Balefire Dragon

Balefire Dragon

Creature — Dragon

Flying

Whenever Balefire Dragon deals combat damage to a player, it deals that much damage to each creature that player controls.

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Legality

Format Legality
Oathbreaker Legal
Custom Legal
Vintage Legal
Leviathan Legal
Modern Legal
Highlander Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Unformat Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Limited Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
2019-10-04 Legal
Casual Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
1v1 Commander Legal
Legacy Legal

Balefire Dragon occurrence in decks from the last year

Latest Decks as Commander

Balefire Dragon Discussion

X-Factor11105 on I Am Fire, I Am Death

2 weeks ago

iammute let's discussMolten Echoes! Those are really solid points you make:

  • Trigger for one of the ETB effects you listed (Tempest / Scourge / Terror)
  • Send original to yard based on available recursion (PRO: fills the yard, CON: telegraphs your next move a bit). This could also be a lesser synergy with Boneyard Scourge

I think the nonbo aspect to me is that there isn't that perfect, consistent synergy with those legendaries - in this case, Drakuseth, Maw of Flames, Dragonlord Kolaghan, and Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury. It's hopefully a trigger, but choosing the token to remain on the battlefield also clearly telegraphs to your opponents what's coming next. The deck is fairly straightforward, so it's not like it'll be a big shocker, but I'd expect multiple players to hold up mana for counters / spot removal if they see you keep the token and send the original to the graveyard.

In my experience with Bladewing, I've had trouble sustaining an early-game presence, even with a host of 2-3 drops and a bunch of looting effects. Admittedly, I might be looking at Echoes through a narrow lense - the late-game synergy is truly back-breaking (multiple Balefire Dragon, Utvara Hellkite,or Scourge of the Throne triggers probably wins the game outright). I think I'd just be concerned to drop an enchantment that doesn't affect the board on T3 or T4 while my opponents continue to ramp or get their strategies really in motion on that same turn. If you've seen the benefits outweigh the negatives I'd love to know about that experience!

I can confirm Hazoret's Monument has been great, even at a slightly higher cost. Having that additional method for filling the yard has been super helpful.

Speaking of, have either of you considered Drownyard Temple? I don't think I use it currently but could see it having value, knowing how much discarding wants to happen here (hi Chainer, Nightmare Adept! Also considering Azra Oddsmaker and Olivia, Mobilized for War).

LitchOubliette on Commander Staples Cube

1 month ago

Changelog (22/11/2020)

White

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Multicolored

Colorless

Mana Fixing

Profet93 on A bunch of crap that makes a Gruul deck

2 months ago

There are other cuts to consider as well, but I feel these are the more noteworthy ones....

Ashaya, Soul of the Wild - No direct synergy with Xenagos, you want a beater with evasion or protection

Beast Whisperer - Better in decks that are lower to the ground that can better use it's ability

Brash Taunter - "No synergy with Xenagos"

God-Eternal Rhonas - Better in decks that go wide, this gets easily chump blocked. You rarely have more than 1 creature out at a time

Klothys, God of Destiny - "No synergy with Xenagos"

Leyline Tyrant - Better in red decks, while not recomending it, glorybringer would be better IMO as it acts as removal as well

Phylath, World Sculptor - No synergy with....

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger - Not enough ramp to hard cast, no cheating effects (which wont even give you a cast trigger)

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - See above

Shadowspear - Meta call? Better to have creatures with trample or more ramp and card draw in this slow

Triumph of the Hordes - Hit or miss. Playing a beater, hoping it survives, casting this next turn and hoping they dont have removal. Ignoring the feelbad of infect

Berserkers' Onslaught - Winmore

Vernal Bloom - Symmetrical ramp which you can't even take full advantage of

Nissa, Who Shakes the World - This is ok, I like the vigilance and getting essentially a 6/6. Rather have something more impactful.

