Big Daddy Ur-Dragon

Commander / EDH Aggro Dragons Flying

plato_the_third

Lands (34)

• 3x Forest
• 3x Island
• 5x Mountain
• 3x Plains
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Frontier Bivouac
• 1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 1x Jungle Shrine
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Mystic Monastery
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1x Savage Lands
• 1x Seaside Citadel

Protection (7)

• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Scalelord Reckoner
• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Bower Passage
• 1x Indestructibility
• 1x Monastery Siege
• 1x No Mercy

Cost Reduction (5)

• 1x Fist of Suns
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Urza's Incubator
• 1x Dragonlord's Servant
• 1x Dragonspeaker Shaman

Answers (3)

• 1x Silumgar's Scorn
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Utter End

B Listers (15)

• 1x Furyborn Hellkite
• 1x Hellkite Charger
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Kilnmouth Dragon
• 1x Scalelord Reckoner
• 1x Scourge of the Throne
• 1x Tyrant's Familiar
• 1x Darigaaz Reincarnated
• 1x Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
• 1x Nicol Bolas
• 1x O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami
• 1x Ryusei, the Falling Star
• 1x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
• 1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Ramp (11)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Savage Ventmaw
• 1x Frontier Siege
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kodama's Reach

Cheats (5)

• 1x Dragon Arch
• 1x Lurking Predators
• 1x Sarkhan Unbroken
• 1x Dragonstorm
• 1x Selvala's Stampede

Resurrection (4)

• 1x Bladewing the Risen
• 1x Teneb, the Harvester
• 1x Fearsome Awakening
• 1x Unburial Rites

Commander (1)

A Listers (12)

• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Savage Ventmaw
• 1x Scourge of Kher Ridges
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Utvara Hellkite
• 1x Ramos, Dragon Engine
• 1x Atarka, World Render *thick*
• 1x Bladewing the Risen
• 1x Dragonlord Dromoka
• 1x Dromoka, the Eternal
• 1x Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
• 1x Teneb, the Harvester

Wipes (6)

• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Scourge of Kher Ridges
• 1x Ryusei, the Falling Star
• 1x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x End Hostilities

Support (5)

• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Crucible of Fire
• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Gratuitous Violence
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

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Sideboard

Other (9)

• 1x Ancient Brass Dragon
• 1x Ancient Gold Dragon
• 1x Ancient Silver Dragon
• 1x Goldspan Dragon
• 1x Temur Ascendancy
• 1x Dawn's Truce
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Old Gnawbone

Lands (5)

• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Zagoth Triome

Cheats (2)

• 1x Descendants' Path
• 1x Sarkhan, Dragonsoul

Ramp (4)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dragon's Hoard
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Rampant Growth

Cost Reduction (2)

• 1x Morophon, the Boundless
• 1x Sarkhan, Soul Aflame

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Maybeboard

Other (1)

• 1x Leyline Tyrant

Protection (1)

• 1x Bastion Protector

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Through the Fire and Flames

The Ur-Dragon is (in MTG lore) the mac-daddy precursor of all dragons. His wings literally create storms that give birth to dragons, exemplified by the abilities of the card itself.

Coming from Commander 2017, he is one of the four (okay, technically five) (OKAY SIX!) commanders in existence with Eminence, which allows him to affect the battlefield from the command zone.

Some people will tell you that Ur-Dragon's son is a better commander, but I'm here to tell you that Big Stompy doesn't come to the table to be 2nd best.

Deck Themes and Info

This deck solely focuses on flooding the board with dragons, by either reducing their cost, cheating them in, or making a boatload of tokens.

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Pros:

• Classic big-stuff aggro fun

• Can cast 6/6 flyers for 2 mana

• All the colors!

• Commander has an effect from the command zone, you don't need him out to reap his benefits!

Cons:

• Weak against control

• Slow to get going

• Has one (albeit broad) wincon

• Maybe you want to play Scion instead (nerd)

• If you don't get good ramp, you're screwed

Mad Strats

Getting the Engine Going

The drawback with dragons is that they're usually really expensive to cast. Our commander helps this a little, but we're gonna need some more gas here.

If you're sorting this decklist by "Custom" (which it should be by default), you can take a look at the "Ramp", "Cheats", and "Cost Reduction" categories to see what we're working with here (although tappedout.net sorts these categories really poorly)

Everything we're doing works toward one common cause: get dragons out faster.

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Mana Ramp:

We have some classic mana rocks like Sol Ring and sorceries such as Cultivate to get our mana base in order. Commander's Sphere can also give us some card advantage if we need it (I like to tap it for mana right before sac'ing it)

I always use Frontier Siege with type Khans, which is a flavor fail, but it's worth having {G}{G} twice a turn.

