1.1Who was the Ur-Dragon?
The history of magic originates with the dragons. In fact, their kind existed since before history was written. The Elder Dragon Legends were among the oldest known dragons. They had powers that rivalled, if not surpassed, that of the pre-mending Planeswalkers. Not much is known of the Ur-Dragon itself, other than all dragons possess a characteristic which belongs to it. It is known as the spirit of all dragonkind. The Scion seemingly is a long removed descendant of this mythical draconic spirit.
1.2Why Play Scion?
What is more of the spirit of EDH than playing the best legendary dragons of all time? If you like dragons, then Scion is an ideal commander, as it allows you to play any dragon ever printed. It is also extremely customisable, owing to the card selection afforded by running all five colors as well as the sheer number of viable dragons to choose from.
1.3How Competitive is Scion?
Their are a lot of very good quality dragons. More than you can fit into one deck. Therefore, Scion is actually fairly flexible as far as how competitive you would like to be. On the one hand, Scion is able to tutor up some pretty devastating combos that will 1-shot opponents. Oh the other hand, it also can be built to be geared towards the classic battle cruiser style of play.
1.4What is the Deck Like?
My build of Scion of Ur-Dragon focuses on ramping up to play huge haymaker dragons. It offers a diverse suite of dragons that are very useful for Scion to tutor up for combat. It forgoes some of the more cutthroat card selections, preferring to play fair for the most part. But it does boast a couple of big plays that take advantage of Scion's ability.
1.5Is a 5 Color Deck Expensive?
Not necessarily. There are plenty of cheap quality Dragons. And there are a lot of ways to build the manabase without resorting to playing every fetch and dual. My manabase for example forgoes duals in preference to Guildgates and some inexpensive 5-color lands. Of that only Cavern of Souls is worth much. Sets of Tri-lands and Vivids are also cost effective ways to build a 5-color deck. I suggest a alternate budget build at the end of the primer which includes them.
Scion the Reanimator
Here is an alternate build which uses an entirely different set of cards (no overlap with the original deck). This build focuses cheating dragons into play using a variety of methods and getting value off those dragons with their enter the battlefield triggers. It doesn't rely as much on the copying aspect of Scion's activation, but rather his ability to put dragons directly into the graveyard. In fact, the deck operates just fine without Scion if needed.
Generally for a tutor target, you are looking for a relevant ability that does not involve entering the battlefield. Activated abilities, attack triggers, or combat damage triggers are what you are looking for. Haste is also a very useful keyword to Scion when you first cast him.
Just some of the best of the best Dragons fill this slot. Stuff that isn't necessarily great to tutor for with Scion, but you would love to cast straight onto the battlefield. Some of these dragons have enter the battlefield triggers that can be setup for some huge turns.
Some sweet spells and planeswalkers that fit right in with the dragon theme. None of them are very necessary, though the big Elder Dragon planeswalkers are likely the best includes on card power alone. Crucible is gas along side a deck full of dragons. Most of the Sarkhan's are decent if not good. Tatsumasa and Cruel are a bit awkward. The former because it is slow, and the latter because it is very difficult to cast. However, the flavour is quite good.
There are a few sweet on theme tutors. Sarkhan's Triumphs is great at fetching out a key dragon at the right moment, or setting up your early game with a 4 or 5 CMC target. Conflux is one of those awesome cards you only get to run in a 5-color deck. The fact that it also has Nicol Bolas flavour makes it almost an auto include to me. Dragonstorm is for when we want to get serious. It can be a outright game winner in the right circumstances.
Earthquake is a solid sweeper that plays well with all of our flyers. Fate Reforged has given us one of the better sweepers in Crux. Bidding and Living Death are a shade of combo which plays well with Scion's tutor ability dumping dragons into our yard. There are a ton of other options given there are no color constraints. I like generally like the Red options the most, given that they fit the theme a bit better usually.
I haven't left a lot of room for spot removal. The deck should likely run a bit more. We do rely a bit on the dragons themselves to keep things under control. This leaves pesky no creature permanents to worry about. Utter End is one of the most versatile and at instant speed, so it gets a slot. There are some other options sticking to the dragon theme, but they are not all that powerful in the context of commander. Luckily, you can have just about anything you want outside of that.
