MTG - A Guide To Scion of the Ur-Dragon EDH / Commander for Magic: The Gathering 

The scary thing about this build is how many of these cards are part of Draconic Domination. Glad I picked it up when it was still $40 USD.

as an experienced Scion player, I would like to share some things I learned about this deck over time, and if someone learns something from this - all the yay. so, 1) Scion is ultra-reliable. you nearly always have the same combos available (molten + tyrant OTK, bladewing into utvara into karrthus etc, karrthus + standardize, skytr + molten ....) and you'll find yourself going through the motions a lot of the times. This is more of a problem than a positive to me, as with so many various dragons and mechanics - you can just usually one shot players or simply go for the same combination of dragons as usual and miss out on the other fun. other players will also learn you like a book, and probably dislike playing against it rather quickly. 2) gimmicky dragons don't usually cut it. stuff like Oros and Crosis and Intet are cute, but there's a few issues on why I eventually figured they can't work in the deck. first and top reason is really hidden in my 1) point; the deck is too damn reliable, and you often have far more powerful plays than using something like Intet's ability to pick some random card off the top of your deck. why care about destroying 2 target lands for 3 mana when you can usually just bash them right outta their seat? not to mention that the mana cost for running all these crazy toolkit creatures with their own costs starts to multiply quickly, with your Scion costing several times 2 to transform then costing 1, 2 or 3 for various activations of abilities, like Regenerate, Redirect (Clockwork Dragon or Quicksilver Dragon is a janky but interesting option for a dragon for sure, for another example of a cool toolkit dragon that costs mana), Haste, Buff and also the consideration that you usually don't wanna just attack once and tap every land just to perform some minor mischief while leaving yourself and Scion open. I mean, I always tend to leave at least enough mana to transform my Scion in case it gets targeted, and since we have Yosei and Keiga for dragons, everyone is on their toes about even touching Scion. Basically, I gave up on nearly all the 'fun' dragons like that except for Teneb, who fits the reanimator flavor and works great. 3) you'll be shuffling your deck a ton per each game, as a 5 color deck tutors lands a lot, then tutors dragons a lot (and mind you, after a while you'll usually just tutor the same lineup involving Utvara, Molten, Bladewing, Karrthus...), then you also probably use some good tutors along with all that. this is a minor inconvenience, but yeah it deserves mentioning. 4) duo to the explosive nature of the deck of being able to oneshot anyone at nearly any time with your commander, people will be eyeing you up a lot during games. If you run stuff like infect dragon or infinite attack phase or turn combos (yes, dragons do those rather easily too) you'll be the main scumbag and the man to kill off first in games. I'll stop right here although I have a lot more to say simply because this wall of text needs to stop at some point. :P so yeah, I personally love the deck, was a bit disappointed that it usually revolves around a few best dragons instead of all of them, but hey, that's how Magic goes. if you have any questions about the deck, I'm happy to try and answer. pardon the rambling!

Man looking back all those years ago, it was this very video that inspired me to take the challenge of make a 5 color dragon deck and to this day, it is still and will forever be not only my best deck but my favorite deck of all time.

Just an FYI, the Shadows Over Innistrad Booster Box game will be posted this Saturday.

Blade of Selves + Keiga might be the best way to piss off an entire table that I've ever seen. I love it.

Hi Profesor! You will need an update with the new Dragons from Commander 2017. It will be great to see that ^^

Awesome ! Thanks professor, I've been looking for a good dragon EDH guide. Just put together a sliver deck for Commander based on your guide, loving it. Thanks so much for the help!

Scion was my first edh build. This deck is a lot of fun. Savage Ventmaw and Hellkite Charger (or Scion mimicking either) is nuts. Feldon of the Third Path is a favorite in this deck too.

another great video professor, I personally don't even play commander but still watch these videos because they're interesting and well put-together

I was actually trying to make this deck but had no idea how. Thanks for the vid!

when you asked for recommendations last week i mentioned Gisela so i feel like i got a mini shout out :). keep up the great work prof, and the much needed critical analysis.

