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Scion, Value Town Dragon Tribal (Primer)

Commander / EDH*

MarcosTithes


         The ULTIMATE Dragon Value Deck Out There!


       Playing the funnest biggest spells to wipe out your opponents with pure value!

Overview:

Firstly, I wanted to keep this list as a non-combo version of Scion, as it's just been done to death. It may be more "optimal", but that's not why I built it, and that's not why you're here! Anyways, this was the first deck that I built, and have been optimizing and tuning it for the past 5 years. Over those years, I've optimized it to be the most degenerate fun dragon beatdown deck I've ever seen, and kind of surprisingly works, it extremely well!

Getting to the list:


There are a lot of different things that many Scion lists play, but I wanted to make sure that I didn't deviate too far from dragon tribal. So in order to do so I'm not playing many support cards in the form of creatures besides Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, because honestly, how can you not. Instead, I am playing a plethora of value enchantments, and sorceries that help us get our plan rolling. Regardless, Let's talk about the Dragon choices first to help you get a good idea of what I'm playing and why.


Creatures:

Dragon Rating Key Show

- Atarka, World Render: Atarka has been a surprising over-performer in this deck. Doubling the amount of damage your dragons deal can often ensure kills on the same turn as a mass reanimation. This guy is used as a game ender, and is most effective at what it does. Other than that there is not much us, beside just pure solidity.
Dragon Rating: B

- Balefire Dragon: This dragon is very good at punishing go wide strategies that heavily rely on creatures. Best examples of this are elf and goblin decks, or anything that relies on mana dorks or important creatures. In general it's just an amazing sweeper. Silumgar also fits a similar role to this but can function completely differently as balefire can even just wipe full boards often regardless of the creature size.
Dragon Rating: A+

- Bladewing the Risen: Bladewing has also been an over-preformer in this deck. He can set up amazing turns where you have a single target reanimation spell like, Necromancy, Animate Dead or Reanimate. Often with one of those I will activate scion twice at the end of someones turn, or three times if it's my turn, and get bladewing with one, and then get a dragon to give my guys haste Dragonlord Kolaghan or Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, and then get any last dragon that I want (usually the ur-dragon, but it depends what your hand looks like). Surprisingly, netting +1 dragons with the single target reanimation is actually really important for getting extra triggers with alot of your dragons.
Dragon Rating: B

- Dragonlord Dromoka: This guy is amazing for setting up turns where you want to win immediately or if you need to resolve a spell. During your turn when you have priority, you just activate scion and IF THEY DO NOT RESPOND TO YOU ACTIVATING SCION, (before you even know that you chose dromoka!), then you get to cast any spell you want with near 0 risk. He is very good at making sure you win when you think you gotta go for it and that he has always been great.
Dragon Rating: A

- Dragonlord Kolaghan: Kolaghan is actually just another copy of Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. It may not seem that surprising, but haste is ludicrously important to ensuring victories. Before I put in Kolaghan there will be times where my karrthus will get exiled out of my graveyard or he will be stuck in my hand, and I just need another haste enabler to win. You really can't let the table go around once, so having as many haste enablers in the deck is crazy good, and Kolaghan has proven himself to be an important addition to this deck. Also I'll just state, because it does say on the card, the second part is completely useless, and isn't considered in why I'm playing him.
Dragon Rating: B

- Hellkite Tyrant: Hellkite Tyrant is similar to Balefire Dragon in how it punishes players for playing a certain archetype to heavily. He basically is pulled out to nuder a certain player, and then gives you crazy advantage. Even if there isn't an artifact deck running around in your meta, he can be good enough because of how toolbox oriented this deck is. If you need him, you got him and if you don't, then he's waiting there for when you do. Always performed well, so he'll be sticking in the deck for now.
Dragon Rating: B+

- Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund: Karrthus is my favorite dragon in this deck because he is the #1 dragon in this deck for winning games. I don't think I have ever ended a game without karrthus on the board, and that's because, as I will state again, haste is what matters for this deck! The classic routine is at the end of someone's turn you just get karrthus, atarka, and anything else, and that's basically game. The haste makes it so they don't have a chance to boardwipe you, and he is the central piece to ensuring a strong and reliable synergy in this deck.
Dragon Rating: A

