Magic: The Gathering - Gornog, The Red Reaper Commander Deck Guide

Gornog, the Red Reaper is one of the many legendary creatures introduced in Magic: the Gathering's Foundations Jumpstart set. This mono red commander is the perfect choice if you want to play a deck primarily consisting of Warrior creatures (called either Kindred or Typal).

A Gornog, the Red Reaper deck is one heavily built around combat. If you're newer to the game or want to play a deck with a more straightforward strategy, this is the perfect commander choice for you. For those who like to turn cards sideways and swing, you'll want Gornog leading that charge.

Decklist

Commander: Gornog, the Red Reaper
Adaptive Automaton	Archetype of Aggression	Arni Brokenbrow	Arni Metalbrow	Bloodmark Mentor	Boldwyr Intimidator
Brighthearth Banneret	Combat Celebrant	Flamerush Rider	Frenzied Saddlebrute	Goblin Wardriver	Karagan Intimidator
Karlach, Fury of Avernus	Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs	Laelia, the Blade Reforged	Lovisa Coldeyes	Markov Blademaster	Moraug, Fury of Akoum
Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion	Neheb, the Eternal	Ogre Battledriver	Paragon of Fierce Defiance	Professional Face-Breaker	Radha's Firebrand
Roaming Throne	Taurean Mauler	Tiamat's Fanatics	Torbran, Thane of Red Fell	Warchief Giant	Blasphemous Act
Coward // Killer	Disrupt Decorum	Fury of the Horde	Overpowering Attack	Relentless Assault	Seismic Stomp
Sundering Eruption // Volcanic Fissure	World at War	Chaos Warp	Great Train Heist	Return the Favor	Savage Beating
Arcane Signet	Banner of Kinship	Coat of Arms	Dolmen Gate	Door of Destinies	Fellwar Stone
Hazoret's Monument	Helm of the Host	Herald's Host	Patchwork Banner	Ruby Medallion	Sol Ring
Vanquisher's Banner	Wayfarer's Bauble	Aggravated Assault	Berserkers' Onslaught	City on Fire	Descent into Avernus
Goblin War Drums	Gratuitous Violence	Molten Echoes	Rage Reflection	Shared Animosity	Castle Embereth
x31 Mountain	Rogue's Passage	War Room

The decklist consists of 29 creatures, nine sorceries, four instants, 14 artifacts, nine enchantments, and 34 lands. Most of the creatures are Warriors, and the rest of the cards either support the creature type, or provide extra combat steps to have extra combat triggers.

Key Cards

Gornog, The Red Reaper

The commander of the deck, Gornog, the Red Reaper is one of the main ways you'll turn off your opponents' ability to block. Every attack of a Warrior turns a creature into a Coward. This is a permanent effect, meaning once a creature becomes a Coward, it will remain one until it leaves the battlefield.

While this is permanent, being a Coward has no actual effect by itself. You need a card that applies a consequent effect, such as Gornog preventing any Coward card from blocking Warriors while it's on the battlefield.

You want your opponents to have as many Cowards as possible, as each one will give attacking Warriors a stat boost. It does not matter how many Cowards the defending player controls, and the stat boost applies to all Cowards on the battlefield.

Neheb, The Eternal

Neheb, the Eternal is one of the ways to ramp in a Gornog deck. Outside of ritual cards, mono red decks can struggle to generate a lot of mana. This is where Neheb comes in. It turns all damage opponents lost that turn into red mana you can use.

Neheb's afflict ability helps to guarantee you'll get at least three mana out of it. However, when combined with turning creatures into Cowards that can't block, you can get in for even more damage and thus, more mana.

Molten Echoes

For Gornog's ability, Gornog itself doesn't need to attack, you just need any Warrior to turn a creature into a Coward. Molten Echoes is a way to guarantee Gornog triggers without putting one of your permanent creatures in danger.

The token is exiled at the end step, so if it dies in combat it doesn't matter since it was going to be removed from the game anyway. The token copies of Warriors also count for other permanents that care about the number of certain creature types on the battlefield to make them even more impactful.

Coat Of Arms

The majority of the creatures in the deck are Warriors. This makes Coat of Arms massively boost their stats, as each Warrior will give the others 1/ 1. This effect stacks, so if you have three Warriors on the battlefield they will all give a 2/ 2 stat boost to each other.

Coat of Arms is a must-answer permanent​​​​​​. If your opponents don't get rid of it, you will almost always win whatever combat your creatures enter. Coat of Arms combined with unblockable creatures make for a devastating combo that deals giant outbursts of damage.

Aggravated Assault

A Gornog deck is heavily combat-focused, so Aggravated Assault is especially good as a way to get multiple combats in one turn. So long as you have five mana to spend, you can keep taking extra combat steps that untap all your creatures.

You can go infinite with Aggravated Assault and Neheb, the Eternal. Deal at least five damage in combat so Neheb adds that as mana, and then activate Aggravated Assault. After the extra combat, you'll go into another postcombat main phase and Neheb will trigger his effect again to add mana. Keep looping this to have an infinite number of combat phases.

Unlike other extra combat cards, Aggravated Assault is an enchantment, which lets you re-use it constantly rather than casting it once and being done with it. With how important combat is to the deck, Aggravated Assault is one of the cards you want on the battlefield as quickly as possible.

How To Play The Deck

A Gornog, the Read Reaper Commander deck is all about combat. You want to be swinging your creatures at your opponents constantly, all while turning your opponents' strongest creatures into Cowards so they can't block your Warriors.

The only cards that can turn creatures into Cowards in mono red are Gornog, the Red Reaper, Coward // Killer, Boldwyr Intimidator, and Kargan Intimidator. However, Gornog is the only one that permanently makes a creature into a Coward (the rest are only until the end of the turn).

Permanents that give stat boosts are especially strong to make sure you don't have to worry about your creatures dying in combat. Coat of Arms, Banner of Kinship, Patchwork Banner, and Adaptive Automaton all help to give your Warrior big stats boosts, and all can stack on each other.

Taking extra combat steps is important as well. World at War, Aggravated Assault, Relentless Assault, and Great Train Heist all help to gain extra combats and push your advantage.

The primary win condition of the deck is winning through combat. You want to flood the battlefield with creatures, and constantly swing them at your opponents. This win condition is helped by stat-boosting permanents and making creatures in Cowards to make it easier to deal damage.

The biggest flaw of the deck is mono red's natural slowness in setting up. The color struggles to ramp on its own, so a higher-than-average number of mana rocks is used to generate mana quicker. It takes a while to get going, which leaves you defenseless in the early game.

Also, Mono red doesn't have ways to gain life back, so the damage taken is damage you'll have to live with.

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