Ur-Dragon's Multiverse Onslaught | *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH MattN7498

SCORE: 290 | 236 COMMENTS | 88231 VIEWS | IN 204 FOLDERS


CORE SET 2019 UPDATE/ APPROACHING 7,000+ VIEWS —July 13, 2018

Wizards blew it out of the water with this Core Set. Haven’t played with a core sets since 2014 and I thought those were pretty good. I decided to post this update before the set came out because I was just that excited to start trying them out and see what you guys think. This has a bunch of awesome Commander reprints and is designed essentially for Ur-Dragon with all the Dragon themed cards (and his kids) and I’ll be giving my opinions on it. Of course, I’ll be getting all the Elders in the deck in foil. The cards will post when they put them into the site and the mana pie will change as well which will call for land changes if needed. Finally, thanks everyone for the views and upvotes. We are now the #4 most viewed Ur-Dragon deck so hopefully we can surpass the others and get to #1 sometime soon. So, thanks again and I’ll update the primer when I have the chance!!

(EXCLUSION) Sarkhan, Fireblood: This one was a tough choice because this Sarkhan is tribal dragon themed. However, I looked at this card in comparison to Dragon's Hoard. These are similar effects but Sarkhan can be attacked and destroyed. I could see potentially putting it in down the line to have his ramp which is pretty good, but the cuts were so tight that he was the first thing I had to choose when figuring out what to exclude in the end. I will still be picking him up and holding on to him in my binder.

(EXCLUSION) Bone Dragon: This dragon has no good effects, smallish body and the reanimator effect is too intensive for something that isn’t worth it. Cool art design though 10/10

(EXCLUSION) Sparktongue Dragon: 7 mana for a 3/3 flyer that deals 3 when it enters is not good at all in comparison to our other dragons that cost 7 mana. Hard pass.

(EXCLUSION) Arcades, the Strategist: I was super bummed about Arcades not being super dragon oriented but at least Wall decks get a new Commander. The rest of his text doesn’t matter and so he’s a 3/5 vigilance flyer for 3 mana which isn’t that bad but seems too vanilla for the deck where the spot could be used for other things.

Archangel Avacyn  Flip > Dragonlord Silumgar

  • Ok what the &?@! is this? This isn’t a dragon. Do you even know what you’re doing? First, Silumgar wasn’t a good as I hoped. It was cute to steal stuff but, in the end, it didn’t really matter because I would’ve rather just played a different dragon to kill them or knock them down a lot. Second, I think Avacyn is a sweet card and have been looking for a deck that wasn’t her as the Commander because that was quite difficult to play. Her effect is interesting. Nobody is going to see you flashing in an Angel in a Dragon deck to give your creatures indestructible. This can totally save you from getting wrathed before your turn. Also, if your creatures happen to die and your opponents stick around, you can flash her in at the end of turn, flip her and kill all the other small creatures. This is some spicy tech so we’ll see how it goes. It’ll just make this deck one of a kind compared to all the others.

Vivien Reid > Elemental Bond

  • Vivien has a lot more reach than one of the effects that draw cards in the deck and I determined this one wasn’t as good as the others, so we’ll see how it goes. Vivien digs 4 cards deep every turn which is quite nice, provides some removal from anything that prevents us from swinging as well as bad opposing flyers and the ultimate will let us swing freely without any repercussions.

Dragon's Hoard > Nature's Lore

  • This is an artifact that is much more resilient than a ramp creature that can also provide card draw depending on the situation. With how many dragons we’re playing, this should provide a lot of recovery for drawing cards after playing out our hand. Nature’s Lore was the worst ramp spell as it only allowed to search for Forests while other ramp spells could look for other lands at certain spots in our curve.

Sarkhan's Unsealing > Sylvan Library

  • With the spread of our creatures having 4-6 power and 7+ power, this card does extremely well. Provides some single target removal on the smaller dragons for Planeswalkers and pesky creatures and has much bigger wipes on the larger dragons that can kill smaller flying blockers. I choose to cut Sylvan Library because these new updates provided more card draw to the deck and while Sylvan is great, felt like I didn’t need it over the more synergistic draw spells. Also, I had one proxied up for this deck as my copy was in one of my other decks so don’t need to buy it anymore.

Thrilling Encore > Sarkhan's Triumph

  • This is probably the questionable change, but I just wanted to see how it plays out. I had pulled a foil Thrilling Encore in a Battlebond pack with a Doubling Season and didn’t have a deck to use it in. This card helps recur against big field wipes and returns our dragons back as well as other peoples dragons. I cut the dragon tutor because tutoring kind of takes the fun out of it just searching for the best dragon in the deck every time. But with the new dragons and getting better chances to play them, this card might come back in depending on how my changes perform.

Sarkhan, Dragonsoul > Najeela, the Blade-Blossom

  • This Sarkhan helps pike off smaller token creatures opponents control and picks off a slightly bigger one. This small utility is nice but we’re going for broke here with the ultimate. It’s the exact same one as Sarkhan Unbroken but happens much faster and having double of the same effect is nice. Najeela was kind of a win more card when already swinging with all my dragons and bad by herself.

