Story:
As Garruk and I prepared the ambush for the dragon we argued about the legends and if they were truth or lie. Then we saw her on the horizon, she approached with such speed that all of our preparations were abandoned and we instead could only rely on our instincts and magic. As she came into full view her eye caught sight of us and she let out a screech that shattered the rocks around us. as she screamed her mouth seemed to peel back like a snake shedding its skin, a different dragon emerged and the skin of the first dragon fell to the ground with a crash. This new dragon was much larger and had fire billowing from its nostrils. It swooped down an inferno spewing from his mouth, the rocks around us melted with the heat. I was able to cover both of us is a protective blanket of Darkness just in time. The dragon landed on a peak and with a roar vomited up another dragon then crumpled lifeless to the rock. This must have inspired Garruk to see what other beasts she has within her, but just as he cast Beast Within another dragon emerged which seemed to be immune to the spell. As the fight went on more and more dragon skins fell to the earth and Garruk was severely injured by a dragon that tore the earth asunder under him. After Garruk vanished into the chasm a new dragon emerged and made the fissure an oven of flame. He crawled out of the massive crack and before he fainted from the heat he was able to cast Lace with Moonglove on a
Glaze Fiend
I just summoned. The glass gargoyle fearlessly attacked our foe and, as hoped, was no match for the dragon but was gnashed to shards in the dragon's great maw, blood and poison dripped from his jaw and we knew that in just moments the moonglove would be coursing through his veins. The dragon plummeted to the earth in a heap of mangled flesh. I was victorious!
But it was not to be. The empty hides that littered the battlefield rose up filled with life. I was totally surrounded, and every one a monstrous foe. The realization washed over me that victory against this enemy was impossible and I knew that the legends were indeed true.
This
Is
How
It
Works
This not your run of the mill dragon tribal deck, it is a combo focused reanimator Scion deck. It takes advantage of the 5 colors with lots of strong cards, and only the "best" dragons that do cool things in addition to being fat beaters, rather then just lots and lots of fatty dragons.
The idea is take the first 4 or 5 turns to ramp up mana while building a pillow fort. you can play a few different ways depending on what others are doing what the deck gives you and how you feel like killing everyone:
Option 1) you can go aggro with commander damage and massive beaters. When you get to 7 mana, if it seem like time to make a move, you can cast scion and turn him into a dragon with haste (most likely Tyrant's Familiar because it hits for 7 and kills a creature). Or, cast Scion and keep 2 mana available in case you need to turn Scion into "Silumgar" to give him hexproof. Any time you attack with Scion stare down your victim until he decides what he's going to do. then smile and punish him for his choice. If he blocks there are some massive trampling beater dragons like Dragon Tyrant and Hellkite Overlord for killing the blocker and dealing commander damage. If he takes it in the face there are also some dragons that punish your opponent in unique ways like: killing his whole army with Balefire Dragon or making him toss his whole hand with Nicol Bolas "boo hoo"
Option 2) you can board wipe and stall people until everyone else is burned out then make your move in a few turns, just keep using cards like Pernicious Deed, Nevinyrral's Disk etc. until everyone is out of cards and very mad at you, then have your way with them via everything in option 1. this does draw a lot of hate and thus might backfire.
Option 3) you can hunker down behind a wall of pillows and look nonthreatening until you go off and kill everyone in a single turn (like that option best). Simply don't do anything except ramp and pillow fort. by the time you have 11 mana or so you will also have at least one combo card (such as Keen Sense, Bear Umbra, Dack's Duplicate or Mycosynth Lattice) then turn Scion into a copy of the dragon that goes with that combo then bloody devastation and heartless domination will ensue. Kill everything or steal everything or totally filp the table so you have all power.
Option 3.5) If I am unsuccessful in my tyrannical desires to crush and enslave my opponents by way of world dominating combos there is very brutal option. Take a few turns behind your pillows just milling dragons into your bin especially Dragonlord Kolaghan for the "all your creatures gain haste", Atarka, World Render for the "all dragons gain double strike" and Scourge of the Throne for the second attack phase ability. while trying to keep things under control with board wipers and the threat of the star dragons should someone kill Scion. Then cast a mass reanimator like Rise of the Dark Realms and attack on the same turn killing everyone with 6 or 8 hasty dragons with double strike and 2 attack phases.
Option 4) a combination of any/all of these to roll with the punches so to speak.
There are cards that take total advantage of the many ways I can shuffle the deck. Mirri's Guile is normally not that great... unless you can shuffle on command with Scion and land fetch spells. This is very handy.
