If you like to summon the most powerful Dragons of the Multiverse under your command, then 5-color Dragon Tribal is the right deck for you! Let’s see how we can unleash their vast power and immortalize Draconic Domination.
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Dragon is a creature type describing huge, four-limbed, two-winged reptilians. These powerful serpentine creatures exist across the multiverse. They have formidable physical strength, and many of them also score high on intelligence and magical capabilities. They can be found in all colors, although more dragons are aligned with red than with any other color. In fact, Dragons are the iconic creature for the color red. (source MTG Wiki)
The Ur-Dragon is the essence of all dragonkind within the Multiverse. The Elder Dragons were spawned from the storms caused by its wings. (source MTG Wiki)
Back to 2017, with the release of Draconic Domination, The Ur-Dragon came to MtG, offering us the ultimate 5-Color Dragon Tribal commander. Although his powerful stats and his great ability that trigger whenever one or more dragons attack and offer us card draw and a free permanent from our hand onto the battlefield, his true power comes from its Eminence ability : A Dragon cost reduction by 
that is practically always at our disposal. Dragons are powerful but that power comes with a great (mana) cost, so a permanent mana cost reduction is very powerful.
Although you can call it a precon upgrade, my build is more a precon remake than an upgrade so you can start from zero and buy singles. The optimal building option depends on the price and availability of the cards.
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building. But in some cases, I do a mix of top-down and bottom-up building.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Dragons. Our priority is to add the ones that have synergy with the Dragon Tribe.
- Add Dragon Tribal Support. That includes specific Ramp cards that are supporting the Dragon theme. Cards that create Dragons or have Dragon Tribal synergy are great additions for our build.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that support many of our strategies.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that greatly fit the Dragon Tribal theme.
The deck:
Dragon Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
37 Lands
24 Ramp: The Ur-Dragon , Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire , Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Sarkhan, Fireblood , Cultivate , Chromatic Lantern , Dragonlord’s Servant , Herd Heirloom, Dragonspeaker Shaman , Ramos, Dragon Engine, Morophon, the Boundless, Mox Jasper, Herald’s Horn, Sarkhan Unbroken, Dragon’s Hoard, Rivaz of the Claw, Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient, Orb of Dragonkind, Dracogenesis, Encroaching Dragonstorm, Sarkhan, Soul Aflame, Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind, Broodcaller Scourge
12 Target Removal: Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire , Parapet Thrasher, Scalelord Reckoner , Dragonlord Silumgar , Dragon Tempest , Lozhan, Dragons’ Legacy , Scourge of Valkas , Sapphire Dragon , Gluttonous Hellkite , Sarkhan’s Unsealing, Wasitora, Nekoru Queen, Ureni, the Song Unending
7 Board Wipes: Sivitri, Dragon Master (slow), Silumgar, the Drifting Death , Sarkhan’s Unsealing, Balefire Dragon, Ryusei, the Falling Star, Crux of Fate, Scavenger Regent
5 Graveyard Recursion: Primevals’ Glorious Rebirth , Spit Flame (self-recursion), Rivaz of the Claw, Haven of the Spirit Dragon, Encroaching Dragonstorm
1 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog
9 Tutors: Scion of the Ur-Dragon (kinda), Niv-Mizzet Reborn (mini), Sivitri, Dragon Master , Tiamat, Zurgo and Ojutai (mini), Orb of Dragonkind (mini), Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon, Ureni of the Unwritten (mini), Hellkite Courser
12 Protection: Sivitri, Dragon Master , Rhythm of the Wild , Dragonlord Dromoka , Silumgar, the Drifting Death (self-protection), Dragonlord Ojutai (self-protection), Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm (self-protection), Zurgo and Ojutai (self-protection), Rith, Liberated Primeval, Sapphire Dragon, Call the Spirit Dragons, Ureni, the Song Unending (self-protection), Scavenger Regent (Ward)
13 Card Draw: The Ur-Dragon , Thundermane Dragon (kinda), Garruk’s Uprising , Kindred Discovery , Sarkhan, Fireblood , Temur Ascendancy , Two-Headed Hellkite , Herald’s Horn , Sarkhan Unbroken , Dragon’s Hoard , Dragonhawk, Fate’s Tempest, Herd Heirloom, Parapet Thrasher
12 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Dragonlord Atarka , The Ur-Dragon , Atarka, World Render , Lozhan, Dragons’ Legacy, Scourge of Valkas, Lathliss, Dragon Queen, Sarkhan Unbroken (slow), Dragon Tempest , Dracogenesis, Call the Spirit Dragons, Hellkite Courser,Ureni, the Song Unending
As we see from the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average and seven categories are above the optimal max average. There is a great spike in Ramp category and that happens because we need extreme Ramp to be able to cast our mana-greedy dragons. There are many other categories with exceptional numbers, but we have to take into consideration that those numbers are high because of the many high drops so we need to reach late game to reach our full potential.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
The Ur-Dragon is the cornerstone of our build as it works as a free mana cost reduction by and that is crucial for such a mana-greedy build as our Dragon Tribal. If we manage to cast it, it can even help us ramp more by summoning our Dragons for free from our hand onto the battlefild.
