The Commander
Double strike
Heroic — Whenever you cast a spell that targets Cleon, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card until the end of your next turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Suit up Cleon with cheap targeted pump and protection spells to swing for huge double-strike damage while each spell exiles cards for extra gas. You curve out aggressively, attack early, and bury opponents in card advantage and commander damage before they stabilize.
Strengths
- Double strike doubles every buff, making commander-damage kills happen fast
- Heroic turns cheap pump/protection spells into card advantage, fighting red's card-disadvantage problem
- Cheap three-mana commander that recasts easily and rewards a low curve
- Mono-red consistency with no color screw
Weaknesses
- Classic Voltron fragility—removal, bounce, and edicts blow you out and waste your invested spells
- Heroic only triggers on spells that target Cleon, so floods of creatures or non-targeting effects do nothing
- Vulnerable to fogs, lifegain, and go-wide blockers in multiplayer
- Red lacks reliable card draw, recursion, and interaction outside of damage
Key Cards
- Temur Battle Rage — Gives trample and another double strike that, combined with Cleon's, lets a single boosted attack one-shot a player.
- Mutagenic Growth — Free-to-cast pump triggers heroic without using mana and pushes lethal damage.
- Brute Force — Cheap +3/+3 that doubles to +6 in damage and refuels off heroic.
- Sticky Fingers — An Aura that targets Cleon for impulse draw and grants repeatable card advantage on combat damage.
- Crimson Wisps — One mana cantrips via heroic while granting haste and trample for an extra swing.
- Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh — Not in identity—skip; instead lean on Embercleave to finish through double strike.
- Embercleave — Cost-reduced equipment that turns Cleon's double strike into an instant kill.
Upgrade Path
Add resilience and reach: protection like Mizzium Mortars is weak, so prioritize Heroic Intervention, Loran's Escort, and free pumps (Gut Shot, Mutagenic Growth) to dodge removal. Tighten the curve with the best one-mana targeted spells, add ramp like Sol Ring and Jeska's Will, and include trample/double-swing enablers (Berserk-style red effects, Fireshrieker) plus card-advantage rituals to guarantee a turn where Cleon connects for the kill.
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
- ▸Connect with a pumped double-striking Cleon for lethal commander damage
- ▸Temur Battle Rage / Embercleave swings that one-shot a player
- ▸Grind incremental value from heroic impulse draws then close with burn reach
Archetypes
- Voltron — Double strike plus targeted pump spells makes Cleon a lethal commander-damage threat.
- Spellslinger Aggro — Heroic rewards chaining cheap instants and sorceries that target Cleon for card advantage.
- Aggro/Burn — Low curve and impulse draw keep pressure constant and refill the hand for reach damage.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
