TiamatTiamat | Art by Chris Rahn

I have a fever, and the only cure for it is janky builds for weirdly specific five-color commanders. With Secrets of Strixhaven, we got not one, not two, but five new Dragons that grant a powerful keyword to instants and sorceries we cast. They're each going to be interesting commanders in their own right, but they have a unique strength for TiamatTiamat decks: changing the entire direction of her builds.

Yes, that’s right, leave the normal “play Dragons and swing” to The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon and “reanimator combos” to Scion of the Ur-DragonScion of the Ur-Dragon; Tiamat is stepping up to the Spellslinger plate!

What Does Tiamat Do?

TiamatTiamat is a seven-mana 7/7 with flying with a powerful enters ability: she lets you tutor up five different Dragon cards.

Dragons are an incredibly powerful creature type with a lot of very pushed designs (looking at you, Miirym, Sentinel WyrmMiirym, Sentinel Wyrm) but even ignoring those, they’re still high-power flyers that can put pressure on life totals with ease. Tiamat has been somewhat solved recently, thanks to DracogenesisDracogenesis.

I want something crazy to do with Tiamat that isn’t a consistent combo line, and the new set of five Elder Dragons gives exactly that. I have been haunted by the idea of playing Dracogenesis, dropping in Tiamat, tutoring up the Founders and then having all my instants and sorceries gain sasualty 1, storm, affinity for creatures, miracle 2, and cascade.

Now, most decks are going to run some number of instants and sorceries, so it could be just as simple as putting in the new Elder Dragons and adding in five or six extras, but we can push this direction even further. After Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate gave us Dragon cards with Adventures on them and Tarkir: Dragonstorm did the same but with Omens, we have a density of Dragon cards that are also instants or sorceries.

That means we can have a real go at a list that seeks to blend the Dragon and Spellslinger themes, one which I think can be modified up and down the Brackets. Let’s dust off those tomes and get fired up.

Key Cards for Tiamat

There are four essential categories that take TiamatTiamat from Dragons to this hybrid situation we’re talking about: Dragons with Adventures or Omens, Dragons which enhance or payoff instants and sorceries, and the spells to sling.

Adventures and Omens

First up, the Dragons with spells. There are 24 Dragon cards that have either an Omen or an Adventure. A fun bit regarding the Omens is that if we cast them and shuffle them into our library, Tiamat can tutor them back to hand for another use of either side. A Bracket 1 (Exhibition) deck may want to run all 24 and call it great. For the preliminary Bracket 2 list (Core) that I'm going for, some cuts need to be made there, keeping only 11 of them.

Spells Matter

Next, let’s talk about spells-matter cards. A normal Spellslinger deck will run Storm-Kiln ArtistStorm-Kiln Artist, Archmage EmeritusArchmage Emeritus, Goblin ElectromancerGoblin Electromancer, and the like. The Dragon bend to the deck will keep most of those traditional elements out, at least at lower Brackets. There are a little over 30 Dragons which care about instants, sorceries, or noncreature spells, so it’s once again a matter of cuts for the Core version of the list.

The included Dragons either turn nonpermanent spells into damage (Firespitter WhelpFirespitter Whelp), add board presence (Manaform HellkiteManaform Hellkite), boost the spells cast (the aforementioned Founder Dragons), or help cast the spells (Galazeth PrismariGalazeth Prismari). The only noncreature permanent in the mix here is Rite of the DragoncallerRite of the Dragoncaller, which makes a 5/5 Dragon with every instant and sorcery cast.

Instants and Sorceries

Last but not least, the spells the deck needs to sling. There’s going to be a lot of veggies in this section, seeing as the Dragons are pretty spicy. Almost all of the instants and sorceries are used for removal, card draw, or ramp. The unique aspect to this package is Niv-Mizzet, SupremeNiv-Mizzet, Supreme, who gives the two-colored spells in the graveyard jump-start, so we can get a second bite at some of those apples.

The bulk of the Dragons are red, so most of the cheap two-color spells avoid that so as to smooth out late-game decisions. This is fine as plenty of blue-green spells provide ramp and white-black has removal down pat.

Okay, so that’s the core of the deck— a mix of powerful Dragons and unique spells.

How Does Tiamat Win?

In the lower Brackets, this is intended as a grindy, midrange deck. The early game will see a mix of ramp and card draw to establish a solid mana base and select the right Dragon to deploy for the situation.

By around turn four or so, the deck wants to be casting Dragons to make the instants and sorceries better. Finding Omens to trigger Rite of the DragoncallerRite of the Dragoncaller is a spicy play. And every now and then, DracogenesisDracogenesis will turn up and kick the deck into turbo mode.

At any time after seven mana, if our hand is light on Dragons or nonpermanent spells, then it's time to cast TiamatTiamat.

Higher brackets are going to optimize largely in four ways:

• Remove the durdlier Dragons and most of the Omens/Adventures for being too clunky
• Slot in more permanents that make our instants and sorceries better
• Put in a heavy dose of better instants and sorceries (especially the free interaction suite)
• Tutors

Dracogenesis lines will be the primary game plan and optimizing for it will be important.

There’s also the possible combos with Terror of the PeaksTerror of the Peaks (shown above, with Miirym, Sentinel WyrmMiirym, Sentinel Wyrm and Bladewing the RisenBladewing the Risen), which could still be an option for this deck to roll in, but the Spellslinger pop-off line with the five new Elder Dragons is the one of most interest to me here. There’s some nuance to it.

Dracogenesis is expensive at eight mana, and it’ll take some time to get there and be able to protect the combo and be able to cast a follow-up spell to take immediate advantage of all those keywords.

In those higher tiers, a free counterspell won’t be hard to come by, but the extra mana afterwards won’t be a guarantee, so a modification to what gets tutored is in order.

Add in Beledros WitherbloomBeledros Witherbloom and/or Ramos, Dragon EngineRamos, Dragon Engine. Beledros can untap all the lands once, and Ramos can add 10 mana (after the deck pilot casts five colors’ worth of spells, which are already in hand and free, provided Ramos comes down first). Both let the Dracogenesis game plan happen more immediately and to greater effect.

With a storm count of seven and six creatures on board, Solve the EquationSolve the Equation will cost one mana and let you tutor up a game-winning set of seven instants or sorceries or an ExsanguinateExsanguinate with just the black pips paid for will drain the table for 42. It’s a done deal.

Tiamat Commander Deck List

And here’s our rebuild with the Secrets of Strixhaven Elder Dragons.

But wait, there’s more. Powering this down is a simple matter of just playing all the Dragons with Omens or Adventures as a bit. Powering it up requires a bit more selectivity, so I’m dropping in a preliminary version of an Optimized list here as well:

Conclusion

TiamatTiamat is a tricky commander to try to build around, by virtue of being a full-on tutor in the command zone. It would take a lot of work to truly bring her down to a 1 or 2 on the Bracket scale, but I tried at it with this complete pivot in theme from traditional Dragon typal.

It was for a fairly selfish reason, if I’m being honest: I already have a deck for The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon but I have the flashy TiamatTiamat from the Here There Be Dragons Secret Lair and wanted to make a deck for her different enough to be worth running. Calling this a win, and I’ll be assembling the paper version of the first one pretty soon!

Are there any creature-type focused commanders that you've given a special tweak to? Let me know in the comments. Until next time, keep hitting the Books (especially Codie, Vociferous CodexCodie, Vociferous Codex-- it deserves a good wallop).