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Bow before Draconic King! 2023 Edition!

Commander / EDH Casual Competitive Dragons Ferocious Multiplayer

Vlasiax


Sideboard


Maybeboard


Mortal, you are worthy...
to see Multiverse's first Dragon
Below lies the secret to unleashing it's true power and ruling over dragonkind


"The dragon is a perfect marriage of power and the will to use it. ~Crucible of Fire"
"We speak the dragons’ language of flame and rage. They speak our language of fury and honor.
Together we shall weave a tale of destruction without equal." ~Dragonspeaker Shaman
"It’s a dragon-infested lavascape of notorious peril. Make yourselves at home." ~Approach My Molten Realm

The Ur-Dragon "The Ur-Dragon, Progenitor of Fire, is an enormous and immensely powerful Dragon Avatar. An entity from the dawn of time, it is the primordial essence of all Dragonkind in the Multiverse. With its wings, that extend across the eternities, it stirs the fabric of the cosmos. Its breath bellows over the mortals, stealing the essence of life. With claws that rake the aether, it sunders ancient bonds. Thanks to its eyes, the Ur-Dragon perceives the deepest truths concelead in the wells of time. Its bellowing roar summons its brood, echoing through the blood of all dragonkind, for the Ur-Dragon is the progenitor from which the dragons of the Multiverse spawned"

This powerful Dragon Avatar, requiring to summon, rarely comes to the battlefield but when it does, it lays waste to opponents and does it all by itself. Even the slightest increase in power allows for 2-hit kill with commander damage and every attack of it and its' Dragon brood provides card draw and cheating permanents into play (most of the time this means: more Dragons).

However, there's no need to play the commander, because even it's very essence provides massive help from the Command Zone due to Eminence ability. Now with its' ability every Dragon costs less to cast, which means that every single one of them can be virtually played one turn earlier than it normally could. This can easily turn the tides in your favour as there are many Dragons with powerful and synergistic abilities. Besides that there are also means to reanimate or cheat into play Dragons to win through traditional combat damage or with Scourge of Valkas/Terror of the Peaks/Dragon Tempest burning "enters the battlefield" triggers.

Jund Landscape "It is a world as cruel as those who call it home. There's only one rule here: the strong survive. ~Savage Lands
The sky is the dragon’s throne, the seat from which it issues its fiery decrees." ~Jund Panorama


This 5-color deck, with it's primary source of power just like in most Dragons being mana, and being secondary and providing massive support in mana, card advantage and removal, while and are tetriary, stabilizing powers mostly for additional card velocity.

"Eons ago, the ur-dragon roared. Its descendants still carry the echo across the Multiverse. ~Two-Headed Hellkite"
"The dragon has no pretense of compassion, no false mask of civilization — just hunger, heat, and need. ~Hellkite Overlord"
"Dragons scorn the weak, even among their own kind. ~Hunt the Weak"

Main focus of the deck is to win through damage - be it combat or not. Dragons chosen as "worthy" including here aside from being huge Flying creatures also have abilities that help advance that gameplan and/or protect it or disrupt plans of others.

  • Scion of the Ur-Dragon - it is hard to speak of The Ur-Dragon without immediately mentioning its direct descendant. This creature still posesses cells of any past, existing and future Dragon - just like its ancestor. However, due to Scions' unstable nature, this grants it ability to temporarily become a copy of ANY Dragon due to them all coming from the same source, while also snatching said Dragon from every corner of the Multiverse to its early grave as a reference. More experienced users of Dragon magic often use this power as a cruel setup for future reanimation spells. Scion of the Ur-Dragon also posesses all 5 colors of mana in its body, which results in powerful synergy with mana-sensitive creatures like Bloom Tender or Faeburrow Elder

  • Nicol Bolas, the Ravager   - 3 CMC Dragon that disrupts opponents' hands in early turns and can tranform into its planeswalker form later. The latter has amazing abilites that when not taken care of by others can gain huge advantage

  • Scalelord Reckoner - a cheap Dragon that punishes others for targeting any Dragon on your side

  • Dragonlord Ojutai - provides great card selection and has built-in protection

  • Glorybringer - Dragons with built-in removal, very fast and shots down bigger creatures

  • Dromoka, the Eternal / Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury / Atarka, World Render - supporting Dragons; Dromoka pumps every creature whenever a Dragon attacks, Kolaghan buffs their attack and Atarka gives Dragons double strike

  • Nesting Dragon / Dragon Broodmother / Lathliss, Dragon Queen / Utvara Hellkite - token generators: first requires landfall, second spawns them during EACH (opponents' too and that's important) upkeep, third adds Dragon token as ETB to each non-token Dragon and forth creates token on attack trigger

  • Scourge of Valkas / Terror of the Peaks - win-cons in the deck; with all those token generators and mass reanimation spells these Dragons decimate opponents by hitting them (or their creatures and even planeswalkers) with tons of damage triggers as each Dragon ETB is another trigger so nobody can respond to them all activating at once

  • Dragonlord Dromoka - she provides an unique form of protection and has lifelink to get back some of life lost earlier

  • Savage Ventmaw - mana ramp Dragon that gives infinite combat phases and infinite mana with Aggravated Assault

  • Backdraft Hellkite - Dragon that helps mid-game by allowing to recast all previously used or discarded spells, which translates to more ramp, card draw and even removal

  • Korvold, Fae-Cursed King - powerful Dragon with amazing built-in draw engine, which can be utilised easily by fetchlands and sacrificing lots of tokens to gain an impressive advantage over opponents

Atarka's Command "The behemoths are content to graze like cattle, while dragons rage and conquer.
I know which example I’ll follow." ~Godtracker of Jund
"The raging green dragon left destruction — and at least one admirer — in its wake." ~Ambitious Dragonborn

Other creatures follow path of Dragons and thus are used as a lead, providing their magic powers to hoard large amounts of mana and cast everything sooner than any foe anticipates. Every single one of them requires making it the most important color during first few turns.

