24 Commander Damage?! - Atarka [RETIRED]

Commander / EDH* Aggro Dragons RG (Gruul) Tribal Voltron

chiri

Creature (22)

• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x Dragon Broodmother
• 1x Dragonlord Atarka
• 1x Dragonlord's Servant
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Dragonspeaker Shaman
• 1x Flameblast Dragon
• 1x Hellkite Charger
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1x Ogre Battledriver
• 1x Savage Ventmaw
• 1x Scourge of Valkas
• 1x Somberwald Sage
• 1x Stalking Vengeance
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Territorial Hellkite
• 1x Utvara Hellkite
• 1x Whisperer of the Wilds
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels

Artifact (8)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Gruul Signet
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Instant (3)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Sarkhan's Triumph

Land (36)

• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
• 8x Forest
• 1x Game Trail
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Mossfire Valley
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 10x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Sheltered Thicket
• 1x Skarrg, the Rage Pits
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of the False God

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Fires of Yavimaya
• 1x Frontier Siege
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Lurking Predators
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Warstorm Surge
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Commander (1)

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Decimate
• 1x Earthquake
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Hull Breach
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Primal Command
• 1x Ranger's Path
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x See the Unwritten
• 1x Selvala's Stampede
• 1x Skyshroud Claim

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Domri Rade
• 1x Samut, the Tested
• 1x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
• 1x Sarkhan Vol
• 1x Xenagos, the Reveler

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Welcome to the Dragon's Den

After experiencing Commander as my introduction to Magic, I wanted to dive in and create my own deck to bring to the table.

Pulling a foil Atarka solidified my decision to start building, and what better way than by building Gruul Dragons. As my first real constructed deck, it's undoubtedly close to my heart. This is a labour of love.

With Commander 2017 boasting a whole slew of five-colour dragons, I steel myself in the face of adversity, of tribulation, of really big, badass dragons.

Atarka ain't flashy, but she gets the job done.

Inspiration

Special mentions to MegaMatt13 and user:dan.gilbert and their builds for providing me a jumping-off point to work on my own variation of this deck. I love deckbuilding, but like most of my interests, I am not that good at it. Without this community, I'd be lost on what to do.

Overview

Smash face with big dragons

This is a dragon tribal deck. Gruul offers us access to some of the best dragons in the game, and although we are missing black for some awesome spells and creatures like Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon or Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, or white for Dragonlord Dromoka, staying within two colours gives us a more focused approach to winning. As much as I'd like to jam every cool dragon in here, this was also a lesson in discipline.

While more tribal focused, Atarka herself makes for an awesome Voltron commander, given the proper support. Her alongside Xenagos, God of Revels make for a one-shot kill. A 12/10 double-striking, trampler.

Spicy.

All Stars

These creatures contribute to the success of the deck

With a number of tutor effects in the deck, finding your best creatures is no problem. Here are your notable targets:

• Savage Ventmaw: for when you need to ramp hard. Haste enablers on the battlefield can give you SIX mana in red and green the turn she comes down. Attack, then cast your spells for essentially free, or at least for a big discount. Conveniently, most of the deck is three-drops and six-drops for maximum efficiency.

• Dragon Broodmother: for when you need a board-state ASAP. She triggers on EACH upkeep, giving you a free blocker for the planeswalkers in the deck, or making use of the other tokens with devour 2. The tokens also get annoying real quick with either Dragon Tempest or Scourge of Valkas out on the field.

• Balefire Dragon: give this unblockable and/or trample and you have a potential one-sided board wipe. With our general out, you get TWO triggers off of the double-strike if you get that combat damage through.

• Flameblast Dragon: What an efficient dragon. Awesome attacking one player and burning away a blocker, a utility creature, or another player. Dream play happens when you have two players left to kill: swing at one player, burn away the other. Awesome.

