*Note from OP: thread not currently up-to-date, overhaul coming soon*
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Have you ever dreamed of commanding a horde of fire-breathing dragons? Have you ever wished to leave a burn pile of ash where your opponents sat? Have you ever wondered if it would be possible to bring down a durdler with 200+ life in one turn? Perhaps you should give Bladewing the Risen a try.
What is this deck?
This deck is black/red in the style of reanimator, and it aims to use and abuse the effects of cards like Warstorm Surge and Flayer of the Hatebound. However, the deck is special in its focus on Dragon Tribal, thanks to its commander's Enters-the-Battlefield ability. Its gameplay is comparable to Blink decks with a red flair due to the deck's nature of wishing to have as many big bodies hitting the field as often as possible, and then going aggro with them.
You Might Want To Play This Deck If...
- You love reanimator strategies
- You think Dragons are flipping cool
- You want to translate a quasi-burn strategy into Commander
- You want to merge Johnny and Timmy ideologies
- You know House Targaryen is better than everyone else
- You like to have fun
You Might Not Enjoy This Deck If...
- The amount of graveyard hate your metagame runs is ridiculous
- You need to be packing at least 10 control-oriented spells in any given deck
- You identify yourself mostly as a Spike
- You think any proper combo needs to be infinite to be effective
- You're partial to House Lannister
Personal Bio
My name's Brian, I play Commander almost exclusively and can be found most places in Northeast Ohio. I've been playing Magic in a very casual atmosphere since around the time Fifth Dawn premiered in 2004. My very first deck was the 8th Edition precon, "Speed Scorch," which was a hybrid of Goblin tribal and burn. The friends I played with always did multiplayer games which translated very well when I was introduced to the Commander format in late 2010, around the time the 2011 Commander product was announced. My very first Commander deck was a repurposed Boros Casual deck with Razia, Boros Archangel at the head and it had no business winning the first few games it did. When it got ROFLstomped by an optimized Darien, King of Kjeldor deck, the moment inspired me to build stronger, better decks and my fire for the format was lit.
My decks and play style tend to follow the theme of causing massive amounts of damage, so obviously my favorite color in Magic is Red. Secondary flavors of play I like to follow include playing around with life totals and reanimating creatures, both of which Black and White do well at, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that those two are tied for my second favorite. This deck tends to put massive damage and reanimation first, playing with life totals second, but be assured, it's all in there.
On the topic of Deck History, this deck started out in the summer of 2013 as a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund strictly Dragon Tribal deck that morphed into more of a Dredge Reanimator Goodstuff deck with a smattering of Dragon flavor. After the fifth-ish time of losing thanks to a stray Clone stealing my Commander and half my board, I made the decision to cut the Green from the deck and remodel it into the Bladewing deck you see before you. Over the time I've played the deck, it's moved more from individual recursion to mass reanimation and functions somewhere between Combo, Aggro and Midrange.
Other Commanders In Rakdos Colors: Malfegor - Perhaps the closest to our Bladewing in form and color combination, Malfegor is a rather under-played commander who can take advantage of ye olde Hellbent cards from when the Rakdos guild was originally given its identity in Dissension. He can lend himself to reanimator strategies after obliterating your hand, which is hopefully full of fatties, and force the sacrifice of everything your opponents are threatening with.
Tymaret, the Murder King - The idea here is to sacrifice things, kill other things, and recur them all for value. Tymaret works on a smaller scale than Bladewing and is much more available on its mana. It's conceivable to work him into an aggro strategy, voltron, griefer, or purely sacrifice-based value akin to Lyzolda.
Rakdos the Defiler - Nothing says "all in" quite like voluntarily blowing up half of your board to blow up half of your opponent's board. Perhaps some Demon Tribal could be in order here.
Mogis, God of Slaughter - Ever since his premier, players have been putting Mogis at the helm of Punisher-style decks and setting out to accelerate the game by giving their opponents very un-fun choices. Alternatively, you could go for a BR Devotion build with Mogis and attempt to swing in for commander damage, because I hear 7-ower commanders for 4 mana is pretty good. He's also the current go-to Minotaur tribal commander.
Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch - Haste is good in commander, but the way Exava's designed, it's hard to imagine her anywhere outside of a 1v1 match. Her deck would have a mana curve pretty low to the ground, looking to smash in for 40 damage asap and controlling the board wherever possible.
Lyzolda, the Blood Witch - Lyzolda, as I mentioned above when talking about Tymaret, would be good with a plentiful amount of small creatures which she could sacrifice and which could be easily recurred (think Reassembling Skeleton) to grind her way to victory.
Olivia Voldaren - She's the premier Vampire from Innistrad, and she's a widely-used commander for BR control (hello, Basilisk Collar) and more-commonly Vampire Tribal. Her abilities lend to a deal of flexibility in deck-building, making her a machine gun, a control piece and an aggro finisher all in one, Edward-Cullen-destroying package.
Kaervek the Merciless - The original name in BR Punisher decks, Kaervek throws special gifts of damage in the faces of your opponents like some evil Santa Claus. Caution should always be exercised when taking him to a new metagame as he inevitably draws the ire of the other players. Nonetheless, if you're confident in your abilities and are prepared to fight the world, Kaervek would be an exciting challenge to pilot.
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - The newest of the BR legends, this little goblin encourages unique deck-building and a fun play-style. The two ways to build around him that look the most effective would be Tribal Goblins since the little buggers are already pretty cheap, and small creatures with Enters-the-Battlefield effects for removal and value. Tom at MTGRadio runs both of these builds quite well.
Wort, Boggart Auntie - She lends herself to a a deck built specifically for Goblin Tribal, her claim to the archetype being her built in recursion element that gives the goblins a much-needed way to fight through board wipes and globs of removal.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - Another legend that lends himself to unique deck-building, Rakdos encourages being proactive with damage (he looks like he'd be bffs with Mogis) and then throwing down big fatties after giving your opponents a nice dose of punishment. His deck is one that would not be easy to perfect, but one that would be so rewarding to make effective.
In Dragon Tribal: Zirilan of the Claw - An old-school utilitarian that could tutor Dragons straight into play, this guy unfortunately is constrained to mono-red and has the downside of having to exile his Dragons after cheating them out. However, he will continually get better as the quality of creatures in MtG improves and we get more ETB effects on mono-red Dragons, like Spawn of Thraxes.
Kaalia of the Vast - Being able to do Angel and/or Demon Tribal alongside Dragons is pretty powerful, but she's also easy to remove, very linear to play and easily draws hate from other players. Kaalia decks can be blazingly fast, soul-crushing monstrosities of destruction, but they all tend to look the same.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund - Karrthus is deceptive: at first, he looks great for Dragon Tribal, but he's really more effective as the head of Jund Control or Goodstuff deck. Why? The M14 rules change for legends hit him hard. Any blue player could change make a copy of him, gain control of your own Karrthus, sac off the copy and keep your commander along with your whole board of Dragons. If you play Karrthus Tribal, play very carefully and with Death By Dragons.
Scion of the Ur-Dragon - Probably the best Dragon Tribal imaginable can be made with Scion at the helm. He gives access to all five colors and can Entomb a Dragon for just two mana. Throw in some Reanimator cards afterward and voila, super effective deck. Should I ever be able to afford a super-expensive mana base for five colors, I'd make Bladewing into a Scion deck.
Lavaclaw Reaches - Decks should value manlands higher. Everyone's had those games where the board's been wiped to oblivion, each player's in top deck mode and no one's drawing into anything. Lavaclaw is here for those situations. Think of it as a bit of an insurance policy.
Rakdos Carnarium - Usually I would not run a Bounce land in a deck unless purposefully doing a very budgeted deck purely for the fact that it's an enormous disadvantage when some's running LD. However, for this deck, we like discarding early on, and the Bounce lands can do that for us. Plus, if no one blows it up, it helps our mana base nicely.
Bojuka Bog - This should be a required land in all black decks. Reanimator decks (like us) are popular, and this land is one of the most effective piece of tech to combat it while also being fantastic on a budget and easy to fit in the deck as it can just replace a Swamp rather than an ordinary card slot.
Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace - This isn't the most popular land in the world, because who likes making themselves discard? However, when you've got big dragons in your hand and an easy way to recur them, this can be your best friend. Be warned however, this can bring a lot of hate.
High Market - Have a dragon on the field about to be exiled? Sac it to High Market. About to play Bladewing with no good targets in your graveyard but one of the field? Sac it to High Market. Have some tokens to spare and in need of some life? High Market.
Rakdos Signet - 2cmc mana rocks are especially good for us because we've got a lot more business cards at 4cmc than 3cmc.
Millikin - With all of the reanimation we run, big graveyards are our best friends. Millikin accomplishes two jobs at once: being a mana dork and filling the 'yard.
Commander's Sphere - This rock's ability to be sac'd for a card draw at any time at all is an excellent quality.
Darksteel Ingot - Indestructibility is good in Commander, the Ingot usually sticks around throughout the entire game.
Chromatic Lantern - For when you get flooded by only red or black mana.
Burnished Hart - This should probably be run in every non-green deck. In here, we can recur it when there's nothing else to recur and continue to ramp.
