Dragons – who does not love them?
From the beginning of Magic dragons have always been among the iconic creatures of the game. Many a dragon has been dismissed as “not playable” but behold: the commander format with its long games and plenty of resources is just the right environment for these monstrous killing machines from ancient times. As a matter of fact in commander dragons are played a lot.
When I got into the commander format I saw the legendary viashino shaman and immediately knew that this would be the commander for my inevitable dragon deck.
First of all most of the dragons in Magic are red so this would give me a vast pool of dragons to choose from. Furthermore I had something for mono red going. In psychology red is supposed to be a colour of strong emotions like wrath and hatred. It stands for fire, heat, aggression, chaos and war. Things to make the blood boil. I think these attributes fit amazingly with the dragon theme and are exactly how I want the overall feeling of my dragon deck.
Zirilan is also perfect because in general I really want to refrain from relying too much on the commander but his ability might come in handy sometimes. So while you do not depend on Zirilan it is a good feeling to know he is there to help out if you really need that one dragon as an answer to the current board state.
Another thing I like about the deck is that it is constantly pumping out medium threats. Most of the time you will not end games by playing a combo or with one huge turn but by constantly playing dragons from your hand and getting value by all the synergistic cards that support your dragons. Nevertheless if a game just goes too long the possibility of comboing out is there.
Also you will be surprised by all the interactions of the deck which are not obvious at first sight.
There are also some weaknesses of this deck which I have learned over the years. As a well-known fact in commander mono red lacks card draw and tutors which are really needed in a 99 cards deck. This sometimes leads to “hit or miss” games. The two major components of the deck are ramp and dragons and sometimes the deck will deny you one of them. Being in top deck mode basically leads to a situation when you can do nothing but try to get your commander online.
Also enchantment removal is scarce in mono red. You will be in real trouble if your opponents play enchantments which prevent your dragons from dealing combat damage.
Most of the time your role will be the beatdown player which is generally considered to be a weak strategy in commander. But oh the fun…
Since Zirilan’s ability is pretty unique there is no use in directly comparing other mono red commanders with Zirilan.
I rather would like to mention some of the more or less competitive commanders mono red has to offer.
Purphoros, God of the Forge
This deck tries to bring its commander online as soon as possible and produces a lot of tokens for direct damage to the opponents. It can be very fast but also relies heavily on the commander to win. Therefor I think that the deck gained much from the change of the “tuck rule”.
If one does not mind of winning the same way each game as long as the deck is winning this will probably be a good choice.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
This deck uses many creatures with enter the battlefield abilities to gain value when copied by Kiki-Jiki. I think that it can be very flexible and can be considered a red “good stuff” deck. It tries to win similar to Zirilan either by combat damage or to pull off a combo. Whereas I think the combo win occurs more often.
Krenko, Mob Boss
If you want to play goblin tribal this is the commander for you. The Krenko decks I have seen were all combo decks relying heavily on Krenko, Kiki-Jiki or Splinter Twin. So the gameplay is a bit like Purphoros: winning in the same fashion each game but pretty reliable.
As you have probably observed this is not your usual Zirilan build since it completely lacks the means to save the dragons from Zirilan’s exile trigger. This is a rather unique approach of building the deck. During the last two years I did a google search every now and then for the term “Zirilan EDH” just to see if there are some links not yet marked as “visited” in the search results. Literally all deck lists included some sort of cards to save the dragons. I learned from playing this deck over the years that it is much better to cast a dragon, wreak as much havoc as possible with it and not be upset when it gets removed then trying to make it stay on the board or recycle it into your library with clunky mechanics and a lot of deck space. The next dragon is already sitting in your hand waiting to be unleashed.
My opponents will never be durdling around – why should I?
Deck history
Zirilan is one of my oldest and most played commander decks (created in the beginning of 2014) and has evolved a lot over time.
Looking back I can clearly make out 4 stages:
Stage 1(Horribad):
I started off as what seems to be the obvious way to create a Zirilan deck by focusing strongly on the commander’s ability and using a lot of cards to save the dragons from being exiled.
I think this stage of a Zirilan deck is the epitome of durdling. Why? Because you need an exorbitant amount of cards dedicated to the recycling of dragons.
Too many card slots will be occupied by cards that:
After the first games I was shocked how awful it was. Many of these cards are highly situational and I remember sitting there having prepared my board for all the nice dragons to come but nothing happened because Zirilan got killed over and over again or his ability shut off by other means (e.g. Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Containment Priest, Stranglehold, Aven Mindcensor). At that stage the deck had no other reliable ways to play dragons in a timely fashion though combat damage was the only wincon. I realized that all these cards to recycle the dragons were doing absolutely nothing most of the time and could be put to much better use. Which led me to…
Stage 2(Protect the boss):
In this stage I removed all the above mentioned cards and put in the usual means of protecting a commander (e.g. Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Darksteel Plate, Whispersilk Cloak).
You just have to get used to your dragons getting exiled. Repeating the mantra “…disposable dragons are disposable…” silently in your head while playing has helped me a lot with this. By the way, at that time I have used around 15 dragons in the deck, if you need more to win you are doing something wrong.
I also put in the deck a lot more board control. Mostly low damage sweepers (e.g. Pyroclasm, Anger of the Gods, Flamebreak, Slagstorm) which might have been a meta call at that time due to my opponents playing a lot of small hate bears and utility dorks.
Furthermore I started to include many of the combos which can be used in a Zirilan deck (see “Possible combos or synergies in a Zirilan deck” in the strategy section). My hope was that whenever I drew a combo piece Zirilan would be ready to fetch the corresponding dragon.
Nevertheless because of the lack of tutors in mono red I still had to face the problem of Zirilan being destroyed a lot of times because I could not find a card to protect him. So once again I was not able to play my wonderful dragons or any of the combos. For the next stage I really had to follow the well-known rule: “Integrate the Commanders abilities into the strategy at least a little, but be able to win without ever playing the commander.”
Stage 3(Sir ramp-a-lot):
Once after playing with and against my Zirilan deck a friend of mine asked me a simple question: “Why do you not use much more ramp and play your dragons the normal way?”
Intriguing, no? Well, dragons are expensive mana-wise but this is commander. A (usually) slow format with lots of mana for all the fancy spells everybody is going to play. So I just gave it a try and put a lot more ramp into the deck. As of today there are 18 spells and 3 lands that ramp and another 2 lands that at least pseudo-ramp. The ramping did work and for the first time I was able to play dragons – and no worries about that exile trigger!
Since I could not tutor the dragons up anymore I increased their number to be sure to draw one at least once in a while.
The cards that had to go were those that were supposed to protect Zirilan and most of the combo cards. Since I did not rely on his ability anymore to win there was no need to be so focused on the commander.
My fears in this stage of the deck were: I have had to make many efforts to play those dragons probably they will immediately die to removal.
Sooner or later this was true but most of the time I had some rounds of smashing face with dragons which brought me to…
Stage 4(Value land):
I really liked the direction the deck was taking. Ramp like crazy to surprise my opponents with early dragons was nice but then what? I decided because of all the resources dedicated to play dragons they have to be more than a mere beatstick. I had to get as much value out of a dragon as possible. This is what I found:
Haste enablers
Direct damage triggers
Damage doublers
Extra combat steps
Copy effects
With these effects I make sure that every dragon has an impact on the board state.
Another change I did to the deck concerned the removal slots. Enchantment removal was a serious issue so I dumped all the damage based creature sweepers and replaced them by the few cards available to mono red that will be able to handle enchantments.
This is the current stage of my deck. It is much more stream-lined with all unnecessary or durdling cards gone.
The deck consists mainly of three components: ramp, dragons and value enhancers for the dragons.
Whenever I consider a new card for the deck I ask myself if it fits into one of these three categories. If not, it is likely unnecessary and does not support my game plan. Again: because of the lack of tutors I chose to get as much redundancy for these categories as possible because the probability of seeing one-ofs that have very special effects per game is very low.
