by Johnny Cycles, June 13th, 2025
Hello and welcome to a Commander update! In this series I give you an updated decklist of the Commander decks I’ve already written about as new cards come out, I discover old cards, or I play the deck more and make some changes.
With Tarkir: Dragonstorm recently released, I want to talk about one of my most favorite decks now, Mono Red Dragon Tribal with Inferno of the Star Mounts. You can read all about it here, but the TL;DR is that I made this deck for my oldest son (9) for him to learn the game. Despite its simple mana base and straight-forward game plan (cast Dragons up the curve and attack), the deck has a surprising number of synergies, is more powerful than it first may appear, and is a ton of fun to play!
Look at all of that sweet, Dragon synergy!
Before I get to the cards in and cards out, I’ll just say that I didn’t simply put every new Dragon or Dragon-themed card from Tarkir: Dragonstorm in the deck! The set did give us a bunch of new and powerful Dragons, though, and I focused mostly on the ones that lowered our curve. I swapped out many of the big mana Dragons in favor of less mana-intensive ones.
That being said, I did include a lot of the Dragon-related removal and ramp that came with the set. How could I resist? It’s a Dragon Tribal deck!
Besides some newly printed cards, I also found (or acquired) some copies of powerful Dragons that I overlooked when originally building the deck.
Rather Watch?
Creatures
5 out, 7 in.
Magmatic Hellkite – my new favorite Dragon, I’ve been playing this card a ton in Modern. It seems like it’s even more powerful in Commander, with all the utility lands running around the format. 4 mana for a 4/5 flier that does something is a little bit of power creep for Dragons, which is nice. The going rate for 4/4 hasty fliers is , so losing haste at the cost of but with an additional toughness is acceptable. Not to mention we want Dragons to cast starting at the 4-drop slot (until they print powerful 3-drop Dragons. Yes, Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge exists).
Mordant Dragon – an older Dragon I overlooked when building the deck. It’s a cheaper Shivan Hellkite that gives us a similar effect. Yes, we can’t ping a board full of Goblin tokens, or burn our opponent out, but I wanted to lower the curve without removing our ability to deal with creatures. Still, I can see this 6-drop getting outclassed by a future Dragon and cut.
Nogi, Draco-Zealot – I found this Kobold Shaman when I wrote my Old Cards, Still Good piece on Earthshaker Giant. Nogi, Draco-Zealot was another Game Night card and I forked out $12 for it… Now, it’s just gotten reprinted in a Commander precon from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, plunging the price to about $2. Oh well. This is a new cost reduction card for us on a respectable body with a powerful ability. All around, it was definitely worth the money!
Parapet Thrasher – this card takes the place of Hoard-Smelter Dragon. We lower our curve, get some flexibility that furthers our game plan, and get to destroy an artifact with no further mana investment. Those are the plusses. The minuses…we have to deal combat damage to destroy the artifact. Thus, Parapet Thrasher can’t get us around Ensnaring Bridge. Note that this triggers whenever any Dragon we control deals combat damage. That’s another plus!
Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant – a 2-drop creature that ramps us and synergizes with our Dragons! I’ve played this card a lot in Modern and Pioneer. In Commander we should always have a Dragon to behold, which will net us a Treasure, and we should be able to grow this Human Druid to a must-answer threat pretty quickly.
Stormscale Scion – the shiny new toy from Tarkir: Dragonstorm that will probably not ever be more than a 6-mana Dragon lord. Still, how can I pass it up? Seriously, though, there is a world where we cast this with a storm count of 2 with our own set-up. I can also see us casting this post combat with a higher storm count after our opponent has interacted with our board in some way. I think there are ways to efficiently increase the chances of having a storm count (Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to generate a ton of mana the turn we want to resolve this, for instance), but since this deck is meant for beginners, I’m going to keep the mana base simple.
Terror of the Peaks – what a card! From its abilities to the art, I love everything about it. I often rue the fact that Dragons don’t get ward the way some random uncommons do, but Terror of the Peaks had ward before ward had a name, so there’s that! I’ll be honest and say that leaving this card out of my first build was a bit of an oversight. I only had the one copy before I opened some from Bloomburrow, but I’d already built the deck at that point. That being said, this card is a auto-include in a Dragon Tribal deck! The last block of text gives us reach and a way to win the game without combat (if the aforementioned Ensnaring Bridge is ruining our fun, for instance).