Gilded Lotus - We've got big dragons to get on the field and big, splashy spells to play. This rock is for hardcasting both.
Card Advantage & Utility
Faithless Looting - Cycling through our hand is great in the deck. We pick up cards we want to keep in our hand, like lands, utility cards, etc, and we bin our fatties or things we don't need.
Sign in Blood - More card draw, just remember that your life is a resource. Bonus points for knocking the guy with just 2 life left out with this.
Altar's Reap - Have something about to die or be exiled? Get a couple cards out of it. Note: this is an instant, so keep up two mana whenever you have it in your hand.
Phyrexian Arena - The steady stream of cards this gives you can be game-changing. Not only does this work great in the long term, but at only 3cmc, it comes down early.
Read the Bones - Giving yourself choices and drawing cards are some of the best things you can do in Commander. This card does both.
Heat Shimmer - Creating a copy of something you have on the field (preferably a fatty) will set off any ETB triggers you've got in place. Need another dragon out of the 'yard? Target Bladewing. Want some more life? Copy Kokusho and sac the copy immediately to the legend rule. Scourge of Valkas on the field with some friends? Copy Scourge, do more damage. Need to draw cards? Copy Disciple of Bolas. Heat Shimmer, when used properly, is great tech for the deck.
Bitter Revelation - This is a lot like Read the Bones, but instead of Scrying, we dump some cards in the bin. Again, this gives us options and card draw.
Coercive Portal - At its best, it's a Phyrexian Arena when you want it and a board wipe when you need it. At its worst, it's a dead card in your hand.
Sneak Attack - There's a reason this card is $70 and is a Legacy staple. As long as Sneak Attack stays on the field, you can play out fatties from your hand at instant speed and for only one mana, with the stipulation that you must sacrifice it at end of turn. Perhaps upon first inspection, the sacrifice part can be a turn off, but for us, it only makes it better. With our triggers for things like Warstorm Surge, we can flash in a blocker/attacker with a free Lava Axe on top of it. When the fatty goes to the 'yard, we can just dig it right back out. Combine with Undying for maximum shenanigans.
Anger - It's easy for us to find a Mountain and easy to get this into the 'yard. For when we go aggro, we really like Haste too.
Disciple of Bolas - With the amount of fatties we have in the deck and ability to get them back, Disciple of Bolas will be a great card, 9 out of 10 times.
Ogre Battledriver - At first glance, he might just look like a way to grant haste to the big fatties, but he does much more. There've been instances before where I hit Rise of the Dark Realms on top of Warstorm Surge, bringing him back out with everyone else. If you stack the triggers correctly, you will get so much more damage off than you would without him. Even without any other nifty triggers to take advantage of, the extra punch is worth it.
In the Web of War - Ogre Battledriver #2, just less removable, more expensive and not recurrable.
Conjurer's Closet - Reanimator decks can be comparable to Blink decks if built to take advantage of ETB effects. The ideal card for this to work with is Bladewing on a full graveyard, but also works well with Thunder Dragon, Thundermaw Hellkite, Scourge of Valkas, Knollspine Dragon, Disciple of Bolas, Solemn Simulacrum, and any Warstorm effects.
Necromantic Selection - This is exactly the sort of board wipe we like. Not only do we get the biggest and best back (ideally hitting triggers), but no one else gets anything.
Wake the Dead - Always try to keep mana up if you've got this in hand, especially if you've got a Warstorm effect on the field. At its very best, you can kill someone completely out of nowhere, at its worst, you've got surprise blockers.
Graveyard Shenanigans
Entomb - Early in the game, this can set you up to completely stomp somebody. In the mid to late game, it's a good tool box card to retrieve something that will refuel you, blast somebody else's face off, or set up for the win. Utvara Hellkite is the way to go if you want to stomp someone.
Exhume - This works best in the early game when you should be the only player with anything good in the graveyard, especially if you've got a turn 1 Entomb. Late game is much riskier, use with caution.
Animate Dead - We're not always able to play Bladewing, and not all of our creatures are dragons. Animate Dead and other cards like it ensure we can still benefit.
Mesmeric Orb - Obviously, this card snowballs the later the game goes and has the potential to wreak havoc on gameplans. It gets some hate for that. Thankfully, the hate can be a good thing, because this deck will usually be the first casualty of the Orb if it's not dealt with. However, given a few turns unanswered will be a significant boon.
Whip of Erebos - You know what this deck excels at? Dealing tons of damage. You know what benefits from tons of damage? Lifelink. Also, the activated ability is great a pinch but not so much in the long term. Voluntarily exiling our own fatties is not ideal.
Bladewing's Thrall - I like to think of this guy as a conditional Norin the Wary for our deck. We reliably crank out dragons, each one potentially him to come back out from the 'yard, which will then set off more triggers. He's a great target for Disciple of Bolas too.
Patriarch's Bidding - Always name dragons. Be wary of anyone who's else playing a tribal deck, you don't want to get a few dragons back in exchange for someone gumming up the ground with 30 slivers.
Torrent of Souls - We win through recurring creatures, lots of damage through triggers, and sealing the deal through combat. Torrent supports all three of those aims, I just wish it was a tad cheaper.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed - Zombie Pope laughs in the face of board wipes. Our main reason for playing him is for the Undying Lord ability. If our stuff dies, it comes right back to hit the triggers even harder. The little bit about Humans damaging us is just frosting on the cake.
Flayer of the Hatebound - We're running three mass reanimation spells (debating on including a fourth, Living Death) and Flayer works amazingly when he's one of the duders being brought back with a horde of nasties. People have straight-up died to the combination of Flayer and Rise of the Dark Realms, and more than one player at a time. He's not too great in your hand though, only hardcast if you don't have anything better to do.
Twilight's Call - This is best used when you've got your triggers in place, eight mana open, and at the guy ahead of you's end step.
Rise of the Dark Realms - Probably the best thing ever in the late game. Play it, embrace it, love it, and watch out for counterspells.
Tech
card]Pandemonium[/card] - You live by the Pandemonium and you die by the Pandemonium. Most of the time, this will work in your favor but occasionally it will (excuse my language) bite you in the ass.
Purphoros, God of the Forge - You know what's great about having bodies hitting the field super often? Blasting your opponents for 2 every time. We've got a couple ways to a ton of tokens at once in here too, which works especially well with him.
Conspiracy - We run a good deal of creatures who aren't dragons and are thus excluded from the fruits of dragon tribal. Let's make them all dragons anyway. I know I'd sure love to target Flayer of the Hatebound with Bladewing, or swing with twenty zombie tokens and Kolaghan to give everything +21/+0.
Ghoulcaller Gisa - Token maker #1. We make big fatties that like to flip around between the field and the 'yard. Gisa helps them on their way while providing us with more triggers going off and an army to swing in with.
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs - Token maker #2. Once somebody gets completely obliterated by dragons, people tend to get nervous and attack us. Kazuul turns those attacks into more triggers and bodies on the field for us.
Warstorm Surge - Basically what this deck is built around. Plopping fatties down with this on the field means more damage, a faster game, and dead opponents.
Dragons
Thundermaw Hellkite - This guy saw tons of Standard play as a curve-topper and excelled at beating face. He won't make as much of an impact here, but during games he comes down early, he'll be a must kill. Bonus points for playing him versus tribal birds decks or anything that exploits Hornet Queen.
Hunted Dragon - This guy can be even better than Thundermaw. He's got better stats and he provides good politics in multiplayer. Just try not to recur him TOO much.
Stormbreath Dragon - Like Thundermaw and Hunted Dragon, he can come down early and beat face fast. He's a great blocker versus anything white and his Monstrous ability send a good deal of damage out there.
Scourge of Valkas - Let me present a scenario to you: You hit something like Rise of the Dark Realms and dig 6 dragons back up, including Scourge. The dragons all ETB, seeing each other all at once and you get to fire off 6 instances of 6 damage at whatever you want. Oh hey, is that an opponent over there with 36 or less life? Over the long term, Scourge does good work too, but like Flayer, is best used in the explosive mass-recursion scenario.
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury - Even if you're only swinging with 3 dragons, that's 9 additional combat damage. Her Dash ability may initially seem like a waste of mana for us, but it can be a trigger and a swing each turn while keeping her away from Sorcery-speed wipes.
Scourge of the Throne - Gun down the guy with the most life as soon as you can. If that guy happens to be you, we can put this Scourge on blocking duty.
Hoard-Smelter Dragon - Artifacts are pretty common in this format. Packing a little utilized hate never hurt anyone.
Steel Hellkite - Someone have an army of tokens? Not after this guy swings in. How about that one problem permanent you can't get rid of? Steel Hellkite says you can.
Knollspine Dragon - Sometimes, mostly thanks to other players, the deck goes into top deck mode or only draws lands. Knollspine Dragon can refuel us and keep the gameplan going. Occasionally, we can draw for 30+ with Knollspine.
Dragon Mage - More hand cycling, good for refueling and putting our fatties in the 'yard.
Thunder Dragon - He's basically a small board wipe on a stick. Break him out to deal with the guy running Weenies.
