Reality Fracture (FRA) has been fully spoiled, and while it comes with tons of new and exciting cards, I've been captivated by Red in this set. Normally, when you look at a single color from a Commander perspective, you'll find a little of everything. Reality Fracture's Red cards are different.

Of course, there's cards that slot into any Red deck, like Haste enablers, rummagers (cards that let you discard a card to draw a card), and stuff like that, but in this set, I spotted a real direction.

Most of them love noncombat damage or direct damage, and if you already have a board, they'll turn that damage into bigger Creatures. Based on what I found, these are the top Red cards in FRA that should make it into your next Commander deck.

Pompous Battlemage // Improvised Act

This card looks more like a Standard card than a Commander one on the surface, but really, this can slot into more than a handful of decks.

Pompous Battlemage costs for a 1/1 Goblin Sorcerer. Goblins are already a reliable type, and this one comes with Prowess as a keyword ability. It also uses the Prepare mechanic we first saw in SOS, entering prepared so you can cast a copy of the spell stapled to its body, and that copy triggers its own Prowess. The spell, Improvised Act, is a typical rummage effect, which is also something a Red deck would appreciate.

For that reason, I'd say this one might earn a place in Madness and graveyard decks, Goblin typal decks, and potentially Spellslinger or Prepare decks that want to abuse the ability. It's probably the one I'm least excited about, but it's still a pretty interesting entry for a wide variety of Red decks.

Marwyn, the Clearcutter

Red's recent Commander identity has seen it generating a lot of Treasure tokens, and Marwyn, the Clearcutter gives players a way to turn those Treasures into more than just mana.

You still have to pay two generic mana and tap her to sacrifice an Artifact or Land and draw a card, but that's not really a downside. Marwyn herself costs just for a 2/1 Legendary Elf Warrior with a pretty relevant ability.

If you're playing a Land-recursion strategy or a Jund brew that likes seeing Lands in its graveyard (looking at you, Lord Windgrace), this might be a pretty decent budget consideration.

Decks that are really going to love Marwyn include those Jund Land Sacrifice lists, as well as anything that consistently produces Treasures. Budget Equipment Voltron lists (decks that stack Equipment and Auras onto a single creature) can also benefit from her ability, turning late-game Equipment into card advantage.

The reason I like Marwyn is that, in any Red deck she shows up in, she's useful at any point of the game, and she can generate massive card advantage from sticking around.

Jiang Yanggu, Alone

Immediately, it's clear that Jiang Yanggu, Alone, a 4/4 Legendary Human Berserker with Menace, is sort of designed to be a Voltron commander. But there's something else here.

Whenever a Creature you control attacks a player alone, Jiang has you discard a card and draw a card, then puts a +1/+1 counter on that Creature for each card you've discarded this turn. Jiang rewards you for discarding cards, which means that it might be better to run him as a Wheels commander (one built around repeatedly discarding and redrawing cards) instead.

The attack-alone mechanic also has some depth to explore. Cards like Seifer Almasy and Tempered in Solitude reward attacking with a single Creature.

If you can combine that with cards like Inti, Seneschal of the Sun and Cool but Rude that let you discard every time you attack, you can eventually build your own menacing Commander that doesn't even need Equipment.

This is a casual commander build-around if I ever saw one, and I'm excited to theorycraft a Jiang Yanggu, Alone deck.

Samut, Hazoret's Champion

The reason I love Samut, Hazoret's Champion has little to do with her stats and everything to do with her Haste enablement: "creatures you control have Haste." Red has always been the color with Haste enablers aplenty, and Samut is one more addition to the list. What really makes her exciting is her casting cost.

As a two-drop, she's one of the cheapest ways for Red decks to get their attacking bodies swinging at opponents as soon as they enter. What's more, she has strong color-relevancy as a Human, Warrior, and Cleric. Even though she's not a Goblin, I could see those decks including her because she's just so good.

Casually, she'd be a great include in the 99 of any Creature-heavy deck, but she's not really exciting enough to lead on her own.

Pyre Rhymer // Molten Tide

Have you ever wondered what would happen if High Tide worked for Mountains? Pyre Rhymer explores this idea, and it gives Red decks a whole new direction to explore. For , it's a 3/3 Elemental Sorcerer with Prowess, which is decent for three mana, and its prepared spell, Molten Tide, is an Instant that adds an extra whenever you tap a Mountain for mana this turn.

On early turns, this isn't that explosive, although it's easy enough to generate enough mana to cast a high-cost Commander way before it's expected. The real power of Molten Tide comes when you already have a board of Mountains.

Tapping six Mountains to produce 12 Red mana is already insane and makes it a shoo-in for a wide variety of decks. I can easily see this being a must-have for Big Red decks (Mono-Red lists that ramp into oversized threats), X-spell decks, and Spellslinger decks. If you're playing mana-intensive builds like Dragons, this is also a great addition.

Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage

Tomik, Izzet Sparkmage is like a smaller version of Torbran, Thane of Red Fell from Throne of Eldraine (TOE). Torbran makes any Red source you control deal two extra damage to opponents and their permanents. Tomik tacks on one, and while he only boosts noncombat damage, he works with any source you control, not just Red ones.

That might not seem so exciting, but over the long game, it could be consequential.

Despite the name, Tomik is mono-Red: a 1/2 Legendary Human Wizard with Prowess.

If you sling a Lightning Bolt at an opponent with Tomik out, you get four damage for R. That's not terrible, and it's above rate, but in a 40-life Commander game, that's like casting Shock on an opponent in a Standard game. No, Tomik doesn't really look good there, but he does look good in other situations.

Decks that do regular pinging (dealing small, repeated bursts of damage) across the board would love to have him out. Impact Tremors deals two damage instead of one per body, turning five damage into 10, or 10 damage into 20. That's far better than dealing four damage for .

Decks that can abuse Tomik are those that deal lots of noncombat damage. Spellslinger, Storm, token-pinging, and anything else that deals a lot of noncombat damage can accelerate much, much faster with Tomik out. He should be an auto-include in those lists.

Command the Stage

What makes this card so good is the fact that it can come back to your hand. Command the Stage is a Sorcery that creates a 2/2 colorless Wizard Soldier token named Cadet, then puts a +1/+1 counter on each other Wizard token you control. The token is a bit incidental unless you're playing Wizard typal, but the spell can fuel an entire board of Wizards turn after turn.

Decks like Purphoros, God of the Forge or other Creature-ping decks use enter-the-battlefield (ETB) triggers get a recursive ping each turn, and those tokens grow as well. The only catch is that an opponent needs to have been dealt noncombat damage in the previous turn for the spell to return at the beginning of the upkeep, and in most Commander games, that's incidental.

The wording is important too: you don't have to be the one dealing that noncombat damage to opponents. Any opponent can deal that damage to any other opponent.

Wizard typal decks running Red definitely can benefit from this, but it can slot into almost any Red deck to give it some legs into the late game.

Identity Echo

This card is likely to be a Standard all-star and may even get an entire deck built around it, but it's also a useful tool in the right casual Commander shell.

Identity Echo gives you a way to convert one of your tiny Creatures into a big body for .

This is an Enchantment with a Sorcery-speed ability that'll cost you four: exile a Creature or Planeswalker you control, then reveal cards from the top of your library until you hit a creature or Planeswalker card, and put that card onto the battlefield.

The immediate thought for this would be a token-heavy deck that can convert its tokens into something more threatening. Atla Palani, Nest Tender would be an obvious choice, but since Identity Echo exiles her Eggs instead of letting them die, you'd be losing the commander's built-in trigger. Maybe it would be worth it for four mana.

Decks that run Polymorph-style strategies would enjoy slotting this in, too, but for the most part, I think trading small Creatures for big ones is where this would be an all-star.

Master of Barbs

After Bloomburrow, Lizards have become a menace, and this Lizard does what so many Lizards like to do: trade noncombat damage for combat damage. Master of Barbs is a 2/1 for two. It's a Lizard Bard with Menace, and whenever one or more opponents are dealt noncombat damage, your Creatures get +1/+0 until end of turn.

I can see this one finding a place in any of the Lizard typal decks out there that already deal lots of noncombat damage to opponents.

If we widen the scope further, Creature-ping decks, with ETB triggers turning into damage, can turn a regular board into a menacing one. Add in something like Samut to give those creatures Haste, and you quickly see how this could get out of hand in any format.

This would work well in any go-wide strategy in Red, as well as any pinger decks. It does some of the things Red already wants to do in its Commander brews.

Koth, the Geomancer

Land damage decks are a stereotypical Red approach to winning. Things that punish your opponents for playing Lands, destroying their Lands at Instant speed, tapping down all their Lands when they tap one, and messing with their mana base are all Red-coded strategies.

Koth, the Geomancer is the first card I've seen in a long time that punishes your opponents for expanding your own mana pool. He's a 3/2 Legendary Human Warrior with Reach, and his Landfall ability (which triggers whenever a Land enters under your control) deals one damage to each opponent. If that Land is a Mountain, he adds to the pool, too.

Mono-Red decks will get some benefit here, and it already plays into the noncombat damage payoffs we're seeing all over this set. However, the decks that will get the most out of this are ramp-heavy Commanders.

Lord Windgrace and Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor are Commanders that want Landfall and multiple Land drops a turn can bring opponent life totals down significantly. Add some damage multipliers (which Red has no shortage of), and Koth could be a game-winning card.

