Red Dragon's Disciple (Goro-Goro)

Commander / EDH Casual Control Mono-Red Ramp

Ogryzek

MA (16)

• 1x Explorer's Scope
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Fire Diamond
• 1x Hedron Crawler
• 1x Ornithopter of Paradise
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Bonder's Ornament
• 1x Descent into Avernus
• 1x Dragon's Hoard
• 1x Sword of Hearth and Home
• 1x Fires of Invention
• 1x The Brothers' War
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Caged Sun

Lands (36)

• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 26x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Roadside Reliquary
• 1x Sanctum of Eternity
• 1x Tectonic Edge
• 1x The Monumental Facade
• 1x The Mycosynth Gardens
• 1x Tyrite Sanctum

Interaction (15)

• 1x By Force
• 1x Universal Solvent
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Abrade
• 1x Fanged Flames
• 1x Mizzium Mortars
• 1x Obliterating Bolt
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery
• 1x Spit Flame
• 1x Wyll's Reversal
• 1x Fraying Line
• 1x Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 1x Pyrohemia
• 1x Storm's Wrath
• 1x Blasphemous Act

Creature Modify (8)

• 1x Stonecoil Serpent
• 1x Rabbit Battery
• 1x Batterbone
• 1x Lizard Blades
• 1x Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1x Nettlecyst
• 1x Taurean Mauler
• 1x Thundering Raiju

Noncreature Modify (8)

• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Blacksmith's Talent
• 1x Commander's Plate
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Mirror Shield
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Battlemage's Bracers
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer

Commander (1)

CA (12)

• 1x Infiltration Lens
• 1x Collector's Vault
• 1x Investigator's Journal
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Ogre-Head Helm
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Witch's Mark
• 1x Laelia, the Blade Reforged
• 1x Outpost Siege
• 1x Symmetry Matrix
• 1x Visions of Phyrexia
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm

Utility (4)

• 1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1x Brash Taunter
• 1x Sarkhan the Masterless
• 1x Warstorm Surge

---

Maybeboard

Other (13)

• 1x Endless Atlas
• 1x Moonsilver Key
• 1x Draconic Destiny
• 1x Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith
• 1x Viashino Heretic
• 1x Captivating Crew
• 1x Slagstone Refinery
• 1x Towashi Guide-Bot
• 1x Alena, Kessig Trapper
• 1x Kami of Celebration
• 1x Scrap Mastery
• 1x That Which Was Taken
• 1x Myojin of Roaring Blades

---

Welcome to my little primer!

Goro-Goro's ability to create dragon tokens is main focus of this deck. There is no limit to how many times you can activate this ability, so in theory, if you have enough mana you could create several flying 5/5s on each of your turns. It is important to note that Goro-Goro itself doesn't have to be the one attacking, any modified creature will do (like dragon token). Tokens does not enter the battlefield attacking, which is bad for offence, but they enter untapped, which is good for defence. For this plan to work, we need mana to sink into Goro-Goro, a lot of mana and without Green. So there's a challenge. Keeping all above in mind, I came up with idea of Mono Red Ramp Control. Goal of this deck is to gather mana advantage, keep board clean with sweepers, then at some point stick our commander and start generating dragons to overwhelm our opponents. We already have wincon and manasink in command zone, so rest of the deck is fairly straightforward.

EDIT: Deck's base is designed by MTG Grazzet from their Youtube channel, I recommend you to check it out.

Mana Advantage Show

• Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Ornithopter of Paradise, Bonder's Ornament, Burnished Hart, Dragon's Hoard - generic mana rocks (special shoutout to Dragon's Hoard for synergy).

• Sword of the Animist, Sword of Hearth and Home, Explorer's Scope, Dowsing Dagger   - it took me a bit too long to include these. Works both as land ramp (very good) and modify our creature. The way it's written, Sword can also get us back stolen creature.

• Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun - mana doublers, very important in this deck as we can convert all that mana into board pressence. Bonus for +1/+1 effects. These should be played in basicly every mono color deck.

• Liquimetal Torque - this card deserves it's own chapter. Normaly, Mono Red struggles to remove cards like enchantments, big or resistent creatures. However with Liquimetal Torque (and older Liquimetal Coating, we can turn such pernament into artifact, then blow it up with Shatter effect. Won't help against Stony Silence though.

• Descent into Avernus - enchantment that drowns entire table in treasures and burns everyone. Unless someone destroy it game will get much quicker as damage stacks fast. We can always use additional mana and lifelink equipment gives us some way out.

