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I'm Zirilan, And These Are My Cousins! *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Artifact Battlecruiser Bracket 3 Casual Dragons Goodstuff Mono-Red

NV_1980

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Artifact (30)

Instant (2)

Creature (22)

Enchantment (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Zirilan of the Claw

Land (35)

Sorcery (3)

Welcome to I'm Zirilan, And These Are My Cousins!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this mono-red, dragon-cheat and -tutoring deck, commanded by Zirilan of the Claw. He seems like such a small lizard. Why would huge creatures like dragons listen to his call? We do not know. We do not care. There is some excellent fun to be had with Zirilan; especially when you like huge, heavily armed flyers. Even more so when it’s possible to pick the ones that suit current tactical needs. Of course, there are ways to apply Zirilan's ability more than once per turn, or to keep the dragons he’s summoning after their first turn. And let’s not forget a few combos that will benefit greatly from Zirilan’s abilities. This deck is meant to be played in casual formats. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hope you will enjoy it!

Most high-powered creatures, Dragons being no exception, take oodles of mana to summon; especially when one also wants to tutor for them before they are summoned. Enter Zirilan, who enables the tutoring for whatever dragon is needed, before putting it onto the battlefield and granting it haste. All that for the paltry cost of 1! There obviously is a downside to this kind of power. Scaled friends unleashed in this manner, will be exiled by the end of the turn. Such a waste. So, to make this deck a true force to be reckoned with, ways are needed to circumvent this predicament. Options include returning dragons to hand (or the graveyard) after they have attacked, blink them before the turn is over or even prematurely ending a turn.

The following ten parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

  • Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
  • Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
  • Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
  • Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
  • Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
  • Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
  • Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
  • Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
  • Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
  • Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

Mana: 4

Obtaining dragons fast, keeping them once obtained and repeating this process as often as possible is the way this deck needs to operate. This is an expensive process, so lots of energy is needed and cheap ways to come by it quickly. Direct, raw power-generation abilities of this deck are therefore extensive for a mono-red deck. Nine rocks, a cheapener, a mana-duplicator and an enchantment mana-battery represent its generation capacity.

Ramp: 1

This deck features one ramping option.

Card Advantage: 2

The deck’s pet-lizard, Zirilan, is a wonderful tutoring-machine. But he could use some help in obtaining more conventional draw. Opportunities for that have been added; five repeatable ones and two spells.

Overall speed: 3

Overall, this deck doesn’t have a specifically low mana-curve. It does have a good number of energy and draw resources to bank on, as well as win-conditions that can be tutored for with fair consistency at reasonable costs. Combine these factors together and one has a deck that on average has a moderate speed (high speed when one of the more powerful mana-sources becomes available).

Combo: 4

The great advantage of having a commander with tutoring, is that even a deck with just a few combos in it can be oriented towards executing them. Ah, screw it. Let’s go nuts!! This deck bolsters a few very interesting combos; most of them involving dragons in some way. None of them are really infinite though. In terms of themes, most involve damage or destruction. In other words; right up red’s alley.

Army: 4

Ow dragons. Dragons, dragons, dragons. This deck features quite a few powerful ones. Some are so powerful they need not even attack before they have already dealt a ton of damage. Or they can create even more dragons themselves. In this deck it’s a matter of quality over quantity; there aren’t a bazillion dragons in here, but every single one of them will be a serious issue for the opposition.

Commander: 2

Zirilan is instrumental in getting us cheap- and the right dragons. In most respects, he brings an element of stability and reliability. However, one doesn’t have to be fully dependent on him to win. There’s multi-functionality, synergy and simple impact the cards within this deck can have on the board-state, to pull out wins in multiple ways.

Interaction: 2

The dragons brought into play by Zirilan ought to cause impact across the boards. Amongst their number, six are able to deal a massive amount of damage upon entering the battlefield and/or attacking. Another two can wipe out permanents while a third and fourth one actually capture opposing permanents.

Resilience: 2

At first glance, this deck does not seem overly capable in dealing with opposing threats. In some ways, it really isn’t. Most noticeably, its capacity to deal with opposing spells and enchantments is a genuine Achilles heel. And yet, any deck dependent on either artifacts or creatures for their strategies is going to face some tough challenges from this deck.

