Claw of the Elders

Commander / EDH Dragons Mono-Red

ClockworkSwordfish

Creature (26)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Bloodshot Cyclops
• 1x Cathodion
• 1x Crimson Hellkite
• 1x Dragon Mage
• 1x Dragon Tyrant
• 1x Dragonspeaker Shaman
• 1x Dwarven Blastminer
• 1x Dwarven Miner
• 1x Fire Dragon
• 1x Flametongue Kavu
• 1x Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1x Goblin Welder
• 1x Gorilla Shaman
• 1x Imperial Hellkite
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Molten Hydra
• 1x Rorix Bladewing
• 1x Rukh Egg
• 1x Shard Phoenix
• 1x Shivan Dragon
• 1x Shivan Hellkite
• 1x Siege-Gang Commander
• 1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
• 1x Thunder Dragon
• 1x Viashino Heretic

Artifact (16)

• 1x Belbe's Portal
• 1x Bosium Strip
• 1x Erratic Portal
• 1x Fire Diamond
• 1x Heart of Ramos
• 1x Helm of Possession
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Phyrexian Vault
• 1x Rishadan Pawnshop
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Tawnos's Coffin
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Urza's Incubator
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Land (37)

• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x High Market
• 30x Mountain
• 1x Smoldering Crater
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Terrain Generator
• 1x Wasteland

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Price of Glory
• 1x Shivan Harvest
• 1x Sneak Attack

Commander (1)

Instant (10)

• 1x Blood Frenzy
• 1x Cinder Cloud
• 1x Disharmony
• 1x Firestorm
• 1x Fissure
• 1x Fling
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Shattering Pulse
• 1x Starstorm
• 1x Temporary Insanity

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Aftershock
• 1x Disintegrate
• 1x Hammer of Bogardan
• 1x Seize the Day
• 1x Threaten

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Dragonstorm
• 1x Insurrection
• 1x Recoup
• 1x Ruination
• 1x Search for Survivors
• 1x Wildfire

Land (1)

• 1x City of Shadows

Artifact (5)

• 1x Cold Storage
• 1x Echo Chamber
• 1x Lifeline
• 1x Predator, Flagship
• 1x Triassic Egg

Creature (3)

• 1x Latulla, Keldon Overseer
• 1x Su-Chi
• 1x Zodiac Dragon

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Glacial Crevasses

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Zirilan of the Claw is an old-school powerhouse legend who really came into his own as the years powercrept dragons into game-warping threats. How well could he perform in a more contemporary environment, though?

Here, then, we have for him an EDH deck where the cards are all old-school: nothing in here is from 8th edition or later. As it stands, I feel like the deck still has plenty of neat tricks it can pull.

Dragon Toolbox

If we're building around Zirilan, then there had better be some payoff! Thankfully there are a number of handy dragons pre-Modern, many of which can perform a utility role while they're beating your opponent's face in.

Fire Dragon and Crimson Hellkite can both take out a nasty creature. Shivan Hellkite and Thunder Dragon, meanwhile, are better suited to wiping out hordes of smaller critters. Dragon Mage can get you a whole new hand when you're running low on cards. Shivan Dragon and the mighty Dragon Tyrant are purely there for crushing skulls, able to funnel any of your extra mana into raw damage.

Using Every Part of the Dragon

Zirilan lets you cheat any dragon out of your library for three paltry mana, but in return they only get one swing before getting removed from the game. Why resign your flying beauties to such a fate, however? There are plenty of cards that let you get around this off-switch in various ways. Erratic Portal lets you pop the dragon back to your hand, hopefully to be hardcast later. Rishadan Pawnshop stuffs them right back into your library for Zirilan to search out again. Tawnos's Coffin does one better, putting the dragon into temporary stasis to be brought back the next turn, free of any expiration date. At the very least, you can always resort to feeding your doomed dragon to a sacrifice outlet of your choice, including Phyrexian Vault, Goblin Bombardment and High Market. And if you want to really put the hurt on your opponent, Fling and Bloodshot Cyclops can essentially double your dragon's damage output.

Let Me Borrow That

If you're running all these sacrifice outlets anyway, you might as well have some tokens and other weenies to feed to them. Cathodion, Rukh Egg and the unstoppable Squee are all entirely happy to be ditched for some handy effect. Or, if you'd rather not throw out your hard-earned creatures, why not use your opponent's? Threaten, Temporary Insanity and Disharmony can all "borrow" a critter, though your opponent might never see it again if you feed it to Shivan Harvest or Helm of Possession.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	37 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Bird 4/4 R, Goblin 1/1 R, Morph 2/2 C