by Johnny Cycles, July 17th, 2026

Looking for a Mono Red Commander deck that doesn’t want to win via combat? Love both burn and pump spells? Want a to turn all of your 1 damage spells into 6 damage spells? Then this is the deck for you! Wizards just printed a budget-friendly damage increaser with the most upside of any they’ve ever printed. That’s right. An uncommon can enable more damage than the mythic Fiery Emancipation. Want to know how? Read on!

But before I get to the list, I’m doing something a little different for this deck. I’m building my first version with no budget limitations to see how it plays. From there, I’ll detail the changes I make, how I go about finding budget-options for expensive cards, and my thought process in what cards I picked to replace which cards that were too expensive. Let me know in the comments if this is of interest to you!

Decklist – Nonbudget Mono Red Burn with Hawkeye, Young Avenger

Hawkeye, Young Avenger

Creatures (12) – Total Price: $133.15

Hexing Squelcher	$21
Razorkin Needlehead	$5.97
Birgi, God of Storytelling	$35
Guttersnipe	.30 cents
Rampaging Ferocidon	$1.29
Screaming Nemesis	$7.49
Seasoned Pyromancer	$9.22
Scorchwalker	.20 cents
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus	$28

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell	$3.75
The Great Work	$19
Overlord of the Boilerbilges	$1.93

Artifacts (8) – $25.85

Dueling Rapier	.24 cents
Hawkeye’s Bow	.25 cents
Arcane Signet	.45 cents
Cursed Totem	$1.35
Mind Stone	.31 cents
Ruby Medallion	$12
Commander’s Sphere	.25 cents
Ensnaring Bridge	$11

Enchantments (19) – $43.45

Dragon Mantle	.25 cents
Circle of Flame	.30 cents
Curse of Shaken Faith	.47 cents
Madcap Skills	.20 cents
Omen of the Forge	.20 cents
Roiling Vortex	$1.75
Rune of Speed	.29 cents
Ancient Runes	$1.19
Descent into Avernus	$13
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker	$7.35
Fated Firepower	$5.28
Impatience	.47 cents
Mechanized Warfare	.70 cents
Rivalry	.50 cents
Spellshock	.79 cents
Sulfuric Vortex	.99 cents
Outpost Siege	.36 cents
Virtue of Courage	$2.30
Fiery Emancipation	$7.06

Instants (15) + 1 mfdc – $102.07

Burst Lightning	.25 cents
Flashback	$4.99
Galvanic Blast	$2
Gut Shot	$5.08
Lightning Bolt	.86 cents
Shock	.18 cents
Spark Jolt	.20 cents
Titan’s Strength	.24 cents
Blazing Crescendo	.20 cents
Bulk Up	.35 cents
Lightning Strike	.20 cents
Searing Spear	.20 cents
Smash to Smithereens	.32 cents
Deflecting Swat	$69
Valakut Awakening	$18

Sorceries (8) + 1 mfdc – $236.70

Boltwave	$2.75
Faithless Looting	.39 cents
Pillar of Flame	.20 cents
Grapeshot	.34 cents
Shatterskull Smashing	$9.75
Collective Defiance	.33 cents
Hex Magic	$2
Wheel of Fortune	$220
Blasphemous Act	.94 cents

Lands (39) + 2 mfdcs – $28.54

Den of the Bugbear  $2.17
Field of Ruin  .30 cents
Hall of Oracles  .30 cents
Lindblum, Industrial Regency  $2.26
Myriad Landscape  .30 cents
Plaza of Heroes  $4.87
Ramunap Ruins  .31 cents
Roadside Reliquary  .26 cents
Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass (mfdc)   
Shivan Gorge .90 cents
Tyrite Sanctum $2.80
Valakut Stoneforge (mfdc)
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle $11
War Room  $3.07
Mountain (24)

Total Cost: $569.76

Building on a Budget

I was pretty stunned to see the prices of some of the cards I chose, even though I wasn’t trying to stick to any budget. Hexing Squelcher, in particular, made me look twice, as did Descent into Avernus. The former must see play in multiple older formats, while the latter must slot in nearly every Treasure deck.

