Magic the Gathering‘s five colors of mana represent different philosophies on how to move through the world and accomplish one’s goals. Red magic is focused on emotions, encouraging its practitioners to follow their whims and value freedom above all else.
Red mana users seem to find themselves equally split between the sides of good and evil, which means that there are plenty of red-aligned Magic characters that make great inspirations for Dungeons and Dragons villains. Red villains tend to either be chaotic, rampaging monsters or free-spirited individuals that don’t care if they cross others in pursuit of what they want.
11 Beckett Brass Captains A Pirate Armada
Admiral of the Fathom Fleet, a pirate armada from Ixalan, Beckett Brass is a fearsome leader and a master of subtle enchantment magic. She and the crew of her ship, the Scourge (and later the Second Scourge), roam Ixalan in search of powerful magical treasures. Nautical campaigns are always popular among D&D players, and Becket Brass brings just enough magic to the mix to keep things fresh and interesting.
10 Judith, the Scourge Diva Competes For A Demon’s Attention
As a high-ranking member of the Rakdos cult on Ravnica, Judith is very closely tied to the demonlord Rakdos. She performs in the dark circuses common to that cult, competing for attention with the demon himself.
Demonic cultists are common to D&D, but Judith’s specific motivation to actually surpass her dark leader, rather than to venerate him or further his goals, makes her and interesting spin on a tired trope.
9 Anje Falkenrath Is The Heir To A Vampiric Empire
Scion to the powerful Falkenrath vampire family on Innistrad, Anje was featured prominently in the Eldritch Moon and Crimson Vow storylines. In many ways, Anje is a fairly traditional vampire lord, but a big difference between her and the likes of Baron Strahd von Zarovich is that she works within larger vampire society. Anje is no lone overlord in a distant castle, and any campaign using her to inspire a main villain would have to include a whole political network of rival vampire families.
8 Daretti Doesn’t Do Schemes In The Traditional Way
The city of Paliano, on the plane of Fiora, was home to the Conspiracy set and is full of disparate parties scheming and planning to achieve power. Daretti eschewed the underhanded tactics common to his home plane in favor of more direct action, including arson and assassination. A politically complex D&D campaign could include a character like Daretti to keep the characters on their toes, as they wouldn’t know when their next attack would be secret or completely head-on.
7 Urabrask Is Evil, But Has Some Other Agenda
The cosmic machine creatures known as the Phyrexians are some of Magic’s biggest and oldest villains. When they invaded the plane of Mirrodin and renamed it New Phyrexia, they did so under the leadership of five praetors, one for each color.
The red praetor, Urabrask, is unique among his peers in that he actually allowed Mirran survivors to find refuge within his domain after the war was won. While Urabrask is undoubtedly complicit in evil at the very least, he is an opportunity for a D&D campaign to highlight a villain with some kind of ulterior plan in place.
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5 Tymaret Hunts Down The Living
With the excellent title of “Murder King,” Tymaret leads a force of undead from the city of Odunos on the plane of Theros. He returned from the land of the dead with the task of hunting down another escaped soul but instead chose to kill the living indiscriminately. A D&D campaign could feature Tymaret as a simple warlord, or he could be tasked with tracking down a player character after they are revived from the dead by a Raise Dead spell.
4 Marchesa Will Do Anything To Attain The Throne
Hailing from the plane of Fiora, Marchesa d’Amati was an incredibly gifted manipulator and politician. She was passed over for the crown in favor of her brothers and eventually hired the ghost assassin Kaya to kill her brother Brago’s spirit and size the throne. Marchesa is the perfect puppetmaster villain for a D&D game particularly interested in political intrigue, and the many schemes in the Conspiracy storyline are enough to fill a whole campaign.
3 Sarkhan Is An Unfortunate Pawn
Sarkhan Vol has the distinction of being one of the first characters shown being manipulated by the eventual overarching villain of Magic, Nicol Bolas. Sarkhan hails from the plane of Tarkir, where he was a soldier who became obsessed with serving a suitably powerful dragon master. Sarkhan would make a great recurring underling for a powerful dragon boss, or could even be an important figure to save from his master’s clutches.
2 Xenagos Is A Chaotic Hedonist
Though he began life as a mere mortal, Xenagos went on to become a planeswalker and eventually a god. After experiencing an existential crisis while traveling the multiverse, Xenagos set his eyes, and his armies, on the pantheon of his home plane of Theros.
A D&D campaign featuring a Xenagos-like villain could encounter him in his chaotic and murderous youth and then again in his ascended form later on to create a familiar and recurring foe.
1 Tibalt Is Havoc Incarnate
Tibalt exemplifies all that an evil red character can be. A half-devil, half-human from the plane of Innistrad, he started his mystical career by tormenting creatures and people from his home. As his power grew, he continued to sow chaos throughout the multiverse. Most recently, he imprisoned and impersonated the Kaldheim god of trickery Valki. Tibalt could be a recurring villain in almost any D&D campaign, with the party running sideways into his various plots and schemes with little to no warning.
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