Let's talk Dragons, forgetting .
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 19, 2020, 9:21 a.m. by JANKYARD_DOG
Hiya folks, just gunna drop this here for awhile... As much as I don't need new projects I've me up with another idea while being bored to death at work. That idea though needs your ideas, examples, and input. If you haven't guessed from the title...
Redless Dragons.
That leave the 4 other colors to work with. Commander options are in short supply for these colors being:
I guess we have to ask what do we lose with red, and it's a lot. Fire breathing, most tribal bluffs, cost reduction, and dragon tokens. Could be replaced sort of, but that leans heavy on green for ramp which is the least shiny of the dragon colors I think. So much so that I am on the fence about dropping to 3 colors.
Esper dragons offer control as most esper decks do, but can it go fast enough like a typical dragon deck or will it stall for the long game? Or keep green and drop another color? White seems like the next best choice except I like Taigam, Ojutai Master and Scalelord Reckoner alot for this. Sans black would lose alot of removal options like both Silumgars, Crux of Fate, and Deathbringer Reagent. Blue too also loses the Silumgars, Taigam and control options like counterspells.
So now that my thoughts are out of the way, what are yours? Have any of you done this before and care to share examples/ideas?
There is still plenty of color less tribal support like Herald's Horn and Urza's Incubator so I don't think cost reduction will be much of an issue for the deck. Without green you will need to rely on artifacts more for ramping though.
As for powerful creatures you will have both Silumgars one Ojutais as well as the smaller dragons from their respective Tarkir broods.
Outside of that block you have good old "Skittles" Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as well as Scalelord Reckoner and Sunscorch Regent from Tarkir. Boneyard Scourge is a nice repeatable dragon so you always have a body. Some oldie but could see come use are Catacomb Dragon.
You have the three star dragons with Keiga, Kokusho, and Yosei who all have really good death triggers.
You will also have access to blue so going with some clones like Spark Double and Clever Impersonator. Mirror Mockery will have some interesting interactions with each of the star dragons and Dragonlord Silumgar
Day of the Dragons could also be a fairly interesting 'meme' card for the deck if you are trying to have some fun.
February 19, 2020 12:39 p.m.
maxon just a card that isn’t really all that good, but you just play it in a deck to get some fun reactions at the table.
February 19, 2020 5:29 p.m.
Joe_Ken_ oh cool. I think my go to card for that would be Whims of the Fates. Always generates a reaction
February 19, 2020 9:31 p.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #8
What's the point of playing a tribal deck while removing the best color out there for this tribe? You can also play a greenless Elves deck or a whiteless soldiers deck but... I'd advise you not to do that :D
February 20, 2020 4:30 a.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #9
Joe_Ken_ I was thinking it would need artifact support given that would be a route for both tribal support and ramp.
TypicalTimmy that would be interesting to see for ideas.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast fun thing about commander is the diversity. Unlike other formats using the same top decks and no imagination and having a limited card pool there are alot more options. You never know if something works or not unless you try. And it doesn't always have to be t1, turn 4 win... just has to be fun and exciting. I'm always looking for 'off the beaten path' ways of building things instead of what is most popular. Maybe Greenless elfs and whiteless soldiers could be fun too ;)
February 20, 2020 8:23 a.m.
triproberts12 says... #10
There's enough decent non-red dragons at this point that I don't see the need to run a 4th color.
In Esper, Alela, Artful Provocateur is a weird kind of lord for all fliers, not just fae. Chromium, the Mutable is probably the best of the Esper dragon commanders, since his power aligns well with commander damage.
In Bant, Chulane, Teller of Tales is a pretty powerful ramp and draw engine for a creature-based strategy. The dragon options are... not great.
Teneb, the Harvester is the obvious choice for Abzan. Reanimator and graveyard strategies have good overlap with cards like Boneyard Scourge and Fearsome Awakening, so it's not a bad accompanying strategy.
Sultai doesn't really have great fits, as far as I can tell, but it's just overpowered in commander to the point of being a problem, so I'd say don't be part of the problem.
February 21, 2020 11:27 a.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #11
Strongly considering Esper for sure, and Alela does make sense considering the artifact ramp and tribal support cards.
February 23, 2020 6:49 a.m.
triproberts12 says... #12
Mj3913 That's true. My concern there would be that it might feel more like a faerie deck if the board state is more often Alela, a few faerie tokens, and a couple of dragons. Building around Ruthless Deathfang, Boneyard Scourge, Scourge of Nel Toth, Keiga, the Tide Star, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Yosei, the Morning Star, Martyr's Bond, Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, and Phyrexian Tower could be interesting. Turning those tokens into other resources would help it feel more like a dragon deck.
February 23, 2020 1:29 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #13
What if we turned the tokens into dragons via Arcane Adaptation and/or Mirror Entity? The synergy with Tarkir dragons is there for the triggers, but yes sacrificial fodder is good too.
February 23, 2020 1:48 p.m.
triproberts12 says... #14
If it'll still feel like a dragon deck that way to you, then sure. My experiences building UG druids under Tatyova, Benthic Druid have taught me that it is very easy for a deck to turn into good-stuff by working to heavily into a non-tribal thing. I think what will happen is that once Favorable Winds and Gravitational Shift go in, it will just turn into a typical Alela deck as go-wide with faerie tokens and scry away your dragons becomes the optimal play every time. I've played against "scarecrow tribal" decks that run all 3 Conspiracy's, and it mostly just felt like a MLD deck. I never count Changelings as tribe members for flavor purposes, either.
February 23, 2020 2:03 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #15
Changelings I was considering using to fill out the curve as the lowest dragon is 4cmc. There will have to be some small non dragon fliers or other utilities to fill. Unless the lower half is all ramp and draw to stomp on the gas hard and get dragons on the field asap... idk.
February 23, 2020 4:28 p.m.
triproberts12 says... #16
Here's a rough list of what I had in mind, Mj3913. Didn't bother with lands, and there are 90 cards from what I could figure out off the top of my head.
February 23, 2020 5:30 p.m.
triproberts12 says... #17
Okay, more than 90, since I immediately added more. I think you'll see what I'm getting at with a possible game plan, though. Ramp hard with overlapping mana ramp, sac fodder, mill pieces, and faerie producers, then reanimate or hard cast big dumb Timmy dragons. I threw in all the useful enchantments and artifacts I could find that benefit dragons, self-mill, sac, or reanimation. I don't think it's too hard to build a deck focused around 6-drops if you go in knowing you have 10-15 of them and build the deck around it. Seems better than having a midrange tribal deck that doesn't have any of the non-generic tribal payoffs, since they're all in red.
February 23, 2020 5:59 p.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #18
Here's a rough iteration for anyone interested. Might be missing something but doesn't seem to have any trouble filling the board.
Fairy Tale Dragons (Alela)
Commander / EDH*
2 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
Joe_Ken_ says... #2
If you went Esper dragons then Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
is certainly a flavor choice for a partner commander and you could pair it with Tymna the Weaver for that nice card draw potential
February 19, 2020 11:25 a.m.