Deck Premise
Curve out into dragons with eminence's discount as soon as turn 2. Play lots of dragon ETB synergy. Hit people in face with dragons.
Primarily Jund, but splashes 5c to add in
Aura Shards
and
Temur Ascendancy
as well as letting us cast our commander. Almost all good low CMC dragons are red, green supports our creature based tempo well, and black gives us card draw, mass reanimation, and access to some cool dragons.
We are aggro by EDH standards (though not a 100% dedicated aggro deck; dragons can't really support that archetype due to their mana costs) in that we win by reducing life totals to 0 and dislike removal. But given the unlikelihood of being able to kill all other players at the table before someone throws a wrench in our plans, the deck has some strong tools to give more longevity and surprisingly solid value that lets us carry dragon face-hitting to a more midrange scale so we don't scoop immediately following a couple board wipes.
This is not a cEDH deck. This is a fun, casual aggressive Timmy dragon deck but still optimized within that framework.
How to Play
An ideal starting hand has one of the mana dorks letting us curve into a turn two 3 CMC value effect, of which we have no less than 8. From there play dragons a lot. A good chunk of the best early green ramp spells supports us reaching the mana we need to pump dragons out constantly. Our dragon curve (taking into account eminence) is six -drops, seven -drops, seven -drops, two -drops, and one -drop, plus our commander at .
We replenish our hand with the many "draw a card on dragon ETB" effects and staple black draw cards (plus
Stinging Study
, which is an exceptional bomb.) In green we also have creature P/T based draw, which at worst will draw 4 cards and often more.
For sheer impact,
Dragon Tempest
,
Terror of the Peaks
, and
Scourge of Valkas
are some of the best cards in the deck that reward playing dragons. We maintain board control by pinging things down with them, and it can also be face damage. If our board can persist a turn or two, cards like
Lathliss, Dragon Queen
,
Utvara Hellkite
, and
Atarka, World Render
can win the game on the spot.
If we get board wiped, we hopefully managed to refill our hand beforehand and can sometimes retaliate with ending the game instantly via
Living Death
or
Patriarch's Bidding
in conjunction with one of the above cards to deal enormous ETB damage on the spot while reviving our board.
We will burn a hilarious amount of life accelerating our game plan (from painlands, draw spells, etc.) This is okay, that's what
Scourge of the Throne
or
Whip of Erebos
are for. We curve out fast and our sweet spot is 4-6 mana so life isn't an issue for most of the game, but we have tools to go late, including just casting
The Ur-Dragon
.
Finally, our mana base is pretty good. We will almost always have access to on 3 mana and often as well or shortly afterwards. Running all reasonable 5c lands plus three vivids minimize the odds of our splash cards being dead.
Card Notes
Most cards are pretty straightforward in how they synergize with others in the deck so this is stuff that isn't super obvious.
-
Bladewing the Risen
: Less aggressive than the rest of the list but there is almost no chance there isn't a good target to revive. People will remove dragons like
Terror of the Peaks
ASAP if they don't want to die, and this lets us fight the attrition war. Tribal firebreathing is nice too.
-
Dragon Broodmother
: It's a dragon every upkeep, not just ours. Devour can make a new dragon a 3/3 and trigger
Elemental Bond
.
-
Gitaxian Probe
: Feel free to hold this if we draw it late to scout board wipes and counterspells as they're the most common threats.
-
Goldspan Dragon
: Real good at acceleration and a bargain at 4 mana. Don't forget treasures sac for while it's alive.
-
Greater Good
,
Life's Legacy
,
Return of the Wildspeaker
, and
Rishkar's Expertise
: Temporary P/T modification will count for the purposes of how many cards we draw, so if we have mana to dump into firebreathing or haven't cast
Crucible of Fire
yet, consider it.
-
Hellkite Courser
: A powerhouse with our commander. Remember that we can play one of the new (permanent) cards we just drew.
-
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
: She can untap any single 5c land, or even a vivid, to produce the requisite colors for
The Ur-Dragon
if we have no other or sources.
