If you want to build a Magic: The Gathering Commander deck around the most popular legendary creature, then look no further than The Ur-Dragon. This hulking Eminence Commander is currently the most popular in the entire game, with over 48,700 decks in circulation according to EDHRecs.
It’s easy to see why, because dragons are a well-stocked creature type in the game, and The Ur-Dragon’s WUBRG identity means every format-legal Dragon is available to you, and they cost one mana less even when The Ur-Dragon is in the Command zone.
Commander Overview
The Ur-Dragon is a giant 10/10, nine-mana (WUBRG + 4) Dragon Avatar with Eminence. Its Eminence ability reduces the cost of all Dragons by one colorless mana, regardless of whether it is in the Command zone or on the battlefield.
Its secondary ability states that whenever one or more Dragons you control attack, draw that many cards, then you may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield.
There is so much to like about this card, and it’s obvious why it’s the most popular Commander in all of Magic right now, according to EDHREC.
Benefits Of An Eminence Commander
Eminence as an ability is incredibly overpowered, which is why it’s only ever been printed on five cards to date. It allows for a Commander to have an impact on the game without ever even casting it. The Ur-Dragon makes other Dragons cheaper, Edgar Markov creates Vampire tokens, Arahbo buffs a Cat, Inalla copies Wizard tokens, and Sidar lets you loot (draw and discard a card).
While each of these Commanders also has abilities that aren’t live until you’re on the battlefield, they’re effective even if you don’t get to cast them a whole lot during a match.
Deck List
I’ve put together an example deck for The Ur-Dragon, and as you might already expect, given the card’s popularity, it’s ridiculously expensive. This build doesn’t take budget into account and instead goes for sheer power and includes the most popular cards you’ll typically see in an Ur-Dragon deck.
|
Creatures |
Instants |
Sorceries |
Enchantments |
Artifacts |
Lands |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The Ur-Dragon |
Assassin’s Trophy |
Crux of Fate |
Call the Spirit Dragons |
Arcane Signet |
Blood Crypt |
|
Ancient Brass Dragon |
Heroic Intervention |
Cultivate |
Crucible of Fire |
Chromatic Lantern |
Breeding Pool |
|
Ancient Bronze Dragon |
Hope’s Aero Magic |
Farseek |
Dragon Tempest |
Commander’s Sphere |
Command Tower |
|
Ancient Gold Dragon |
Path to Exile |
Kodama’s Reach |
Garruk’s Uprising |
Lightning Greaves |
Evolving Wilds |
|
Ancient Silver Dragon |
Sarkhan’s Triumph |
Nature’s Lore |
Kindred Discovery |
Mox Jasper |
Exotic Orchard |
|
Atarka, World Render |
Swords to Plowshares |
Rhythm of the Wild |
Fellwar Stone |
Forest x 2 |
|
|
Balefire Dragon |
Teferi’s Protection |
Temur Ascendency |
Sol Ring |
Frontier Bivouac |
|
|
Betor, Kin to All |
Worldly Tutor |
Up the Beanstalk |
Urza’s Incubator |
Godless Shrine |
|
|
Bladewing the Risen |
Hallowed Fountain |
||||
|
Bloom Tender |
Haven of the Spirit Dragon |
||||
|
Dragonlord Dromoka |
Island x 2 |
||||
|
Dragon of Mount Gulg |
Jetmir’s Garden |
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|
Dragonspeaker Shaman |
Jungle Shrine |
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|
Goldspan Dragon |
Ketria Triome |
||||
|
Hellkite Courser |
Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon |
||||
|
Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient |
Mountain x 4 |
||||
|
Lathliss, Dragon Queen |
Opulent Palace |
||||
|
Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm |
Overgrown Tomb |
||||
|
Old Gnawbone |
Path of Ancestry |
||||
|
Ramos, Dragon Engine |
Plains x 2 |
||||
|
Rith, Liberated Primeval |
Sacred Foundry |
||||
|
Rivaz of the Claw |
Sandsteppe Citadel |
||||
|
Sarkhan, Soul Aflame |
Steam Vents |
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|
Savage Ventmaw |
Stomping Ground |
||||
|
Scaled Nurturer |
Swamp x 2 |
||||
|
Scion of the Ur-Dragon |
Temple Garden |
||||
|
Scourge of Valkas |
The World Tree |
||||
|
Silumgar, the Drifting Death |
Watery Grave |
||||
|
Terror of the Peaks |
Ziatora’s Proving Ground |
||||
|
Tiamat |
|||||
|
Thrakkus the Butcher |
|||||
|
Two-Headed Hellkite |
|||||
|
Ureni of the Unwritten |
|||||
|
Utvara Hellkite |
I’ve also put this deck together over on Moxfield so you can take a closer look and make any adjustments as you see fit.
Key Cards & Combos
The main strategies you’re going to be looking at are cost reduction and buffing your Dragons (and dealing damage to opponents at the same time if possible). So here are some cards key to Ur-Dragon decks that will be competitive from Bracket 3 onwards.
Dragon Tempest
This two-mana enchantment gives a creature haste until the end of the turn it enters, and whenever a Dragon you control enters, it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Dragons you control.
If you can get your permanent or token dragons rolling as with this enchantment on the board, no creature an opponent controls will stand a chance to survive long enough to be a problem, or you could just deal the damage straight to the face of opponents for maximum pressure.
Crux Of Fate
I mean, it’s a board wipe for every creature that isn’t a Dragon; unless you happen to be at a table where everyone is sharing the same creature type, this sorcery is a must-have to rest your opponents while leaving your board untouched.
Old Gnawbone
He may cost seven mana (2G, 5C) to get on the battlefield, but with some cost reduction, that could be a lot less. Once Old Gnawbone is in play, he creates treasure tokens equal to the combat damage dealt to players by creatures. This can secure your deck from a mana standpoint alongside cards like Goldspan Dragon, because you can never have too much mana when your Commander costs nine mana to cast.
Keep an eye on upcoming Dragon cards from The Hobbit as additions to this deck, especially Smaug the Impenetrable.
Tiamat
Another huge spell, Tiamat is a seven-mana (WUBRG + 2) 7/7 Dragon that lets you tutor for five Dragon cards not named Tiamat and all with different names to put into your hand.
This is a no-brainer, and it stacks your hand, and best of all, you get to reveal each one to your opponent so they know exactly what’s coming for them over the next few turns.
Value
The biggest roadblock to any powerful Ur-Dragon deck is the cost of cards. In the above template deck, the total value is over $830, and unlike many other Commander decks I’ve built, there isn’t a huge amount of value in the land base compared to the rest of the deck.
Of course, this deck was built without a budget in mind, and you could easily just target a few key cards and build around those instead with cheaper alternatives, especially if you’re aiming for a lower bracket of competition.
Dragons are, unfortunately, an expensive creature to buy, largely because of the continued impact that The Ur-Dragon has on Commander, and because it is just one of the best creature types out there.
I would say that, hopefully, The Hobbit will bring new Dragons and reduce the cost of some pre-existing creatures, but it’s more likely that the good cards from this set will just debut at a much higher price than usual.
- Franchise
-
Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
-
August 5, 1993
- Designer(s)
-
Richard Garfield