Utvara Hellkite - Token maker #3. The synergy Utvara has with the deck is disgusting and if you can land him with another dragon or two and something to trigger off of, your chances of winning the game have just skyrocketed.
Piloting the Deck
This deck plays most like a combination of reanimator and burn. A good opening hand would consist of a few lands, a mana rock, a fatty, and looting spell, plus something like Mesmeric Orb or Entomb to start filling the 'yard.
The early game is all set-up: playing mana rocks, getting fatties and specialty creatures into the graveyard, and setting up with playing our damage triggers like Pandemonium and Purphoros. Pro-tip: Pandemonium can be good for politics.
The mid to late game has us selecting our targets, playing/recurring our dragons and blasting away at life totals. Most times, if this deck goes off, there won't even be a late-game because there's nothing but pile of ashes surrounding your dragons. Also, sometimes you don't even need to attack, you just need to hit your triggers.
The feel of playing a game with this deck is like that of a combo deck. By that, I mean we need to see certain effects to really make the deck tick, and we reeeeally like it when people leave us alone to build our board. However, this is a dragon deck, so in the mid to late game, we can fight off any aggro coming at us and regular board wipes don't bother us much at all. A late game Bojuka Bog (or something like it) can really ruin our day, but as long as we draw into some gas, we can switch to going aggro and finish off there.
I'll be continually updating this deck and providing little reports of how it's done in games. I have a feeling it will be one of my all-time favorites. If you have any suggestions or questions for the deck, please don't hesitate to comment!
Report: I got a lot of game play in with this deck a couple nights ago, and it's been pretty satisfying. In one game with four players, I cranked out 74 damage in one turn via Pandemonium, Warstorm Surge, Ogre Battledriver, and Bladewing the Risen snatching Utvara Hellkite out of the 'yard. That 74 damage took out opponents 1 and 2, and prompted a quick concession from opponent 3. I also got a lot of 1v1 play in versus an Animar, Soul of Elements and (my own) Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Animar's a pretty tough match-up 1v1 unless you're draw into a lot of wipes. Playing against Kiki-Jiki was pretty fun, there was one game where I played Life's Finale dumping a couple dragons and Zealous Conscripts and hit a Rise of the Dark Realms a couple turns later. The game didn't last long after that.
Cuts:Carnage Alter hasn't been quite the effective sac outlet I've been hoping for. I barely ever actually use Thespian's Stage. Zirilan of the Claw is coming out 1. to move to my Kiki-Jiki deck, and 2. because we don't like having to exile our own dragons. Zirilan's a good card, but uncooperative with our strategy. Spawn of Thraxes loves mono-red, buuuut this is not mono-red. Usually I don't have more than four Mountains at any time, usually less. Terminate's great removal, but it's a strange one-of whose slot could be used for furthering the deck strategy.Disaster Radius has really under-performed, a lot of times I'll have it sitting in my hand with a ton of fatties facing me down and 5/5 sitting in my hand.
Additonal Notes:Magmaquake is most likely going to come out because when I need it, I don't have enough mana, but when I have enough mana, I've got other things to do. Victimize may get cut too because it works very well when everything's going your way, but isn't too functional when you're behind. In the future, I'm looking to include more ways to draw cards, especially good looter effects (looking at you, Bitter Revelation) and more ways to fill my graveyard. Some expensive cards I'd probably run if I could afford them right this moment would be Damnation and Entomb, but cards that are a priority to get a hold of include Thundermaw Hellkite (I'm learning that the 5cc hasty guys are especially good here), Cauldron of Souls and Millikin.
how has Flayer of the hatebound worked for you? I put him in my deck and he seemed pretty sweet in theory, but I feel like he might be too cute to warrant a spot.
how has Flayer of the hatebound worked for you? I put him in my deck and he seemed pretty sweet in theory, but I feel like he might be too cute to warrant a spot.
I actually have not yet drawn into him in an actual game, but when I goldfish around with the deck, he works well once you hit a 7-9 mana threshold and are recurring fatties once or twice a turn. The theoretical blowout play I hope to pop off in future games includes having him in the 'yard and playing either Twilight's Call or Rise of the Dark Realms on a full graveyard. I'll be playing a lot of Commander this coming weekend, so keep your eyes opened for my next report on the deck.
Hey man
Blade wing was my original commander and still play the deck regularly. I like your build with the globs of damage win conditions. I never played that style because I lacked the enchantments you are using and went with a Megrim and Memory Jar style interaction to bin dragons and pull ramp or reanimation.
I'm also a fan of Mesmeric Orb but man does that draw the tables hate.
Recommended Animate Dead is solid and could work instead of Victimize.
I used to play Dragonspeaker Shaman but I think he's better as a mana rock
Or maybe Burnt Offering away an early fatty to play Bladewing and his friends. I just think the barbarian dies to easily to be worth only the cost reduction. Steel Hellkite is a solid beater and blasts pesky permanents.
I also like Innocent Blood or Smallpox as early game mini sweepers. Smallpox can actually shut someone out early so tread carefully.
Also Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace can give you a dragon in the graveyard and piss off the table as well.
And of course if you're gonna play dragon's breath you gotta run Dragon Tyrant. Absolutely brutal that one with haste.
Lastly Sarkhan the Mad is on theme as hell and can do globs of damage.
Good luck on your next games and I'm off to find a Heat Shimmer and Warstorm Surge lol.
I haven't taken a thorough look at this decklist yet, but one card I would consider is the evil brother of Fling; Rite of Consumption. You lose instant speed, but gain life from it. Plus, nobody remembers that card even exists most of the time.
Cuts: A Swamp for Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace for better-enabling graveyard shenanigans. Also, Charmbreaker Devils for Steel Hellkite. The Devils are dandy and all, but they're a huge chunk of mana and don't even have 'dragon' as their creature type, but Science Dragon is utility on a draconic body.
Hey man
Blade wing was my original commander and still play the deck regularly. I like your build with the globs of damage win conditions. I never played that style because I lacked the enchantments you are using and went with a Megrim and Memory Jar style interaction to bin dragons and pull ramp or reanimation.
I'm also a fan of Mesmeric Orb but man does that draw the tables hate.
Recommended Animate Dead is solid and could work instead of Victimize.
I used to play Dragonspeaker Shaman but I think he's better as a mana rock
Or maybe Burnt Offering away an early fatty to play Bladewing and his friends. I just think the barbarian dies to easily to be worth only the cost reduction. Steel Hellkite is a solid beater and blasts pesky permanents.
I also like Innocent Blood or Smallpox as early game mini sweepers. Smallpox can actually shut someone out early so tread carefully.
Also Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace can give you a dragon in the graveyard and piss off the table as well.
And of course if you're gonna play dragon's breath you gotta run Dragon Tyrant. Absolutely brutal that one with haste.
Lastly Sarkhan the Mad is on theme as hell and can do globs of damage.
Good luck on your next games and I'm off to find a Heat Shimmer and Warstorm Surge lol.
Thank you for all of the suggestions! I'm sure your version of Bladewing loves Waste Not. I try not to include a lot of symmetrical discard effects (there are couple areas in my meta where politics get touchy), buuuut Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace is going straight in. I played a lot of Rakdos while Dissension was new, so I've got a few of those sitting around. Mesmeric Orb usually sits for a turn cycle or two before getting shattered, which is usually worth it for our strategy. I've never actually played with Animate Dead, but I agree it's likely better to run than Victimize, so I'll be looking for a copy of that soon. I don't think I've actually seen Burnt Offering before, and I really like that tech (use it to sac Kokusho, play Bladewing and get Kokusho or any other fatty right back feels powerful), so I'll at least order a copy of that to test it out, but I've never been keen on Ritual effects that aren't repeatable.
I'll avoid putting Smallpox in the deck, but I do like Innocent Blood. It's a hard answer to a couple decks (Uril & Progenitus) that float around my meta, and people might actually like it for the Solemn Simulacrum triggers. My only copy of Steel Hellkite is locked up in another deck right now, but the utility I can get from here might be worth the switch. Dragon Tyrant has always been a card I've thought about but decide against for how hard it is on your mana base (10cc plus the 4 mana upkeep cost is steep), buuuut the upkeep could actually work for the deck: instead of paying the cost, we sac him and immediately recur him, triggering off one of our Surge effects. I'll be looking more into him. Sarkhan the Mad is someone else I'll probably experiment with, mostly for his -2 though to set off triggers.
Thank you again for all of the advice, I love finding new little pieces of tech and tricks to pull for better deck synergy.
I haven't taken a thorough look at this decklist yet, but one card I would consider is the evil brother of Fling; Rite of Consumption. You lose instant speed, but gain life from it. Plus, nobody remembers that card even exists most of the time.
It's a definite possibility for the deck. If I ever end up running Malignus in the deck, you'd better believe this'll go right in with it.
Report: I got a couple of good games in at my league on Sunday. The deck certainly performs according to what you can potentially do from your hand. By that, I mean that have a hand full of recursion and an empty 'yard is pretty bad, not drawing up any card acceleration or lands, or just not hitting dragons to bin.
