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Scion of Souls

Commander / EDH Reanimator

Planeswalking_Homarid

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Land (37)

Planeswalker (2)

Creature (24)

Enchantment (8)

Instant (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Scion of the Ur-Dragon

Artifact (11)

Sorcery (11)

Maybeboard

Creature (7)

Enchantment (3)

Instant (1)

Land (1)

Artifact (1)

Sorcery (1)

Scion of the Ur-Dragon was my first EDH commander, and it's come a long way from 35+ dragons, a bit of ramp, and some less-than-optimal lands.

For a long time in my Brooklyn playgroup it was a feared deck, but it's become outclassed in the wilds of LGS play in South Carolina, so I've gone back and added some of the cards that I considered "unfriendly," like Dragon Tyrant and Nicol Bolas , and combinations I never would have considered sleeving in my 99, like Animate Dead + Worldgorger Dragon . Despite all that, there's still some pet cards in here, like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker , and I probably need some objectivity on making this more competitive. I know Hellkite Charger + Savage Ventmaw is a thing, and it should be in the deck if I'm trying to go all-in on combos, but I haven't been able to make cuts for them, at least in part because of my own limited success making the combo work in the past.

Scion is a bit of an odd duck for tribal- unlike The Ur-Dragon, he does not care much about reaching any kind of critical mass of dragons; he is the dragon you need when you need it. So ETBs become less good (not that there are many draconic ETB effects that are worth playing in Commander aside from, say, Dragonlord Silumgar, Deathbringer Regent, Knollspine Dragon (who is kind of win-more, in my and of course, the Gorger) and moreso than in a regular tribal deck, individual card impact becomes more important, as does knowing the contents of your deck.

I've been playing Dragons for awhile and with this latest rebuild, have tried to address some of the biggest problems that the tribe, or particularly, Scion, has in multiplayer:

Unlike most other tribes, and maybe just because they're a base red tribe, Dragons. Need. To. Attack. Angels and Demons, even Sphinxes will give you benefits, activated abilities and other things you can do just for playing them, ETBs notwithstanding, but the majority of Dragons don't. Many of the older dragons need to deal damage to have their abilities go off (Looking at you, Primordial cycles and Steel Hellkite), and the newer ones need to attack or be attacking.

As of this writing, there are 48 Dragon cards that have "enters the battlefield" in their text. Filtering out "landfall" and "devour" brings it down to 41, but one of those is Arcades, the Strategist , and we're not playing Walls, so it's really 40. As for the rest, they mainly deal relatively small amounts of damage for the amount of mana you pay (especially the ones that care about Mountains in a 5-color deck) to cast on entering, or have no other abilities. The dragons that Scion wants are the ones that do things, and for a Dragon, that's attacking. To that end...

Slamming a Dragon on your turn feels good. It makes the table nervous because so few (relatively speaking) creatures have flying. But, suddenly, you're the problem, just because you can attack freely. Politics around killing your threats can make things awkward for you, and you don't really want a lot of reactive spells in here since the creature count is fairly low. For awhile I ran Asceticism alongside Steely Resolve but the 5-mana enchantment felt like I was taking a turn off to do nothing. I really want to fit Bower Passage in here to make combat harder.
(Even your commander, really.) I've added every unfair mana advantage card I own (I'm working on getting a Mana Crypt, but that's a ways off), and it still doesn't feel like enough. I've never played Burgeoning before, but I've seen it played, usually in Simic decks that draw cards (and always have lands to play on other people's turns) and I think that's the kind of acceleration that you need to be able to make fair plays that matter, assuming that we're not just reanimating something. Rhystic Study helps with card draw; but I feel like it needs another form of card advantage... Maybe Sylvan Library ?
Like I said under Everyone Loves a Dragonslayer, dropping evasive 5/5+ creatures makes you A Problem... assuming that you can sit quietly through 3+ other players' turns and untap. You need to cheat whenever possible, which is why Teferi's Veil and Vedalken Orrery are in the deck, and Leyline of Anticipation and Alchemist's Refuge are in the maybeboard. Casting threats at instant speed gives you pseudo-haste, and phasing them out after they've done their dirty work means that they're safe from the majority of board wipes, except stuff like Rout . Teferi's Veil also has the added bonus of cheating with Corpse Dance . I'm considering Rhythm of the Wild as a way to force creatures through as well as grant haste, but I don't know how to fit it.

Other Maybeboard Thoughts: The Kamigawa "Stars" Kokusho, etc are mildly iffy. I don't have a way to kill them on my own, so I can't really control whether or not they go off in an advantageous manner. Yosei, the Morning Star seems like an interesting addition, but he seems more obnoxious than powerful. I've never played with him, so I don't know.

Dragonlord Silumgar could replace Keiga and maybe Thunder Dragon could replace Ryusei, though Kokusho is always useful-- 5 life is 5 life.

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager   will probably come in after Standard rotates and I can get one cheaper. Drakuseth, Maw of Flames seems like a big, dumb Red Zone beater that the deck actually might want, though I'm almost obligated to play the Charger + Ventmaw combo at that point.

Mark of Fury seemed like a cheap way to give haste that doesn't sit around waiting to get eaten by Bane of Progress . Rhythm of the Wild is probably better, or even Dragonlord Kolaghan , though the dragon is just a 6/5.

I've had Wayfarer's Bauble in the deck for a long, long time. I took it out because I've skewed so hard away from basic lands. It might come back for Panic Button reasons.

Teferi's Protection seems like a decent reactive card. I don't think I want Trickbind in the deck, but Protection would let me get around opposing infinite combos.

Earthquake and Fault Line just seem like good one-sided sweepers with a bit of reach. Magmaquake might actually be better, since it's an instant, though it doesn't hit players.

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 4 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

13 - 0 Mythic Rares

59 - 0 Rares

13 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.46
Tokens Dragon 1/1 RG, Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R
Folders Regular EDH
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