Red is the color of burn and impulse in Magic. Red wants to hit your opponents with massive Dragon creatures, go wide with Goblins, or ping them to death with cards like Impact Tremors. Red Commander decks tend to be more aggressive than your typical brew. The 4 mana slots in these decks need to be focused on taking out your opponents as quickly as possible OR have a way for you to continue stoking the flames. What I mean by that is that Red struggles with having cards in hand once it drops all of its fast early game pieces. Let's dive into cards that will burn your opponent's and help keep adding coals to the fire!

Gimli's Reckless Might

Gimli's Reckless Might is a Red enchantment that may have been overlooked. This card was released with the Lord of the Rings poster collections and could only be obtained by buying that specific product. This card gives all your creatures haste. Now I know what you're thinking, 4 mana for a Mass Hysteria effect is pretty bad. Well luckily this card has a few more words on it. Whenever you attack while having Formidable, you get to fight a creature of our opponents. Red loves to go to combat. Round Two and Relentless Assault are just two basic examples of extra combat spells that can benefit from this enchantment. Since this card also grants haste, you can slam down a massive creature and immediately fight one of your opponents creatures that is nagging you.

Life of the Party

Nothing is more impactful in a game of Commander then adding an extra layer to the game. Life of the Party is an elemental that makes sure all your opponents are having fun and attacking each other. Each of your opponents will get a copy of this creature and it gets a power boost whenever it attacks. Thanks to it having first strike and trample, it feels pretty bad to block it with your own 0/1 Life of the Party. Instead, I recommend swinging it right back at that opponent while I watch both of your life totals dwindle. This effect is also on an Enters trigger, meaning if you had a way to blink this in Red you could have armies of them in play! Life of the Party is a great card for casual decks and adds some fun interactions to the table.

Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion

Red struggles with card draw. Most of the card draw it has comes from looting effects and impulse draw. Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion is a source of looting. Even though you do not gain any cards, you do gain the bonus of adding a Red mana to your pool for each card you discard. This legendary creature is a great consideration if you are playing a strategy focused on your graveyard, by means of Underworld Breach or something similar. Neheb is also a 4 mana 5/4 with trample with this effect which makes him a great consideration for combat damage strategies as he will take an 8th of your opponent's life in one swing.

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power

Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power is the most impactful 4 drop for pinger type strategies in Red. Cards like Impact Tremors, Reckless Fireweaver, Thermo-Alchemist, and Razorkin Needlehead turn this Commander into a one man killing machine. This Ojer also works really well in the 99 of Commanders that care about dealing damage to your opponents. This creature also sticks around forever by being able to be reanimated back from the dead on its flip side. Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power will forever be an auto include for Red decks focused on pinging your opponents to death, I recommend picking one up for your collection if you don't already have a copy.

Purphoros, God of the Forge

Purphoros, God of the Forge is a very similar card to the Ojer mentioned earlier. Purphoros is different because he doesn't need a pinger on the board to start dealing damage. All Purphoros needs to start burning your opponents is creatures entering. Luckily Red is full of all kinds of token generators. Krenko, Mob Boss and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin are the go to cards for making tokens in Red, but there are lots more where those came from. This also is an indestructible god and doesn't have to fear the threat of most removal and board wipes. This is what puts this card over Ojer, however they do work nicely in the same shell.

Rose, Cutthroat Raider

This could be a curveball as the best 4 drop Red card, but Rose, Cutthroat Raider is an auto include in most Red decks. This legendary robot gives you Junk tokens for each opponent you attacked each turn. Junk tokens give you some impulse draw and a Red mana for each one you sacrifice thanks to Rose's other text. Red always wants to be attacking in combat. That it is how it closes out most of its games. It also struggles with card advantage. Rose rewards you for doing the thing most decks want to by giving you cards and mana, very similar to Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion. Junk tokens can be stored up to use on a later turn which gives you a way to stockpile mana. There are also plenty of Red Commanders that care about artifacts, so having extra artifact tokens in play is never a bad thing...especially since Dockside Extortionist is gone now.

I hope these cards help kickstart your next Red deck into full gear and you have no problem burning through your opponent's life total. Remember, Red is a very explosive color, but make sure you are including some ways to replace those cards you are using. Never become Hellbent; that is Red's greatest weakness.

See you on the Battlefield!

-Nigel