Most of our dragons cost 6+ mana. They are also very color intensive. So the name of the game here is extreme ramping and color fixing when possible. Most of this is interchangeable with other ramping options. Signets are great for quick acceleration and color filtering. I've chooses some of the better options when it comes to quick development. Dragon Arch isn't technically ramp, but it functions as such, allowing us to drop our naturally drawn dragons quickly while keeping most of our mana free for Scion activations and so forth.
Elixir shuffles your dragons back into the deck to be tutored up again. It is somewhat awkward in conjunction with Living Death and the like, but allows the deck to go a bit longer. Ascendancy and Tempest give our dragons haste and draws us cards or throws burn spells, both of which are great. Venser's Journal provides the deck a good source of lifegain for the longer games. Dragon Tempest is one that I am looking for a slot for currently.
5-color lands are at a premium in a deck like there. Some of the new spirit dragon lands are perfect for the deck. They are part color fixing and part utility land. There are a decent number other good options other than these, but these tend to be some of the better ones. Reflecting Pool is a notable exception that should likely get a spot.
Running all five colors opens up some interesting options like Maze's End. It serves as an excellent way to ensure you land drops and fix you colors. It also has the off chance of winning the game on its own. Though, it is fairly unlikely in the scheme of things.
A
Wolf Run, Stronghold, and Rogue's Passage play well with our commander if we decide to get aggressive. Hanweir Garrison could slot in for Stronghold as an alternative. Woodland ramps and helps fix our colors, so it seems like an obvious include. Strip Mine serves as the usual answer to other problematic lands. Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge would also work.
4.1General Playstyle
The deck handles like a battlecruiser deck for the most part. It is fairly slow to get off the ground, but hits hard once you start chaining together plays. Don't be in a rush to cast Scion. You do not necessarily need to run him out there on turn 5. Be aware of potential sweepers, targeted removal and so forth. It is actually better to wait until you have enough mana to activate him once or twice in the same turn you cast him. That way you ensure that you will get some form of value from him. This is generally late enough in the games that people may not have any more spot removal so he is more likely to stick. Before that point, develop your mana and run out dragons that you draw naturally.
4.2Starting Hands
Owing to the nature of the deck's curve, it is imperative that your starting hand have plenty of mana and mana acceleration. The ideal hand is several land and a couple mana rocks. You are fine with drawing into your action, as Scion himself can help with that. The most important thing to do early is to get to ask much mana as possible as quickly as possible. The deck has unbelievably steep requirements for mana, and so this will be the most substantial limiting factor to your game play.
4.3Remember Targets
The deck can be tricky to pilot once you get Scion out and start activating him. It is important to become familiar with all of the potential activation targets and under what sorts of circumstances you would expect to want to tutor for them. Some targets will want you to fetch prior to combat. Some before damage. Some in response to Scion being targeted with removal. Knowing all of the possible fetch targets by heart will allow you to take full advantage of Scion's versatile ability.
4.4Learn Key Sequences
Keep in mind also that Scion loses the ability to search and copy a dragon once his activation resolves, so you must plan your activations carefully. Therefore, there are some key sequences to learn. This generally falls under combos. I explain a few central sequences below. Each deck will have slightly different sequences available to it based on the exact list. Scion's activation can be tricky when stacking activations with priority held. Knowing some key sequences will speed up your play and help prevent mistakes.
5.1The Dragon Punch
This is probably the 'meanest' and most predictable tutor combination in my build of the deck. If you have a haste enabler like Tempest in play with 9 mana, you can 1-shot an opponent when you cast Scion for the first time. The combo is simple, 1. Cast Scion, 2. Activate Scion holding priority, 3. Activate Scion a second time, 4. Tutor Moltensteel, 5. Pay 10 life to pump Scion +5/+0, 6. Tutor Dragon Tyrant for 6/6 base power, trample, and double strike, 7. Swing for 22 Commander Damage. There are also methods that revolve around tutoring for Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as the final form and killing with Infect damage. Both of these are seen as cutthroat, Skithiryx is perhaps the most aggressive version since Skithiryx can provide the haste for a black mana. The card itself is not well liked either. I like having access to at least one version of it for the potential of an explosive win later in the game, but I caution the use of this combo, as it will only work on 1 player at a time and will almost certainly draw the wrath of the other players. Also, using it in the wrong playgroup it can also be detrimental.
