The 41 Best Red Pump Spells in Magic Ranked

Monstrous Rage | Illustration by Borja Pindado

Pumps spells might not look like much, but they’re excellent tools if you need your creatures to hit a little harder. Every Limited player knows the value of a combat trick that blows your opponents out and eats their best creatures, while players of EDH and other Constructed formats might be more familiar with permanents that stick around and buff the team consistently.

Red pump spells tend to be cheap and efficient, and they often add haste, double strike, and sometimes even trample as additional enhancement. They’re great to force through extra points of damage in your aggressive decks, and they often score the final few points. But which are worth playing?

What Are Red Pump Spells in MTG?

Roar of Resistance | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

Red pump spells are any cards with a mono-red color identity that increase the power and/or toughness of your creatures. Notably, I’m only including cards that add a numerical value; this list doesn’t contain damage doublers like Furnace of Rath. I also excluded lords like Goblin Chieftain due to their extremely narrow applications.

Red combat tricks emphasize aggression, and they typically add more power than toughness and add combat-oriented keywords like haste, trample, and double strike.

Red pump spells broadly fall into two categories: combat tricks and permanent buff effects. Combat tricks are one-off effects tied to instants and sorceries while permanent buffs are attached to permanents like auras, equipment, and creatures. The best of these effects are efficient and provide something more than just power—though it’s possible to add enough power to be worth it alone.

#41. Betrothed of Fire

Betrothed of Fire is a fascinating spell. Red frequently cares about sacrifice outlets, so it has synergy potential. Auras always open you to the risk of getting two-for-oned, and this one more than most, but I see it working in the right deck.

#40. Hammerhand + Cartouche of Zeal

Hammerhand or Cartouche of Zeal might not win a tournament anytime soon, but these auras pack a welcome punch for lower-powered Cubes that want their Red Deck Wins (RDW) decks to have access to a cheap yet effective closer.

#39. Rune of Speed

Drawing a card when Rune of Speed enters mitigates the downside of your creature dying since you got the card back; haste provides even more immediate value. The best part of this card is its flexibility: You can slap it on a land, so it basically has cycling.

#38. Ardoz, Cobbler of War

Ardoz, Cobbler of War can be effective, but you need to take the time to build around haste for it to be a meaningful threat. That deckbuilding restriction knocks it well below similar creatures that are more expensive but add haste.

#37. War Effort

War Effort offers a moderate buff. Much of the card’s power rests within the attack trigger, which plays nicely in token decks or sacrifice decks that do something with the warrior tokens before they die.

#36. Beamtown Beatstick

Beamtown Beatstick is a Pauper Cube all-star that works decently in Commander—in the lower Brackets, at least. Menace can be annoying evasion, especially when you pair it with keywords like first strike or pump spells in general. Throw in some Treasure, and you have an effective source of pressure.

#35. Barge In

Only buffing attacking creatures removes most of the flexibility from Barge In, but the potentially team-wide trample steals games, especially if you cast this after blockers; your opponents probably didn’t block with trample in mind.

#34. Bloodsworn Steward

Bloodsworn Steward only works in Commander, with your commander, but it can be quite impactful. It works best with commanders that have strong attack triggers or power requirements, like Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin.

#33. Book of Mazarbul

Book of Mazarbul has problems, like taking several turns to reach the pump and telling your opponents exactly when they need to use removal or leave behind blockers, but extra power and menace is still quite effective at closing out games. At the very least, menace forces some awkward blocks for your opponents.

#32. Umaro, Raging Yeti

Umaro, Raging Yeti doesn’t always pump your team, so you can argue it’s a bad pump spell. But red has basically no other Overrun analog; some creatures offer a mass pump, but none of them also give trample. The other modes aren’t bad either, so Umaro is a decent top end for red decks.

#31. Zariel, Archduke of Avernus

While the power boost on Zariel, Archduke of Avernus’s uptick is nice, you really want the haste. This plays best in token-centered strategies, where five or six creatures pick up on the power boost rather than one or two.

#30. Rabid Gnaw

Rabid Gnaw offers a minuscule buff, but it’s also a removal spell, so you can’t go too wrong playing it.

#29. Diamond Pick-Axe

Diamond Pick-Axe is fairly cheap for its impact. Making Treasure every turn ramps you while enabling various artifact synergies, all at a low cost.

#28. Fists of Flame

Fists of Flame’s power fluctuates greatly depending on what the rest of your deck does. It excels in decks that leverage cards like wheels and Howling Mine to draw tons of cards or in decks that can copy it, but it falls flat without those synergies.

