Rise of Dragons

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos)

That_Salty_Gamr

Creature (23)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Backdraft Hellkite
• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Bogardan Hellkite
• 1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames *f-pre*
• 1x Glorybringer
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Lathliss, Dragon Queen
• 1x Malfegor
• 1x Merchant of the Vale
• 1x Nesting Dragon
• 1x Opportunistic Dragon
• 1x Rapacious Dragon
• 1x Ryusei, the Falling Star
• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Scourge of Valkas
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Skarrgan Hellkite
• 1x Skyline Despot
• 1x Terror of Mount Velus
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Utvara Hellkite
• 1x Worldgorger Dragon

Instant (7)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Thrill of Possibility

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Liliana, Waker of the Dead
• 1x Sarkhan, Fireblood
• 1x Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

Land (35)

• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x High Market
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 12x Mountain
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunscorched Desert
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Wasteland

Artifact (11)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dragon's Hoard
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Commander (1)

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Burning Inquiry
• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Fiery Confluence
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Goblin Lore
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Ransack the Lab
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Underworld Breach

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I built this deck from scratch, using only suggested cards from EDHrec.

The general idea of the deck is to put powerful, threatening dragons into your graveyard and then use reanimation spells to put them back onto the battlefield and swing for huge chunks of damage. But before I get into the meat of this deck, I'd like to point out that this deck has undergone some radical changes of late, with some of the previously good cards being removed for some others.

Let's begin with the most important part of the deck, which is definitely the discard/self-mill effects as they best help engage your strategy and are required in order to fulfil the 3-card (minimum) infinite combo that is played in this deck (though is not required to win and can be cut if so wished). Gamble , Entomb and Buried Alive do double-duty, serving as both tutors and yard enablers - with Altar of Dementia simply serving as the best mill effect to be played and free sac-outlet. The rest in this category includes the looters/rummagers, such as: Merchant of the Vale , Burning Inquiry , Faithless Looting , Goblin Lore , Cathartic Reunion , Tormenting Voice , Thrill of Possibility , Ransack the Lab , Sarkhan, Fireblood and, yes, even Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded .

In addition to the above rummagers/looters/mill effects, there is also additional card draw and discard options. Castle Locthwain gives a single card at the expense of life. Key to the City functions as an easy discard outlet but with the option for card draw as well. Geier Reach Sanitarium is a loot effect for all players, but gives this deck the most advantage due to its strategy. Mind Stone and Dragon's Hoard both function as mana rocks and card draw when necessary. Finally, Malfegor and Sire Of Insanity are both creatures that can be easily reanimated to make yourself (or everyone in the case of Sire) hellbent.

Not including my commander, there a total of 20 dragons housed within the deck. All of them have additional utility outside of being reanimation targets, such as Worldgorger Dragon which goes infinite with Animate Dead , Dance of the Dead or Necromancy . This combo creates infinite mana, which can allow you to win in any number of ways like Skarrgan Hellkite or Sunscorched Desert .

Lathliss, Dragon Queen , Utvara Hellkite , Skarrgan Hellkite all have additional use in killing your opponents quicker, though every dragon has it's place in this deck and it would take too long to explain them all. Ultimately, the dragon choices are my own and are, in my opinion, the best this deck can play. But, you could easily substitute some of them for your own preferences.

Outside of the previously mentioned auras, there is some extra reanimation spell and effects. Reanimate is just the best and cheapest reanimation spell to be played in a deck like this. Liliana, Death's Majesty is repeatable recursion, as well as acting as a self-mill engine. And Living Death is both mass reanimation and a board wipe.

Removal and interaction is obviously an important part to this deck as well. Keeping the board clear or your opponents off of your back is necessary in order to ensure a win for any player with any deck. Imp's Mischief , Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast are all interactive spells that can attack control players attempting to interfere with your strategy. Other important mentions are: Dismember for single-target cheap removal, Rakdos Charm functioning as a modal interactive spell and Chaos Warp for flexible permanent removal. Despite all this interaction, I still run 6 board wipes in total. This ranges from Living Death (performing double-duty as mentioned); to Toxic Deluge , Blasphemous Act and Damnation as cheap, straight-forward board wipes; including Shatterstorm for much needed artifact hate; and even Ryusei, the Falling Star who is often a board wipe on a stick.

The mana base to this deck is fairly standard. Lands which help produce your two needed colours, supported by a total of 8 mana rocks in which to ramp into some of the more expensive spells - especially needed if the reanimation strategy is interrupted with yard hate.

However, there are some other utility lands still gone unmentioned. There are two further sacrifice outlets in the form of High Market and Phyrexian Tower which are primarily includes due to the free activation, to be used as means of ensuring your dragons go to the graveyard instead of being removed by other means - though Tower does allow you to ramp as long as there is fodder to sacrifice. Both Wasteland and Strip Mine are, in my opinion as a commander player, a necessary evil for use against lands that actively hurt your chances of winning (or potentially someone else's). Such lands could be: Maze of Ith , Glacial Chasm , an opposing Blast Zone , Dark Depths , Gaea's Cradle or even Maze's End (the list of harmful lands is long). Bojuka Bog is some additional graveyard hate for other players also using a reanimation or graveyard value strat. And, last but not least, Blast Zone is a land that has gone underrated in EDH as it can easily deal with any nonland permanent with no necessary colour limitations.

I am extremely proud of this deck. It was my second only deck within the EDH format and was, for the most part, constructed entirely by myself with only some minor help from EDHrec and some occasional helpful recommendations from friends. All this has also been done utilising a commander that is, largely, considered bad due to the expensive mana cost and somewhat underwhelming abilities when compared to other commander decks that reach the 75% level using a graveyard based strategy.

If you have any question after checking out this list, then please do ask them.

Thank you for reading.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.62
Tokens	Dragon 2/2 R, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Dragon Egg 0/2 R, Emblem Liliana, Waker of the Dead, Monarch Emblem, Treasure
Folders	EDH Decks, 6) Cool deck ideas