Commander Collection: Dragon Wagon

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 BRG (Jund) Dragons Flying

Jurrane

Creature (33)

• 1x Ancient Brass Dragon
• 1x Ancient Copper Dragon P
• 1x Atarka, World Render
• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Boneyard Scourge
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Dragonlord's Servant
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Dragonspeaker Shaman
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1x Ebondeath, Dracolich
• 1x Elvish Piper
• 1x Goldspan Dragon
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Hellkite Charger
• 1x Hellkite Overlord
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Ignoble Hierarch
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Old Gnawbone
• 1x Rivaz of the Claw
• 1x Roaming Throne
• 1x Scourge of Valkas
• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Skyline Despot
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Stormbreath Dragon
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Thunderbreak Regent
• 1x Twinflame Tyrant
• 1x Utvara Hellkite
• 1x Wrathful Red Dragon

Land (36)

• 1x Blightstep Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures P
• 1x Cavern of Souls P
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Copperline Gorge
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 4x Forest
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Rockfall Vale
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Three Tree City P
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow P

Artifact (6)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Belbe's Portal
• 1x Doors of Durin
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Impulse
• 1x Talisman of Resilience

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Black Market Connections *f-etch*
• 1x Bower Passage
• 1x Descendants' Path
• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Elemental Bond
• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Sylvan Library P
• 1x Up the Beanstalk

Instant (9)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Golgari Charm
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Sarkhan's Triumph
• 1x Tear Asunder

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kindred Dominance P
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Three Visits

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{B}{G}{R} Introduction: Drake Heaven {B}{G}{R}

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Chaos Warp. What a card. Hits almost anything you want - then you spin the wheel, cross your fingers and hope it doesn't put something else nasty into play. Even opposing players love it. Everyone holds their breath, the target's controller does their shuffling and reveal thing, and the whole pod remembers that one time the original permanent was put back on the board. What could be more fun?

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I give you Chaos Warp on a stick (or with wings): Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire. Except he's not just Chaos Warp, he's a better Chaos Warp upon attack that makes each player sacrifice a permanent of our choice (including us). What shenanigans.

Let's face it, a repeatable multi-target Chaos Warp from the command zone is no joke. That's why Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire heads up my Jund Dragons tribal deck. He's an absolute beast. But he's OUR beast (even if he blows up our stuff too). And he makes a great Commander.

Deck Strategy

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At its heart this is a simple tribal deck that exploits synergies of the Dragon creature type to attack with waves of damage, develop an unassailable board position and take over the game. We're in Jund colours so we have plenty of options for board control and use Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire as a repeatable source of multi-permanent removal, while mitigating his drawback (he'll be destroying our permanents also). Although many of our Dragons are quite highly costed (the average CMC of this deck is just under 4, which is much higher than I'd usually want), we have several ways of cheating them into play (ie. casting them for free) such as Belbe's Portal, Descendants' Path, Doors of Durin, Elvish Piper and, of course, Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire himself. The result is a fun, potentially explosive midrange deck that competes well at most low to medium-power casual tables.

Overcoming Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire's Drawback

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Let's face it there's an elephant in the room (or a psychotic rampaging winged terror). Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire can be something of a liability as, for every time he attacks and Chaos Warps our opponents' permanents, he does the same for one of ours too. That's not always conducive to developing - or maintaining - a board state. There are a few ways we try to cope with it:

1. Embrace It: Self-Chaos Warping is going to happen and we have to deal with it. But just because our stuff's going to get sacrificed doesn't mean we're getting something worse. Our deck is packed full of terrifying beasts that can be played for free by revealing off the top of our library with Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire's triggered ability. It's fun to gamble: sometimes we'll see an instant or sorcery, which we can't put into play, but there's only 17 of them in the whole deck, so the odds are we'll at least get a permanent to replace the thing we sacrifice. Plus losing one of our permanents is a small price to pay for destroying several of our opponents' most dangerous cards in one go. Sometimes it's even beneficial to sacrifice our Dragons to Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire eg. Kokusho, the Evening Star, Ryusei, the Falling Star.

2. Pick the Most Expendable Thing: Basic stuff here. If we have to sacrifice one of our permanents, we pick the least useful card at the time. That can be a tapped land, a redundant mana rock or one of our dorks. Worst case is we lose it. Best case is we replace it with a giant flying monstrosity that will wreak havoc on our opponents. You win some, you lose some. It's fun.

3. Stack our Library: We don't do much of this yet (Doors of Durin and Sylvan Library are about the only ways) but another option is to use scrying or other library manipulation effects to ensure that when we have to reveal a card from the top of our library, it's something we want. As this deck evolves, it's definitly the direction I'd like to take it in.

Game Plan

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This is a nice straightforward deck that's suitable for new players - or easy to play if you've had a long day. Our game plan reflects that simplicity: ramp in the early game with rocks and mana dorks; play enormous flying critters to lay waste to our opponents; remove said opponents' scary stuff with Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire or our other removal cards; and keep attacking until everyone's dead. That's it really. Not a lot of subtlety to it.

