Lathliss, Dragon QueenLathliss, Dragon Queen | Art by Alex Konstad

Every Spring, college basketball has massive tournaments for both men and women, where even people who don’t follow the sport fill out brackets and follow along as immensely-talented athletes partake in a chaotic melee. Blue-bloods (perennially good teams) like Duke and Kansas University feel advantaged in maintaining the status quo, but little-known upstarts (Cinderellas) like Loyola-Chicago and Saint Peter’s relish in crashing the party.

Four years ago, I decided to make a similarly exciting and inclusive event, the Theme Deck Throwdown, to crown Magic’s best Typal deck.

For the last four years, I’ve run the Throwdown, with a similar mixture of blue-bloods and Cinderella stories. My process for organizing the event can be found in this week’s Community Corner article.

This year’s winner is a fresh take on a type that has been written about before; in fact, it was the first type I wrote about in this series!

We’ll see how this Lathliss, Dragon QueenLathliss, Dragon Queen Commander deck takes Dragons in a fun and original direction, and how it took down the whole event!

Dragon History

Dragons, for some odd reason, seem to be drawn to odd amounts of colors. The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon and Scion of the Ur-DragonScion of the Ur-Dragon are traditional powers, while Miirym, Sentinel WyrmMiirym, Sentinel Wyrm is one of the most popular and powerful commanders of all time. The winner of the Throwdown eschewed another two colors, going monochromatic. Somehow, that only seemed to make the deck scarier.

Mono-red Dragons do have a bit of a pedigree, as the Gassy Knoll Standard deck led to one of the most iconic moments in Pro Magic history. That deck was heavy on ramp and rituals, leading to explosive plays with remarkable consistency. While the cards may be different, the general strategy strongly resembles the Throwdown winner.

Even within one color, Dragons are a deep creature type with a range of abilities. They can draw cards, deal direct damage, and even remove dangerous threats, all without having to commit non-Dragon deck slots. And, for at least this year, they reign supreme as the best creature type in Magic.

But how do they fill these diverse roles? And what gave them the edge to win the event?

What Does Lathliss, Dragon QueenLathliss, Dragon Queen Do?

Lathliss, Dragon QueenLathliss, Dragon Queen might not be the most powerful Dragon commander, or even the only option in her colors, but she does bring a (wing)beating. Six mana is a lot for a commander, which is a major reason why the need for mana is so high. Even being a 6/6 flier doesn’t provide enough of a reason to run it as a commander.

Its activated and triggered abilities, however, start to tell the story of how this deck took down the tournament. Making all of the Dragons breathe fire is a nice trick, but many of them are already big fliers on their own.

Making a 5/5 flying body whenever a Dragon enters, however, is the key to victory.

Going wide and tall simultaneously is tremendously powerful, and the brewer unlocked the key to Lathliss’s power by including Dragons that could be cast for small amounts of mana. This made it so the deck could be aggressive with a six-mana commander, hitting unaware opponents for huge chunks of life and wrapping up the game in 1-2 humongous combat steps.

But how did it pull this off? And how did it do it so consistently?

Key Cards for Lathliss, Dragon QueenLathliss, Dragon Queen

This Lathliss deck used a crafty mix of power and speed to overwhelm the competition. The Dragons included were carefully selected to serve a few key roles, and managed to beat down effectively and efficiently. They ruled the skies, and it was both terrifying and breathtaking to behold.

Lathliss is a commander that wants Dragons to enter and grants them a big ol’ friend when they do. The best complements for her are Dragons that also have enters the battlefield (ETB) effects.

Knollspine DragonKnollspine Dragon, the living incarnation of the Spinerock KnollSpinerock Knoll card that fueled the Gassy Knoll Standard deck, is an excellent follow-up to a big attack, drawing a bunch of cards, while Ganax, Astral HunterGanax, Astral Hunter enables the big attacks by making Treasures when we cast Dragons, enabling us to cast more big scaly bois.

And what do we do with all those Dragon spells we’re stringing together? Burn opponents with Scourge of ValkasScourge of Valkas or make a bunch of copies of a real Dragon lord with Stormscale ScionStormscale Scion. These are the heavy hitters, the Dragons we can ride to victory like a Targaryen from Game of Thrones.

The few changelings in the deck are among the more controversial includes. There are plenty of Dragons, so resorting to changelings does seem a bit weenie (in the Typal community, changelings are typically used only when there aren't enough members, and are kind of seen as a bit of a concession), but they do serve an important role.

Both Fire-Belly ChangelingFire-Belly Changeling and Universal AutomatonUniversal Automaton are cheap “Dragons” that allow the deck to maximize Lathliss and use our mana efficiently.

But how do we get enough mana to cast a six-drop and make a Dragon or two in the same turn?

The short answer is, we need to ramp. This deck uses quite a few early mana rocks, but isn’t too dependent on them because of Furnace DragonFurnace Dragon’s exiling all artifacts. As a result, the deck uses rituals (instants and sorceries that make mana) to enable big turns, much like the famed Gassy Knoll deck.

Both GeosurgeGeosurge and Irencrag FeatIrencrag Feat help us go from four mana to seven, making it easy for us to cast our commander. They can also be used on Lathliss’s activated ability, which is an excellent mana sink and gets around the downside of Irencrag FeatIrencrag Feat, that only one spell can be cast with its mana.

Breaching DragonstormBreaching Dragonstorm and Furious RiseFurious Rise are both repeatable card advantage engines that work with Dragons. The Dragonstorm gives us a free spell when it comes down and we can bounce it and replay it every time we cast a Dragon. Furious RiseFurious Rise lets us impulse draw (exile top cards and cast from exile) each end step while we control a big Dragon, which should be every turn.

These are the kinds of cards that give the deck afterburners and enable us to win longer, more drawn-out affairs.

Our manabase is mostly basics, enabling us to cast our spells on curve and not worry about lands coming into play tapped or getting our colors on time. This is a big advantage we have over the three- and five-color versions. Granted, mana keeps getting better and better as more lands get printed. MountainMountains can’t draw cards or sneak creatures through, which is where Bonders' EnclaveBonders' Enclave and Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage come in.

How Does This Lathliss, Dragon QueenLathliss, Dragon Queen Commander Deck Win?

Generally speaking, the deck’s game plan is simple but effective: make giant fliers and attack players without fliers early and often. We do have backup plans for opponents that can match us with flying blockers, but we can usually beat those players with wave after wave of giant flying lizards.

Ferocity of the WildsFerocity of the Wilds gives us a way to break parity against decks with smaller fliers, like Faeries. They may be able to present blockers, but trample invalidates them and our size and inevitability enable us to lean on them until they run out of bodies.

Dragon TempestDragon Tempest gives our Dragons haste, including the ones Lathliss creates, and gives us a source of repeated direct damage. These abilities give us the reach (ways to get through damage in a locked board) to take players out and the ability to bring the beatdown.

Lathliss, Dragon Queen Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Dragons are a ton of fun, with many different paths to building and victory. The Throwdown is also one of the coolest events of the year, and unexpected decks like this are a huge part of why.

But how would you build Dragons? And what type would you represent at the Throwdown?