I knew most of the damage increasers would be expensive, as would Birgi, God of Storytelling. Still, $35 for the latter?

So, let’s take out some of the obvious big-ticket items to see how we can get this deck budget-friendly.

Wheel of Fortune	$220
Deflecting Swat	$69
Birgi, God of Storytelling	$35
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus	$28
Hexing Squelcher	$21
Urabrask	$19
Valakut Awakening	$18
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle	$11
Shatterskull Smashing	$9.75
Seasoned Pyromancer	$9.22
Screaming Nemesis	$7.49
Razorkin Needlehead	$5.97

Total Cost: $453.43

These 12 cards drop our deck to $116.33. The task now is to find suitable replacements for these powerful, synergistic support pieces without greatly reducing the power level.

First out is Wheel of Fortune. Without this effect, Razorkin Needlehead is no longer game-ending. There are more inexpensive Wheel effects (Reforge the Soul), however, if you would like to stick with this combo as a great out to a stalled board. We’ll save these two spots for cards I’ll mention below.

Next, we cut Birgi, which can help fuel big turns, but we aren’t really a Spellslinger deck. In fact, we’re more interested in the card advantage of her flipside, Harnfel, Horn of Bounty. In its place, I chose Opera Love Song and Haste Magic. None of these provide repeatable card advantage, but both synergize with our plan of increasing Hawkeye’s power.

Unfortunately, we have to get rid of some of our more expensive damage increasers. Solphim and Urabrask are just too costly for a budget. So is Hexing Squelcher. However, we do get the much less expensive Collective Inferno that we can put on Human to double up all of Hawkeye’s damage. Budget-friendly Firebrand Archer gives us another, albeit fragile, means of dealing noncombat damage to each opponent.

Alongside the above-mentioned 1-time power increasers, we can also add equipment in order to have a more sustainable and reliable way to keep Hawkeye’s power up. Coral Sword, Hidden Footblade, Hidden Blade, and Red Mage’s Rapier all increase Hawkeye’s power, while three of the four have flash and auto-equip. This lets us play on our opponent’s turn when relevant, while also not costing more mana to equip Hawkeye (the first time). Red Mage’s Rapier, meanwhile, grows Hawkeye with each noncreature spell, which has amazing potential for increasing our damage.

Deflecting Swat is crazy expensive and for good reason. In its place, we’ll run Untimely Malfunction, which brings flexibility and synergy with our game plan.

The remaining cards include card draw, direct damage, and Screaming Nemesis, which is great at stopping lifegain. In their places, I’m playing Incendiary Flow for more direct damage, as well as Valakut Exploration for both card advantage and noncombat damage. Finally, after playing a few games, I realized that we still, in fact, want more sweepers than just Blasphemous Act. I also quickly realized that we can play cards like Pyroclasm and, a diamond in the rough for us, Electrickery, to wipe our opponent’s board with our commander out, while not killing Hawkeye.

Decklist – Budget Mono Red Burn with Hawkeye, Young Avenger

Hawkeye, Young Avenger

Creatures (5) – Total Price: $7.57

Firebrand Archer	.30 cents
Guttersnipe	.30 cents
Rampaging Ferocidon	$1.29

Torbran, Thane of Red Fell	$3.75
Overlord of the Boilerbilges	$1.93

Artifacts (12) – $26.84

Coral Sword	.23 cents
Dueling Rapier	.24 cents
Hawkeye’s Bow	.25 cents
Hidden Footblade	.27 cents
Arcane Signet	.45 cents
Cursed Totem	$1.35
Hidden Blade	.29 cents
Mind Stone	.31 cents
Red Mage’s Rapier	.20 cents
Ruby Medallion	$12
Commander’s Sphere	.25 cents
Ensnaring Bridge	$11