That's how the deck works in a nutshell but let's dig a bit deeper. Here's what we want to be doing:

Ramp in the Early Game
We're a high mana value deck so we want to be ramping at much as we can in the first few turns, in order to power out our highly costed creatures. We have over a dozen different ramp sources, whether they're mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, the Talismans etc); mana dorks (Birds of Paradise, Gyre Sage, Deathrite Shaman, Ignoble Hierarch, Rivaz of the Claw); cost reducers (Dragonlord's Servant, Dragonspeaker Shaman); or ramp spells (Farseek, Nature's Lore, Rampant Growth etc). It's often worth mulliganing aggressively so you have at least one ramp source in your opening hand, otherwise you'll find yourself with very little to do while opponents accelerate around you.

Develop a Board Presence
Developing a board presence means landing - and sticking - threats. We want to be playing our Dragons as proactively as we can and attacking in the air, while being mindful of boardwipes (we only really have Heroic Intervention and Golgari Charm as protective measures). There's a fine line between applying pressure and overextending, and this will often depend on the circumstances of the game at the time. As a general rule, in a deck like this I tend to avoid spewing out everything in our hand in case of mass removal, especially if opponents look like they might be holding something back.

Exploit Tribal Synergies
As a dedicated kindred deck, we get to exploit the efficiences of several cards that reward a tribal strategy. Highlights include Roaming Throne, which gives us an additional triggered ability from any of our Dragons; Cavern of Souls, which makes all our Dragons uncounterable; Dragon Tempest, which makes our flying creatures hasty and deals damage when Dragons come into play; Belbe's Portal and Descendants' Path, which allows us to cheat Dragons into play for a low mana cost; plus our one-sided boardwipes that take out non-Dragon creatures.

Destroy Opponents' Stuff
Jund colours can take care of pretty much anything so we run some of the best and most versatile removal options in BRG including Assassin's Trophy, Tear Asunder, Abrupt Decay, Chaos Warp etc, plus we have Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire as a Chaos Warp on a stick. If that wasn't enough, we have one-sided boardwipes in Crux of Fate and Kindred Dominance, as well as the mass removal abilities that some of our Dragons offer (see the next section). We should be able to deal with pretty much anything our opponents throw at us.

Replenish our Cards
We're an aggressive deck so we rely on a number of card-draw sources to keep our hand full and churn our a steady stream of threats. In this deck I'm prioritising enchantments that reward us for playing big creatures, such as Elemental Bond, Garruk's Uprising and Up the Beanstalk. We also have format staples like Sylvan Library, Guardian Project and Black Market Connections, the latter of which also doubles as ramp and threat generation.

Here Be Dragons

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We run many of the biggest, baddest Dragons the Jund colours have to offer. Each of them is chosen for the explosive impact they offer and the efficiency they provide. Here are the highlights.

• Ancient Brass Dragon: Like most of the Ancient Dragons from AFR, this one is a beast when it connects. A great way of getting other dragons back from the graveyard, or plundering our opponents' graveyards for their goodies.
• Ancient Copper Dragon: Connect with this horror and we'll most likely have all the ramp we need, possibly for the rest of the game. Absolute must for this deck.
• Atarka, World Render: Gives all our Dragons double strike, including itself. A potential game-ender if she sticks around.
• Balefire Dragon: A one-sided boardwipe on a stick. Capable of catching opponents with their pants down if we give it haste.
• Boneyard Scourge: Works well with Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire if we're forced to sacrifice other Dragons to his ability. Our creatures will get targeted a lot so it's nice to have a creature that can be recurred any number of times (unless it's exiled)
• Ebondeath, Dracolich: Similar to Boneyard Scourge, we can keep bringing it back if our other Dragons die. Its flash ability is good too.
• Goldspan Dragon: I really want to upgrade my version to the Secret Lair printing with the classic D&D art. A nice potential source of ramp, plus flying and haste can never be a bad thing.
• Hellkite Charger: A late-game powerhouse and one of our classic finisher cards. If we're attacking twice with multiple Dragons, someoone's probably going to get taken out.
• Hellkite Overlord: Very expensive to cast but one of our biggest, meanest Dragons. Its regenerate ability makes it hard to remove too.
• Hellkite Tyrant: Its alternate wincon is cute (if not particularly viable) although we'll occasionally make enough Treasures that it becomes relevant. But it's great for stealing other people's Sol Rings, Arcane Signets and other useful stuff.
• Kokusho, the Evening Star: One of the few Dragons we don't mind sacrificing to Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire. In fact it's to be encouraged. Capable of some pretty hefty life swings.
• Old Gnawbone: Capable of generating an enormous amout of Treasures if he sticks around. We love to see him if Hellkite Tyrant's on the board.
• Roaming Throne: Not a Dragon but it might as well be. An additional trigger for many of our Dragons is no joke, not least for Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire.
• Scourge of Valkas: Scales (no pun intended) well with our other Dragons, allowing us to pick off other creatures or do extra damage to the face. Can escalate quickly if allowed to stick around.
• Scourge of the Throne: Giving this deck extra combat phases can nearly always be lethal. Often a kill-on-sight threat.
• Skyline Despot: Another creature that gets out of control if allowed to stick around. Extra tokens usually mean more pain for our enemies.
• Steel Hellkite: Great at being a one-sided boardwipe if it connects in combat, allowing us to surgically remove problematic permanents that our opponents control.
• Stormbreath Dragon: Notable because it blanks targetted white removal like Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and Generous Gift, plus players are always drawing cards in EDH so its monstrous ability will often be relevant.
• Terror of the Peaks: One of our favourite Dragons. Opponents need to deal with it quickly or they're probably going to die.
• Thunderbreak Regent: A nice low-CMC dragon that discourages removal. One of our many creatures that works well with Roaming Throne.
• Twinflame Tyrant: Ultra-powerful new staple for any Dragons tribal build. We're already capable of dealing explosive amounts of damage and new damage doubler is the icing on the cake. Easily capable of ending games when it comes down.
• Utvara Hellkite: One of our favourite game-enders. Make enough dragon tokens and we can usually overrun everyone. A must-answer threat.
• Wrathful Red Dragon: Basically a Thunderbreak Regent on steroids. Opponents will think twice about blocking it, or we can leave it back as a blocker of our own to discourage attackers.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

