Commander:
Zirilan of the Claw
Lands:
26x Snow-Covered Mountain
1x Strip Mine
1x Smoldering Crater
1x Spinerock Knoll
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Arena
1x Temple of the False God
1x Maze of Ith
1x Scrying Sheets
1x Kher Keep
1x Keldon Necropolis
1x Forgotten Cave
1x Safe Haven
1x High Market
1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Dragons:
1x Thunder Dragon
1x Mordant Dragon
1x Draco
1x Dragon Tyrant
1x Thundermaw Hellkite
1x Hoard-Smelter Dragon
1x Spawn of Thraxes
1x Furyborn Hellkite
1x Rimescale Dragon
1x Forgestoker Dragon
1x Balefire Dragon
1x Hellkite Charger
1x Dragon Mage
1x Hoarding Dragon
1x Ryusei, the Falling Star
1x Scourge of Valkas
1x Flameblast Dragon
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Moonveil Dragon
1x Mana-Charged Dragon
1x Scourge of Kher Ridges
1x Hellkite Tyrant
1x Kilnmouth Dragon
1x Bogardan Hellkite
1x Ancient Hellkite
1x Utvara Hellkite
1x Scourge of the Throne
1x Siege Dragon
1x Nalathni Dragon
Other Creatures:
1x Magus of the Arena
1x Dragonspeaker Shaman
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Shard Phoenix
1x Artisan of Kozilek
1x Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1x Feldon of the Third Path
Ramp:
1x Mind Stone
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Expedition Map
1x Ruby Medallion
1x Urza's Incubator
Card Advantage:
1x Culling Dais
1x Temple Bell
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skullclamp
1x Howling Mine
Other Stuff:
1x Dragon Roost
1x Fervor
1x Chaos Warp
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Champion's Helm
1x Gamble
1x Chandra Ablaze
1x Insurrection
1x Crucible of Fire
1x Sundial of the Infinite
Q: What does this deck do?
A: It kills people with dragons.
General Strategy:
The main plan is to get Zirilan online and start tutoring up dragons to bash peoples' faces with. The cool thing about the deck is that most of the dragons are very utility based in that they will normally serve more than one purpose before they get exiled, be it sweeping the board or taking out that nasty permanent that your opponent has on the field over there. You can also just cast dragons and turn them sideways more than once as well and I've had a Turn 2 Hellkite Charger before. When I play, I usually adjust my playstyle to the game. This deck is so flexible that if people are playing slow, I can play slow, but if people are playing fast, I can more than hold my own. There are few things that this deck doesn't have answers to.
Other notes:
Many of the cards included in the deck are there to do things with the dragons before Zirilan's end of turn trigger. These cards are:
Miren, the Moaning Well
Keldon Necropolis
Arena
Safe Haven
High Market
Magus of the Arena
Culling Dais
Sundial of the Infinite
Archwing Dragon is also sort of in this list as he can save himself by going back to your hand. I usually like to grab him before I go grab Kilnmouth Dragon to make the amplify slightly bigger.
Squee, Goblin Nabob, Hammer of Bogardan, and Shard Phoenix are great to discard to Chandra Ablaze and, if you get lucky, Gamble. They are also great against opposing discard as well.
Draco is the card with the highest CMC in the game and Nalathni Dragon was never printed in a set (I believe it was only given away at DragonCon). They are in the deck for the lulz and I love finishing people off with one of these two (If not both because, you know, Banding).
Update (11/5/14):
Out: Rage Reflection, Archwing Dragon, Two-Headed Dragon, Inferno Titan
In: Thundermaw Hellkite, Spawn of Thraxes, Siege Dragon, Scourge of the Throne
Update (11/11/14):
Out: Hammer of Bogardan
In: Feldon of the Third Path
Last edited by Zupponn; 08-15-2015 at 06:52 PM.
This deck gives an entirely new meaning to elder dragon highlander.
No love for Knollspine Dragon?
Needs more Death by Dragons. Yes, the card is bad, but just for the flavour, since your deck is basically 'death by dragons'.
Also Dragon Breath? It basically automatically attaches itself to every searched up dragon to give it a bonus of firebreathing, then goes back to your GY for the next one to come up. Or if you hardcast one, it gets haste and firebreathing. Seems good.