So here are my choices for each category:
An artifact from elder days
almost unmatched in power...
Ramp
There are three kinds of ramp in this deck: actual ramp that puts lands on to the battlefield, mana sources that produce more than one mana and mana doublers.
Since all red has to offer in this category is not effective enough I use lands and artifacts to fulfill this role.
Myriad Landscape, Wayfarer's Bauble, Burnished Hart, Solemn Simulacrum are all cards that search for lands and put them directly into play. These are the best options for ramp in this deck and should always be preferred to cards that put land into your hand (e.g. Journeyer’s Kite, Pilgrim's Eye). Thawing Glaciers and Scrying Sheets actually put land into your hand but I run them because they are not one shots but can be used multiple times and Thawing Glaciers albeit a little slow helps not to miss a land drop which is another important thing to do for this deck.
Ancient Tomb, Temple of the False God, Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus all produce more than one mana.
Some of them even produce more mana than their own mana costs. The disadvantage of not untapping unless paid for is not as bad as it seems especially if you can pump out even more ramp with those artifacts. The downside of Mana Crypt can at best help you to get a dethrone trigger with Scourge of the Throne and at worst kill you (actually happened to me…). Nevertheless Mana Crypt is too good not play in such a mana-hungry deck. Gilded Lotus produces coloured mana which can often be relevant.
Which brings me to Fire Diamond, Coldsteel Heart, Star Compass, Fellwar Stone. Those are mainly in the deck because you can play another mana source in addition to your land drop and they produce coloured mana.
Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun are the mana doublers and by far the best ramp cards in the deck. They should be played as soon as you draw them. Possibly with mana from artifacts so that you can immediately benefit from your lands. They will probably be a number one target for enemy artifact removal but most of the time I managed to cast a dragon or two before that happened. Also do not forget that Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun also give your dragons +1/+1 which is relevant for Warstorm Surge, Where Ancients Tread and effects that double damage.
I do not like to be the bringer of bad news but the mana doublers are so important in this deck that the inclusion of Gauntlet of Might is essential. Unfortunately not everybody owns this expensive card still there are two possibilities: either the playgroup accepts one proxy in the deck or with Mana Flare a far worse version could be used though I strongly advise against that (see my policy on symmetric effects in the strategy section).
Other ramp I have used in the past is Koth of the Hammer and Coalition Relic. The planeswalker is not a bad choice but I tried to have my ramp spells at a very low cmc to be able to play them in the early game. Coalition Relic would still be in the deck if I had the space.
The fear of dragons is as old and
as powerful as the fear of death itself.
- THIS so much THIS!
Dragons
Now the juiciest part – the dragons…
Since Zirilan can potentially be a toolbox commander if he gets online I wanted all of the dragons to have a special effect on the board state. Enter the battelfield abilities are always preferred over activated abilities for they do not need further resource investment and activated abilities are preferred over abilities that trigger if the dragon deals combat damage to a player because sometimes we have no control over such a trigger.
Thundermaw Hellkite Speaking of the combat damage trigger this dragon is the right one to get that damage through. Usually flying is considered a good evasive ability but in the majority of my games my opponents also had flying creatures in play which prevented my dragons from connecting (aka dealing combat damage to a player). So the next time your Balefire Dragon is sitting there waiting to wrath your opponents’ creatures bring in this guy to make it happen.
An alternative for this job could be Rimescale Dragon but he has the disadvantage that if he dies the ice counters on creatures will have no effect anymore. By the way: what is better than tapping opponents’ creatures? Destroying them!
Mordant Dragon, Spawn of Thraxes, Thunder Dragon, Balefire Dragon, Bogardan Hellkite, Scourge of Kher Ridges, Flameblast Dragon and sometimes even Scourge of Valkas are the dragons responsible for removal. Maybe you have noticed the lack of mass removal spells in the deck list which are normally standard inclusions in commander decks? This is the route I decided to go. Removal on a dragon has some advantages over spell based removal in this deck: after the dragon is done killing something it likes to swing in for some more combat damage. A creature also causes all kinds of triggers can be copied and equipped.
Avaricious Dragon, Dream Pillager, Knollspine Dragon are the ones that should improve the card draw – something that mono red is always craving for. I remember the negative comments of people on the internet when Avaricious Dragon and Dream Pillager were first spoiled. I agree that they are fairly underwhelming on their own but in a mono red commander deck they can be put to good use. Concerning the exiling of cards from Dream Pillager’s ability ask yourself how many cards of your deck do you see in an average commander game? 25? 35? I rather like to think of that ability as a possibility to see more cards of my deck so I have a larger card pool to make decisions and play from.
If you have ramped accordingly it should be no problem to play the two cards drawn with Avaricious Dragon so you will not have to discard one. Knollspine Dragon is a bit awkward to use and therefor has always been on and off my deck but since I tried to exchange spells for dragons with the same or similar effects I put him in again when I removed a spell for card drawing. Basically there are three ways to use Knollspine dragon:
Tutor him up with Zirilan in response to an opponent receiving damage (which need not necessarily be combat damage and not necessarily on your turn).
Successfully attack with a creature (preferably a dragon) and play Knollspine Dragon after your combat step.
Play Knollspine Dragon under a Warstorm Surge or a Where Ancients Tread. Stack the triggers in a way that the damage from the two enchantments first hit an opponent and then let the dragon’s trigger resolve.
Another card draw dragon that I am not playing is Dragon Mage. I used him in the past but after a while my opponents even encouraged me to attack them with that dragon so that they could draw seven new cards. At least since then I realized that this cannot be good and I removed him from my deck (see my policy on symmetric effects in the strategy section).
Scourge of the Throne, Hellkite Charger can provide extra combat steps which are extremely useful in this deck. Scourge of the Throne does it for free but with the restriction of only once per turn whereas the Hellkite Charger needs a heavy mana investment but can do it over and over again. Whom to play depends on the situation and mana available. I think both are worth being played from the hand but with Zirilan online I would fetch the Hellkite Charger only if I have already access to the Sword of Feast and Famine and want to enable the combo (see possible combos or synergies in a Zirilan deck in the strategy section). Generally Scourge of the Throne is easier to use but will also be a removal target.
There is no real alternative to these dragons since they are the only ones who can give extra combat steps.
Steel Hellkite, Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Hellkite Tyrant these dragons can remove our opponent’s artifacts and even more important Steel Hellkite can also get rid of those pesky enchantments red has a hard time dealing with. Additionally Hellkite Tyrant can sometimes provide you with a Sol Ring or other mana rocks commonly used in the commander format which is quite nice for our mana hungry deck. I have never ever used his second ability though but technically that can be an alternative wincon.
The only dragon that can remotely do the same as the three already mentioned is Furnace Dragon but since our own artifacts are also removed I never used him.
Utvara Hellkite our most valuable player – hands down! There is no other dragon legal in this deck that can generate more dragons on its own. He is the reason why extra combat steps and haste are so good. He is the reason why Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest are so good. He is the reason why Flameshadow Conjuring is so good. It should be imperative to play him from the hand to make him stay. He is only worth tutoring up with Zirilan if we are already controlling a board full of dragons which is rarely the case.
Hunted Dragon, Dragon Tyrant These two are mostly beaters. The former for the early the latter for the late game. The compelling feature of Hunted Dragon is of course his cmc to power ratio and haste ability. When I wanted to increase the number of dragons in the deck I had to find a balance between the high-costed and low-costed ones. Another reason to include him was that he also triggers Where Ancients Tread. This is the weakest dragon in the deck I think and I consider him a flex spot to test new dragons when they become available. I used to run Stormbreath Dragon instead but when I put Where Ancients Tread, Avaricious Dragon and Dream Pillager into the deck I decided that I need another dragon with at least five power.