Enchantments (19) – $33.42

Dragon Mantle	.25 cents
Circle of Flame	.30 cents
Curse of Shaken Faith	.47 cents
Madcap Skills	.20 cents
Omen of the Forge	.20 cents
Roiling Vortex	$1.75
Rune of Speed	.29 cents
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker	$7.35
Fated Firepower	$5.28
Impatience	.47 cents
Mechanized Warfare	.70 cents
Rivalry	.50 cents
Spellshock	.79 cents
Sulfuric Vortex	.99 cents
Valakut Exploration	$2.66
Outpost Siege	.36 cents
Collective Inferno	$1.50
Virtue of Courage	$2.30
Fiery Emancipation	$7.06

Instants (16) – $23.53

Electrickery	.32 cents
Flashback	$4.99
Galvanic Blast	$2
Gut Shot	$5.08
Lightning Bolt	.86 cents
Shock	.18 cents
Spark Jolt	.20 cents
Titan’s Strength	.24 cents
Blazing Crescendo	.20 cents
Bulk Up	.35 cents
Haste Magic	.24 cents
Lightning Strike	.20 cents
Opera Love Song	.34 cents
Searing Spear	.20 cents
Smash to Smithereens	.32 cents
Untimely Malfunction	$7.81

Sorceries (8) – $7.53

Boltwave	$2.75
Faithless Looting	.39 cents
Pillar of Flame	.20 cents
Grapeshot	.34 cents
Incendiary Flow	.25 cents
Pyroclasm	.30 cents
Collective Defiance	.33 cents
Hex Magic	$2
Blasphemous Act	.94 cents

Lands (39) – $28.54

Den of the Bugbear  $2.17
Field of Ruin  .30 cents
Hall of Oracles  .30 cents
Lindblum, Industrial Regency  $2.26
Myriad Landscape  .30 cents
Plaza of Heroes  $4.87
Ramunap Ruins  .31 cents
Roadside Reliquary  .26 cents
Shivan Gorge .90 cents
Tyrite Sanctum $2.80
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle $11
War Room  $3.07
Mountain (26)

Total Cost: $127.43

Well, that’s about $28 over my usual budget…Some easy cuts to get us closer to our $100 goal would be to cut our utility lands in favor of Mountains. Taking out Plaza of Heroes, Tyrite Sanctum, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, and War Room drops us from 127.43 to $105.69.

Untimely Malfunction is almost $8!!! As an uncommon! Just goes to show how valuable these effects are in Commander. Cutting that for another creature, say Inferno Titan, will drop us down below $100.

And that’s how I go about making a deck, then making it into a budget deck. Hope you found the process interesting and helpful. Now, let’s get to what we’re actually doing with all of these cards!

Deck Tech

Primary Game Plan

We want to maximize Hawkeye, Young Avenger‘s unique static ability that increases noncombat damage equal to her power, something we have not seen before. To do this, we’re playing a variety of ways to increase her power, both temporarily and long-term, a whole bunch of ways to deal noncombat damage, and additional ways to increase that damage outside of our commander. With the right combination of cards, our many burn spells can deal double-digit damage. Of course, this won’t be a super regular occurrence, but we should be able to reliably add 4-6 points of damage to each of our direct damage spells.

Our secondary game plan, if it can be considered one, is to win via combat damage on the back of our pump spells. This method will likely become viable only after we’ve whittled away our opponent’s life total by our other means. Those other means can also constitute a secondary game plan. Outside of our commander, we play ways to repeatedly deal damage via enchantments and other permanents that can finish a weakened opponent off.

Thus, our deck can be divided into the following parts: damage increasers, pump spells, direct damage spells, and damage dealing permanents.

Damage Increasers

Wizards has consistently printed new cards to add to our options for this section. The most expensive are out of our reach, mostly because they do more than increase damage (The Great Work) and are therefore played in a bunch of different decks. That’s okay. We’re happy to have any number of permanents that play the role of replacement commander when Hawkeye is stuck in the Command Zone without all of that additional stuff.

