My first version of an scion of the Ur-dragon deck.
It tries to use, you don't say, dragons, but with some alternative finishers too.
The strength of this deck is that if I see an opening to do dmg with my commander, I can literally do whatever I want. Make him discard his hand with Nicol Bolas, do tons of dmg with the Dragon Tyrant, clean his field with Balefire Dragon. And, if I got the chance, use some combos. Keep a thing in mind: this deck is not so easy to use. You have to know very well which dragons you have in the deck and how to use them, in order to understand when is the right time to use a dragon instead of another. The dragons are around 20, so from the moment you cast the Scion, you have 20 possibilities to chose from. Often you can't reuse a dragon so soon, if you don't have cards to put it back in your library. So, before using his ability, think very well at what do you want to do.
I will examine this deck mechanics, and explain how it is intended to works, in the next sections.
DRAGONS
Following my last updates on the Ur-dragon mechanics, I'll first divide the dragons for their effect, then for their mechanics:
Effects:
-big dmg to the player: Dragon Tyrant, Moltensteel Dragon, Atarka, World Render or in combos with Draco, Spellbound Dragon
-creature control via dmg: Balefire Dragon, Siege Dragon, Scourge of Kher Ridges, Tyrant's Familiar
-creature control via other effects: Dromar, the Banisher, Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Warmonger Hellkite
-offensive utilities: Nicol Bolas, Hellkite Tyrant, Steel Hellkite, Hoard-Smelter Dragon
-defensive utilities: Quicksilver Dragon, Hellkite Overlord, Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Dragonlord Ojutai, Belltoll Dragon, Stormbreath Dragon and... Chameleon Colossus! Yep, he is a dragon too.
-reanimating effects: Bladewing the Risen, Teneb, the Harvester
Mechanics I don't mention the obvious abilities, like the pure activated abilities or the static effects:
-activating via dmg to the player: Balefire Dragon, Teneb, the Harvester, Nicol Bolas, Steel Hellkite, Teneb, the Harvester, Hellkite Tyrant
-on attack abilities: Utvara Hellkite, Hellkite Charger, Siege Dragon, Spellbound Dragon, Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Tyrant's Familiar, Scourge of the Throne
-attacking activated abilities: Forgestoker Dragon
-on death abilities: Kokusho, the Evening Star, Keiga, the Tide Star
-come into play effects: Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, Bladewing the Risen, Siege Dragon, Furnace Dragon. Normally in this deck you can use this effects mainly by reanimating the dragons from your graveyard. Another option is to use cards like Clone, or Phantasmal Image on you Scion. Really effective, just not my style.
Among this dragons I can chose just the more effective ones, to make a good use of the tutor ability of the Scion. Cause that is what he is: a tutor for the dragons, a multitasking dragon. And that's why I use some cards to put back my dragons in the library: if I keep just the more useful dragons in the deck, and reuse them, I can save slots in the deck for other cards like mana fix, utilities, control, etc.
COMBOS
Assumed the multitasking strenght of the Scion, and the high variability that a pentacolor deck allows, there are many combos available, which highly differ in strength and feasibility. Here are some:
-Atarka, World Render + Moltensteel Dragon
: put in stack 2 instance of Scion's ability, first targeting Atarka, than moltensteel. As the first in stack resolve, pay the amount of you need, so your Scion gain double attack and can just do the 21 dmg needed to win by commander damages. It means you must consume at least 10 LP, your Scion gain +5/+0, than he become Atarka, so a 11/4 double attack. 22 dmgs served. If instead of Atarka you use Dragon Tyrant.. well, he has trample too!
-Moltensteel Dragon + Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
: pretty the same as before, but you win via infect dmg, so you need just to pay 12 LP to gain the +6/+0 you need. Actually I don't like neither of this combos, cause they are too strong and allow you to win too fast. I prefer the longer games.
-Draco + Spellbound Dragon
or Draco + Hoard-Smelter Dragon
: this is a really funny combo, that allow you to give your Scion an amazing +16/+0. But is pretty hard to perform. You can help yourself with cards like Sarkhan's Triumph or Haunted Crossroads, but still you need to have Draco in hand/on top of your deck for the first case or in play for the second one. And it has a big problem: it allows you to do only 19 commander damages! Arrgh, miss two!