Ah the Dragon Tyrant – king of all the dragons! The right time for him to enter the battlefield is when you have set up a way to create extra combat steps or when you are able to produce tons of mana to put his fire breathing ability to good use. He will just wreak havoc then. By the way: it is not uncommon for this deck to play him during the late game the normal way for the full ten cmc…
An alternative beatstick I have used in the past is Hellkite Igniter. Controlling just three artifacts makes his ability better than normal firebreathing and since the deck is running a lot of mana rocks this should always be the case. Activating his ability even more than once makes him fearsome! If I had the deck space I would probably be still running him.
Another beater I played for some time in the deck was Moltensteel Dragon. In the end I took him out because he was only worth it if I could make him double strike or have more than one combat step. Without these his ability will be one more damage to your opponent for two life of yours which is not a good deal. In a 1 vs 1 version of this deck he might be considered.
A word on Shapeshifters / Changelings: technically those are dragons but for esthetic reasons I did not consider them for this deck. Anyhow, the only notable one I have seen in a Zirilan list is Changeling Berserker because you can tutor him up in response to a mass removal spell and champion Zirilan. The Changeling Berseker will then die and give you back Zirilan.
Every dragon will sweep like a devastating tempest
over their lands leaving nothing but ashes...
Value enhancers
After I realized that with the appropriate ramp I could play dragons independently of Zirilan I wanted them to do more than just deliver some damage before they died to the inevitable removal. These are my ways of gaining much more value out of every single dragon:
Flameshadow Conjuring Copying your dragons is not only good for the additional combat damage they might deal but there are also some who have nice enter the battlefield abilities. If you already control Utvara Hellkite attacking copies of your dragons from Flameshadow Conjuring will also generate more dragons with his ability. Another option for copying your creatures is Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. I ran him for some time in the deck but he is removed too easily. Minion Reflector does the same thing as Flameshadow Conjuring but for more mana. If you want to have more effects of this kind it might be the right card for you. I tested Blade of Selves for some time but found that it is rather going in the win more direction.
Dragons entering the battlefield also synergize with…
Dragon Tempest, Where Ancients Tread, Warstorm Surge Most of the time these are used as a source of removal. In the deck list you will see almost no non-creature spells dedicated to creature removal because this is all done by either these cards or dragons.
With the damage you can remove an opposing flying creature to make sure your dragon will deal combat damage to a player to trigger its ability. Where Ancients Tread is a card I really frown upon because there are some creatures in the deck which will not trigger it. Unlike Warstorm Surge it also deals five damage all the time ignoring the dragon’s power and the damage is dealt by the enchantment itself which is bad because damage doublers only effect damage from our creatures. Nevertheless since I have noticed the outstanding power of Warstorm Surge in this deck I wanted more cards with this effect. An alternative would be Pandemonium but again its effect also applies to opponents which is something I am not willing to do (see my policy on symmetric effects in the strategy section).
Aggravated Assault, Savage Beating Similar to copying dragons extra combat steps do not only provide an extra swing for combat damage but also let abilities that trigger at attacking or at dealing combat damage trigger twice. Extra combat steps get even better with…
Keep in mind that Sensei's Divining Top and Scroll Rack gain value from shuffle effects.
So if Zirilan is online you can activate him just for the shuffle effect even if you do not want to fetch a dragon (quote from oracle: because the "search" requires you to find a card with certain characteristics, you do not have to find the card if you do not want to).
Alternative card draw can be: Daretti, Scrap Savant, Memory Jar, Wheel of Fortune and Reforge the Soul. The latter two I do not use because they also let your opponents draw cards (see my policy on symmetric effects in the strategy section). The other ones I would run if I had the space.
The solution to everything:
Warp lands and artifacts into dragons!
No creature sweepers in here? I already explained that I use effects and abilities on dragons and enchantments to get rid of creatures.
These removal cards aim mainly at another card type: enchantments. Most of all those who prevent your dragons from dealing combat damage or are in another way harmful to them (e.g. Grave Pact and similar effects).
Warp World As of now I am only running six non-permanent spells in the deck so after Warp World finished resolving the chances that I will end up with many permanents is quite good. Additionally Warp World can be used as a last means to remove threats that we will not be able to handle otherwise (e.g. opponents' creatures are indestructible, have hexproof and you cannot let opponents sacrifice permanents).
The Cold Snap version has
a dragon in it but this one
looks even frostier and I like
the old card frames better
The snow-covered version of the mountains is used because of Extraplanar Lens. That cards checks for the card name so if your opponents use normal basic mountains instead of the snow-covered version Extraplanar Lens will grant the additional mana to you only.
Since we are already using snow-covered lands Scrying Sheets can sometimes provide a little bit of card advantage. Bonus points if you can find Coldsteel Heart with it!
Another card that works well with snow-covered mountains is Glacial Crevasses. I had it in my deck for a long time but finally decided that it was not contributing to my game plan enough and took it out.
All other non-basic lands fall into the category of ramp.
When I looked for more haste granting effects to include in the deck I found Hall of the Bandit Lord, Flamekin Village and Winding Canyons (play the creature on the end of the turn of the opponent before you). After some time I considered the disadvantage of lands coming into play tapped too strong and removed the former two. Winding Canyons is actually not bad but most of the time it is too slow because of the three additional mana (two for the activation and one because you cannot tap Winding Canyons itself for mana that turn) and I really wanted to have as many basic lands as possible so this land also had to go.
Playing this deck is easy to learn: ramp - play dragons - win.
Opening hand
First of all you always want to have at least two or three lands in your opening hand and as many ramp as possible. If you have ramp with cmc two then it is ok to keep a hand with two lands. If you do not have any ramp or ramp that costs more than two mana then you should have at least three lands in your opening hand.
Early game
The early game will consist only of ramping getting as many mana sources online as possible (as with most decks in the commander format). There is only one restriction: mana doublers should be played one at a time because they often get removed in which case it is better to have another one sitting in the hand ready to be played.
Even an Expedition Map drawn in this stage of the game should be used on Myriad Landscape or Thawing Glaciers to get access to more mana.
Mid game
During the early mid game you should start playing permanents that improve the value of your dragons or, if these cards are not available, start playing the dragons.
When it comes to the mid game it is really crucial not to over extend but also to keep the pressure up and the dragons coming. I had some games with explosive starts that let me play dragons early and kill one player but of course the remaining players would team up against me which leads almost always to a loss. On the other hand this deck has not many options for well developed enemy board states in the late game and therefore should try to out race the other players (remember: you are the beatdown deck). Once a Mayael the Anima player had Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sigarda, Host of Herons and Archetype of Endurance out. Since all my removal is either targeted, damage based or sacrifice based I could not handle that board state. This is a mono red problem as there would be answers in other colours (e.g. Cyclonic Rift in overload mode, Final Judgment – I am not counting Decree of Annihilation here because ruining the board without a plan to win afterwards is just impolite). This is also why I finally included Warp World as an additional “removal” spell to such board states.
So, finding a way to constantly keep attacking with dragons but not getting hated out by all the other players is somewhat difficult but it also makes playing this deck interesting. Good dragons to use in this stage of the game are Avaricious Dragon and Dream Pillager because they do not inflict a lot of damage and help getting access to more cards.
Late game
In the late game you should have more than one dragon and more than one value enhancing permanent out making each dragon a real threat. This is the time when extra combat steps really shine and over extending is a must to kill your opponents as fast as possible. Try to use all the synergies available: Utvara Hellkite and extra combat steps, Utvara Hellkite and Scourge of Valkas/Dragon Tempest, Dragon Tyrant and extra combat steps, Dragon Tyrant and Gratuitous Violence...
Using the commander
As I said in the beginning this deck does not rely strongly on the commander. Zirilan should only be played if there is nothing else to do and if there is a haste granting effect in play.
When I started playing the deck I did not like to not use Zirilan’s ability on my turn and leave him untapped during my opponent’s turns instead. As of today I totally would suggest just that. If he gets removed during an opponent’s turn use his ability in response to fetch a removal dragon and kill something.