  • Birds of Paradise - this small birds' rainbow feathers provide every color of mana. It is wise for every wielder of Dragon magic to keep it around as a pet. It is also known to charge up around Dragon Tempests.

  • Noble Hierarch/Ignoble Hierarch - other mana fixing dorks for 1 CMC, recently printed Ignoble produces more important colors (especially for Dragons)

  • Deathrite Shaman - this Elf can be used as a dork, grave hate or life total manipulator for only . It's multicolored cost makes it easier to cast early.

  • Bloom Tender - in 5 colored deck it's easy to make it tap for 3+ colors, making it perfect dork for 2 CMC

  • Faeburrow Elder - more costly Bloom Tender that on itself can tap for and as you obtain 5 colors it can also function as a powerful 5/5 attacker or blocker later in game

  • Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - her ability can net TONS of mana for a small investment of and occasional card draw from playing biggest creature on board just makes Selvala even better

"If your flesh can withstand the flame, the spirit of the dragon will burn within your soul." ~Seething Song
"If you fear the dragon’s fire, you are unworthy to wield it." ~Ghostfire Blade
"The spell fell upon the crowd like a dragon, ancient and full of death." ~Fireball

"The people of Tarkir speak of an ancient legend, of the dragon-man called Sarkhan who was greatest of all khans." ~Sarkhan's Rage
"The Elders whisper of an ancient hero who saved the dragons of their world."

Instead of usual 'SLightly played' here I marked this way cards that I don't have IRL yet. But I will acquire them someday and for now I'm using some replacement - let me know if these are good enough!

Combos & Synergies

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Please leave +1 if you like the deck

Credit for this amazing CSS style goes to scotchtapedsleeves

And last but not least - huge thanks to my fellow Dragon Master NeonEndymion, who provides constant support and ideas to brainstorm together, check out his work here: Dragons Awake!

Suggestions

Updates Add

With more sets coming out, here comes the newest bunch of changes to my The Ur-Dragon list:

  • Chaos Dragon --> Zurgo and Ojutai - Even thought it's a cheap body, Chaos Dragon doesn't impact the board in a way I'd want it to. The duo of Zurgo and Ojutai, however, with the same stats can also start a flow of cards all by themselves, digging deep for lands, ramp, answers, etc. Their last ability also can reset some ETB triggers (most notably Guardian Scalelord or Bladewing the Risen) via bounce effect.
  • Noble Hierarch --> Invasion of Tarkir  Flip - I've decided to test lower amount of mana dorks in the list. Noble Hierarch provides only 1 of 3 important colors and isn't a Dragon unlike Scaled Nurturer, which in turn can trigger a lot of Dragon payoffs late in a game. Newest Battle card Invasion of Tarkir  Flip provides cheap removal/damage option and its' flip side is... ANOTHER Dragon that adds additional support effect on an attack trigger.
  • Steely Resolve --> Dragonlord Dromoka - 2 CMC slots became too crowded recently... Dragonlord Dromoka might provide enough protection from removal, while also being a more synergistic card due to being a Dragon. She also provides a reliable way to counter constant lifeloss from manabase, thanks to her Lifelink ability. Steely Resolve is still a powerful card, so it will stay in "Sideboard" category for now.

  • Sarkhan the Mad --> Sarkhan, Soul Aflame - Sarkhan acquired a new form that let's him attack and trigger a variety of Dragons' abilities. Not only that, he also provides slight discount, helping advance the gameplan instead of being only a so-called "win-more kill button" unlike his previous form.
  • Animate Dead --> Fearsome Awakening - Animate Dead's ETB trigger doesn't synergize with anything and can actively cripple the strategy by making most of returning Dragons weaker that 4 power threshold (for Garruk's Uprising, Temur Ascendancy, Greater Good and Stubborn Denial). Fearsome Awakening is a pet card of mine and I'd like to challenge myself to win after casting this card.

Those changes resulted in crossing the Avg. CMC of 3.00, but I think this list is actually MORE consistent than previous iteration.

Other plans for this deck include replacing older cards with newer prints due to the latter having updated wording (e.g. Dragon Tempest "any target", which means it can target Battle cards and Planeswalkers now).

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Casual

94% Competitive

Revision 72 See all

(3 months ago)

+1 Ganax, Astral Hunter maybe
Top Ranked
Date added 6 years
Last updated 3 weeks
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

20 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 1 Rares

13 - 3 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.06
Tokens Copy Clone, Dragon 2/2 R, Dragon 4/4 R, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Dragon Egg 0/2 R, Treasure
Folders Draconic domination upgrades?, EDH, Favorites, Draconic Domination, Commander 2017 Decks!, try, Model Decks, dragons, edh, EDH possible
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