A more budget friendly dragon tribal version of Atla Palani, Nest Tender. I wrote this because I haven't come across many primers for Atla Palani, especially as a dragon tribal deck. I've been working on this deck slowly, building up the power level of the actual dragons and the sac outlets in the deck. Still open to more changes but I'll write a little primer for how the deck runs. My budget restrictions are that I'd rather not pay more than 10$CAD for a single card unless it's a really important part of the deck. (The mana base suffers the most from this but the deck plays really well without fetches and shocklands as it is.) Some of the cards cross that price threshold because I acquired them through either trades or opened them in the few packs that I do buy.
Gameplan: This deck aims to get out the commander and use her ability to make eggs which are then sacrificed a variety of ways to "hatch" some of the coolest dragons around.
How this deck wins:
Main way to win is via a combo using cards that trigger off of dragons entering the battlefield to deal damage to each opponent. Scourge of Valkas and the new Terror of the Peaks are what you're looking for out of the eggs to do this or Dragon Tempest cast from hand. Mirror entity can be used to turn all of your creatures into eggs to help you dig for your win cons.
The backup plan is to just murder everyone with dragons! Who knew dragons were so powerful? Most of the ways you sac your eggs in this deck are at instant speed so you can save up all your eggs for the end step before your turn and if the right dragons come out you can end up a large flock of them to send in to burninate all the peasants!
Dragons!: Just going to quickly cover the ones that aren't super obvious.
Dragon Broodmother: This girl triggers on EVERYONE'S turn! By itself it will trigger a lot of the other effects in the deck and the devour on the tokens are a free sac outlet.**
Dragonlord Dromoka: Once she pops from an egg, it's too late for any interaction and you're ready to go off!
Drakuseth, Maw of Flames: Mostly just really cool but he actually does some serious work on his own.
Hellkite Charger: More attack phases means more BURNINATION!
Lathliss, Dragon Queen: This lady makes so many extra dragons in this deck and things get out of hand when she hatches!
Mirror Entity: One of the best cards in the deck, allows you to sac your whole board with Atla out to get them all replaced by dragons if you use it's ability for 0. That's hardly the best use for it. It can be used to make your board enormous in more unlikely circumstances. The best use of this card is as board wipe protection. It wont save your creatures but it will allow you to replace them all with a bunch of dragons with Atla Palani in play.
Nesting Dragon: More eggs! one thing to note is the eggs that she makes also count as dragons for triggers on Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest.
Runehorn Hellkite: On theme wheel effect to get you a new hand.
Scourge of Kher Ridges: Amazingly versatile, works as a sac outlet and a board wipe.
Scourge of the Throne: More attack phases means more BURNINATION!
Utvara Hellkite: MANY DRAGONS!!!
Noteworthy Interactions:
Win Conditions: Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest deal damage to any target equal to the number of dragons you control when a new dragon enters the battlefield. It is possible to respond to these triggers with instant speed sac outlets to get another dragon. Do this until you run out of eggs and when the triggers resolve they will all see the total amount of dragons that you have in play rather than slowly increasing in damage. Also noteworthy is that you can use these triggers to kill your own eggs if you have no other sac outlet.
Flameshadow Conjuring and Molten Echoes: These just give you more dragons for triggers but also can give you extra copies of Terror of the Peaks and Scourge of Valkas for even MORE BURNINATION OF PEASANTS!
Combos:
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An infinite loop is possible using Atla Palani with Ashnod's Altar and Thornbite Staff. (Which conveniently attaches to her for free if it's in play when you cast her.) Pay 2 to make an egg, sac it to altar which triggers the staff to untap Atla and then use the 2 mana from the altar to start the process again. Repeat until your dragons are all out. (If you can even get them all out before you win.) This is unreliable in this deck since I'm not using any tutors but it is worth mentioning. Both cards are really good on their own anyway.
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Mirror Entity in combination with Rhythm of the Wild makes it possible to cycle through your dragons to find the ones you really want by giving the important ones counters with the riot trigger and giving haste to the ones you want to replace. Atla and mirror entity both need the counters from riot as well for this to work. This can result in you running out of dragons if they come out in the wrong order and you sac them all away. Stuggle // Survive is in the deck to shuffle them back in if this happens.
Minor Nombo: Aether Flash kills all of your eggs upon entry and allows everything else in your deck other than mirror entity and the dragon whelp tokens from Dragon Broodmother and Nesting Dragon to survive. Mirror Entity is the one to worry about since it's so useful so keep in mind that you might want to have 3 mana open to save it if it pops out with Aether Flash in play. Otherwise Aether Flash is amazing for keeping your engine running and disrupting everyone else at the same time!
Aura Shards: Normally a really powerful card but in this deck it can act as more of a one sided artifact and enchantment wipe. Save it for when you're able to crack some eggs and you can potentially trigger it enough times to clear out everything your opponents have out!
Board Wipes: The board wipes in the deck are far from hard creature destruction and are obviously tuned more towards killing eggs and allowing you to keep Atla Palani alive.
Ramp Package: This has been constantly fluctuating and right now I'm trying to run a little less of it since i used to have cards that didn't help with casting Atla any faster. I may have to add some 2 cost mana rocks to the deck. (I got blown out a few times from vandalblast which is why i shied away from them.)
You should Play this deck if you like:
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DRAGONS!
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Explosive combos that aren't infinite. (altar + staff are technically infinite but it only does anything until you run out of dragons in your deck)
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High variance. You never know what's gonna hatch! Sometimes you respond to someone trying to deal with what you have and accidentally win the game on the spot because of the order of what pops out!
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Being the Archenemy! It doesn't take long to get a scary board state with this deck.
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DRAGONS!!!
You shouldn't play this deck if you like:
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Going unnoticed. Atla has a bit of a reputation on her own and sometimes telling your pod that its "Just dragon Tribal" will turn some alarms off... Until you try to play it a second time.
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A linear game plan. The first half of the plan of this deck is usually the same but how it goes off changes game to game. So it's consistently different.
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Control over the game. No blue or black. This deck aims to be the problem at the table. It can deal with creature based strategies but beyond that it has only a little amount of interaction.
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Not having to rely on your commander. This deck can get there (through combat) after Atla becomes too expensive to cast again but the main strategy is heavily reliant on her sticking around.
This deck is super fun to play and generally pretty exciting to play against because of the dragon roulette that you play when an egg hatches. I look forward to any tips and questions about it.
