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In Magic: The Gathering, few colors are quite as aggressive as Red. This trend continues in Dominaria United, the latest Magic: The Gathering expansion. There are a wealth of exciting, powerful cards, but in Limited Drafts, players must consider a completely distinct set of cards as the ideal picks.
Since Limited is focused on doing the best with what you have, players will come away with far more commons and uncommons. This list of powerful cards will focus on those rarities as ideal picks to dominate other players in the latest expansion for Wizards of the Coast’s card game.
Which Red cards will dominate the Limited format in Magic: The Gathering?
When players consider what a Red deck can do, it’s to apply pressure, delete creatures, and end games. After all, one of the most common decks to appear in Magic: The Gathering is called “Red Deck Wins.” That’s not a title with any hyperbole around it. It’s a fast, powerful deck that stomps on other decks flat.
In the Limited format, games are seldom focused on control. Aggressive combat is the way to win, but players will also want creature removal to make sure combat is as safe as possible. With that in mind, spell decks can also do quite well, especially when combined with blue.
Here are some deck archetypes to keep in mind if you plan on drafting Red cards in Limited.
- Red/Blue: Spellslinger
- Red/Black: Aggro/Sacrifice
- Red/Green: Stompy/Domain
- Red/White: Token aggro/Enlist
1) Twinferno (Instant)
Cards that allow Magic: The Gathering players to make choices are almost always ideal. This means even if one option on the card is going to be useless, the odds are good the others will. In this case, one option will be more valuable than the other.
- When you cast your next instant or sorcery spell this turn, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
- Target creature you control gains double strike until the end of the turn.
Duplication abilities aren’t going to be that prominent in Limited formats in Magic: The Gathering, but that’s not a 100% guarantee. There will be times when players can combine it with Lightning Strike for rapid damage to try and round a game out. However, using this on a creature in battle will be a fun combat trick to secure safe attacks.
Let someone think you’re playing recklessly with something like a Balduvian Berserker. Then buff it, sling this on top, and laugh as he crashes through whatever blocker is in the way.
2) Keldon Strike Team (Creature)
White/Red token decks will love this card, even in Standard battles. It will be expensive to use the Kicker (5 mana total, 1 red, 1 white), but smash through someone will be worth it.
When these three power, one formidable creature enters play. If it was Kicked, create 2 (1 power, 1 toughness) white Soldier creature tokens. As long as this card enters play this turn, all of your creatures also have haste. If you can flash this card back out of play or return it to your hand, it will be even more powerful.
Five mana for three creatures that benefit from token synergy and soldier synergy? Keldon Strike Team will be a helpful card for Magic: The Gathering drafts.
3) Flowstone Infusion (Instant)
Flowstone Infusion is a fun double trick for combat. It’s got a pair of really obvious, really great uses. It’s a style of Instant common in Red or Black. It will be incredibly potent for early-game removal and mid-game aggression.
When this spell triggers, the target creature gets +2/-2 until the end of the turn. This is excellent because it turns one of your creatures into a glass cannon, capable of dealing a lot of damage, but it has other fun uses.
While it’s fun to use it as a buff, consider using it as a debuff instead. Early game creatures often don’t have a lot of toughness, so this can be used to stop an attack from going off. It’s excellent in response to an attack or using it before a powerful ability can be triggered.
4) Balduvian Berserker (Creature)
Enlist will be a lot of fun on this one power, three toughness creature. A little on the pricey side at three mana, this Uncommon has the potential to make combat dangerous for your opponent. Enlist allows this creature to gain the power of another creature that doesn’t have summoning sickness, but you have to tap that creature first.
So if you have a creature in Magic: The Gathering with four power, you can choose to tap it, and this becomes a 5/3 instead for the turn. When this creature dies, it deals damage equal to its power to any target. Buff spells and Enlist are going to synergize great on this creature. Flowstone Infusion is another excellent spell to use on this to make it far more dangerous.
Sometimes, this card will win games by simply making it too big to ignore. Either it dies and deals damage to the player, or the player keeps attacking with it until Balduvian Berserker perishes and deals the damage anyway.
5) Hurloon Battle Hymn (Instant)
Another powerful removal spell for Red’s Magic: The Gathering draft option is Hurloon Battle Hymn. An instant spell that costs three mana but can be Kicked for one white, Hurloon Battle Hymn is excellent regardless of whether or not it’s kicked.
This Magic: The Gathering spell deals four damage to a creature or planeswalker, enough to finish off many creatures/planeswalkers in the early to mid-game. However, if you Kick it, you also gain four life. So there are further users in the late game if you suddenly find yourself low on health.
The downside is that the planeswalkers of Dominaria United come into play with four loyalty counters, so depending on how things shake out, it won’t immediately delete one. The easiest way will be if the opponent uses a downtick ability. Either way, it’s four damage for three mana or four damage/4 life for four mana. It’s a real bargain.
This sampling of the mighty Red cards for Magic: The Gathering’s Dominaria United expansion. For digital fans, these, Jaya’s Firenado, Lightning Strike, and more await. The digital release is on September 1, 2022, and the physical launch is on September 9, 2022.
