Draconic Rage Deck Review and Upgrade Guide
There be dragons! And some walking dragons, some dragon spirits, a hydra and some dice shenanigans! This is what lies within the Commander Precon deck from the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Magic: the Gathering set called: Draconic Rage!
First of all huge thank you to our amazing partners at Unplug Yourself for supplying us with these awesome precons to play with (www.unplugyourself.co.za) and to our WPN Premium store, Top Deck (store.topdeck.co.za) for sponsoring the budget upgrades for these decks.
Led by the new commander,
Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients
, Draconic Rage cares about, you guessed it, dragons. In Gruul colours (red and green) this deck is all about putting really big nasty things onto the battlefield, dealing damage directly to faces of opponents and creatures alike and simply overwhelming/overrunning the game to the sound of leathery winged terror.
Vrondiss brings back the enrage mechanic first seen on Ixalan, by stating on the card that whenever damage is dealt to them, they create a big dragon spirit token – the downside of course is that the dragon spirit sacrifices itself when it, in turn, does damage to anything else. However, with the right set of cards and the correct draws this addition to the commander’s abilities as well as the affect that whenever you roll one or more dice Vrondiss takes a one damage hit, means that creating an army of 5/4 red and green dragon spirit token is not outside of the realm of possibility.
First of all huge thank you to our amazing partners at Unplug Yourself for supplying us with these awesome precons to play with (www.unplugyourself.co.za) and to our WPN Premium store, Top Deck (store.topdeck.co.za) for sponsoring the budget upgrades for these decks.
Led by the new commander, Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, Draconic Rage cares about, you guessed it, dragons. In Gruul colours (red and green) this deck is all about putting really big nasty things onto the battlefield, dealing damage directly to faces of opponents and creatures alike and simply overwhelming/overrunning the game to the sound of leathery winged terror.
Vrondiss brings back the enrage mechanic first seen on Ixalan, by stating on the card that whenever damage is dealt to them, they create a big dragon spirit token – the downside of course is that the dragon spirit sacrifices itself when it, in turn, does damage to anything else. However, with the right set of cards and the correct draws this addition to the commander’s abilities as well as the affect that whenever you roll one or more dice Vrondiss takes a one damage hit, means that creating an army of 5/4 red and green dragon spirit token is not outside of the realm of possibility.
We’ll get into how well these two elements are addressed in the deck in a moment, but right now let’s talk about some notable inclusions and some awesome reprints in the deck. Let’s get big and flappy with Terror of Mount Velus, a whopping 5/5 flyer with double strike and the enter the battlefield (ETB) effect that gives all creatures you control double strike until the end of the turn. This card can truly be a game ender! Just want to make dragons, then Skyline Despot is your go to card. Not only do you become the monarch when this card ETBs, but if you can stay that way you get to make a 5/5 dragon at the beginning of your upkeep for as long as you wear the crown. Anger in the graveyard gives all your beasties haste, while Spit Flame deals 4 damage to any target that you can cast over and over again every time a dragon ETBs under your control. A seemingly odd inclusion is the Neverwinter Hydra. For XX and 2 green you can plop down a chunky non-dragon with trample and ward 4. However, it plays into the rolling dice mechanic of Vrondiss by stating that you roll a number of d6 equal to the value of X in the casting cost and this multi-headed monstrosity gets +1/+1 counters equal to the total of those rolls! So it could just be the biggest thing on the board and a terror for your opponents to have to deal with asap. Or it could have haste and you could just smoosh someone on the spot.
Terror of Mount Velus
Skyline Despot
Anger
Spit Flame
Neverwinter Hydra
Some great reprints int he deck are [[Gratuitous Violence]] and [[Warstorm Surge]], for some extra damage from your big creatures, [[Outpost Siege]] for some card advantage or to enable your commander’s ability to make dragon spririts, [[Dragonlord’s Servant]] and [[Dragonspeaker Shaman]] to enable the casting of dragons for less – always handy, [[Dragonmaster Outcast]] to just make more dragons in your upkeep and what dragon deck would be complete without the awesomeness of [[Atarka, World Render]]? 6/4, flying, trample and attacking dragons have double strike. Not too shabby.
