting a toughness of 14 or higher, 13 should take out pretty much everything in sight.

Its contemporary, Chain ReactionChain Reaction does technically have the ability to do even more damage, but its conditional makes it liable to sitting as a dud card in your hand.

Wiping a Board For One Mana is Just Very Good

Blasphemous Act's biggest strength is that its generic cost is reduced by one for every creature on the battlefield. Of course you'd never cast this with zero creatures in play so it'll never actually cost you the full nine mana. In most cases it'll only actually cost you .

And in certain cases where there's only a few creatures on the board that desperately need to go, I'd rather pay a little extra for a guaranteed 13 damage than just three or four with Chain ReactionChain Reaction.

Not to mention that in the cases where you are only spending a single mana to wipe an entire board, you'll be able to rebuild incredibly fast directly after and maybe even swing in with a few hasty creatures.

7. Blood Moon

Now this recommendation comes with a grain of salt. In fact, it's much more than a grain. Players don't like it when you mess with their lands. And whilst this isn't exactly an ArmageddonArmageddon, a lot of modern Commander decks run a huge amount of nonbasics.

Having them all become basic mountains, especially when that player isn't playing red, can be devastating. But it's precisely that reason that makes this card so effective when you're playing mono-red.

It's not a popular tactic but punishing players for their lack of basic lands can give you a significant advantage at the table. If you're not running too many utility lands, this card will effectively do absolutely nothing to your mana base whilst crippling every other players'.

The funniest part of all this being that red is the worst color to kill enchantments with. So even players who have red spells will struggle to use them to reverse the effect.

Mono-red is the most fun way to play Magic: The Gathering. This card simply forces your opponents to do the same!

What Makes You See Red?

So there's some absolute bangers for you to slot into every mono-red deck you build henceforth. But there's a whole heap of cards that could easily squeeze their way into this list.

What cards do you run in every mono-red deck you build? Which creatures, sorceries, and enchantments have already hit your list before you even started deck building?

Let me know in the comments below and I'll see you on the next edition of The Monolith. Why not check out my previous list in which I recommend cards that go in ANY mono deck, regardless of color? But until then, happy deckbuilding, and stay mono!

Michael 'Wheels' Whelan

Wheels is a lover of all things cardboard from Brighton & Hove in the UK. As well as playing card games of all flavours multiple times a week he's also deeply invested in board games, wargames, and RPGs. In fact, he even designs his own tabletop games from self published TTRPGs like, The House Doesn't Always Win to published wargames like, FREAKZ! Mutant Murder Machines. Wheels is a big advocate for wacky deckbuilding and is an evangelist for more commander players building mono-coloured decks. He talks about all this and more on his YouTube and TikTok channel, Just For Fun!