If he is still in play at the end of the turn of the opponent before you use his ability to have two dragons in play and to attack with on your turn. This works because of the errata his ruling got: 1RR, t: Search your library for a Dragon permanent card and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library. That Dragon gains haste until end of turn. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
Also if an opponent receives an appropriate amount of damage any time you can activate Zirilan’s ability and fetch Knollspine Dragon to draw a lot of cards.
Policy on symmetric effects
My policy on symmetric effects is simple: I do not use them (at least in this deck I try to avoid them whenever possible).
A lot of Zirilan lists that I have seen on the net use the wheel effects (e.g. Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul, Dragon Mage) to improve mono red’s lack of card draw. My personal experience has taught me that it is always bad to let your opponents also draw seven new cards. Some players justify the inclusion of wheel effects by playing them “only when opponents have carefully sculpted their hands” but whenever I drew a wheel effect in the past I needed to play it as soon as possible to re-fill my hand regardless of what my opponents were doing.
Other symmetric effects can be found in cards that double damage or trigger damage: Pandemonium, Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods. These effects are too dangerous to also grant your opponents because it will be easier for them to remove your dragons.
There is just one symmetric effect that I use in this deck: Gauntlet of Power. As already mentioned mana doublers are crucial in this deck so I could not pass up on this one. Other than Mana Flare for example (which should not be played) it is also conditional in that only red creatures will get +1/+1 and only basic lands tapped for red mana will produce one additional mana. Just be careful if a Blood Moon is lying somewhere…
Possible combos or synergies in a Zirilan deck
There are quite some combos and cards that work very well together in a Zirilan deck. I had almost all of them in my deck over the time but except for one combo I removed all of them. As mentioned many times before: because of the lack of tutors in mono red combos are difficult to assemble. Especially when I moved away from relying so much on Zirilan even the combos that involved a dragon and a non-dragon card did not work well anymore. Looking back I think getting a combo to work happened only very few times so I could not justify the inclusion of combo cards anymore and rather used the card slots for redundancy of relevant cards.
Nevertheless for reasons of completeness I want to list the most common combos and synergies here.
Sword of Feast and Famine + Hellkite Charger or Sword of Feast and Famine + Aggravated Assault + any dragon: if your opponents do not have a non-black or non-green flying blocker and you have a way to initially provide the mana this combo grants infinite attack steps. This is the only combo I use in my deck because all of the involved cards are good on their own and contribute to my game plan in general.
Jokulhaups or Obliterate or Apocalypse + Worldgorger Dragon put into play in response to these cards with Zirilan’s ability. Here is how it works: when Worldgorger Dragon is flashed into play its trigger goes to the stack and exiles all your other permanents. Then Jokulhaups or Obliterate or Apocalypse resolve and destroy/exile a lot of things including the Worldgorger Dragon which puts its trigger on the stack when it leaves the battlefield. If no one interferes this trigger will put all of your stuff from exile back onto the battlefield (and might trigger a lot of effects – e.g. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle). Now you are the only player with permanents and your opponents are just sad pandas. Sounds fantastic, hm? Well, I am sorry to tell you this but most of the time it will not work. At least when I tried it (and I tried that a lot) there was always an opponent who messed with the stack or the Worldgorger Dragon triggers. In the end I was the one without permanents and slightly amused opponents. Worldgorger Dragon is often used in Zirilan decks to save your board from wipes but again: if someone messes with its triggers you can just scoop on the spot.
There are many flavourful cards for a Zirilan deck - not only dragon-related but also feeling very red.
Unfortunately we are restricted to 100 cards per deck and to be honest some flavourful cards are not good enough to justify their inclusion by flavour alone.
If you are a flavour-freak or if you just have a play group with very low-powered decks you might want to put some cute little cards in your Zirilan deck.
In that case I want to list these cards here. I would also like to hear from you what you think would be great flavour in a Zirilan deck and collect these suggestions.
So here is the list:
To understand the dragon you have to become the dragon.
Form of the Dragon
Turns yourself into a dragon - can it get even cooler?
High mana cost and getting to five life every turn is pretty risky. Maybe playable in the very late game, where the five damage to an opponent might be lethal.
I am usually going for the first printing of a card (especially when it is available with the old card frame/desing) but there are some cases when I like the art of a reprint better. This is such a case: I think the "From the Vault: Dragons"-version depicts the transformation into a dragon really well.
Dragon Roost
I actually thought about including this in my deck. Sometimes I encounter situations when I have ramped a lot and am in topdeck mode.
This enchantment would be a pretty good mana-sink and card advantage. Especially since you can generate dragon tokens at instant speed.
About the art: the same as with Form of the Dragon - I like the "Tenth Edition"-version better.
Death by Dragons
Style points for the name.
Triggers our dragon-related enter the battlefield abilities and hates out on a single player.
On the other hand: we are THE dragon deck - no one else shall have dragons! It falls partially under my policy on symmetric effects.
This card is best played in a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund deck.
Descent of the Dragons
Great card but since we have no possibilities of gaining control of our opponents' creatures it is unfortunately not for this deck.
Another good card for a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund deck.
Dragonspeaker Shaman / Dragonlord's Servant
These fall into the category of ramp and thus could be included in the deck. Unfortunately being creatures they might get destroyed easily.
Also they only ramp dragons whereas the generic ramp provides ramp for - well - all spells.
Crucible of Fire
Oh man - I want that in my deck I just do not have space for it.
Increasing the power of our dragons works well with enter the battlefield damage triggers, damage doublers and extra combat steps.
It also helps smaller dragons to trigger Where Ancients Tread.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
A dragon deck without Sarkhan? Sacrilege!
I really would like to test him in the deck mainly because of his ultimate ability. It is similar to Avaricious Dragon's ability which I already put to good use in the deck.
Just two things: he has to survive three turns to ultimate and I have to decide what to cut...
Dragonmaster Outcast
In the beginning I had him in the deck.
He yielded one dragon token maximum before he got destroyed because people are usually scared of him.
With all the ramp that puts lands into play he can get active pretty early but having only one toughness and no other kind of protection makes him very vulnerable.
Kargan Dragonlord
I would like to think of him as the leader of the dragon horde.
If only he changed his creature type to dragon after levelling up he might be playable.
Dragon Whisperer
Same as with Kargan Dragonlord: if he himself had the creature type dragon or had somehow the ability to grant him that creature type he might be playable.
The only interesting ability is his Formidable ability which acts similar to Dragon Roost which I prefer because it can be activated unconditionally.
Dwarven Hold / Dwarven Ruins
I do not know why but somehow I associate dwarves with dragons. Probably because at the time of this deck's creation "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" was still in cinemas.
Unfortunately both lands are too slow in what they do. At least Dwarven Ruins would have been decent if it did not come into play tapped.
I just really like the Fallen Empires artwork here.
I have been playing casual Magic from 1996 – 1999 and from 2002 – 2005.
Since the summer of 2013 I started again and this time more seriously (i.e. reading lots of articles about deck building and strategy, watching streams of matches online and of course playing each Friday at my local game store). I have built and dismantled quite a few commander decks since then and I also own some legacy decks which I play from time to time but commander is the format I play most.
So this is my Zirilan deck.
Let me know what you think but please do not suggest cards to save the dragons from Zirilan's exile trigger - if you have read through the whole thread you know why!
Also english is not my native language. If there are some mistakes please correct me.
This deck looks pretty badass and you did a lot of research and development before posting the deck. With all the changes you described, how has the consistency been?
My YouTube Channel: The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
You explained your thought process very well here, there isn't really anything to cristise or suggest.. since you mostly explain why you don't use them.
I do understand what you mean about having alots of pieces required to run the recursion engine for a traditional zirilan deck, but that kind of thing is what I like to play complicated machine of value, so I'll stick with it. Also my meta is clearly slower and there isn't so much $$ floating around so i can get away with it. Typically if my deck fails I just wait until they kill everyone else then knock them out at the end.
