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Death By Burnination *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Battlecruiser Casual Dragons Multiplayer RG (Gruul)

NV_1980

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Creature (30)

Instant (3)

Land (36)

Enchantment (9)

Commander (1)

Commander: Atarka, World Render

Artifact (10)

Sorcery (9)

Planeswalker (2)

Welcome to Death By Burnination !

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of my Gruul, dragon-tribe deck; commanded by Atarka, World Render. Behold, the blessed Burninatrix from the plane of Tarkir! By some, she is considered to be the ultimate huntress. Cunning, fierce, immensely powerful; dispensing unholy burnination to all in her way. She reigns the skies wherever she goes. Her tremendous appetite, as well as those of her brood, need to be satiated with vast quantities of flesh. Right now, your flesh seems especially appealing to them. So unless you’re keen on learning what the inside of a dragon-belly looks (and smells) like, you’d better hide or cover yourself in foul-smelling stuff before Atarka can get near you. This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course I welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; I hope you will enjoy it!

Two reasons. The most important one pertains to her ridiculous boosting ability. Dragons by themselves are already quite scary, but it’s something else entirely to give all of them double strike upon attacking; including Atarka herself, I might add! This last bit ties into the second reason I like her; her power is such that she only needs two unimpeded attacks to finish off an opponent with commander damage. Her most obvious downside is of course her casting cost. Resummoning her can therefore become a bit tricky, but there are ways to deal with that.

I use the following ten parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); 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: 5

With an army as mana-dependent as this, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go all-out on this front. No fewer than ten dorks (some of them Dragons themselves), four mana rocks and four permanents that cheapen the casting of Dragons enhance this deck’s mana supply.

Ramp: 3

Featuring green in a deck, means there’s plenty of ways to accelerate the availability of lands (and other mana-sources). Five sorceries and a single permanent have been added to this end.

Card Advantage: 4

In order to keep things moving along, it’s prudent to add enough card advantage resources. Direct draw provisions are this deck’s most important weapon of choice towards that end (eight cards), but it also contains stuff with which I can top-deck, scry, cheat and steal (five cards).

Overall speed: 3

Let’s face it; Dragons are expensive to cast, though one does get good value for one’s mana. Setting up everything to steadily produce winged, fire-breathing monstrosities (usually) takes a bit. Still, well over half this deck’s cards cost 3 or less mana to play. Most of these are mana, ramp or draw cards so chances are in the deck-wielder’s favor to summon Atarka’s spawn (or the great queen herself) relatively early.

Combo: 1

Sure, this deck’s got a few, but not enough to write home about.

Army: 5

A mass of strong fliers is hard to beat. Within the bowels of this deck, twenty winged-furnaces stand ready to burn the opposition’s forces to cinders. Each Dragon also brings at least one strong ability into the fight. Amongst a plethora of powers, one finds interesting utility like Treasure generation, massive non-combat damage, token generation, destruction and theft.

Commander: 5

Having Atarka around is obviously awesome. Her boost’s power cannot be overstated. Her brood is however perfectly capable by itself to mop the floor with most opposing armies.

Interaction: 4

As mentioned in the ‘Army’ section, the Dragons in this deck are not exactly vanilla creatures. About half of them, along with some other cards within my spell-arsenal, provide powerful interaction opportunities. Most notably amongst them; the ability to deal vast amounts of non-combat damage (eight cards). There’s also opportunity for inhibition (three cards) and destruction (four cards) along with a smattering of other powers.

Resilience: 2

Not exactly the deck’s strong suit, but it does feature three options to prevent my (dragon) spells from being countered as well as three spells that provide (Atarka with) some protection.

Spellpower: 3

In all, I’d say about ten powerful non-creature spells are featured in this deck; best represented category being destruction. Other powerful ones include creature boosts, additional combat and draw.

Total power score: 35

The Gruul guild provides a very solid base for a Dragon-oriented deck. It has the potential to get mana out fast, which is the main prerequisite to get a tribal deck like this going. Add a good smattering of card-advantage, boosts and the occasional destructive spell and you get something truly powerful. Atarka’s support provides the cherry on top of the Sundae.