Creatures Out:
| Hoard-Smelter Dragon | |
| Shivan Dragon | |
| Two-Headed Dragon | |
| Shivan Hellkite | |
| Utvara Hellkite |
Hoard-Smelter Dragon gets a cheaper, more diverse upgrade in Parapet Thrasher. The OG Dragon, Shivan Dragon, is simply outclassed by today’s power creep. I knew I’d cut it eventually, but my 15-year-old self is still sad to see it go. Ditto Two-Headed Dragon.
Shivan Hellkite is a tough cut, as well, since if we ever untap with it, we almost surely win. Still, 7 mana is a lot. 8 is even more, even if we get a bunch of 6/6 Dragons out of Utvara Hellkite. It’s just too mana intensive.
Artifacts
3 out, 2 in.
Dragonstorm Globe – is any explanation necessary for why a Dragon-themed mana rock got the nod over a non-Dragon-themed one? We are taking out ramp in favor of this, so let’s hope that doesn’t slow us down too much!
Mox Jasper – the latest Mox to be criticized as not good enough (I’m inclined to agree), this is its place to shine! Sure, we should look at it more as a turn 4 mana rock, but hey, it’ll basically be the same as an extra land drop at that point, and that’s okay! I will point out that this card is one way we can easily increase our storm count for Stormscale Scion.
Artifacts out:
| Coldsteel Heart | |
| Fellwar Stone | |
| Belbe’s Portal |
We’re cutting back on the 2-mana artifacts, which could come back to haunt us, in favor of a mana one and a super synergistic one.
Enchantments
2 out, 1 in.
Breaching Dragonstorm – what a card for our deck! It can generate a ton of value, since we should have no problem returning it to our hand again and again. In fact, we have a pretty good chance of spinning into a Dragon and bouncing it the turn we resolve it!
Enchantments out:
| Burning Earth | |
| There and Back Again |
Burning Earth was always sort of a cute card that punished those greedy mana bases in Commander for us. Its synergies with Dragons are tangential at best. Meanwhile, There and Back Again is a great Dragon flavor card, but it just doesn’t do enough for its mana investment.
Sorceries
1 out, 2 in.
Channeled Dragonfire – yeah, this card is pretty terrible, but the front side is at least reasonable, even if sorcery speed. The harmonize cost isn’t particularly hard for us to get to, but we’ll typically want to be attacking with those creatures, not using them to deal 2 damage.
Molten Exhale – more Dragon-themed removal! It’s better than Channeled Dragonfire, at least. It’s also strictly better than Roast. And look at that art! It’s a dragon burning an owl (phoenix?) out of the air. Pretty cool!
Sorceries out:
| Jeska’s Will |
I always knew this powerful Commander staple would get cut eventually. Yes, we’re lowering our explosiveness by taking it out, but it’s just not on theme enough for a Dragon Tribal deck built with a 9-year-old in mind.
Finally, I cut two Mountains, making our land count 38. Trimming lands for spells is probably the slipperiest of slopes in Commander, so I don’t do this lightly. However, between artifacts, creatures, and Planeswalkers, we play 14 ramp or mana reduction cards. And I’m not including Gauntlet of Power in this number, because it’s disingenuous to call a 5-mana artifact a ramp card… That’s nearly a quarter of our nonland spells. I think this more than makes up for a couple missing lands.
Omissions
Thundermane Dragon – what a great card, and not just for Dragon Tribal! I’m excited to put this in a new deck I’m working on that’s built around Samut, Vizier of Naktamun. I currently haven’t opened my Commander precons from Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The collector in me likes to keep these unopened. Thundermane Dragon is only about $3, so I’ll order a couple of copies and find a spot for it. Maybe I can cut Roast, since we’ve added two more kill spells.
Upgrading the Mana Base
There are some easy (if expensive) and obvious upgrades to the mana base, should you want to play the deck at a more competitive level. And, it’s so much fun that I’m sorely tempted to make the changes myself.
Beyond the usual suspects of land destruction (Field of Ruin), there are a few Dragon utility cards (pictured above) that would give us some flexibility and insulation from mana flood. Meanwhile, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is a great way to power up some of our turns, since we should be able to get quite a bit of devotion going.
What about Ugin?
Ugin IS a Dragon, right? A spirit dragon? As in, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon?
I love Ugin and I have no problem with anyone who plays him in a Dragon Tribal deck. None of the three possible Ugins fit our deck like a glove, but they all offer something powerful. I’m currently leaving them out, since I already have more Dragons than I can find room for.
Conclusion
That’s it for my update to Mono Red Dragon Tribal with Inferno of the Star Mounts. I don’t think these changes make the deck any less friendly to new players, while they do increase the power level.