• Fires of Invention - one of the best cards in entire deck. Lets us pretend to be Simic and slam our spells without paying for them. This leaves us with all lands open to pump them into our commander, mana advantage is unreal. Downside is mostly irrelevant.

• The Brothers' War - with number of artifacts we play powerstones are quite useful. It is important to note that mana from them can be used to pay for activated abilities. Second chapter wreck havoc and third acts as semi removal.

Card Advantage Show

• Infiltration Lens, Mask of Memory, Ogre-Head Helm, Towashi Guide-Bot - both card draw and modification.

• Daretti, Scrap Savant - loots us cards, but is primaly to recover Gauntlet or Sun if destroyed.

• Wheel of Misfortune - testing in place of its Magus.

• Symmetry Matrix - value engine triggering from most of our creatures as well as dragon tokens.

• Visions of Phyrexia, Kami of Celebration, Etali, Primal Storm, Jeska's Will - repeatable impulse draw, all with additional useful upsides.

• Bonder's Ornament, Dragon's Hoard - draw inside ramp.

Interaction Show

• Mizzium Mortars, Koth, Fire of Resistance, Vandalblast - spot removal. Mortars is modal with sweeper, Koth tutors lands and threatens very fast ultimate.

• The Brothers' War - turned out to be very strong card. Each chapter is very strong, especially second chapter can break boardstate in our favor. We run enough artifacts for third chapter to even threaten life total later in the game.

• Tibalt's Trickery - counterspell in mono red? Excellent card in stopping game-breaking spells that no one ever expect.

• Radiate - suprise interaction in the same vein as Tibalt's Trickery. I think Reverberate would be strictly better, but I wanted to try this out.

• Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith - good source of modify/artifacts/damage. Snipe small creature or finish off bigger one.

• Brash Taunter - this card suprised me how effective it is. Damage share is brutal against mid to large creatures, and fight ability with equipment may even act as removal. No one want to attack into this without trample.

• Warstorm Surge - removal on a stick, but also win condition. Works best with dragon tokens.

• Fraying Line, Star of Extinction - sweepers. I run Line to somehow offset red's lack of hard removal.

• Ryusei, the Falling Star - duh.

Modify Show

• Battlemage's Bracers, Illusionist's Bracers - equipment that doubles Goro-Goro's token creation. Like all doubling effects, it's not nessesary, but greatly accelerates game. These will very likely focus hate.

• Commander's Plate, Mirror Shield, Swiftfoot Boots, Sword of Hearth and Home, That Which Was Taken - artifacts serving to protect. That Which Was Taken has neat combo with Nesting Grounds - use land to move divinity counter so it gives itself indestructibly.

• Draconic Destiny - Goro-Goro's dream come true. Evasion, haste, firebreathing and - most importantly - self-recursion, all in one package. It is not very impactful on game, but Dragon.

• Rabbit Battery, Lizard Blades, Komainu Battle Armor - new equipment-creatures. Lizard is very cheap to cast and equip for it's ability. As for Battle Armor, combination of evasion and goad on hit proved to be really strong effect. I had games where I would combat-lock one of opponents every turn because they could not get to two untapped creatures at once. Rabbit gives us one more source of haste.

• Taurean Mauler, War Elemental, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Nettlecyst, Thundering Raiju, Myojin of Roaring Blades - creatures that modify themselves.

• Basilisk Collar, Batterbone, Loxodon Warhammer - combat oriented gear, most notably granting very needed lifelink.

• Akki Battle Squad - Goro-Goro calls some friends, and they are ready to smash.

Other cards Show

• Alena, Kessig Trapper - gives us additional activation of Goro-Goro, by adding five mana from created Dragon, which - coincidently - is how much we need to pay for it.

• Sarkhan the Masterless - more dragon synergy, and good one at that. Just a few dragons in play makes it very hard to attack us, it's almost stax. He also turns planeswalkers into physical threats.

• Rage Reflection - top end upgrade for our board, closing game in quick fashion.

• Slagstone Refinery - very good card, gives us (almost) mana rock whenever opponent destroys our artifact. It plays better than it looks.

• Trading Post - it does a bit of everything. It's most important mode is recovering Caged Sun and Gauntlet.

Utility lands Show

• Forge of Heroes, Tyrite Sanctum, The Monumental Facade - lands that can modify our commander.

• Myriad Landscape - great card in every 1-2 color deck.

• Bonders' Enclave - card draw engine hidden in manabase.