A note on my games, I made some good trades before playing and stocked them into the deck, a couple of which performed pretty well. Major overachievers included Flayer of the Hatebound, whom I was able to recur around 5 separate times and use as removal (and who would've ended the game when I played Twilight's Call one game if the Ephara deck hadn't countered it), Buried Alive for the access it gave me to rig my 'yard, Utvara Hellkite in combination with Warstorm Surge which took out a player out of no where in one game, and Dragon Tyrant because his upkeep trigger in this deck is actually a good thing: gives us something to recur and set off triggers every turn.
Cuts:
1 Mountain, 2 Swamp Viscera Seer - A sac outlet like this is ideal in certain situations but is a waste of space most of the time. Rescue from the Underworld & Victimize - These are dead draws when there's nothing on the board to sacrifice. Mad Prophet - There's more efficient card acceleration out there. Rise from the Grave - More efficient recursion too. Magmaquake - I never had enough mana when I needed it and never needed it when I had enough mana.
New Adds: Bloodfell Caves, Sulfurous Springs - We like all sorts of dual lands. High Market - For that rare moment that a sac outlet is what we need. Entomb - Basically a 1 mana, instant-speed fatty tutor. Animate Dead - Pretty efficient recursion. Dragon Tyrant - A great fatty with a downside which can actually be an upside in this deck. Skeletal Scrying - It's an experiment right now, but with all of the non-dragon cards hitting the bin, this can be a good hand refill. Bitter Revelation & Tormenting Voice - We like things that gives us new cards while cycling through others.
This deck is quickly becoming my very favorite deck to play. It's really whetting my appetite for Sneak Attack (which would have amazing synergy in this deck) and Thundermaw Hellkite. I'll be updating the main decklist either later tonight or tomorrow morning, and will be sprucing the thread up a lot in the next week or so.
Report: I've only gotten in one game with it recently, but it went pretty well. At my Commander League this week, I was piloting Bladewing versus Rubinia Soulsinger Bant goodstuff, a Vorosh, the Hunter value engine, and an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic deck nearly straight out of the pre-con. The Rubinia and Vorosh decks got to fast starts while the Oloro deck sat by gaining life and playing a handful of spells to effect the board. I played an early Pandemonium which became a very effective political tool as I got to often say "That guy's got Azor's Elocutors and has three counters!" and "He's got a Kruhpix value engine going! Hit him!" I got stay mostly unharmed while the other players through their resources at each other, and set-up an excellent state where I had Utvara Hellkite in the 'yard and Pandemonium, Warstorm Surge, and Purphoros on the field. After a few turns, I took out all three other players.
Changes: I only made one change in cards this time. I got my hands on a Scourge of the Throne, and took out my Strionic Resonator. Whenever I played the Resonator, I usually wouldn't even use it because I didn't have 2 mana open. The Scourge will be a little experiment with Dethrone. I'm afraid I may end up being on the throne too much to really make use of Scourge's triggers, but am willing to blast myself if it comes to that.
Looking Forward: The first card I want to bring up is Sneak Attack. Playing a creature out of the hand for 1 mana with haste strapped on is fantastically efficient for this deck, and the sac at EOT is actually a good thing for us: if we've got Mikaeus on the field, it comes right back, hitting more triggers. If not, we've got a target for Bladewing's recursion. Right now, the card's around $60-70, so if I can't find a trade for it, I'm going to shell out the cash for it by Christmas.
Next big thing, we're currently at the beginning of the spoiler week for C14. I'm looking at three cards we've seen so far that I'm definitely putting in: Ghoulcaller Gisa, Feldon of the Third Path, and Myriad Landscape. The Landscape's there for obvious reasons.
Gisa is positively delightful in our deck, she takes one of our fatties (whom we presume has already hit Surge triggers), put him back into the 'yard where he can be reused, and we put his power x2 onto the board hitting those triggers again. She's especially great with Purphoros, and super-bonus points for activating her with Ogre Battledriver or In the Web of War to completely wreck someone.
Feldon is someone I'm extremely excited for and will be putting into three or four different decks, including this one. You might be confused when you look at him and then look at this deck, black's got better recursion than this guy so why the heck am I going to run him over, say, Rise from the Grave? The big thing here is that he doesn't actually recur anything. Rather, Feldon just copies something in your graveyard and leaves the actual body in there waiting to be recurred later on. Imagine something like this - having Warstorm Surge and In the Web of War on the field, activating Feldon to copy an Utvara Hellkite in the 'yard, then playing Bladewing to recur said Hellkite and swing. In that scenario, whoever's unlucky enough to be on the receiving end will be taking 60 damage from triggers and combat. He also combos quite nicely with Kokusho - you can copy the original, then recur and immediately sac the original (yay M14 legend rule!), then sac the copy at EOT, draining everyone else for 10, or just make a copy of Kokusho every turn and consistently drain everyone for 5.
One last thing - I REEEEEEEEEEEEEAALLY wish that Reef Wurm was in our colors. Ermergersh, the amount of damage you could pop off from all of our triggers with that thing is ridiculous.
Just discovered Where Ancients Tread and remembered this deck. Nice addition to your EtB trigger party. Skullclamp is cheap to use and helps when you're sacking dragons.
And I truly hope there is a Reef Worm token set that comes with the new commander deck! Quit holding back our Commander set tokens Wizardddsssszzz!!!!
Just discovered Where Ancients Tread and remembered this deck. Nice addition to your EtB trigger party. Skullclamp is cheap to use and helps when you're sacking dragons.
And I truly hope there is a Reef Worm token set that comes with the new commander deck! Quit holding back our Commander set tokens Wizardddsssszzz!!!!
I've thought about Where Ancients Tread for a while, buuuut I've never made the jump there. It's kind of like Electropotence for me, it's too much for too little. Plus, the fact that the enchantment's the one doing the damage is a bit of a buzzkill, I like deathtouch and lifelink shenanigans. I'll also be adding Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Ghoulcaller Gisa pretty soon (both work exceptionally well with Purphoros and other Surge effects, plus Kazuul is a great rattlesnake), and the tokens they both make are under 5 power. I guess I don't like conditions on my mass destruction.
Skullclamp is something I've been meaning to get for the deck for a while but just haven't found anyone willing to trade away a copy. However, it's being reprinted in C14 (I think for the white deck), so I'll finally be getting a copy of that. I think I'll replace Wild Guess with it.
On the topic of C14, what do you think of Wake the Dead in this deck? I'm really leaning towards putting it in. For the wurm, I'm pretty sure we got a preview of all of its three tokens earlier this week.
He's too much to pay for without enough reward. If I normally had more mana untapped, I'd run him for that mana sink he has (plus Basilisk Collar), but that's not the case. Here's to hoping we get another big BR dragon for the deck in the next couple sets though.
C14 comes out tomorrow! With the release of C14, there are a ton of fun tools debuting that I plan on abusing. For this deck, we're getting some great stuff. In anticipation of my purchase of both the red and black decks, I'm updating the decklist now.
Adds: Myriad Landscape - Because we like ramp outside of green. Commander's Sphere - We also love mana rocks and things that can sac at instant speed for cards. Ghoulcaller Gisa - We have a lot of big fatties. Gisa takes those big fatties, puts them back in the 'yard where we can get them right back out, and puts a ton of boots on the ground. Purphoros, Pandemonium, Warstorm Surge, all of those love this sort of interaction. Feldon of the Third Path - He puts very large boots on the ground. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs - "But Skorchd, he's not in C14!" No, he's not, but you know what he does? A. tells opponents to look elsewhere when they want to smash into the red zone, or B. puts substantial boots on the ground. It's one of those cards that's been sitting in my trade box forever and one day recently I had a little epiphany where I realized how much synergy this guy has with all of my Surge effects. Necromantic Selection - Damnation + Rise from the Grave? I'll gladly take that. Wake the Dead - This is one of those ERMERGERSH DER SHERNERGERSH cards for the deck. Being swung at with an empty field? It's not empty any more. Have an opponent with just a few bits of life and a Pandemonium on the field? Leave a smoking pile of ash.
Cuts:
1 Mountain - For Myriad Landscape. Skeletal Scrying - I find myself holding this back whenever I draw for A. lack of mana, B. other things to do, or C. I like my graveyard too much. Recoup - Nifty utility, but weak when there's nothing good for it to hit, or if there's not enough mana. Life's Finale - Necromantic Selection is going to be so much more fun. Dragon's Breath - We've got plenty of other ways to grant haste. Tempt with Immortality - In the event we play another hardcore Reanimator deck, we don't want them to win off of our own card. Fling - At the very best, it's a Kokusho trigger + Lava Axe. At it's worst, it's a Shock for card disadvantage. It's usually much closer to the worse part.
I plan on playing the deck a ton this weekend with all of our new toys, and will likely update the thread with the results of it. Hopefully around the same time, I'll be updating my Kiki-Jiki deck's thread, as well as making new threads for my newly-constructed Ashling and Brion Stoutarm decks. I'll be limiting myself to just those four (plus maybe Gahiji) this weekend.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please share!
Note that Chaos Warp is also in the red deck, and given its effect, might be considered.
