Legendary Creature — Human Berserker

Gau, Feral Youth

Mana value2EDHREC#8,617

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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.