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Mono-red dragons with Zirilan of the Claw

Patient plays and big dragons are the name of the game here. The goal is pretty straight forward: create a battlestation for Zirilan of the Claw and power out dragons to deal massive damage or combo out. In practice, this means playing cautiously and biding your time until you can pull off a power play. This is possible partially due to erratum on Zirilan:

"Search your library for a Dragon permanent card and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. That Dragon gains haste until end of turn. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step."
This allows you to tutor for a dragon at the end of the player on your right's turn and again during your turn (and I'm sure you can imagine the hi-jinks if you had a Rings of Brighthearth or similar in play). Using this knowledge you can plan the ETB's of your dragons and respond to threats on your opponents' turns. The deck is not looking to play the long game so it is ok if the dragons are exiled but there is a small suite of recovery tools such as Sundial of the Infinite to remove the exile trigger, Culling Dais to set up for Feldon of the Third Path, or Changeling Berserker as a replacement.

  • Balefire Dragon: Its use is pretty obvious: if they don't have flying blockers it will boardwipe them.

  • Changeling Berserker: This creature has two purposes: it can be tutored to save Zirilan (or some other relevant dragon) once or can be used in conjunction with Worldgorger Dragon. Check the Combos and Synergy section for a list of combos.

  • Dragon Mage: When you're running low on cards or have a bad hand this gnarly guy can get you a new hand.

  • Dragon Tyrant: This dragon is a win condition. Combined with the mana doublers it can reliably deal lethal combat damage to a player and (hopefully) recycled at EoT.

  • Hellkite Charger: Its main use is to gain unlimited combat phases with Sword of Feast and Famine but it even granting one extra combat phase can be enough to turn the game sometimes.

  • Hellkite Tyrant: Can be used to pull the rug out from underneath greedy opponents or to steal mana rocks.

  • Hoarding Dragon: Can be tutored to grab Sword of Feast and Famine or other situational artifacts.

  • Kilnmouth Dragon: This dragon can be used to kill relevant creatures and gives you something to do if your hand is full of dragons.

  • Knollspine Dragon: When your hand is bad or running low this dragon will graciously fill it back up. It does require some planning, though. The most common times to tutor it would be when an opponent hits someone, after you've attacked, or after using Spawn of Thraxes or Kilnmouth Dragon.

  • Scourge of the Throne: Grants one extra combat step, allowing you to deal massive damage.

  • Scourge of Valkas: Used for comboing. Especially good with Utvara Hellkite.

  • Spawn of Thraxes: Has multiple uses. Its main use is killing relevant creatures but it can also be used to draw cards with Knollspine Dragon or comboing with Worldgorger Dragon.

  • Steel Hellkite: Our main way of dealing with non-creature, non-land permanents. It can also kill token armies.

  • Thunder Dragon: Used for carpet bombing small creatures.

  • Thundermaw Hellkite: Taps flying blockers so you can get damage through.

  • Utvara Hellkite: It can be used for comboing but mostly its used to beat face. If you have a haste enabler you can grab Scourge of the Throne or Scourge of Valkas for a lot of damage.

  • Worldgorger Dragon: The scariest dragon ever printed, Worldgorger Dragon strikes confusion in the heads of novices and dread in the hearts of veterans. It is the crux of this deck, enabling a majority of the combos, but requires extreme caution when playing; if you misplay, you could exile all of your permanents permanently. Refer to the Combos and Synergy section for more information



There are a few cards that are not in the deck that I feel I should point out:

  • Conjurer's Closet: This card is too expensive for what it does and it is limited to my end step.

  • Crucible of Fire: I'm trying to win between turns 6 and 9 and the slot Crucible of Fire would take is better served as a mana rock to go off faster

  • Dragonspeaker Shaman: The deck is all in on tutoring and has Sneak Attack and Quicksilver Amulet to cheat dragons from my hand into play. It is also useful to have dragons in hand to utilize Kilnmouth Dragon so this ends up being a dead draw a majority of the time. Same goes for Dragonlord's Servant

  • Moltensteel Dragon: This dragon would be much better in a French build. As it is, it acts like a second Dragon Tyrant but in multiplayer it leaves you extremely vulnerable if you use it to its full potential.

  • Scourge of Kher Ridges: Effective, but mana intensive. It's really only useful if we've already used Thunder Dragon, and even then there is probably something else that is more practical to do with the mana. It will also kill Zirilan if I activate it twice.

  • Stormbreath Dragon: This lizard has a pretty scary ability but the cost of tutoring it out and using it (!), plus the fact that it won't be around at the end of the turn, makes it pretty underwhelming.



The following list contains (what I perceive to be) the weakest cards in the deck. If you have any suggestions for replacements please let me know:



Have any questions, suggestions, or comments? I'm open to discuss any changes with the deck. What I am looking for most are ways to speed the deck up and make it more consistent.

Suggestions

Updates Add

I've been thinking about ways to incorporate Feldon of the Third Path into the deck and this is what I have come up with so far. I have added Imperial Recruiter (which I do not own, will need to trade some cards to get this) to tutor for both Feldon of the Third Path and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Mox Diamond has not been working out, I need every land I draw so I am replacing it with Braid of Fire. This mana can be used to activate Zirilan or Feldon's ability, untap Grim Monolith or Mana Vault, or use my untapping artifacts. Coalition Relic was too slow and has been replaced with Feldon of the Third Path. Quicksilver Amulet wasn't super useful because I often wanted to use that to do something else, so I have replaced it with Inspiring Statuary for more ramp. Moonveil Dragon was the least useful dragon in the deck and I have replaced it with Hoarding Dragon for now. Tel-Jilad Stylus has been replaced with a sac outlet, Culling Dais, to compliment Feldon. Gamble was always, well, a gamble, so I removed it and a Mountain to add Arid Mesa and Scalding Tarn. They can be used to shuffle my library when Scroll Rack or Sensei's Divining Top are in play. Altar of Dementia is currently being considered.

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Revision 54 See all

(4 years ago)

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #15 position overall 8 years ago
Date added 9 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

12 - 0 Mythic Rares

41 - 3 Rares

17 - 1 Uncommons

2 - 1 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.00
Tokens Copy Clone, Dragon 6/6 R, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C
Folders Decks and Stuff, liked, EDH Ideas, Physical EDH, Inspiration, EDH (Tribal), Watching, Monored, Fun EDH, Decks I Like
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