Sarkhan, Fireblood is a top addition to our Dragon Tribal as it works either as an amazing Dragon specific Ramp engine with color fixing or as an average card draw option. Moreover, he has a strong ultimate but we shouldn’t count on it.
Sarkhan Unbroken is another great Sarkhan, that works both as ramp and card draw. In addition he can also summon a 4/4 red dragon token with flying which is not bad for midgame support. Last but not least, he has a hilarious ultimate that can summon our whole deck and can easily end the game. A great addition for our Dragon Tribal.
Chromatic Lantern is a great color fixing mana rock that is optimal in 5-colored decks.
Dragonlord’s Servant and Dragonspeaker Shaman are great Dragon Tribal support cards as they are Dragon mana cost reducers.
Sarkhan, Soul Aflame is a Dragon mana cost reducer, but also can become a copy of any Dragon (whenever one enters), which can be very powerful. A great utility card for our Dragon Tribal.
Ramos, Dragon Engine is true to its name, a true engine helping both with mana production and color fixing for our Dragons. A great utility card for our Dragon Tribal!
Morophon, the Boundless is optimal for our Dragon Tribal as we have a 5-color identity and our deck is quite color intense, running mutiple multicolored Dragons and even some 5-colored ones so it becomes a powerful tool offering us color fixing along with supreme ramp. It reduces the mana cost of our Dragons by 
which is insane for our build!
Herald’s Horn is great for every creature tribal deck. It works both as ramp and a kind of card draw, so it is very valuable for our Dragon Tribal.
Dragon’s Hoard is a card that works wonders in Dragon Tribal decks as it combines both ramp and card draw. It greatly fits the flavor of the deck too!
Rivaz of the Claw is another Dragon specific mana producer (producing two mana in any combination of colors) that works also as a Dragon specific Graveyard recursion engine. A top card for Dragon Tribal!
Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient costs a lot, but can produce a vast amount of mana as it produces X mana on any combination of colors where X is the total power of attacking creatures and in our Dragon Tribal that total power can be a quite high number. A great pick for our build.
Orb of Dragonkind is a great Dragon specific mana rock (by paying ,
it produces two mana in any combination of colors) that may also work as a limited one-time Dragon tutor by paying ,. A top pick for Dragon Tribal.
Dracogenesis is one of the best and more powerful cards for Dragon Tribal. With it on the battlefield we can cast all our Dragons for free. No further explaination needed why this card is bonkers in our build. With our deck full of powerful Dragons, it can easily be a finisher.
Mox Jasper is a powerful card but still not overpowered. It is a Mox and it costs 
and taps for one mana of any color, but it needs us to already control a Dragon to be activated, which is a hard prerequisite before turn four in our build. Nevertheless, it is a valuable ramp and colorfixing tool that is too valuable to skip in a 5-colored Dragon Tribal deck.
Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind is a great mana rock as it is also a Haste enabler (as long as that mana is spend on the Dragon that enters), something that is very important on our Dragon Tribal. A great pick for our Dragon Tribal.
Herd Heirloom is a great mana rock for Tribal decks that run many creatures and fits greatly in decks with high power (4+) creatures as by it gives target creature we control with power 4 or greater Trample and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.” A great utility card for our Dragon Tribal.
Encroaching Dragonstorm is an Enchantment that greatly help us with ramp. It costs a bit more that classic ramp spells but it has great synergy with Dragon Tribal as it has “When a Dragon you control enters, return this enchantment to its owner’s hand”. That can make it repeatitive ramp in our deck which is quite powerful. As a side note, we can even recur it from our graveyard whenever a Dragon enters, so it is quite sticky.
