The Ur-Dragon this, Ur-Dragon that. It seems wherever I look at the best Commanders, that big brute is usually near the top. For me, though, my love has always been for its spin-off, the SCION of the Ur-Dragon, and my deck I have built around him is my MTG pride and joy. Not because it has some super-rare card in it, or all alternate arts, but because it is the deck I have spent the most time in tinkering with, enjoy the most playing, and also because out of all my decks, I get some of the best reactions out of players when I play it. Here is a breakdown of my “Om Nom Dragons” Scion of the Ur-Dragon EDH deck.
At the core, the premise of the deck is Scion eats a dragon from the deck, becomes that dragon, then wreaks havoc on someone, with a bunch of tricks to bring those graveyard dragons back either onto the battlefield or into my hand. The key to this key is getting access to one of each color mana out, and once that happens, this deck gets very dangerous, very fast. However, until that happens, this deck can’t do too much, outside of playing out some enchantments and artifacts, but in a full pod, and 40 life, unless you find yourself incredibly mana-screwed you can usually make it out of this setup stage alive (don’t be afraid to use some puppy dog eyes to negotiate the occasional turn free of damage being sent your way, though). Getting to those five mana is the most important part of this deck, which is why it has so many lands (39 of them), and controversially, none of which are basic lands.
The lands I’ve included in Om Nom have very little to do with the actual card and more just that they have the ability to produce different types of mana, and increasing the likelihood of getting a combination of lands to give me one of each. With Shock Lands being reprinted in EoE, I want to replace some lands with those so that I have some additional options to play lands untapped, but the inclusion of Burgeoning, if played early, can help speed things up as well. Having Fist of Suns also makes this five mana threshold important, allowing me to cast any dragon in my deck, including big brutish Ur-Dragon itself, for the same cost as the Commander, its Scion! Regardless, for lands, I needed flexibility over tutor-ability, so I opted to forgo basics all together. Honestly, I’ve never really found myself wishing I had some, either.
Once the Scion arrives on the battlefield, the real fun starts! I’ve built this deck to have a number of different options I can pick from depending on the situation I find myself in and the board state. Scion of the Ur-Dragon’s effect states “Flying; [2]: Search your library for a Dragon permanent and put it into your graveyard. If you do, Scion of the Ur-Dragon becomes a copy of that card until end of turn. Then shuffle your library.”. If I find myself with a hand full of strong dragons that I want to get on the field, then maybe I will eat the Ancient Copper Dragon from my deck to try and get a bunch of Treasure Tokens to sacrifice and quickly grow my forces, or Old Gnawbone if I already have a solid line-up out on the field to make mana with. Or perhaps I find myself in need of some chump blockers real quick, then Utvara Hellkite or Ancient Gold Dragon is the way I go. If a player has a bunch of annoying artifacts, then Hellkite Tyrant, I choose you! The dragons in my deck act almost as a utility belt; maybe “Holy Dragons, Batman!” would be a better name for this deck. I’ll workshop that later.
One of the really dangerous aspects of this deck comes from the fact that it has a number of avenues to not only return dragons to the battlefield, but also make copies. With artifacts like Helm of the Host or spells like Relm's Sketching, Irenicus' Vile Duplication, and Supplant Form let me make a copy of whatever dragon Scion is currently a copy of. Having a copy of Mirror Box in the deck is there strictly to get around the legend rule for the few cards that make copies that don’t remove the Legendary classification on their own.
And then there is always Mirrym, Sentinel Wyrm, making tokens of any dragon I cast, and Tiamat helps you if Parallel Lives and Roaming Throne are out when Mirrym is, because then you’ll be seen five copies of a dragon off a single cast. More still if Mirror of the Forebears is out and a copy of Mirrym as you play another dragon. Does a situation like that happen often? Not necessarily, but when it does, oh boy, is it fun. With the inclusion of Prismatic Bridge and Triple Triad, sometimes it is a complete surprise, even to you, what wonderful destruction the deck will cause, thanks to them blindly letting you play cards from the deck. Wonderful, wonderful chaos.
To keep my opponents on their toes, I’ve worked into the deck a number of different avenues to win, too, outside of just crushing them under the scaly weight of dragons swinging at them from the sky. We have the classic double Niv infinite combo with Niv Parun and Visionary that does wonders so long as you have enough cards still in your deck. The previously mentioned Hellkite Tyrant will get you the win if you have 20 or more artifacts on your upkeep, which can be pretty easy to do with the Ancient Copper Dragon and Old Gnawbone and their treasure tokens, doubly so if you have managed to play Parallel Lives.
There are even some clever other ways to deal damage that your opponents won’t be expecting too! Is an opponent swinging with a big creature or a bunch of them? Teach them the error of their ways by turning Scion into a Wrathful Red Dragon and hit them back just as hard in the face. Or with a clever combination of Command the Dreadhorde and Gideon’s Sacrifice, pull every creature card and planeswalker card from every graveyard and put them onto your battlefield, AND kill an opponent by sending the damage from Dreadhorde to Wrathful Red Dragon. I have done this once before, and the look on everyone’s faces was priceless. Not too bad for seven mana. Another combo that can potentially kill every opponent at the table at once is Dragon Tempest and Ancient Gold Dragon with a high roll of the D20 potentially resulting in hundreds of points of damage you can disperse out with Tempest’s “Whenever a dragon you control enters, it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Dragons you control” and the fairie dragons that Ancient Gold can spawn.
As any EDH needs to, I’ve included a few options to help me tackle any annoyances on the board that other players put out. A copy of Imprisoned in the Moon, my favorite answer to particularly annoying enemy commanders, along with a Return to Earth to deal with pesky artifacts or enchantments, are two such examples. And you have to have a couple of board wipes thrown in with Crux of Fate and End Hostilities for those “break in case of emergency” moments. Can’t be on offense all the time, and when I’m ready to deal a killing blow, just to keep my scaley-friends safe, I have Dragonlord Dromoka that my Scion can scarf down to keep anyone else from casting spells on my turn to stop me or help the target. This little move has won me a good number of games before.
I love fiddling around with this deck and with new cards coming like Imposter Syndrome and Behold the Sinister Six! in the new Marvel’s Spider-Man UB set, already guaranteed additions. This little creation of mine will always hold a special place in my heart, and I will always be on the lookout for new lizard friends to add to the menu/utility belt, but Scion is here to stay. And if the idea of tutoring out dragons from your deck to do wild stuff for a turn sounds cool, or you come up with some other wild idea that Scion can play a part in, then do yourself a favor and make your own Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck and spread the good word of the Scion! The time of The Ur-Dragon has passed; it’s time for its Scion to reign supreme!
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