The 38 Best Red Mythics in Magic Ranked

Bonehoard Dracosaur | Illustration by Mark Zug

Card rarity has shifted a lot over the years. When Magic first debuted, cards were only common, uncommon, and rare; back then, cards didn't even have colored set symbols to differentiate them. Then you leap to today, where we have showcase cards and Headliners and other shinies that appear in like 1% of boosters if we're lucky.

A good middle ground was struck by the mythic rare slot, introduced in 2008 with Shards of Alara. Mythics are the next level of rarity beyond rare, reserved for cards with such powerful or unique effects they couldn't be justified at rare.

Red mythics are often explosive and fast, offering either some of Magic's leaner threats or its most powerful spells.

What Are Red Mythics in MTG?

Seasoned Pyromancer | Illustration by Cynthia Sheppard

Red mythics are red cards with at least one base printing at mythic. I say “base printing” to differentiate between cards that received the mythic symbol because they were designed as mythics and cards that got the mythic symbol because they were printed with special art treatments.

Take Enduring Courage: The original Duskmourn: House of Horror print is rare, but the Japan Showcase edition got the mythic symbol. For our purposes, Enduring Courage counts as a rare and is thus illegible for the ranking.

As for what mythics in red do, that's hard to pin down because its such a wide category. They do a little of everything: They present cheap threats, amplify damage, burn your opponents, reward you for spellslinging… and there are dragons. So many dragons.

#38. All Will Be One

All Will Be One might be most famous for its combo with The Red Terror and Shalai and Hallar, but it offers ample burn in the right shell. Gruul () especially should look to it to convert a bunch of +1/+1 counters into serious damage.

#37. Arcane Bombardment

Arcane Bombardment has Commander written all over it: It’s a costly enchantment that does nothing the turn it enters, but it brings you to great heights in a slow format that cares more about building engines than killing your opponents fast. The game probably ends once the Bombardment gets going; can you imagine beating a spellslinger player who casts two or three spells for the cost of one?

#36. Hellkite Courser

Hellkite Courser is an extremely specific support piece that shines with expensive commanders that are immediately impactful; two prime examples are Etali, Primal Conqueror and Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers. Since the Courser's ability doesn't add to the command tax since you aren't casting the commander, it's easy to line up explosive turns where you get these great abilities turn 6, then 7.

#35. Bonfire of the Damned

Bonfire of the Damned rewards top-deck manipulation with a Fireball that can be cast at instant speed. There's a firm argument for this being a secret Izzet card () because the best use in the modern climate is to put it on top of your library, then cantrip to play it at your convenience. It's still a great card (and it’s responsible for an iconic moment in Magic history).

#34. Inferno Titan

Inferno Titan might be the most iconic red mythic on the list. It hasn't aged super well, in part because of a certain power-crept card, but it's still a wonderful threat to push damage. It works particularly well with cards like Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph and Basilisk Collar that maximize its ability to split damage across multiple targets.

#33. Legion Extruder

Legion Extruder is a little more synergistic than your average mythic because it doesn't stand alone as a threat; it requires other cards to help. But it’s a great payoff for filling your decks with artifacts, especially ones with a death trigger like Experimental Synthesizer or a card like Currency Converter that pumps out Treasure for next to nothing to transmute into a 3/3.

#32. Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

Atsushi, the Blazing Sky is simply very efficient for Cube purposes. A 4-mana 4/4 flying dragon is extremely solid, especially if your Cube has any 2-mana ramp, and the death trigger puts your opponent in a tricky situation: Do they die to the dragon, or to the card/mana advantage it provides? It's a perfect midrange threat.

#31. Jeska, Thrice Reborn

Jeska, Thrice Reborn can be a great commander or a solid damage amplifier for a Voltron deck. As a commander, it's typically used as an infinite mana outlet: Once you have infinite mana, you can cast Jeska, remove all its counters to burn a player, then rinse and repeat. Or you can partner it with Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker or Dargo, the Shipwrecker so you can one-shot an opponent via commander damage.

#30. Virtue of Courage

Burn decks need at least a little card advantage to keep applying pressure. Nothing kills the average aggro deck like stalling out with two or three lands. Virtue of Courage keeps the cards flowing so long as you have a little burn, which is easy to accomplish. Like many cards, it scales super well in Commander: It counts each opponent separately, so one Impact Tremors trigger draws three cards.

#29. Chandra, Hope’s Beacon

Chandra, Hope's Beacon provides wonderful top end for spellslinger decks. The mana production on the uptick improves the card significantly because it lets you cast an instant or sorcery to copy, getting immediate value from the planeswalker so you aren't too upset when it eats a removal spell.

#28. Overlord of the Boilerbilges

Overlord of the Boilerbilges is similar to Inferno Titan, but just a little stronger thanks to how impending saves you from the disastrous scenario of staring at your 6-drop while your opponent beats you down. You can't call it strictly better—you lost the ability to kill multiple threats—but I'd generally pick this one when given the choice.

