Zhao, the Seething Flame

Zhao, the Seething Flame is a straightforward aggressive commander that wants to bash your opponents down with a 5/5 menace body while building an aggressive red deck around it. The menace keyword makes Zhao hard to block, so your plan is to protect it, pump it up, and swing for damage every turn while your other creatures apply additional pressure. Red's natural toolkit of combat tricks, haste creatures, and anthem effects synergizes perfectly—think of this as a Voltron-lite strategy where you're not going all-in on one creature, but rather building a cohesive aggressive shell that lets Zhao be the star while your supporting cast chips in.

Winning with Zhao usually comes down to good old-fashioned combat damage. You'll fill your deck with efficient red creatures, effects that grant double strike or extra combat steps, and ways to protect Zhao from removal. Cards that give menace or intimidate stack nicely—the harder Zhao is to block, the more consistent your damage output becomes. Include some damage multipliers and cost-reduction effects to speed up the clock, and you've got a mid-power aggro deck that's fun to pilot and not too complicated.

Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.