A Dra-coffee-c History Lesson...
Dragonlord Dromoka and Dragonlord Atarka have long been my favorite of the five Tarkir Dragonlords, each for their embodiment of completely different aspects of the human-dragon society on the world. Atarka is primal and savage, killing anyone from humans and elementals, to even her own brood if they would challenge her; she is the true force of the wild on Tarkir. Dromoka, on the other hand, is fair and protective of everyone beneath her, believing that even the non-draconic races have the potential to earn their way to a higher place in life. This came at a cost, though: she has absolute control over what they do (in a similar way to Ojutai, though he keeps the past a secret from those in his clan in addition to restricting their actions). Necromancy and any worship or resurrection of the dead is strictly prohibited, punishable by death without mercy. Dromoka is fully aware that there are sects within her clan that both learn and practice magic she had outlawed, and doesn't care for how the heretics had broken her decrees...they would be annihilated regardless.
This is characterized through her story, her clan and above all, her card - which is the perfect way to make a deck around her. Our selesnya-scaled Dragonlord offers all the protection we can ask for on our turn, short of disabling abilities or card draw (but those can be established with other cards anyway). We let opponents have their fun - gain all the knowledge they want - but impose heavy santions on what they do, how they do it, and how it actually affects us. Truly, Dromoka is one of the most powerful of the Dragonlords out there.
What's A Dro-Mocha?
Dragonlord Dromoka is a 6-drop GW legend with Flying and Lifelink, Uncounterable, and has a p h a t butt with a 5/7 statline. The BEST part about her, though, is certainly her second ability: "Opponents can't cast spells on your turn." This, right here, is huge for a Commander to come with. It completely will stop opponents from countering our spells, killing freshly played creatures, or dare I say, trying to combo off to win on our turn.
I'm looking at you, Gitrog
Ahem, anyways, Dromoka's biggest downside is certainly her vulnerability. Although hard to kill with damage ~~barring Eldrazi and deathtouch~~, she can be bounced, nuked, or or Doom Bladeed pretty damn easily as soon as our turn ends. This is why running ways to protect our one true Dragonlord-and-savior are crucial.
Luckily in a Control/Hatebears based shell, this shouldn't be very difficult. Let's take a look at the specifics.
Harvesting Fresh Bea-...I Mean Lands.
Foremost is the manabase. Although it isn't as simplistic as Monocolor decks, two-color Selesnya decks are fortunate enough to have a fairly linear manabase, as long as you don't want to go crazy with land tactics. We have the standard GW cards like Temple Garden, Windswept Heath, Blossoming Sands, Wooded Bastion, commands tower, Sunpetal Grove, and Bountiful Promenade. For a little extra acceleration, we also have Ancient Tomb and Crystal Vein, as well as utility in Ghost Quarter, Command Beacon, Field of Ruin and Maze of Ith. This is about as complicated as it gets, since most of our focus is on our permanents.
Valid substitutions include Wasteland, Strip Mine, Glacial Fortress, Brushland, Thespian's Stage, Homeward Path, and if you really have the budget, Gaea's Cradle and Yavimaya Hollow I am trying to keep this at a mid-level budget so it's accessible, so I'm not including high cost, extreme-power cards (especially since a majority of the money for high-budget decks tend to go into the mana rocks and lands). A Selesynya deck has enough ramp and simplistic land, though, that you can run it with tap-dual lands and all basics to a similar effect.
Speaking of ramp, let's give that a quick rundown!
We have four actual mana dorks: Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Birds of Paradise, and Avacyn's Pilgrim.
With an additional three ramping spells: Cultivate, Kodama's Reach and Farseek
Two extra ramping dorks: Sakura-Tribe Elder and Weathered Wayfarer
and miscellaneous pieces that will benefits us greatly in the early game like Land Tax and Lotus Cobra.
As we MIGHT have Stony Silence or another control spell on the field later in the game, or we may end up blasting through artifacts with Creeping Corrosion or Cleansing Nova, you don't want too many actual mana rocks hanging around.