Broodcaller Scourge costs a lot but makes all our Dragons ramp engines, as “Whenever one or more Dragons you control deal combat damage to a player, you may put a permanent card with mana value less than or equal to that damage from your hand onto the battlefield”. A top pick for our Dragon Tribal.
Target Removal
Scalelord Reckoner ranks high in synergy with our Dragon Tribal as it punishes opponents that target our Dragons with spells or abilities by letting us destroy target nonland permanent each time that happens. A great pick for our deck!
Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire is an Elder Dragon that can be used as a great removal option with a drawback of having the chance to summon something big for our opponents , but at the same time it can be used as ramp by sacrificing a small creature or token to get a powerful (but random) Dragon from our deck in its place. The fact that we chose the permanents that are sacrificed for each player, turns the scales to our side most of the time.
Dragonlord Silumgar on ETB let us take control of target creature or planeswalker as long as Dragonlord Silumgar is on the battlefield. With Flying and Deathtouch, it is another great Dragonlord for our Dragon Tribal.
Dragon Tempest is one of the best cards for Dragon Tribal as it offers both Haste to our Dragons (which is huge) and acts as a repeatable target removal. On Dragon ETB, it deals X damage to target creature or player where X is the number of Dragons we control. Because we can target a player too, it can even act as a finisher for our build.
Scourge of Valkas is another great source of repeatable target removal. Like Dragon Tempest , on Dragon ETB, it deals X damage to target creature or player where X is the number of Dragons we control and can also act as a finisher.
Sapphire Dragon can be tutored by Dragon tutors and (the adventure part) can act as a counterspell for noncreature spells which can be used either as removal or as protection. Moreover, it can be later be cast as a Dragon, offering us even more Dragon Tribal synergy.
Sarkhan’s Unsealing is a repeatable removal option with the potential to be a one-sided board wipe (by casting a creature with power 7 or greater). Our Dragons have high power so we can trigger it very often and it becomes a powerful removal tool for our Dragon Tribal
Ureni, the Song Unending has a powerful ETB, dealing X damage divided as we choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers our opponents control, where X is the number of lands we control. It is great for removing multiple threats at once. In addition in comses with a 10/10 body, Flying and protection from white and from black, so with Haste it can be a finisher. A great pick for our Dragon Tribal.
Wasitora, Nekoru Queen is great as can be used as a removal by dealing damage to an opponent, forcing them to sacrifice a creature and if they can’t, we summon the famous Cat Dragons. Flying and Trample make it easy for her to deal damage so she is a valuable tool for our Dragon Tribal.
Lozhan, Dragons’ Legacy can’t deal damage to commanders, but can easily devastate everything else. In our Dragon Tribal the mana value of our Dragons is quite high, so it is an amazing repeatable creature removal and a potential finisher.
Gluttonous Hellkite is causing each player to sacrifice X creatures. In 4-player games it becomes optimal and can be a great removal tool while at the same time it can be buffed so much that (with Flying and Trample) it can easily become a hidden finisher.
Parapet Thrasher is a flexible card that triggers whenever one or more Dragons we control deal combat damage to an opponent. It let us choose one that hasn’t been chosen this turn:
- Destroy target artifact that opponent controls.
- This creature deals 4 damage to each other opponent.
- Exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn.
It power lies in flexibility, and combined with its cheap mana cost (for a Dragon) it is a great inclusion in our Dragon Tribal.
Board Wipes
Balefire Dragon is an top card for our Dragon Tribal and an exceptional card in any red deck. By dealing combat damage to a player, it deals damage equal to its power (min 6) to each creature that player controls so it becomes an one-sided wipe (and one that can be repeatable). A trully powerful card!
Ryusei, the Falling Star is another Dragon that can cause a board wipe, but that happens on death trigger, so it is quite worse and cannot be repeated, unless we recur Ryusei. Nevertheless, the fact that it affects only creatures without flying, makes it a nice choice for our Dragon Tribal since all our Dragons have Flying.
Crux of Fate is the ultimate board wipe spell for Dragon Tribal, since we can destroy all non-Dragon creatures, leaving our board intact.
Silumgar, the Drifting Death comes with Dragon Tribal synergy. The more Dragons we have attacking, the better it gets and it can be an amazing repeatitive wipe. Even in wort case of having just one Dragon, it can destroy 1/1 creatures and tokens so it can be very useful.