Stranglehold does yeoman's work in my decks when it comes to screwing up opposing strategies, as does Leyline of the Void. The latter MiGHT justify adding Exhume.
Hellkite Tyrant can be fun, as you never have to return stolen artifacts until they are destroyed or the game ends. The trample is a bonus. Speaking of trample, Mana-Charged Dragon can be huge in the right meta game.
Do you ever have trouble finding a dragon when you need one? I run about 24 dragons in my deck and I am thinking of cutting some of that fat for more utility. You make a good point about magmaquake and such cards, I might take those out as well. I like the idea of the warstorm effects, I only have 1 of them in my deck
Note that Chaos Warp is also in the red deck, and given its effect, might be considered.
Stranglehold does yeoman's work in my decks when it comes to screwing up opposing strategies, as does Leyline of the Void. The latter MiGHT justify adding Exhume.
Hellkite Tyrant can be fun, as you never have to return stolen artifacts until they are destroyed or the game ends. The trample is a bonus. Speaking of trample, Mana-Charged Dragon can be huge in the right meta game.
Cheers!
Thank you for the suggestions! I think I love the idea of Exhume here. Having an opening hand of 2 Swamps, Entomb and Exhume would be straight up disgusting, but awesome. I'll be looking for a couple of that immediately.
For the other suggestions, I'll definitely include Chaos Warp if the deck develops a more control-y attitude in the future, and same for Stranglehold and the Leyline. Hellkite Tyrant can be fun, and I've played him before, but I'm not a huge fan of alt win cons when the deck's been made to completely spew out damage already. I know it's pretty difficult to hit that alt win con, but I don't really have space to spare for miscellaneous fun cards. Mana-Charged Dragon on the other hand is worth consideration. If I find the deck working well with politics, I'll probably put a copy of this dragon in too.
Do you ever have trouble finding a dragon when you need one? I run about 24 dragons in my deck and I am thinking of cutting some of that fat for more utility. You make a good point about magmaquake and such cards, I might take those out as well. I like the idea of the warstorm effects, I only have 1 of them in my deck
Occasionally it takes a few turns to find one, but never too long to get one in the graveyard. My draw/discard spells certainly see to that. Yeah, after looking over your deck, I'd recommend more grease for your engine. I'd say cut some of the dragons that tend not to do anything or that consume a ton of resources for little pay-off. For example, Scourge of Kher Ridges takes eight mana. If you have to hardcast that, it'll take your entire turn in the midgame while your opponents are getting their shenanigans online and you don't even get an immediate reward for playing him, just something to sink mana into. Aaaaand, he gets shot down my something as small as a Go for the Throat. With these sorts of Reanimator builds, we want immediate value for what we're playing so that even if someone Routs during your turn, we haven't just time-walked ourselves.
Warstorm effects, when you make them stick (in my experience, only difficult when someone at the table remembers being smoked by it), are best used in explosive plays. If someone sees you're putting down a 10/10 every turn no problem, it'll become an immediate threat, but if you play Bladewing to recur Utvara and immediately swing, that'll make 22 damage via Warstorm (plus combat damage) in half a turn. Going this route probably isn't for everyone, I'm the kind of guy that tries to make burn work in Commander.
Btw, that banner in your sig is flipping awesome-looking, and thank you for commenting!
Thanks for the tips. I haven't gotten to play the deck that much so my experience playing it is solitaire style. Also, feel free to use the sig if you want, I was inspired after reading the thread.
What's your opinion of Tyrant's Familiar? If you cast it with bladewing, the lieutenant bonus is assured
Yesterday, I got my hands on the red and black C14 precons and added the forementioned cards to the deck. However, I also got my hands on a Cauldron of Souls and Moonlight Bargain. The Cauldron here is excellent for not only preserving a board post-wipe, but hitting additional triggers too. Moonlight Bargain, though it costs five, shows us the top five cards and allows us to insta-bin any of our fatties. Just remember, life is a resource made to be spent. For these, I cut Wild Guess, which was our objectively worst card-cycler, and Dragon Tyrant, because he just doesn't do enough for the mana he costs. Yes, he's great in combat, but he's only got six power and no ETB effect.
The other notable game I had last night with this deck was a crazy one. It was a six player free-for-all in which a group hug deck (also Hippohugger) was being played. The mid game was in full swing by turn three, where I played Mesmeric Orb and Pandemonium. My meta absolutely despises the Orb, so political tact was necessary to preserve it for the turn cycle. Thankfully, no one found the answer for it and I hit a Rise of the Dark Realms, killing three people in one turn and put the group hug deck down to three. Unfortunately, Mr. Hippo decided to Redistribute the Sands and kill me with a Pandemonium trigger, immediately conceding the last player. I'm not disappointed that I lost because I really didn't. When I play Bladewing, I play for the kill count.
Random aside: I've built a new Ashling deck over the last couple weeks and used a good deal of the C14 red deck for it. It's a voltron build with equipment and a heavy theme on artifacts, and I am extremely pleased with it so far. Also, my Athreos deck has been rocking the grind pretty well, but the Brion Stoutarm deck just can't quite keep up.
Thanks for the tips. I haven't gotten to play the deck that much so my experience playing it is solitaire style. Also, feel free to use the sig if you want, I was inspired after reading the thread.
What's your opinion of Tyrant's Familiar? If you cast it with bladewing, the lieutenant bonus is assured
Any time! And thank you, but I can't let myself use someone else's sig, it feels wrong to me. As for Tyrant's Familiar, he's good but not what we're looking for. If he could do that trigger damage to a creature OR player, I'd probably run him but we need to keep our eye on demolishing life totals, not blockers.
have you tried out Cauldron Dance? Seems like a card you would like. puts 2 creatures onto the battlefield for Warstorm damage, haste for combat damage, and puts them back into your hand and graveyard for more casting.
Report: I got another good game in with Bladewing again, buuuut it was again tainted by Hippohugger's Phelddagrif deck. It was one of those games where I just sat back, filled the 'yard, played some enchantments, told people to go attack other people and BAM Rise of the Dark Realms to turn the table to a big smoldering pile of ash.
Cuts:Feldon of the Third Path came out to go in my Kiki-Jiki deck. He didn't come out because he's not good, he came out because I only have one copy right now. Once I get more copies of him (I'll be ordering about five with my next paycheck), he'll go right back in. I also cut Nihil Spellbomb because it's next to useless early game and I never want to play it late game because I always have other things I'm doing.
Adds: Finally got a Mind's Eye, trying it out in this deck to see how effective it is. If it's not super fantastic, I'll likely move it to another one of my decks that really needs it. I'm testing out Spoils of Blood too for post-Wrath triggers. Spoils is just an experiment for now, it will probably be cut in the future.
have you tried out Cauldron Dance? Seems like a card you would like. puts 2 creatures onto the battlefield for Warstorm damage, haste for combat damage, and puts them back into your hand and graveyard for more casting.
I've never actually played with Cauldron Dance, but it's something I'll consider. I'm worried about that mana cost though, and you need to have a fatty in your hand to make it work to the best of its abilities. Usually whenever I draw a fatty, I get it into the graveyard as soon as possible.
Report: You live by the Pandemonium and you die by the Pandemonium. I had a very good game with the deck yesterday, lots of great plays including blasting someone for 20 via Flayer of the Hatebound, but as you may have gleaned, I died to my own Pandemonium. I'm okay with that though. I've got a lot of changes to the deck to go through.
Cuts:
4 Mountains, 1 Swamp, Iron Myr - For better fixing. Wild Guess - Objectively our worst draw spell, but it might get re-added down the line because this deck thrives on cycling through cards. Mind's Eye - We like card draw on the cheap, this takes a bit too much investment during a point in the game where we should be blasting faces with dragons. Blasphemous Act - So far, Blast Act's been a nearly-useless card. We like forcing other people to wipe. Spoils of Blood - Too situational, it varies too much (not in a good way), and a token can't be recurred. Dragonspeaker Shaman - I think I prefer to just have a mana rock in his place. Hellkite Charger - I never had the mana to use the triggered ability, most of the time he was just an over-costed 5/5 that I passed up for better options.
Adds: Command Tower, Bloodstained Mire, Blackcleave Cliffs - Better fixing. Lavaclaw Reaches - For that inevitable moment when someone wipes the board of nonland permanents, I don't have any action in my hand or the 'yard, and someone's below 10 life. Badlands - I traded in a ton of old rares and worked up enough store credit to trade into this Revised Dual land. I'm pretty happy about it. Talisman of Indulgence - We can spend some life for better fixing and ramp. Millikin - Effectively a cheap mana rock that helps to fill our graveyard. Phyrexian Arena - This should come down on turns 2-4 (before we need to spend our time and resources on serious action) and gain us incremental advantage throughout the game. Sneak Attack - It works especially well with Mikaeus the Unhallowed, Cauldron of Souls and Flayer of the Hatebound, and it works as both a discard outlet and a way to cheat our dragons out for damage and utility to just be recurred later on. The tech this card brings to the deck is huge. Exhume - For super early game shenanigans, or later on if no one else has anything good in their graveyards. An opening hand with this, Entomb, a Swamp and at least one other land will be an insta-keep. Bladewing's Thrall - This will probably be my favorite thing to sacrifice. He can just keep coming back and back and back again, setting off triggers every time. Plus, he's got flavor-synergy with our commander. Cauldron of Souls - Mikaeus the Unhallowed copy #2.