In its most basic sense, this deck aims to win through the application of massive combat damage. To increase this amount at a steady pace, I need the resources to keep casting angry critters. Preferably multiple times a turn. Thus while games progress, I want to bring large amounts of resources to bear that allow for spell-casting both before and after combat phases. Winning through the application of commander-damage can be considered a secondary objective. I’d like to be aggressive early, with the first Dragons appearing from turn 3-4, though not at the expense of resource gathering during the initial stages of games.

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet or Sol Ring). This is a must; I’m not going to start a game without this hand (even if I have to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

As I’m using cards featured within the Gruul guild, I get to use all sorts of excellent, fast ways to make mana available to myself. The cheapest way to do that, would be through ramping. A card like Exploration is top tier for this, but other favorites include sorceries like Nature's Lore, Rampant Growth and Three Visits. Next to these, some dorks (like Birds of Paradise, Bloom Tender and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds) and rocks (Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind, Dragon's Hoard and Gruul Signet) can provide additional mana as well. Also, let’s not forget the cards that cheapen my Dragon castings, like card:Dragonlord Servant, Dragonspeaker Shaman, Shadow in the Warp and Urza's Incubator.

Next to building up my mana reserves, I give priority to card-advantage resources. Most notably Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top because these are useful by themselves. Once I’m (nearly) ready to summon Dragons however, enchantments like Colossal Majesty and Elemental Bond also become important. In order for the arrival of my Dragons having maximum effect, I also prefer to precede their coming with casts like Dragon Tempest, Rhythm of the Wild and Vexing Shusher.

Ideally, the first Dragons should start to appear by the end of this phase. The best ones create mana resources (through ETB and/or attacks) that will allow me to keep casting Dragons. Favorites include Ancient Copper Dragon, Goldspan Dragon, Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient, Old Gnawbone and Savage Ventmaw.

Now the Dragon-summoning starts in earnest. Resource Dragons mentioned in the previous section are still given priority. Of special note are Augur of Autumn (whom by this stage is capable of acting both as ramp AND as a top-decking creature source), Elvish Piper (who’s ridiculously awesome in a deck featuring mostly expensive creatures) and Nature's Will (the most underrated provider of mana that I know). Next on the list of priority-Dragons, are those that can help me control the creature-board of opposing players by either dealing massive amounts of non-combat damage or through other means. , as these are great to keep my opponents’ boards under control. Examples include Balefire Dragon, Scourge of Valkas and Terror of the Peaks. I’ve also grown really fond of Thunderbreak Regent and Wrathful Red Dragon, as they can really make opponents think twice about targeting my Dragons or even attacking/blocking me.

Other great additions to the combat force include cards like Dragonborn Champion and Dragon Mage who are both excellent card-advantage sources at this stage. There’s also some great opportunity to generate Dragon-tokens. Dragonmaster Outcast, Lathliss, Dragon Queen and Utvara Hellkite are all excellent tools for this. I can also choose to boost the army, through means like Crucible of Fire, Thrakkus the Butcher and Xenagos, God of Revels.

It's worth mentioning that my lovely commander will often make her appearance during this stage. I’m cautious with summoning her however, as she’s such a likely target for immediate removal. Therefore I tend to wait until I can either grant her haste and/or make her summoning uncounterable.

Though the deck isn’t particularly building to a specific end-state, and just relies on continuous attacks with large fliers to finish off its opposition, it does contain a few mechanisms to end things decidedly. Scourge of the Throne and Aggravated Assault provide me with multiple attack phases per turn. There’s also a number of ways in which Atarka’s power can be increased, thereby allowing her to one-shot opponents with commander damage. Last but not least, Sarkhan, Dragonsoul’s ultimate allows for a massive board-state to be created instantaneously. This is especially funny to combine with enchantments that grant all Dragons haste.

This deck contains a few interesting combos and synergies that are really fun to use.

