For One Mana - Red
Part three of the ‘For One Mana’ article series, where I take a closer look at 1 mana cards you could be playing instead of automatically going for the often played Curse of Opulence, Faithless Looting, Gamble or Lightning Bolt.
My goal is not to fault you for playing those cards - I just feel the broader EDH format as a whole is becoming quite ‘solved’, in part by people turning to net-decking or using automatic online suggestion tools too often. Last time I covered black, so it’s time to continue in this weird UBRGCW-order series and move on to red.
Creatures
Orcish Spy
You wouldn’t normally consider ‘look at your top three’ a red effect. The downside here is you don’t get to shuffle what’s on top like in blue - you can however, target any player in the game. It’s also repeatable, unlike the blue equivalent sorcery or instant cards that give you a similar effect.
You’ll likely just use this to check out your own next 3 cards before your turn starts. Red has been given a lot of ‘exile your top x then cast one until’ effects lately, and thanks to Orcish Spy, you now get to know exactly what goes into exile before you cast your next spell.
Taunting Kobold
This one’s relatively new and it’s such a great way of getting rid of your opponents’ early game engine pieces. Force them to swing in with their Esper Sentinel, Ledger Shredder, Viscera Seer, Young Pyromancer or Lotus Cobra. It’s ‘an opponent’, not necessarily the one you just swung at, which makes it quite good. It’s also on attack, so it doesn’t need to survive for the goad effect to take place.
Late game you’re getting your opponent's life totals down faster than they anticipated. Would you play a one mana ‘goad target creature’ instant or sorcery? Because I would. This is currently the lowest mana value goad effect in all of Magic, and if your pods end up being very swingy in gameplay, koboltbold their face a little.
Enchantments
Footfall Crater
Ikoria released at the start of the 2020 pandemic and I feel because of that, a lot of cards from that set didn’t get their time in the spotlight. Turn any land into a trample and haste enabler, that can target creatures you don’t control. This can completely skew the way combat flows, be that when you attack, or your opponents decide to block a little too sparingly when someone swings in.
Lands tend to stick around most games, and the flexibility of being able to make your opponents swing into ‘not you' by offering them trample and haste might change the course of the game in your favor. This card also seems innocent enough to not eat targeted removal because it’s likely seen as not that threatening, or it will be forgotten about right up until the point where the effect becomes incredibly relevant in a game.
Onslaught
The card, not the set. If you’re building a board that wants to swing in, tapping down creatures for every creature spell you cast is great. Slot this in your next Etali deck and use their top deck creatures to your advantage by tapping down their blockers.
If you already rely on other creature ETB synergy cards such as Rhythm of the Wild or Aura Shards, why not add ‘being able to swing more easily’ to that package. Use it to benefit your own board in decks that run Haunted One, preventing you from having to attack with your commander or tap down your Kalamax, the Stormsire to start copying spells.
This one feels criminally underplayed in Magda, Brazen Outlaw and I’m surprised it hasn’t been turned into a (semi)combo engine yet where you cast a bunch of 1 drop dwarves to tap down the bodies you cast previously and replace themselves with treasures to trigger Magda more consistently.
Your choice of ‘firebreathing’ aura (Crown of Flames, Dragon Mantle, Firebreathing)
I see these pop up in dedicated dragon decks every now and then, and I feel these should see play in more red decks than just those. It’s a nice mana sink that can let you connect for more damage or make people second guess attacking you if you have mana open. Turn any creature you control into a Shivan Dragon! I’m looking at you, Kykar players.
Instants
Artifact Blast
Before you ask: yes, sometimes I do run Annul in a deck with access to blue. There’s an increasing amount of Artifacts you really don’t want to see hit the battlefield. The Great Henge, Ashnod’s Altar, Sunforger, Panharmonicon, Aetherflux Reservoir, Isochron Scepter, Birthing Pod. While I’m sure you’re already running Vandalblast, some spells have to be stopped on the stack, and Artifact Blast will allow you to do just that.
I kind of hoped this would find its way into Standard when The Brothers’ War (BRO) released, given its relevance in regards to that set, but alas. I’m pretty sure this would have been a little too strong in Standard if the goal was to assemble big mecha robots for 8 mana or more.
Brand
Brand is very meta dependent, but I myself run plenty of theft effects and outside of Homeward Path - please reprint Homeward Path, thank you - there isn’t a whole lot you can do once your permanents aren’t yours anymore. This one feels niche, but I feel a lot of people might not even know this card exists.
If your pod regularly has those pesky players that take what’s yours - ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ahem it’s me - then next time, surprise them. It’s also only your permanents, not all permanents unlike Homeward Path, so if you run theft effects in your own deck like Gilded Drake, Thieving Skydiver or Agent of Treachery , those effects will not end with Brand.
Weight of Spires
I only got a hold of this one recently myself. I noticed the amount of basics people played went down significantly the past few years, which makes sense if you look at the amount of lands we saw getting (re)printed. Turn their landbase against them and do a significantly larger amount of damage than your standard issue Lightning Bolt or Shock.
Sorceries
Overmaster
It’s weird to me how cards like Ranger-Captain of Eos, Grand Abolisher and Silence see a ton of play in white decks but Overmaster seems to just be absent from our format in regards to red. Cast this right before you want to combo out - it replaces itself too! While this sometimes pops up in competitive Birgi and Krark decks, I feel this could see more play in less competitive pods as well. Do you really want to sink your mana into a Blasphemous Act, Jeska’s Will or Vandalblast and risk it not resolving?
(Exxaxl: I finished the draft of this article near the end of November and since then, Overmaster has been confirmed to be a reprint in the Dominaria Remastered set - good! Pick one up when that set releases and let me know how much use you get out of this one.)
Raze
As I mentioned earlier, there’s an increasing amount of non-basics that show up in our format and a lot of people will rely on cards like Cabal Coffers, Glacial Chasm, Gaea’s Cradle and similar cards to execute their game plan. Yes, you’re down a land, but you’re likely denying your opponent a way stronger land than the basic you just used to pay for this spell.
If you don’t want to sacrifice your own land, I cannot recommend the card Cleansing Wildfire enough. I know we’re focussing on one drops here, but just like Footfall Crater, I feel a lot of Ikoria cards are on almost nobody’s radar and they definitely should be. Let’s use this diversion from 1 drops as chance to highlight this great card. In the same breath: please run the recently printed Demolition Field in more of your decks! It’s a fixed version of Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin for our format.
I got into Commander quite late (2019) compared to when I started Magic (2000) and I couldn’t wrap my head around why people have turned ‘touching their lands’ into this not done taboo topic that can’t be discussed no matter what.
Too many people abuse this silent agreement that lands should be left alone and go overboard by stapling strong effects and interactions in their land base, knowing people likely aren’t running the correct targeted removal to deal with it. Prevent that Villainous Wealth or Torment of Hailfire of reaching X = 15, don’t allow the voltron player to keep their Rogue’s Passage and get rid of that Urza’s Saga before it can tutor up an artifact.
Red was quite hard for me! It’s my least played color in close to every format, so I certainly had fun trying to find some relevant cards. One thing I noticed is a lot of my recommendations in these articles are from the early days of Magic and they’re cards I remember seeing play when I first started. Most of them do just one job, and perhaps people are simply wanting to slot more versatile spells to have more options. It’s a shame we have access to such a large pool of cards when the majority of them simply does not seem to see any play at all.
Did you see a card you’re excited about? A new card you’ve never played before?
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“This article is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”
