You’ve been wanting to jump into the fun, casual format known as Commander for a while now, and just recently picked up the new Starter Commander decks from your local store. Perhaps you’ve played a few games and want to make the deck better? Let’s take a look at what your deck does, find a path you want to play into, and what cards you need to make that more efficient on a budget. Are you going to win a tournament with these upgrades? Absolutely not. But if you’re looking to just up your game amongst your friends, this is a great way to start.
Let’s take a look at the Red-Green Draconic Destruction deck…
Commander: Atarka, World Render
What does the deck do?
Look, this deck is pretty solid out of the gate, and I would be surprised if you weren’t the one consistently winning at a table filled with the other preconstructed starter commander decks.
It makes dragons, it deals damage to your opponents, and then punishes them further if they let you put more dragons on the battlefield. It's Tribal Dragons, with the best two colors for Dragons.
Our Goal
MORE DRAGONS!!!!
The Modifications
The modifications for this one likely won’t be too extensive as anything that really pushes this deck into stronger territory is also going to break the budget requirement. Instead, we’re going to focus on making more dragons, as well as swapping out a few pieces for something more efficient, after all, you’re playing Gruul, player removal is a way to control the game too.
Obviously, we’re keeping Atarka, World Render at the helm. Giving your dragons Double Strike when they attack is a sure-fire way of ending the game.
To get more dragons on the field, we’re going to add Lathliss, Dragon Queen, adding to your ever-increasing flock of danger birds whenever another non-token dragon enters the battlefield. With the number of dragons entering the battlefield increasing, we’re going to capitalise even further and add Ganax, Astral Hunter, who creates a Treasure every time a dragon enters the battlefield. After all, dragons LOVE Treasure right? (also more mana means more dragons, it’s a self-fulfilling cycle). We’re going to replace Harbinger of the Hunt and Verix, Bladewing, both powerful dragons but not really playing into the MORE DRAGONS build.
Next, let’s make it a little easier to cast spells by adding Goblin Anarchomancer. He reduces the cost of Red or Green spells by one and you need all the help you get with a Dragon deck, so let’s take out Draconic Disciple to make room, as one mana per turn plus a sacrifice to make one dragon doesn’t really compare when we’re reducing all spells and making plenty more with Lathliss.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker is not a great planeswalker. He himself becomes a dragon, but he’s not entering the battlefield, so he just becomes another creature on the board, plus his other abilities are pretty lacklustre. Let’s get a real Dragonspeaker in there. Sarkhan, the Masterless is our go-to here. He punishes your opponents for attacking you as a passive ability and can make more dragons as soon as he enters.
Now, with bigger creatures comes bigger mana requirements, so we’re gonna beef up the ramp a touch. You already have Cultivate in the deck, but we need to add Explosive Vegetation, Kodama’s Reach, and, for its dragon-loving effects, Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind. To add them, let’s replace Atarka Monument, Sweltering Suns, and Unleash Fury.
Finally, let’s get some more out of the card draw. Hunter’s Insight and Hunter’s Prowess are both awesome cards if you can hit, so let’s leave them in. Instead, let’s replace Waking the Trolls with Return of the Wildspeaker, a spell that can pull double-duty as a board-wide buff or card-draw. I do question how much value you’re going to get out of (X) spells in this deck as a lot of your mana will be spent playing these massive creatures, though I do understand that once you’re done playing creatures, you’re going to need a use for all that mana… it’s a tough call. But I think we should drop Primal Might for Rishkar’s Expertise to round out the card draw. We have other sources of creature removal, and Rishkar’s Expertise not only draws cards equal to the greatest power we have on board, it lets us play a five-mana spell as well.
With all this efficient card draw and increased ramp, we can afford to fit in the pièce de résistance of any tribal dragon deck… Kindred Summons. This spell lets you flip X off the top of your deck until you find X creatures that match the type you choose where X is the number of creatures you currently control of that type. It’s a “chef’s kiss” (not the card) to your deck, and if your opponents don’t scoop when you play it, they’ll be packing up their cards after the next combat step. Do make room, let’s drop Furnace Whelp. He may be a cute fire-breathing baby, but you’re about to roll up with a whole gang of dragons ready to chew bones and tear faces… and they’re all out of bones.
That's it for the modifications. If you had some extra $$ free, you can grab a Utvara Hellkite and just keep making more and more dragons, though the price of that card immediately blows out the budget aspect of the upgrade.
MODIFICATIONS SUMMARY
Out:
- 1x Harbinger of the Hunt
- 1x Verix, Bladewing
- 1x Draconic Disciple.
- 1x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
- 1x Atarka Monument
- 1x Sweltering Suns
- 1x Unleash Fury
- 1x Waking the Trolls
- 1x Primal Might
- 1x Furnace Whelp
In:
- 1x Lathliss, Dragon Queen
- 1x Ganax, Astral Hunter
- 1x Goblin Anarchomancer
- 1x Sarkhan, the Masterless
- 1x Explosive Vegetation
- 1x Kodama’s Reach
- 1x Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind
- 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
- 1x Rishkar’s Expertise
- 1x Kindred Summons
TOTAL UPGRADE COST: APPROX $24.50AUD (at time of publishing)
'
'
'
'
'