Okay you appear of have thought of everything pretty much, Thoughts on... lightning shrieker, sometimes you need a lava axe you can use whevener you need to. Thornbite staff, Zirilan is a shaman. Changeling berserker, protects a creature reuses ETB.
Perhaps these fall under too reliant on your general to be useful.
With all the changes you described, how has the consistency been?
Well, actually the deck runs pretty consistent as of now because there are a lot of redundancies. I see cards of all three categories (ramp, value enhancers, dragons) frequently each game.
On rare occasions one type of the three categories does not show up which is pretty annoying but on the oher hand I am not a number one target for my opponents then and may have time to come back.
I do understand what you mean about having alots of pieces required to run the recursion engine for a traditional zirilan deck, but that kind of thing is what I like to play complicated machine of value, so I'll stick with it. Also my meta is clearly slower and there isn't so much $$ floating around so i can get away with it. Typically if my deck fails I just wait until they kill everyone else then knock them out at the end.
Maybe I should clear something up: I absolutely have nothing against the typical recursion engines in a Zirilan deck. I enjoy playing cards that my opponents have to pick up and read. I have found a Zirilan list on the net which I would love to play but the people at my local game store all play semi-competitive commander decks which would punish me for playing the recursion engines.
The only cards I could remotely imagine to use are Tel-Jilad Stylus and Sundial of the Infinite because they are cheap to cast and Tel-Jilad Stylus can even save a dragon from getting stolen.
Okay you appear of have thought of everything pretty much, Thoughts on... lightning shrieker, sometimes you need a lava axe you can use whevener you need to. Thornbite staff, Zirilan is a shaman. Changeling berserker, protects a creature reuses ETB.
Perhaps these fall under too reliant on your general to be useful.
Well, Lightning Shrieker is a dragon I would like to test. I would run it in the place of Hunted Dragon. Same cmc, haste and triggers Where Ancients Tread. What we trade here is the disadvantage of granting an opponent three knight tokens for the fact that Lightning Shrieker is shuffled back into the library. Definitely something to think about!
Thornbite Staff and Changeling Berserker unfortunately really depend a lot on Zirilian. Thornbite Staff is so flavourful and imagine fetching a dragon that kills an opponent's creature on entering the battlefield untapping Zirilan - fetching another dragon that kills an opponent's creature on entering the battlefield and so on and afterwards you even get to attack with all the dragons! I really would like to do that but it will be impossible in my meta.
Maybe you guys can help me with Warp World? I would like to try it out as another means of removal of problematic permanents but I do not know what to take out of the deck for it.
I thought about Insurrection as a flex spot for high costed non-permanent spells. Any thoughts?
I don't need to imagine it, I have done it a mulitple times.
I used to play insurrection but it was supprisingly meh, although that might be because I have something of a control meta. It basically just ate a counterspell and my whole turn or sat in my hand waiting for someone to have a big enough board.
As for removal options.... player removal is the best removal, I really don't run a lot of removal.. just starstorm, Blast act, spine and chaos warp plus the dragons and vandalblast. I was using REB and Pyroblast for a bit but I had more cards I wanted to add and they were first to be cut. Basically I am relying on other people to deal the problems that come up in a game, its selfish and can lead to problems if you don't choose to play the deck in the right pod, I guess it helps that this was my 4 th deck so I have others I can turn to. Red removal options are pretty much just so bad I'd rather focus on the knocking out of players.. i don't have grave hate.. I kill the grave based deck first.
I used to play insurrection but it was supprisingly meh, although that might be because I have something of a control meta. It basically just ate a counterspell and my whole turn or sat in my hand waiting for someone to have a big enough board.
Hm, for me it has mostly been an I-win-card. Maybe I was just lucky.
I think I will try Warp World in its stead just for a couple of months to see how it works.
As for removal options.... player removal is the best removal, I really don't run a lot of removal.. just starstorm, Blast act, spine and chaos warp plus the dragons and vandalblast. I was using REB and Pyroblast for a bit but I had more cards I wanted to add and they were first to be cut. Basically I am relying on other people to deal the problems that come up in a game, its selfish and can lead to problems if you don't choose to play the deck in the right pod, I guess it helps that this was my 4 th deck so I have others I can turn to. Red removal options are pretty much just so bad I'd rather focus on the knocking out of players.. i don't have grave hate.. I kill the grave based deck first.
Player removal - definitely the best removal!
If you are really fast and aggressive are you not becoming a strong threat for the other (usually) three players so that you become the number one target? At least that happend to me a couple of times.
Relying on other people to deal with problems is something I am not comfortable with but on the other hand you are right about red's removal options being mostly just bad.
Like others have said, this deck is great and I really appreciate and agree with your thought process overall. I’m actually trying to build a Zirilan deck myself and have come across similar problems from certain cards being too dependent on the commander, so I think I’ll cut some of those out and put in more ramp like your deck. That said, I’m wondering if maybe you are too far on the opposite end of not providing Zirilan any support? I can understand cutting cards that are dead in your deck without Zirilan, but something like Conjourer’s Closet could still be useful with any dragons that have ETB abilities. A sac outlet like High Market doesn’t really take a card slot since it’s a land, but I can understand if you don’t want to run it if your meta is heavy with reanimation decks.
I’m wondering if maybe you are too far on the opposite end of not providing Zirilan any support? I can understand cutting cards that are dead in your deck without Zirilan, but something like Conjurer's Closet could still be useful with any dragons that have ETB abilities. A sac outlet like High Market doesn’t really take a card slot since it’s a land, but I can understand if you don’t want to run it if your meta is heavy with reanimation decks.
Hm, you are right my deck is probably really far on that end where the commander does not matter that much anymore. Still I cast Zirilan quite frequently during the end game but I do not calculate with him more than as a one shot dragon tutor. If he survives longer it is just very nice.
There are indeed cards that would work well in the deck even without the commander and Conjurer's Closet is definitely one of these cards. I used it for some time in my deck because many dragons have good ETB abilities but I think there came a time when I needed another card slot badly and Conjurer's Closet was just on the list of possible cuts.
It is totally reasonable to play these kind of synergistic cards in this deck and I would too if I had the space for them. On the other hand if your meta allows to play cute cards you totally should - the flavour in a Zirilan deck can be very rewarding!
In the first two stages of my deck evolution I used the lands High Market, Miren, the Moaning Well and Diamond Valley but these cards were only useful together with a way to recycle the dragons from the graveyard back into the library. When I removed these cards from the deck I did the same with the sacrifice outlets because then their only use was to save my dragons from getting stolen.
I have playtested my version with greats results!
Im sourprised of the ability the deck has to deals with multiplayer tables.
Reito lantern is great in combination with goblin bombardement.
I run the pack: worldgorger dragon + mana ramp + apocalypse/obliterate.
I'm thinking on adding mana-charged dragon and dualcaster mage.
That is a fun card combination, worldgorger + land wipes but the drawback is that, it requires 11 mana. Ruination can be another option since our land base is 99% basic mountains.
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dual caster mage can be hit by your own red sweepers. No problem with Manacharge dragon in multiplayer edh. Its a better version of shivan dragon with trample and colorless mana is needed to to pump its power.
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I use Twinflame + Utvara Hellkite combination in my Zirilan 1v1. It gives 3 more 6/6 tokens for 2mana.
That is a neat idea because of the low cost of Twinflame which matters in 1vs1!
Concerning 1vs1 what do you think about Moltensteel Dragon and Treasonous Ogre?
When I used them in my multiplayer deck they were only useful when I payed a lot of life for their abilities which always led to an early death.
In 1vs1 you only have to go through 40 life though...
Definitely! If you play in a meta with a lot of draw-go decks that are relying on instants then Defense Grid is a good choice.
When I tested those cards I really liked Price of Glory. Another card worth testing would be Null Brooch since we are often hellbent.
Great to hear positive results from fellow Zirilan players!
