[Primer] Dragon's Shadow - Rivaz EDH

Commander / EDH Aggro BR (Rakdos) Combo Dragons Flying Midrange Ramp

Hydrax

Creature (29)

• 1x Dragonlord's Servant
• 1x Goblin Engineer
• 1x Dragonspeaker Shaman
• 1x Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1x Boneyard Scourge
• 1x Immersturm Predator
• 1x Leyline Tyrant
• 1x Territorial Hellkite
• 1x Thunderbreak Regent
• 1x Ganax, Astral Hunter
• 1x Glorybringer
• 1x Goldspan Dragon
• 1x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
• 1x Scourge of Valkas
• 1x Stormbreath Dragon
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1x Wrathful Red Dragon
• 1x Dragonlord Kolaghan
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Mordant Dragon
• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Bladewing the Risen
• 1x Brainstealer Dragon
• 1x Dragon Mage
• 1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1x Utvara Hellkite

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Molten Echoes

Land (37)

• 1x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Blightstep Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Haunted Ridge
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 16x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 4x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Sulfurous Mire
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Tainted Peak
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Instant (9)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Abrade
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Infernal Grasp
• 1x Pyretic Ritual
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Spit Flame

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Sarkhan, Fireblood
• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Orb of Dragonkind
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Ruby Medallion
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind
• 1x Dragon's Hoard
• 1x Hazoret's Monument
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Urza's Incubator

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Damnation

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This deck has been moved to Moxfield. It will no longer be updated here.

Introduction & Gameplan

Introduction & Gameplan

Rivaz of the Claw is the Rakdos Dragon commander we've been waiting for. He does everything we want in a deck like this. He can tap for 2 mana to cast Dragon spells, essentially making him a Shaman of Forgotten Ways for our purposes. But on top of that he allows us to recast a Dragon from our graveyard every turn, very much like Karador, Ghost Chieftain.

The gameplan here is simple:

1. Ramp as quickly as possible, get cost reducers on the board, get Rivaz on board, use rituals, do whatever it takes to start casting Dragons

2. Control the board with burn spells and abilities, do not allow opponents to build or maintain a board

3. Dominate the skies with Dragon after Dragon. This is a Rakdos deck, it pays to be aggressive.

4. If possible, look to assemble the Bladewing the Risen + Molten Echoes + Dragon Tempest combo to end the game decisively.

Packages

Packages

Ramp (24)

• Rivaz of the Claw, Sarkhan, Fireblood, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Rakdos Signet, Talisman of Indulgence, Dragon's Hoard, Orb of Dragonkind and Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind all produce mana on their own.

• Atsushi, the Blazing Sky, Goldspan Dragon and Ganax, Astral Hunter all creature Treasures that can be sacrificed for mana.

• Leyline Tyrant lets us store excess Red mana so we can use it later.

• Dragonlord's Servant, Dragonspeaker Shaman, Ruby Medallion, Hazoret's Monument, Herald's Horn and Urza's Incubator all reduce the cost of our spells.

• Dark Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual and Seething Song all produce more mana than it costs to use them.

Removal (24)

• Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Leyline Tyrant, Glorybringer, Scourge of Valkas, Terror of the Peaks, Thundermaw Hellkite, Wrathful Red Dragon, Mordant Dragon, Balefire Dragon, Drakuseth, Maw of Flames, Abrade, Spit Flame and Dragon Tempest can all deal burn damage to creatures.

• Hoard-Smelter Dragon and Abrade can both destroy Artifacts.

• Hellkite Tyrant doesn't destroy artifacts but it does steal them, which is arguably better.

• Feed the Swarm can get of a creature OR enchantment.

• Steel Hellkite and Chaos Warp can get rid of any permanent.

• Dead of Winter, Toxic Deluge and Damnation are all board wipes.

• Infernal Grasp and Terminate can all destroy creatures.

• Basilisk Collar when equiped to a damage-dealing Dragon (example: Scourge of Valkas) means that any amount of damage it deals to an enemy creature will be enough to kill it, whether its combat damage or burn damage from its effect. And we benefit from Lifelinking that damage as well.

Card Draw (6)

• Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood and Dragon's Hoard each draw us cards.

• Dragon Mage can refill our hand when it connects with damage.

• Sarkhan, Fireblood and Hazoret's Monument let us loot.

Combos

Combos

Requirements:

• Molten Echoes on the field.

• Bladewing the Risen in hand. It can also be in the graveyard but you will need Rivaz of the Claw on the field to be able to cast it out of the graveyard. During the combo, you can stack triggers in such a way that Bladewing will not be exiled due to Rivaz's exile clause.

• A damage dealer upon ETB effect, in other words any of the following: Terror of the Peaks, Scourge of Valkas or Dragon Tempest.

Steps:

1. Cast Bladewing the Risen and Molten Echoes will trigger.

2. Create a token copy of Bladewing the Risen, but you can't have it on the field alongside the original due to the Legend rule.

3. Sacrifice the original one to the Legend rule, then when the token copy's effect resolves, use it to revive the original Bladewing the Risen

4. Legend rule kicks in again, except this time get rid of the token copy.

5. Molten Echoes triggers again.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 an infinite number of times. In each step of this loop, you'll be dealing damage to an opponent from Scourge of Valkas, Terror of the Peaks or Dragon Tempest due to dragons entering the battlefield. Also, each iteration of this loop has two Bladewing triggers: the one from the original, physical card and the one from the token copy. The token copy will always revive the original, but you can revive any other dragon you want with other trigger. So you can do this loop for infinite damage and revive every dragon in your graveyard while doing it.

Upgrades

Upgrades

This deck was built as a more casual deck that can sometimes assemble an infinite damage combo if we're lucky. However, if you want to power it up and make it more consistent, you have access to Sarkhan's Triumph as well as every black tutor under the sun (Demonic Tutor, Grim Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent, etc.).

You can also run Heartless Summoning because dragons really don't care about a -1/-1 debuff since the trade-off of being {2} less to cast is almost always worth it.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Copy Clone, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Treasure
Folders	Modern deck options, Modern Decks I Did Not Make, Notes, EDH - Reanimator