Maximum Carnage
Chapter I is the load-bearing chapter, and it is doing something unusual for a red enchantment: it forces the entire board, yours and theirs, into combat, and points every attacker at anyone but you if able for a full turn cycle. That is Grand Melee reframed as a one-shot Saga trigger, and the sequencing is deliberate. You install the chaos, ride out a round of forced attacks with your own board pointed away from you, then collect three red on chapter II and land five to the face on chapter III. The friction is that chapter I hits your creatures too; they must attack, and opposing creatures are only pointed away from you when other targets are available, so the card wants a board that can afford to swing or a game state where the table is the target. The mana burst on II exists to bridge the gap between five up front and a payoff that arrives a full turn later, giving you a window to convert lore into a hasty threat or a second spell before the Saga sacrifices itself. Read straight down, it is a red engine that manufactures a combat step it can profit from, then closes with reach that ignores blockers and boards entirely: the political forced-attack turn softens opponents, the burn finishes the softening. It rewards a caster who is already ahead on board or already close on life totals, and punishes one who cast it hoping for value rather than tempo.