Can you give us the number of cards you use to save dragons from Zirilan's exile trigger/recycle effects? Also: how often is Zirilan killed in your games before you can activate him for the first time? Do you have any alternative ways to bring your dragons into play if Zirilan is not available to you? (e.g. Sneak Attack, Quicksilver Amulet, Belbe's Portal)
That is a fun card combination, worldgorger + land wipes but the drawback is that, it requires 11 mana. Ruination can be another option since our land base is 99% basic mountains.
Ruination is indeed a very good card in this deck! I think in my version it was a victim of the "Badly need another card slot"-problem.
PS: I hope you guys do not mind my auto-carding in your quotes.
Also I am thinking of a replacement for Hunted Dragon but cannot really decide. Criteria: low cmc and at least 5 power.
Warp World has not shown up until now so I am still testing it as a last resort removal spell.
Since there are many cards that would be so flavourful in a Zirilan deck but that are not good enough to make it in the final list I might write a flavour section soon.
I have stormbreath dragon, since it's immune to a lot of removal.. it's monstrous ability can be free damage to blue mages. Only 4 power though.
You are right - Stormbreath Dragon is great! I also love his monstrous ability because people often underrate it.
Sadly I have to frown upon the 4 power. Damn you Where Ancients Tread! But with the inclusion of Avaricious Dragon and Dream Pillager I cannot put even more dragons with power less then 5 into the deck.
If there only was a good replacement for Where Ancients Tread...
I have done a quick research for mono red ragons from the last five sets and just wanted to do a quick discussion of the new dragons available to this deck:
Thunderbreak Regent Very nice at first glance but there are two things why I will not put this one into my Zirilan deck: firstly we never have many dragons on the battelfield at the same time. If so the game is probably going into its ending phase and we will not get that much value out of its ability. Secondly its ability can only deal damage to players. I would have been much more usefull if it could also Lightning Bolt creatures!
Lightning Shrieker Already discussed further up in this thread. I even got one by now and might test it soon.
Akoum Hellkite When I first saw this one I thougt it to be pretty cool but again only 4 power with cmc 6 and a marginal effect did not make it into the deck. If you are running Worldgorger Dragon it might be more effective. I really like the art!
Shockmaw Dragon Same as Akoum Hellkite: only 4 power with cmc 6 and a marginal effect. The effect will be much better though with Gratuitous Violence on the board since the damage is dealt by the creature itself.
Stormwing Dragon Too much cmc for its power/toughness ratio. It even costs more to megamorph. Also same problem as with Thunderbreak Regent: we never have many dragons on the battelfield at the same time so we will not get much value out of morphing it.
Tyrant of Valakut will be a 5/4 Flying for 7 cmc most of the time. It is too risky for my liking to hope to be able to play him for his surge cost which makes him not good enough for my deck. A pity though because I like the art and flavour!
These are all the mono red dragons from the last sets.
What do you think about them? Do you agree with my brief analysis or would you include any of them in this deck?
Another thing about Warp World: I had a chance to play it and it turned out out to be quite good. I think it is not only good as a last resort removal spell but also to get a stalled board state going again. Of course best played if we control considerably more permanents then our opponents. Last time I managed to intensively ramp during my first turns and played Warp World. Since my opponents had almost only lands in play but I the additional ramp artifacts the warping turned into my favour.
I will swap Insurrection for Warp World. Insurrection has always been a good card card but it is generic goodstuff whereas Warp World falls into the removal category which to me is more relevant.
As of now the deck runs only 6 non-permanents which makes Warp World really smooth.
I had some chances to test Blade of Selves and I think I will remove it from the deck.
The reason is not that it is bad in any way but it is a bit awkward to use because you need a dragon first and then equip it for the high cost of 4.
But more important: I need more card draw. Really! During the last games I have been in top deck mode so often it is not funny...
I run both Staff of Nin and Daretti, Scrap Savant. I swear I haven't drawn Staff in Nin in months, I forgot it was still in my deck, red's card draw options aren't great and that extra 1 damage can come in handy.
Daretti can sometimes reanimate a Caged sun or something earler that expected and being a 4 mana plainswalker helps. You tend to have a bunch of sac artifacts to use with his ultimate. sometimes you can just have people target him because he is a walker and people are scared of them.
Thanks Narvuntien!
I replaced Blade of Selves with Staff of Nin - let us see if it works!
I know what you mean by not drawing a single card in months...
Staff of Nin really works for me.
People sometimes forget the ability that it can deal one damage so they block my dragon with a creature that has one more toughness than the dragon's power.
The look on their face is awesome when I ping their creature to death afterwards.
I added the flavour section as promised a while ago.
I am looking forward for your flavour suggestions!
From the latest dragons I already included Skyline Despot as another means to improve the card draw. Glorybringer from the upcoming Amonkhet looks interesting as well.
Right now I am in the process of totally rebuilding Zirilan.
Over last 3.5 years my local play group evolved and it is no longer possible to play slow decks as this one.
I regularly play against Zur the Enchanter, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Narset, Enlightened Master and so on.
At first I tried different dragons decks such as Jund Goodstuff with dragons, Bladewing the Risen combo (which worked quite well) but finally settled on Scion of the Ur-Dragon as my standard dragon deck because it is the only dragon deck that can match the power level of my meta.
That aside I recently turned back to Zirilan to get him going again. As of now it is a work in progress but as soon as I have a tested version I will post it here for suggestions.
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Is Zirilan for you?
Other mono red commanders
Since Zirilan’s ability is pretty unique there is no use in directly comparing other mono red commanders with Zirilan.
I rather would like to mention some of the more or less competitive commanders mono red has to offer.
Purphoros, God of the Forge
This deck tries to bring its commander online as soon as possible and produces a lot of tokens for direct damage to the opponents. It can be very fast but also relies heavily on the commander to win. Therefor I think that the deck gained much from the change of the “tuck rule”.
If one does not mind of winning the same way each game as long as the deck is winning this will probably be a good choice.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
This deck uses many creatures with enter the battlefield abilities to gain value when copied by Kiki-Jiki. I think that it can be very flexible and can be considered a red “good stuff” deck. It tries to win similar to Zirilan either by combat damage or to pull off a combo. Whereas I think the combo win occurs more often.
Krenko, Mob Boss
If you want to play goblin tribal this is the commander for you. The Krenko decks I have seen were all combo decks relying heavily on Krenko, Kiki-Jiki or Splinter Twin. So the gameplay is a bit like Purphoros: winning in the same fashion each game but pretty reliable.