YES!!!! Professor, you're the best, I've been waiting for your take on a scion of the ur-dragon deck, and it did not disappoint

Thanks for the EDH deck tech! My kid runs a Scion EDH deck and some of the advice here will be of help to him!

Okay, Professor (or Brian), I already loved you as a RU-vidr, but this is the first time I've checked a commander video description. You link every commander video you have ever made, as well as the entire deck list in correct alphabetical order for the said video, as well as giving an amazing video to boot. EVERYONE LIKE HIS VIDEOS AND SUBSCRIBE, FOR THIS MAN IS AWESOME!

I was actually just staring at most of these dragons recently and wanted to make Ur the commander. Thanks for the ideas, prof.

Great video! I actually already have a Scion Deck, but this video has given me some new ideas about it that I think I'll keep in mind for future modifications. The thing that surprised me most in this video was no mention of Ojutai, Soul of Winter. If your opponents keep removing your dragons and keep you on the defensive, Ojutai is a great way to buy yourself some time to get your forces back up. Maybe I just run it because my best friend has a hydra tribal deck that is both chock-full of flying creature removal and very weak to continuously tapping down his biggest creatures.

yes!! i was hoping you would make this video some day!!

My cousin was actually just building this deck this will help so very much

I love your videos professor! Keep up the good work!!!

Very timely. I was just thinking about building this because I lost to it so many times in college.

Thanks Professor for putting out this video. I know I am watching this in 2021 but I am building my first tri-colored deck and it happens to be a dragon tribal deck with Karrthus as my Commander (Jund Dragons). But it was good to see that I got a lot of the cards you mentioned, and I am feeling really good about how my deck will turn out.

you will probably never read this but, I have been looking for a fun budgetish commander deck. You hit the nail on the head with reanimation 5 color voltron dragon tribal combining all of my favorite casual things that I sadly can not do in modern but look forward to doing in commander. Thank you so much, prof.

Recommendations for next video. I would love to see a guide on Marchesa, the Black Rose as I'm currently building a deck with her. Also, I recently found your channel and am really loving all your content! I really appreciate your dedication to serving the community, and the mix of hilarity and intellect that is the tone of your videos.

Thank You SO MUCH!!! I been really trying to figure out how to do a EDH deck with Scion but my fear was there's so many dragons with very high mama costs that I thought the deck would never fire.

thx for the great video and for all the great content. I have built a nicol bolas edh deck and my favorite win cons are sark han the mad, scourge of val, and dragon tempest because they read that the dragon deals the damage enabling the planor chaos dragons effects to trigger along with my cmdr. I wish you would have mentioned that to everyone as that can be a combat phase unto itself. Maybe this idea will only be for you and your brewing, but it is fun to take advantage of that small nuance and I bet others would appreciate that trick.

This is actually my commander, awesome video professor

4am when i saw this video and i nearly had a heart attack. I've had a Scion dragon tribal deck for close to 2 years now, and it is by far my favorite. Honestly, outside of a few cosmetic differences, this is fairly close to my list, which was very reassuring to me that i'm on the right track with it.

Great video as usual Professor! I would love to see a Commander deckbuilding Guide for Basandra, Battle Seraph.

I really enjoy your deck techs and I'd love to see more.

Great video again prof!

this video maybe a little old but i have been wanting to build a dragon commander deck for five colors. thanks for the video man,it helped me with its wonderful tips :)

Solid analysis Prof! I'd just like to add that Dragons love speed and gas. To this end, Temur Ascendancy synergises with our high power creatures, giving us both. Same reason we like Sarkhan Unbroken.

Today I subscribed to your channel. Your content is great! Thank you!

