RedCreature — Ogre Shaman // Legendary Creature — Ogre ShamanInitiate of Blood // Goka the Unjust
Mana value4Rank#28,432
The Commander
: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature that was dealt damage this turn. When that creature dies this turn, flip this creature.
: Goka deals 4 damage to target creature that was dealt damage this turn.
Guide
Gameplan
This is a mono-red removal-engine commander that punishes already-damaged creatures. Initiate of Blood pings a creature that took damage this turn to finish it off (and flips into Goka once one dies), then Goka becomes a repeatable : deal 4 to a damaged creature. Build a deck full of pingers, mass-damage effects, and combat to set up kills, then grind out the table with aggressive red creatures and burn to the face.
Strengths
- Repeatable, mana-free removal once flipped, scaling to 4 damage per activation
- Cheap commander (4 MV) in a color that loves attacking and burning
- Synergizes naturally with any source of incidental damage—pingers, sweepers, fight effects
- Doubles as defense, picking off attackers after they trade or after combat damage
Weaknesses
- Conditional: targets must already have been dealt damage this turn, so it does nothing on a clean board
- Tap ability is slow—one removal per turn unless you add untappers
- Mono-red lacks card draw, ramp, and answers to fliers/enchantments
- Easily outscaled by big lifegain and go-wide token strategies it can't keep pace with
Key Cards
- Goblin Sharpshooter — Untaps every time a creature dies, letting it spread chip damage that enables Initiate/Goka to finish things off.
- Pestilence — Repeatable board-wide pinging marks every creature as damaged, turning Goka into a machine gun.
- Thornbite Staff — Untaps Goka whenever a creature dies, enabling an infinite-removal loop with the right damage source.
- Chandra's Ignition — Deals damage to every other creature at once, instantly arming Goka to pick off survivors.
- Heartstone — Cost reducers don't help a free ability, but cheap haste/untap enablers like this keep the engine flowing—pair with untappers to maximize activations.
- Magus of the Wheel — Patches red's card-draw hole to refuel the aggressive curve around your commander.
Upgrade Path
Add reliable untap engines (Thornbite Staff, Goblin Sharpshooter, Umbral Mantle) and a free repeatable damage source to assemble an infinite combo or near-infinite removal. Shore up red's weaknesses with rituals, treasure/ramp (Dockside Extortionist, Treasure tokens), and card advantage (Wheel of Fortune, Outpost Siege). Tutors like Gamble and Imperial Recruiter find the combo pieces, and board protection from Deflecting Swat keeps your engine online.
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
- ▸Grind the board to nothing with repeatable removal, then close with red aggro creatures
- ▸Infinite-damage combo via Thornbite Staff / Goblin Sharpshooter plus a damage source and untap loop
- ▸Direct burn to opponents' faces after stabilizing the board
- ▸Voltron-ish beatdown while Goka keeps blockers and threats in check
Archetypes
- Pingers / Damage Matters — Stacks creatures that deal incidental damage so Initiate and Goka can convert pings into kills every turn.
- Aristocrats — Creature deaths flip Initiate and fuel death-triggered untappers like Thornbite Staff and Goblin Sharpshooter.
- Aggro / Burn — Mono-red beatdown uses combat damage to enable removal while burning the table out.
- Combo — Free untapper plus a ping source enables an infinite damage loop to clear or kill the table.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