#27. Hazoret the Fervent

Hazoret the Fervent smacks players harder than most gods; perhaps that's why she's the only mono-colored god on Amonkhet to survive Bolas. This iteration of Hazoret is an iconic red threat that takes advantage of the low mana cost of your average Red Deck Wins list; they're often empty-handed by turn 4, so Hazoret is rarely locked out of combat.

#26. Balefire Dragon

Balefire Dragon staples a board wipe to a massive creature, which is a winning combination. You can kill the most threatening player in the pod without nuking your board; that might even give you some political sway. It can be slow, but red's the color of haste enablers.

#25. Chandra, Awakened Inferno

Chandra, Awakened Inferno demands to be played in control: It's an expensive planeswalker that wins very slowly, so it needs lots of time for you to cast it, then to win. It's also a fantastic sideboard card against control since it can't be countered, and it gives a midrange deck the late-game scaling necessary to overcome the counterspell menace.

#24. Hellkite Tyrant

Hellkite Tyrant thrives in Commander, and not just because it's a slow threat. Everybody in Commander plays artifacts since the format basically muscles you into playing a bunch of mana accelerants, and non-green colors resort to Talismans and Signets and stuff. That means most of your opponents will have a few targets worth stealing, and it's never a bad idea to have an alternate win condition in your deck.

#23. Purphoros, God of the Forge

Impact effects—ones that burn your opponents when a creature enters—are a great way for aggro decks to push damage because they don't need to attack to hit your opponent. That gets a little value from each creature, even if it dies before it attacks, and helps get around Ghostly Prison and the like. Purphoros, God of the Forge is one of the strongest examples: Not only does it deal 2 damage instead of 1, but it's also indestructible, so your opponents have a nightmare trying to smite it.

#22. Seasoned Pyromancer

Seasoned Pyromancer sees the most play as a synergy piece. A double rummage does so much: You can ditch cards with flashback, get dredge cards in the graveyard, drop some reanimation targets… the options are pretty limitless. They also stack well since you can discard a second copy for value thanks to the activated ability, and it's even an amazing top-deck because its templating lets you draw two cards for free if your hand is empty.

#21. Bonehoard Dracosaur

Even the dragons aren't safe from power creep, as Bonehoard Dracosaur elegantly explains. Five mana for a 5/5 flying creature is already powerful, but this one has first strike for some reason, so it basically always wins in combat. Oh, and it draws two cards if it survives a turn cycle. And playing those cards rewards you more! I didn't think a snowball could hold up to a dragon's heat, but I guess I was wrong.

#20. Ancient Copper Dragon

Ancient Copper Dragon is probably the most iconic of the ancient metallic dragon cycle from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. It's certainly the most expensive, as no printing currently sits below $100. Few cards can keep up with its absurd Treasure production. Whether you use that to go nondeterministic infinite with Aggravated Assault or just to play more dragons, it's hard to lose with that mana advantage.

#19. Robber of the Rich

The beauty of aggro often lies in simplicity. You don't need more than cheap creatures to beat down, though a flashy ability or two helps tremendously. That's where Robber of the Rich comes to play: If your opponent has more cards in hand than you (a simple task given how low the curves often are) you get to steal cards from your opponent. The card advantage gives you a chance to grind and helps to apply the pressure needed to close out the game.

#18. Shatterskull Smashing / Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass

Modal-double faced cards are pretty broken. A spell that’s also a land fixes so many problems. Shatterskull Smashing is part of the first guard, and it’s aged pretty well; some of the other Zendikar Rising mythics were power crept when Modern Horizons 3 dropped new cards, but this is still one of the first lands I put in most red deck.

#17. Solphim, Mayhem Dominus

Solphim, Mayhem Dominus helps scale burn decks up to the high demands of Commander. It’s much easier to rip through 120 when your Purphoros, God of the Forge deals a combined 12 damage to your opponents. Scaling like this is just another version of cards like Slicer squeezing extra combats from the table.

#16. Goldspan Dragon

Building a mana advantage or a card advantage is very powerful, but they only win when you have pressure to back them up. Goldspan Dragon handles this neatly: It makes Treasure by killing your opponent, and even punishes them for removing it. For Commander players who amass quite a bit of Treasure, it's worth thinking of this as a potential ritual: Three Treasure tokens produce 6 mana after casting this, so you can generate a huge burst of mana to win with under the right circumstances.

#15. Karlach, Fury of Avernus

Karlach, Fury of Avernus is one of the better extra combat spells in Commander. Giving your creatures first strike makes them much more likely to survive two combats, or at least trade at a profit, and having your extra combat stapled to a 5-power creature pushes a lot of damage. Karlach alone attacks for 10, while World at War depends on other cards.

#14. Combat Celebrant

Combat Celebrant is notable as an infinite combo machine: If you can make a hasty Celebrant copy or give it indestructible, you get infinite combats to win with. Indestructible is a little outside red's wheelhouse, but those hasty copies are easily made with Helm of the Host, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and Rionya, Fire Dancer, to name a few.

#13. Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Four-mana planeswalkers with four abilities have quite the history in Magic. Chandra, Torch of Defiance doesn't have the prestige of Jace, the Mind Sculptor but it's still an exceptional play. You get a removal spell or a card advantage engine, the mana is useful, and the ultimate is an extremely achievable win condition. With these abilities, it's very hard to conceive of a board state where this isn't useful.

