Strixhaven Elder Dragons
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on April 13, 2021, 1:12 a.m. by LivingThing
Strixhaven is almost here, and with it comes 5 awesome elder dragons
Shadrix Silverquill , Velomachus Lorehold , Galazeth Prismari , Tanazir Quandrix , and Beledros Witherbloom
All look sweet, and so far I'm leaning towards building either Velomachus Lorehold or Shadrix Silverquill Which dragon should I build (and how?) Alternatively, which dragon is your favorite and why?
golgarigirl says... #3
Witherbloom is my favorite, for obvious reasons (points to username). For real, though, I am just thrilled with more pest tokens.
I really like Velomachus' design, I was very impressed by him when he was spoiled as something new and exciting to do with Boros.
If I were to build Shadrix, I would make a deck that looks political, but is secretly voltron XD.
April 13, 2021 10:16 a.m.
Mtg_Mega_Nerds says... #4
I agree with golgarigirl. Beledros Witherbloom is the best here, but between Velomachus Lorehold and Shadrix Silverquill I would go with Velomachus.
April 13, 2021 10:38 a.m.
TriusMalarky says... #5
Actually, if you want real 'power', Prismari is the best of the 5. The reason being is that he's Urza, but plus red. The loss of spinning is sad, but not really.
Prismari is actually capable of being cEDH, but he's far and away the worst in more casual games. You have to build him optimally for it to be worth it. But, you know, having Urza but you get Dockside Extortionist in your deck is pretty good.
April 13, 2021 12:38 p.m.
Sultai_Sir says... #6
I'm really excited to build around
Beledros Witherbloom
. There are so many great ways to build him: Mana Doublers, Tokens, Aristocrats, Lifegain, Lands Matter... the list goes on and on! He looks best in the 99 of something like
Ikra Shidiqi
+
Prava of the Steel Legion
or
The Ur-Dragon
, tho.
Galazeth Prismari looks like fixed Urza , which is both a good thing if you're playing more casual and don't like getting ganged up on, and a bad thing because who's gonna play a worse Urza in cEDH when their's just a better Urza: Urza ?
The other three don't really interest me that much, but Tanazir could lead a spicy simic aggro deck built around unblockable dudes and effects like Wild Beastmaster and Toski, Bearer of Secrets ... I take it back, I'm definitely going to build this. All in all, I think Strixhaven is a slam dunk for commander, and the dragons are no exception.
April 13, 2021 2:34 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #7
Actually, the cEDH Discord I'm part of (The 99's Discord) largely agreed that Prismari is actually as good if not better Urza. The red adds a lot, specifically Underworld Breach combo lines and Dockside Extortionist . In Urza, Urza is the win con, but in Prismari, you get better win cons, and Wheel effects which are just really good when you're playing mountains of cost artifacts.
Urza's still pretty good though, so he won't be replaced by any means.
Tanazir does look really fun with those cards though.
April 14, 2021 12:36 p.m.
LivingThing says... #8
TriusMalarky I've been checking out primary and it looks really sweet. Probably won't build it competitively but it looks like a really fun deck. Something about Witherbloom and Quandrix throws me off, and I'm really only against building those two
April 14, 2021 1:06 p.m.
In order, I like Witherbloom, Prismari, and Lorehold. I really like that none of the designs are super narrow.
April 14, 2021 2:10 p.m.
LivingThing says... #10
@lempyrean Witherbloom seems a bit repetitive with generic seedborn muse value each turn
April 14, 2021 2:48 p.m.
Beledros Witherbloom 's upkeep trigger is really nice, too.
That said, there's a huge difference between those two untap abilities, and they are meant to be used in different ways.
TriusMalarky says... #2
Silverquill is just sort of bad because he wants you to be convincing the table to gang up on one person, but he doesn't really do enough to incentivize following your plan, so while it does benefit those who go with you . . . if they decide to take you out first, Shadrix over here does nothing to protect you and suddenly you've gone from the 3v1 or 2v1 you intended to the archenemy, except you're the archenemy with no capacity to actually play the archenemy because your commander doesn't draw 3 cards each turn.
Velomachus feels like fixed Narset. Cut out the color for extra turns, make it so you can only cast one, and oh, there's a very smol restriction on what cards you can cast with it. Yeah, there's still a couple extra combat spells, and those are totally worth it with him, but mostly you're doing cool things like shooting fire at stuff. Come to think of it, most of what you'll be doing is chucking Shivan Meteor s at things.
April 13, 2021 10:03 a.m.