Spellpower: 1

A few wipe options are represented, but that’s about it.

Total power score: 25

This decks’ creatures combined with some of its artifacts can cause some major headaches for its opposition. The deck can be reasonably fast because of its many mana resources but lacks spell-casting kick and defensive options (more of which are included in the sideboard in case I cannot do without them). All this combined forms the base for an average power score to this deck.

This deck is good at suddenly dealing a massive amount of damage that seemingly came out of nowhere, through the clever use of resources to maximize power output within a single turn. The availability of Zirilan is key to this, so building up and casting him early makes the most sense. Should our lizard friend become the target of an insistent removal campaign, the deck does contain enough mana sources to eventually hard-cast dragons as well as resources that make them more effective.

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a CMC0 or CMC1 mana rock). This is a must; it is not recommended to start a game without this hand (even if one has to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some acceleration in the form of rocks, draw- and/or filter options.

During the first few turns, try to create a stable condition under which the commander can operate and then summon him. For this, gather resources and add some support options. Once that’s done get Zirilan onto the field. Most resources will come in the form of rocks like Arcane Signet, Everflowing Chalice, Mana Vault, Mox Opal and Sol Ring.

Supporting options come in a few different flavors. First off: equipment. This will give Zirilan some staying power and/or boost his effectiveness. Some of the best options include Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots to increase resilience and Battlemage's Bracers/Illusionist's Bracers to double the effectiveness of his tutoring. Second: cheat-enablers; cards that will ensure tutored dragons will stay on the battlefield. The most powerful versions can completely circumvent the exile step (like Sundial of the Infinite and Conjurer's Closet). Then there are options to return summoned dragons to the library before one is forced to exile them (Rishadan Pawnshop and Tel-Jilad Stylus). Last but not least, cards have been included cards to which used dragons can be sacrificed for some gain (like Ashnod's Altar, Altar of Dementia and High Market). This allows recursion cards can retrieve them later. Once some of these components (which should be achievable between turns 4-6) have arrived, the game has progressed to the mid-game stage.

Time to bring in Zirilan and get tutoring. Dependent on the board-state, the appropriate dragon from the deck can be chosen. Get it onto the board (thereby triggering its ETB effects), attack with it and then keep it in play (or at worst, in the library/graveyard) by the end of the turn. Great starters include specimens like Balefire Dragon (has the potential to immediately nullify any creature advantage faster players might have gained during the early game), Dragon Mage (a great dragon to refill one’s hand), Terror of the Peaks/Scourge of Valkas (because both can generate a lot of damage based on dragons entering the field) and Lathliss, Dragon Queen/Utvara Hellkite (more (free) dragons are a good thing). Aside from winged monstrosities, this is a fine phase to also try and summon some cloning options for them, like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  , Flameshadow Conjuring and Molten Echoes.

There are a few ways to utilize Dragons in ways that will grant fun wins, like:

  • Any dragon brought into play with Zirilan of the Claw + Conjurer's Closet/Culling Dais/Reito Lantern/Rishadan Pawnshop/Tel-Jilad Stylus: Trick to keep dragons from being exiled (permanently) after their first turn on the field.
  • Any dragon brought into play with Zirilan of the Claw + Sundial of the Infinite: When Zirilan tutors a dragon onto the field, a delayed trigger is created that will exile it at the beginning of the turn’s end step. At the beginning of the end step, as a reaction to this delayed trigger appearing on the stack, activate Sundial. The first thing Sundial does, is exile all spells/abilities that are still on the stack (including Zirilan’s exile trigger). Now it’s possible to keep the tutored dragon beyond the turn it appeared.
  • Scourge of Valkas + Utvara Hellkite:
    1. With Scourge on the field, use Zirilan to haste Utvara on the field (Scourge deals 2 damage).
    2. Attack with both dragons, thereby creating two 6/6 dragons (Scourge deals 3 and then 4 damage).
    This one attack deals 19 damage in total. The damage gets much worse if the field contains more than just these two dragons to start with. One can also add Altar of Dementia to this combo and sack Hellkite and all Dragons generated with it to the Altar in order to have someone mill 18 cards off his/her library. If you have Feldon of the Third Path on the field while all this goes on, you can repeat this entire process the following turn.
  • Mycosynth Lattice + Hellkite Igniter: Set a hugely pumped Igniter onto an enemy (or add Altar of Dementia to this combo and sac Igniter to completely mill someone’s remaining library).
  • Hellkite Tyrant + Mycosynth Lattice: Steal all defending opponents’ permanents (and probably win immediately for controlling 20(+) artifacts).
  • Mycosynth Lattice + Vandalblast: Destroys all permanents that are not under the deck’s control.
  • Nevinyrral's Disk + Zirilan of the Claw + Worldgorger Dragon
    1. Cast Disk and activate it the next turn.
    2. In a response to this activation, use Zirilan to put Worldgorger Dragon onto the table.
    3. Exile all permanents you control as a result.
    4. Disk destroys Dragon (and all other permanents), after which all the deck’s own permanents return to the battlefield.

