Commander: 25 Burn Cards

It's time to talk about one of the most popular strategies in Commander: burn!

In this article, we will show you 25 burn cards so you can burn your opponents in Commander and destroy them before they can react.

As usual, before we go into them, let's go over how we selected these cards.

Let's go!

To pick these cards, we considered how much they cost, as well as how versatile and popular they are according to their EDHRec ranking. We also made permanents our priority.

We separated them into groups, like "Sacrifice" or "ETB" burn cards. This way, you can go through them more easily and find the best ones for the deck you're building or upgrading.

As usual, this isn't a ranking of the best burn cards in Commander, but rather a few great options for anyone who has just started playing Commander.

Without further ado, let's see our list. Enjoy!

Burn for When You Cast Cards From Anywhere But Your Hand

You can cast Flashback cards like Faithless Looting from your graveyard. In turn, you can cast Foretell cards like Saw It Coming from the exile. As for commanders, we cast them from what we call the "command zone". Why are we talking about this? Well, the cards in this group interact with the effects above to burn our opponents.

The fearsome Keeper of Secrets has a great body, 6/4, and first strike, so it can kill enemy creatures without dying so easily. Its effect checks if you cast any card from anywhere but your hand and burns an opponent. Furthermore, as its text states that this card itself deals the damage, you can equip it with a Basilisk Collar to gain life as you burn your opponents.

You can also interact with lifelink like this with Flaming Tyrannosaurus, a powerful Dinosaur that deals 3 damage to any target whenever you cast a spell from anywhere but your hand.

It buffs itself with +1/+1 counters, and when it dies, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.

Finally, we have the cheapest card in this group: Passionate Archaeologist.

This background enchantment only works when your commander is in play, but it gives them, "Whenever you cast a spell from exile, this creature deals damage equal to that spell's mana value to the target opponent."

These cards are great in Cascade decks, like Averna, the Chaos Bloom. If you'd like to see more about this card in particular, click here.

ETB Burn

ETB means "Enters The Battlefield" and it refers to effects that trigger when permanents (like creatures, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and lands) enter the battlefield.

ETB Creatures

When you cast these cards in casual pods, you'll always end up with a smile on your face. Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Warleader's Call, and Witty Roastmaster trigger when creatures enter your board and deal damage to each of your opponents.

They might only deal a bit of damage to each opponent, but this doesn't make them any less efficient.

As for Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm Surge, they deal damage equal to the power of the creature that is entering your board to any target you'd like. So, you can use this ETB burn to kill enemy creatures or burn them one by one.

ETB Artifacts

Weftstalker Ardent deals 1 damage to each opponent when other creatures and artifacts enter the battlefield. Furthermore, you can cast it for through Warp and then cast it from the exile later on.

As for Reckless Fireweaver, it only works when artifacts enter the battlefield, but it also deals damage to all opponents at once.

In decks that play multiple artifacts, like Magda, Brazen Outlaw, these two creatures have a lot of space to shine.

Burn Through Death, Sacrifice, and Other Ways Creatures Enter the Graveyard

Blasting Station is a sacrifice source that deals damage to a creature or player. It is great in decks that use life drain.

One of the most iconic Rakdos cultists, Mayhem Devil, deals 1 damage to any target whenever a player sacrifices any permanent.

In a list like Hearthhull, the Worldseed, which sacrifices many lands, this little friend will punish other players whenever you use your commander's effect.

By the way, if you'd like to see more about Hearthhull, the Worldseed, just click here.

Syr Konrad, the Grim deserves a shoutout. Our noble Eldraine Knight burns each opponent when:

- Another creature dies;

- A creature enters a graveyard from anywhere but the battlefield (like when you discard it from your hand or mill it)

- When a creature leaves your graveyard (like when you reanimate it or even exile your graveyard).

Besides all of these effects, Syr Konrad's activated ability forces each player to put another card from the top of their deck in their graveyard directly.

This creature may seem confusing for beginners because it has many effects, but we can't deny its value in decks that use Aristocrats, Reanimate, Mill, and other strategies.

Burn For When You Cast Noncreature Spells

Before we go into this list, we need to go over a few details. These cards are incredible in Spellslinger decks, but we separated them because they also work in artifact, enchantment, and/or planeswalker lists, for instance.

Coruscation Mage has Offspring, so when you cast it, you can pay two mana more to put a 1/1 copy of it on the board.

For four mana total, you can put two Otters in play and deal 2 damage to each opponent whenever you cast a noncreature. That's too much value!

As for Kessig Flamebreather and Firebrand Archer, they don't create copies of themselves but burn, too.

Sorceries and Instants

Now, yes, let's go over a few cards that shine in Spellslinger decks!

Guttersnipe and Fiery Inscription deal 2 damage to each opponent whenever you cast an instant or sorcery.

Urabrask, the red Praetor, only deals damage to a single opponent, but it also gives you one red mana. When you transform it, it lets you cast instants and sorceries straight from your graveyard.

Besides checking the spells you cast, Ral, Storm Conduit also checks when you copy cards and deals damage to planeswalkers too.

Finally, Electrostatic Field deals 1 damage to each opponent.

Counters

Decks centered around counters, particularly +1/+1 counters, are extremely common and popular with Commander players.

Once All Will Be One is in play, whenever you put a counter on a player or permanent, this enchantment deals that much damage to them.

When this card was released, we already had many ways to interact with Poison counters, like Toxic. So, if you could put a Poison counter on a player, you'd also deal 1 damage to them.

As for Shalai and Hallar, it only interacts with +1/+1 counters. It's interesting to see that, just like the enchantment above, it also deals damage to an opponent equal to the number of counters on them.

Noncombat Damage

Chandra's Incinerator interacts with all cards in this list. Considering Electrostatic Field deals 1 damage to each opponent with the cards above, Chandra's Incinerator also deals 1 damage to a creature or planeswalker that player controls with them. To sum up, this card triggers when another burn ability you control does.

Mount Doom is a legendary land from the Lord of the Rings set. It lets you pay three total mana to deal 1 damage to each opponent.

Besides this activated ability, you can use Mount Doom as a board wipe, and it is one of the lands in your deck. If you're playing a Rakdos commander, you simply must use this card.

What do you think of these cards? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!