Let’s get back to what ticks in this deck: the rolling dice thing does not, in my opinion. Even though it’s a cool mechanic to have built into your commander, there really doesn’t seem to be enough pay-off for it in the deck out of the box. There are only 10 cards that enable dice rolling in the deck and although they do provide for some great random shenanigans like [[Chaos Dragon]] and [[Maddening Hex]], I don’t feel that there are enough cards to make this a viable strategy to engage the wrath of Vrondiss to make dragon spirits. Having said that, let’s break down the deck statistics:
Dice-rolling enablers: 10
Enrage enablers (this would include the dice rolling enablers): 15 (including two that would wipe your dragon spirits clean off the board and put your commander back in the command zone)
Ramp: 8
Card Draw: 8
Removal (not including ETB effects of a number of dragons that simply kill things as they flap on in): 5
Dragons: 18
The deck seems to be fairly well balanced overall, however, I do think that it lacks the impetus needed to make either the enrage mechanic or the dice rolling enrage enabler mechanic work efficiently. That is not to say that the deck is not fun to play out of the box, ‘cos dropping big dragon type things on opponents is always fun, but I do think there should be a solid focus on a particular direction should you wish to upgrade this deck and make it a bit more challenging for your opponents.
With that in mind I picked straight up enrage and haste, cos why not have really big things that can swing right away? I brought in the following cards as haste enablers: [[Mass Hysteria]] and [[Fires of Yavimaya]]. I also wanted to add the the decks ability to ping my commander to make those 5/4 walking dead dragons, so I brought in [[Aether Flash]], [[Akoum Hellkite]], [[Spikeshot Elder]] and the [[Staff of Nin]] – there are many other cards out there that can enhance the deck’s ability to enable enrage but we had a budget of R350 sponsored by the amazing Top Deck (store.topdeck.co.za) so I had to work within that allotment. I also though since some of the enrage enablers in the deck may kill my commander or some other big nasty I didn’t want dead, I had to build in ways to recur them, so I added [[Serpent Skin]], [[Jolrael’s Favor]] (both of which can be played at instant speed) and [[Fortitude]] to help keep whichever creature I needed most at the time on the board. I also thought a little more ramp and card draw would be useful so I included [[Seer’s Sundial]], [[Tireless Povisioner]] and [[Yavimaya Elder]].
These are the cards I dropped in favour of these changes: [[Chameleon Colossus]], [[Druid of Putrification]], [[Vengeful Ancestor]], [[Wulgar, of Icewind Dale]], [[Earth-Cult Elemental]], [[Savage Ventmaw]], [[Rile]], [[Wild Endeavor]], [[Decree of Savagery]], [[Sword of Hours]], [[Heirloom Blade]] and [[Indomitable Might]].
At the end of the day it’s all about what you want to get out of this deck and the lines or strategy you want to follow to have the most fun with it, so these are just my thoughts and I plan to optimise the deck even further in the coming weeks to really put the big flappy scare on my opponents.
Until next time, I’ll see you on the battlefield.
First of all huge thank you to our amazing partners at Unplug Yourself for supplying us with these awesome precons to play with (www.unplugyourself.co.za) and to our WPN Premium store, Top Deck (store.topdeck.co.za) for sponsoring the budget upgrades for these decks.
Led by the new commander, Vrondiss, Rage of Ancients, Draconic Rage cares about, you guessed it, dragons. In Gruul colours (red and green) this deck is all about putting really big nasty things onto the battlefield, dealing damage directly to faces of opponents and creatures alike and simply overwhelming/overrunning the game to the sound of leathery winged terror.
Vrondiss brings back the enrage mechanic first seen on Ixalan, by stating on the card that whenever damage is dealt to them, they create a big dragon spirit token – the downside of course is that the dragon spirit sacrifices itself when it, in turn, does damage to anything else. However, with the right set of cards and the correct draws this addition to the commander’s abilities as well as the affect that whenever you roll one or more dice Vrondiss takes a one damage hit, means that creating an army of 5/4 red and green dragon spirit token is not outside of the realm of possibility.
We’ll get into how well these two elements are addressed in the deck in a moment, but right now let’s talk about some notable inclusions and some awesome reprints in the deck. Let’s get big and flappy with Terror of Mount Velus, a whopping 5/5 flyer with double strike and the enter the battlefield (ETB) effect that gives all creatures you control double strike until the end of the turn. This card can truly be a game ender! Just want to make dragons, then Skyline Despot is your go to card. Not only do you become the monarch when this card ETBs, but if you can stay that way you get to make a 5/5 dragon at the beginning of your upkeep for as long as you wear the crown. Anger in the graveyard gives all your beasties haste, while Spit Flame deals 4 damage to any target that you can cast over and over again every time a dragon ETBs under your control. A seemingly odd inclusion is the Neverwinter Hydra. For XX and 2 green you can plop down a chunky non-dragon with trample and ward 4. However, it plays into the rolling dice mechanic of Vrondiss by stating that you roll a number of d6 equal to the value of X in the casting cost and this multi-headed monstrosity gets +1/+1 counters equal to the total of those rolls! So it could just be the biggest thing on the board and a terror for your opponents to have to deal with asap. Or it could have haste and you could just smoosh someone on the spot.
