Bladewing's Thrall
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Bladewing's Thrall

Creature — Zombie

Bladewing's Thrall has flying as long as you control a Dragon.

When a Dragon enters the battlefield, you may return Bladewing's Thrall from your graveyard to play.

Reznor31 on Voltron, Dracolich

2 years ago

I love Bladewing's Thrall, such an under appreciated card in my opinion.

X-Factor11105 on Dragon Jesus (Bladewing the Risen EDH)

3 years ago

Hi bomb_arie! Good thought on Bladewing's Thrall! It's definitely a strong payoff, though there's a few reasons why I've omitted it (and, to a lesser extent, the similarly-styled Boneyard Scourge):

Synergy: Thrall doesn't trigger Dragon Tempest, Lathliss, Dragon Queen, or Scourge of Valkas since its a Zombie, while Terror of the Peaks works alongside everything. Since our commander needs a long time before it comes down, the early and mid-game plays have to be consistent and impactful, and a 3/3 flier, while helpful, can be out-classed. Speaking of early and mid-game...

Impact: Thrall can't ramp like the dorks, sad robot, and Dockside Extortionist, it doesn't further the strategy like Chainer, Nightmare Adept, Goblin Engineer, or Merchant of the Vale, and isn't a game-winning combo piece like Dualcaster Mage. Without providing additional benefit to the deck, its hard to justify adding it in - the strategy is already convoluted (ramp! draw! discard! reanimate! combo!), anything that doesn't facilitate one of those aspects is going to be hard-pressed to have a slot.

If there's a card in the list you'd want to discuss swapping out in favor of Thrall, I'd love to chat it out :)

bomb_arie on Dragon Jesus (Bladewing the Risen EDH)

3 years ago

Bladewing's Thrall put it in. He's great with Buried Alive and Anger and a Dragon of choice. Play your Commander and strike with three big flyers.

Kazierts on Sarkhan's Swarm

4 years ago

There are some other "targets" for discard, but I don't think all of these are the best for you. I'll list each of them instead of loads of paragraphs.

  1. Punishing Fire - Could be a replacement for Spit Flame but honestly that's up to you. Punishing Fire is technically more versatile since it hits any target and depending on the matchup it can be easier to retrieve. However, Spit Flame has an easier time removing creatures. This one more to just let you know exists.

  2. Flamewake Phoenix - Again, a card that I'm mentioning just to let you know exists. Since most of your dragons have 4 or more power, you could easily get this card back from your graveyard but you would also deviate a bit from the draconic theme.

  3. Ore-Scale Guardian - This one isn't a target himself, but he makes it more profitable for you to discard lands, specially if you end up being mana flooded.

  4. Runehorn Hellkite - Can be used to refill your hand late game(?) and as he's no diffenrent from other dragons, there's no downside letting him rest in your grave until you active it's effect.

  5. Fiery Temper - Basically adds 3 damage for one mana to all of your discard spells.

These are the monored option. I also have options that would actually require you to splash for black. These are, of course, not mandatory for you to run, but it's always good to get to know more cards.

  1. Bladewing the Risen -A giant dragon that reanimates another one when it comes into play and also has the ability to pump all your dragons. Obviously he's not a target for discard himself. However, he can make other dragons more interesting to discard.

  2. Boneyard Scourge - Pretty simple. Dump him into the graveyard and when one of your dragons die, you get him back for a really cheap cost.

  3. Bone Dragon - A recurrable dragon that can be left in the grave until the late game when it can come back multiple times, assuming you have enough cards in the grave.

  4. Dread Return - By sacrificing 3 Bladewing's Thrall you could get a free reanimation spell since when you get the dragon back from the graveyard you'll also get the Thralls back.

In case you consider any of these black cards or you just don't feel confortable not bein able to cast the Thralls, there are a few budget lands that can help you with the mana. Also, the Haven of the Spirit Dragon could help you cast the black dragons but not activate their abilities.

About the cuts for the Thralls, you are still above 60 cards. There are some other cuts you can also make.

  1. Dragonspeaker Shaman - They're quite expensive and you already have a pretty decent amount of "ramp" and cost discounts. Even more, they're really easy to kill.

  2. Slumbering Dragon - He seems quite tempting to play as he can grow a lot. However, that's the problem, he CAN grow but nothing guarantees he will. Also, only one in the deck won't help at all.

  3. Sarkhan's Triumph - Since you now have more card draw, you could maybe cut one of these.

  4. For the Thralls I'd cut one Spinerock Knoll , Mudslide and the two Dragon Egg s.

cheezhuntingbirds on Sarkhan's Swarm

4 years ago

Are there any other good discard cards apart from Anger ? I would like to add a couple more cards that benefit from discarding. I also see what you mean with Bladewing's Thrall , if it were to be added, what cards should be switched out?