Valid substitutions are all those high-priced mana stones we all know in EDH: Lotus Petal, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Mox Opal, Chrome Mox, and Mox Diamond. Definitely out of the price range we'd want to hit with this deck, but if you have them available or wish to push this deck to the mana-efficiency limit, this is your call!
Ready The Pot! (Coffee Pot, Of Course!)
With the land and ramp established, we can get into the meat of the deck - the gameplan. The Dromoka demand absolute obedience from the lesser ones, and as such, all opponents will be made to kneel!
The first step is actually grabbing our cards. This isn't as easy in GW as it is in a combination of Black, Blue or even Red in the mix, but it's certainly viable. Sylvan Library is the quintessential green draw card for EDH, and even though it's a bit pricey, it's worth the investment. The same can be said for Enlightened Tutor, Worldly Tutor and Mirri's Guile. All of them either let us pick out exactly what we need, or rearrange the top to get it there. Similarly, recovery cards can be found through Regrowth, Eternal Witness, and Road of Return, so all our lost spells are never truly gone for long (Dromoka doensn't approve of this, but rolls with it. Trust me.).
Boiling Our Opponents In Water.
With these pieces in mind, the next stage is laying out our actual control. The last thing we want to do is let opponents get in the way of our own domination - even the other control players - so we must do whatever we can to squelch them. The best way to do this is to lay down the law outright: Archon of Valor's Reach, The Immortal Sun, Solemnity, Drannith Magistrate and Gaddock Teeg will all prohibit opponents from taking crucial actions, both on your turn before our Dragonlord hits the field, and on their own. Specifically, Magistrate will stop people from playing their own commanders, and the Immortal Sun halts all planeswalker abilities completely - which might also be commanders at the same time.
While these abilities are huge, what about abilities that stop abilities? Welcome to the party, Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Stony Silence! Opponents won't be able to use neither dorks nor rocks to ramp themselves, and be trapped with just their lands. With Thalia, Heretic Cathar, though, even those aren't safe.
My personal fun control cards of the deck, though, are Aven Mindcensor and Leonin Arbiter; competitive circles have tutors galore, and these will make sure they're tastefully limited. Not banned, just limited : D
Possible substitutions here are very variable, and can range from anything such as jank as Masako the Humorless to other control favorites like Kataki, War's Wage and Torpor Orb. They can frequently cross into the realm of our Protection or removal sections, which are also very prominent.
On the note of protection, this is likely the most important part of the deck, save for our wincons. Remember the mention of how Dromoka is weak to removal? Because she really, really is...but that's okay! We can fix that relatively easily, it just takes a turn or two of setup. If we want outright hexproof, Privileged Position, Asceticism and Shalai, Voice of Plenty all give that across our board, to both Dromoka and to us. This alone gives us a big boost in survivability for the coffee derg, and for us against anything like hand manipulation or burn. But what if we don't have Dromoka on the field yet? Grand Abolisher's got our backs, with an expanded set of Dromoka's best ability at 4-mana less. Along with him, throw down a Defense Grid, and we essentially stop any meddlers from interfering with our gameplan for a while. Or, if you need to shield yourself from an otherwise fatal blow between turns, just fade out of existence with Teferi's Protection. Ezpz.
Now for my personal favorite set of cards, which all fall in the realm of protection, with a hint of removal. The first is Library of Leng, a commonly overlooked old card; it gives us infinite hand sizes, AND immunity to wheels; if we're forced to discard and draw, we can simply set our hands back on top of our deck, and draw it all over again. I'm amazed it's only 1$, despite the printing scarcity.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is something few people anticipate: counterspells in white. Yep. Mana Tithe'ing someone after they tap out, just as they think they're safe from a blue player, is a very satisfying feeling. The same can be said for Lapse of Certainty targeting a counterspell on your own cast, which might give back the spell to the opponent, but you can be sure your will resolve this way.