• Utvara Hellkite: Words cannot express how absolutely amazing this card is. Massive counterspell/removal target. That's how powerful this thing is. You're making blockers ready to absorb a backswing. You're fueling damage via Dragon Tempest/Scourge of Valkas. You don't even need to attack with your cards - just attack with the tokens, then double them!

• Hellkite Tyrant: Steal those mana rocks, Clue tokens, that player's Blightsteel Colossus, that guy's Wurmcoil Engine. Built-in trample to get that combat damage through. The common theme with most of the dragons in this deck is that their abilities are amplified with Atarka's granting double-strike. Although winning with the upkeep trigger may never happen, it's fun to dream anyway.

• Xenagos, God of Revels: HONORARY DRAGON. While your main target for his combat ability is Atarka, any of our dragons get real nasty. Once devotion is online he can swing in with the team. This is usually the card I tutor up the most with Green Sun's Zenith.

Support

"Red-green's mechanical heart lies in its creatures...Red-green's focus is on its relentless pursuit of its goals through combat."

- _Mark Rosewater, Designing for Gruul_

As such, a big chunk of support for the deck is the redundancy of Haste to make use of creatures as soon as we can.

Haste enablers

• Ogre Battledriver, Xenagos, God of Revels

• Fires of Yavimaya, Dragon Tempest (for our flyers)

• Sarkhan Vol

• Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves

• Hanweir Battlements  

Card Advantage

While we want to get as many creatures on board as soon as possible, we need ways to refill our hands or cheat creatures out. I love random, "put creatures onto the battlefield effects". Some of my favourites in the game are in this list.

• Draw: Sylvan Library, Greater Good, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Rishkar's Expertise, Domri Rade, Zendikar Resurgent

• Cheat: See the Unwritten, Lurking Predators, Selvala's Stampede, Xenagos, the Reveler. These are cards I find very fun. Everyone at the table wants to see what you hit and whether you hit. They're always a blast to play.

Others

This section is for cards that help us in the game with no explicit description.

• Primal Command: helps us shuffle our yard back into our library if the game goes long and we've lost some of our creatures. With Combustible Gearhulk possibly putting cards in our graveyard, I wanted a way to get them back should we need it. Tutoring up a creature, being a removal spell, or gaining some life are nice options too.

• Haven of the Spirit Dragon: we don't have Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in here, but a one-time way to grab a key Dragon from our yard is welcome. Also helps us mana-fix for our dragon spells.

Cards I've Tried

This section is for notable cards I've tried to make work before. Either they relied heavily on too many things, or they just didn't do enough. As my playgroup evolves, these may find their way home again in the deck.

• Wild Pair: this was my favourite card in the deck as I was building it. It was sad to see it go, but it did so little on its own. Costs six mana, so unless you had enough mana to cast a creature and make use of it that same turn, it sat waiting for a removal spell. It also placed a bit of a restriction on the creatures, as each one needed a buddy to share a P/T total. Hellkite Tyrant was happy.

• Mana-Charged Dragon: I never got to Join forces.

• Crucible of Fire: I just wish this had more to it. This might see its way back if I feel like it.

• Thunderbreak Regent: Bolt to the face seemed nice as a "leave-my-creatures-alone" type deal. But threatening three damage was underwhelming.

• Furyborn Hellkite: the times this just sat in my hand were too many to count. In situations where attacking was not the best option, this was a dead card. Playing this normally without Bloodthirst on defeated the purpose of its inclusion.

• Kilnmouth Dragon: same issue as above. If it was my only Dragon in hand, I'd wait to play it so I could draw more Dragons for Amplify.

• Dragon Mage: Man I am continuously on the fence with this monster. I love it when I'm empty-handed but with many draw effects in the deck, I didn't want to wheel most of the time. Messing with opponents is fun but messing yourself up is ehhhhhh.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.02
Tokens	Dragon 1/1 RG, Dragon 4/4 R, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Emblem Domri Rade, Emblem Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Satyr 2/2 GR
Folders	Cool Stuff