Why you should play Drana
- You like having your commander being relevant
- You want to win through Combat
- You like infinite mana
you like having different win conditions on different Angles
You want a solid tier two choice that can hang at the big tables.
You aren't the top threat at the table till you win in one hit.
Why you shouldn't play Drana
- you don't like shuffling, Drana runs plenty of Tutors
- You want more flexibility than Mono Black can offer
- You want a straightforward plan of attack. Drana can be fluid and the best way to win can shift several times over the game.
How to win
We have a few different win conditions, The first and most common would be getting infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt monolith and playing Exsanguinate for lethal across the table. The second wincon using infinite mana is Dranas pump ability, giving her lethal in one hit. The fact Drana is a flier should not be under estimated, and even without infinite mana her ability can be useful removal and get there for damage in just a few hits.
The other route is the Graveyard. Mike and trike is a really easy combo, For those unaware Having Mikeaus and Triskellion on the field is an instant win. You have Trike remove the counters and deal damage to the opponent, then himself until he dies. Mike brings him back, rinse and repeat till table is dead. The second grave yard option is the Necrotic ooze Combo. Buried Alive and any reanimation spell is a win. Buried alive Triskellion, Phyrexian Devourer, and Necrotic ooze. Reanimate ooze, exile cards for counters, remove counters to deal damage. The limit is however large your deck is.
So we have a few ways to win, how do we get there? Board control and big mana!
In the early game we want to keep things off the board we can't handle. This means making Opponents sacrifice permanents and utilizing our mana denial until we can snowball our mana. A well timed Killing Wave or Contamination has saved me more times than Id care to admit. Once we have our big mana cards (Extraplanar lense, Crypt Ghast, liliana) we move into the next phase.
In the the midgame we continue to apply pressure with board control, allowing Drana to use her ability for removal and to sneak in some damage. Now is when we decide exactly how we are going to win. This choice will always remain fluid based on our tutors and board state, but now is when we really start to push in a certain direction.
The end game. It's all down to the wire. By now we should have picked our win condition. The end game is the hardest point. We don't have counterspell backup so you have to know how to read the table and time your kill. Refilling with necropotence or a huge ad nauseum is great here, and can definitely give you some extra oomph to push through. If exsanguinate/Buried alive gets countered we can still win. Falling back on the Big Mana nature of our deck just attacking with Drana can be enough to snake in the win. Contamination and Bitterblossom can lock out decks until you can damage them enough to win.