Face Yourself

Red's token decks tend to run out of steam before they can close a game out. Face Yourself is a game-ender that offers unique support for go-wide Red decks. For , this Sorcery creates a token copy of each Creature the opponent of your choice controls, and those copies have Haste. Point it at yourself, and it doubles your board.

The copies are sacrificed at the beginning of the end step unless you control a Planeswalker, so if you have one, those tokens stick around. Even if you don't, sometimes all you need is one big swing.

I can see a lot of ways to abuse this in a Red shell.

For one thing, making copies of a Creature with multiple attack triggers means that you can potentially take two opponents out of the game in one turn. If you have ways to add extra combat phases, that's even better.

Another obvious use for this one is in the ETB ping decks that we've discussed Having a bunch of new tokens enter the battlefield could potentially burn all your opponents out of the game with noncombat damage from Impact Tremors or some other ETB pinger.

The downside is that it's a seven-mana spell, but that gives you a chance to set your board up before you cast it.

Curse-Marred Demon

Gamble is an expensive card, and it sees play anywhere it can. Red doesn't get a lot of tutors, so seeing another one, especially one attached to a 4/4 body with Flying and Trample for just , is something to be excited about.

When Curse-Marred Demon enters, you search your library for any card, put it into your hand, and then discard a card at random.

The drawback of having to discard a card at random is right in Red's wheelhouse. Chaos is part of Red's identity, after all, and this Demon is a perfect example. All in all, it's a redundant tutor for Demon typal decks, and another Gamble-like effect for Red decks, this time with a lower price tag than the actual card.

Any Red deck that needs to find something can benefit from this one. And because the tutor is an ETB trigger on a body that sticks around, it's a potentially reusable resource in the right deck. Reanimator decks especially will have a fun time with this one.

Craterclaw Colossus

Here's another big finisher, mirroring the iconic Craterhoof Behemoth.

This massive 5/5 Artifact Creature with Haste is Craterclaw Colossus. It has a cost of , and when it enters, your board gains Trample and gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of Artifacts you control. This version leans into its Red identity, boosting only power, while Trample lets your Creatures get through defenders.

As far as Red flavor goes, sending your Creatures out to die for the win is as Red as it gets. The Trample keyword ensures that blockers aren't a concern. If you've got a wide board, a pile of Artifacts, and a stalled board state, this might be just what you need to close out the game.

The truth is, while Mono-Red decks can benefit from this card, it's at its best in go-wide decks that also stack up Artifacts. Craterhoof counts creatures, but this counts Artifacts, so I can imagine seeing it in Thopter decks as easily as I would expect it to show up in Treasure decks. If you've got an Artifact-heavy, go-wide deck that's able to play it, you should be playing it.

Stingcaster Mage

This Red version of Snapcaster Mage doesn't have Flash, so you can't do anything at instant speed with it, but it's still a card worth looking at.

At just two mana, Stingcaster Mage is a 2/1 Human Wizard with Haste, and its ETB gives an Instant or Sorcery card in your graveyard Flashback until end of turn, so you get to cast something else from the graveyard.

If you're running a Spellslinger deck, this could be a useful backup copy of Snapcaster (or a budget alternative).

Stingcaster Mage can be a useful tool in Storm, Spellslinger, and Reanimator shells. It can also be super useful in any deck that runs Blink effects, that want to exile a Creature and return it to the battlefield, since its value comes from an ETB trigger. Anything that can abuse its ETB can make it into a must-remove threat.

If you've got a deck with a lot of Instants or Sorceries in your graveyard, this could be perfect for getting more out of them.

Draconic Visitor

This is Red's take on Divine Visitation from White, except it only works on Artifact tokens, and makes 5/5 Dragon tokens with Flying rather than Angels.

Draconic Visitor is a 5/5 Dragon with Flying, so it's a threat before the replacement effect even matters. That Artifact clause isn't such a big deal for Red. There's no shortage of cards in the color that create Treasure tokens.

Draconic Visitor turns simple Treasures into threats without any extra steps. Magda, Brazen Outlaw (one of the best cheap Commanders out there) pairs well with this card, allowing your Dwarves to tap and create Dragons instead of Treasures.

This card is an amazing addition to any Artifact token-producing deck. Anything that creates token copies of Artifacts, makes Treasures, or runs Artificer synergies can benefit from this. I mean, can you imagine running this alongside a Replicating Ring?

Conclusion

With some sets, Red's additions are a little underwhelming in a Commander context, but not in Reality Fracture.

Looking at what we got in this set already is giving me ideas about building around a few Commanders and slotting some additions into my Purphoros decks.

There is so much to be excited about in Reality Fracture if you're someone who loves Red.