- Nicol Bolas: Oh boy, now this guy is mean. If you can get scion out, make him into this bad boy and hit someone with him, often that will just end that player. He's out, doneskies, finished! The most important parts about EDH is mana and cards, and just stripping a player of one of those things is just insane, and doing that to a player can often make it so they lose and have to top deck for the rest of the game. I will say though, that this guy will put a large target on your head if you use him too aggressively, so usually pulling him out against control, stax, or combo decks is the best play because most people won't feel too bad for them. Plus it ensures that you have some time to set together your win.
TLDR: he's really freaking good.
Dragon Rating: A+

- Savage Ventmaw: This guy operates a little weird, but basically he is a mana accelerator. His uses are pretty simple, but he has performed pretty well overall, so I am keeping him in the deck for now. Since the The Ur-Dragon got printed though, he has been less necessary because that guy will often do what you want anyways, which is be able to play a fat spell, but savage is good at helping you cast non-permanent things, or cast multiple things. I like him.
Dragon Rating: B-

- Scourge of Valkas: Does someone have a ghostly prison? Does someone have an ensnaring bridge? No problem! just fill your graveyard, Patriarch's Bidding and win on the spot! In all seriousness though, that is another way that this deck can just win no problem. Opponents will often think that they are sitting comfy with their protective enchantments, but you remind them why you call your deck a tool box deck. Even though ETBs aren't as reliable in scion, the fact that it is so easy to set up kills with Scourge makes him a super good inclusion in this deck. In regards to what I mean about ETBs, is that since you activate scion, and the dragons you get don't enter, I will stray very far away from ETBs unless they prove to be very useful; namely Bladewing the Risen and this guy. Attack triggers are what I am looking for as they play much nicer with the synergy of scion. Overall though, the combo setup with scourge makes him a highly un-excludable card in scion in my opinion.
Dragon Rating: B

- Silumgar, the Drifting Death: Silumgar serves a dual purpose in this deck. He can just demolish token strategies no problem, BUT the main thing that makes him so great is his 'hexproof' evasion. Silumgar is so important to this deck that I actually consider scion a seven drop for this sole reason of casting scion for 5 and being able to hold up 2 mana in case your opponents try to use spot removal on him. Fetching Silumgar for the hexproof is what makes scion so resilient in the first place. As for his secondary ability of giving creatures -1/-1, that is just the icing on the cake. Against token strats he fairs well, and is just another part of the toolbox aspect of scion. interestingly enough, if there are multiple opponents with small creatures, and you have multiple dragons you can swing at individual enemies and give each corresponding enemies creatures -1/-1. Honestly giving this card a lot more flexibility than it initially seems.
Dragon Rating: B+

- The Ur-Dragon: Now, this is the big papa of this deck. When I saw him get spoiled I was in awe because of how broken he seemed in scion. He allows for some of the most degenerate things to go down in this deck, and basically serves as a more tribal effective Maelstrom Archangel that you can fetch with scion. Plus his card draw is surprisingly good as well. Often you will only draw 2 or 3 cards with him, but his clause of putting a permanent directly onto the battle field is crazy. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is the most common thing I will drop with this guy, and I don't lose many games after that.
Dragon Rating: S

- Utvara Hellkite: He has always been very good at growing the dragon count without doing much else. Utvara is one of those cards that you won't find yourself tutoring for very often just because he is scary while not actually doing a whole lot. You want your dragons to be having immediate effects, but Utvara has never disappointed me. He can often close games out with scourge on his own, and is just another piece of the toolbox. I'd say that he is always helping out the strategy, and is one of the best game winning threats if he can go unanswered for a table rotation.
Dragon Rating: B+

- Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire: This is one of the best new dragons for this deck from m19. Asmadi is amazing because he fit's the role as a toolbox dragon so well. He just get's rid of whatever you need and can often be a 4 for 0 (because you arn't really even losing a card with him). Though, the thing that absolutely sets him over the top as one of the best dragons ever made for this deck is that if fills a similar role to The Ur-Dragon, while also being removal for your opponents. This guy is the main reason why I went out and bought an Imperial Seal for this deck as well. All you do is make scion into Asmadi, then you Vampiric Tutor/Imperial Seal getting any card in your entire deck that you want and putting it on top (Ugin is usually a pretty good choice ;) ), then you attack making your opponents sac their most important thing, sacrificing your least important thin, and then, WAIT what is that??? I just happened to flip ugin of the top??? I guess I win? ;). Asmadi is love, Asmadi is life.
Dragon Rating: S

- Drakuseth, Maw of Flames: This dragon comes fresh from M20 bringing an amazing attack trigger that can often take out a ton of key creatures. The versatility that this dragon has is something I've been looking for ever since I heard about Tyrant's Familiar and Flameblast Dragon's existence. It just they didn't necessarily do enough, either just having a dragon do their job better or requiring too much mana. Now that Drakuseth has appeared, I'm sure he will be a main stay in a lot of dragon decks, especially this one. Being a great toolbox dragon he deserves a spot here and a good rating to go with it. Dragon Rating: B+

Here I will talk about ALL the other dragons that one could choose from that deserve a least a little but of consideration. I'll discuss their uses, conditions and whether or not they could be a consideration for this deck. I've used each of these dragons in Scion at some point, so I'll use that knowledge to sort them by ranking as well, so then you can take a look at what dragons I think should be played in what decks and why, or if not at all.