Atarka, World Render - Beater with evasion

Balefire Dragon - Beater with evasion that also destroys decks that go wide

Carnage Tyrant - Beater with protection, evasion and anti-blue. Nice to use a mass draw spell knowing they can't remove the creature in response

Etali, Primal Storm - Not needed, but fun! Lots of value, doesn't require combat damage

Farhaven Elf - Ramp for T4 Xenagos

Fierce Empath - Tutor

Inferno Titan - Removal

Kogla, the Titan Ape - Removal

Malignus - GG target player

Savage Ventmaw - Beater with evasion and helps build tempo

Scourge of the Throne - Destroy people's lifetotal

Shaman of Forgotten Ways - Ramp and potential wincon

Siege Behemoth - Beater with evasion

Somberwald Sage - Ramp

Springbloom Druid - Ramp for T4 Xenagos

Yavimaya Hollow - Protection

Turntimber, Serpentine Wood - Land when you need it, beater when you don't

Dread Statuary - Manland to be used as potential beater or for draw spell

Rishkar's Expertise - Draw + Tempo. Powerful!

Life's Legacy - Draw

Momentous Fall - Similar to above, to be used in response to removal

Berserk - Use on selvala, malignus or even an opposing creature attacking one of your opponents!

Sylvan Library - Nice but not needed

multimedia on EDH Dragons

2 months ago

Hey, you're very welcome. I like the changes you've made. You've asked many questions :) I will try to answer each one. In this comment I'll explain the Scion of the Ur-Dragon combo better with some unfortunate changes and I'll answer other questions in another comment later on.

I've given you incorrect information about the combo using Savage Ventmaw. The only way Savage can be part of this combo is if it's already on the battlefield and can attack not tutored for by Scion. You can't change Scion into Savage and then attack, make the 6 mana and then change into another Dragon with Scion. This not how Scion works instead you have to do all the changing into Dragons when you first activate Scion with many activations. If you want to change into multiple Dragons with Scion then you must do it all at the same time. When Scion changes into a Dragon it loses it's original ability to activate/change into a Dragon instead it has all the abilities as well as power/toughness of the Dragon it changed into.

You can get around this by taking advantage of the stack by putting many activations of Scion to change into different Dragons onto the stack and then resolve each trigger one at a time. Each activation is a trigger and when it resolves from the stack will change Scion into that Dragon therefore you can change many times which tutors for and puts many Dragons into your graveyard. This lets you stack many activations with Scion, but you must do it all at once for the combo. The last trigger you resolve Scion will become that Dragon until end of turn.

Taking Savage Ventmaw out of the combo it costs 7 mana. This 7 mana is not including paying 5 for Scion. Scion needs to be on the battlefield already and able to attack. If you want to do this combo with Scion the same turn you play it, if it has haste, then the combo is not worth it since it will cost 12 mana.

7 mana for the combo, this is how it's paid in order , for two activations of Scion and then to reanimate Bladewing with Teneb for a total of 7 mana:

  • Attack with Scion.
  • At Declare Blockers step pay activate Scion for Bladewing the Risen.
  • While that trigger is on the stack, pay activate Scion for Teneb, the Harvester.
  • Resolve first Scion trigger which puts Bladewing in your graveyard and resolve the second Scion trigger which puts Teneb in your graveyard.
  • Scion is now Teneb, deal combat damage to a player with Teneb.
  • Teneb's ability will trigger, resolve Teneb's trigger, pay and reanimate Bladewing.
  • Bladewing ETB and reanimates Teneb.
  • Scion is Teneb therefore the Legendary Rule will apply when real Teneb is reanimated.
  • Choose real Teneb and remove Scion.
  • You end up on the battlefield with Teneb and Bladewing with Scion in your graveyard.

The point of this combo is to tutor for and get Teneb onto the battlefield since then he can reanimate Dragons in your graveyard each attack after. The Legendary Rule prevents ending up with both Scion and Teneb on the battlefield because when Teneb is reanimated by Bladewing Scion is Teneb. When this happens the Legendary Rule goes into effect where as you must choose one of the Tenebs and other is removed from the battlefield/put into your graveyard. You will choose real Teneb and let Scion be removed since ending up with real Teneb is the reason you're doing the combo.

