Dragon TempestDragon Tempest | Art by Willian Murai

Magic is a complicated game; Commander, as a format, is especially so. When it comes to building decks, one of the easier on-ramps is to appeal to the familiar: start with cards that are designed to work with each other, that reference each other by name, and get a feel for how they play together. That’s the premise of this column; each week we build a deck around a creature type, which delivers on the “feel” of the type. Today, we’re talking about one of the more notorious creature types in all of Magic: Dragons.

According to the EDHREC stats, Dragons are the most popular creature type, with almost 73,000 decks built. They've been part of Magic since the beginning, with Shivan DragonShivan Dragon as one of the more iconic early game finishers. More recently, there have been a few preconstructed decks providing specific support, as well as two Dungeons and Dragons sets, and a new Dragon-focused Tarkir set. It seems like Dragons are all over the multiverse, with each set adding to their ranks. While more than twice as many Dragons are in red as any other color, each color has solid representation, and our deck will highlight the full range of the type.

Notable Dragons

As mentioned, there have been a few Dragon-themed Commander decks, one of which supplied the second most-popular commander of all time: The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon. Eminence is one of the strongest abilities in the game, operating from the command zone as long as our commander is there. Thankfully the ability is limited to typal decks, but our commander might just be the strongest of the lot, providing access to all five colors from its color identity and a universal cost reduction from its eminence ability. Even if we never cast it, that is a ton of value.

The first trip to Tarkir provided a cycle of legendary Dragons that all trigger when a Dragon attacks. These abilities can trigger multiple times and they can stack, causing our flying horde to become deadlier and deadlier the more Dragons we have. This is where The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon outshines other Dragon commanders: the discount lets us cast multiple spells in a turn, dominating the mid- to late-game.

Kolaghan, the Storm's FuryKolaghan, the Storm's Fury and Scourge of ValkasScourge of Valkas help the deck hit the ground running. Kolaghan provides haste while Scourge deals damage when Dragons enter, so the Dragons can do more than sit there menacingly - although they do that quite well.

Bloomvine RegentBloomvine Regent represents a new type of Dragon introduced in the latest foray into Tarkir: the Omens. With its secondary sorcery side, the Regent is able to be an early-game CultivateCultivate and a late-game Dragon, all in one card. Since we want both effects, it’s a natural fit!

Amareth, the LustrousAmareth, the Lustrous is an unassuming but powerful Dragon. Since the deck is mostly permanents, including the Omen Dragons, there’s a strong likelihood of flipping more giant scaly beasties with the ETB effect.

One of the stronger Dungeons and Dragons additions was Lozhan, Dragons' LegacyLozhan, Dragons' Legacy, which is one of several other potent Dragon commanders, albeit without the speed or options that The Ur-Dragon provides. As a role-player, however, Lozhan slings damage and domes opponents for huge chunks.

Dragon Support Cards

As a popular creature type, there are many cards that specifically reference Dragons. Crucible of FireCrucible of Fire is arguably the most on-the-nose. Making giant scaly monsters slightly giant-er may seem like it’s not doing much, but it’s actually quite solid in a deck that wants permanents and seeks to blot out the skies with flyers before opponents can stabilize.

Sarkhan's TriumphSarkhan's Triumph is a Dragon tutor, which helps multifaceted decks like this find the piece they need when they need it. While some decks use tutors to find specific answers, we actually use it to find specific threats: haste enablers, direct damage, flying power…all of these are things we can find.

Ramp Spells for Dragons

Our primary role players are ramp spells. Dragons cost a lot of mana and we need fixing to cast them on time. In particular, the Orbs of Dragonkind provide additional effects when used to cast Dragons, which plan to do kind of a lot.

Chromatic LanternChromatic Lantern is a bit of a controversial inclusion nowadays, as there are far stronger turn-three plays. Here, however, it’s much more than a three-mana rock; it fixes our mana and lets us use lands of any kind to make mana of any color.

Removal Spells

The other type of role player we need is removal spells: ways to break parity and navigate clogged boards. One of our biggest obstacles is high-toughness, vigilant creatures, such as those created by Voltron decks. Crux of FateCrux of Fate is a one-sided board wipe (choosing non-Dragons to kill, of course), which is a particularly nasty way of leveraging our large flyers for a dominating board.

The other major obstacle for us is troublesome noncreature permanents. Our attack with large creatures plan can be stuffed by a PropagandaPropaganda or two, and our burn ‘em out plan can be squelched by a Leyline of SanctityLeyline of Sanctity effect. Beast WithinBeast Within and Generous GiftGenerous Gift are solid catch-alls, which have the downside of giving the opponent a body. However, that downside is mitigated by the fact that the bodies we give don’t have flying!

The Ur-Dragon Deck List

The game plan for our deck is fairly straightforward: make big Dragons; turn them sideways; win the game. We have ways, including our commander, to get them out faster, and ways to push them through using removal, until our opponents are buried in the shade of our scaly wings.