Knollspine Dragon

Creature — Dragon

Flying

When Knollspine Dragon enters the battlefield, you may discard your hand and draw cards equal to the damage dealt to target opponent this turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	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
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

temeref on The Malevolent Sink Eater

11 months ago

Commander_JAR yeah pretty much! Red's pool of tutors is limited, but it's able to generate a ton of mana in a pinch. Sarkhan's Triumph exists and I was running it for a while before realizing that it's almost always worse than Dragonstorm if you're tutoring a 6+ mana dragon -- and that's if you tutor for only one dragon. There has been 0 times out of the last... 7? Games I've played with this deck where I haven't been able to get the storm count to 1 before casting it, which is just a solid rate overall (and is difficult to interact with/counterspell because storm is busted as a mechanic lol). If there's something like Mycosynth Lattice in play you'll get even more mana generated back with no further setup by tutoring for & swinging with Cavern-Hoard Dragon. That's pretty much the whole point of the deck; shenanigans which result in lots of treasures for shimatsu.

'Course, if you want to add more dragons like Scourge of Kher Ridges or Knollspine Dragon that can work too. I just never found the need for it myself since making treasures en-masse tends to be enough. Also exiling them to impulse draw is rough! The deck's land count is low for the same reason.

Spell_Slam on This Is Going To Hurt

1 year ago

Good list! I got some ideas for my own, so thanks!

In terms of enablers, Keen Duelist and Descent into Avernus are quite strong. Walking Ballista (and to a lesser extent Hangarback Walker) also makes a great enabler in the early game or a giant threat in the mid/late game. Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip is great as a ramp spell that fixes and also enables casting Rakdos. I am also playing Insolent Neonate, which has worked out surprisingly well, though there may be better options out there. I see you're not running Heartless Hidetsugu, which I think is a must-have for this deck. It makes dumping out your hand and killing every opponent trivially easy.

When it comes to payoffs, I really like playing as many colourless cards as possible to really take advantage of Rakdos. I see you're missing Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Emrakul, the Promised End in your top-end. In terms of other colourless cards, I like Duplicant as a potentially free removal spell, Wurmcoil Engine for the value, Myr Battlesphere for early damage output and Steel Hellkite as a flying threat that can wipe out huge chunks of the board.

When it comes to coloured payoffs, I stopped playing cards that cost more than {B}{B} or {R}{R} in their costs, as they wouldn't play well with the Rakdos discount. I do like Sheoldred, Whispering One, Knollspine Dragon and Balefire Dragon.

With Whip of Erebos and Exquisite Blood in the deck, is seems like Sanguine Bond would be a great include as a combo finisher.

In terms of cuts, Lightning Bolt seems like an easy one to let go. I stopped playing haste-givers because I found myself playing creatures post-combat most of the time anyways, so something like Rising of the Day could be an easy cut. Read the Bones seems like a really weak card that could be replaced with better card draw or recursion (Necropotence?). I see the combo with Tectonic Hazard and Death-rattle Oni, but that seems pretty niche otherwise and could be replaced with more reliable/repeatable enablers instead. Spawn of Mayhem seems pretty awkward in this deck, as you'll rarely be able to cast it before turn 4 even with Spectacle (and we know what turn 4 is for! :) ). The triple-black on Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Dread Cacodemon are pretty restricting, in my opinion. Indulgent Tormenter seems very unreliable and probably not worth the cost.

Jet Medallion and Ruby Medallion are not at their best here, as they reduce colourless costs instead of adding mana, which means that with Rakdos out they may not even do anything.

Basshunter on Blink Dragons - ZurgOjutai

1 year ago

Hey mate, when you talk about Dragon-Blink, my mind goes like Terror of the Peaks and Knollspine Dragon.

What you think about them?

shock7123 on Tor Wauki, the Pinger

1 year ago

Made_Compleat all of those are solid suggestions, though I went more for the burn approach than the... dragon's approach (pun intended.) I used to run Bladewing in an earlier build, but then I realized I had more fun racking up as much damage as possible per Dragon's Approach. May have to make a cut for Dragon Mage, though, since refilling my hand with Dragon's Approach is always a good way to go. Currently the main target I find with DA's second ability is Knollspine Dragon, which I just use to refill my hand and keep slinging more spells with it. Let me take a look at your Davros real quick, see what I can suggest for ya.

NV_1980 on NV_1980

1 year ago

RBDoucette Apologies; missed Endless Atlas entirely when I was going over your list. With regard to finding a spot for Dragon Mage, it depends on how the deck plays thus far; are you more comfortable with the damage it deals or the amount of draw it generates? If it's the former, I'd probably replace Spawn of Thraxes (his ability is a one-shot deal anyway). If it's the latter, I'd probably replace Knollspine Dragon for more or less the same reason; Mage's draw-ability can be used more often.

NV_1980 on Lathliss, Queen of the Red Dragons

1 year ago

Hi RBDoucette,

Looks like a solid build to me. You've got plenty of mana sources available to keep summoning Dragons. One excellent upgrade could be an Urza's Incubator to cast all of them for 2 less (this is an expensive upgrade though). More draw resources could also do you some good. Ideas that come to mind are Endless Atlas (your deck features enough Mountains to make this worth the include). Dragon Mage can be fun too and let's not forget Bonders' Enclave either. As for other ideas, Conjurer's Closet can give you guaranteed Dragon tokens when you have Lathliss and another non-token Dragon on the battlefield. Also, a lot of fun can be had by using Cloudstone Curio to (re)summon Dragons and enjoy the benefits of returning ETB triggers like those from Demanding Dragon, Knollspine Dragon and Red Dragon. When using Curio/Closet, you also benefit greatly from Dragons that damage others upon ETB of new dragons, like Scourge of Valkas, Terror of the Peaks and Wrathful Red Dragon.

Hope this helped!

king-saproling on

1 year ago

Personally I would make these swaps:

Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch -> Ruby Medallion
Necropotence -> Syr Carah, the Bold
Rhystic Study -> Spellweaver Helix
Jeweled Lotus -> Reckless Barbarian
Mox Amber -> Cheering Fanatic
Firebrand Archer -> Chart a Course
Dimir Signet -> Sign in Blood
Chromatic Lantern -> Ancestral Vision
Talisman of Dominance -> Knollspine Dragon
Vampiric Tutor -> Niv-Mizzet, Parun
Thought Vessel -> Thrumming Stone
Faithless Looting, Toxic Deluge, Wheel of Misfortune, An Offer You Can't Refuse, Negate, Mana Drain, Chaos Warp, Deadly Rollick, Deflecting Swat, Pongify, Teminate, Stubborn Denial, Lightning Greaves -> 13x Dragon's Approach

AWebb on Solphim, Approach of the Dominus

1 year ago

Looks pretty good, but I would suggest replacing Red Dragon and/or Knollspine Dragon with more powerful cards like Drakuseth, Maw of Flames or Balefire Dragon.