You don't want your opponent to block Scion because then Scion can change into Teneb and connect to do combat damage to a player to trigger Teneb. Even if your opponent doesn't block Scion there's still a stop at the Declare Blockers step where you can activate Scion. If opponent does block Scion which could kill Scion as Teneb then activate and change into a different Dragon who will not die in combat if blocked.

Another budget two Dragon combo with Scion is Atarka, World Render or Dragon Tyrant and Moltensteel Dragon which lets you potentially do lethal 40 damage to an opponent because of double strike.

4 mana for the combo, this is how it's paid in order , for two activations of Scion and then how ever much you have available or 24 life.

Combo with Atarka:

  • Before you attack pay activate Scion for Moltensteel Dragon.
  • While that trigger is on the stack, pay activate Scion for Atarka, World Render.
  • Resolve first Scion trigger change Scion into Moltensteel, but before you resolve the second Scion trigger activate Moltensteel's pump.
  • Pay as much as you have or pay 2 life per activation.
  • Activate 12 times that can be a total of 24 life to pump Scion's power +14.
  • Resolve second Scion trigger, Scion becomes Atarka with 20 power/4 toughness.
  • Attack with Scion who is Atarka gain double strike.
  • Do 40 damage to an opponent.

Just like how you can manipulate the stack of triggers with Scion activations you can do that with Moltensteel since it's activation can be pay for at instant speed you can put activations on the stack and resolve them before you resolve the second Scion trigger to change into Atarka. Manipulating the stack means you can move triggers around and resolve them in whatever order you choose. In this case you manipulate the stack to resolve all the Moltensteel pump triggers before you resolve the second Scion trigger that turns Scion into Atarka.

With Atarka, World Render you have to activate Scion before you attack, but with Dragon Tyrant you don't have to because he has double strike and doesn't need to gain it by attacking. If using Tyrant you can change the order of the combo and do it all in combat. You first attack with Scion, if he isn't blocked at Declare Attackers step activate Scion twice first for Moltensteel and then for Tyrant. Resolve first Scion trigger for Moltensteel, then pump, then resolve second Scion trigger for Tryant.

Using Atarka with this combo you give away what you are doing because you must activate Scion before you attack to gain double strike from Atarka. Tyrant you can be more sneaky since you can activate Scion in combat at the last possible time after you know that Scion is not going to be blocked for a lethal Tyrant hit.

Scion doesn't keep abilities of Dragons you change into. After you change into a Dragon Scion loses the abilities of the Dragon before it. The ability that Scion can use is the ability of the Dragon it currently is and only that Dragon. The exception to this is if Scion gains an ability such as double strike from Atarka, World Render or if you pump or add +1/+1 counters to Scion because he's gaining those effects thus they stay with Scion even if it changes into another Dragon.

The way you activate Scion is how the Dragon you want to change into ability reads. If you want Scion to be Ojutai, Soul of Winter then you must change into her before you attack since her ability triggers when attack which means at Declare Attackers step after Combat Phase begins. Atarka, World Render and Utvara Hellkite are same way, you must change into one of them before you declare attackers.

Any Dragon who has a does combat damage to a player ability such as Balefire Dragon you can wait with Scion after you attack. If you attack with Scion and it's not blocked then you can activate it at the Declare Blockers step and change into Balefire before you do combat damage to a player which then will trigger Balefire.

Sorry for the confusion with Scion as it can be a tricky card to play, but because of the stack and instant speed activation you can take real advantage of it's tutor ability with Dragons.

legacy444 on Xenagos, I've Got You Here For 3 Minutes

2 months ago

Profet93 I'm glad you gave it a read! Let me dive into your questions.