- Chromium, the Mutable: Chromium is something that I have always been on the fence about because of his ability to gain hexproof through just discarding a card, per such another Silumgar, the Drifting Death. I think that Chromium is quite good as well because of his ability to discard dragons in your hand if you want to do a mass reanimate, but I haven't found a need to have two hexproof dragons in my deck for my meta. I think that if your meta has a lot of spot removal Chromium seems like a really good secondary option. This will probably be the highest rated dragon on here that isn't in my deck, interestingly enough.
Dragon Rating: B

- Scourge of the Throne: This was the last dragon that I wanted to cut, because he has been good and helped me win games, but I have always felt that he doesn't help me get there, but rather helps me go overboard when I am already there. He had been pretty good with the attack triggers that I was going for, but he doesn't really offer anything to the table upfront as a toolbox dragon, and quickly falls into the category of big beater. Scourge has got to be one of my favorites since I specifically remember buying a pack of conspiracy when I was at Disney land when it came out, being amazed that I pulled the one card I wanted and saying "this will the perfect addition to Scion!" But eventually, to really make a deck perfect in what you are looking for you need to cut the pet cards especially if they aren't quite working out for you. In general, his late game was absurd if you got there, the early game was non-existent for him, and I just wasn't finding myself in enough situations where taking an extra combat was ever useful. Plus needing to attack the person with the highest lifetotal is more awkward than you'd think, because sometimes it's you! Overall I think that scourge deserves a high rating because of the potential he has, but you have to make cuts somewhere.
Dragon Rating: B-

- Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury: Non-dragonlord Kolaghan is a dragon that is directly comparable to Dromoka, the Eternal. He pumps your creatures, and is used to output extra damage, but unlike Dromoka, he can output exponentially larger amounts of damage. I think that Kolaghan is so much better than dromoka because of the immediate effect that he has on the board, and even attack with only 4 dragons, an extra 16 damage is being outputted, which is often a damage doubler. Dromoka only offers 4 extra damage with that attack which is why I think Kolaghan deserves to be in every lesser competitive deck. He isn't good enough on his own in my deck, but he has my bad-ass seal of approval.
Dragon Rating: B-

- Dragon Tyrant: This guy is one big dumb beater, that's for sure. I'd say this guys falls into the combo dragons category because when one decides to put a dragon into scion, it really should have some good utility to go along with it. It is true that you can one shot many people with with him, but I feel like that just puts a really big target on your head when you decide to go out and kill one person. Then when your done with them, now its a 2 on one, which doesn't give you good odds. I think that he fits well in 1v1 for the 1 shot potential, and doesn't really do much else besides that.
Dragon Rating: C+

- Dragon Broodmother: The mother herself is one of my favorite dragons of all time, but given that she has to stick around for so long to get a whole lot of value off of it, it just makes it a bit too difficult to abuse. I feel like she is quite good in more casual builds as it can add greatly to the dragon count with minimal cost, so overall she'll get a pretty average rating.
Dragon Rating:C+

- Dragon Mage: This guy fits a pretty interesting niche in scion decks which is a way to draw cards with Scion. This guy had always been a personal favorite, and I had wanted to play him for so long, but could never really justify it because of how clunky he is. First off, to wheel you have to pay , then connect with him as well. The fact that he doesn't have trample makes me a little sad, though there usually will be a least 1 player you can attack. Regardless, I've had it be where too many times people really like their hand and dragon mage seems to be a legitimately threatening thing to them. Overall, it seems really good upfront being able to tutor out a card draw engine, but it has never really been that useful. It also got outclassed pretty hard by the Ur-dragon which draws you cards AND cheats thing out.
Dragon Rating: C