Finally, my deck!!!! I have a few differences that work better for me though and of course learned a few evasion cards, but it's to see my commander here!!! :)

Hey Prof! Just wanted to say I loved the video and I actually already have a Scion of the Ur Dragon EDH deck myself. The list you came up with was very similar to mine minus some of the pet cards and different tool box effects I run in my own build. I'm also running a few more board wipes as well which was the only point I would disagree with in your build. With this deck being a bit slower to get going comparatively it can often be really effective to be able to drop an early board wipe to clear away anything causing problems before setting up your dragon hoard. Additionally with all the graveyard recursion available it can hurt us far less than our opponents depending on the situation, and since scion will often times have a massive target on him along with any other large dragons you play it's always good to have a board wipe in your back pocket in case the board is a bit stacked against you. Also I'd suggest running Dragon Mage as just one of the toolbox cards I'm running in my deck granting some useful tech to refill your own hand or mess with your opponents who've been drawing a tone of cards or tutoring to set up. If you'd like to know some of the other differences in our lists and other utility and sort of pet cards I'm running I'd love to chat more and share with you. Thanks again for the continuous stream of high quality, entertaining, and informative Magic the Gathering content!

This is a treasure for me to find. My brother got into magic last month. Instead of completing we R pooling resources. He got new I went with a slightly older lot online. 5k cards mostly Commons and uncommons. However it came with a good chunk of the working components for a dragon deck and snakes deck. Ordered rainbow last night. Found this vid today. With newer dragon cards at my disposal. tho im filling out with a ramping planes Walker and extra enter the battlefield damage. Then using sirens ruses to be an asshat and deal damage or generate more dragons without actual combat.

Great video! Been playig Scion for two years now! Although you surely have thought of it, I think you forgot to mention the broken combo of Utavara Hellkite + Scourge of Valkas, which just scores you a ton of burn-damage. To even further add up to this combo you can up your dragon count with Dragon Broodmother and increase, double the ETB damage with Dragon Tempest.

Yay, more commander and poetry! You don't post enough poetry on your channel.

Omnath, Locus of Mana. great video, waiting for the SoI booster box game

Ooh I missed this yesterday! I like beating Scion of Ur Dragon :)

Yup going to be my next comander beck. I all ready have mass experience with the massive scaled beasts. The brutality they bring is indeed a threat to all at the table. Thank you for the ideas for that extra gasp of air my prey will try to gather. :)

I've been hoping for you to do a Scion guide. I have loved mine since I brewed it up. As with anything, I agree with a lot of your choices, and disagree with a few. I feel you did the deck justice. An interaction I'd love to point out with Hellkite Charger, Scion, and Savage Ventmaw. Having any of these two on field allows for a combo that allows extra combats for a single mana, a devastating and often game ending combo in the late game. Paired with mana doubling cards such as Mirari's Wake or Mana Flare and using the particularly useful wording on Savage Ventmaw's ability, the game will almost always be coming to a grand conclusion.

This looks like an amazing fun and aggro deck. Really want to build this now. For another EDH deck tech, I would LOVE to see your thoughts on a Horde of Notions deck.

Hey professor. Great content as always. And Sheoldred, whispering one for a commander would be interesting :)

Jeleva Nephalia's scourge! I love the grixis colors and the random yet powerful nature of the commander. A unique brew of her would be a very well appreciated video

I love this, its pretty amazing and I agree with a lot of this too, i have a scion deck and its pretty consistent. The only thing I can say is that I feel this deck would be very vulnerable to control decks and even faster agro decks. Most of the dragons are perfect; Atarka, Silumgar, Bladewing are must haves, but utility is very necessary in this deck, especially a deck with such high mana costs so the dragons you do put in have to have high effects or do something worth tutoring. A dragon i doubted from the beginning but learned that is irreplaceable is Tyrant's Familiar, with its haste and removal and huge body, it is very efficient. Dragonlord Dromoka is perfect for one of your weaknesses (control) and can win you the game by preventing an untimely Aetherspouts, authorize, or cyclonic rift. Valkas can win you games with a crazy Living Death or even a Bladewing combo. The ramp is good but i also think others are needed like Bloom Tender, Somberwald Sage, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, and of course, Oracle. Yah they die to doom blade but they provide so much advantage, they ramp you two or three or even 5 turns ahead. When the ball gets rolling, commander damage and protection is almost inevitable. Needs more removal too, not for creatures as much, but more for enchantments and artifacts which can ruin your day. But you will also almost always need spot removal. Somethings are too troublesome to let live and will cost you the game with some surprise combo. and another thing i found so useful in this deck is filtering. So important. Dack Fayden, Monastery Siege (which can also be protection), Dragon Wizard and shockingly, Magus of the Bazaar. Let you dig for things you need, get dragons out of your hand that you can't play yet, and also fueling your graveyard for shenanigans with Bladewing, Living Death, Feldon, etc.