Although it has lots of powerful, impactful cards, ultimately this is just a big creature battlecruiser deck and therefore I would categorise this deck as one of my Tier 3 builds. It's one for low to medium power casual tables but higher powered or competitive pods would probably outclass it. It doesn't run any infinite combos and only has Sarkhan's Triumph as a tutor. But it's a lot of fun to play and is versatile enough to have decent game against most opponents.

Looking at WotC's new brackets system for EDH power levels, I'd say this is a Bracket 3 list. We don't run any game changer cards but we're definitely stronger than the average preconstructed list and are fairly well optimised in most other ways. I'm pretty happy with where it sits at its current power level.

Budget

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The average price for this deck on Card Kingdom is just over $500. It runs some more expensive cards like Roaming Throne, Old Gnawbone, Terror of the Peaks, Ancient Brass Dragon, Balefire Dragon, and all the fetches and shocks that come with a three colour mana base. But there are plenty of budget alternatives available and Jund Dragons doesn't need to be a deck that's particularly expensive to build. The main thing that's worth investing in is the mana base, as my advice is to avoid lands that ETB tapped as they'll slow you down.

Strengths

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Our greatest strength is the raw power of our creatures. Many of our Dragons are capable of dealing pretty significant amounts of damage and nearly all of them have flying, which means they'll mostly evade blockers (especially if we have Bower Passage in play). By prioritising our removal for other flying creatures, our mighty hoard will often sail through unopposed and have the potential to take players out pretty quickly.

Although we offer explosive power, our removal suite also means we're suited to a game of attrition and we compete well with other midrange decks. We're fairly good at keeping opponents in check because we have so much removal, including a repeatable source of multiple Chaos Warps in Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire that allows us to target any permanents. If Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire is in play and we're attacking with him plus multiple other Dragons, we're in a very good place.

Weaknesses

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We're a combat-based deck so anything that stops us attacking can be problematic. Because our threats are expensive to cast, we don't trade well with counterspells and heavily defensive decks can easily shut us down, leaving us reliant on removal to provide answers. Although we have plenty of ramp sources, we're pretty slow to get going in the early game and can be outraced by go-wide or other fast decks.

When playing builds like this, there's also the danger of overextending. Here there's a fine line to tread: on the one hand, we want to generate a critical mass of big creatures that present inevitability on the board; but, on the other, we're highly vulnerable to boardwipes with only a few cards to protect our board state (Heroic Intervention, Golgari Charm, Wrap in Vigor). It's usually a good idea to keep some threats in hand to prepare for the often-inevitable boardwipes, but that comes at the cost of speed and our rate of damage. These situations are game dependent and will vary according to individual game states and the opponents we're facing.

Finally there's sometimes the issue of running out of gas. We run a series of card draw options but some of those (Up the Beanstalk, Elemental Bond, Garruk's Uprising, Guardian Project) are reliant on us playing big creatures and we'll usually cast only 1-2 of those a turn. Other decks will sometimes be more efficient than us and can 1-for-1 our creatures with relative ease, thanks to cheap(er) counterspells, removal or boardwipe options. But that's the price we pay for playing a big, splashy battlecruiser deck.

Next Steps

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I'm pretty happy with where this deck is, relative to its power level. The main change I want is to add in Sylvan Library.

Thanks for reading this primer :) May all your Dragons connect for damage!

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Goodstuff

{B} Syr Konrad, the Grim {B}
Black Hole: Mono-Black Sacrifice/Aristocrats

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Hallar, the Firefletcher {R}{G}
Trailblazer: Gruul Kicker

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Momir Vig, Simic Visionary {U}{G}
Wicked Twister: Simic +1/+1 Counters

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Spirits Tribal

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

Date added	5 years
Last updated	6 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.75
Tokens	Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Monarch Emblem, Treasure