Another great Dragon for multiplayer is Taurean Mauler. It's also my favorite Mana Birds.
I'm guessing you don't want to run the usual monoR EDH cards to avoid pissing off your playgroup?
(
Blood Moon
Magus of the Moon
Stranglehold
Price of Glory
Ruination
...)
But what about non-hate cards like Gauntlet of Might, Wheel of Fortune?
Yes it does. :DOriginally Posted by Davran
I had Knollspine in the deck for a while, but I didn't really get to draw cards off of him too often. Sure, he's great when an opponent smacks another opponent, but I didn't like passing the turn without smacking someone myself.
Maybe. I really didn't have that much luck when casting it since it slows down my Zirilan tutor plan.
I could get behind Dragon Breath. I'll have to test it out first.
Mauler is really good, but fails to be useful in multiple ways like most of my other dragons. He's also worse than Nalathni Dragon when tutoring with Zirilan.
Yep. You nailed it right on the head there. I'm going for "good" but not "dickish".
Those are two cards that I'd be willing to try out, but don't own at the moment. I could see them both fitting in the deck fairly well. Gauntlet seems better than Wheel to me right now.
I can get behind any use for Sundial of the Infinite, and I love commanders that tutor. This one doesn't seem quite as busted as the others (Arcum/Sisay/Zur etc) because it's mono-red and only searches for dragons so it isn't super threatening even if you optimize the list.
Some more suggestions:
- Thornbite Staff: Zirilan is a Shaman so you get a free attach. You can do stuff like activate Zirilan to find Bogardan Hellkite to kill something, untapping Zirilan and letting you search again.
- There are tons of other double-search effects (Illusionists Bracers, Magewright's Stone, Rings of Brighthearth etc). You probably don't want to play all of them but having multiple dragons is always good especially with stuff like Utvara Hellkite and Scourge of Valkas.
Speaking of this, don't forget that you can activate Zirilan on your opponents end step and then activate it again in your turn to have 2 dragons at once (albeit temporarily). You can end of turn search for Balefire Dragon and then untap, attack with it and wipe their board, then post combat activate Zirilan for Knollspine Dragon to draw some cards. (Don't play Price of Glory haha)
I like the new Scourge of the Throne as Hellkite Charger 2.0. With the play described above you can EOT get Scourge and then untap and get Dragon Tyrant. Assuming you don't have the most life that's 36 damage + potentially a second dethrone trigger + 4 damage per red mana you have left over, seems like you could easily kill someone out of nowhere. Another dragon I think is worth including is Thundermaw Hellkite for the "Tap down your blockers" mode but I think you have all the other good ones already.
EDIT: I just realised you aren't playing Worldgorger which is a pretty tricky card, with the eot-search wombo it lets you keep a dragon permanently, kind of neat. It also lets you hyper-cheese people by tutoring for it and then casting Jokulhaups/Obliterate afterwards but if you aren't into those kinds of cards that's cool. (Although if you have Zirilan untapped you can also search for it in response to your opponent's Jokulhaups/Wrath of God for instant hilarity)
Nykthos seems great here and so does Cavern of Souls.
I would probably put Koth in this deck but some metas are more hostile to planeswalkers
You could also make use of ways to cheat in Dragons from your hand, such as Quicksilver Amulet or Sneak Attack
This looks a lot like the Rorix Bladewing deck I've been wanting to smash together for a while :P not because it's good, because it's Rorix haha
Is Brass Herald worth a look as a potential draw spell? I don't really care about the anthem effect, though bigger == better because dragons.
It might cost too much, but ah... Dragonstorm? It's over the top for sure, but it says Dragon right on the card, so.
I wouldn't play Brass Herald here because you want your dragons in your library and not in your hand (although your Rorix build might be different).
Dragonstorm is a reasonable (and super fun) suggestion but you have to consider
a) How are you getting the mana to cast it (probably not that hard with Nykthos/Gauntlet of Power)
b) How are you casting a few cheap spells earlier in the turn (Seems difficult unless you skew your deck or you just stacked your hand with a Knollspine trigger)
I haven't really looked at this thread since my last post in it months ago. I've made some minor changes since then and updated the OP with those changes.