- Teneb, the Harvester: This guy is pretty cool, but he got cut pretty quickly into this decks life cycle. I found that even though he worked pretty well with scion, he was generally pretty clunky, and had similar issues like other similar dragons. What made this fall out of favor for Bladewing the Risen was the fact that you need to pay to activate scion, and then get damage through and then pay another . The mana investment wasn't something I was looking for, and his only use being to reanimate creatures also made him a one-trick pony. I didn't end up using him very often and found that I just preferred to do other things. As my scion deck got faster, he got worse and less important, though I do think he deserves a spot in more casual scion decks as he just demolishes grindy games.
Dragon Rating: C

- Steel Hellkite: Steel Hellkite is a dragon that gets better the more casual the deck is because you can often find times where spending a turn to wipe someone's board is an okay investment, but as your deck becomes more tuned and fast, that isn't really an option for you any more. There are other options that this deck has to deal with non-land permanents, and even though this guy does a good job doing it when you need it for a hefty sum of mana, the upfront cost just isn't worth it to only mess up one player. Now if it blew up every persons permanents = to then we'd be talking, but sadly that just isn't the case. I think that steel hellkite is a good consideration for more casual decks, as it is affordable and offers a wide range of things to do. Plus it dodges All Is Dust which funnily enough was actually relevant once.
Dragon Rating: C

- Ojutai, Soul of Winter: Ojutai was a duder that I had in my deck for a long time but eventually I realized that he just got outclassed by alot of other dragons. Sadly, there isn't just enough value in him to make him worth it when usually you will be attacking for no more than 3 dragons. The good thing that makes this guy a consideration is that he can tap down lands, and gives you another option for trying to restrict someones land usage. Other than that though he doesn't do a lot, but had always been an interesting choice. He seems to fit most at home in decks where you can feel like your dragons can go around the board once or twice without dying.
Dragon Rating:C

- Hellkite Charger: Extra combats can be great, but the amount of mana that it costs is just not worth it. Given the fact that Scourge of the Throne exists as well, just kind of makes this card obsolete at this point. Since I'm not playing the other either the setup cost is way too restrictive. Though it does deserve a mention that with Savage Ventmaw you can take an extra combat for just a given that neither die in combat. Setup still takes a bit too much work though.
Dragon Rating:C

- Intet, the Dreamer: This dragon has always been a favorite among the Scion conclave, but has never impressed me personally. His clunkyness in operation really makes him a hard sell, especially when you are going in blind. The lower your curve the worse he gets as well, equaling less opportunity to hit anything good or worth the 5 mana investment. You'll learn that there is a pattern between what makes a dragon "good" enough to play, and it is often defined as whether or not its effect is worth the cost. The dream setup is to use one of your top of library manipulation card:scrollrack|effects, but I found that Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire just does the same job times better.
Dragon Rating:C-

- Quicksilver Dragon: This is an interesting dragon that I feel is only useful if your playgroup never learns to respect your 3 untapped mana, or if you always play with new people who wouldn't see this coming. In general, I have to admin that it is pretty cheesy when you get to direct the thing that was going to kill your scion back at one of their creatures, but over a while, they'll learn. Additionally, another thing really holding him back is that he doesn't do anything else besides protection. It's a one-trick pony, that also requires a high upfront investment of 3 mana if you want to keep scion safe. That's why with
Dragon Rating: C-

- Ramos, Dragon Engine: Ramos dragon engine is a very interesting dragon that I don't think is necessarily bad, but I just don't think it fits in this type of shell. Its really difficult to abuse Ramos' activated ability as we aren't really casting that many multicolored spells. Overall, I don't feel as though he does anything for the deck, and respectively I believe that that justifies the exclusion of him.
Dragon Rating:C-

- Dragonlord Silumgar: This dragon is awesome, but given that Scion is best at abusing attack and combat damage triggers, dragons with ETBs isn't where you want to be putting your card slots. The dragon can be good in more casual pods just as something to probably reanimate, but it's not efficient enough to be worth running. It seems that himself from the other timeline was putting in the heavy lifting.
Dragon Rating:C-

- Tyrant's Familiar: Balefire Dragon just does a better impression of this boy, and though he can snipe one real big threat if you can't get in or find yourself staring down a 7 toughness creature, the world just isn't big enough for him unfortunately. The haste is nice, but with all of our haste enablers in the deck it's not as useful as it may seem. Plus, with the recent addition of Drakuseth, Maw of Flames, the big ol' familiar has just been outclassed.
Dragon Rating:C-