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

  • Ancient Tomb: to make Zirilan available early, this is a nice land to start with.
  • Arid Mesa/Bloodstained Mire/Scalding Tarn/Wooded Foothills: filter lands get to the meat of the deck faster when it matters.
  • Blast Zone: one of the few cards that can be used in a red deck that can actually vaporize enemy enchantments.
  • Cavern of Souls: making the tribe uncounterable makes it quite strong indeed.
  • Great Furnace: the fact that this land is also an artifact helps with some of the deck’s combos.
  • Hanweir Battlements    : in the deck because it can grant haste to creatures; especially handy for hard-casted dragons.
  • High Market: allows sacrificing dragons tutored with Zirilan for life, thereby putting them into the graveyard (instead of exile).
  • Homeward Path: allows for the retrieval of Zirilan in case he gets stolen.
  • Inventors' Fair: little bit of life-gain and potential win-condition tutor.
  • Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: staple land in a single-color, permanent-rich deck.
  • Reliquary Tower: because discarding is such a drag.
  • Terrain Generator: the deck's single ramp card, though it can only use land cards that are already in hand.
  • War Room: for a bit of mana and life, this land provides additional draw.

The cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

  • Ancient Copper Dragon: the most amazing treasure generator on all of the planes.
  • Arcane Signet: decent rock that comes into play untapped and provides any color; I will use it for .
  • Braid of Fire: excellent mana source; especially for activated abilities (Zirilan).
  • Chrome Mox: requires getting rid of something permanently, but that’s a small price to pay for basically an additional land!
  • Dragon's Hoard: mana source and draw opportunity in a single card.
  • Everflowing Chalice: has the potential to be a massive colorless mana source.
  • Fire Diamond: comes into play tapped, but still offers some nice .
  • Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge: this monster synchronizes well with my dragons disappearing into the GY; even more benefit!
  • Mana Vault: perfect for an opening hand; allows for casting of good resources early.
  • Mox Opal: rock that can be summoned for nothing; works, provided there are a number of artifacts already on the field.
  • Ruby Medallion: helps me to cast red stuff a little cheaper.
  • Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?
  • Thran Dynamo: a rock that’s a great source for colorless mana.
  • Throne of Eldraine: amazing mana-value for what it costs to cast, not to mention an insanely good draw-engine in a mono-color deck.
  • Treasure Nabber: allows me temporary control of mana rocks; which can be a great source of additional mana.

The mechanisms that provide me with card advantage:

  • Breaching Dragonstorm: a great way to potentially cast dragons for free.
  • Descendants' Fury: excellent sac outlet for dragons that were brought onto the field with Zirilan; has the potential to cast an additional dragon onto the battlefield. Furthermore, the dragon sacrificed ends up in my graveyard instead of into exile.
  • Dragon Mage: a successful attack triggers a Wheel of Fortune-like effect. Very useful; especially when I find myself with an empty hand first.
  • Endless Atlas: card draw if I have some mountains on the table (of which the chances are pretty good :)).
  • Scroll Rack: in essence, for just a single mana and a tap, this card increases my hand-size by as many as were in my hand to begin with.
  • Sensei's Divining Top: lets me filter and draw at negligible costs.
  • Valakut Awakening  : amazingly good wheel spell one can cast upon oneself.
  • Winds of Change: I discard a number of cards and draw the same amount. So will my opponents. So … bit of a gamble to use, but nice in situations in which I am truly stuck.