-Bear Umbra + Hellkite Charger
, or in some case can work with Nature's Will too: attack and put in stack the 2 abilities in the right order, that allow you to pay the cost for doubling the attack phases and then untap all your lands. Enjoy infinite attack phases. Can work with Aggravated Assault, Savage Ventmaw and/or Sword of Feast and Famine too.
-Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund + Patriarch's Bidding
: put in your grave as much dragons as you can, and Karrthus among them. Use Patriarch's Bidding. Attack with them all! Better if you have Silumgar, the Drifting Death too (attention, he is Legendary, so don't copy is with Scion and then reanimate him!) to give -x/-x to the creatures the opponent just put in game from his graveyard. And use Atarka to give to all of them double attack, or Scourge of the Throne for another attack phase, where you can attack with all utvara's hellkite's tokens too.
-Patriarch's Bidding + Sarkhan the Mad
: with this you don't need bother gaining haste, or take care or opponents' creatures. Just play a bunch of dragons, use sarkhan -4 ability and win.
-Bladewing the Risen + Teneb, the Harvester
: when you have your Bladewing in the graveyard (not so difficult to do so with the Scion, isn't it?) you can reanimate him with Teneb to reanimate also another dragon of your choice. 2 for 1! You can do the same trick with all the reanimation card that I run in the deck.
-Furnace Dragon + Mycosynth Lattice
: pretty nasty combo, but hard to perform. The game is really hard, and some opponent have a unbeatable board set up? Play Furnace Dragon for a nice complete reset. And lose your friends.
OTHER CARDS
Some insight about the other cards:
Lair lands and dragons' charms: ok I admit it, these cards are here just for the flavor. The charms in particular are not so strong, but I like the idea to use them. If you are not naif like me, just take them out. I'm thinking to keep just the Dromar's one, as it's the only invasion dragon in the deck.
Mana fixers: I'm a pentacolor, and I want to cast Scion as soon as possible, so I use many and different fixer. Pretty obvious, isn't it? So I use a couple of creatures, some sorceries to search for the lands and some cards that help me fix my mana. But I use mainly cards that make me draw like Manamorphose, Abundant Growth, Karametra's Favor, so I don't lose card advantage, or card that actually don't just fix the mana, but add it, like commander sphere, Darksteel Ingot and so on. The ability of the Scion cost , so if I want to use it and play spell too, I have to ramp a little.
cards: I think is just funny to use cards that make use of all the colors. Some are actually useful, like Obelisk of Alara, Legacy Weapon, Etched Monstrosity, other are just funny or really situational, like Door to Nothingness or chromanticora.
Here I report some combos saw in other decks or suggested by other users. As you can see, these are pretty strong, and usually allow an insta-win. Which I do not want. This deck is not really competitive, cause its main target is to be fun. And an infinite combo is NOT fun. Bet hay, you you go to a tournament or something like that, be my guest:
A combo that I saw from another player, Kozelek:
-Rite of Replication + Scourge of Valkas
: I don't use it, but can be very funny and effective. Try it out for at minimum 6x6=36 damages!
Than a combo saw from MrAwesomeSocks, which have the most rated Ur-Dragon EDH deck on tappedout (a competitive one, for sure). If you want a competitive Ur-Dragon deck, go to take a look:Machinations of the Draconian
-Hellkite Tyrant + Mycosynth Lattice
: really funny combo, strong but not so easy to perform, so I will definitely try it.
And from revenicus:
-Dack's Duplicate + Enduring Scalelord
: transform your Scion, copy it and attack the player with the most like. Infinite +1/+1 counter. Really strong and simple combo, that leave you with two really big creatures. The only problem is that without Dack's Duplicate the Enduring Scalelord is useless in this deck.
And this one, suggested by the user cleedude:
-Curiosity + Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
, for some easy infinite damages. Also work with Ophidian Eye
