Sorcery (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: Zirilan of the Claw

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Maybeboard


Updated: October 4, 2023

This version of Zirilan of the Claw is optimized to play as many dragons as possible and deal direct damage with them.

Cards that synergize with Zirilan's ability:

Sundial of the Infinite / Conjurer's Closet / Sword of Hearth and Home: Dragons get to stay

Descendants' Fury / Industrial Advancement / Pyre of Heroes: Dragons summoned are recycled

Mirror March / Molten Echoes /Illusionist's Bracers: More dragons... can get pretty insane

Heartstone: Just reducing Zirilan's ability is enough, a couple dragons also have activated abilities, but especially Soulbright Flamekin

Tel-Jilad Stylus: Sometimes you really need that dragon a second time, also fizzles removals. FREE ACTIVATION

Scroll Rack: Put that dragon back in the library!

If everything else fails: Endless Sands / High Market

Cards for direct damage:

Dragon Tempest: Direct Damage AND haste? top tier

Pandemonium: Dangerous but it's pretty fun

Warstorm Surge: One-sided, devastating

Terror of the Peaks: One-sided and also a dragon, which means it's tutorable

Repercussion: Also dangerous, but removal + direct damage is pretty good, disencourages blocking too.

Kazuul's Fury  : Or just use it as land

Help with mana:

Sword of Hearth and Home / Armillary Sphere / Expedition Map / Burnished Hart / Solemn Simulacrum: Fetch those lands! Important in monored.

Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind / Orb of Dragonkind / Cursed Mirror: situational but mostly better than a mountain

Dragon's Hoard: Precious card draw!!

Gauntlet of Power: This is just silly

Ruby Medallion: Cheapens almost everything

Soulbright Flamekin: Mana AND trample? YES

Braid of Fire: Mostly to pay Zirilan's skill, but there are some nice mana sinks too. (and Leyline Tyrant too ofc)

Also dragons that create treasures: Ancient Copper Dragon, Goldspan Dragon, Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

Note: I have no creatures that make dragons cheaper because a dragon 1 turn earlier is not going to replace 1 card that is not generating that much value. I also recommend Mana Flare if you don't care about winning, it will probably make everyone have more fun.

Card draw:

Dragon's Hoard: Mana AND card draw. Super useful.

Knollspine Dragon: Hard to trigger, but can be a full reload.

Dragon Mage: Essential.

This is the deck's weakest aspect for sure, but since there are so many big dragons and you are getting so much value out of them, you are not running out of cards that often.

The deck's worst enemy is a huge, indestructible, flying, lifelink, hexproof creature. But that's the same for most decks right?

Other cards are there because they synergize so well. Basilisk Collar gives lifegain in red, which for some dragons such as Balefire Dragon is bonkers. There are few sorceries and instants because the dragons cover most needs. Some board wipes such as Blasphemous Act and Disaster Radius are always welcome though.

I ended up removing most mana duplicators such as Mana Flare, Gauntlet of Might because the deck doesn't really need them. They are very strong but too many are redundant and sometimes you don't draw well and they don't help anyway (I'm looking at you Extraplanar Lens).

Pandemonium effects are crazy effective here, and so are Gate to the AEther and Guild Feud. Even if they may benefit your opponents, they don't get the value out of them that you do when you consistently slam dragons on the table for free.

There are even a couple of "combos" available (and I say "combos" because you only need one card, mana and your commander out), though I don't use them because I find them disgusting hahah but feel free to do so.

The first one is Hellkite Tyrant + Mycosynth Lattice , as you can tutor Hellkite Tyrant anytime you have Zirilan out, it's pretty easy to do and it's devastating. Also, you'll probably win with the 20 artifacts condition anyway if you keep him for the next turn.

The second one is Apocalypse + Worldgorger Dragon . It works like this: You cast Apocalypse with Zirilan in play, activate Zirilan's ability, fetching Worldgorger Dragon. Worldgorger dragon's ability triggers and resolves, exiling all your permanents. Then Apocalypse resolves, exiling everything in the field, including your dragon, which gives you back all your permanents. Though you have no hand, others have no cards in play, and are at your mercy. Pretty un-fun for me and too easy to pull off, that's why both combos are on the maybeboard.

Anyway, that's most of it. Hope you like it.

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Date added 10 years
Last updated 8 months
Key combos
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

17 - 4 Mythic Rares

44 - 25 Rares

17 - 3 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.44
Tokens Copy Clone, Dragon 2/2 R, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Dragon Egg 0/2 R, The Monarch, Treasure
Folders professor chaos, EDH, Decks i like
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