The Commander
Rage — Whenever Gau attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
At the beginning of each end step, if a card left your graveyard this turn, Gau deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.
Guide
Gameplan
Gau is a mono-red aggro/burn commander that turns graveyard churn into repeatable group damage. Swing each combat to grow Gau with Rage counters, then make sure a card leaves your graveyard each turn—via impulse draw, flashback, escape, or self-exile effects—so the end step burns every opponent for Gau's power. You win through scaling commander damage in combat plus inevitable burn that hits the whole table simultaneously.
Strengths
- Hits every opponent each turn, scaling well in multiplayer pods.
- Rage counters make Gau a cheap, fast-growing commander damage threat.
- Mono-red impulse draw and flashback naturally trigger the end-step burn with no extra setup.
- Cheap to recast at 2 mana, so it stays online through removal.
- Doesn't need to connect in combat to deal the burn damage—dodges blockers.
Weaknesses
- Mono-red lacks card advantage, ramp, and interaction relative to other colors.
- The end-step trigger only fires once per turn, capping burn output without power pumps.
- Vulnerable to lifegain and fog-style stax that blunts both combat and burn.
- Graveyard hate (Rest in Peace, Bojuka Bog) shuts off the marquee ability.
- Gau is a small body that dies easily before counters accumulate.
Key Cards
- Light Up the Stage — Impulse draw exiles cards from a zone and feeds the cheap card flow, but key is cards leaving graveyard—pair with effects that exile your own yard.
- Faithless Looting — Flashback means it leaves the graveyard when recast, reliably arming the end-step damage trigger.
- Underworld Breach — Escape/recursion constantly removes cards from your graveyard, guaranteeing the burn fires and enabling explosive turns.
- Embercleave — Boosts Gau's power to amplify both combat damage and the end-step burn that scales off power.
- Reckless Endeavor — Mono-red staples like card-exiling spells ensure something leaves a zone each turn to trigger Gau.
- Past in Flames — Gives all instants/sorceries flashback, repeatedly pulling cards out of your graveyard for the trigger.
- Fireshrieker — Double strike doubles Rage counter growth and Gau's power, indirectly pumping the end-step burn.
Upgrade Path
Add power-doubling and pump (Embercleave, Fireshrieker, Berserkers' Onslaught) so each end-step burn hits harder, and lean into reliable graveyard-exit engines like Underworld Breach and Past in Flames. Improve red's weaknesses with treasure/ritual ramp (Dockside Extortionist, Jeska's Will) and impulse-draw card flow, plus protection like Lightning Greaves and Heroic Intervention substitutes (Deflecting Swat). Tighten the curve and add reach/evasion (Goblin Bombardment, Fervor) to close games before the table stabilizes against you.
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
- ▸Repeated end-step burn ticking every opponent down each turn.
- ▸Connecting for lethal commander damage with a counter-stacked, equipped Gau.
- ▸Big alpha-strike turns combining double strike, pump, and the burn trigger.
- ▸Underworld Breach / Past in Flames loops chaining spells for a large single burst.
Archetypes
- Burn / Group Slug — The end-step trigger deals damage to each opponent every turn, rewarding a damage-the-whole-table plan.
- Voltron — Rage counters and red equipment make Gau a snowballing commander damage threat.
- Spellslinger — Flashback and recursion spells leave the graveyard each turn, naturally feeding Gau's trigger.
- Aggro — Cheap, fast clock from a 2-mana commander that grows and pings the table simultaneously.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
