The Commander
Reach
Whenever Barret Wallace attacks, it deals damage equal to the number of equipped creatures you control to defending player.
Guide
Gameplan
Barret Wallace is a mono-red Equipment-matters commander who punishes opponents both in combat and through his attack trigger, which pings the defending player for each equipped creature you control. You flood the board with cheap creatures, suit them all up with cheap Equipment, then swing wide while Barret converts your equip count into burst face damage. The deck snowballs quickly: every equipped body adds to Barret's punch and to your own beatdown.
Strengths
- Doubles as a combat threat and a reach burn engine, attacking multiple players for extra damage each turn
- Mono-red gives consistent, cheap mana and access to the best aggressive Equipment payoffs
- Reach lets him hold the air while still serving as an attacker
- Snowballs fast with token makers and creatures since each equipped body raises the damage trigger
- Cheap to assemble and resilient if your Equipment survive board wipes
Weaknesses
- Board wipes hurt badly since the value lives on creatures you need to keep equipped
- Trigger only fires when Barret attacks, so removal or chump blocking shuts off the burn
- Mono-red lacks card draw and recursion compared to other colors
- Equip costs can clog turns; you spend mana attaching rather than developing
- Vulnerable to fog, pillowfort, and flying blockers despite reach being defensive only
Key Cards
- Sigarda's Aid — Lets you attach Equipment at instant speed and for free, spiking your equipped count right before Barret's attack trigger.
- Puresteel Paladin — Free equips with metalcraft plus card draw makes suiting up every creature trivial.
- Brass Squire — Repeatable free Equipment attaches each turn to maximize equipped creatures.
- Hammer of Nazahn — Auto-attaches to a creature and grants indestructible, protecting your team and the trigger.
- Krenko, Mob Boss — Floods the board with bodies you can equip to balloon Barret's damage output.
- Goblin Engineer — Tutors and recurs Equipment to keep the engine fueled after disruption.
Upgrade Path
Prioritize free or near-free equip enablers (Sigarda's Aid, Puresteel Paladin, Brass Squire) so you can re-equip after wipes and maximize the trigger every turn. Add efficient token generators and anthem-style Equipment like Sword of the Animist or the Mirran swords for protection and value, plus Equipment tutors such as Steelshaper's Gift and Stoneforge Mystic. Round out with red staple ramp (Dockside, treasures) and protection like Heroic Intervention effects via colorless artifacts to survive board wipes.
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
- ▸Wide equipped board swings and Barret's trigger combine for lethal damage in a turn or two
- ▸Commander damage by stacking Equipment onto Barret as a Voltron threat
- ▸Repeated attack-trigger burn that whittles down multiple players over several combats
Archetypes
- Equipment Aggro — His trigger directly rewards stacking cheap Equipment across many creatures.
- Tokens — Wide token boards become equipped attackers that amplify the damage count.
- Voltron — Loading Equipment onto Barret himself turns him into a hard-hitting commander-damage threat with reach.
- Burn/Aggro — The attack trigger converts your board into repeatable direct damage to close games.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