I can't wait to see what Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir bring us in the way of dragon tribal. Hopefully we'll get a lot of great tech when those debut. In the meantime, if you've got questions, comments or suggestions, please share!
I added the pandemonium effects to my deck, and I'm very happy with the change. I'm testing feldon of the third path, how did he perform for you before you took him out of the deck? I haven't played a game with him yet. Also how is Ghoulcaller Gisa? +1 for Talisman of Indulgence. Exhume has been great for me, especially if I get it in my opening hand. Millikin looks interesting to me as well.
Im thinking of also cutting hellkite charger. Im hesitant because he has relevant stats with haste, but I never activate his ability. Maybe i'd keep him if his art was cooler, but overall it's a boring card to me. Still looking to trim the fat from my deck. Maybe consider Urza's Incubator in place of dragonspeaker shaman. Same cmc, same effect
The deck feels like it may be getting a bit top-heavy. In the near future, to avoid extreme durdling during games, I'll likely bring Wild Guess and more ways to build up card advantage, including raw draw power and ramp, for the deck to run better.
Today, the official previews for Fate Reforged started and one of the new cards, Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury (attached), presents good synergy for the deck. Upon initial inspection, one's first thought may be that she's most useful for the dragon tribal aspect of the deck, but rather, it's the Dash ability I really like. That Dash ability means we can crank off 4 a turn each turn just for her entering, then another 5+ on attacks. As an additional plus, she's only 5 mana, and good 5cc dragons are excellent for early aggression.
@skybug12 Sorry for taking such a long time to reply to you. I've been able to draw and play Gisa in just a couple games so far, but both times my opponents realized the synergy there between here and our damage triggers, so she got removed pretty quickly. I feel like Urza's Incubator would be the exact same as Dragonspeaker Shaman but less recurrable. I think Belbe's Portal will be worth consideration.
The more I play my deck, the more I end up bringing it closer to yours. People always say that aggro isn't good in EDH, and im seeing it first hand. It's too hard and too mana intensive to plow through with dragon hordes, especially against all the Dueling Grounds and silent arbiters in my group. Hopefully Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir give us some nice toys.
How has the crucible of fire cut been for you? Ive been kind of on the fence with it, but when you recur Utvara Hellkite with Crucible + pandemonium, that extra +3 on every dragon adds up.
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Personal Bio
My name's Brian, I play Commander almost exclusively and can be found most places in Northeast Ohio. I've been playing Magic in a very casual atmosphere since around the time Fifth Dawn premiered in 2004. My very first deck was the 8th Edition precon, "Speed Scorch," which was a hybrid of Goblin tribal and burn. The friends I played with always did multiplayer games which translated very well when I was introduced to the Commander format in late 2010, around the time the 2011 Commander product was announced. My very first Commander deck was a repurposed Boros Casual deck with Razia, Boros Archangel at the head and it had no business winning the first few games it did. When it got ROFLstomped by an optimized Darien, King of Kjeldor deck, the moment inspired me to build stronger, better decks and my fire for the format was lit.
My decks and play style tend to follow the theme of causing massive amounts of damage, so obviously my favorite color in Magic is Red. Secondary flavors of play I like to follow include playing around with life totals and reanimating creatures, both of which Black and White do well at, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that those two are tied for my second favorite. This deck tends to put massive damage and reanimation first, playing with life totals second, but be assured, it's all in there.
On the topic of Deck History, this deck started out in the summer of 2013 as a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund strictly Dragon Tribal deck that morphed into more of a Dredge Reanimator Goodstuff deck with a smattering of Dragon flavor. After the fifth-ish time of losing thanks to a stray Clone stealing my Commander and half my board, I made the decision to cut the Green from the deck and remodel it into the Bladewing deck you see before you. Over the time I've played the deck, it's moved more from individual recursion to mass reanimation and functions somewhere between Combo, Aggro and Midrange.
1 Bladewing the Risen
Lands
6 Mountain
6 Swamp
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Barren Moor
1 Command Tower
1 Badlands
1 Blood Crypt
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Foreboding Ruins
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Graven Cairns
1 Temple of Malice
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Temple of the False God
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Bojuka Bog
1 High Market
Rocks/Ramp
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Millikin
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Rakdos Cluestone
1 Burnished Hart
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Faithless Looting
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Wild Guess
1 Sign in Blood
1 Altar's Reap
1 Night's Whisper
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Read the Bones
1 Bitter Revelation
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Sneak Attack
1 Anger
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Ogre Battledriver
1 Crux of Fate
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Combustible Gearhulk
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Graveyard Shenanigans
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Buried Alive
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Bladewing's Thrall
1 Patriarch's Bidding
1 Living Death
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Twilight's Call
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
1 Dread Summons
1 Dragon Tempest
1 Panharmonicon
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Flameshadow Conjuring
1 Conspiracy
1 Warstorm Surge
Dragons
1 Scourge of Valkas
1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
1 Scourge of the Throne
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Thunder Dragon
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Skyline Despot
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Utvara Hellkite
Card Choices
Lands
Rocks & Ramp
Card Advantage & Utility
Graveyard Shenanigans
Tech
Dragons
Notable Exclusions - Coming soon!
Possible Future Inclusions
1 Sarkhan the Mad
1 Skullclamp
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Generator Servant
1 Boltwing Marauder
1 Descent of the Dragons
1 Dread Summons
1 Scourge of Nel Toth
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
I'll be continually updating this deck and providing little reports of how it's done in games. I have a feeling it will be one of my all-time favorites. If you have any suggestions or questions for the deck, please don't hesitate to comment!
Cuts: Carnage Alter hasn't been quite the effective sac outlet I've been hoping for. I barely ever actually use Thespian's Stage. Zirilan of the Claw is coming out 1. to move to my Kiki-Jiki deck, and 2. because we don't like having to exile our own dragons. Zirilan's a good card, but uncooperative with our strategy. Spawn of Thraxes loves mono-red, buuuut this is not mono-red. Usually I don't have more than four Mountains at any time, usually less. Terminate's great removal, but it's a strange one-of whose slot could be used for furthering the deck strategy.Disaster Radius has really under-performed, a lot of times I'll have it sitting in my hand with a ton of fatties facing me down and 5/5 sitting in my hand.
New Inclusions: Mad Prophet and Wild Guess are being included to get dragons into the 'yard and see more fuel to get the deck moving. Recoup is a card I'm experimenting with to see if it's worth being able to get anything from a Sign in Blood to a Rise of the Dark Realms. Blasphemous Act and Coercive Portal are coming in to wipe boards, plus Portal works as a Phyrexian Arena minus the downside most of the time.
Additonal Notes:Magmaquake is most likely going to come out because when I need it, I don't have enough mana, but when I have enough mana, I've got other things to do. Victimize may get cut too because it works very well when everything's going your way, but isn't too functional when you're behind. In the future, I'm looking to include more ways to draw cards, especially good looter effects (looking at you, Bitter Revelation) and more ways to fill my graveyard. Some expensive cards I'd probably run if I could afford them right this moment would be Damnation and Entomb, but cards that are a priority to get a hold of include Thundermaw Hellkite (I'm learning that the 5cc hasty guys are especially good here), Cauldron of Souls and Millikin.
I actually have not yet drawn into him in an actual game, but when I goldfish around with the deck, he works well once you hit a 7-9 mana threshold and are recurring fatties once or twice a turn. The theoretical blowout play I hope to pop off in future games includes having him in the 'yard and playing either Twilight's Call or Rise of the Dark Realms on a full graveyard. I'll be playing a lot of Commander this coming weekend, so keep your eyes opened for my next report on the deck.
Blade wing was my original commander and still play the deck regularly. I like your build with the globs of damage win conditions. I never played that style because I lacked the enchantments you are using and went with a Megrim and Memory Jar style interaction to bin dragons and pull ramp or reanimation.
I'm also a fan of Mesmeric Orb but man does that draw the tables hate.
Recommended
Animate Dead is solid and could work instead of Victimize.
I used to play Dragonspeaker Shaman but I think he's better as a mana rock
Or maybe Burnt Offering away an early fatty to play Bladewing and his friends. I just think the barbarian dies to easily to be worth only the cost reduction.
Steel Hellkite is a solid beater and blasts pesky permanents.
I also like Innocent Blood or Smallpox as early game mini sweepers. Smallpox can actually shut someone out early so tread carefully.
Also Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace can give you a dragon in the graveyard and piss off the table as well.
And of course if you're gonna play dragon's breath you gotta run Dragon Tyrant. Absolutely brutal that one with haste.
Lastly Sarkhan the Mad is on theme as hell and can do globs of damage.
Good luck on your next games and I'm off to find a Heat Shimmer and Warstorm Surge lol.