• Buried Ruin - it's priority one target (as Trading Post's and Daretti's as well) are Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power. These are best artifacts in our deck, they draw a lot of hate and we want them back.

• Hall of Tagsin - making one powerstone from time to time pays off in long run. Remember, powerstones can pay for activating our commander.

• Nesting Grounds - allows to move counters to spread modification wider. Has great synergy with That Which Was Taken (it grants itself indestuctible).

• Sanctum of Eternity - mono red commanders can get locked really hard by enchantments and gain control effects. Sanctum helps to mitigate that.

• Tectonic Edge - small piece of removal against other players utility lands, like Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun   or Cabal Stronghold.

• The Mycosynth Gardens - best targets are, again, mana doublers, but sword or battle armour are also nice.

Edit 2022-03-24 Show

I made some changes based on your feedback:

• OUT Experimental Synthesizer, Tempered in Solitude, Grafted Wargear, Magebane Armor, Tenza, Godo's Maul, Fumiko the Lowblood, Rowan Kenrith, Witch's Clinic, Homeward Path, Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, Coveted Jewel

• IN Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, Brash Taunter, Sandstone Oracle, Utvara Hellkite, Breath of Darigaaz, Explosive Entry, No-Dachi, Claws of Valakut, Desert of the Fervent, Forgotten Cave, High Market, Ramunap Ruins, Sanctum of Eternity, Wayfarer's Bauble, Rite of Flame, Desperate Ritual

I will test new list and let you know how cards perform.

Edit 2022-04-11 Show

So, I played with a deck, which ended up with it's complete overhaul :) My main concern was awkward mana curve, often I would end up playing one or even no spell/turn, falling behind too much to make a comeback. I also found out that after casting Goro-Goro it would take up entire turn to equip it for modify, and if for some reason I could not get to declare attack step, it is two whole turns of doing nothing. Another issue were rituals - while powerful, they work against our gameplan simply by being single use, while our deck want to hoard mana production. Therefore, I had to rework entire deck:

OUT: Dismissive Pyromancer, Hoarding Dragon, Knollspine Dragon, Sandstone Oracle, Desperate Ritual, Seething Song, Anger of the Gods, Introduction to Annihilation, Mana Geyser, Reckless Impulse, Rite of Flame, Rousing Refrain,Hedron Archive, No-Dachi, Blackblade Reforged, Pyramid of the Pantheon, Wayfarer's Bauble

IN: Iron Myr, Ornithopter of Paradise, Brass Squire, Taurean Mauler, Thunderclap, Lightning Bolt, Unexpected Windfall, Blasphemous Act, Spitting Earth, Bonder's Ornament, Commander's Sphere, Nettlecyst, Network Terminal, Skyclave Relic, Sword of Hearth and Home, Sword of the Animist, Unstable Obelisk, Zephyr Boots

With heavy heart I had to let go cards like Knollspine Dragon, Rousing Refrain or Pyramid of the Pantheon, but I can already tell that deck runs much smoother now. I'll try to update primer in near future.

Edit 2023-01-25 Show

Deck went through complete overhaul in past year. First of all, it's base was copied from GrazzetMTG from their Youtube channel - it was more consistant and fun to play. I made some tweaks and changes based on my gameplay and current decklist reflects that. Deck is still casual in it's heart. Deck got quite a few toys in Brother's War in form of Powerstones - deck has a lot of artifacts and activated abilities.

Edit 2023-02-06 Show

OUT: Chaos Warp, Taurean Mauler, Explosive Entry, Mind Stone

IN: Fight with Fire, Bonder's Ornament, Churning Reservoir, Draconic Destiny

I have had enough of Chaos Warp flipping something into something worse, Ornament replaces Mind Stone for long-term value testing, Explosive Entry goes out for Draconic Detiny - Goro-Goro's dream coming true. I'll miss Mauler most, but I want to see how new Churning Reservoir performs.

EDIT: Reservoir does not place counters on token dragons, therefore idea is ruined :( Replaced it with War Elemental to see how it goes.

Edit 2023-04-27 Show

OUT: 1 Mountain

IN: The Mycosynth Gardens

Edit 2023-05-13 Show

OUT: Spit Flame, Stonecoil Serpent, Fight with Fire

IN: Radiate, Taurean Mauler, Koth, Fire of Resistance

Just a bit of switching, nothing serious.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.78
Tokens	Dragon 4/4 R, Dragon Spirit 5/5 R, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Emblem Koth, Fire of Resistance, Goblin 1/1 R, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Plant 0/2 G, Powerstone, Sword, Treasure, Wicked
Folders	Commanders