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Dragons At A Rivcount *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) Dragons Flying

NV_1980

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Land (36)

Enchantment (7)

Creature (25)

Sorcery (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Rivaz of the Claw

Artifact (13)

Instant (11)

Welcome to Dragons At A Rivcount !

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of my Rakdos, dragon-tribe deck; commanded by Rivaz of the Claw. Dominaria is under threat from invasion; the forces of Phyrexia threaten its existence. Many powerful entities have answered the call to defend their home plane. Amongst them is a young Viashino, a descendent of Zirilan; most famous amongst the tribes for brokering a long-sought out martial treaty with the Dragons. The time has now come for these factions to join forces and repel the coming of corruption, disease and mutation. Let those who would champion such forces be drowned in a sea of claws, teeth, talons and above all … FIRE! This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course I welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; I hope you will enjoy it!

Having a combat-force made up of Dragons strikes fear into the hearts of most opposing forces. Summoning them usually takes a vast amount of resources though, so having a commander like Rivaz of the Claw come along to help me out on this front is great. What’s more, Rivaz can function as sort of a selective Whip of Erebos; allowing my dragons to return from the grave to pound their enemies into oblivion one last time. To top it off, he’s relatively cheap to (re)summon and a decent combatant.

I use the following ten parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

  • Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
  • Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
  • Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
  • Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
  • Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
  • Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
  • Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
  • Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
  • Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
  • Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

Mana: 4

Aside from Rivaz of the Claw himself, this deck contains a lot of ways to make summoning dragons a lot easier. A whopping ten artifact mana rocks form the bulk of the deck’s additional mana sources. Then there’s three cards that cheapen the summoning of dragons, two treasure-generating permanents and an instant mana spell.

Ramp: 1

Alas, not a single card in this deck ought to be considered as meant for ramping purposes.

Card Advantage: 4

Quite a few ways to obtain more cards during turns, than just through the standard draw. Seven cards have been included to add to direct draw. The deck also contains five tutors (of which one can only be used to find a dragon), three cards to steal opposing spells, a top decking card and an exceptionally powerful scrying tool.

Overall speed: 3

With its high resource count, both at energy and card-advantage, it’s not hard to ensure an early Rivaz of the Claw, which in turn ensures the first Dragon can usually be cast the turn after (if he’s allowed to survive for a turn). This is also aided by the battlecruiser-deck’s relatively low CMC, which clocks in at 3.26.

Combo: 1

Not a combo deck in any conceivable way.

Army: 5

When an army is comprised mostly of Dragons, it’s pretty safe to assume it’s going to be strong. Twenty two of the winged monstrosities make up this deck’s force. None of them could be considered vanilla either. Amongst their plethora of powers, one finds interesting utility like Treasure generation, massive non-combat damage, destruction, recursion and theft.

Commander: 3

Energy and recursion advantages that make up Rivaz of the Claw’s tool-package can be missed when using this deck, but it’ll make life more difficult for the player that wields it. Basically in two different respects (available mana for (dragon-)casting and available dragons to cast) players will feel a significant lacking while he’s not around.

Interaction: 4

Though interaction is by no means primary focus of the deck, it does contain a lot of options in that regard. This is mostly due to Dragons having natural tendencies in this regard. As a result, one can choose from options like destruction/exile (six cards), non-combat damage to creatures, opponents or both (eight cards) and even some theft and lifedrain.

Resilience: 3

My commander is pretty good at recursion, so I’ve got that going for me. In this he’s supported by four other spells; both permanent and non-permanent versions. The deck also contains two very decent lifegain enablers.

Spellpower: 2

Brute-force spell casting is not this deck’s forte, but it does have a few precious aces up its sleeve, including a powerful wipe, an even more powerful recursion spell and some downright wicked copying shenanigans.

Total power score: 30

Decently powerful, with a few great advantages going for it! Its resource count is above average, its army is hard to match and in some cases even slightly overpowered, its commander has a lot going for it, its interaction options are pretty much legion and in a pinch it can pull off some fantastic surprises.

Simple. I want to cast Dragons and attack with them from as early a stage as possible; burning everything around me to a neat, toasty crisp. To ensure that this happens, my young Claw needs to appear fast and lend his mana-support abilities to me asap. Since he’s also good at making sure Dragons return from the grave, it won’t hurt me at all to fill up the yard with some of them. After all, with Rivaz around, it’s like my hand-size was just extended with some more draconic options. While my dragons are feasting on the flesh of your army, I’ll use their non-combat oriented abilities to make the remainder of your gaming-experience harder to cope with. Happy gaming!

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet, Mox Opal, Sol Ring or Talisman of Indulgence). This is a must; I’m not going to start a game without this hand (even if I have to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

In order to get Dragons fast, I’m going to need some resources that allow me to cast them (aside from lands of course). These can be split into three separate categories. First amongst these, are the mana rocks. Aside from the ones already mentioned in the first section as well as my commander, this can include options like Fellwar Stone, Rakdos Signet and Thought Vessel. Even some specific ones for Dragon-casting could be nice here, like Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind and Dragon's Hoard. The second category is comprised of methods that cheapen Dragon casting, like card:Dragonlord Servant, Dragonspeaker Shaman and Urza's Incubator. Third category involves treasure generation, which can be handled by casting Big Score, Dockside Extortionist or Unexpected Windfall.