Oh, it can be super threatening when Sundial gets the stupidity of Utvara Hellkite and Scourge of Valkas out, but it doesn't make the game unfun like Zur and Uril do.
Those are all good suggestions. I'll have to see if they fit in the deck anywhere.
This might give me reason to put Knollspine back in, but like I said earlier, I usually end up searching and bashing every turn when I play the deck. Zirilan rarely finds himself untapped on other players' turns.
Both Scourge and Thundermaw have been added since I last looked at this thread.
I guess I never really thought about Worldgorger Dragon in this deck for some reason. I'm thinking that he needs to be in the deck now.
I rarely have enough devotion to make Nykthos worth it. Cavern on the other hand might be worth looking into.
The problem I ran into was that Koth really doesn't do anything in this deck outside of making 4/4 attackers.
Maybe. They're cool and all, but I think that these cards might push me in a different direction than I want to go with the deck.
kombatkiwi pretty much nailed it on the head about these two cards. If I could run Dragonstorm in this deck, I totally would.
I don't get what Sundial does with the two named dragons...
Oh, I know now, it's just that the two are amazing with Zirilliailian. Got it.
amazing deck, btw.
Glad you liked it!
Hi.. I've been looking for a dedicated page for fellow Zirilan pilots out there and I'm glad I found your thread. I'm hoping to get feedback with my current deck list below:
Commander:
Creatures: 21
Hellkite Tyrant
Ryusei, the Falling Star
Kilnmouth Dragon
Bogardan Hellkite
Steel Hellkite
Worldgorger Dragon
Shivan Hellkite
Stormbreath Dragon
Scourge of Kher Ridges
Balefire Dragon
Scourge of the Throne
Utvara Hellkite
Dragon Tyrant
Tyrant's Familiar (Commander 2014 update)
Dragon Mage
Thundermaw Hellkite
Hoard-Smelter Dragon
Scourge of Valkas
Thunder Dragon
Spawn of Thraxes
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Instants/Sorceries: 12
Obliterate
Jokulhaups
Blasphemous Act
Starstorm
Vandalblast
Incendiary Command
Reforge the Soul
Mizzium Mortars
Fissure
Aftershock
Through the Breach (current replacement for Sneak Attack, still saving up)
Chaos Warp
Planeswalkers: 5
Koth of the Hammer
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker (Khans of Tarkir update, within flavor and additional spot removal
Karn Liberated
Chandra Nalaar
Daretti, Scrap Savant (Commander 2014 update)
Artifact ramp and support: 24
Wayfarer's Bauble
Expedition Map
Everflowing Chalice
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Mind Stone
Fire Diamond
Worn Powerstone
Basalt Monolith
Coalition Relic
Unstable Obelisk (Commander 2014 update)
Thran Dynamo
Gilded Lotus
Gauntlet of Power
Caged Sun
Rings of Brighthearth
Elixir of Immortality
Tel-Jihad Stylus
Lightning Grieves
Sundial of the Infinite
Sensei's Divining Top
Quicksilver Amulet
Conjurer's Closet
Scroll Rack
Lands: 37
29 Snow-covered Mountains
Scrying Sheets
Darksteel Citadel
Buried Ruin
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Thespian's Stage
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Hall of the Bandit Lord
Flamekin Village (Commander 2014 update)
I started using this deck just this year - just a month before the Conspiracy set was released. I collect dragons and owned the actual Zirilan card way back in 2011 - the year when I started with the Commander format. At that time my commander was Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund with Zirilan mainboard. I was not convinced to try out Zirilan at that time mainly because of the exile clause with his ability.. also I thought there were not enough Dragons at that time to fill the creature slot to make a decent mono-Red deck. However since then WotC printed Dragon cards like Utvara Hellkite, Scourge of Valkas, and my one-shot-kill-engine Scourge of the Throne.. all of which have great synergy with each other. I also realized that Zirilan's oracle text was updated which means I may ideally have up to 2 dragons during my turn. Since then, I shelved my Kaalia of the Vast deck and made this as my signature multiplayer deck with my playgroup.
I like this deck a lot because I get to see my collection "in action"It is not OP compared with other tutor-type commanders out there.. plus I love the challenge of using a mono-Red deck with this format.