Collective Inferno – at first glance, this 5-mana enchantment seems out of place, since we’re not a tribal deck, nor are we playing very many creatures. However, we can just name Human and double up all of Hawkeye’s noncombat (and combat) damage. We’re even playing another Human (Firebrand Archer) that will benefit from this, as well.
Fated Firepower – one of our more expensive cards at more than $5, this enchantment from Avatar is very powerful, thanks to the in its mana cost. Scaling up as the game goes long is perfect, while flash means we can bait out a counter in the right spot. Notice, also, that the damage increasing is not just noncombat.
Fiery Emancipation – thanks to a bunch of recent reprintings, this enchantment is within our budget at around $7. Triple all damage is pretty sweet!

Mechanized Warfare – our least impactful damage increaser, it still adds a Lightning Bolt in conjunction with our commander to all of our burn spells.
Torbran, Thane of Red Fell – is this Dwarf Noble salty for getting benched in favor of Hawkeye, Young Avenger. Probably, but, all things considered, the new hotness is strictly better.

Possible Addition:

Curse of Bloodletting – given that we’re already paying 5+ mana for some of our damage increasers, it stands to reason that this Curse should find a spot in our 99. It’s under $2 and could easily replace Fiery Emancipation. 6 mana is a lot. Furthermore, Curse of Bloodletting doubles up all damage to a single player from any source, not just you. Of course, once the table has eliminated the poor, unfortunate one, we lose this effect, while Fiery Emancipation would stick around to help with the rest of the table.

Pump Spells

This is where Hawkeye’s unique text really shines. With enough of these targeting our commander, a Gut Shot can suddenly deal 10 or more points of damage. This potential is why Hawkeye is better than Torbran and the reason to play the former in Commander. Unless you just really like Hawkeye, Young Avenger, I suppose. Technically, these could fall under the damage increaser category, as well, but since they are 1-shot effects, I’m putting them in their own section.

Blazing Crescendo – Mono Red continues to get this kind of card advantage attached to its pump and burn spells. I’ve never been a fan of Mono Red Burn in 60-card formats, but I’m super happy we have this card for our deck. We really need a critical mass of cards, alongside Hawkeye having increased power. This card addresses both needs.
Bulk Up – this is how we go from an impressive amount of damage to lethal. Any two of our other pump spells followed by this one and we’re dealing an insane amount of damage.

Coral Sword – alongside our instant-speed pump spells, I’m including some equipment as a more long-term way to grow Hawkeye’s power. I’ve prioritized cheap, flash, and auto-equip over all else. Sure, +1/+0 won’t blow anyone away, but we don’t need it to. We just need ways to keep Hawkeye’s power up.
Dragon Mantle – I haven’t seen this enchantment in action yet, but I’m hoping the firebreathing it gives Hawkeye will make up for the fact that we have to pay for every +1/+0. My vision for this card is that we play it in the late-game when we’re low on burn spells and need to deal another 5-10 points of damage to close out the game. We can spend a bunch of mana to grow Hawkeye, saving the or we need to cast whatever burn spell we find. Finally, this card replaces itself, which means we’re less likely to run out of action.
Dueling Rapier – for flash and +2/+0? Now we’re talking!
Haste Magic – I can’t tell if this is strictly better or worse than Blazing Crescendo, no matter how many times I read them side-by-side. Haste Magic is better if we cast it on our opponent’s turn, while Blazing Crescendo is better if we cast it on our own turn.

Hawkeye’s Bow – it’s not just for flavor that we’re playing this common. The 1 damage to each opponent whenever equipped creature becomes tapped can result in a ton of damage for us. We even have one card with convoke (Collective Inferno)!
Hidden Blade – the first of several swords from Assassin’s Creed, I suppose it makes sense there are so many to choose from in a set dedicated to Assassins. Like with most of the equipment I chose, we’re mostly interested in the +1/+0, flash, and auto-equip. Everything else is gravy.
Hidden Footblade – ditto all of that for this one, with one big caveat. Haste. Being able to suit up any creature for to give it haste can lead to some big surprises for our opponent. Overlord of the Boilerbilges is our best card to haste up.
Madcap Skills – I was blown away by this card way back when it was first printed. I have since learned the fragility (and explosiveness) of the Bogle strategy. Put this on our commander, though, and every burn spell is dealing five more points of damage.