The deck list
5 Zirilan of the Claw
LANDS (37)
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Temple of the False God
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Homeward Path
30 Snow-Covered Mountain
RAMP (18)
0 Mana Crypt
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
2 Grim Monolith
2 Fire Diamond
2 Coldsteel Heart
2 Star Compass
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Ruby Medallion
3 Burnished Hart
3 Extraplanar Lens
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Gauntlet of Might
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Gilded Lotus
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
4 Avaricious Dragon
5 Thundermaw Hellkite
5 Hunted Dragon
5 Scourge of Valkas
6 Steel Hellkite
6 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
6 Hellkite Tyrant
6 Scourge of the Throne
6 Hellkite Charger
6 Flameblast Dragon
6 Mordant Dragon
7 Spawn of Thraxes
7 Dream Pillager
7 Thunder Dragon
7 Balefire Dragon
7 Knollspine Dragon
8 Bogardan Hellkite
8 Utvara Hellkite
8 Scourge of Kher Ridges
10 Dragon Tyrant
TUTOR/DRAW (6)
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Expedition Map
1 Gamble
2 Scroll Rack
5 Mind's Eye
6 Staff of Nin
3 Chaos Warp
7 Karn Liberated
7 Spine of Ish Sah
7 Scour from Existence
7 All Is Dust
8 Warp World
MISC (13)
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Dragon Tempest
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Fervor
3 Aggravated Assault
3 Hammer of Purphoros
4 Flameshadow Conjuring
5 Where Ancients Tread
5 In the Web of War
5 Savage Beating
5 Gratuitous Violence
6 Warstorm Surge
5 Zirilan of the Claw
LANDS (37)
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Temple of the False God
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Homeward Path
30 Snow-Covered Mountain
ARTIFACTS (25)
0 Mana Crypt
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Expedition Map
2 Grim Monolith
2 Fire Diamond
2 Coldsteel Heart
2 Star Compass
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Ruby Medallion
2 Scroll Rack
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Extraplanar Lens
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Hammer of Purphoros
4 Thran Dynamo
4 Gauntlet of Might
5 Gilded Lotus
5 Gauntlet of Power
5 Mind's Eye
6 Caged Sun
6 Staff of Nin
7 Spine of Ish Sah
3 Burnished Hart
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Avaricious Dragon
5 Thundermaw Hellkite
5 Hunted Dragon
5 Scourge of Valkas
6 Steel Hellkite
6 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
6 Hellkite Tyrant
6 Scourge of the Throne
6 Hellkite Charger
6 Flameblast Dragon
6 Mordant Dragon
7 Spawn of Thraxes
7 Dream Pillager
7 Thunder Dragon
7 Balefire Dragon
7 Knollspine Dragon
8 Bogardan Hellkite
8 Utvara Hellkite
8 Scourge of Kher Ridges
10 Dragon Tyrant
ENCHANTMENT (8)
2 Dragon Tempest
3 Fervor
3 Aggravated Assault
4 Flameshadow Conjuring
5 Where Ancients Tread
5 In the Web of War
5 Gratuitous Violence
6 Warstorm Surge
1 Gamble
7 All Is Dust
8 Warp World
INSTANT (3)
3 Chaos Warp
5 Savage Beating
7 Scour from Existence
PLANESWALKER (1)
7 Karn Liberated
As you have probably observed this is not your usual Zirilan build since it completely lacks the means to save the dragons from Zirilan’s exile trigger. This is a rather unique approach of building the deck. During the last two years I did a google search every now and then for the term “Zirilan EDH” just to see if there are some links not yet marked as “visited” in the search results. Literally all deck lists included some sort of cards to save the dragons. I learned from playing this deck over the years that it is much better to cast a dragon, wreak as much havoc as possible with it and not be upset when it gets removed then trying to make it stay on the board or recycle it into your library with clunky mechanics and a lot of deck space. The next dragon is already sitting in your hand waiting to be unleashed.
My opponents will never be durdling around – why should I?
Deck history
Zirilan is one of my oldest and most played commander decks (created in the beginning of 2014) and has evolved a lot over time.
Looking back I can clearly make out 4 stages:
Card options
The deck consists mainly of three components: ramp, dragons and value enhancers for the dragons.
Whenever I consider a new card for the deck I ask myself if it fits into one of these three categories. If not, it is likely unnecessary and does not support my game plan. Again: because of the lack of tutors I chose to get as much redundancy for these categories as possible because the probability of seeing one-ofs that have very special effects per game is very low.
So here are my choices for each category:
Strategy
Playing this deck is easy to learn: ramp - play dragons - win.
Dragon flavour
There are many flavourful cards for a Zirilan deck - not only dragon-related but also feeling very red.
Unfortunately we are restricted to 100 cards per deck and to be honest some flavourful cards are not good enough to justify their inclusion by flavour alone.
If you are a flavour-freak or if you just have a play group with very low-powered decks you might want to put some cute little cards in your Zirilan deck.
In that case I want to list these cards here. I would also like to hear from you what you think would be great flavour in a Zirilan deck and collect these suggestions.
So here is the list:
Additional info
I have been playing casual Magic from 1996 – 1999 and from 2002 – 2005.
Since the summer of 2013 I started again and this time more seriously (i.e. reading lots of articles about deck building and strategy, watching streams of matches online and of course playing each Friday at my local game store). I have built and dismantled quite a few commander decks since then and I also own some legacy decks which I play from time to time but commander is the format I play most.
04.05.2016
Added the "Dragon flavour" section.
07.03.2016
IN: Staff of Nin
OUT: Blade of Selves
11.02.2016
IN: Warp World
OUT: Insurrection
Discussion can be found here.
27.11.2015
IN: Avaricious Dragon, Dream Pillager, Blade of Selves
OUT: Daretti, Scrap Savant, Worldgorger Dragon, Mycosinth Lattice
As mentioned in the combos and synergies section I removed almost all of the combo cards from the deck. Mycosinth Lattice and Worldgorger Dragon were the last ones.
From Daretti, Scrap Savant we only need his first ability and that one is only good if we have at least one card in hand. Avaricious Dragon and Dream Pillager offer better choices even with empty hands.
So this is my Zirilan deck.
Let me know what you think but please do not suggest cards to save the dragons from Zirilan's exile trigger - if you have read through the whole thread you know why!
Also english is not my native language. If there are some mistakes please correct me.
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
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I cut dragon mage and worldgorger dragon for the same reasons you said.
I do understand what you mean about having alots of pieces required to run the recursion engine for a traditional zirilan deck, but that kind of thing is what I like to play complicated machine of value, so I'll stick with it. Also my meta is clearly slower and there isn't so much $$ floating around so i can get away with it. Typically if my deck fails I just wait until they kill everyone else then knock them out at the end.
Okay you appear of have thought of everything pretty much, Thoughts on...
lightning shrieker, sometimes you need a lava axe you can use whevener you need to.
Thornbite staff, Zirilan is a shaman.
Changeling berserker, protects a creature reuses ETB.
Perhaps these fall under too reliant on your general to be useful.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Well, actually the deck runs pretty consistent as of now because there are a lot of redundancies. I see cards of all three categories (ramp, value enhancers, dragons) frequently each game.
On rare occasions one type of the three categories does not show up which is pretty annoying but on the oher hand I am not a number one target for my opponents then and may have time to come back.
Maybe I should clear something up: I absolutely have nothing against the typical recursion engines in a Zirilan deck. I enjoy playing cards that my opponents have to pick up and read.
I have found a Zirilan list on the net which I would love to play but the people at my local game store all play semi-competitive commander decks which would punish me for playing the recursion engines.
The only cards I could remotely imagine to use are Tel-Jilad Stylus and Sundial of the Infinite because they are cheap to cast and Tel-Jilad Stylus can even save a dragon from getting stolen.
Well, Lightning Shrieker is a dragon I would like to test. I would run it in the place of Hunted Dragon. Same cmc, haste and triggers Where Ancients Tread. What we trade here is the disadvantage of granting an opponent three knight tokens for the fact that Lightning Shrieker is shuffled back into the library. Definitely something to think about!
Thornbite Staff and Changeling Berserker unfortunately really depend a lot on Zirilian. Thornbite Staff is so flavourful and imagine fetching a dragon that kills an opponent's creature on entering the battlefield untapping Zirilan - fetching another dragon that kills an opponent's creature on entering the battlefield and so on and afterwards you even get to attack with all the dragons! I really would like to do that but it will be impossible in my meta.
Maybe you guys can help me with Warp World? I would like to try it out as another means of removal of problematic permanents but I do not know what to take out of the deck for it.
I thought about Insurrection as a flex spot for high costed non-permanent spells. Any thoughts?
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
I used to play insurrection but it was supprisingly meh, although that might be because I have something of a control meta. It basically just ate a counterspell and my whole turn or sat in my hand waiting for someone to have a big enough board.
As for removal options.... player removal is the best removal, I really don't run a lot of removal.. just starstorm, Blast act, spine and chaos warp plus the dragons and vandalblast. I was using REB and Pyroblast for a bit but I had more cards I wanted to add and they were first to be cut. Basically I am relying on other people to deal the problems that come up in a game, its selfish and can lead to problems if you don't choose to play the deck in the right pod, I guess it helps that this was my 4 th deck so I have others I can turn to. Red removal options are pretty much just so bad I'd rather focus on the knocking out of players.. i don't have grave hate.. I kill the grave based deck first.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Hm, for me it has mostly been an I-win-card. Maybe I was just lucky.