Hey Professor, I have a Scion EDH myself with some extra variety. Something to consider is having a Reito Lantern in to put a Dragon you tutored for earlier back into your library. Especially since Scion can tutor at instant speed, in response to a targeted removal finding a hexproof dragon. And just a small note, when you mentioned Tainted Strike, you said it gives all your creatures infect. It's a great instant speed combat trick, but it is only one creature. There is a green sorcery that gives all of your creatures a buff and infect, the name just escapes me at the moment. Anyway, I love the deck tech support videos you've been making. It's opened my eyes to keep a look out for various secret tech that nobody is expecting. If I could add one more thing, would be to mention when there are multiple named cards with the same or similar mechanics as substitutions or additions. Like Dense Canopy that does the same as Bowery Passage, so if you have both in the 99 you effectively double your chances of the effect hitting the board. Or if people played in the Kamigawa block but not Innistrad, they might have a variant already without having to buy another. Thanks again and keep up the great work.

So excited to see this! Scion was my first EDH deck! The best cards imo are Dragon Tyrant, Xenagos god of revels, and patriarch's bidding

This is one of my favorite commander decks in my collection and I must say, Maelstrom Nexus is an absolute house in this deck. Casting a 6-8 drop dragon and cascading off of it is redic. Also the temur sarkhan is actually really amazing for his plus 1 alone as this deck needs card draw to keep things moving. and a lil scion pro tip, Wheel of Sun and Moon. You enchant yourself making all of your scion activations reusable in future turns. ;) ;)

Hey Prof, I run a Scion EDH deck and I feel there are some honorable mentions that weren't in the video. All of these cards rely on choosing a creature type. Descendants Path, Belbe's Portal, Dragon Arch, Cryptic Gateway - All let you put a creature out for free or a drastically reduced cost. Steely Resolve is a good protection card with the caveat it will also give your opponents the benefit if they happen to have a dragon in play. Thanks for the vids dude!

Would love to see a Zedruu the Greathearted EDH deck. Good stuff love the content.

I would like to see you take a shot at the Gitrog Monster! A lot of fun ideas there.

Amazing, just what I was looking for! I've been wanting to build a dragon EDH deck for ages, but as I'm a new player those five colours were hard to put into a deck and make it work. I already have tons of these cards, just because I love dragons. Whenever I finish this (with a little tweaking), let's see how all the guys will react to a girl beating them with a dragon deck ;D

Sneak attack is incredible in this deck, getting in suprise nicol bolas, or dumping your hand to win, and works very well with reanimation

Well, I had a min-maxed Scion deck, but retooled it for flavor reasons. Cut a bunch of great dragons including Hellkite Tyrant, Utvara Hellkite, Dragon Tyrant, Scourge of the Throne, Steel Hellkite, Maelstrom Archangel and others to fit *all* the three colour 'X, the Y' dragons there is, then changed out the objectively better mana rocks for Dragons of Tarkir monument mana rocks. Then squeezed in Ugin and Nicol Bolas. Fun.

Cauldron dance is in my cube! It's freaking awesome

great video! I'd like to suggest Merieke Ri Berit.

Would love to see an updated version of this deck

id love to see a video on your views for a kemba white-commander deck, Kaalia of the vast commander deck, and an ulamog colorless commander deck for sure!

Toshiro is a really intresting commader that not a lot of people know of and he has a intresting board presence as a mono-black spell slinger. also he's a Samurai and you can have your friends "hire" you to take care of creatures that are a problem. you can also double him as a coltron commander as a sub theme to the spell slinging.

