#chandra ablaze

I’m surprised that isn’t a Chandra flavor text. Seems like something she would say anyway.

With that out of the way, I’ll get down to it; Chandra Ablaze is, in my opinion, one of the best mono red Planeswalkers that you can run in commander, if for no reason other than her -2 ability. But all things in due time. Let’s go down the list and see what Chandra has to offer.

Chandra’s +1 is pretty hard to use. It requires you to discard a card, meaning that if you want to use her +1, you have to have another card in hand to do it. If you want to get any mileage out of it, it has to be a red card to boot. So for 6 mana, an additional card out of hand, and a restriction on what color that card is, you can…deal 4 damage to a creature or player. In Commander, where the butts are big and the protection strong, it may be hard to get rid of a creature this way, but there’s always the option to hit a player, so I guess there’s that. But in all reality, you’re probably never going to use it anyway.

Chandra’s -2 is where she really shines for those decks that need her. Sure, drawing three cards isn’t super flashy when it requires you to discard your hand, but let me explain. In commander, you can run Chandra in any deck whose Commander has Red in their identity. Izzet Commanders have Blue, meaning that they don’t really need Chandra to refill their hand. Rakdos Commanders have other forms of card draw at the cost of life, like Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence, and Bloodgift Demon. So commanders who have either of those colors don’t really need her. But Mono-Red, Boros, Gruul, and Naya all love Chandra Ablaze, as these are the colors that run out of fuel the soonest. On turn 6, most decks in those colors will have run out of cards in hand, meaning that Chandra’s discard clause will be a one sided mini-Wheel of Fortune that can be used again. With 5 starting loyalty, this means that you can potentially net 6 cards over two turns if you play them right.

But I think that’s enough of her -2 for now, so let’s look at her ultimate. For only 7 loyalty, you can cast any number of red instant and/or sorcery cards from your graveyard without paying their mana cost. Since the cards aren’t exiled afterwards, this means cards like Volcanic Vision can grab one of the cards you just cast to cast again. Recoup and Past in Flames also work since you have all your mana to cast whatever you want. Both of Chandra’s first abilities play into this by adding cards to the graveyard for you to cast, but be careful: just one piece of grave hate is all it takes to make Chandra’s ultimate fizzle.

So what Commanders are best to take Chandra under their wing?

As stated before, the color combinations that will get the most out of Chandra are Mono-Red, Gruul, Boros, and Naya. Mono-Red is just bad at keeping cards in hand in general. Gruul is all about ramping into big creatures. Once you play all of your lands, ramp spells, and creatures, just throw down Chandra down to do it again and again. The strategy for Boros is similar, with the only difference being that you’re probably throwing down mana rocks to accelerate your game plan and cast spells that make lots of little creatures. Boros is the absolute worst in terms of drawing cards, as neither of its component colors do it outside of cantrips, but Chandra can come down after you dump your hand on the field and give you some much needed gas to keep the pressure on your opponents. Chandra’s -2 also forces our opponents to discard their hands, meaning that they’ll have to come up with a new plan on the fly, and if they had lots of cards in hand before Chandra came down, that’s another blow for them to have to come back from.