Mogis, God of Slaughter
Daxos of Meletis
Thank you for all of the suggestions! I'm sure your version of Bladewing loves Waste Not. I try not to include a lot of symmetrical discard effects (there are couple areas in my meta where politics get touchy), buuuut Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace is going straight in. I played a lot of Rakdos while Dissension was new, so I've got a few of those sitting around. Mesmeric Orb usually sits for a turn cycle or two before getting shattered, which is usually worth it for our strategy. I've never actually played with Animate Dead, but I agree it's likely better to run than Victimize, so I'll be looking for a copy of that soon. I don't think I've actually seen Burnt Offering before, and I really like that tech (use it to sac Kokusho, play Bladewing and get Kokusho or any other fatty right back feels powerful), so I'll at least order a copy of that to test it out, but I've never been keen on Ritual effects that aren't repeatable.
I'll avoid putting Smallpox in the deck, but I do like Innocent Blood. It's a hard answer to a couple decks (Uril & Progenitus) that float around my meta, and people might actually like it for the Solemn Simulacrum triggers. My only copy of Steel Hellkite is locked up in another deck right now, but the utility I can get from here might be worth the switch. Dragon Tyrant has always been a card I've thought about but decide against for how hard it is on your mana base (10cc plus the 4 mana upkeep cost is steep), buuuut the upkeep could actually work for the deck: instead of paying the cost, we sac him and immediately recur him, triggering off one of our Surge effects. I'll be looking more into him. Sarkhan the Mad is someone else I'll probably experiment with, mostly for his -2 though to set off triggers.
Thank you again for all of the advice, I love finding new little pieces of tech and tricks to pull for better deck synergy.
It's a definite possibility for the deck. If I ever end up running Malignus in the deck, you'd better believe this'll go right in with it.
A note on my games, I made some good trades before playing and stocked them into the deck, a couple of which performed pretty well. Major overachievers included Flayer of the Hatebound, whom I was able to recur around 5 separate times and use as removal (and who would've ended the game when I played Twilight's Call one game if the Ephara deck hadn't countered it), Buried Alive for the access it gave me to rig my 'yard, Utvara Hellkite in combination with Warstorm Surge which took out a player out of no where in one game, and Dragon Tyrant because his upkeep trigger in this deck is actually a good thing: gives us something to recur and set off triggers every turn.
Cuts:
1 Mountain, 2 Swamp
Viscera Seer - A sac outlet like this is ideal in certain situations but is a waste of space most of the time.
Rescue from the Underworld & Victimize - These are dead draws when there's nothing on the board to sacrifice.
Mad Prophet - There's more efficient card acceleration out there.
Rise from the Grave - More efficient recursion too.
Magmaquake - I never had enough mana when I needed it and never needed it when I had enough mana.
New Adds:
Bloodfell Caves, Sulfurous Springs - We like all sorts of dual lands.
High Market - For that rare moment that a sac outlet is what we need.
Entomb - Basically a 1 mana, instant-speed fatty tutor.
Animate Dead - Pretty efficient recursion.
Dragon Tyrant - A great fatty with a downside which can actually be an upside in this deck.
Skeletal Scrying - It's an experiment right now, but with all of the non-dragon cards hitting the bin, this can be a good hand refill.
Bitter Revelation & Tormenting Voice - We like things that gives us new cards while cycling through others.
This deck is quickly becoming my very favorite deck to play. It's really whetting my appetite for Sneak Attack (which would have amazing synergy in this deck) and Thundermaw Hellkite. I'll be updating the main decklist either later tonight or tomorrow morning, and will be sprucing the thread up a lot in the next week or so.
Changes: I only made one change in cards this time. I got my hands on a Scourge of the Throne, and took out my Strionic Resonator. Whenever I played the Resonator, I usually wouldn't even use it because I didn't have 2 mana open. The Scourge will be a little experiment with Dethrone. I'm afraid I may end up being on the throne too much to really make use of Scourge's triggers, but am willing to blast myself if it comes to that.
Looking Forward: The first card I want to bring up is Sneak Attack. Playing a creature out of the hand for 1 mana with haste strapped on is fantastically efficient for this deck, and the sac at EOT is actually a good thing for us: if we've got Mikaeus on the field, it comes right back, hitting more triggers. If not, we've got a target for Bladewing's recursion. Right now, the card's around $60-70, so if I can't find a trade for it, I'm going to shell out the cash for it by Christmas.
Next big thing, we're currently at the beginning of the spoiler week for C14. I'm looking at three cards we've seen so far that I'm definitely putting in: Ghoulcaller Gisa, Feldon of the Third Path, and Myriad Landscape. The Landscape's there for obvious reasons.
Gisa is positively delightful in our deck, she takes one of our fatties (whom we presume has already hit Surge triggers), put him back into the 'yard where he can be reused, and we put his power x2 onto the board hitting those triggers again. She's especially great with Purphoros, and super-bonus points for activating her with Ogre Battledriver or In the Web of War to completely wreck someone.
Feldon is someone I'm extremely excited for and will be putting into three or four different decks, including this one. You might be confused when you look at him and then look at this deck, black's got better recursion than this guy so why the heck am I going to run him over, say, Rise from the Grave? The big thing here is that he doesn't actually recur anything. Rather, Feldon just copies something in your graveyard and leaves the actual body in there waiting to be recurred later on. Imagine something like this - having Warstorm Surge and In the Web of War on the field, activating Feldon to copy an Utvara Hellkite in the 'yard, then playing Bladewing to recur said Hellkite and swing. In that scenario, whoever's unlucky enough to be on the receiving end will be taking 60 damage from triggers and combat. He also combos quite nicely with Kokusho - you can copy the original, then recur and immediately sac the original (yay M14 legend rule!), then sac the copy at EOT, draining everyone else for 10, or just make a copy of Kokusho every turn and consistently drain everyone for 5.
One last thing - I REEEEEEEEEEEEEAALLY wish that Reef Wurm was in our colors. Ermergersh, the amount of damage you could pop off from all of our triggers with that thing is ridiculous.
Skullclamp is cheap to use and helps when you're sacking dragons.
And I truly hope there is a Reef Worm token set that comes with the new commander deck! Quit holding back our Commander set tokens Wizardddsssszzz!!!!
I've thought about Where Ancients Tread for a while, buuuut I've never made the jump there. It's kind of like Electropotence for me, it's too much for too little. Plus, the fact that the enchantment's the one doing the damage is a bit of a buzzkill, I like deathtouch and lifelink shenanigans. I'll also be adding Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Ghoulcaller Gisa pretty soon (both work exceptionally well with Purphoros and other Surge effects, plus Kazuul is a great rattlesnake), and the tokens they both make are under 5 power. I guess I don't like conditions on my mass destruction.
Skullclamp is something I've been meaning to get for the deck for a while but just haven't found anyone willing to trade away a copy. However, it's being reprinted in C14 (I think for the white deck), so I'll finally be getting a copy of that. I think I'll replace Wild Guess with it.
On the topic of C14, what do you think of Wake the Dead in this deck? I'm really leaning towards putting it in. For the wurm, I'm pretty sure we got a preview of all of its three tokens earlier this week.
Epic Signature by the one and only Ace in Ace of Spades Studio
Proud member of the Spirit of EDH
BGW Teneb, the Harvester [Primer]
R Márton Stromgald
WUB Dakkon Blackblade
GR Atarka, World Render
{Writing and Rants}
WUBRG The Primeval Dragon's influence on EDH
He's too much to pay for without enough reward. If I normally had more mana untapped, I'd run him for that mana sink he has (plus Basilisk Collar), but that's not the case. Here's to hoping we get another big BR dragon for the deck in the next couple sets though.
Adds:
Myriad Landscape - Because we like ramp outside of green.
Commander's Sphere - We also love mana rocks and things that can sac at instant speed for cards.
Ghoulcaller Gisa - We have a lot of big fatties. Gisa takes those big fatties, puts them back in the 'yard where we can get them right back out, and puts a ton of boots on the ground. Purphoros, Pandemonium, Warstorm Surge, all of those love this sort of interaction.
Feldon of the Third Path - He puts very large boots on the ground.
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs - "But Skorchd, he's not in C14!" No, he's not, but you know what he does? A. tells opponents to look elsewhere when they want to smash into the red zone, or B. puts substantial boots on the ground. It's one of those cards that's been sitting in my trade box forever and one day recently I had a little epiphany where I realized how much synergy this guy has with all of my Surge effects.
Necromantic Selection - Damnation + Rise from the Grave? I'll gladly take that.
Wake the Dead - This is one of those ERMERGERSH DER SHERNERGERSH cards for the deck. Being swung at with an empty field? It's not empty any more. Have an opponent with just a few bits of life and a Pandemonium on the field? Leave a smoking pile of ash.
Cuts:
1 Mountain - For Myriad Landscape.
Skeletal Scrying - I find myself holding this back whenever I draw for A. lack of mana, B. other things to do, or C. I like my graveyard too much.
Recoup - Nifty utility, but weak when there's nothing good for it to hit, or if there's not enough mana.
Life's Finale - Necromantic Selection is going to be so much more fun.
Dragon's Breath - We've got plenty of other ways to grant haste.