5.2The Dragon Storm
This combo entails putting several dragons into play in the same turn, giving them haste, and then swinging the team for massive damage. The general premise is to get Karrthus on board with a number of other dragons. Dragonstorm, Living End, and Patriarch's Bidding serve to get multiple dragons into play at once. In fact, with the latter two, you can setup the combo using Scion's activation to get the right dragons in your graveyard. Scourge is one of the better dragons in this combo, because it gives you the ability to attack a second time. You can increase the raw damage by also fetching: Atarka, World Render, Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury, and Dromoka, the Eternal. Dragons like Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Ojutai, Soul of Winter, Scourge of Valkas, and Utvara Hellkite can make the attacks even more devastating. It is not uncommon for this sequence to finish off the entire board in one combat phase. Often the best way to setup this combo without drawing too much attention in your preparations is to play a relatively fair game with Scion up until the turn you are planning on casting you big haymaker spell. Dragonstorm is the best at concealing what you are up to, but is also the least powerful option in most situations. With the Living Death plan, wait until end of turn before you plan to go off, and then stack a bunch of activations of Scion to dump as many dragons into your graveyard as possible so that there is as little warning as possible.
5.3The Call of the Dragon
This play is a classic value play with Scion. The idea is tutor into play any dragon in the deck using Teneb's combat damage trigger. In order to do so, you need to stack two activations, similarly with the one shot combo, and tutor your preferred reanimation target first and follow it with Teneb. Then once Scion has dealt combat damage to a player, you can pay for his trigger to put the dragon you tutored directly into play. Knollspine is a great general target, as it will draw you 6 cards just off Scion's damage alone. It by no means is the only useful dragon to reanimate. You can even reanimate Teneb himself, but be aware that this means you will have to legend rule away Scion, as he will still be a copy of Teneb when the latter comes into play. The combo requires 7 mana to pull off, so generally you will have to untap with Scion in play to pull it off.
5.4The Infinite Dragon(not in current build)
I haven't included this combo in my deck, as I prefer to go a bit more of the fair route. However, I thought it would be useful to point out as a potential addition to the deck which works well with Scion and fits the flavour of the deck. The general idea is to blink Worldgorger infinite times, allowing you to tap your mana each time it leaves play. This can be used to fuel an infinitely big instant speed X spell like Comet Storm, Aurelia's Fury, or Fall of the Titans. To blink Worldgorger, you first need to get him into your graveyard, courtesy of Scion. Then reanimate him using the creature aura Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead. When Worldgorger enters the battlefield, it exiles everything including its Aura. This causes it to be sent back to the graveyard. However, the trigger to return everything brings the Aura back to reanimate Worldgorger again. During each loop, you can tap all your lands to produce more and more mana which can be used on an X spell to win the game.
Avaricious Dragon - Having 7 and 8cmc dragons in hand can be awkward early. Avaricious allows you to hit your land drops and dig for a big reanimation spell like Living Death.
Dragonlord Ojutai - Just overall great dragon to have on board. It also is one of the few that can be cast relatively early. While there are usually better tutor targets, it can protect Scion when he is untapped against spot removal. You can also get value from the combat damage trigger if you are trying to dig for something specific.
Dromoka, the Eternal - The role of this dragon is to provide extra damage on big "Dragon Storm" swings. This rates below Kolaghan for additional raw damage. It can also be a pretty decent early play on its own.
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury - Similar to Dromoka, this is a damage booster on your huge swings. This tends to be the 3rd target after Scourge and Atarka. Again, 5 mana dragons with relevant Scion triggers are not super common, so this is a strong addition even as a fair play.
Scourge of Valkas - This tends more on the combo side. The idea is that you can combo this in conjunction with Living End or Patriarch's bidding if your graveyard is stocked up. If you run the Worldgorger Combo, this also is a win-con in that combo.
Dragonlord SIlumgar - While you cannot gain any value from it by tutoring with Scion, outside of a corner case where Deathtouch is desired, this is a great dragon to have access to. The effect is powerful and I would expect many Sarkhan's Triumphs will fetch this dragon in particular.
Hellkite Tyrant - This is a great value fetch when swinging in with Scion. It can cripple an artifact heavy deck in one swing. It also can give you a boost to your ramp by snatching a few extra rocks. I've never had won a game off its second trigger, but the dream is real.
