The 20 Best Red Cards in Reality Fracture Ranked

Stingcaster Mage | Illustration by Gal Or

Reality Fracture has been one of my most anticipated MTG sets this year, especially considering the drought of in-universe sets. And now that it's fully spoiled, it’s been delivering on all axes, from power level to flavor and story. Now is the time we all wish we had haste so we could get our hands on these faster.

Speaking of haste, let’s speed up the process and discuss the best red cards in Reality Fracture, so let’s dive in and see if this set delivered for players that main Mountains.

What Are Red Cards in Reality Fracture?

Kiora of Fire and Ashes | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Red cards in Reality Fracture are cards with a mono-red color identity that have been printed in either the Standard-legal Reality Fracture (FRA) or the Multiverse Reforged Reality Fracture Commander (FRC) precon, as well as the reprints in the Special Guests list (SPG). I’ll be covering these cards with mostly Standard and casual EDH in mind, considering that it’s the most likely home for most of these.

Best Reprints and Bonus Sheet Cards

Let’s cover the reprints first since these are already-established MTG cards. Red got fewer good and valuable reprints this time around, and we only had a single Commander precon, which is often the main source of card reprints.

#5. Kher Keep

Kher Keep is a nice way to make sacrifice fodder in red EDH decks. Many commanders trigger when a creature enters play, when a small creature attacks, or when a creature is sacrificed, and it’s easy to add this land to a deck, considering the lack of real downsides.

#4. Akroma, Angel of Fury

Akroma, Angel of Fury is an iconic red card, and it sees play mainly in Commander and casual Cubes these days. The fact that you can morph a card and flip it into a 6/6 flier with so many abilities is nice, and it was mind-boggling back then. Blinking this card after morphing isn’t a bad move either.

#3. Cursed Mirror

Cursed Mirror is a red mana rock with upside, and it can actually enter as a copy of any creature in play. It’s a nice way to double up on your commanders’ enters triggers or your legendaries’ death triggers. For example, with Aerid Konstrari, you can get two Heartwood tokens right away. It has some cool interactions with Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm, too.

#2. Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Chandra, Torch of Defiance is one of the best red planeswalkers ever printed, and it tends to see play in older formats like Legacy where you can ramp it quickly via Ancient Tomb and Chrome Mox. It’s a very flexible ‘walker that gives you removal, ramp, and card draw, while being close enough to ultimate every now and then.

It’ll be interesting to see this card in Standard; while I don’t think it will be as good as in 2018, it can be a strong role-player in red decks going forward, and people will most certainly try it.

#1. Splinter Twin

Reprinted in the Special Guests sheet, Splinter Twin is a multi-format defining card because of its infinite combos with Pestermite or Deceiver Exarch. And just making a value copy of a strong creature every turn isn’t bad either. The card has been printed only two and a half times, in Rise of Eldrazi and in Modern Masters 2015 (and The List), so it’s a welcome reprint. Some people will even get to combo this card with Divining Duelist in Limited, though Splinter Twin and this combo will obviously not be legal in Standard.

New Cards

#15. Ajani’s Anguish

Mixing a good enter effect on a card with a good static effect is an excellent way to get your card played. Ajani's Anguish is at worst a Blaze effect, and it’s best in a RG deck packed with big beefy green creatures and classic 5/4 hasty red creatures. This can also go to the face as a finisher, or quickly change the damage race in your favor due to the static trample ability.

#14. Pompous Battlemage

Pompous Battlemage is a 1/1 prowess creature, which isn’t that enticing, but a 2/2 goblin that discards a card and draws a card is a nice 1-drop in aggressive decks. I can see this card often attacking as a 2/2 or 3/3, just by supporting it with spellslinging or equipment. It’s also better in multiples, considering that one prepared spell will buff all copies.

#13. Face Yourself

Face Yourself is a red take on the blue spells that make Clones of every creature a player has. It’s excellent when you control a planeswalker and okay if you don’t. The Master, Multiplied is a perfect creature to support this spell, and you can also play this in Commander planeswalker decks like Commodore Guff or Jace, Multiverse Architect.

#12. Identity Echo

Identity Echo is a repeatable Polymorph that could see play in decks that have expensive creatures or planeswalkers and cheap token creators. It’s nice that you can get rid of your exhausted Jace tokens and get something much better. On the downside, you need to invest 7 mana into this card to do something relevant, so I’m relegating this to casual EDH for now.

#11. Koth, the Geomancer

Koth, the Geomancer is a mix of landfall cards that damage opponents and something similar to Lotus Cobra. These play very well with ramp or fetch lands, and there’s some combo potential if you’re fetching mountains or cards like Stomping Ground.

#10. Master of Barbs

Master of Barbs is a funny combo with cards like Cavalcade of Calamity and Impact Tremors. Your small creatures will deal noncombat damage to your opponents in small installments and grow huge. Just casting a Hordeling Outburst in this scenario will be devastating, especially if you can give your creatures haste.