Opera Love Song – another card that addresses two of our chief needs: pumping Hawkeye and card advantage.

Red Mage’s Rapier – this is my diamond-in-the-rough card! A common from Final Fantasy, we’re paying full value to put it on our commander, but, once we do, each of our burn spells will trigger this first, growing Hawkeye before resolving, ensuring we’re doing an extra two damage. With two or more instants in hand, we can grow our commander +4 or +6 before any resolve, adding between 6 or 8 points of damage to each of the spells we’ve cast. That’s called turning the corner with a quickness.
Rune of Speed – another enchantment I’m largely including because it grows Hawkeye and replaces itself. That said, we can enchant equipment with it, making it less likely our opponent blows us out in response to us targeting our commander.
Titan’s Strength – our best 1-time pump spell. Any time we’re dealing 10+ points of damage, Titan’s Strength is probably involved.

Direct Damage Spells

These are the cards we’re using to abuse Hawkeye’s static ability. All of them deal some amount of damage to a player, though many can also target creatures and Planeswalkers. Some exile a creature, rather than killing it. Some are instants; some sorceries. Some cost ; some . I’m not going to spend time on each card. I’ll only point out the ones that differ from this in some meaningful way.

Boltwave
Collective Defiance – flexibility and a potential 3-for-1 makes this card great for us.
Galvanic Blast
Grapeshot
Gut Shot
Incendiary Flow
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Strike
Omen of the Forge
Overlord of the Boilerbilges – a legitimate bomb for us and, thusly, an alternative win condition.
Pillar of Flame
Ramunap Ruins
Searing Spear
Shock
Smash to Smithereens
Spark Jolt
Embereth Blaze – largely included for the enchantment side of it.

Damage Dealing Permanents

These are the cards that can do a ton of work for us, even without our commander on the battlefield. With Hawkeye out, these cards can create a Prison-style scenario in which our opponents cannot play Magic without taking a ton (or lethal) damage. Is this fun for them? Surely not, but given how few creatures we play, we need ways to stay alive. Slowing down our opponent’s game plan via damage is one such way. Our deck functions best with one or two of these out early while life totals are still about the same. Once we get one of our damage increasers to stick, the clock will speed up for them, while remaining the same for us.

Curse of Shaken Faith – sure, there will be games where this card doesn’t do a whole lot, but there will also be times when it stops our opponent from pulling too far ahead. Or cascading, which is kind of hilarious.
Firebrand Archer – we want redundancy of this kind of effect, which is why this very fragile, unassuming creature has a spot. With our commander out, however, the damage from both will really start to add up.
Guttersnipe – ditto all of that.

Impatience – a great way to tax any deck playing off the top in the late game…or Control.
Mage Siege – a free inclusion since it’s a land, we get a 0/1 that pings for 1 with each noncreature spell we cast.
Outpost Siege – we will almost always pick Khans, but in the right spot, we can use Dragons to finish an opponent off, stop a boardwipe, or prevent attacks.
Rampaging Ferocidon – preventing lifegain is very relevant for us, while 1 damage per creature entering will really add up when it becomes a Lightning Bolt per creature.

Rivalry – another 3-mana enchantment that may not do much, but whose ceiling is quite high. In the right spot, we can prevent our opponents from advancing their boardstate by limiting their mana.
Roiling Vortex – a repeatable way to deal 1 point of damage, while bringing a whole lot more potential to the table.
Spellshock – this enchantment we want out early and before our life total drops significantly. Passing the turn with this and our commander out will leave our opponent wondering if whatever spell they try to cast will result in far more than just 2 points of damage.
Sulfuric Vortex – arguably a better Roiling Vortex.