Combos

Synergies

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

The cards I use to accelerate mana-availability:

  • Ancient Copper Dragon: one of the most valuable Dragons in MTG history for good reason. Gets ridiculous with Atarka around, as this could potentially trigger its treasure-generating capabilities twice in a single attack.
  • Arcane Signet: cheap mana of any color, and it enters the battlefield untapped!
  • Birds of Paradise/Bloom Tender: the best multi-color mana dorks to begin games with.
  • Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind: red mana for hasty Dragons!
  • Cultivate/Kodama's Reach/Rampant Growth: solid ramp spells; their only disadvantage being that I can immediately use them because they enter tapped.
  • Dockside Extortionist: so cheap to cast, and yet so strong. Ideally this he is cast just before the end of the early game, as this often yields the best results and most advantageous position.
  • card:Dragonlord Servant/Dragonspeaker Shaman/Shadow in the Warp/Urza's Incubator: all of these cheapen the casting of Dragon spells.
  • Dragon's Hoard: excellent mana AND draw source in a Dragon deck.
  • Exploration: such value for its CMC. Play this on turn one, and immediately follow up by putting down land number two.
  • Goldspan Dragon: makes my treasures much more effective and is a decent combatant to boot.
  • Gruul Signet: a Gruul deck requires a Gruul mana-source.
  • Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient: massive mana generation upon attacking (not dealing damage mind you!) that’s perfect casting-fuel during the post-combat main phase.
  • Nature's Lore/Three Visits: I can tutor for a land and put it on the battlefield untapped!
  • Old Gnawbone: holy-moly, this monster will drown me in Treasure!
  • Savage Ventmaw: sort of Klauth’s lesser brother, but still very, very effective. Also, the mana generated by him can be used to activate abilities, whereas Klauth’s mana has to be used for spells.
  • Selvala, Heart of the Wilds: savage mana source and a occasionally a convenient draw enabler.
  • Sol Ring: the most common EDH-card in existence.

What I need in order to draw, tutor or steal additional cards with:

  • Augur of Autumn: this is an excellent ramp card, but its most important reason for being in the deck is its creature top-decking potential.
  • Colossal Majesty: draw if I control a power 4 creature? Easy.
  • Garruk's Uprising: so multi-functional at very little cost. All my stuff gets trample, draw upon ETB of itself and draw whenever a Dragon ETB’s; perfect.
  • Hellkite Tyrant: stealing all artifacts is just awesome, and he provides me with an alternative win-condition.
  • Sarkhan, Dragonsoul: if I can keep him alive for two turns (including the one in which he’s summoned), it’s more or less game over in my favor.
  • Sarkhan's Triumph: a specific Dragon-tutor; that’s obviously useful in a Dragon-tribe deck.
  • Scroll Rack: effectively increases my hand-size.
  • Sensei's Divining Top: one of the most fun Scry engines I’ve ever owned; is featured in the majority of my commander decks.
  • Shamanic Revelation: this is a fun spell to cast from mid-game onwards, as Dragons will probably be a bit more common on my side of the board by then. This yields massive lifegain and massive draw.
  • Worldly Tutor: great to find a good mana-engine during the initial stages of games, but also perfect to find appropriate combat-solutions in later stages. Only downside is I have to show everyone what I searched for.

Combat is fun, but there are other ways to kill you:

  • Balefire Dragon: unless your force has received some serious boosts, it’s in a lot of trouble when this sucker hits.
  • Decimate: though its use may be a bit conditionally appropriate, it does pack a punch for a CMC4 spell.
  • Dragon Tempest/Scourge of Valkas/Terror of the Peaks: these are especially fun to combine with token generators.
  • Hull Breach: another multi-functional powerhouse when it comes to destroying artifacts/enchantments.
  • Steel Hellkite: I want to meet the artificer responsible for crafting this, shake their hand and then kill them of course (because they’re way too dangerous to let live).
  • Vandalblast: artifact-destruction; one of those overload spells that one doesn’t use unless one gets to overload it.
  • Wrathful Red Dragon: blocking my Dragons suddenly became more unhealthy than it already was.