In a similar realm as all of our protective permanents and spells is all of our removal, which frequently can be seen as equivalent to the protection. Here, we want to minimize the risk of destroying our Dragonlord, and focus instead on making our opponents be locked down significantly more. This is made somewhat easy through the use of artifact and enchantment wipes - Creeping Corrosion, Cleansing Nova, and Aura Shards can completely eliminate pillowfort opponent's defenses, letting us slip in for a few easier hits. If you need more sniper-style accuracy, go for Force of Vigor and Return to Dust, which both target and eliminate specific threatening static permanents. The same can be said for Song of the Dryads, although that goes for any permanent in general. This is also like Beast Within and Generous Gift, though those completely eliminate targets, not neutralize them.
Of this section, a pet card of mine is Winds of Abandon, which is just the demon spawn of Path to Exile and Cyclonic Rift. It's undervalued as hell like Library of Leng, so get it while it's hot and cheap if you can!
An odd spell out here is Ravenous Slime, but trust me, this is a worthy inclusion. It both eliminates any slain creatures from ever potentially coming back, AND gets bigger equal to their power when slain. It's something that, if only had a dragon form, Dromoka would certainly employ.
Good substitutions here would be any of the board wipes not mentioned - Planar Cleansing, Wrath of God, Shatter the Sky, Terminus, and Ondu Inversion
. The classic spells Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares can certainly also work. There's other good spells such as Nature's Claim, Grasp of Fate, Council's Judgment that can hit multiple permanent types as well.
Brewing a Dro-Mocha Latte, With Extra Cream.
Now that everything's been established, we move into late game. The aggro player's just burst all over the table, the control player's sweating with no untapped lands and five counters down the tubes, and the one casual precon user is crying at 5 life. What do we do to end things? There's two, technically three, things to reach for.
Foremost is the old fashioned beat-em-down tactic, since Dromoka only takes four hits and a ping to kill someone with Commander Damage. Usually, though, we want our dragoness alive to defend us. No, we're not risking sending her out aggressively usually - we're sitting back and casting Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista. It's important to note that for this to work, you'll need at least four mana to put into Ballista, plus two more to give it lifelink with Heliod. Once it starts, though, you machine gun the table.
If Ballista is blown up or Heliod is milled, though, we do have a backup - the classic Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience combo. It works quite fittingly with Dromoka demanding obedience, in addition to banning necromancy from her clan, so this is a flavorful power-play. It is a pricier combo to acquire due to Helm being on the Reserved List (bleh), but if you manage to get one, it's a big part of the deck.
We can always substitute in a Triumph of the Hordes to end things with combat damage, or perhaps kithcen finks + Blasting Station + Solemnity, the latter which is already in the deck under our control section. Melira, Sylvok Outcast can also be thrown into the deck in place of Solemnity if need be. For a budget option, Presence of Gond + Midnight Guard is an old Pauper combo that gets literally out of control very fast. It's also one of the fastest of the combos to play out mana-wise, you just have to be wary of board wipes in the turn before you can kill everyone.
MMM...Victory Tastes Like Dragon.
Okay, maybe not so much tasting like pure dragon, since Dromoka's a little scaled back in terms of participation in slaying people, but no less important (I can't stop the puns, it hurts)! She's our draconic bastion, or fortress of draco-tude, our...wall. Literal wall to hide behind. Hatebears and control are never fun to play against, but with our Dragonlord at our side, we can make it a little more interesting, at the very least. After all, who ever expects a non-blue Dragonlord to hurt them this bad?
With all of this in mind, I hope you enjoyed looking through the decklist and reading through this brief primer, as I really enjoyed making it. It took inspiration from my Mirri primer (check that out too if you're interested!) and turned it from being...fur-y to scale-y. Plus more than a few changed pieces and parts.
Any suggestions on alternatives to add or other combos to win with are always appreciated! If you like it, be sure to upvote! Thank yoooooooou!