Maximizing my dragon-casting options, requires card-advantage resources. These can also be divided into a few subsections. Direct draw is an important one, and is covered by Black Market Connections, Cathartic Reunion, card:Hostile Negotiation and Phyrexian Arena. Then there’s ways to put Dragons in my graveyard so that I can cast them with Rivaz, like Buried Alive and Entomb. An early tutor like Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor can also be really useful to move things in the direction I need them to.

It’s Dragon-summoning time. By now I should have enough resources available to drag their expensive asses into my plane of existence for some fun. Fortunately, some Dragons come with their own ways to increase/maintain resources, so it might be prudent to start out with these. Possibilities include Ancient Copper Dragon, Ganax, Astral Hunter, Goldspan Dragon and Leyline Tyrant. Aside from these, priority should also go to Dragons (and other spells) that make the summoning of their kinsmen more impactful. For instance through the application of non-combat damage (with examples like Dragon Tempest, Scourge of Valkas and Terror of the Peaks) or through means that allow me to generate Dragon tokens (with cards like Flameshadow Conjuring, Lathliss, Dragon Queen, Molten Echoes and Utvara Hellkite). Lastly, I should cast members of the tribe that make my opponents think twice before blocking or trying to damage my majestic (yet terrifying) flyers. Some ideas on this front include Blast-Furnace Hellkite, card:Kologhan, the Storm’s Fury, Kokusho, the Evening Star and especially Wrathful Red Dragon.

Throughout the game it’s really useful to keep Rivaz of the Claw close by (but out of harm’s way as much as possible); not just as a reliable mana source, but maybe even more so for his strong recursion power that allows me to re-use fallen dragons at least once before they’re gone for good.

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

The cards I use to accelerate mana-availability:

  • Ancient Copper Dragon: once this connects, prepare to open the floodgates; a river of treasure needs to get through.
  • Arcane Signet: the best mana-rock introduced into EDH since Sol Ring.
  • Black Market Connections: utility treasure, card-advantage or even tokens; all for a smidgen of life!
  • Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind: red mana for hasty Dragons!
  • Dark Ritual: a great boost of instant black energy at my disposal.
  • Dockside Extortionist: amazing value at CMC2 as it has the potential to create massive amounts of colored mana upon ETB; especially in commander games that feature multiple players.
  • card:Dragonlord Servant/Dragonspeaker Shaman/Urza's Incubator: all of these cheapen the casting of Dragon spells.
  • Dragon's Hoard: excellent mana AND draw source in a Dragon deck.
  • Fellwar Stone: dependable rock that usually provides at least one type of mana I need.
  • Ganax, Astral Hunter: a Dragon ETB treasure-generator that I’ve learned to love.
  • Goldspan Dragon: makes my treasures much more effective and is a decent combatant to boot.
  • Leyline Tyrant: allows me to charge up a red-mana battery and just unleash it whenever I have need of it. Have to be careful though, someone killing Tyrant at the wrong time causes that stored energy to dissipate.
  • Mox Opal: with all the treasure-generation going on in this deck, it’s relatively easy to reach this free mana-source’s artifact requirement.
  • Rakdos Signet/Talisman of Indulgence: Rakdos mana requires (pure) Rakdos sources!
  • Thought Vessel: a little colorless mana with no maximum handsize.

What I need in order to draw, tutor or steal additional cards with:

The winged, long-toothed, taloned monstrosities that will come to burn your face off:

Perhaps these will stop you:

  • Bedevil: just a cheap removal option.
  • Chaos Warp: bit of a gamble to use, but perfect against something really dangerous opposing stuff.
  • Crux of Fate: obviously used to destroy all non-Dragon creatures.
  • Deflecting Swat: just a great, multi-functional deflector that’s potentially free to cast.
  • Feed the Swarm: one of the few black destruction cards that can specifically target enchantments.
  • Lightning Greaves: even demons need some additional protection against opposing spells.
  • Steel Hellkite: the best recurring and versatile wipe on wings!
  • Vandalblast: your artifacts just became scrap-metal.

More Dragons and some other useful bonuses:

  • Crucible of Fire: turns even my weakest Dragons into frightening towers of fiery doom. Dragon decks without this in their inventory should feel ashamed of themselves.
  • Dragon Tempest: hasty Dragons are happy Dragons; and the damage I can deal upon Dragon ETB is just gravy.
  • Fervor: another fantastic haste-enabler.
  • Flameshadow Conjuring/Molten Echoes: even if these tokens only exist until the end of my turn … they’re DRAGONS! Plenty of ways to utilize that kind of (temporary) strength.
  • Patriarch's Bidding: the best tribal resurrection-spell in existence; just be careful with it when facing other tribal decks.
  • Whip of Erebos: lifelinking Dragons and some backup recursion; just in case Rivaz becomes unavailable to me for whatever reason.

Currently not in here, for reasons described below.

  • Moonveil Dragon: have had this in the deck on occasion; most of the time it was a bit redundant as the Dragons were already plenty strong by themselves (or through other boosting means) to win out.

I appreciate the time you took to read my primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

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96% Casual

Competitive

Revision 4 See all

(4 months ago)

+1 Ancient Brass Dragon main
+1 Ancient Copper Dragon main
-1 Bladewing the Risen main
-1 Chrome Mox main
-1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames main
+1 Mox Opal main
Top Ranked
Date added 6 months
Last updated 1 month
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

25 - 0 Mythic Rares

45 - 0 Rares

13 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.56
Tokens Copy Clone, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure
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