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Elder Dragons & Highlanders

Commander / EDH Attach Theme/Gimmick

ardilly


The namesake of the format, and with 5 new elder dragons released, this seems just...too perfect.

This is a heavy theme deck: Elder Dragons are rather obvious, all 10 printed elder dragons - though in this case I'm also considering Ugin as an Elder Dragon because it's just too good having both Ugin & Nicol Bolas in the same deck. Highlanders, I've interpreted to be legendary creatures with bladed weapons depicted in their art.

But of course, a highlander must also HAVE his sword - thus, the collection of bladed weapon equipment.

I should probably explain a few card choices, so I'll try to address that here.

Card choices:

Maze's End, as I've mentioned in the comments (unless I delete them), I've wanted to build a deck around since it was spoiled, but I never built it in Standard while it was legal there, so this is my only other choice, given it's the only format I play now. This is my first 5-color deck, so it's in for that reason alone. Granted, now that I've got this deck almost fully built, I'm starting to consider 24-3-15-imagine-dragons as a serious contender for a 2nd 5-color deck - I'm just trying to decide if the theme there is distinctly different enough from this deck to make it worth building so soon after this one.

In Garruk's Wake, especially over Crux of Fate mostly because the image on the promo version has a nice dark "Highlander" feel to it. Of course, I'd love to fit Crux in here too, but then the question is...what comes out for it?

Helm of Kaldra and Shield of Kaldra are only in here for the legendary Kaldra token I can get out of having all 3 bits, which makes for a fun alternative type of Highlander. I'd love to get a Kaldra token out, slap Elbrus, the Binding Blade   on it, then have Elbrus flip into Withengar Unbound. One of several dream plays...


Characters:

Gideon, Champion of Justice while not technically a Highlander by my own criteria (though I suppose 4 bladed whips on a gauntlet could technically decapitate someone...), his ultimate ability is definitely very much in-line with the Highlander theme. In my eyes, Gideon IS . Plus, if I turn him into a creature, I can equip a sword on him for the turn, and it'll fall off when he reverts back to being a Planeswalker-only.

Maraxus of Keld is, hopefully quite obviously, . Big beefy bastard, antagonistic as all hell? Sounds like Maraxus to me, alright!

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is aka . I mean, seriously, look at that getup.
Plus, can't you picture Ajani, the Shcottish Leonin who shomehow hailsh from Shpain?


There Can Be Only One!

Comments, criticisms, and suggestions all welcome!

Suggestions

Updates Add

After playing this deck again after a long break, it's still phenomenally fun to play, but I felt like the deck needed a little tweaking.
With a couple fun cards like Call the Gatewatch and Zendikar Resurgent with OGW, I thought they could make good additions to the deck but wasn't sure what to take out.

Then I decided to push the "there can be only one" theme a little harder, and having only one Highlander in each color identity. This led to cutting out Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Aurelia, the Warleader, Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch, Geist of Saint Traft, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, and Tymaret, the Murder King. I realize by adding Brago, King Eternal I have 2 in W/U together with Daxos of Meletis, who has won a game for me in the past...so I'll need to think about which one I want in here a little more. I also decided on Yasova Dragonclaw for my mono-green Highlander.

Other tweaks include Sarkhan Unbroken as a Highlander Planeswalker who can call the Elder Dragons, and The Chain Veil to pair with the Call the Gatewatch shenanigans.

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97% Casual

Competitive

Revision 26 See all

(2 years ago)

-1 Buried Ruin maybe
-1 Crux of Fate maybe
-1 Glimmervoid maybe
-1 Opal Palace maybe
-1 Scythe of the Wretched maybe
-1 Trepanation Blade maybe
-1 Worldslayer maybe
Date added 9 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

24 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.88
Tokens 4/4 C Token Legendary Creature Avatar, 5/5 U Token Creature Dragon Spirit, Beast 3/3 B, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Emblem Garruk, Apex Predator, Emblem Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 2/2 C, Vampire 1/1 B w/ Lifelink, Zombie 2/2 B
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