#27. Ogre-Head Helm

Ogre-Head Helm provides an interesting source of card advantage. If you equip this to a creature, you sacrifice that creature to the Helm’s ability, so you can potentially draw three cards a turn multiple turns in a row. Not bad for a Grizzly Bears.

#26. Dire Flail / Dire Blunderbuss

Dire Flail is a simple card, but don’t underestimate the power of Bonesplitter—pretty much every creature becomes a significant threat with +2/+0.

Of course, the card’s best traits come out when you craft it into Dire Blunderbuss, which grants more power and an ugly triggered ability. You need to care about artifacts, but that’s a low bar to clear.

#25. Rabbit Battery

Rabbit Battery can be a very significant card in the right deck. A 1-mana creature that chips in for damage early and that facilitates late-game aggression with haste puts a surprising amount of pressure on your opponents.

#24. Hidden Footblade

Red has many variants on cheap combat tricks that grant first strike so that your creature wins in combat, and Hidden Footblade is one of the best because it leaves an incredibly useful equipment behind. This is effectively two cards: a combat trick that kills an opposing creature, and an equipment that enables aggressive turns with haste.

#23. Etali’s Favor

To maximize Etali's Favor, fill your deck with cheap yet impactful cards to discover into. Discovering on ETB is basically the same as drawing a card, so it mitigates the downside of enchanting your creatures.

#22. Cait Sith, Fortune Teller + Tavern Brawler

Cait Sith, Fortune Teller and Tavern Brawler are similar spells that draw cards and buff your team. Tavern Brawler’s the weaker of the two since it requires your commander to function, but both are useful when you want pump spells that don’t compromise your card draw.

#21. Shared Animosity

Shared Animosity is pretty restrictive since you need to go deep on a creature type. In mono-red, that usually means goblins, though it pairs well with creatures like Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon or The Locust God that create creature tokens en masse.

#20. Blazing Crescendo + Haste Magic

Cantripping combat tricks are awesome, and Blazing Crescendo and Haste Magic are powerful. Haste Magic grants haste, while Crescendo leaves you with a wider window to cast the exiled card, but both are excellent, especially when you can copy them or have cast-from-exile synergies.

#19. Komainu Battle Armor

Goading entire boards often concludes a game of Commander. Not only does one opponent whittle down the others, but they tap most of their blockers to do so, which leaves them plenty vulnerable when your next turn rolls around. That makes Komainu Battle Armor an excellent equipment.

#18. Dreadmaw’s Ire

I’m surprised I see Dreadmaw's Ire as infrequently as I do. A combat trick that gives trample and destroys an artifact provides plenty of value for a single red mana.

#17. Pyretic Charge

Pyretic Charge is far from a true Overrun due to the lack of trample or any offensive keywords, but red doesn’t have many mass pump effects like this, which gives it utility. Giving your team +3/+0 or something while you dump excess lands seems like a reasonable late-game plan, so I don’t hate it.

#16. Reckless Stormseeker / Storm-Charged Slasher

Reckless Stormseeker hits pretty hard, both on its own and by virtue of giving your 4-drop haste next turn. The best werewolves are strong on both sides, and I’m happy to control either Reckless Stormseeker or Storm-Charged Slasher.

#15. Bulk Up

Doubling a creature’s power can be quite useful in many circumstances, even if 2 mana is a lot for the effect. Bulk Up plays best in Voltron-style decks where doubling your commander’s power is the difference between an opponent that needs a plan for their next turn and an opponent that doesn’t have a next turn to take. Unleash Fury can be a backup copy without flashback.

#14. Detective’s Phoenix

Detective's Phoenix is a deceptively powerful card. You’ll often play it as a creature and get a few good attacks in before your opponents have to kill it, which then allows you to get in a few good attacks with whatever you bestow it upon. It plays nicely with red’s many rummage effects, like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun.

#13. Roar of Resistance

Roar of Resistance works best in token decks so the first line of text does something, but any deck that goes wide can consider this enchantment. It’s pretty interesting in Commander since the buff ability triggers on each player’s turn, so you can spread the love beyond your own combat step.

#12. Siege Smash

Modal spells are always great, but split second pushes Siege Smash further than most since your opponents can’t interact with it on the stack. Destroying an artifact probably comes up more often than the pump, but this fits nicely into any deck with a commander that wants trample to deal combat damage, like Eivor, Wolf-Kissed.