The cards I use to keep my dragons from being exiled:

  • Altar of Dementia: allows me to put dragons in my graveyard once I’ve used them and forces a mill on one of my opponents at the same time.
  • Ashnod's Altar: turns a used dragon into colorless mana, which can be used for summoning more artifacts (or hard-cast dragons).
  • Conjurer's Closet: removes the end-of-turn exile requirement from a tutored dragon by allowing me to blink it at the beginning of my end step.
  • Erratic Portal: cheap way to get my Zirilan-dragons back to my hand.
  • Reito Lantern/Rishadan Pawnshop/Tel-Jilad Stylus: put dragons back into my library after use, so they can be tutored for again next turn.
  • Sundial of the Infinite: if used as a reaction to the delayed exile trigger of Zirilan’s ability, it will remove the exile trigger (allowing for tutored dragons to remain on the battlefield forever).
  • Sword of Hearth and Home: though it allows for ramping, should its wielder come through with damage, even more importantly is its blinking function of whatever dragon one wants to keep on the field after it’s been brought forth with Zirilan.

Winged and fiery bringers of destruction and death:

  • Balefire Dragon: absolute death to the army of an opponent it can damage.
  • Dragon Tyrant: when tutored for with Zirilan, this thing has haste, flying, trample and double strike; rather terrifying for a cmc3 tutor.
  • Drakuseth, Maw of Flames: upon attacking, it deals 10 damage divided amongst at least three different targets. Then it also hits something for 7. Really one of those dragons I want to keep beyond the first turn I tutor it into play.
  • Hellkite Igniter: for just two mana, I give this a strength boost equal to the amount of artifacts I am currently fielding (including all artifacts I have (temporarily) stolen or generated.
  • Hellkite Tyrant: potential for a lot of artifact steal; in commander this alone (depending on the decks I am facing) can bring significant advantage over all others by itself.
  • Lathliss, Dragon Queen: combined with my commander, this wonderful card spawns token dragons for every non-token dragon tutored; bonus! And then there’s the added perk of boosting all my dragons on the field.
  • Parapet Thrasher: can damage, destroy artifacts and even provide card advantage whenever it or its brethren manage to damage an opponent.
  • Scourge of Valkas: dealing damage to any opposing target whenever a dragon joins my army sounds great to me. Great flexibility as it allows me to choose between taking out annoying creatures or just go for damage against players.
  • Steel Hellkite: an almost perfect targeted wipe of whatever you want wiped. Very well suited for killing token-armies as this will cost you 0 mana.
  • Summon: Bahamut: a massive dragon with some very destructive capabilities.
  • Terror of the Peaks: at CMC5, dragon-power combined with the features of Warstorm Surge is incredible value.
  • Twinflame Tyrant: a dragon that doubles our damage; definitely not meant as a one-shot deal, so preferably deployed when we have some retaining resources available.
  • Utvara Hellkite: ridiculously powerful dragon-token generator that will unbalance the game in my favor entirely, if he’s allowed to exist for more than two turns.
  • Worldgorger Dragon: in here because there’s a really funny, wanky combo to be pulled off with this thing that can be tutored for; awesome!

Combining dragon-fire with other destruction and a little utility.

Who could be against doubling the fun?

Some cards that occasionally make the cut, when the situation calls for it:

  • Defense Grid: against fast, very aggressive opponents, this card sometimes replaces a card like Endless Atlas; defense in exchange for speed.
  • Price of Glory: reactionary decks are almost disabled by this card, most of them at least; this card will occasionally replace Leyline Tyrant.
  • Mana Web: also most useful against reactionary decks; will usually replace a cloning option like Battlemage's Bracers.

This deck is still evolving. The following cards were considered but not added (yet):

  • Moonveil Dragon: not bad and seriously considered; but rejected because this deck usually fights with too few dragons at the same time to really make it worthwhile.
  • Thunder Dragon: useful as a one-off wipe for low-powered opposing combatants, that was part of the deck for some time but was recently swapped out for another card.

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

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93% Casual

Competitive

Revision 7 See all

(4 months ago)

-1 Cavern-Hoard Dragon main
+1 Summon: Bahamut main