Where Hopes Wither, Dragons Bloom (cEDH)

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Combo Competitive Discard Lands

OmegaAura113

Lands (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crystal Vein
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 2x Forest
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Lake of the Dead
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Petrified Field
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wasteland
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Getting Study Materials (7)

• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Rain of Filth

Fighting off bullies (16)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Allosaurus Shepherd
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Darkblast
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Veil of Summer

The Final Exam (10)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Dakmor Salvage
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Gaea's Blessing
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Noose Constrictor
• 1x Oblivion Crown
• 1x Skirge Familiar
• 1x The Gitrog Monster

The Class Dorks (8)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Priest of Titania

Commander (1)

Studying Hard (12)

• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Summoner's Pact
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Class Rock Collection (8)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring

Failing on a Curve (5)

• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Regrowth

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Join Witherbloom!!!

The dragon lord of Witherbloom is FINALLY here, and boy, does she not disappoint! There've been great cards spoiled for all of the others classes, but personally, it was the B/G class that stuck out for me the most - one of my personal favorite strategies is graveyard manipulation, so the chance to mess around with it through a super powerful, Dragons of Tarkir-like Dragonlord was something that couldn't be ignored. With her appearance though, her card is taken beyond simple graveyard manipulation and thrown into the realm of actually beyond somewhat competitively viable. While some Dragons, like Prismari or Silverquil, might be more cost efficient CMC-wise, Beledros' abilities easily pay that, and then some. Let's analyze them!

She's a 7-CMC Golgari Dragon with flying and a 4/4 body. So far, not that impressive...until we keep going. Her first ability, paraphrased, is "Get a 1/1 creature token during every player's upkeep;" this is pretty good alone, as it creates a boardstate through Bela just existing on our side of the field. Throw in some token doubles, maybe a few buffers, and you have a solid token strategy behind Bela to swarm opponents. However, that's not the key part of Beledros. It's the second ability, by a mile: "Pay 10 life: Untap all Lands you control. Activate this ability only once each turn." There's where the shenanigans lie - this is a lands-based deck in the disguise of a dragonlord, in the perfect colors to accomplish this feat. While the token ability is helpful, it's not powerful enough to be the driving force for Beledros and the deck altogether; another recently printed card, Koma, Cosmos Serpent, does it twice as good than her, and can synergize its' entire kit around supporting the token gen + swarming the field. Bela, on the other hand, only uses them for support - her main driving force is paying life, untapping lands every turn, doing something, and never being out in the open completely that way. What that something is, though, we're going to figure out right now...

Class is in session.

Try and try as we might, Beladros can't do too much without proper support from her library (fitting, seeing as she leads part of a school), which is what would make her abilities shine the most. Since her token generation is only a supplement to her actual, most potent ability, the deck, as I figured out, would best serve to advance it through a lands-matter theme. And like any good swamp resident, one of her most faithful companions just so happens to be one of the best Golgari commanders out there - The Gitrog Monster. How would these two synergize together, one might ask - and the simplest answer is through circumstance. Gitrog loves lands, and Beledros untaps them readily, every turn, enabling plentiful shenanigans between the two. Now, there are two ways to go about this: the casual way, and the competitive way; this decklist, the primary one, is the competitive-leaning variant of the Beledros builds. I'll be making a casual variant soon and linking it to this one, so any prospective Witherbloom student can choose either one as they wish.

How To Pass.

In competitive terms, this shell is predominantly an Ad Nauseam deck shell, focusing on quickly ramping out Beladros, Gitrog, or Ad Nauseam, to fire through most of our deck in a handful of turns. The tutors are cheap, the mana acceleration is cheaper, and the removal is plentiful thanks to black being one of our primary colors; altogether, this makes Beladros a potent threat, even without having to hit the field. What's more, when she eventually does, her ability to untap all your lands for 10 life can, in some circumstances, make her own casting cost completely irrelevant, leaving you back with a full turn's worth mana + a token and mana advantage generating dragon on the field.

The primary combos in it, as a whole, focus on grabbing, casting, and protecting The Gitrog Monster as the key piece in the deck. Once it's out, playing out the game like a normal Gitrog-frog combo deck becomes the primary strategy: dump Dakmor Salvage into the graveyard, triggering a draw that turns into a Dredge 2, hopefully hitting another land, then dredging 2 again to net 1 draw, the discarding Dakmor once again to repeat the cycle. This will float a lot of mana with a discard outlet like Skirge Familiar (the main secondary combo piece, which you should always try to cast or reanimate), and with something like Gaea's Blessing hitting the GY, enables you to do it multiple times. From there, use all that floating black to cast Ad Naus, or pump out a huge Exsanguinate, or stomp over everyone with Finale of Devastation.

As a secondary, more fun backup synergy, Mesmeric Orb pairs very well with Beladros to self-mill, though at the cost of significant life loss; this can also get key cards into a fetchable position through Reanimate, Regrowth and the like, and shouldn't be discounted; however, the key part of the deck is still primarily in the field of Gitrog combos, supported by the new best G/B dragon professor.

Our Final Grade...

the potential of Beladros is high, especially after toying with her potential for only the last handful of hours as of the writing of this summary. She appears to feel the most at home as a more casual/semi-competitive combo general, granting massive value with her untap ability, and constantly generating tokens that can supplement the life loss; however, in the right hands, she can still be a potent combo general as well, enabling the player to essentially double their mana and land's abilities, creating a huge advantage for anybody wishing to try and take her to a more competitive field of play.

Since she's still very new, I'll be editing the deck to include any other synergies or combos that can fit in with her, and be making that secondary decklist to focus on her strengths in a casual, less serious setting, with more token support and graveyard shenanigans.

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to leave advice for it! And, of course, Upvote the deck if you, too, want to join the Witherbloom school of essence studied ;D Discard outlets

Top Ranked	Achieved #6 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #5 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.80
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Pest 1/1 BG
Folders	Cool Deck Ideas, EDH Decks, B/G Ideas, X - EDH Inspiration - GOLGARI GRAVEYARDS