Best of Commander Masters – Red!

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Mike Carrozza - July 25, 2023

Hello! Welcome to my set review of Commander Masters, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them. Yes, there will be and artifact and lands review as well as a multicoloured review.

This is also a reprint set which means that this is mostly going to be picking cards for what they’ve already shown they can do. The monetary value of the cards is nice, but will not likely be the biggest factor in my selections. Because they’re reprints, we know that the cost might course correct and some cards will only be lower for a little bit, so be sure to snap up singles at threekingsloot.com.

Without further ado, here are my favourite Red cards! This was actually the hardest colour to pick only five from so far. I love so many of these cards and they’re all bombs!

Deflecting Swat

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: This cycle was a mistake.

The ability to chose new targets for any spell or ability, that’s spicy. I thought we had it figured out with Bolt Bend and that’d be it, but no, we got ourselves and even better version.

Deflecting Swat is free if you cast your commander. What permanent are you most likely trying to protect? That’s right, your commander. Maybe an opponent casts an Eldrazi Conscription, you can also TAKE THAT AWAY FROM THEM! There’s a lot more work to this card that you can really squeeze out of it. It requires so little to be so powerful.

Vandalblast

An uncommon worthy of the top five, Vandalblast is ever important in the current meta consisting of more and more artifact tokens that generate value, particularly Treasures.

It’s debilitating against colours that depend on mana rocks and in a massive way against artifact decks. A silver bullet in a golden gun.

Neheb, the Eternal

Neheb has been one of the absolute coolest red creatures since its printing in Hour of Devastation. Fire off Pyrohemia for five mana, get 15 mana post-combat? Ouch!

Neheb is fantastic as a commander, but as a support creature, he’s also a massive asset. Saskia the Unyielding decks, Magus Lucea Kane decks, Zaffai, Thunder Conductor – they all benefit whenever Neheb is in play. On board, the guy is just a tank. This reprint will lower prices for a little bit but I don’t expect that to stay. I think Neheb is cool enough to maintain his price point as it is.

Magus of the Wheel

Ostensibly, this is a bulk rare, but I demand that you respect it. Disrupting your opponents’ plan is huge. Wheeling when a potential ally can help is huge. Fuelling your graveyard or discarding zero cards for seven new ones, they’re all good things.

On top of that, Magus of the Wheel only sacrifices himself, he can be reanimated and he doesn’t get exiled upon resolution. You can keep him coming.

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

Grenzo is one of the most fun creatures to put in any creature swarm strategy. You get to goad creatures out of the way and you get to steal cards from their decks! If you don’t cast that spell, it’s just exiled. So while it’s combat damage based and you’re extremely unlikely to mill an opponent out, it’s still as effective as a Sire of Stagnation getting rid of potentially game winning cards.

Grenzo as a commander is a token leader. Make more and more tokens and attack. That’s why I put him in my Grand Warlord Radha deck. Not only does he get cards, but Radha provides the mana to cast all that you take. He’s low to the ground and can change the course of the game while also making sure that no game is the same! It’s full of variance and variety.

Honourable Mentions

Ashling the Pilgrim – One of the most fun decks I’ve played against was called Ticking Time Bomb and it was Ashling in the command zone, 80 mountains and the rest were just rituals. The idea was play Ashling and dare your opponents to set off the bomb. So fun.
Balefire Dragon – I have fond memories of casting this with a haste enabler and just ruining my opponent’s day with a well timed slap from this dragon. Everything they control gets hit for six and if it’s got double strike, it’d be surprising if anything sticks around.
Daretti, Scrap Savant – Daretti is a great artifact commander, artifact deck role player, and honestly, if you’ve got enough artifacts to make the other two abilities work, the first one allows you to sculpt your graveyard for reanimation!
Disrupt Decorum – This has been outclassed by Taunt From the Rampart but it remains one of the most fun things you can do to a board.
Divergent Transformations – Red polymorph card that’s best used on your own tokens. Play this in your Jaxis, the Troublemaker decks, trust me.
Fiery Confluence – Not the flashiest of the Confluence cycle, but it allows for some really precise plays. Rakdos, Lord of Riots just smashes the B button though.
Godo, Bandit Warlord – Helm of the Host infinite combo from the command zone. Woo! Did you have fun?
Heartless Hidetsugu – Lol give him lifelink.
Insurrection – The early days of Commander, this was the boogie man. I still is responsible for feel bad endings because if you spend the whole game doing nothing and top deck an Insurrection to win the game, it was just a clock ticking to eight mana.
Krenko, Mob Boss – The classic Goblin king. Untap, tap, untap, tap, untap…
Nesting Dragon – This card is underrated for pillowfort decks or decks that need a bit of a guard up or rattlesnake effect. It plays really well in my Grand Warlord Radha deck, that’s for sure.
Purphoros, God of the Forge – The new Goblin king. Whenever you see a Goblin deck, back in the day, it was Krenko or Purphoros. Now new Krenko and Muxus have entered the pantheon but Purphy and Krenko both remain top of the list.
Savage Beating – Excellent scarcity reprint. Super expensive card and it plays like a red Craterhoof Behemoth. Well chosen, expect this to fall for a while.
Scourge of the Throne – Dragon decks love this guy and for good reason.
Star of Extinction – One of the funniest board wipes ever printed. Brash Taunters love it.
Storm-Kiln Artist – On par with Pitiless Plunderer for one of the most insane mana producing uncommon of recent memory.
Tempt with Vengeance – A fun mini game that nobody wants to play. Aristocrats decks want this.
Treasure Nabber – Now that this is finally going to be mass printed, you can expect players to be sharing some mana rocks more.