Your comments and feedback will be greatly appreciated
PS: Pardon me. This is my first post after a created my profile.. so I don't have my signature yet as well as other stuff (complete profile, avatar etc.). I'm still trying to learn the posting tools available
Ive been playing Zirilan for a few years now.
It's terrible against fast decks and I always start building a new commander deck, but I started playing commander so I could play dragons, and I go right back.
I only run dragons that do things upon entering and leaving, so they are all tools to use with Zirilan, also Erratic Portal is pretty fun with him, and Voltic Key lets you ramp even more with all the artifact mama ramps.
The best bang since the big one!
About a year and a half ago, I had the good fortune of acquiring the original painting of Zirilan of the Claw. The idea of literally owning my General was far too baller for me to pass up. Once in my possession, I immediately made it my mission to get as much use out of the Legendary Viashino Shaman as humanly possible. To that end, I constructed a myriad of different builds, ranging from kitchen table level to big event pod dream crusher. As I don't have the physical lists directly on me atm, I can't post them in their entirety. If anyone would like me to, I can show some of the better synergies I've come across. I really love the fact that this card inspires such passion from the people that choose to rock him, and will continue to do what I can to help spread the word.
It's cool that Zirilan players are coming out of the woodwork. He's such an awesome General.
Please!
Some cool interactions, in no particular order:
Moltensteel + Fling/Scourge of the Throne do a pretty good Hatred approximation. Rupture works too, if beig suicidal is your kind of thing.
Moltensteel + Knollspine Dragon/Dragon Tyrant functions as a poor man's Necro.
Utvara Hellkite + Scourge of Valkas is pretty self explanatory.
Hellkite Tyrant/Hoard-Smelter + Mycosynth Lattice/Liquimetal Coating can do some bad things together.
I've found Worldgorger and Changeling Berserker to be two of my favorites. I also tend to go all out with mass removal in my competitive builds. Nothing like blowing up the world and keeping all of your stuff. I get a lot of mileage out of SDT and Scroll Rack, as leaving the dragons in the library is usually desirable. A cool card for a more casual group game is Glacial Crevasses.
That's about it for now. I'm sure I'll remember some other cards a some point. Hope this helped.
I love Zirilan. It's my only EDH deck, and I've played it since 2010.
I recall seeing the artwork for sale and wishing I could afford it. It's great to hear that you appreciate it so fully. You should post a pic of the artwork together with your current decklist here... we can turn this into the PIMP ZIRILAN DECKS thread. I can't imagine a more pimped out Zirilan deck than the one with the original artwork.
---
To that end, here is my contribution. This is my Zirilan deck circa February 2011 - fully pimped out with Alphas, Betas, reserve list staples, and Arabian Nights Mountains. After assembling the deck, I decided I don't need a $2000+ pile of cardboard to play a casual format in which proxies are widely accepted. Much of what appears below has been sold and replaced with a more budget friendly version.
Special Dragons:
Old Dragons:
Modern Dragons:
Beta Artifacts:
Old Artifacts:
Modern Artifacts:
Beta Red Spells:
Old Red Spells:
Utility Lands:
Arabian Nights Mountains:
Burning Wish Targets:
Let's see some more pimp Zirilan decks!
Seems like you could use a few better support spell options, and to smooth out the deck and curve. Here's some ideas:
Armillary Sphere
Journeyer's Kite
Solemn Simulacrum
...great CA and ramp, not missing a land drop is pretty crucial.
Wheel of Fortune
Goblin Bombardment
Reitterate
Shattering Pulse
Fire Imp
Flametongue Kavu
Duplicant
Erratic Portal
May your suffering equal your weakness--Ihsan's Shade
I don't like any of these cards in the deck. Both Sphere and Kite feel pretty meh to me and Simulacrum, while a great card, just doesn't fit into the deck well at all.
These cards are all really unnecessary with all the dragons that pretty much do these exact same things. There's this rule I have: If it's not a dragon, then it has to be pretty damn gamebreaking or synergistic in order for it to be considered.
Erratic Portal is pretty unfair with Zirilian. especially with the Dragons that have come into play triggered abilities.
The best bang since the big one!
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