I think I will try Warp World in its stead just for a couple of months to see how it works.
Player removal - definitely the best removal!
If you are really fast and aggressive are you not becoming a strong threat for the other (usually) three players so that you become the number one target? At least that happend to me a couple of times.
Relying on other people to deal with problems is something I am not comfortable with but on the other hand you are right about red's removal options being mostly just bad.
Haha - that would be awesome!
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
Hm, you are right my deck is probably really far on that end where the commander does not matter that much anymore. Still I cast Zirilan quite frequently during the end game but I do not calculate with him more than as a one shot dragon tutor. If he survives longer it is just very nice.
There are indeed cards that would work well in the deck even without the commander and Conjurer's Closet is definitely one of these cards. I used it for some time in my deck because many dragons have good ETB abilities but I think there came a time when I needed another card slot badly and Conjurer's Closet was just on the list of possible cuts.
It is totally reasonable to play these kind of synergistic cards in this deck and I would too if I had the space for them. On the other hand if your meta allows to play cute cards you totally should - the flavour in a Zirilan deck can be very rewarding!
In the first two stages of my deck evolution I used the lands High Market, Miren, the Moaning Well and Diamond Valley but these cards were only useful together with a way to recycle the dragons from the graveyard back into the library. When I removed these cards from the deck I did the same with the sacrifice outlets because then their only use was to save my dragons from getting stolen.
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
I have playtested my version with greats results!
Im sourprised of the ability the deck has to deals with multiplayer tables.
Reito lantern is great in combination with goblin bombardement.
I run the pack: worldgorger dragon + mana ramp + apocalypse/obliterate.
I'm thinking on adding mana-charged dragon and dualcaster mage.
Have you tested them?
That is a neat idea because of the low cost of Twinflame which matters in 1vs1!
Concerning 1vs1 what do you think about Moltensteel Dragon and Treasonous Ogre?
When I used them in my multiplayer deck they were only useful when I payed a lot of life for their abilities which always led to an early death.
In 1vs1 you only have to go through 40 life though...
Definitely! If you play in a meta with a lot of draw-go decks that are relying on instants then Defense Grid is a good choice.
When I tested those cards I really liked Price of Glory. Another card worth testing would be Null Brooch since we are often hellbent.
Great to hear positive results from fellow Zirilan players!
Can you give us the number of cards you use to save dragons from Zirilan's exile trigger/recycle effects? Also: how often is Zirilan killed in your games before you can activate him for the first time? Do you have any alternative ways to bring your dragons into play if Zirilan is not available to you? (e.g. Sneak Attack, Quicksilver Amulet, Belbe's Portal)
Adding to your Worldgorger Dragon pack: Jokulhaups, Devastation - the more redundancy you have in mono red the more likely you will draw one effect.
Ruination is indeed a very good card in this deck! I think in my version it was a victim of the "Badly need another card slot"-problem.
PS: I hope you guys do not mind my auto-carding in your quotes.
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
Maybe it is time to include Boseiju, Who Shelters All and Cavern of Souls in the deck.
Also I am thinking of a replacement for Hunted Dragon but cannot really decide. Criteria: low cmc and at least 5 power.
Warp World has not shown up until now so I am still testing it as a last resort removal spell.
Since there are many cards that would be so flavourful in a Zirilan deck but that are not good enough to make it in the final list I might write a flavour section soon.
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
You are right - Stormbreath Dragon is great! I also love his monstrous ability because people often underrate it.
Sadly I have to frown upon the 4 power. Damn you Where Ancients Tread! But with the inclusion of Avaricious Dragon and Dream Pillager I cannot put even more dragons with power less then 5 into the deck.
If there only was a good replacement for Where Ancients Tread...
I have done a quick research for mono red ragons from the last five sets and just wanted to do a quick discussion of the new dragons available to this deck:
Thunderbreak Regent Very nice at first glance but there are two things why I will not put this one into my Zirilan deck: firstly we never have many dragons on the battelfield at the same time. If so the game is probably going into its ending phase and we will not get that much value out of its ability. Secondly its ability can only deal damage to players. I would have been much more usefull if it could also Lightning Bolt creatures!
Lightning Shrieker Already discussed further up in this thread. I even got one by now and might test it soon.
Akoum Hellkite When I first saw this one I thougt it to be pretty cool but again only 4 power with cmc 6 and a marginal effect did not make it into the deck. If you are running Worldgorger Dragon it might be more effective. I really like the art!
Shockmaw Dragon Same as Akoum Hellkite: only 4 power with cmc 6 and a marginal effect. The effect will be much better though with Gratuitous Violence on the board since the damage is dealt by the creature itself.
Stormwing Dragon Too much cmc for its power/toughness ratio. It even costs more to megamorph. Also same problem as with Thunderbreak Regent: we never have many dragons on the battelfield at the same time so we will not get much value out of morphing it.
Tyrant of Valakut will be a 5/4 Flying for 7 cmc most of the time. It is too risky for my liking to hope to be able to play him for his surge cost which makes him not good enough for my deck. A pity though because I like the art and flavour!
These are all the mono red dragons from the last sets.
What do you think about them? Do you agree with my brief analysis or would you include any of them in this deck?
Another thing about Warp World: I had a chance to play it and it turned out out to be quite good. I think it is not only good as a last resort removal spell but also to get a stalled board state going again. Of course best played if we control considerably more permanents then our opponents. Last time I managed to intensively ramp during my first turns and played Warp World. Since my opponents had almost only lands in play but I the additional ramp artifacts the warping turned into my favour.
I will swap Insurrection for Warp World. Insurrection has always been a good card card but it is generic goodstuff whereas Warp World falls into the removal category which to me is more relevant.
As of now the deck runs only 6 non-permanents which makes Warp World really smooth.
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
The reason is not that it is bad in any way but it is a bit awkward to use because you need a dragon first and then equip it for the high cost of 4.
But more important: I need more card draw. Really! During the last games I have been in top deck mode so often it is not funny...
So what to put in instead of Blade of Selves?
As suggested above I am thinking of Staff of Nin, Daretti, Scrap Savant or Memory Jar.
Of the three I like Daretti, Scrap Savant least because it will not draw cards when I am in top deck mode. Memory Jar is great but a one shot only. Staff of Nin is consistent card draw but for 6 it is quite expensive.
So what do you think? Can you suggest other options?
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
Daretti can sometimes reanimate a Caged sun or something earler that expected and being a 4 mana plainswalker helps. You tend to have a bunch of sac artifacts to use with his ultimate. sometimes you can just have people target him because he is a walker and people are scared of them.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
I replaced Blade of Selves with Staff of Nin - let us see if it works!
I know what you mean by not drawing a single card in months...
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
Staff of Nin really works for me.
People sometimes forget the ability that it can deal one damage so they block my dragon with a creature that has one more toughness than the dragon's power.
The look on their face is awesome when I ping their creature to death afterwards.
I added the flavour section as promised a while ago.
I am looking forward for your flavour suggestions!
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG
From the latest dragons I already included Skyline Despot as another means to improve the card draw.
Glorybringer from the upcoming Amonkhet looks interesting as well.
Right now I am in the process of totally rebuilding Zirilan.
Over last 3.5 years my local play group evolved and it is no longer possible to play slow decks as this one.
I regularly play against Zur the Enchanter, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Narset, Enlightened Master and so on.
At first I tried different dragons decks such as Jund Goodstuff with dragons, Bladewing the Risen combo (which worked quite well) but finally settled on Scion of the Ur-Dragon as my standard dragon deck because it is the only dragon deck that can match the power level of my meta.
That aside I recently turned back to Zirilan to get him going again. As of now it is a work in progress but as soon as I have a tested version I will post it here for suggestions.
UGTatyova, Benthic DruidUG | RBRakdos the DefilerRB | RNorin the WaryR | BGThelon of HavenwoodBG