Summary

• Quality burn commanders are being released regularly in Magic: The Gathering, making it a great time to start playing with burn in the format.
• These burn commanders come with unique abilities that enhance your deck's power and allow you to take down your opponents faster.
• Each burn commander mentioned in the article has a different playstyle and brings something unique to the table, such as dealing excess damage, providing card draw, or boosting the power of burn spells.

Burn is one of the most quintessentially red archetypes in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering. It's about targeting your opponent's life totals above all else, with the aim of burning your enemies to the ground before they have the chance to take you out. While burn isn't nearly as popular in Commander as other constructed formats, quality burn commanders continue to be released year after year.

There's never been a better time to start playing with burn in the format. The power of your deck is greatly dependent on the abilities of your commander, and these burn commanders all come with unique abilities to take down your opponents.

Updated December 13, 2023, by Ryan Hay: There's only so much burn your opponents can handle before they throw in the towel and with these Commanders, you can pick up the pace to burn them out a little faster than usual. Among these commanders are a new powerhouse, Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might, who is quickly taking the stop spot for best burn commanders in Magic. If you're looking to throw together the best burn spells in the game, and then give them a little boost in strength, you'll want to check out these cards for your deck.

19 Yurlok ꦕOf Scorch Thrash

Bringing Back One Of Magic's Old Rules

Not a burn commander in the conventional sense, Yurlok of Scorch Thrash burns all players who are too greedy with their mana through an older mechanic that was colloquially called mana burn. The way this works is if a player has unspent mana in their mana pool, they lose that much life when phases change and that mana disappears. So if you have five extra mana hanging around after your first main phase, and you move to combat, you'll be taking five damage.

Yurlok has a very silly way to damage all your opponents this way by tapping to give three mana, one black, red, and a green mana, to all players. If your opponents can't make use of that mana, Yurlok will burn them out. If you have other ways to give players mana, through cards that are normally considered group hug cards like Heartbeat of Spring and Dictate of Karametra, you can deal some incidental damage that adds up over time.

18 ♉ Aegar, The Freezing Flame ღ

Burn Them Out And Draw Some More

Aegar, The Freezing Flame is an untraditional burn commander, as its ability doesn't actually do any damage. Instead, it fits into Aegar's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Izzet (blue/red) color identity by rewarding you for deaꦬling excess damage with some extra card draw.

While it can take a bit of work to make a burn theme work in an Aegar deck, the extra card draw is hard to pass up, especially in an archetype that can sometimes struggle to provide it. Aegar's low mana value makes this ability easy to access, too, giving it an edge over many of the more expensive damage-based red commanders.

17 ꩵ S💜yr Carah, The Bold

The Bold And The Burn

Syr Carah, The Bold is a commander that doesn't do too much burning on their own. While it can tap and ping any target for one damage, the true power of Syr Carah is in its first ability, which rewards you with an extra exile-flavored card draw every time you cast an instant or sorcery.

This ties into burn brilliantly, rewarding you for using staple instants and sorceries like Chandra's Ignition and Lightning Bolt by giving you access to even more spells. This can give you some wild turns, so long as you have the mana to cast the extra cards that Syr Carah will draw for you.

16 Imodane, The Pyro💧hammer

Spread That Damage

Burning your opponents has never felt better than with Imodane, the Pyrohammer in play. Anytime you target a single creature with a burn spell, you get to deal the amount of damage it deals to each opponent as well. If you hit weak little Llanowar Elf with a Lightning Bolt to deal three damage to it, you get to send three damage to each opponent's face, for a grand total of 12 damage being dished out total.

The best thing you can do with Imodane is modify the damage your burn spells do to maximize the amount of damage you spread across the table. Cards like Fiery Emancipation and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell both up the amount of damage you're dealing, giving your burn spells a boost in power, which in turn also multiplies the amount of damage done to players once that spell resolves.

15 ꦐ Toralf, God Of Fury

Give All Your Burn Spells Trample

Toralf, God of Fury, is a straightforward burn commander with an ability that triggers every time you deal excess damage to a creature or planeswalker. Th🃏e effect of this ability rewards you for playing your stompiest high-power creatures you own by adding even mor🍃e damage to their attacks.

Toralf's other side, Toralf's Hammer, is a slightly inefficient equipment artifact that adds +3/+0 to a creature, with an added Lightning Bolt effect when you unequip it. While this side of the card isn't much to write home about, its return-to-hand effect is a good way to get around the commander tax Toralf may have accumulated over the game.

14 🎃 Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer 🧸

A Little Asymmetrical Burn For Your Games

Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer is a card perched between burn and damage prevention. While it doesn't have the best burn effect on this list, it makes up for it by striking a good balance between dealing damage to opponents and keeping you alive.

Its status as one of the lowest mana value cards on the list also means you can get it out early, putting up the barricade and sett💮ing up your engine before many players will be able to rival it.

13 𓆏 Neheb, The Eternal

You're Getting Mana No Matter What

Despite Neheb, The Eternal's burn effect being secondary to its mana-generating ability, it's still a great way to pick at your opponents as you ramp your way to more substantial damage.

Dealing excess damage is the most on-brand red mechanic ever, and rewarding you with Red mana for doing it adds 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:much-needed red mana ramp in an archetype that often struggles to include it. Neheb's mana ability is especially great in decks with a Dragon tribal subtheme, as the huge damage that the Dragons output produces enough mana to cast even more massive Dragons.

12 ඣ Gisela, Blade Of G𓆉oldnight

Double It And Pass It On

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight has the most powerful effect of any card on this list. While its mana cost definitely reflects that, it's still worth considering Gisela for your burn deck. Rather than just doubling damage to opponents, Gisela also puts in some work herself, as her status as a 10/5 flying, first Strike creature puts her a +1/+1 token away from knocking someone out from commander damage in just two turns.

Gisela also affects enemies outside your own actions, as it's not just sources you control that deal double damage to opponents. This makes her perfect for joining forces with the table to take out the player about to win.

11 𒐪 Tor Wauki The Younger

Gain Life, Deal Damage, And Get Your 2-For-1s

Sitting at five mana is Tor Wauki the Younger, a fun throwback to the Legends card, an a🐭bsolute powerhouse for a burn deck. Tor Wauki boosts noncombat damage you deal t❀o permanents and players by one. It also deals two damage to any target of your choice when you cast an instant or sorcery. Jamming your deck full of removal, burn, and life-stealing spells will turn Tor Wauki into a rapid-firing machine.

Keywords are always relevant on a card like Tor Wauki, and giving him ꦓboth reach and lifelink i꧂s wildly flavorful. They are an archer, after all, and highly relevant, as the damage that Tor Wauki deals also keeps you alive.

10 Chandra, Fire Of Kaladesh ⛄

The Emblem Is The Goal

Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh is a low mana value commander that is all about low mana value red spells. Every time you cast a red spell, you can trigger Chandra's tap ability again, pinging away at an enemy life total. While this pinging won't add up to a huge amount of damage, it's a great way to squeeze more worth out of each cheap red spell you play, such as a Goblin.

If💯 you choose to trigger this ability thrꦜee times, you also get to transform Chandra into her planeswalker form: Chandra, Roaring Flame. This planeswalker form is also based around burn, with abilities that focus on dealing damage to enemy life totals and permanents.