Keiga, the Tide Star - Just about every dragon in this cycle are great. They can be relevant to fetch up with Scion in response to a board wipe or removal spell. Otherwise cast on their own, they can serve as major disincentives to attack you.
Kokusho, the Evening Star - A nice boost to the life total when needed. I've sometimes run Scion into a brick wall just to get the trigger on this.
Ryusei, the Falling Star - Essentially a tutorable Earthquake under the right circumstances. The threat of fetching Ryusei against removal can be enough to keep Scion on board as other players might not be willing to lose their board to do so.
Yosei, the Morning Star - I thought that this was one of the weaker of the cycle when I first included it. That unfortunate honour belongs to the Green one. No, Yosei might just be the most powerful of the lot. Her ability to lockdown a player can be backbreaking under the right circumstances.
Malfegor - This legendary demon dragon serves a couple of purposes. Like Avaricous, it can dump some expensive dragons into your yard to setup for Living End later in the game. It also helps to stabilise the boardstate. This deck tends to spend the first 4-5 turns setting up its mana. Malfegor can clear out some early aggression and gives you a nice big creature in the process.
Moltensteel Dragon - This card is purely in the deck as a combo target for Scion. The combo is explained above in the notable combo section. It entails using Moltensteel's Phyrexian pump ability to charge up Scion before fetching a hasty dragon for a win via commander damage. It is otherwise a relatively weak card. Though, casting this for 4 mana, 4 life not turn 4 is not terrible.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind - This Izzet guild leader is just an all around value card. Not something you generally fetch for, but if you get him on board he does a good Staff of Nin impression. His synergy with Knollspine Dragon is what puts him over the top for me.
Scourge of the Throne - Generally the first target you want to find after Karrthus when setting up the Dragonstorm or Living End swing. Scourge allows you to split up your swings and take out multiple opponents. It can be pretty devastating in conjunction with the Fate Reforged dragons, which are afforded a second attack trigger.
Silumgar, the Drifting Death - Solid dragon that gets better with friends. Is a good consideration when setting large swings, but can be very effective on its own against swarm style decks.
Steel Hellkite - Engineered Explosives on a tutorable stick. Deals with the hard to deal with permanents on the other side of the board. Great as a target for Scion.
Teneb, the Harvester - Enables you to reanimate a tutored dragon as explained above in the notable combo section. Probably the best of this cycle, and great if you can get it on board itself. It is sometimes tempting to reanimate Teneb himself, legend rule the Scion copy, and then reanimate Scion the next turn with Teneb.
Atarka, World Render - Generally the second goto for damage output with a Dragonstorm or Living End swing. Double strike is hard to argue, though Kolaghan can in certain circumstances add more damage. Undoubtably the two of them together can enable some game ending swings.
Balefire Dragon - This is a good tutor for a targeted board wipe if you need to hold a specific player in check without necessarily angering the rest of the group. It can be tricky, as it requires you to get through for damage with Scion. Cards like Rogue's Passage make this sequence a bit easier to accomplish.
Bladewing the Risen - Just a good value card. It can be used in conjunction with the Teneb tutor sequence to get extra value. Essentially, if the dragon you want to reanimate is already in the yard and you have a couple spare mana, you can get a Bladewing out of the deal. His pump is pretty costly, but can potentially add a bit more damage to a big swing.
Dragon Mage - This is a goto tutor target to refuel your hand if you are short on mana (or cannot wait a turn) to do the Teneb and Knollspine trick. Situations where Scion has haste from an onboard effect like Temur Ascendancy make it easier to pull off for a relatively cheap mana investment.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund - The a key card for big swings off Living End, Patriarch's Bidding, and Dragonstorm. It provides the haste for all of your dragons so that you can swing in the same turn you reanimate them. Temur Ascendancy or Dragon Tempest can stand in for Karrthus if needed, but unfortunately neither of them can be tutored with Scion. I suggest that this is one of the last targets you tutor, as it otherwise might alert your opponents to what you are up to. It also prevents Karrthus from being exiled by some sort of Surgical Extraction or Relic style effect.
Knollspine Dragon - This is a ridiculous card. With the Teneb reanimation sequence, the worst you can expect is to net 6 cards. It is not uncommon for that number in the double digits if you had any other dragons backing up Scion. Venser's Journal does a lot of work in these situations to allow you to keep your hand stocked and gain fringe benefit from the large hand size.