Sivitri, Dragon Master has a kind of Crux of Fate ultimate, which is amazing for Dragon Tribal. We cannot count on it since it needs some setup, but it is so powerful that it worths to be mentioned.
Scavenger Regent has as Sorcery-Omen that costs 
and is a one sided board wipe in our Dragon Tribal (Each non-Dragon creature gets -X/-X until end of turn). Moreover, it can be used as a cheap Dragon in case we need early board presence. Its power lies in flexibility. A top ulitily card for our build.
Graveyard Recursion
Primevals’ Glorious Rebirth works wonders in our Dragon Tribal build since most of our Dragons are Legendary creatures and the fact that we can recur them at once onto the battlefield is just insane.
Rivaz of the Claw as we have already mentioned above, can be a great grave recursion tool. A top pick for our Dragon Tribal.
Haven of the Spirit Dragon is a Land with Dragon Tribal synergy and by paying 
, and sacrrificing it, it can return a Dragon from our graveyard to our hand. Another top pick for our deck.
Graveyard Hate
Bojuka Bog is a staple for graveyard hate.
Tutors
Tiamat is an exceptional tutor for Dragon Tribal as on ETB it tutors 5 (!) Dragons into our hand as long as we cast it. One of the best cards for our build.
Scion of the Ur-Dragon can tutor any Dragon into our graveyard for and most importantly it can become a copy of it until end of turn, which is a powerful ability.
Sivitri, Dragon Master has a Dragon tutor ability which comes in handy in our Dragon Tribal build.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn has a limited tutor effect that cares for multicolored Dragons. In our Dragon Tribal, because we have many multicolored Dragons with a diversity in color pairs, it can become a great tutor.
Zurgo and Ojutai has a limited tutor effect that let us search the top three cards of our library and put one card into our hand. It can be repeatitive, and has extra Dragon Tribal synergy as it triggers whenever one or more Dragons we control deal combat damage to a player or battle. A great card for our Dragon Tribal.
Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon can greatly help in color fixing when we cast Dragons while by paying 
, and sacrificing it, we can tutor a Dragon from our library to our hand. A great Land for Dragon Tribal!
Ureni of the Unwritten costs a lot, but is an amazing late ramp tool, as by entering or attacking it let us look at the top eight cards of our library and put a Dragon creature card from among them onto the battlefield. If we have a haste enabler, we can get two triggers at once. A top card for our Dragon Tribal!
Hellkite Courser is a very unique card that works wonders in our Dragon Tribal, as on ETB it can tutor The Ur-Dragon onto the battlefild with Haste until end of turn, and that give us an enormous chances to finish the game or gain a great advantage. That happens because our commander is a 10/10 with Flying and if we add up its powerful abilities to draw cards and play a Dragon from free, then we can undestand that even one attack can give us a huge tempo boost and even prove fatal.
Protection
Rhythm of the Wild protects our Dragons from counterspells which is crucial because if their high casting cost. Moreover, it gives our nontokens creatures Riot which is very important as it can act as a Haste enabler which makes our Dragons a real menace.
Dragonlord Dromoka is a great protection card for our Dragon Tribal as it disables opponents from casting spells during our turn which is huge (protecting our Dragons from counterspells among others). In addition it comes with a self-protection ability itself, being uncounterable. One of the best cards for Dragon Tribal.
Rith, Liberated Primeval practically gives all Dragons Ward which is a great protection for our Dragon Tribal. In addition, it acts as a Dragon token producer and that makes it a top pick for our build.
Silumgar, the Drifting Death , Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm, Ureni, the Song Unending, Scavenger Regent and Zurgo and Ojutai are Dragons with self-protection which is important as we invest much to cast them.
Card Draw
The Ur-Dragon can be an insane source of card draw, but first we will have to cast it, so it is not very dependable as a draw source due to its mana cost.
Temur Ascendancy and Garruk’s Uprising are great in any deck with many high mana cost creatures as we can expect to draw many cards from them. Garruk’s Uprising gives our Dragons Trample so it is extra valuable as it provides our Dragon Tribal another evasion path if Flying isn’t enough. Temur Ascendancy gives our creatures Haste, so it can also make our Dragons a real menace.
Kindred Discovery is great in creature tribal decks. It also provides card draw on attacking, so it promotes aggro and can give us amazing value.
Herald’s Horn also works great in creature tribal decks with potential for repeatitive card draw.
