Playing Magic on a budget?

With every new Magic set release, there are countless cards added onto Magic: the Gathering Arena. Some are great, others are not worth playing. Here I break down the 25 best red commons on Arena so far, so whether you like to go wide with goblins or cut out the middleman and aim for the face, there is certainly a card on this list for you.

25. Raking Claws

Raking Claws, Illustrated by Slawomir Maniak

What is great about Raking Claws:

• Instant Speed allows for some sneaky blowouts.
• Its cycling means it’ll never be a dead card.
• At only two mana, it's pretty easy to double or triple spell in a single turn.

Value: $0.03

 

24. Rubble Reading

Rubble Reading, Illustrated by Aaron Miller

What is great about Rubble Reading:

• Can cut opponents running ambitious land-bases off of an entire color
• Fixes your next couple of draws, or digs you deeper to the answer you need.
• Can be played on turn three off of a mind stone in Historic!

Value: $0.05

 

23. Merchant of the Vale // Haggle

Merchant of the Vale, Illustrated by David Gaillet

What is great about Merchant of the Vale:

• At only one mana, Haggle is the most cost-effective way to discard an Arclight Phoenix!
• Unlike other cards with this effect, Haggle has no additional casting cost, meaning a counterspell from your opponent won’t leave 2 for 1’d.
• Can be played as a creature in a pinch.

Value: $0.08

 

22. Burning Prophet

Burning Prophet, Illustrated by Mathias Kollros​
 

What is great about Burning Prophet:

• Being a wizard, Burning Prophet turns on both Wizard’s Lightning and Wizards Retort
• The scry trigger can be very useful for preventing mana flood or digging for the last points of burn.
• A mono-red mainstay in historic’s pauper format

Value: $0.06

 

21. Goblin Wizardry

Goblin Wizardry, Illustrated by Izzy

What is great about Goblin Wizardry:

• Goblin Wizardry fits very cleanly into a “spells matter” deck thanks to prowess.
• While pricier than cards such as Raise the Alarm, Goblin Wizardry provides two useful creature types in Wizard and Goblin.
• With more and more wizard support on the horizon, wizard tokens may become more and more valuable.

Value: $0.04

 

20. Spellgorger Weird

Spellgorger Weird, Illustistrated by James Pack

What is great about Spellgorger Weird:

• Much like the previous card on this list, Spellgorger Weird fits very cleanly into a “spells matter” deck.
• The ability to add counters rather than giving a temporary buff grows this creature to frightening sizes throughout a game.
• Thanks to it’s 2 starting toughness, Spellgorger weird can quickly grow out of range of targeted red removal if you find yourself in the mirror match.

Value: $0.03

 

19. Hungry Flames

Hungry Flames, Illustrated by Izzy

What is great about Hungry Flames:

• Hungry flames is highly proficient for picking off a creature while still pressuring your opponent’s life total
• Being an instant, it can be used mid-combat to make blocking even more challenging on your opponent.
• If you’re playing with a card like Chandra’s Incinerator, Hungry Flames could deal up to five damage to a single creature.

Value: $0.23

 

18. Drannith Stinger

Drannith Stinger, Illustrated by Denman Rooke

What is great about Drannith Stinger:

• A pivotal card in any cycling deck, Drannith stinger works to ping an opposing player’s life total slowly over time.
• Being only two mana, it’s easy to hold off from cycling your cards until you have one or two on the board to maximize damage.
• It itself cycles, meaning it’ll power up and help you find your Zenith Flares later in the game.

Value: $0.14

 

17. Pillar of Flame

Pillar of Flame, Illustrated by Dave Kendall

What is great about Pillar of Flame:

• Pillar of Flame and the next three cards on this list are all present thanks to their use against graveyard centered creature decks.
• Being only one mana makes it incredibly efficient at picking off early threats.
• While it is only sorcery speed, it has much more reach being able to hit any target.

Value: $0.33

 

16. Magma Spray

Magma Spray, Illustrated by Svetlin Velinov

What is great about Magma Spray:

• Like Pillar of Flame, Magma spray is just as good at stopping creatures from being reanimated.
• Unlike Pillar, Magma Spray can be cast at instant speed, meaning it can even exile unescaped Uro’s and Kroxa’s as they enter the battlefield.
• Magma Spray only targets creatures, but in certain metagames, the additional reach is not necessary.

Value: $0.09

 

15. Scorching Dragon Fire

Scorching Dragonfire, Illustrated by Eric Velhagen

What is great about Scorching Dragonfire:

• Just like Magma Spray, Scorching Dragon Fire can be played at instant speed.
• For one more mana you get an additional damage.
• This makes Scorching Dragonfire an excellent choice against Death-Whirler decks and any Dreadhorde Archinist!

Value: $0.09

 

14. Tuktuk Rubblefort

Tuktuk Rubblefort, Illustrated by Nicholas Gregory

What is great about Tuktuk Rubblefort:

• While it may seem like an odd inclusion, with the release of Zendikar Rising, Tuktuk Rubblefort is finding home in a historic neoform-combo deck, awarding it a spot high on our list.
• This combo counts on the Rubblefort to be able to grant a board of creatures haste at the end of a multi-neoform-casting-chain, making this card’s converted mana cost of 3 a huge plus.
• Even just on its face, Rubblefort manages to be both offensive and defensive at the same time.

Value: $0.23

 

13. Goblin Instigator

Goblin Instigator, Illustrated by Filip Burburan

What is great about Goblin Instigator:

• Two creatures for the price of one is an excellent rate, especially in goblin centric decks!
• Unlike effects like Goblin Wizardry which appeared earlier on this list, Goblin Instigator can be reanimated with cards like Claim // Fame.
• When paired with Skirk Prospector, Goblin Instigator can lead to very explosive turn three plays.

