The Commander
Whenever a creature you control attacks or enters attacking, you may pay 
. If you do, you may put a creature card with mana value less than that creature's mana value from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Guide
Gameplan
Arni Metalbrow is a mono-red aggressive deck that chains creatures into combat: attack with a big creature, then pay to drop smaller creatures from your hand tapped and attacking, building an overwhelming board with no summoning sickness or attack triggers wasted. You want to deploy a high-mana-value attacker early, then cascade down into a wide, fast assault that closes games before opponents stabilize.
Strengths
- Cheats creatures onto the battlefield attacking, dodging summoning sickness and saving mana
- Builds explosive boards mid-combat that punish open mana and tapped-out opponents
- Strong synergy with attack triggers and ETB-on-attack effects
- Low curve combined with free attacks creates fast, repeatable damage
Weaknesses
- Mono-red gives almost no answers to enchantments or resilient artifacts
- Heavily reliant on the commander; removing Arni stalls the engine
- Mana-value ordering means you must draw/play your biggest creature first to enable the chain
- Board wipes and a single Fog effect can blow out an all-in attack
Key Cards
- Combat Celebrant — Its exert grants an extra combat, letting you trigger Arni twice and dump even more creatures from hand.
- Aggravated Assault — Repeated extra combats turn each one into another wave of Arni cheats, often producing a lethal attack.
- Moraug, Fury of Akoum — Lands and extra combats generate additional attack triggers that fuel Arni and snowball damage.
- Terror of the Peaks — Each creature Arni drops in deals damage on entry, converting your chain into direct burn.
- Purphoros, God of the Forge — Every cheated-in creature pings all opponents, giving you reach beyond combat.
- Goldspan Dragon — A high-MV attacker that ramps you and sits atop the curve to start the Arni chain.
Upgrade Path
Add more extra-combat enablers (Aggravated Assault, Combat Celebrant, Moraug) and powerful ETB-on-attack payoffs (Terror of the Peaks, Purphoros) to convert the chain into damage beyond combat. Tighten the curve so you reliably have both a high-MV attacker and cheap bodies to cascade into, and include ramp like Sol Ring, Dockside Extortionist, and treasure makers to pay the repeatedly. Protect Arni with Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots since the engine collapses without him.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Overwhelming combat damage from a wide, chained board
- ▸Extra-combat loops with Aggravated Assault or Combat Celebrant for lethal swings
- ▸Noncombat burn via Purphoros or Terror of the Peaks triggers off each cheated creature
- ▸Commander damage from a buffed top-end attacker
Archetypes
- Aggro — Arni floods the board mid-combat for fast, repeatable beatdown damage.
- Extra Combats — Each new combat re-enables Arni's trigger to deploy more creatures from hand.
- Big Mana / Stompy — High mana-value attackers headline the chain so smaller creatures can pour in beneath them.
- ETB/Attack-trigger value — Cheating creatures in attacking maximizes enters-the-battlefield and attack-based payoffs.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