1) I haven't really given a budget for this deck, the reason being that I play on Tabletop Simulator. Essentially, my group makes decks on Tappedout.net and we "scry" it into the game as is. It's helped tremendously to quell the quarantine boredom over the past several months. I have a few other decks that I'd like to make in real life first before this one (I'm more of a Voltron player) but if I were to make this deck in real life I'd set the limit for about $200. The above deck of course isn't even close to that because we're just playing digitally. The culprits are...

Mana Crypt: I've been thinking of subbing this card for more normal forms of ramp anyway due to it's extreme snowball potential (and my group of friends prefer fun edh over competitive). Sub it with any other form of ramp. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and Balefire Dragon: ANy big threat with utility is appreciated in Gruul. These can be substituted for any big green/red creature which fortunately there is an abundance Wooded Foothills and other special lands: With only two colors and a multitude of land searching ramp, you won't find much of a difference if you sub these out for basic lands. However always keep Mosswort Bridge and Spinerock Knoll, they are insanely easy to proc.

2) I've only played this deck in a group of 4 so my feedback will be limited but I will try my best to identify it's weaknesses from the few times I've played (but tested alone many times).

a) Counters and Bouncing: The deck is meant to play big threatening hitters from the hand turn 5 onward (Xenagos out consistently on turn 4). With more than a quarter of the deck consisting of either heavy hitters or card draw into those creatures, you can put on the pressure for quite a bit if you're drawing averagely. But almost always your entire mana will be spent to cast theses big creatures and only a small amount of mana is required to counter or bounce them. Watch our for pesky blue mages. There isn't much protection in the deck for that, I focused instead on consistently slamming a big threat each and every turn and wearing them out.

b) Card Draw: When you're playing with big creatures, sometimes you only need 1 or 2, especially with fairly sticky Xenagos on the field. However in 4's, it's not terribly unreasonable for a combination of 2 or 3 people to lock you out of your crazy burst. Card draw is naturally the best course to get yourself out of this situation (that and patience), but the card draw in here isn't quite up to the speeds of other decks and is creature reliant. I've boiled it down to this: If you do hit upon of the sources of card draw in this deck, you won't ever have to worry about card draw again.

c) You Are a Scary Gruul Player: Everyone will have there eyes on you. After blowing my friends out of the water first time with the deck I was the focus of attention in the next couple EDH games. Be prepared to get ganged up on to prevent you from quickly knocking someone out. You will find that this deck lends little political gain...which isn't so much a deck problem but an individual meta problem with your EDH group haha :) You have been warned.

d) You Build Tall, Not Wide: Your board is very thin and can get overrun by a horde of tokens. With no lifelink in the deck, you will lose a war of attrition if you can't trample or fly over your opponent's boards.

e) Little Opponent Interaction: This deck does one thing well, and that is grabbing the steel chair that Xenagos is offering and slamming Spidey to the ground (cue the name of the deck). It does so consistently. However if your opponent's are able to thwart your initial power spike and builds up a threat of their own, this deck can due little to stop it.

I'm very excited to hear some of your ideas!

HorseTribalLord on Dragons Galore

3 months ago

Okay, so budget isn't a huge deal then, and I do agree with all of multimedia's suggestions. I believe that Temur Ascendancy is a better option over Elemental Bond due to the fact that both do draw cards when creatures enter the battlefield and the difference between having 4 and 3 power doesn't affect you since most dragons are power 4 or up anyways, but ascendancy also gives creatures haste which is a big thing.