#11. Uncivil Unrest

I said I wouldn’t include damage doublers, but riot makes Uncivil Unrest a pump spell and a damage doubler, so it makes the cut. And that combination of damage and regular buffs makes it quite the finisher for your EDH deck. It works best in decks that have ample ways to modify their creatures so it doubles damage the turn it comes down; it’s much too slow to rely on this as your only source of modifications.

#10. First Day of Class

You could argue First Day of Class is more of a combo card than a pump spell given how players use it, but it fits both definitions. Is the most efficient way to leverage this an infinite combo with a persist creature like Putrid Goblin? Yes. Is it still great to cast this, then make four or five tokens or play a bunch of small, now-hasty creatures? Absolutely.

#9. Haze of Rage

Haze of Rage is a big bowl of mechanical soup that becomes quite powerful in the right shell. It works best in spellslinger decks with plenty of magecraft triggers or copy effects to get the most from buyback.

#8. Gauntlet of Might

Red’s options for anthems are almost entirely relegated to lords like Goblin Chieftain. Gauntlet of Might is the exception to this rule, and what an exception. You get endless mana to go with your power buff, providing plenty of resources to end the game. Of course, it’s pretty much only played in mono-red decks and it’s trapped in the Reserved List, so you might not see it often.

#7. Hexplate Wallbreaker

Hexplate Wallbreaker provides a reasonable buff; most creatures become a threat with +2/+2. But the power lies in the extra combats. For aggressive decks, extra combats are almost as good as extra turns. It’s pretty easy to turn this into a swift win, especially with a haste enabler to get another combat the turn it enters.

#6. Enduring Courage + Ogre Battledriver

Enduring Courage and its lesser cousin Ogre Battledriver are excellent finishers. The power boost might be temporary, but the impact lasts forever—or at least until you kill your opponent in three turns because your creatures attack the turn they come into play.

#5. Violent Urge

You need to enable delirium for Violent Urge to be worth playing, but it’s well worth the effort for a 1-mana combat trick that effectively doubles your best creature’s damage output. Even if you don’t kill your opponent with it, double strike is better than flat doubling the creature’s power because it wins many combats.

Getting delirium isn’t even that hard. Crack a fetch land, Lightning Bolt a creature, get Bolt’d in return, and you’re most of the way there.

#4. The Reaver Cleaver

I wouldn’t normally consider an equipment that costs a total of 6 mana to cast and equip once for +1/+1 good, but The Reaver Cleaver manages to be worth the costs thanks to its absurd Treasure production. It often takes a single combat to recoup those high costs, and everything from there is just gravy.

#3. Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun is probably my favorite card that’s come out in the last year or two. It does an incredible amount of work, drawing cards and applying plenty of pressure thanks to the counters it spreads. If your opponents don’t have a quick answer, this runs away with the game.

#2. Monstrous Rage

I felt a thousand Standard players shudder at the mention of Monstrous Rage. It’s just so efficient: 1 mana for +3/+1 and trample is quite effective, but it goes much further once you factor in mechanics like prowess, or for the Commander players, effects that copy the Rage.

#1. Embercleave

All Embercleave asks of you is a decent board with some attacking creatures to make it cost less mana, but even a slight discount is good enough. If your opponent doesn’t block with Embercleave in mind, you can easily win with it. And if they know to play around it, then their blocks will be forever warped by the knowledge you could drop a lethal equipment with no warning.

Best Red Pump Spell Payoffs

Red has a few cards that care about their power or the power of your team, like Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER, Furious Rise, and Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest that broadly benefit from pump spells that make your creatures better.

Most of the payoffs care more about the type of card you’re using to buff your creatures with. For example, cards like Neyali, Suns' Vanguard and Chishiro, the Shattered Blade reward you for using equipment to buff your creatures, while cards with mechanics like prowess (Monastery Swiftspear) and valiant (Emberheart Challenger) reward you for using instants and sorceries.

Another payoff for pump spells like Monstrous Rage and Haste Magic are cards that copy your instants and sorceries; this works particularly well in Commander since you have the time to set up explosive turns. Zada, Hedron Grinder is the best choice if you want to stick to mono-red, but Feather, the Redeemed and Kalamax, the Stormsire are great options if you want to play a multicolor deck.

Wrap Up

Hammerhand | Illustration by Joshua Raphael

Red pump spells might not be as punchy as green’s, but they often provide aggressively minded boons like double strike and trample to finish things faster. If your deck needs a little extra reach, these could be the tools it’s missing.

What’s your favorite red pump spell? How do you feel about combat tricks in Commander? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!