Ojutai, Soul of Winter - This is the tutorable version of Yosei, and under some circumstances can win the game for you. It is a high value target in a Karrthus swing, as it can keep the aggression off of you if you were not able to come up with lethal for the entire group.
Nicol Bolas - This card could probably be cut. Its best used a tutor target early in the game to cripple an opponent. As such, it is much more relevant in a 1v1 scenario. However, it can come in handy if there is a player in the group that has amassed an enormous hand. If you can somehow find a way through, a Scion Nicol Bolas will cut them down to size. Also, it's Nicol Bolas.
Scourge of Kher Ridges - Where it is impossible to get through with a Scion Balefire Dragon, or the board for the entire group needs clearing up in general, that is where Kher Ridges comes in. It's very mana intensive, but it's a tutorable Earthquake and/or Hurricane that doesn't require combat.
Utvara Hellkite - Ironically this card is excellent at playing defence. Under the right circumstances, merely tutoring with Scion is enough to generate 2-3 extra bodies back on blocks. Utvara really comes into its own when it is combined with Karrthus and Living End.
Dragon Tyrant - This is the other half of the Moltensteel commander damage combo. This proves trample and double strike. Just about everything you need to get through no matter what. More or less, Moltensteel + Tyrant allows Scion to kill just about anyone, through blocks if necessary, if you are willing to spend the life for it. Generally it's nothing short of a Fog or timely spot removal which will help them. Tyrant is better in some ways at killing the opponents in this sort of combo than Skithiryx, given that it brings Trample to the party. However, I find that Tyrant is a lot less threatening as an actual dragon cast onto the battlefield. It also is oddly less feel bad for most people than dying to infect.
7.1Closing Thoughts
Scion was the first commander deck I built and I've since kept it going throughout the years. It is my goto when I want to play a fun deck that can be flexible enough to not be oppressive to newer players, but packs a punch when I need it. There are some neat interactions that you can build on with Scion. The activation itself can synergise with a number of strategies. If you have a Scion deck, I'd love to see what you run.
Thanks for the link. I did notice his primer in the archived posts. It looks a lot more competitive than what I've gone for with my list. Though it is a testimate to how flexible this commander is in terms of builds. I was thinking of adding a link to his primer in the closing section in fact.
When I first built my deck, my goal was to build a classic EDH deck, all about casting big bomb creatures. And to me, the best of those was Dragons. I suppose I've tried to stay true to that notion since.
As far as the suggestion. Yeah. I've been meaning to add Dragon Tempest for a while now. Even outside of the Worldgorger combo, just giving all dragons haste and having a Scourge of Valkas trigger tacked on is pretty good value.
Got ahold of a foily Dragon Tempest, so I figured it was high time I find a slot.
-1 Sarkhan the Mad
+1 Dragon Tempest
Sarkhan was long due for a cut. It is the worst version of Sarkhan. This deck's curve is so high that drawing a card off of him usually means that he dies. I have no idea what the -2 is meant to be used for. His main draw was the big fireball you could get if you had a decent board. Given we have so many versions of Sarkhan available now, he finally got retired.
You're right. When I swapped out Skithiryx and for it and I sort of thought it had haste for some reason. I'll have to revise a bit of the combo. It works if we have Tempest or Ascendancy. Otherwise, will require an untap. It's fairly rare to pull off early on, and generally that wasn't what I would suggest doing since it turns the table against you, so I suppose it never came up.
About Scion
The Deck
Basic Shell Breakdown
Core Strategy
Notable Combos
Individual Card Breakdown
Conclusion
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
When I first built my deck, my goal was to build a classic EDH deck, all about casting big bomb creatures. And to me, the best of those was Dragons. I suppose I've tried to stay true to that notion since.
As far as the suggestion. Yeah. I've been meaning to add Dragon Tempest for a while now. Even outside of the Worldgorger combo, just giving all dragons haste and having a Scourge of Valkas trigger tacked on is pretty good value.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
-1 Sarkhan the Mad
+1 Dragon Tempest
Sarkhan was long due for a cut. It is the worst version of Sarkhan. This deck's curve is so high that drawing a card off of him usually means that he dies. I have no idea what the -2 is meant to be used for. His main draw was the big fireball you could get if you had a decent board. Given we have so many versions of Sarkhan available now, he finally got retired.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)