Massive, winged, fire-breathing behemoths coming to turn your day sour:

  • Aggravated Assault: an extra attack at a cost that can be recouped by this deck in a number of ways; deal!
  • Crucible of Fire: such a flavorful boost; can’t imagine this not being in a Dragon-tribal deck.
  • Dragonmaster Outcast: even if I can only create one Dragon token out of this guy, he’s already paid for himself.
  • Hellkite Charger: this deck’s mana-generation capabilities are such that it’s well within expectations for this guy to provide me with (many) additional attacks.
  • Lathliss, Dragon Queen: all hail the queen! Creating brothers and sisters for my non-token Dragons and boosting them, in case the occasion calls for it.
  • Thrakkus the Butcher: because regular Dragon-strength is not enough.
  • Utvara Hellkite: expensive to cast, but gods … what potential for absolute mayhem! Exponential token-generation potential as it creates tokens based on all Dragons attacking; not just non-token ones.

Those extra tidbits that assist me on the way to victory:

  • Elvish Piper: a woefully underrated card; capable of putting a critter from my hand onto the battlefield at negligible cost AND I can do this during anyone’s turn, meaning my creature is fully operational by the time it’s my turn again.
  • Erratic Portal: insanely good insurance method to keep my creatures from dying OR to simply put non-token Dragons back into my hand so that I can cast them again later (and thus benefit from ETB boons (again)).
  • Eternal Witness: sometimes it’s not yet time to say goodbye permanently.
  • Heroic Intervention: just a perfect reply in case someone tries to wipe my army OR somehow creates very strong attackers/blockers out of nowhere.
  • Nature's Will: an awesome untap-engine that allows me to keep casting after having used my lands in the pre-combat main-phase. Also ruins the day of players with interaction-focused decks.
  • Rhythm of the Wild/Vexing Shusher: my creature spells are not meant to be countered.
  • Sarkhan, Fireblood: great utility planeswalker; all of who’s abilities are very useful to me in this deck. Order of importance of said abilities from high to low would be mana generation, card-advantage and tokens.
  • Xenagos, God of Revels: an amazing haste enabler that strengthens its target beyond measure as well. Combines very well with Atarka.

Currently not in here, for reasons described below.

  • Ancient Bronze Dragon: more of a counter-deck thing in my opinion.
  • Chaos Warp: the deck features much more effective ways to deal with (non-)creature permanents.
  • Deflecting Swat: as my commander isn’t on the field all that much, I don’t really see any massive advantages featuring this particular card.
  • Flameblast Dragon: a Dragon with a built-in Fireball-ability is nice, but there are cheaper ways to deal non-combat damage and I’d rather use any superfluous mana to cast more Dragon spells OR fuel more effective damage dealing abilities.
  • Scourge of the Throne: fun but I’d rather use card:Charging Hellkite, as it can be used more often to attack again (under the right circumstances of course).
  • Thundermaw Hellkite: was in a previous version of this deck and recently swapped for another card. It performed ok; especially as a prelude to a large (Dragon) attack. However, after its ETB is spent, it becomes a bit too vanilla for my liking.

I appreciate the time you took to read my 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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98% Casual

Competitive

Revision 1 See all

(2 months ago)

+1 Ancient Copper Dragon main
-1 Ancient Tomb main
-1 Ancient Ziggurat main
+1 Arid Mesa main
+1 Augur of Autumn main
-1 Bear Umbra main
+1 Bloodstained Mire main
+1 Bonders' Enclave main
-1 Burgeoning main
+1 Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind main
-1 Chromatic Lantern main
+1 Colossal Majesty main
-1 Courser of Kruphix main
-1 Defense Grid main
+1 Dockside Extortionist main
-1 Domri Rade main
+1 Dragon's Hoard main
+1 Dragonborn Champion main
+1 Dragonlord's Servant main
-1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames main
and 66 other change(s)
Date added 4 years
Last updated 1 month
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

22 - 0 Mythic Rares

43 - 0 Rares

18 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.61
Tokens Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Treasure
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