#9. Way of the Pyromancer

Costing just 2 mana, Way of the Pyromancer is an engine that allows your planeswalkers to add mana, and your Jace tokens can also +1. Many times when you have multiple planeswalkers, it’s desirable to plus all of them so that they’re harder to attack and kill. I can see a scenario where you can generate +3 mana from your ‘walkers alone and ramp into a big spell or sweeper quicker.

#8. Pyre Rhymer

Pyre Rhymer is a creature with a red High Tide tied into it, so what could go wrong? Well for starters, you need to actually cast a 3-drop first, and probably untap with it to get some mana advantages, and this is just one part of the combo. But big red decks will find uses for this card, even if it’s ramping into a giant game-finisher, something like Etali, Primal Conqueror or Call Forth the Tempest. I’m sure many EDH decks have some interest in this, and in Standard there could be a tier 1.5 deck that wants this ramp.

#7. Venser, Fervent Forger

I’m rating this a little lower just because it’s a Commander-only card, but the raw power of Venser, Fervent Forger is undeniable. Getting two copies of an opponent’s spell at instant speed is great, as is copying a permanent twice (not just creatures, either). We can do so much interesting stuff like copying lands or cards like Panharmonicon. I also like that you can use this offensively with the second ability or defensively with the first ability. Great card for Cube, too.

#6. Ajani Unrelenting

Ajani Unrelenting shines as the top end of a planeswalker-heavy deck, giving these decks a much-needed punch. I see this card seeing play in Mardu () decks where you can play token planeswalkers like Elspeth, Storm Slayer and Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator. This card also potentializes the empower Jace mechanic, giving you a free 2/2 token each time you surveil with the Jace token. You can even put the -2 to good use, considering the many red discard decks available in Standard.

#5. Craterclaw Colossus

Craterclaw Colossus can be an interesting win condition in grindy artifact decks in Standard, considering the “Craterhoof Behemoth” impact on the board. Many times, these decks win by grinding the game with cards like Simulacrum Synthesizer and its big Karnstructs, so a big beefy card like this can end games. The fact that the bonus is limited to the number of artifacts you control doesn’t mean this card goes into every go-wide deck, but many red decks these days create a lot of Treasure tokens or create artifact tokens, not to mention the artifact lands. This is also nice in UR thopter-spam decks.

#4. Curse-Marred Demon

Rune-Scarred Demon was a big 6/6 flier tied to a Demonic Tutor, so now we have Curse-Marred Demon, a 4/4 flier that Gambles. Not only is it a cheap demon at 4, which is great for your demon typal curve, but you have a really high chance of keeping the card you’ve tutored. And some BR builds don’t even mind discarding a key card if you have ways to recur a threat, reanimate, or profit from discarding.

#3. Samut, Hazoret’s Champion

Look, 99% of red-based decks are stronger when their creatures have haste, and while most of the best ones already do, it’s excellent to use cards like Rhythm of the Wild and now Samut, Hazoret's Champion as a haste enabler. A 2/2 with nothing but haste doesn’t seem like much, and it’s not that great as a top-deck, but in the first few turns of the game, it changes everything in your favor. Besides attacking right away, you can set up a strong 3-drop with the haste ability, protect other creatures from removal (because this one is a removal rod), or cast your commander with haste right after.

#2. Draconic Visitor

There's hype around this card as a combo enabler and value engine. Draconic Visitor turns your artifact tokens into 5/5 flying dragons, which is a bit better than a Treasure or a Blood token most of the time.

Smaug, Wicked Worm creates Treasures, so that’s an interesting way to build a dragon board right away. But with Ganax, Astral Hunter, we have a true infinite combo, considering that the 5/5 tokens make Ganax create Treasure, which will make the Visitor create more 5/5 dragon tokens, and so on.

#1. Stingcaster Mage

It’s hard not to top the chart with Stingcaster Mage, the spiritual successor to Snapcaster Mage. It’s a totally different card in essence, allowing you to have a more proactive game with targeted discard and burn, instead of holding it in your hand and flashing it to get a counterspell or something like that.

I foresee many turn-3 plays where you put a 2/1 haste creature into play and get to play another card like a Thoughtseize, a Lightning Bolt, or something like Fatal Push. This card is going to be better in formats with better 1-mana or 0-mana instants or sorceries, but it can pull its weight in Standard.

Wrap Up

Ajani's Anguish | Illustration by Molly Mendoza

Overall, red cards are pretty interesting this time around, and we can see WotC digging into new red design space. A card like Way of the Pyromancer can suddenly turn planeswalkers into mana dorks, and we have strong support for big red decks in the 6-7 mana value range. Red even got a Craterhoof Behemoth variant, and it’s time for black and blue to catch up!

All that said, Standard has been dominated by red and blue decks for a while now, and I don’t think the cards here change that a lot. I’m not impressed by red’s reprints either.

Do you think these red cards are more powerful than I'm giving them credit for? Which ones will be the most played, and in which formats? Let me know what you think in the comments section below. And for more on Reality Fracture, its new echoed pairs, Commander precon, and more, please check out our YouTube Channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Until next time!