Few things can motivate people into doing work than that of the deadline.

In the larger world, most people fall into one of two camps. In the first camp are those who thrive at planning. These are the people with the skills to organize, coordinate, adjust, and keep to a schedule. They are the ones to whom you want give a project if all things are being equal. If you tell them they have three months to do something, they’ll start laying the groundwork for first steps within days, if not hours. It’s a much more methodical approach that’s generally more stable, better at handling unforeseen consequences, and is less stressful. In the second camp are those who wait until the last minute on whatever it is you ask. Give them the same three month timeframe and they’ll probably only start a week before it’s due. It’s the folks who decide to write a term paper two days before handing it in or the ones that know they need to take the car in for maintenance before that small thing becomes a larger one…but don’t. Whether through laziness or mere procrastination, these are the individuals who are more prone to doing things on the fly. It’s much harder for others to plan around or rely on you with this approach, and professionally it can be seen as less responsible given that this method has a much higher chance of failure, but being under the gun can also lead to quality effort in its own right, often leading to a strange clarity of focus in a time of frenzied activity.

Since the creation of the CR here I have made a concerted effort over the years to be better at organizing and planning all manner of activities, be it gaming related, house related, or job related. But when push comes to shove my natural instincts are much, much more in the latter camp. Procrastination has gotten the better of me on more than one occasion, though I admittedly do some of my best work when my back is against the wall.

Which is kind of useful here this week, as for reasons that will become evident in the weeks ahead, we unexpectedly had to bump this week’s slotted article less than 24 hours out for technical reasons that will make more sense once the article goes live. All I will tease at the moment is that it’s a piece about playing Commander (naturally), but it’s not a Spotlight piece.

Still, this left a hole that needed to be filled rather quickly, and rather than simply grab the next one in the queue, for fevered reasons that only made sense moment, I opted to craft an entirely new piece from scratch. And here we are.

That in turn got me thinking about which kind of card would best fit such the short-notice situation. After some initial considerations, my mind naturally flittering back to a series of Red cards. This sort of action is, philosophically, a very Red thing to do. It’s impulsive, not completely planned out, and not everyone will see it as the optimal decision. But like a good Red mage, we’re just rolling with it.

The Red cards that bubbled to the surface, thanks in large part to the mindset of the moment, had to do with those which leaned in to instability of a means of strategic advantage without going into full blown chaos – which Red is also more than fully willing and able to do. These are the slice of Red cards which outwardly seem like they could work against you because the outcome is not guaranteed but are nevertheless more beneficial in practice than they are on the drawing board. Every color has their share of deceptively useful cards, and though Red’s cup is generally not runneth over with them compared to others colors,  they still exist. They’re just sometimes a little less overt.

Cards like this week’s pick. There was a couple on my list which fit such criteria, but only one which was also pretty on the nose for the tone and tenure surrounding the situation. How could I resist?

Today we have: Instill Furor

Name: Instill Furor

Edition: Ravnica

Rarity: Uncommon

Focus: Spot Removal

Highlights: Traditionally monored has one of the hardest times in multiplayer formats for two particular reasons. As the color of aggression and impulse, its innate desires are to attack its opponents quickly and incessantly. It’s not a color of patience or subtext. It leaves that up Blue mages – and then smacks the puny Blue mage for its insolence. When it comes to early game explosiveness and midgame closing maneuvers, Red is hard to match.

The primary problem is that should you survive that sustained onslaught long enough, Red has a tendency to run out of gas. Hands of cards dry up, creatures die off, and an arsenal of spells aimed at bringing one life total from 20 to 0 are diluted as you face off against multiple enemies. While amazing at single player conflict, the color of classic AoE style Fireballs ironically is not the best at fighting on multiple fronts.

The second problem is that Red has historically had problems dealing the scaling issues innate to Commander. Creatures in Commander are larger on average, and thanks to the slower buildup and multiple opponents, the number of large creatures to contend with is exponentially higher than in a duel. Players too are harder to whittle down, as you now have to extend substantial resources to do 40+ damage rather than a mere 20.

Since its ascent of Commander as the go-to casual format of choice, Wizards became very aware that Red – specifically monored – had an imbalance issue. It was challenging to address, however, as the color’s weakness against large creatures and sizable defenses is a feature, not a bug. Those obstacles always have been an inherent weakness of the color, and aside from the flippant answer of ‘spend more mana!’, they acknowledged they needed to come up with ways to help give the color a competitive boost without undermining the very weaknesses endemic to its identity.

In recent years that has manifested both through the advent of unique Commander-tailored cards (some which did, in fact, highly bend some of that color identity) and through its new ‘impulse’ draws. However, while such moves are highly appreciated by the fire-slinging contingent of the color pie, this shouldn’t give rise to the notion that every card capable of addressing its scalability issue has been created since Commander-only cards started being published. Instill Furor is a great example of one such answer from the before times, just hanging out on the streets of Ravnica.

It’s understandable why this two mana Aura gets overlooked. Outside of Curses and a handful of high profile examples, Red isn’t exactly known for ample use of Auras. There are only about 150 in total in Magic, and most of them are nothing to write home about. At quick glance, Instill Furor is another in that long line – decent as Limited fodder but hardly worth a slot in the 99. Except it actually is – assuming you’re willing to lean in to its proposition.

Instill Furor, quite simply, gives the creature an end of turn trigger that says “attack or die”. Importantly, unlike a few similar Auras Instill Furor doesn’t have an “if able” exemption clause if they weren’t able to attack. This means that having a tap ability or an opponent with Propaganda doesn’t save it from being sacrificed here. This can be especially useful at targeting an opponent’s utility creature or a Commander where its purpose isn’t to attack but is still difficult to kill damage-wise. It’s also helpful against creatures over a certain size in general – to a point – when direct damage spells are simply not an option for handling them. Midsized creatures and creatures there for activated abilities are the ideal targets.

Moreover, in both cases the fact that Instill Furor is forcing the creature to be sacrificed, which gets around both high toughness creatures and indestructibility – two aspects Red is not ideally suited for. So long as you can target the creature initially, this Aura mandates it run into the fight whether it wants to or not…or simply keel over.

The tradeoff, and where there is some room for less than guaranteed outcomes, is that you don’t get to choose. Instead, you’re forcing the decision of the afflicted creature’s fate to your opponent. If used on a creature there for an activated ability, they may use it one final time and let it die – in which case you essentially succeed at killing it as a de facto spot removal. Otherwise, they are going to attack with it. And although this opens up the prospect of attacking anyone they please out of necessity, statistically they’re probably going to attack you, the cause of their ire. So you’ll want to make sure that when using it you a) cast it on a creature that you are able to easily block, and b) don’t pick something so large that all you do is take a problem you already had and make it worse. But so long a you understand these criteria, it can be a fantastic non-damage removal card that few see coming.

Essentially, this is a card that creates impulsivity but isn’t necessarily one that you want to use impulsively. Used correctly though, it can be just as good as a damage card at a fraction of the mana.

Keep an eye out for us to be regularly featuring other more accessible-but-worth-it Commander cards going forward. In the meantime, we’ll keep the light on for you.

You can discuss this article over on our social media!