Mirari's Wake is always great if we can get our hands on it.

There are also a couple of dragons that get us our ramp too (Ramos and Ventmaw), but we'll get to those.

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Cost Reduction

Again, we'll always have our trusty Ur-Dragon's effect to help us along, and we really want to lean into this advantage.

Dragonlord's Servant and Dragonspeaker Shaman are loyal little cost chumps. They have a secondary utility of being meat shields if we need them. They're useful, but don't expect them to stick around too long.

We also run the classic Urza's Incubator, along with Herald's Horn which gives us some potential bonus card draw.

Then we have Fist of Suns. With {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}, we can get anything out, including our commander (keep in mind command tax still applies)

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Big Cheatsies:

If The Ur-Dragon is on the battlefield, we can just attack with our dragons to draw us some cards and cheat in whatever we need!

Dragon Arch is great for our multicolored dragons (not so much for our mono-colored ones, sadly)

• Lurking Predators and Selvala's Stampede

• Dragonstorm will basically never get its Storm ability, but that's fine.

• Sarkhan Unbroken

Meet the Team

We got lots of dragons in MTG, and plenty of ones I respect but kept out of this deck for one reason or another. Every dragon here has a purpose, and has been kept in due to their synergy with the rest of the deck. There are plenty of other dragons that would work wonderfully in an Ur-Dragon deck, but here are the tried-and-true firespitters that worked for me:

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The A Team:

• Atarka, World Render *thick* - Double strike for everyone! (*must be a dragon to be eligible)

• Balefire Dragon - Boardwipes the player it hits.

• Bladewing the Risen - Dragon recursion and boost... on a stick!

• Dragonlord Dromoka - Great countermeasure against players who are trying to lock-down your deck.

• Dromoka, the Eternal - Bolsters 2 FOR EACH attacking creature. Turn your army of 6/6's into 12/12's.

• Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund - Amazing play if your opponents have dragons (or stole your dragons).

• Ramos, Dragon Engine - An amazing ramp machine, and a good commander option as well.

• Savage Ventmaw - Attack for a free dragon.

• Scourge of Kher Ridges - Destroyer of armies, bane of salty token players!

• Sunscorch Regent - Always a fun one. If your opponent sees what's coming, they'll do whatever it takes to get this guy off the battlefield, but it's good for a little life-gain and acts as a huge beast if not taken care of in time.

• Teneb, the Harvester - Read this one carefully. It says "A graveyard". That means any graveyard, including our own, or even a person we didn't attack.

• Utvara Hellkite - My personal favorite. Attacking dragons make dragon tokens. Attacking dragon TOKENS make dragon tokens. Exponential dragon token chaos!!!

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B-Listers:

• Darigaaz Reincarnated - Dragon Jesus, dies and comes back 3 turns later.

• Furyborn Hellkite - Comes out as a ghastly 12/12, or a 6/6 if you need an emergency creature.

• Hellkite Charger - Excellent ability that can get you TWO Ur-Dragon triggers and potentially win the game, if you have the mana to pull it off.

• Hellkite Tyrant - Artifact hate taken up a notch! Also has a fun win condition, but don't expect to win that way.

• Keiga, the Tide Star - Mainly a great deterrent, but can steal a creature too.

• Kilnmouth Dragon - Play this card. Reveal 3 dragons from your hand. Get a 14/14 that can tap for 9 direct damage to a creature or player.

• Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury - Great power boost. Note that his ability triggers for EACH dragon that attacks.

• Nicol Bolas - The OG elder dragon. Great way to shut opponents down, but will likely be a big target.

• O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami - Mostly a good deterrent.

• Ryusei, the Falling Star - Good deterrent/semi-wipe

• Scalelord Reckoner - A good way to protect your dragons from being targeted.

• Scourge of the Throne - A good "second attack step" ability, but it won't trigger very often unless the other player(s) have a lot of health, which won't be often if we're playing this deck correctly.

• Silumgar, the Drifting Death - Great debuff/one-sided board wipe. Also a great blocker.

• Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon - You're not gonna win with infect, lets be honest. This is just a great way to coacx out removal spells and boardwipes.

• Tyrant's Familiar - Good for targeted creature removal, provided that the Ur-Dragon is out.

-- Now, hear me out.

Some of these rankings might be a surprise to you. There are a lot of strong creatures that I've labelled as "B-Listers", but this is specifically because in practice, they either are huge targets that get wiped out quickly, or their abilities just aren't able to be used to their full potential all that often in a real game. This is all mostly subjective, but this is based on my experience running games for years with this deck.