#12. Dragonhawk, Fate’s Tempest

Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest does a little of everything: You get a big flying dragon, impulse draws, cast-from-exile synergies, power-matters synergies, and burn. It's aggressive, it's a draw engine. It's a dragon. The only thing Dragonhawk isn't is a cheap threat. I love it in Commander especially because the format inclines you towards bigger plays.

#11. Embercleave

I shudder to think of the days Embercleave ruled Standard. It's an amazing threat: Attack with a few creatures, then pay to slap it on something for a major burst of damage. If you play a format where this appears regularly, you must always factor it into your blocks. It's basically one of the strongest combat tricks: The turn you play it, you probably kill at least one creature, then it sticks around as an equipment.

#10. Generous Plunderer

Generous Plunderer is one of my favorite Treasure cards. It pushes lots of damage and creates a mana advantage, but it does so at a genuine cost that makes it incredibly well-balanced. It's one of my top red Cube cards.

#9. Crackle with Power

If you want a mana sink in red, it's hard to do better than Crackle with Power. The costs are high but the damage is higher. It's also one of the best spells to copy with a Fork or something because the dividends are so high.

#8. Slicer, Hired Muscle / Slicer, High-Speed Antagonist

Once again, aggro decks are hard to make work in Commander. But if you're up to the challenge, Slicer, Hired Muscle is an ideal commander. Since your opponents gain control of it and it has to attack, you effectively get three additional combat steps to push damage. Slap a couple of auras or equipment on Slicer and everybody else at the table will have more than a few problems to deal with.

#7. Terror of the Peaks

Terror of the Peaks is the best impact effect because it’s so much more than just a minor ping. Since Terror of the Peaks scales with power, it’s as useful in a Gruul stompy deck as a token deck. Impact Tremors is pretty rough when you play one creature a turn instead of 10, but this makes it all right. Think of it like this: Once you control Terror of the Peaks, every creature you play becomes Inferno Titan.

#6. Stingcaster Mage

A Snapcaster Mage that lacks flash certainly strips a lot of power from the original since it doesn’t work with countermagic, but one of the most iconic play patterns with that card was Lightning Bolt, Snapcaster, Lightning Bolt, which Stingcaster Mage maintains. Heck, with haste, it probably does it better.

#5. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Red’s known for its hasty token copies, and nothing makes them like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. You’ll often see it as a combo piece alongside the likes of Pestermite and Zealous Conscripts and so many other cards. Even when used fairly, you get tons of mileage from cards like Fanatic of Mogis and Humble Defector.

#4. Arclight Phoenix

A free, hasty, evasive creature sounds too good to be true but Arclight Phoenix has been terrorizing formats since its printing, forcing players to acknowledge the reality. The trick to pull it off is to use lots and lots of cantrips, especially ones like Consider that can bin a Phoenix. These days, you commonly find the Arclight Phoenix nesting near the top of competitive Pioneer events or as a sleek threat in Modern Dredge.

#3. Screaming Nemesis

Screaming Nemesis is among the least balanced red cards ever. The hyper-aggressive body is in line with red—a big hasty creature that punishes your opponent for blocking or removing it—but the problem I’ve always had is that it can block, which makes it a stunning defensive play: How are you meant to attack into a creature that trades for two of yours? At least when the pressure’s on attacking, it fits red’s desire for aggro, but as printed it gives the red player near complete control over the combat phase, offensively or defensively.

#2. Fury

What's better than paying mana to destroy an opponents' board? Paying no mana! Fury caught a well-deserved ban in Modern for wreaking havoc on opposing board states. It was also part of the toxic scam combo where you flicker Fury or hit it with Malakir Rebirth to get two triggers and a 3/3 double strike for the absurd cost of 1 mana. It was rarely even card disadvantage since two Fury triggers were often enough to kill multiple threats.

#1. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

It takes very little to win the game with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. It's a Savannah Lions that generates a mana and card advantage while dash gives it a touch of additional utility. It doesn't see the amount of Modern play it used to because Modern Horizons 3 somehow power-crept such a fantastic 1-drop, but it's still the best red mythic, probably the best red creature, and the scariest turn-1 threat in Cube and Brawl.

What Are the Most Expensive Red Mythics?

These are the five most expensive mythics in Magic as of Secrets of Strixhaven, including cards that got the mythic symbols because of treatments:

• Enduring Courage (Japanese Showcase Fracture Foil) – $172
• Smaug the Magnificent (Dragon Horde Frame) – $168
• Jaws, Relentless Predator – $142
• Ancient Copper Dragon – $126
• Goblin Lackey (Goblin Storm printing) – $113

Wrap Up

Inferno Titan | Illustration by Kev Walker

Red’s mythics are extremely impressive, from sleek Treasure producing threats to explosive X-spells and the fiercest dragons this side of the multiverse. Whether you want to engulf your opponents in flames or blast through their defenses before they’ve stabilized, red mythics are key to many strategies.

Which red mythics do you play? Are you looking to chase any shiny rares? Let me know in the comments below! If you want more Draftsim, don’t forget to check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!