Why not The Ur-Dragon

As a commander, The Ur-Dragon isn't the most efficient for cEDH gameplay. If you're looking for some good reasoning, click here

The reason why The Ur-Dragon isn't in the deck is because I just couldn't justify him as a Utility dragon. I'm not trying to cheat out permanents, as most of them are very small cmc, and I'm not going to be able to do lethal commander damage with him. So while, at one point he was in the deck, I decided to take him out and put something more efficient in. Like Balefire Dragon

Few questions... 1.What does you average game look like? 2. How soon can you get your commander on board? 3. How reliably do you win in a 1v1? 4 player? More player? 4. Can you justify having all 10 talismans?

Thanks for the questions ChaoSpydr!

Here's how the deck is played:

1. The goal is to cast Scion as early as possible. We're looking to start our hand with 2-4 lands, 2-3 pieces of ramp, and either card draw, interaction of some sort, etc.

2. Cast Scion of the Ur-Dragon on turn 3 or 4

3. On the next turn, If I have a combo card, I play it, and active the combo with Scion of the Ur Dragon's ability.

4. If I don't have a combo card, so long as I have Moltensteel Dragon + Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon in my library, and have mana, I have the ability to do lethal infect damage to a single player

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To answer your questions about multiplayer formats: This deck performs very reliably in a 1v1. With the ability to either play a combo, or fallback to using Moltensteel+Skitheryx, it's reasonable to win the game by turn 4 or 5.

For games with more than one person, just having moltensteel+skithiryx isn't enough to win the game. You'll have to draw or tutor cards like Curiosity or Animate Dead to reliably win the game regardless of however many opponents you have.

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The reason why I have all 10 talismans is that my primary goal in the deck is the generate WUBRG the fastest I can. I'd argue talismans are some of the most efficient ramp cards in all of magic. They come in untapped, and they are better than signets because you don't have the restriction of needing to generate mana. Plus, they are wonderful at color fixing too! In addition, my average CMC for the deck is 2.08, so having a strong, low-cost, reliable mana base allows me to get more value for casting my spells early.

You forgot Dragon Egg as a good target for your CMDR. I'll still upvote your deck though ;)

This is not a competitive list. Its at best a 7 in powerlevel. You lack the ramp quality and card quality of a true cEDH list. Cut a few off-plan lands (such as Tomb), add in staples like Mox Diamond. Additionally, your land quality is seriously lacking. Not having fetchlands means you should run a lower land density, anyways, as you lack the ability to deck thin. In other formats deckthinning is considered somewhat negligible, but in EDH, especially within the competitive edge of it, deckthinning is not negligible due to the quality of each card and its impact to your gameplan.

Your Commanders wincondition is flat out not competitively viable. You run a single Labman, and no efficient methods for removing your library/cantripping to profit.

This all may sound harsh, but its because I don't want you to get pubstomped by a genuinely fully tuned cEDH list.

I appreciate your feedback Nerdytimesorwhatever! I'll agree that the decklist isn't as competitive as it could be. I could have put more fetches, OG duel lands, etc. But this isn't a 100% optimized competitive decklist, it's just the deck that I currently own. You make a fair point about the decklist being under tuned, but I think you're underestimating Scion's value. While Scion is an older commander, I assure you he's still viable! There are lots of winconditions with Scion, the LabManiac is a small part of those wincons. If you look under my heading, "How is Scion of the Ur-Dragon competitive? (Logistically)" and head to "Combos", there's a good introduction to the wincons that Scion has.

Overall, the decklist itself isn't as competitive as it can be, and yes, Scion is an older commander. However, I still believe he can still find a place among cEDH commanders. Thank you for the feedback and the upvote!