On the flip side, one or two of the A-Listers may not seem super strong, but are highly underrated, and our opponents will likely underestimate them until they're a real threat.

Also, there's no Scion.

Scion of the Ur-Dragon does not make an appearance in this deck. Huge flavor fail. Scion is undoubtedly a powerful card, especially in a dragon tribal deck. But I think he deserves his own deck, one with more graveyard recursion and other elements that compliment his style. This deck just isn't built to be sending my best dragons to the graveyard every turn.

Tips On How to Pilot

Here's our unstoppable gameplan to achieve victory:

Step 1: Get lots of mana (and cheatsy-doodles)

Step 2: Get a bunch of dragons for cheap

Step 3: Bust out

Obviously there's a little more to it than that, but here's some pointers that can help you at the table:

Make a Big Target

Here's the thing: People really don't like Nicol Bolas. People really don't like Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. People really don't like the more dramatic dragons with the more immediately serious effects. So that's why we're gonna play them first if we can. We're gonna make our opponents panic and use their removal spells and boardwipes to try to take them out, then once they've used up their answers, we can throw in Utvara Hellkite, Scourge of Kher Ridges, Balefire Dragon, or cast our glorious commander.

Deterrence

Did you know that this is a pillowfort deck? Okay, well, it's not, but when we have defenders out like Keiga, Ryusei, or O-Kagachi, people are going to think twice about attacking us. We can use this to advantage while we build up our board state.

[Possible Future Changes]

To Add:

• Sarkhan, Soul Aflame : Cost reducer AND dragon copier!

• Morophon, the Boundless : adds to our cost-reduction theme (the buff is less important but is a nice bonus)

• Descendants' Path : Cheat more creatures in!

• Dragon's Hoard : Standard mana rock with a tribal card-draw bonus

• The new Triome lands

• Ancient Gold, Silver, and Brass Dragons.

• Leyline Tyrant? : Lets us bank red mana, and then bomb an opponent with it if it gets removed

• Rampant Growth : how was that not already in here?! You tell me i'm running Farseek but not the original, objectively better Farseek?!?! The only reason to even run farseek is because i'm already running Rampant Growth and need more ramp!

• Chromatic Lantern : Excellent mana fixing

• Birds of Paradise : Hey, he can be a dragon if he wants. My boy just wants to be included. (get the anime one!!)

• More Ramp or smth

To Remove/Replace:

• Replace Tyrant's Familiar with Bastion Protector? : Our commander needs a new Lieutenant. Tyrant's buff and destruction is nice, but our dragons are already pretty strong, and the removal doesn't always prove super useful. Bastion Protector is cheaper and provides protection to our commander. I also think he's a good replacement for Indestructibility.

• Gratuitous Violence : This is a really fun card, but by the time this takes effect we will probably already have a lot of big fliers on the board; this just makes us a bigger target.

• No Mercy : Another really fun card, but doesn't often get to contribute much, there are probably better ways of protecting ourselves. And again, this makes us a big target.

• Monastery Siege : A good flavor card, but not super useful. There are likely better ways to protect ourselves.

• Balefire Dragon? : It's harder than you think for this guy to pop off. Maybe a better dragon would work? However, this guy also makes for a good distraction target, so I might keep him...

• Maybe? replace Sarkhan Unbroken with Sarkhan, Dragonsoul; he has the same ult, can get to that ult faster, and his +2 works as a boardwipe for small creatures

• Replace the normal trilands with the Triome lands, since those are just a straight upgrade

• Maybe? replace Nicol Bolas with Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ; both are big targets anyway, so maybe just remove Bolas altogether, although Bolas can be a good distraction target

• Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is super powerful, but he's really hard to get out and often gets destroyed before he can do anything useful. His ult is devastating, but only to one player, and it doesn't help us out or synergize all that much.

• Replace Asceticism and Indestructibility with more reliable (and maybe less "targetable") forms of protection.

• City of Brass and Mana Confluence could possibly be replaced. I love these cards, but maybe we could do better.

• Crucible of Fire? : We're already swinging with big dragons, but at the same time this could be good for being a distraction target for removal spells.

• Focus on some better forms of resurrection. Stuff like Unburial Rites just doesn't end up getting used to its full potential.

• Get better removal, more protection and answers, and more card draw!

• +1 Mountain, -1 Island

• Maybe see if there are other mana doublers that would work better than Mirari's Wake? Or just get better ramp?

• Also look up some alternate arts for these cards, get some cool art!

• New full-art lands?

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 months
Splash colors	U
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 8 Mythic Rares 35 - 11 Rares 26 - 2 Uncommons 5 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.92
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Dragon 4/4 R, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Faerie Dragon 1/1 U, Treasure
Folders	IRL Decks