“Storm ragin’ up ahead, fade into the light”
Art:Kickoff Celebrations
by Evyn Fong
Just as we did with Duskmourn, it’s time to go through all of the commons from Aetherdrift and rate them all out of ten for Pauper EDH. Red is a great color in this set and has a ton of awesome cards that work well with not only the new PDH commanders in this set but also have some strong impact on other decks within the format. From new additions to really popular creature types like Goblins and some other cards that are just simply good in all decks that play red. We get a lot of red to rate today! Without further ado, let’s get it!
Please note: I am going to skip some cards that have been printed a ton like Lightning Strike
although that new art is just beautiful:
Let’s get straight into it!
Rating for Thunderhead Gunner: 8/10
Thunderhead Gunner is a card I really like; I think it is a nice transition piece for an aggressive deck, and having reach and card draw on a red card is honestly pretty weird. I was a little shocked by this card because it doesn’t feel super mono-red. I think this deck is pretty good in any RDW-style deck and can be quite effective; actually, being able to block flyers can be relevant against decks heavy on them like Kangee.
Rating for Prowcatcher Specialist: 7/10
I think that this card is quite strong but only really effective in Goblin decks, a nice aggressive creature in a deck of a ton of other aggressive creatures is pretty good. I really like the exhaust ability on this card and making it a 4/3 combined with other strong buffs like Goblin King
can make this a really good attacker for the deck. While its use outside of goblins is pretty limited it is still quite strong.
Rating for Pedal to the Metal: 10/10
This card has use in a wide range of decks but really excels in Zada, Hedron Grinder
, and it is an absolute bomb in that deck, while Zada is likely the best use-case of Pedal to the Metal I really like it in a lot of red decks like Heartfire Hero
and this can be a great mana dump. Any deck that wants to pump up and swing hard is perfect for Pedal to the Medal. This is one of my favorite cards in the deck.
Rating for Magmakin Artillerist 10/10:
I am a really big fan of this card, and I promise its not the recency bias of building Marauding Mako
yesterday. Mono-red has a ton of card draw, and there are a lot of Discard commanders like Azra Oddsmaker
, which Magmakin can also be a great piece of support. Magmakin is very similar to the widely played Ingenious Artillerist
, and with a ton of discard support and strategies within the format, this is an absolute auto-include.
Rating for Kickoff Celebrations: 6/10:
It’s a very interesting card. I’m not honestly not super sure how widely this was used; in discard-focused decks, it can be really helpful, but I’m not sure it is worth it in decks that don’t care about the draw/discard. I think this card is decently powerful, and it likely won’t get messed with as it doesn’t impact the game to where opponents want to get rid of it as soon as they can. I think the haste can be nice, but by the time you have max speed, it may not matter.
Rating for Goblin Surveyor 6/10:
Another card I think is really strong for goblin decks but overall really doesn’t do much for most red decks; while I think this card is pretty good for a goblin strategy, its wide appeal or lack thereof is what makes this one a 6/10. The trample can be nice, especially when combined with the other buffs but keeping it alive in a really aggressive deck until you hit max speed can be quite tough at least it was when I tested with it. Many players are hateful towards goblins because of how aggressive they can be, and that does not help Goblin Surveryor.
Rating for Gilded Ghoda 2/10:
Overall, I’m just pretty unimpressed with this card, I don’t think it’s very good, and the treasure token likely isn’t worth it, now if it didn’t need to be saddled, I think this could be a good early-game card for aggressive red strategies but outside of the early game it not only doesn’t do much its a pretty terrible attacker once opponents get their board going. I can’t see much appeal for this one.
Rating for Gastal Blockbuster 9/10:
This card is really strong, having an aggressive creature that can easily turn into some artifact removal is really strong, I think in most matchups, this card is pretty strong even against decks that are not super heavy on artifacts, while it is considerably better in matchups where you are playing against a lot of artifacts it overall is a nice support piece, and for a color that doesn’t like to sacrifice creature slots, this is a great option.
Rating for Endrider Catalyzer 2/10:
While I love the idea of a good mana dork in red, this one is just far too slow, its condition can’t be met very quickly, and by the time it is, its ability doesn’t matter much anymore, I tried really hard to like this card and make it work but in testing with some of my existing mono-red and red included decks it never did much for me. The worst part about this card is situations where you get it to max speed, and it gets killed, multiple turns of waiting for almost no payoff; while it isn’t much mana, I don’t think its a worth a slot.
Rating for Dynamite Diver 0/10:
Red is kind of a tough color for saddling and mounts, compared to color combos like Selesnya; there just isn’t much in red. I think this card has potential, and if we see more cards with mounts, it will be quite relevant, but for now, this is not a heavy hitter. There are only two mono-red vehicles and two saddle cards. More support can help this, but for now, it’s a flat zero.
Rating for Crash and Burn 1/10:
There is not a ton of legal vehicles at common so I’m not sure how much use you would get out of this one. I rank this pretty low because it is quite expensive, and it has a ton of competition with really strong red damage spells in the format, being able to cast something like Lightning Axe
for one mana and a card and only one less damage just feels considerably better. Crash and Burn is another card, just like Dynamite Diver, that can get better over time but, for now, is quite weak.
Rating for Clamorous Ironclad 7/10:
While vehicles don’t have a lot of support for the red, I think this card is quite good on its own. It’s an aggressive and hard-to-block creature, and in a token deck or any aggressive strategy, it’s pretty easy to crew, and can dish out a substantial amount of damage. The cycling is pretty nice, too. Allowing us to get some supplemental card draw helps remove some of the downsides of how fast red can go. I like this card, and while I don’t think it’s the best card in Red, I think it can be a nice addition to a deck that loves to attack.
Rating for Burner Rocket 8/10:
It is another really nice aggressive vehicle that slots into aggressive decks quite nicely; this is another one that I’m not sure is that great as a vehicle, but that ETB is killer and is great for one-turn kill decks and can help increase your artifact count, which can be quite nice. I think this card is pretty similar to Clamorous Ironclad, and I can imagine playing both of these together!
Conclusion:
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I like the red commons from this set; while there are certainly some duds, there are quite a few that are really strong and can fit very nicely into new commanders and existing strategies within the format. I am a big fan of Aetherdrift so far and its impact in Pauper EDH. These ratings are my opinion, so if you have differing opinions, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Stay tuned and tap in for the rest of the colors!