Mono-Red gets a bad rap in Commander. "It's the worst color in Commander," people cry. "Red has no long game!" those same people exclaim. "Why would anyone want to play Red in Commander?" that same group of people asks, huddled together around their table where no one is playing Red.

They're not without reason, of course. Red is the color of passion, of acting without thinking, of raw emotion taking over. In game terms, that means it's about direct, early damage, with little or no evasion and very little that's tricky: Lightning Bolt may be a premiere removal spell in Modern, but Modern is a format of 2/2s. In Commander, where players have constant access to what is often a 5/5 or 6/6 in their commander, that measly three damage doesn't seem like much. And why run Earthquake when Wrath of God exists?

Because sometimes, Earthquake is just better.

Homura, Human Ascendant -- Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Homura, Human Ascendant

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Anger
• 1 Archetype of Aggression
• 1 Beetleback Chief
• 1 Chancellor of the Forge
• 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1 Emrakul's Hatcher
• 1 Flamerush Rider
• 1 Flametongue Kavu
• 1 Hanweir Garrison
• 1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1 Mogg War Marshal
• 1 Moonveil Dragon
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Ogre Battledriver
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Rakka Mar
• 1 Rapacious One
• 1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Urabrask the Hidden
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Zealous Conscripts

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Flamecaller

• Instants (2)
• 1 Magmaquake
• 1 Starstorm

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Dragon Fodder
• 1 Earthquake
• 1 Fiery Confluence
• 1 Firecat Blitz
• 1 Goblin Offensive
• 1 Goblin Rally
• 1 Hordeling Outburst
• 1 Mogg Infestation
• 1 Molten Birth
• 1 Red Sun's Zenith
• 1 Release the Gremlins
• 1 Tempt with Vengeance

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1 Dictate of the Twin Gods
• 1 Elemental Mastery
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Flameshadow Conjuring
• 1 Goblin Assault
• 1 Goblin Bombardment
• 1 Gratuitous Violence
• 1 Impact Tremors

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Spawning Pit
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Trading Post

• Lands (40)
• 29 Mountain
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Hanweir Battlements
• 1 High Market
• 1 Keldon Necropolis
• 1 Kher Keep
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

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Those token producers are key, because that's really what we're doing here. We want to cast Homura and start making little dudes. Then we flip Homura by killing him somehow (probably sacrificing him, but maybe he dies naturally) and start swinging for the fences with a ragtag group of whatever we've got going on, be they Goblins, Ogres, or Goats. If we've got it, we can dump extra mana into pumping one of our dudes who gets through. Aside from Skullclamp, we don't have any real draw, though, so we want to create enough tokens to matter but not just dump our hand. Unlike most aggressive Red decks, we only need a few tokens out before we can just attack the team; a wrath effect will be very effective against us, though, so having a few extra cards in our hand will be helpful.

Purphoros, God of the Forge gives this deck some legs; with that guy out, we can sometimes just Firecat Blitz our way to a win without attacking. Siege-Gang, too, can help with that on a smaller scale. Eldrazi Monument is sort of our back-up commander; we get less power/toughness boost, but we gain invincibility. Pair that with Goblin Assault for maximum effectiveness. Plus we've got several sacrifice outlets, all of which do different things. The primary purpose is to allow us a way to kill off the living Homura whenever we want, but it's pretty great to sacrifice all of our tokens to Goblin Bombardment in response to a Day of Judgment and shoot somebody for 22 or something. Even the life gain from High Market can end up reasonable. Throw in a bunch of ways to give all our creatures haste plus a couple to increase damage (seven Goblins, an active Homura, and Berserkers' Onslaught straight-out kills an opponent).

So we play our Mono-Red guy, we make a bunch of tokens and swing out in the air, possibly winning in the process. Sounds like a blast.

But the optionboard is what really makes this deck sing, because we take something else Red is good at and come at this in a completely different way.

Warp World, of course, is the classic chaos spell. Everyone picks up everything they've got, then resolves spells off the top of their newly shuffled libraries until everyone has gone. The interactions get insane -- just remember, Active Player then Non-Active Player in turn order goes on the stack, then it resolves in reverse order. But Pandemonium means nothing and no one is safe, Confusion in the Ranks tells everyone to start sharing, Grip of Chaos really means nothing is safe, Sulfuric Vortex chips away, and War's Toll will force everyone to act completely or not at all. All the while Norin will be flickering in and out, activating all those wonderful Enters-the-Battlefield effects. Panharmonicon doubles what happens. Thieves' Auction? How is that a card? That will be hilarious. The optionboard won't be for everyone, and probably not for all the time, but what an option to have when everyone is feeling a bit zany, or maybe when people are getting too serious!

What did I miss? Any great token generators (or other cards) worth running? How about key chaos cards worth finding a slot in the optionboard? What kind of Mono-Red deck do you play, or have you played against, and was it fun? Sound off in the comments!

[Author's note: It occurred to me during the editing process another way to "transform" this deck would be to swap out some of the token generators and their ilk for pump spells instead. It'd be tough, but because opponents will realize blocking our commander will mean we have this powerful overrun which is active all the time, they might decide to just let the four damage through. With enough pump spells, we might be able to squeak out a win with commander damage against an unaware challenger. The problem is that feels like tech, rather than the intention of Convertible Commander. A transformative sideboard is a well-known way to mess with an opponent in competitive Magic, but in Commander, we don't sideboard. Instead, this series is trying to make the logistics of playing this game easier: by having two different decks in the same box, we lower the amount of stuff we have to take to commander night and we use the same card in multiple applications, so we don't have to buy as m

any copies. An Optionboard should mean more fun, and it shouldn't be a sideboard.]

Now go get passionate and beat some face. Thanks for reading.