For our next installment of our series for Murders of Karlov Manor commander cards, let’s sift through the Red cards. Red’s all about aggression, impulse, chaos, and punishment via direct damage. There are plenty of these themes in the Red cards from this set. Without further ado, the best Red cards in MKM for commander!
The Best of the Best
Boltbender
I know what you’re thinking. ‘I know the card Bolt Bend, this is just Bolt Bend on a body with extra steps.’ Look again, dear reader, for Boltbender is far more powerful than Bolt Bend.
Boltbender has disguise, which you need to do to reach his full potential. When you turn him face up for , you get to redirect any number! of spell or ability! targets. There are so many potential uses for this card. This is an anti-storm card (“sorry, it looks like those 30 Grapeshots are actually going right back at your face”). This is an anti-tons-of-triggered-abilities card (“sorry Blood Artist, all of those triggers from Plumb the Forbidden will target you instead of me”). Even redirecting a single powerful ability like Tishana’s Tidebinder can be worth it. Worst-case scenario, this is just Bolt Bend that’s on a creature – but there are so many other potential uses for this Goblin Wizard.
You can find this guy in the Deadly Disguise precon.
Crime Novelist
Unlike Boltbender, Crime Novelist is exactly as strong as he looks. You get red mana every time you sacrifice an artifact. The most obvious interaction is doubling up your treasure mana. This card goes nicely with red spellslinger decks that play other cards like Birgi, God of Storytelling, Urabrask and Storm-kiln Artist that want to keep playing spells. This card combos quite nicely with Animation Module and a sacrifice outlet for a number of infinite triggers for you to win the game with. We’re lucky this card is uncommon otherwise it would be quite pricey!
Incinerator of the Guilty
The flavor on this guy is solid – you’re collecting evidence, turns out your opponents are always guilty! There’s a lot of support this set for throwing cards in your yard with cards like Fugitive Codebreaker, Case of the Crimson Pulse and Connecting the Dots. Every time Incinerator deals combat damage to one of your opponents, you’re likely set up to wipe their board. Flying and Trample helps ensure he can get in to trigger this powerful effect!
Mob Verdict & Prisoner’s Dilemma
This set introduced a few new red chaos/politics cards with Mob Verdict and Prisoner’s Dilemma.
Mob Verdict is definitely the friendlier of the two, allowing you to work with your opponents to target the Archenemy at the table to wipe their board. If you’re the archenemy, the table might opt to give you up to 4 cards for 4 mana, a rate that’s hard to beat.
Prisoner’s Dilemma pits your opponents against themselves, testing their resolve in working together. One opponent can opt to snitch, causing all who chose silence 12 damage. That is, unless everyone snitched, then each opponent takes 8 damage. If by some miracle all opponents stay silent, they still take 4 damage. You can re-test their resolve later in the game with a flashback cost of 7. What’s not to love?
Both of these cards appropriately come with the Blame Game precon.
Runners Up
Pyrotechnic Performer
This guy is great in a Yarus, Roar of the Old Gods or Faust, Eyes of the Glade deck. You don’t even need to disguise this guy to make best use of him – he’s only 2 mana! Being able to deal large amounts of damage directly to each of your opponents each time you turn your creatures face up can be devastating. Both Yarus and Kaust let you cheat face-up costs, making him a great include in either deck.
Combine this card with Showstopping Surprise for face damage and a creature wipe!
Fugitive Codebreaker & Connecting the Dots
In this set, Red finds ways for you to collect evidence by having you discard your hand to fill your yard. Both Fugitive Codebreaker and Connecting the Dots support this on the cheap, provided you’re willing to work through some setup first.
Fugitive Codebreaker can let you do this for as little as and is a decent face-down card option.
Connecting the Dots is a fun enchantment – you get to load it up with cards you can’t look at by attacking with your creatures. Pay to dump your hand and get all the cards – just make sure to use it before your opponents blow it up!
Havoc Eater
Havoc Eater’s a funny card. He costs a whopping 7 mana but can come into the battlefield unreasonably large while also goading each of your opponent’s best creatures. He does have flying but no haste. Luckily that’s no problem for you since you’re in Red. Give this guy haste and/or fling him for a quick and massive burst of damage.
Krenko’s Buzzcrusher
People say land destruction is frowned upon in Commander but you know what, sometimes you need to destroy a Maze of Ith or Glacial Chasm. For 4 mana you destroy each of your opponent’s peskiest lands. Most of the time I think you’ll be glad you had this guy in your deck when you pull him.
Vengeful Tracker
Shoutout to Vengeful Tracker for trying to keep artifact synergies in check. Put this guy in your deck to punish an opponent who likes to abuse Dockside Extortionist or other treasure-heavy strategies. I can tell you my Glissa, the Traitor deck would not be happy to see him!
Expedited Inheritance
This card is unique in that it’s symmetrical but is also a may ability. The fact that it’s a may ability really does limit its combo potential – can’t deck a token deck with a Blasphemous Act – but that’s also why it’s two mana instead of 5 or 6. You’re likely to pair this with a deck that cares about casting cards from exile like Commander Liara Portyr or Prosper, Tome-Bound. Unfortunately there is only one commander currently that cares about opponents casting card from exile: Rocco, Street Chef.
If you have an opponent who’s abused this more than you have and has a ton of cards in exile, you can look to play an Oblivion Sower to steal all of their exiled lands!
Anzrag’s Rampage
This is an odd card that goes well in your Big Spooky Creatures decks. Some key features: it only targets artifacts you don’t control, but when it comes to exiling cards from your library, it counts any artifact put in the graveyard this turn. This includes your own – notably, treasures. It also includes any treasures your opponents sacrifice for mana in response to this being cast. You get to put any single creature exiled this way onto the battlefield with haste this turn and bring it back to your hand after.
It’s a shame there are so few Arni Metalbrow decks in the wild, he loves cheating mana costs and this would be a solid enabler for him.
What do you think? Any good new red staples that were missed on this list? Perhaps you expected to see Case of the Crimson Pulse but were surprised it’s not on this list? I can’t think of a strategy where you’d want to consistently not have cards in hand on your own end step, but perhaps you can. Let us know in the comments below!