Hey Professor, I have a suggestion for videos like these. When showing the cards one by one, can you also show any promo or alternate versions of that card? For example, when showing Dromoka, the Eternal, I noticed a large amount of empty space on screen. It would've been pretty cool to show the Clash Pack version of the card. We, as players, lose nothing from this. It helps you fill out empty space, it puts more magic cards on screen (always a plus), it exposes people to fabulous art, and it gives more options to people building decks (especially for those of us that like to bling out decks). I hope you take this into consideration! Keep up the great work.

I run Belbes portal alongside Quicksilver amulet. It is a little more restricted I think since you have to choose the creature type you want to cast with it, but the 3 mana to put your creature onto the battlefield instead of four quite quickly pay for that it costs 5 to cast. Also, Kilnmouth dragon is quite nice aswell in my opinion with his amplify 3 and tap effect. Another fun thing is Thundermaw Hellkite, if you want to tap all fliers you opponent controls and have a clear strike that turn. Dragons are so much fun! :)

Will there be a 130k Q and A professor??? I really loved those. Saludos from Mexico!!!

It would be great if there was one of these for the Shattergang Brothers! Also, nice video! :)

An EDH deck that I really want to build now! I've been looking for a decent deck to build to get started in EDH. I started playing magic with Dragons of Tarkir, and played with a dragons based deck until this rotation with Shadows and haven't moved from standard just yet.

I've a foil cauldron dance in my Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck. Putting a Blighsteel Colossus into play from your hand is gas.

I love this series, particularly because I'm considering making a commander deck for the first time and im not sure who I want as my commander! I've been thinking about animar, soul of elements a lot. So I'd love to see a tech on that.

I would like to see a Nissa, Vastwood seer edh deck tech because the power of mono green needs to be shared. I would provide a decklist if needed. Great vids

Professor your my hero.

i just made a scion deck yesterday and finally got a chance to test it out a few mins ago :) i was able to cast scion on turn 6 and even kept all 5 color cards and discarded 1 when someone played that card that makes you pick one of each color ;) but by the time i got him out i was dead lol, everyone was attacking me

Ild love to see a sharuum EDH sometime in the future

Would love to see you tackle; the Reaper King (5-colour scarecrows just seems like a fairly unique deck), Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (loving the look of this guy but not sure how to use him effectively), and finally Ghave, Guru Of Spores, (I built an interesting saprolings/infect deck for less than $40 based on this guy; I'm wondering how competitive and different it is from your suggestions).

Also, I'm building a Zurgo Helmsmasher equipment deck and would love to see your version. If you do, don't forget the basically mandatory addition of Worldslayer

You forgot to mention the easiest way to win the game on turn 5 with one acceleration. Turn 4 put out Scion. Turn 5 use his ability twice, (yes you can activate his ability when one ability is already on the stack. Use the first to resolve ability to turn into moltensteel dragon, then before the next ability resolves you pump up using health for phyrexian mana, or just red mana if it's available. You want to pump 6 times to give your creature +6+0. Then use the 2nd ability to turn into Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and attack for 10 infect damage, killing the opponent if you go through. Note: this can all be done after the opponent doesn't block right before damage is dealt.

Some uncommon green ramp spells great for multicolor decks that run ABUR duals, shocks, and even the BFZ lands are Nature's Lore, Skyshroud Claim, Ranger's Path, and Hunting Wilds. The first 2 are like rampant growth and explosive vegetation, except they fetch any forest and put it into play (not tapped) for the same costs and number of lands, the last 2 are explosive vegetations that fetch forests tapped, though hunting wilds has a kicker that can be played to untap the forests and make them 3/3 creatures with haste. All 4 of the cards can be gotten for under $5 total.