Terror of Mount Velus
Skyline Despot
Anger
Spit Flame
Neverwinter Hydra
We’ll get into how well these two elements are addressed in the deck in a moment, but right now let’s talk about some notable inclusions and some awesome reprints in the deck. Let’s get big and flappy with [[Terror of Mount Velus]], a whopping 5/5 flyer with double strike and the enter the battlefield (ETB) effect that gives all creatures you control double strike until the end of the turn. This card can truly be a game ender! Just want to make dragons, then [[Skyline Despot]] is your go to card. Not only do you become the monarch when this card ETBs, but if you can stay that way you get to make a 5/5 dragon at the beginning of your upkeep for as long as you wear the crown. [[Anger]] in the graveyard gives all your beasties haste, while [[Spit Flame]] deals 4 damage to any target that you can cast over and over again every time a dragon ETBs under your control. A seemingly odd inclusion is the [[Neverwinter Hydra]]. For XX and 2 green you can plop down a chunky non-dragon with trample and ward 4. However, it plays into the rolling dice mechanic of Vrondiss by stating that you roll a number of d6 equal to the value of X in the casting cost and this multi-headed monstrosity gets +1/+1 counters equal to the total of those rolls! So it could just be the biggest thing on the board and a terror for your opponents to have to deal with asap. Or it could have haste and you could just smoosh someone on the spot.
Some great reprints int he deck are [[Gratuitous Violence]] and [[Warstorm Surge]], for some extra damage from your big creatures, [[Outpost Siege]] for some card advantage or to enable your commander’s ability to make dragon spririts, [[Dragonlord’s Servant]] and [[Dragonspeaker Shaman]] to enable the casting of dragons for less – always handy, [[Dragonmaster Outcast]] to just make more dragons in your upkeep and what dragon deck would be complete without the awesomeness of [[Atarka, World Render]]? 6/4, flying, trample and attacking dragons have double strike. Not too shabby.
Let’s get back to what ticks in this deck: the rolling dice thing does not, in my opinion. Even though it’s a cool mechanic to have built into your commander, there really doesn’t seem to be enough pay-off for it in the deck out of the box. There are only 10 cards that enable dice rolling in the deck and although they do provide for some great random shenanigans like [[Chaos Dragon]] and [[Maddening Hex]], I don’t feel that there are enough cards to make this a viable strategy to engage the wrath of Vrondiss to make dragon spirits. Having said that, let’s break down the deck statistics:
Dice-rolling enablers: 10
Enrage enablers (this would include the dice rolling enablers): 15 (including two that would wipe your dragon spirits clean off the board and put your commander back in the command zone)
Ramp: 8
Card Draw: 8
Removal (not including ETB effects of a number of dragons that simply kill things as they flap on in): 5
Dragons: 18
The deck seems to be fairly well balanced overall, however, I do think that it lacks the impetus needed to make either the enrage mechanic or the dice rolling enrage enabler mechanic work efficiently. That is not to say that the deck is not fun to play out of the box, ‘cos dropping big dragon type things on opponents is always fun, but I do think there should be a solid focus on a particular direction should you wish to upgrade this deck and make it a bit more challenging for your opponents.
With that in mind I picked straight up enrage and haste, cos why not have really big things that can swing right away? I brought in the following cards as haste enablers: [[Mass Hysteria]] and [[Fires of Yavimaya]]. I also wanted to add the the decks ability to ping my commander to make those 5/4 walking dead dragons, so I brought in [[Aether Flash]], [[Akoum Hellkite]], [[Spikeshot Elder]] and the [[Staff of Nin]] – there are many other cards out there that can enhance the deck’s ability to enable enrage but we had a budget of R350 sponsored by the amazing Top Deck (store.topdeck.co.za) so I had to work within that allotment. I also though since some of the enrage enablers in the deck may kill my commander or some other big nasty I didn’t want dead, I had to build in ways to recur them, so I added [[Serpent Skin]], [[Jolrael’s Favor]] (both of which can be played at instant speed) and [[Fortitude]] to help keep whichever creature I needed most at the time on the board. I also thought a little more ramp and card draw would be useful so I included [[Seer’s Sundial]], [[Tireless Povisioner]] and [[Yavimaya Elder]].
These are the cards I dropped in favour of these changes: [[Chameleon Colossus]], [[Druid of Putrification]], [[Vengeful Ancestor]], [[Wulgar, of Icewind Dale]], [[Earth-Cult Elemental]], [[Savage Ventmaw]], [[Rile]], [[Wild Endeavor]], [[Decree of Savagery]], [[Sword of Hours]], [[Heirloom Blade]] and [[Indomitable Might]].
At the end of the day it’s all about what you want to get out of this deck and the lines or strategy you want to follow to have the most fun with it, so these are just my thoughts and I plan to optimise the deck even further in the coming weeks to really put the big flappy scare on my opponents.
Until next time, I’ll see you on the battlefield.