Now for upgrades

So Morophon, the Boundless is just a fantastic card especially in a five color tribal such as this, most dragon cards have only a single pip of each color in their cost, so when you combine Morophon's reduction with the Ur-dragon you can be casting dragons for a single mana... and boneyard scourge just isn't really worth all the mana in the long run. Next Balefire Dragon is just an all around great card that can keep your opponent's boards under control, and Intet, the Dreamer again isn't really worth it having to pay that three to get the card, its a neat card advantage trick, but it think there are enough ways in this deck to just straight up draw that card instead of having to pay three for it. Then the five Ikoria triomes just provide more versatility over their corresponding tri-lands just because they can not only be cycled late game, but they can also be fetched with Farseek or Skyshroud Claim which was my next suggestion specifically because of the triomes. then Dragon Broodmother is just a dragon all star giving you lots of tokens to get all of your attack triggers and to create lots of chump blockers and maybe a big guy eventually, and Crosis, the Purger again isn't really cutting it with the amount of value he gives, against a mono-colored deck it can be alright, but every color you add on to an enemy deck it gets significantly worse. and finally Thunderbreak Regent over Dragonlord's Servant because the servant is very vulnerable and doesn't provide much value in the long run while the regent is an efficient early drop dragon that helps to protect your board from targeted removal or any other targeted ability.

Pyrra on What's Your Favorite Deck?

3 months ago

Scion of the Ur-Dragon. so many neat interactions like transforming into different things when unblocked depending on the situation. surprise Balefire Dragon, nichol bolas, or even Moltensteel Dragon then Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon in the same turn for instant KO. or Teneb, the Harvester to reanimate something.

or i just dump all my mana into the ability during an opponents end step right before my turn, to load up the grave for a Patriarch's Bidding or Primevals' Glorious Rebirth with a haste guy like Dragonlord Kolaghan or Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. this also triggers a ton of damage off of Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest

Feiryn on Here there be DRAGONS!

3 months ago

Ah okay, I assumed the maybeboard were cards you were only looking at, my bad!

In that case you have a bunch of stuff that definitely could fit in the deck. For those three you mentioned Exploration is very good and can be slotted in over Rampant Growth, Canopy Vista/Smoldering Marsh can just be replaced by a Forest/Mountain, and definitely take a Sol Ring if you have a spare one.

As for others, here's the most notable you have on your maybeboard:

  • Asceticism
    • - If it resolves your dragons are almost invulnerable outside of stuff like deathtouch/boardwipes
  • Smothering Tithe
    • - Could help with ramp
  • Dragonlord Ojutai
    • - Great card advantage with hexproof half of the time
  • Glorybringer
    • - Might not be as strong as some other options but that exert can effectively be a removal spell every other turn
  • Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip
    • - Great value all around and if you manage to transform him you basically win
  • Rishkar's Expertise
    • - Pricy but casting it will probably mean refilling your hand and getting a free dragon which covers its cost
  • Cyclonic Rift
    • - EDH staple and one of the best boardwipes in the format, wipes all of your opponents' creatures, artifacts, walkers, etc
  • Force of Vigor
    • - Pretty good removal that can be manaless
  • Teferi's Protection
    • - Protects your entire side from boardwipes

For boardwipes you already have Crux of Fate and Balefire Dragon. Throwing in Cyclonic Rift would definitely be a good choice. The issue with boardwipes in decks like these is that you don't want to reset your own boardstate, but that's why the three I mentioned are so good because they only affect the opponents. Cyclonic Rift also dodges indestructable as it's a bounce effect rather than a destroy.

In my opinion, counters are generally not very effective in decks like these. It's generally more effective to run cards like Rhythm of the Wild and Asceticism as they're not one-shots, while also having the side-benefit of opponents using their counters on your other opponents instead. If you wanted to pick up additional effects like those if counters/removal are rampant in your group, I personally like Steely Resolve and Conqueror's Flail.

I actually recommending cutting Deflecting Swat as you'll only rarely have your commander out. If you want one-shot defensive utility, Veil of Summer and Autumn's Veil are amazing for that.

If you want more spot removal, I definitely recommend picking up a Path to Exile. With it, Swords to Plowshares, and Anguished Unmaking you should be good for spot removal unless you wanted to splurge on an Assassin's Trophy.

I'm unsure about Ramos, Dragon Engine. Since you're in a more casual environment they might be okay, but unless you have something like Descendants' Path down they're not really worthwhile. If you're wanting to go out and buy a fairly expensive creature, by far the best purchase you could make is Kaalia of the Vast IMO.

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