- Broodmate Dragon: 2 dragons for six mana aint bad, and though this card was a hay maker back in the day it's just not where we want to be with Scion. Scion can't abuse the ETB effect of these guys, and though they do play well with reanimation and getting dragons on the board, our scion deck is more about toolboxing and then going for a big finish with valkas. Unfortunately, the boys don't add too much and you'll never want to get this with scion.
Dragon Rating:D+

- Belltoll Dragon: Another interesting dragon for gaining hexproof is you're really digging for that effect. I do think that it's worth running in combo builds of scion, but in our version, the utility of Silumgar, the Drifting Death just makes the Belltoll not a good enough contender.
Dragon Rating:D+ / Combo Builds:B

- Dromoka, the Eternal: This guy is interesting as it provides a long term boost to your dragons power, but for me the long term investment doesn't do enough. I feel like he is pretty quickly outclassed by almost all options for dragon inclusions. He is slow, and by himself is just aweful, so even though I played him for a brief moment in time, I quickly replaced him with other dragons that game me more utility in general. I wouldn't really recommend playing him, but there are much worse things you could play.
Dragon Rating: D

- Wasitora, Nekoru Queen: The Nekoru Queen isn't necessarily bad, but when dragons like Balefire Dragon and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames exist, its really hard to justify the random single target removal that requires the dragon to hit. Though the dragon cats are cute, it just not worth it in the end.
Dragon Rating:D

If you're looking to play 'infinite' combos in your Scion of the Ur-dragon deck then you've come to the right panel! Here I will go over some of the more famous and popular combos that I played at one point in my list. These are actually quite efficient and deadly so by putting these combos in your deck might make it better, but just make sure it's what you are looking for in a game of commander. The efficiency of combos in scion comes from the fact that you only need one card in your hand that combos with scion, and then you can just tutor for the dragon you want and proceed to combo off. Down below is the list of the ones I know personally, so lets get started.

- Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind/Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Curiosity/Keen Sense/Ophidian Eye/Tandem Lookout
This one is one of the more powerful ones given the mana efficiency. I'd recommend just sticking to first three if you are considering running the combo at all, but don't forget that you'll need to draw a card to get the chain going afterwards. This will basically allow you to ping and draw each of your opponents until they are dead with your deck in your hand. Just make sure you have enough cards in your library or a way to shuffle up to continue going.

- Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead -> Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Another very powerful combo utilizing an infinite ETB loop that allows you to get infinite mana. If you tutor for worldgorger with scion, then animate dead him worldgorger will then enter and exile everything including your animate dead. When that happens though the worldgorger dies because its not being enchanted any longer which means your animate dead comes back. Well, guess what we enchant again? Yup! The worldgorger which does the process all over again. At each point since its exiling everything we own we get to retap our lands and rocks for mana in between each re-enter meaning we get infinite mana. Now making sure that there is another creature to enchant in a graveyard in order to stop the loop, we activate scion for Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius and hoping that we were able to generate infinite in the process, we should just be able to kill everyone on the spot.

- Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon + Moltensteel Dragon




Final Thoughts and Updates:

New update MM17: THANKS Modern Master 2017!
You gave me the opportunity to get those fetch lands like I wanted so much, as I explained above. Pulled a couple and still looking to get the rest. On my way.

new update CMD17: Commander 2017, brings new dragons!
Thanks to Dragons 17, my Scion deck just got that much better with an absolutely insane tutor with scion that allows me to put a permanent down for just 2 mana effectively. Also a crazy good draw enchantment for all the dragons that are going to be entering and attacking. Not many of the other dragons seemed like they would be good enough besides the main man himself though - unfortunately. Ramos looks cool, but just generating mana himself isn't quite good enough when I already have savage ventmaw who does the work I need with out all the convolution.

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91% Casual

Competitive

Revision 11 See all

(3 years ago)

+1 Bloodstained Mire main
+1 Crucible of Fire main
+1 Cultivate main
-1 Cyclonic Rift main
+1 Deafening Clarion main
+1 Decimate main
+1 Dragon's Hoard main
+1 Dragonlord Silumgar main
+1 Dragonlord's Servant main
+1 Dragonspeaker Shaman main
+1 Eerie Ultimatum main
+1 Frontier Siege main
+1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon main
+1 Hour of Devastation main
+1 Island main
+1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen main
+1 Llanowar Wastes main
+1 Luxury Suite main
+1 Migration Path main
+1 Myriad Landscape main
and 34 other change(s)
Date added 7 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 0 Mythic Rares

54 - 0 Rares

13 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.18
Tokens Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R
Folders 50-75% PL (Semi-Competitive) Decks
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