Professor, when are you going to do another EDH / Commander Guide? I enjoy watching these videos the most and I'm always curious to know what people are building and playing.

my friend runs a scion edh. not the same as this but it's still terrifying. this video made me weep in fear haha

"Relentlessy efficient" is exactly the term I have been using for quite a while... ^^ But honestly, Gisela and Gratuitous Violence look a bit like win-more. I would rather turn to Sheoldred, Whispering One first. If she isn't handled immediately, she will just start vomitting dragons onto the board from your graveyard. Anyway, if you want to run non-Dragon creatures, make sure to also play Xenograft and Conspiracy (naming "Dragon"). That way Scion can tutor them up as well ;) . Those two enchantments are good in general (pun intended) in five-color decks with tutor abilities - like General Tazri or Sliver Overlord - or tribal-bound triggers like Reaper King. Thanks for the tip with that green "flyers can't block"-enchantment however, had never heard of it! ;)

Love your videos! I desperately need your opinion on an Uril, The Miststalker voltron aura deck!!

Wow professor, that's one ruthless tribal deck to be sure, waaay over the power level of any of my decks! I did have one question related to tribal decks. I've wanted for a while to make a skeleton tribal deck, but infect is a big no-no with my playgroup, so Skithiryx isn't really an option, and I'm not really a fan of skeleton ship. I'd be fine with running something outside the tribe, but I'm not sure where good synergy lies.

Here are some cards I put into my Karrthus dragon tribal deck that put in a lot of work and would fit into this very well; Aggravated Assault - if you have Savage Ventmaw on the field, it combos for both infinite mana and infinite combat phases as long as you keep him alive, insane value! Wild Pair and Lurking Predators - constantly fishing out dragons from your library and slamming them down on the battlefield for free feels real good I gotta tell you Deadbridge Chant - insanely good graveyard recursion, especially since you're actively dropping dragons in your graveyard from the Ur-Dragon's ability Mana Echoes - getting a couple mana back for every dragon cast is a real boon and will enable you to do a lot more each turn

An Employee at my LGS built a shapeshifter/changeling tribal EDH deck, and I would love to see you tackle it.

Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge is a Commander I like quite a bit, and would like to hear your thoughts on. Great video.

I'd love to see a Sensei Golden-Tail deck!

In future videos, I would love a Lin Sivvi tech, or a Scarecrow tribal deck!

MORE DECK GUIDES!!! WOOOOOO!!!

It would be really cool to see a Merieke Ri Berit, "steal all your stuff" kind of deck :D

Mishra! I just made a chaos version and am having a lot of fun trying to make the jank a reality.

Niiiiiice deck tech. Grats.

With SOI now out, I would love to see an Olivia Voldaren deck next or even a Grimgrin, Corpse-Born deck.

First off great video I have a friend who loves dragons and will enjoy this video! The next Commander should be Kozilek, the Butcher of Truth, don't let the colorless factor detour, I have made a EDH deck with Kozilek and found this deck to be very capable in both multiplayer or one on one. I would love to hear you thoughts on it and anybody else's to.

I would be interested in seeing how you would build Prossh, Skyraider of Kher EDH and whether or not you would run on the spot win combos.

I would love to see your take on a Ghoulcaller Gisa Zombie tribal EDH deck :)

this deck is great , still waiting for that 5 colour atog deck though :P

Brilliant deck and amazing video. Would you be able to put a rough cost on the end of your videos though.

I've been looking into building Jeleva Nephailas Scourge. You should do a deck tech over her, she sounds so fun.

Can't wait for the booster box game!

this is great! it gives me in deep review of most scion player tend to use. though why didn't add protection like Dragonlord Ojutai? most people will try to kill scion and in this video scion's protection is by far only by transfrorming into silumgar. IMO, there should be a combo piece between bladewing and those etb dragons like ashnod's altar and nim deathmantle. (in case most player tend to get bored and need a next game start) but still this review sounds fun! thanks professor!

Have you considered doing one of these videos for Kaalia of the Vast or Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge? I understand they are fairly straightforward generals but you seem to like putting an interesting spin on decks so I would love to see what you come up with!

I would like to see a commander deck tech on Nin, the Pain Artist. She just seems to have a fun commander-y ability.