Lathliss, Dragon Queen > Skyline Despot

  • While Monarch stuff is a lot of fun, Lathliss just makes more dragons faster. It’s unfortunate it says nontoken but then it would be busted if it was. Plus, this dragon has the benefit of buffing all our dragons when they attack if we have nothing else to spend mana on.

Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire > Beast Within

  • They keep reprinting all these awesome Jund Dragon commanders after I switch off Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. But I’m still excited for this. This is the creature version of Beast Within which might be slightly worse in that we have to attack to get the effect but we get so much more value out of it. We get rid of EACH player’s biggest threat against us and trade it out for something either extremely good or bad which seems quite fun. Plus, we can trade out some of our stuff that we may not need any more for Dragons or other enchantments.

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip > Nicol Bolas

  • I don’t think I need to explain how insane this Nicol Bolas is when he flips. The discard is nice and this dragon will only COST 3 MANA which is extremely cheap. The hard part is getting there and activating at sorcery speed but with the recursion this deck has, we can get him back if we’re not able to activate in time. Easy switch out for the older Nicol Bolas which was way more mana intensive but a lot scarier to swing with and connect.

Chromium, the Mutable > Ojutai, Soul of Winter

  • This dragon is definitely interesting. I love the flash aspect of playing it as a surprise blocker or at the end of someone’s turn and uncounterable ability is quite nice. Discarding cards to fuel graveyard shenanigans as well as protecting itself seems pretty good. But, since he was an expensive dragon, I had to make a cut for another expensive one and this one was the one I decided to go with. This Ojutai has won me games but we’ll see how other dragons perform and if he’ll get a spot back in down the line.

Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner > Silumgar, the Drifting Death

  • Palladia is another example of big dumb beater but looks so cool. The hexproof is good because she’ll always have it until you deal damage to someone with her and once you do, they’ll be hurting and if they’re spending single target removal on it rather than getting rid of the rest of your stuff, that’s perfectly okay. Silumgar was an easy cut because he was there to clear out any small flyer blockers, but the deck has gotten a lot more trample and wipe effects now that he wasn’t needed.

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma > Shaman of Forgotten Ways

  • This card is awesome! First, it’s a legendary bear. What’s not to like? Second, gives all our big flyers trample to negate any of the flying blockers to try to stop us. And third is the ramp effect which is why I replaced the Shaman for it. I’ve never activated Shaman’s mana ability so Goreclaw provides ramp to more creatures where Shaman only give’s it one creature. Once we have access to 5 mana after playing Goreclaw, we can play a 6 mana and 5 mana dragon with reduction for him and Ur-Dragon which is pretty fast.

Clifftop Retreat > Godless Shrine

  • Mana fixing to get more red symbols and less black.

I absolutely love this deck so much! Currently working on my own variant, just wondering about the exclusion of Ramos Dragon Engine?

July 1, 2018 8:37 a.m.

MattN7498 says... #2

AviaxTheMindSculptor He's one that I've keep trying to make work in the deck because he has such cool art. But how it usually goes for him is that you have the resources to put the counters on him but nothing to meaningfully spend it on other than your Commander. Plus, our deck likes to cheat stuff in play so there's chances that you won't even get counters on him some of the time. And if we're just using him for ramping, there's quicker and better options. If there's ever a spot for a dragon, he's definitely up there in the ones that would go in.

July 1, 2018 11:26 a.m.

Ahhh that makes sense mate! Thanks for that!

July 2, 2018 2:32 a.m.

Vlasiax says... #4

Really like this version of the deck! You've included cards that I thought would be amazing here (maybe there are too much planeswalkers now, however).
As a suggestion - what are your thoughts on Consume the Meek? It devoures every small utility creature that other decks run and brings token decks down, while Dragon Army is intact :D

July 5, 2018 2:42 a.m.

Vlasiax says... #5

Also have you seen Braid of Fire card before? Looks like nice ramp card, at least for me :)

July 8, 2018 2:38 a.m.

MattN7498 says... #6

Vlasiax Consume is a very specific card that will pretty much only hit small mana creatures and/or creatures I'm not afraid of. And if there's enough of them to make me be afraid of all of them, they probably don't have the means to block in the air so I'd just rather kill them.

I think you're using Braid of Fire incorrectly. It only gives you mana on your upkeep in which case in disappears when you go to your main phase so you can only cast instant speed spells during then which isn't that good.

July 8, 2018 3:27 p.m.

Vlasiax says... #7

Ok, thanks for clarifying that - so Braid of Fire is just for storm decks from what I see...
How is this new version of deck performing? Did you have a chance to test it?

July 8, 2018 5:06 p.m.

Vlasiax says... #8

Another question - have you considered Carpet of Flowers for early ramp? Also doesn't this deck have a problem with too few ramp cards? Maybe if you don't like Nature's Lore I'd swap it for Spoils of Victory or Fellwar Stone

July 9, 2018 9:23 a.m.