Kazierts on Sarkhan's Swarm

4 years ago

Probably four copies of Faithless Looting and two copies of Cathartic Reunion .

Even though cycling is important to ditch bricks in your hand, it's also good to have targets that incentivise you to discard, like Bladewing's Thrall .

I know it may look like without being able to cast it that's an uselees card. However, since you're adding discard spells to the deck, it becomes possible to effectively use it. Also, you'd never want to cast it anyway. Four mana por a "vanilla" 3/3 is never a good deal.

Another good discard target would be Anger . By having it in your graveyard all of your creatures automatically have haste, regardless of their types, while also not requiring any mana investiment. Just to provide an example:

Still on the discard topic, there is a card that can also help you cycle through your deck while cheapening the cost of your dragons, and that is Hazoret's Monument . It's more resilient than Dragonspeaker Shaman and reduces the cost of all of red creatures instead of just dragons.

I also suggest replacing Bolt Bend by Draconic Roar since the latter is way more useful and less situational.

A great card for any dragon deck is Thunderbreak Regent as it's cheap and gives amazing protection to your dragons.

cheezhuntingbirds on Sarkhan's Swarm

4 years ago

I don't think I'm going to run Bladewing's Thrall or Dragon Scales because without Cathartic Reunion or Faithless Looting they are useless. It would only take up space most of the game, and since they aren't red cards, they would not be able to be played.

I think Fledgling Dragon could be good because it's a red card so it could be played normally, and since it is also a dragon, it will benefit from all of the cards that focus around dragons, like Dragon Tempest

With Dragon Scales , It only returns to the battlefield when a dragon with converted mana cost 6 or greater enters the battlefield, but there are only 4 cards in the deck that cost that much mana. Even if it were to be discarded it would probably stay in the discard for a while.

With Bladewing's Thrall , I think it could be a good card to run, except for the fact that it is unplayable unless you draw Faithless Looting or Cathartic Reunion . It also only has flying if you control a dragon, so If you don't control a dragon, it won't have flying and will be vulnerable to Mudslide and Flame Sweep .

I will add Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion because I agree that cycling will be helpful. How many copies should I run?

Kazierts on Sarkhan's Swarm

4 years ago

If it's a casual deck then there are lots of things you can do. Before I start suggesting things, in the end this is your deck. So even if I say some things could be better according to my opinion, you should only pick those you aggre or that you think we'll make the deck more confortable to play with.

Again, first things first. You still need to trim it down to 65 cards. No decks, except for Battle of Wits ones but those are exceptions, run above than 60 cards. Having extra 5 cards will only make it harder to draw the cards you want.

One of the things I immediately would cut is Zirilan of the Claw . He isn't that budget friendly and rather slow as you have to pay 5 mana, wait one turn and then pay 3 mana to activate its ability.

Another one to cut would be Dragonmaster Outcast . I know he's very appealing to play with, but he's a few problem that will probably let you down some times. First, since you're playing monored you don't have any ramp, you'll need to rely on drawing lands every single turn while also having to draw and play him just to meet the requirements of his effects. Second, he's just a 1/1, so having him survive even a single turn can be really hard as he also doesn't have any form of protectio. Third and last, since you have Flame Sweep you would either restrain yourself from playing it to keep him alive or be forced into a situation that you would need to kill him alongside other creatures to survive.

Cutting one Drakuseth, Maw of Flames and one Verix Bladewing shoukld also be fine. They're ok cards but since they're legendary you'll be able to have more than on the field anyway. Also, casting Verix Bladewing without kicking would just make him basically a vanilla dragon, which wouldn't really impact the board. However, he can be a nice late game option.

Replacing the 3 copies of Sarkhan's Dragonfire and one copy of Dragonspeaker Shaman for something like Cathartic Reunion or Faithless Looting should help with consistency. The effect on the the Dragonfire is "nice" in conjunction with the damage but there are better damage and card advantage spells you can use. Dragonspeaker Shaman also isn't too budget friendly while being kinda easy to remove from the field, which would make the mana you spent useless.

It may not seem really useful to use cards like Cathartic Reunion or Faithless Looting since you wouldn't benefit much aside from digging through your deck. However, I ahve some things you could add to capitalize on the discard.

  1. Bladewing's Thrall - With spells that make you discard you wouldn't even need to run black mana in your deck, just discard them and as soon as one of your dragons comes into play you would get them all back. Also, Dragon Tempest would give them haste if you have a dragon in play.

  2. Dragon Scales - Depending on the dragons you choose to run, you could discard this and as soon as a dragon comes into play it would get a small buff and vigilance.

  3. Fledgling Dragon - This one wouldn't benefit from being discarded but would from filling the graveyard.

I'd like to see what you think about these before continuing.

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