Value: $0.27

 

12. Skirk Prospector

Skirk Prospector, Illustrated by Slawomir Maniak

What is great about Skirk Prospector:

• As mentioned before, Skirk prospect in combination with Goblin Instigator or even Wily Goblin to cast giant goblins on turn 3!
• In addition to the explosive mana advantage, a free sac outlet like Skirk Prospector can shut down abilities like those on adventure spells and lifelink creatures.
• Even outside of goblin decks the Prospector can sac itself for mana.

Value: $0.30

 

11. Fanatical Firebrand

Fanatical Firebrand, Illustrated by Wayne Reynolds

What is great about Fanatical Firebrand:

• This diagonal monkey has been a popular card since it was first included on Arena, being an efficient turn one play in multiple formats.
• The ability to pick off mana-dorks on turn one makes Fanatical Firebrand a fantastic utility piece in aggro and goblin decks alike. 
• In combination with any effect that grants this creature deathtouch, such as Call of the Death-Dweller, Firebrand can take out much larger creatures than it’s usual 1/1’s.

Value: $0.11

 

10. Scorch Spitter

Scorch Spitter, Illustrated by Johan Grenier

What is great about Scorch Spitter:

• While this creature is only a 1/1 on its face, its ability to deal damage through blockers to enable the Spectacle ability on cards such as Light up the stage made Scorch Spitter an excellent inclusion in any low to the ground red deck.
• Scorch Spitter being a 1/1 also allows it to still trigger Cavalcade of Calamity, while still dealing an additional damage.
• Thanks to its creature type being an elemental, it is likely this creature will find itself home in any aggressive elemental deck we see in the future.

Value: $0.06

 

9. Cathartic Reunion

Cathartic Reunion, Illustrated by Jakub Kasper

What is great about Cathartic Reunion:

• Cathartic Reunion is arguably the most efficient way to dump cards from your hand into your graveyard.
• Thanks to the discard clause being on cast, your opponent’s countermagic won’t stop you from putting Arclight Phoenix or Drakuseth into your graveyard to be reanimated later.
• This also means that if you ever create a copy of Cathartic Reunion, you’ll discard two cards and draw four. That’s a lot of value.

Value: $0.06

 

8. Roil Eruption

Roil Eruption, Illustrated by Campbell White

What is great about Roil Eruption:

• While just recently introduced onto Arena, Roil Eruption has a lot of potential to be the cornerstone of Standard Burn.
• The ability to deal damage directly to your opponent is what sets this card apart from recent red spells in Standard.
• The ability to kick the spell late in the game makes Roil Eruption both a cheap play and an intimidating game-ender.

Value: $0.23

 

7. Rimrock Knight // Boulder Rush

Rimrock Knight, Illustrated by Chris Ralles

What is great about Rimrock Knight:

• The sheer amount of pressure that Rimrock Knight represents is what earns it a spot so high on this list.
• Thanks to Throne of Eldraine, there are a lot of cards that may benefit from you playing a lot of knights.
• Due to the prevalence of Embercleave, Boulder rush’s +2/+0 can easily represent four damage later in the game.

Value: $0.05

 

6. Kiln Fiend

Kiln Fiend, Illustrated by Adi Granov

What is great about Kiln Fiend:

• One of the most iconic red creatures in Magic, Kiln Fiend has seen play in many formats.
• The raw power behind it’s triggered ability can make for some surprising kills out of nowhere. Just add doublestrike and trample!
• The relevant creature type of Elemental just tops it all off.

Value: $0.24

 

5. Thermo-Alchemist

Thermo-Alchemist, Illustrated by Raymond Swanland

What is great about Thermo-Alchemist:

• The turn after you play it, Thermo-Alchemist effectively adds an additional damage to any burn spell that you aim at your opponent.
• Even when you’re not casting damaging spells, Thermo-Alchemist turns your card draw or combat tricks into life total pressure.
• To top it all off, with three toughness Thermo-Alchemist can block out many of the other creatures on this list.

Value: $0.24

 

4. Viashino Pyromancer

Viashino Pyromancer, Illustrated by Jesper Ejsing

What is great about Viashino Pyromancer:

• While it may not look too impressive on the surface, Viashino Pyromancer is one of the most aggressive creatures ever to be introduced onto Arena.
• Due to its enter the battlefield ability, even when answered immediately Viashino Pyromancer still packs a punch.
• Being a wizard, Burning Prophet turns Wizard’s Lightning into a Lightning Bolt.

Value: $0.11

 

3. Ghitu Lavarunner

Ghitu Lavarunner, Illustrated by Jesper Ejsing

What is great about Ghitu Lavarunner:

• The best common red creature playable on Arena is no doubt Ghitu Lavarunner.
• Due to its ability, it is not only a good turn one play but presents pressure when you draw it later in the game.
• Again being a wizard is a big advantage to may burn decks.

Value: $0.13

 

2. Shock

Shock, Illustrated by Jason Rainville

What is great about Shock:

•  It’s hard to beat shock when it comes to efficiency and reach.
•  With its one mana cost, it can remove almost any of your opponent’s turn one plays.
•  The ability to hit any target is what puts Shock above most other burn spells on Arena.

Value: $0.03

 

1. Skewer the Critics

Skewer the Critics, Illustrated by Heonhwa Choe

What is great about Skewer the Critics:

• It’s no surprise that Skewer the Critics takes the number one spot due to its ridiculous rate.
• Because you are most likely to be playing Skewer in a deck regularly dealing damage to your opponent, the spectacle cost is almost always online.
• When topdecked later in the game you will have no problem paying the two extra mana just to hit your opponent’s face for the winning amount of damage.

Value: $0.41

  

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