There are some tutors mostly to find my combo cards and mass reanimators but they can be useful to find other cards in a pinch.
Ramp is always useful especially in a 5 color deck to fix the mana.
Combos:
Credit Voucher
+
Keen Sense
+
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
= win for only 7 mana. put keen sense on Scion, turn him into the Firemind, then draw cards until you are almost out of cards in your deck, then cast and activate the voucher discard your whole hand (about 80 cards and draw the mall again. You've dealt about 160-180 damage
Dack's Duplicate
+
Enduring Scalelord
= a 9,999/9,999 flying creature and a 9,999/9,999 Scion for 6 mana. Just turn Scion into the Scalelord then cast Dack's Duplicate, attack with one or both Scalelord's (one or more opponents, as long as one has the most life) and the trigger will put +1/+1 counters on them until I want it to stop, then damage is dealt!
Enduring Scalelord
+
Fearsome Awakening
= a 9,999/9,999 flying creature and a 9,999/9,999 Scion for 7 mana. Just turn Scion into the Scalelord then cast Fearsome Awakening, since saclelord is a dragon it will add 2 +1/+1 counters triggering the combo!
Dragon Tyrant
+
Might of the Nephilim
= a 16/16 flying trample double strike dragon... aka instakill. simply attack with Scion then, whether or not they block you can say "surprise! your dead."
Aggravated Assault + Savage Ventmaw
and Bear Umbra
+
Hellkite Charger
= Attack infinite times... that just makes me happy ;D
Pernicious Deed
+
Boros Charm
, now that's just mean! If you can combine it with Mycosynth Lattice it is just stupid.
Hellkite Tyrant + Mycosynth Lattice
= steal all of your opponents stuff including lands.
Cyclonic Rift
+
Nicol Bolas
is a fun and hateful thing to do, cast Cyclonic Rift overloaded, attack with scion, they can't block cause all of there stuff is in there hand, turn scion into Nicol Bolas, then then they drop there whole hand.
Notable cards not yet mentioned:
Bloom Tender: cast this little guy. next turn cast Scion and tap him for
Mirari's Wake: Mostest bestest rampy ramp ramper.
Cleansing Meditation: with a few ramp cards and dragons in my bin this card is devastating!
Animate Dead and Reanimate these Just make sense in this deck... or any EDH deck!
Treachery: What better removal is there then that which does not remove? steal commanders and massive beasts.
Cyclonic Rift... um... duh! RTFC it's amazing!
Pernicious Deed: "Skadoosh"
Brainstorm and,
Dream Cache
, with the ability to shuffle my library whenever I want these cards draw me three cards and allow me to put dragons I have in my hand back in my library.
Sylvan Library like Brainstorm but EVERY TURN!!! a total powerhouse.
Temporal Mastery with all of the cards like Sylvan Library and Brainstorm I can always miracle this.
100 cards means 100 cards (too bad)
There are so many cards I love and belong in this deck, but if I put 'em all in it would be like 200 cards, here are some of the bests ones and the reasons I cut them out.
Vorosh, the Hunter
, Teneb, the Harvester and friends: having an activation cost of 3 on top of scion's cost of 2 is simply too much. it means that I cannot do anything else that turn.
Crucible of Fire
, Coat of Arms and the like: Dragons are already big and by the time I really have enough dragons to make these cards worth it it is likely that I am going to win any ways.
Rite of Replication and Scourge of Valkas sure it deals at least 180 damage to any number of targets... but it costs 11 mana... kinda a lot.
Feldon of the Third Path to go with Keiga, the Tide Star and his other star friends. take creatures, deal 5 damage to everyone and gain a bunch of life or completely lock down your opponents every turn! But he is just going to die before he can do any of that.
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Moltensteel Dragon this one is a kick in the head, and if this was 1vs1 I would totally add it. but when I have to spend my own life to kill one opponent the one who really benefits is my other opponents. also poison counters don't stack with other damage so it is all (10 poison counters) or nothin, which is why I like Dragon Tyrant better
Conspiracy and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and other huge mean beasts: outside of my budget plus in EDH combos must be made consistent somehow, the other combos in the deck use Scion and only one other card.
Any planeswalkers: In multi-player I feel like you can only have those out for a turn or two before they die. they are like the opposite of a rattlesnake, rather then saying "if you attack me I will pop Pernicious Deed", it says "if you don't attack me I will go ultimate next turn."
Let me know what what you think and what you think about the cards I have in the maybe board.
Thanks for looking.