Valakut Exploration – I’m mainly playing this for the card advantage, but there will be times when a land drop equals death for our opponent.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle – yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I said we’re cutting this card, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It gives us some much needed reach when all else fails.

Let’s Slow Things Down

Given how few creatures we’re playing and how dependent we are on noncombat damage to win, we will almost always be outmatched on the battlefield. Sure, we have a ton of burn spells that can pick off most creatures when our commander is out, but we’d much rather use those on our opponent’s face. To stop our opponents from winning via combat and various shenanigans, we’re playing a few hate pieces and a number of sweepers.

Blasphemous Act – a necessary, albeit fun, evil for Mono Red decks in Commander. This is probably the closest thing to a Commander staple (appears in 33.5% of decks, according to edhrec.com) that isn’t a mana rock that I play. And while I try to avoid cards that are generically good, just about every deck needs sweepers and this is the best at what it does in Red. However, we can also include a synergistic piece to give this 13-damage sweeper some extra punch: Pain for All!

Circle of Flame – with every budget (and nonbudget) deck I build, I frequently find cards that fit perfectly with precisely my chosen strategy and basically nowhere else. They are my diamonds-in-the-rough cards and they always make me stupidly happy. Circle of Flame is one such card. What a great way to stop attackers with our commander out!
Cursed Totem – this is one of those cards I consider for a bunch of different decks only to decide it either doesn’t do enough or hurts us, as well. In this deck, however, it is a great fit. It’s true that it does shut down Inferno Titan’s Firebreathing and we do have the flipside of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker that gets hosed by this artifact. But this is a trade-off we’re willing to make. Cursed Totem can buy us a ton of time against decks full of mana dorks and can outright hose entire strategies built around commanders with activated abilities.
Electrickery – a narrow sweeper that suddenly becomes busted in our deck.
Ensnaring Bridge – if unanswered, this artifact can give us the time we need to burn our opponent out.
Pyroclasm – another cheap sweeper that is usually too weak to find a spot in Commander. With Hawkeye out, though, this 2-mana sorcery deals 4 damage to all of our opponent’s creatures at its baseline.

Card Advantage

The kryptonite of any Burn deck is not lifegain, but rather running out of action. The former can certainly stop us from winning, but the latter is more likely to do so. Luckily, we have lots of built-in card advantage attached to cards that synergize in other ways with our strategy. I’ve written about many of these already, while others need no explanation.

Blazing Crescendo – a pump spell that gives us 2 cards in most scenarios? Perfect.
Collective Defiance – another flexible burn spell that can draw us cards. Be warned, though, that these types of discard and draw spells are never quite as good as they first seem, in my experience.
Commander’s Sphere
Dragon Mantle
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker – this card used to be way out of reach of budget decks.
Faithless Looting
Flashback – recasting any of our 1-mana spells with this is fine value.
Haste Magic – see Blazing Crescendo.

Hex Magic – I was really high on this card when it was first spoiled. I’ve only had the chance to see it in action once, but I still think it’s a great card, particularly in a deck like ours.
Mind Stone
Opera Love Song – another pump spell with card draw as an option. Unfortunately, we have to choose one.
Outpost Siege – it will almost always be the right choice to play whatever card we exile with Khans.
Rune of Speed – replacing itself is wonderful, but I really love the flavor of this Rune. Enchanting an Equipment is what runes often do, after all. Practically, this ability will help us avoid situations where our opponent kills our commander in response to us targeting it with an enchantment.
Valakut Exploration – while we may prefer to deal the damage with this card’s landfall trigger, there will be plenty of times when we’d rather play the card exiled.

Virtue of Courage – this card is actually scary in our deck…for us. Imagine dealing 40 points of noncombat damage with this card out.