Two-Headed Hellkite let us draw 2 cards whenever it attacks and that can happen directly as it comes with Haste and having both Flying and Menace make it hard to be blocked. A great pick for our Dragon Tribal.
Dragonhawk, Fate’s Tempest is a great source of impulse draw as it triggers both on ETB and by attacking. Moreover, it can drain our opponents as it deals 2 damage per exiled card to each opponent at the beggining of our next end step.
Thundermane Dragon offers us card advantage by letting us play creature spells with power 4 or greater from the top of your library. Moreover, if we cast a creature this way, it gains haste until end of turn, which is huge in our build. A top card for our Dragon Tribal.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Call the Spirit Dragons works wonders in our 5-colored Dragon Tribal. It can easily work as an alternate win condition with its second ability (At the beginning of your upkeep, for each color, put a +1/+1 counter on a Dragon you control of that color. If you put +1/+1 counters on five Dragons this way, you win the game). Moreover, it gives our Dragons Indestructible, which is just insane. A must-have card for our build.
Atarka, World Render gives our Dragons double strike which can be fatal in our Dragon Tribal with so many powerful Dragons with Flying. Great addition to our Dragon Tribal.
Ureni, the Song Unending and The Ur-Dragon ar some of our biggest Dragons, but almost most of our Dreagons can act as finishers as they all have high stats and Flying which is a form of Evasion.
Lozhan, Dragons’ Legacy, Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest can also act as finishers as they can target players.
Lathliss, Dragon Queen deserves a special mention among our Dragon token creators because the its ability triggers on Dragon ETB so it can easily flood the board with Dragon in a few turns. Moreover, by paying it can buff at instant speed our Dragons with +1/+0 until end of turn so it can be a finisher.
Other synergy pieces
Great Dragons
Dragonlord Kolaghan is an Elder Dragon with Flying and Haste that gives all our creatures Haste, which is very important in our Dragon Tribal.
Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is one of the best cards of our Dragon Tribal, as whenever a nontoken Dragon enters, it let us create a copy of it even if it is Legendary, as the token it creates isn’t Legendary. With so many great Legendary Dragons, having a way to double them, seems insane. A must-have card for our build!
Utvara Hellkite is a powerful Dragon token creator as whenever a Dragon attacks, we create a 6/6 red Dragon token with Flying. It only needs 1-2 turns to get out of hand with our Tragon Tribal build.
Other
Cascading Cataracts is a great color fixing Land that helps us cast our color intense Dragons as by paying 
, we add five mana in any combination of colors. It has Indestructible, so it can’t be removed easily. Haven of the Spirit Dragon and Temple of the Dragon Queen are also Lands with Dragon Tribal synergy that help us with color fixing.
The World Tree is a powerful Land that as long as we control 6 or more Lands, it gives all our Lands the ability to to add one mana of any color, which works wonders in our Dragon Tribal which is very color intense.
Cave of the Frost Dragon is a Land that by paying , it becomes a 3/4 white Dragon creature with Flying until end of turn and has synergy with our Dragon Tribal.
Dragon Token Producers : 7 cards
Haste Enablers : 6 cards
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve seems quite abnormal but we have to take into consideration the mana reduction by that we have available by our commander The Ur-Dragon. With that in mind, I’ve created a corrected mana curve that reflects the “real” mana curve of our Dragon Tribal. There are many drops at positions 5-6, a great spike at position 5 and an absence of many 1-2 drops. We see that we need to calculate the mana cost reduction in order to analyze our deck properly, or else we could take some bad decisions. For example, if we only look at the “normal” mana curve then we could think we should add more 4 mana drops, while we see at the corrected mana curve that such a move could be disastrous.
Card Type Distribution
The Dragon Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant creature-heavy theme with 38 creatures. All other categories have a much smaller presence with Instants at 1, Enchantments at 8, Sorceries at 5, Artifacts at 8 and Planeswalkers at 3. No Battles are present for the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with our commander The Ur-Dragon, and the Ramp strategy, the overall mana production and color fixing of our deck is much higher than average so we can include some mana-greedy and/or color intense Dragons with a high chance of being playable.
Upgrade v1 (Tarkir: Dragonstorm)
Now you can buy the whole deck list with a click of a button!
Great news! Now you can buy the best custom Dragon tokens made by Mystic Tokens to accompany your Dragon Tribal deck! Buy now on Cardmarket at a special price!
If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