-
Living Death
and
Patriarch's Bidding
: All our dragons come back into play at the same time, so for instance five dragons in the graveyard means
Scourge of Valkas
will hit for 5x5 = 25 damage.
-
Moltensteel Dragon
: Just the threat of the firebreathing will force opponents to make hard decisions for blocking, whether we carry through or not.
-
Sarkhan the Masterless
: This Sarkhan is severely underrated. He makes a dragon immediately so at minimum we're pinging anything hitting us for 1, which is enough to deter many creatures, and with a higher dragon count it makes us untouchable on many boards.
-
Scourge of the Throne
: The second attack phase doesn't care what life totals are at by that point, so we don't need to hit the (new) dethrone target on our second swing, which means we can often kill the original opponent.
-
Whip of Erebos
: Don't sleep on the reanimate, since it gives more gas for a deck that can run out in the face of repeated removal.
Other Card Possibilities
Run
Sol Ring
and tutors if your pod allows them (mine doesn't.) But then also just play
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
or
Tiamat
because those are way better dragon commanders.
Fetchlands completely trivialize being able to hit mana colors, but are really expensive and frankly not needed unless you want to turn it from Jund into full blown 5c. There are enough 5c goodstuff decks in the world for a lifetime, so reconsider if this is something you want to do.
Homeward Path
if your meta is steal happy and/or running
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
.
Here are some other dragons that are cool but just missed the cut for the deck.
-
Archwing Dragon
: Valuetown off of all of our enchantments! But we're still fundamentally an aggro deck so not sticking is just too big a deal. Good if your meta runs lots of boardwipes, but then this is probably not the deck to play to begin with.
-
Boneyard Scourge
: Playing this on curve is rougher since we're much more red heavy than black. The reanimate is cute, but a little unlikely to matter. Still, it's a 4 power dragon playable for 3 mana.
-
Savage Ventmaw
: Some big ramp if it sticks, but awkward with the deck's design - red/green limits the ideal plays as you get the mana post-attack phase so it's anti-synergy to spend it on hasted dragons or ETB enchantments.
-
Hellkite Charger
: Often used in conjunction with the above Savage Ventmaw or
Sword of Feast and Famine
to go infinite. A threat even without the combo to be sure, but if played on curve with 5 mana, we can't actually afford the 7 next turn for a double swing, which requires you to keep it (and your board) for two turns.
-
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
: 5/5 with five (remember, the discount matters here) chump blockers can open up more aggressive swinging and he has a bit of extra reach compared to
Broodmate Dragon
. Ultimately I just preferred two separate dragon bodies.
-
Steel Hellkite
: A favorite in many dragon decks, but has to connect and costs lots of mana that we'd rather spend on things that give tempo.
-
Kokusho, the Evening Star
: Deterrence against board wipes, but more life gain than damage (spreading it out isn't optimal) and not quite aggressive enough for our tastes.
-
Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
: Amazing if he gets to swing. Odds are he won't, though. If you're fine with gambling on having haste, the sheer numerical value is great.
Non-dragons to consider (these are good, possibly optimal to include, but wander too far off-theme for my preferences):
-
Blade of Selves
: If you want to all-in on aggressive play this card has huge blowout potential with certain dragons and even in the worst case spits out 2-3 more dragons that trigger your ETB effects. It paints a huge target on your back, though, since it's pretty close to remove-or-die. Note that it's mostly nonfunctional with legendaries, limiting it to 16 effective targets in the deck.
-
Savage Beating
: We're definitely beatdown enough to take advantage of quadruple damage (even with only two dragons that's like 24 extra damage.)
-
Mimic Vat
: Probably better than Archwing Dragon in that it gives you more longevity and can back up as a counter to someone's creature-specific graveyard reanimation.
-
Taurean Mauler
: Generic good card that gets discounted by eminence and is mechanically a dragon.
-
Phyrexian Metamorph
: This does not get discounted by eminence but does count as a dragon for ETB, and at worst is another 3 mana dragon with potential to get better. Beware again though that it can't really copy your own legendaries.