The Rest

There are only three more cards to talk about – two ramp and Untimely Malfunction, our Deflecting Swat replacement. Of course, at $8, it’s hardly a budget option, which is why I suggested replacing it with Inferno Titan. Arcane Signet needs no explanation. Ruby Medallion is pretty pricey, but I think the cost reduction is pretty important for us to fuel big turns.

Flex Spots

Per usual, I’d say look to each part of the deck to trim a card or two to make room for something else. I wouldn’t reduce the number of damage increasers, however. There are three cards I’m considering adding.

Curse of Bloodletting
Inferno Titan
Pain for All

The first two shore up two weaknesses – more damage increasers and a real bomb that synergizes with our strategy. I really like Overlord of the Boilerbilges in this deck and Inferno Titan is the OG of this kind of repeatable noncombat damage. I think its an oversight that it didn’t make it in the first couple of drafts and I blame its absence in my binders as why. Of course, I’ve since adjusted the list and made room for it.

Pain for All may appear cute, but it actually does quite a lot for us. The damage we deal when it resolves is noncombat, while putting it on our commander will punish any kind of damage-based removal. Its synergy with Blasphemous Act and our other sweepers is the cute part, but also really awesome.

Ideal Hand and Game Play

We’d like no more than three lands. Two is risky, of course, since our commander costs , but if we have a lot of relevant action, it can be worth it. Among the remaining four cards, we’d love to see one of our taxing effects to start punishing our opponent early. Curse of Shaken Faith or Impatience are great early plays.

A damage increaser gives us something to play towards, but since most cost 4+ mana, we’d often rather draw these later. Still, it is difficult to say no to one of our key cards. Otherwise, pump spells and/or Equipment are always welcome in our opening 7, as is a mana rock. Finally, with only three sweepers, if we’re up against an Aggro deck, then we want one of these in our opening hand, or a couple of burn spells that can slow our opponent down.

Weaknesses

Our biggest weakness by far is the fragility of our commander. Without Hawkeye on the battlefield, we are very reliant on one of our other damage increasers. With only five of these in the deck, the odds of us finding one are not great. If our opponent can repeatedly kill our commander, then our deck will have a hard time winning in anything close to a quick fashion.

To ameliorate this, in match-ups where you know your opponent has a lot of interaction, I’d recommend not running out Hawkeye until you can at least get some value out of it (ideally 6+ mana) in response to any kill spell cast targeting it. In the meantime, we will hopefully resolve a few permanents that can chip in damage along the way to start lowering our opponent’s life total.

In this scenario, I would not recommend sandbagging all of your direct damage spells if there are creatures worth killing. Use your opponent’s end step to cast instants and hope to find card draw and taxing cards.

Another big weakness for us is losing in combat. Even decks that aren’t considered Aggro will likely play more creatures than us. If our draw is Equipment/pump spell heavy, we can lose the race, even if Hawkeye remains on the battlefield. Having the right mix of burn spells and pump spells is essential.

Finally, flooding out and/or running out of gas will really hurt us. We don’t really have any bombs to topdeck that can catch us back up quickly. We need a critical mass of cards to close out games.

Other Directions?

Another obvious angle of attack is to play cards like Young Pyromancer alongside Impact Tremors and Purphoros, God of the Forge. I really love this strategy, but I play it in at least one other deck, so I’m avoiding it here. However, it wouldn’t be too hard to make room for the cards that could enable a token generation line in this deck.

Conclusion

Hawkeye, Young Avenger offers Commander players a unique effect to build around. Unlike Torbran, Thane of Redfell decks, we don’t only want ways to deal damage. Instead, we want just as many ways to pump Hawkeye in order to do massive amounts of damage in a single turn. Our deck may be more fragile because of this, but its power ceiling is far higher.

If you’re looking for an explosive deck that doesn’t want to win in combat, then I highly recommend giving Hawkeye, Young Avenger a shot. When it works, it is a blast to play! Thanks for reading and watching! How would you build around Hawkeye? Let me know in the comments or send me your list at johnnycycles16@gmail.com.