Tempt with Immortality - In the event we play another hardcore Reanimator deck, we don't want them to win off of our own card.
Fling - At the very best, it's a Kokusho trigger + Lava Axe. At it's worst, it's a Shock for card disadvantage. It's usually much closer to the worse part.
I plan on playing the deck a ton this weekend with all of our new toys, and will likely update the thread with the results of it. Hopefully around the same time, I'll be updating my Kiki-Jiki deck's thread, as well as making new threads for my newly-constructed Ashling and Brion Stoutarm decks. I'll be limiting myself to just those four (plus maybe Gahiji) this weekend.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please share!
Stranglehold does yeoman's work in my decks when it comes to screwing up opposing strategies, as does Leyline of the Void. The latter MiGHT justify adding Exhume.
Hellkite Tyrant can be fun, as you never have to return stolen artifacts until they are destroyed or the game ends. The trample is a bonus. Speaking of trample, Mana-Charged Dragon can be huge in the right meta game.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
This is my deck that im working on:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bladewing-the-risen-dragon-reanimator/
Thank you for the suggestions! I think I love the idea of Exhume here. Having an opening hand of 2 Swamps, Entomb and Exhume would be straight up disgusting, but awesome. I'll be looking for a couple of that immediately.
For the other suggestions, I'll definitely include Chaos Warp if the deck develops a more control-y attitude in the future, and same for Stranglehold and the Leyline. Hellkite Tyrant can be fun, and I've played him before, but I'm not a huge fan of alt win cons when the deck's been made to completely spew out damage already. I know it's pretty difficult to hit that alt win con, but I don't really have space to spare for miscellaneous fun cards. Mana-Charged Dragon on the other hand is worth consideration. If I find the deck working well with politics, I'll probably put a copy of this dragon in too.
Occasionally it takes a few turns to find one, but never too long to get one in the graveyard. My draw/discard spells certainly see to that. Yeah, after looking over your deck, I'd recommend more grease for your engine. I'd say cut some of the dragons that tend not to do anything or that consume a ton of resources for little pay-off. For example, Scourge of Kher Ridges takes eight mana. If you have to hardcast that, it'll take your entire turn in the midgame while your opponents are getting their shenanigans online and you don't even get an immediate reward for playing him, just something to sink mana into. Aaaaand, he gets shot down my something as small as a Go for the Throat. With these sorts of Reanimator builds, we want immediate value for what we're playing so that even if someone Routs during your turn, we haven't just time-walked ourselves.
Warstorm effects, when you make them stick (in my experience, only difficult when someone at the table remembers being smoked by it), are best used in explosive plays. If someone sees you're putting down a 10/10 every turn no problem, it'll become an immediate threat, but if you play Bladewing to recur Utvara and immediately swing, that'll make 22 damage via Warstorm (plus combat damage) in half a turn. Going this route probably isn't for everyone, I'm the kind of guy that tries to make burn work in Commander.
Btw, that banner in your sig is flipping awesome-looking, and thank you for commenting!
What's your opinion of Tyrant's Familiar? If you cast it with bladewing, the lieutenant bonus is assured
Report: Wake the Dead is a fantastic card. During a game versus another player with my Gahiji deck, a Prossh precon, and MTGS member Hippohugger's Talrand deck, I woke Flayer of the Hatebound, Hellkite Charger, and Kokusho, the Evening Star with a Warstorm Surge, Ogre Battledriver, and Cauldron of Souls on the field. The game soon ended after reducing my opponents' life totals to ash.
The other notable game I had last night with this deck was a crazy one. It was a six player free-for-all in which a group hug deck (also Hippohugger) was being played. The mid game was in full swing by turn three, where I played Mesmeric Orb and Pandemonium. My meta absolutely despises the Orb, so political tact was necessary to preserve it for the turn cycle. Thankfully, no one found the answer for it and I hit a Rise of the Dark Realms, killing three people in one turn and put the group hug deck down to three. Unfortunately, Mr. Hippo decided to Redistribute the Sands and kill me with a Pandemonium trigger, immediately conceding the last player. I'm not disappointed that I lost because I really didn't. When I play Bladewing, I play for the kill count.
Random aside: I've built a new Ashling deck over the last couple weeks and used a good deal of the C14 red deck for it. It's a voltron build with equipment and a heavy theme on artifacts, and I am extremely pleased with it so far. Also, my Athreos deck has been rocking the grind pretty well, but the Brion Stoutarm deck just can't quite keep up.
Any time! And thank you, but I can't let myself use someone else's sig, it feels wrong to me. As for Tyrant's Familiar, he's good but not what we're looking for. If he could do that trigger damage to a creature OR player, I'd probably run him but we need to keep our eye on demolishing life totals, not blockers.
Cuts: Feldon of the Third Path came out to go in my Kiki-Jiki deck. He didn't come out because he's not good, he came out because I only have one copy right now. Once I get more copies of him (I'll be ordering about five with my next paycheck), he'll go right back in. I also cut Nihil Spellbomb because it's next to useless early game and I never want to play it late game because I always have other things I'm doing.
Adds: Finally got a Mind's Eye, trying it out in this deck to see how effective it is. If it's not super fantastic, I'll likely move it to another one of my decks that really needs it. I'm testing out Spoils of Blood too for post-Wrath triggers. Spoils is just an experiment for now, it will probably be cut in the future.
I've never actually played with Cauldron Dance, but it's something I'll consider. I'm worried about that mana cost though, and you need to have a fatty in your hand to make it work to the best of its abilities. Usually whenever I draw a fatty, I get it into the graveyard as soon as possible.
Cuts:
4 Mountains, 1 Swamp, Iron Myr - For better fixing.
Wild Guess - Objectively our worst draw spell, but it might get re-added down the line because this deck thrives on cycling through cards.
Mind's Eye - We like card draw on the cheap, this takes a bit too much investment during a point in the game where we should be blasting faces with dragons.
Blasphemous Act - So far, Blast Act's been a nearly-useless card. We like forcing other people to wipe.
Spoils of Blood - Too situational, it varies too much (not in a good way), and a token can't be recurred.
Dragonspeaker Shaman - I think I prefer to just have a mana rock in his place.
Hellkite Charger - I never had the mana to use the triggered ability, most of the time he was just an over-costed 5/5 that I passed up for better options.
Adds:
Command Tower, Bloodstained Mire, Blackcleave Cliffs - Better fixing.
Lavaclaw Reaches - For that inevitable moment when someone wipes the board of nonland permanents, I don't have any action in my hand or the 'yard, and someone's below 10 life.
Badlands - I traded in a ton of old rares and worked up enough store credit to trade into this Revised Dual land. I'm pretty happy about it.
Talisman of Indulgence - We can spend some life for better fixing and ramp.
Millikin - Effectively a cheap mana rock that helps to fill our graveyard.
Phyrexian Arena - This should come down on turns 2-4 (before we need to spend our time and resources on serious action) and gain us incremental advantage throughout the game.
Sneak Attack - It works especially well with Mikaeus the Unhallowed, Cauldron of Souls and Flayer of the Hatebound, and it works as both a discard outlet and a way to cheat our dragons out for damage and utility to just be recurred later on. The tech this card brings to the deck is huge.
Exhume - For super early game shenanigans, or later on if no one else has anything good in their graveyards. An opening hand with this, Entomb, a Swamp and at least one other land will be an insta-keep.
Bladewing's Thrall - This will probably be my favorite thing to sacrifice. He can just keep coming back and back and back again, setting off triggers every time. Plus, he's got flavor-synergy with our commander.
Cauldron of Souls - Mikaeus the Unhallowed copy #2.
I can't wait to see what Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir bring us in the way of dragon tribal. Hopefully we'll get a lot of great tech when those debut. In the meantime, if you've got questions, comments or suggestions, please share!
Im thinking of also cutting hellkite charger. Im hesitant because he has relevant stats with haste, but I never activate his ability. Maybe i'd keep him if his art was cooler, but overall it's a boring card to me. Still looking to trim the fat from my deck. Maybe consider Urza's Incubator in place of dragonspeaker shaman. Same cmc, same effect
Recently, I got a Thundermaw Hellkite. I cut Crucible of Fire for it.
Today, the official previews for Fate Reforged started and one of the new cards, Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury (attached), presents good synergy for the deck. Upon initial inspection, one's first thought may be that she's most useful for the dragon tribal aspect of the deck, but rather, it's the Dash ability I really like. That Dash ability means we can crank off 4 a turn each turn just for her entering, then another 5+ on attacks. As an additional plus, she's only 5 mana, and good 5cc dragons are excellent for early aggression.
@skybug12 Sorry for taking such a long time to reply to you. I've been able to draw and play Gisa in just a couple games so far, but both times my opponents realized the synergy there between here and our damage triggers, so she got removed pretty quickly. I feel like Urza's Incubator would be the exact same as Dragonspeaker Shaman but less recurrable. I think Belbe's Portal will be worth consideration.
How has the crucible of fire cut been for you? Ive been kind of on the fence with it, but when you recur Utvara Hellkite with Crucible + pandemonium, that extra +3 on every dragon adds up.