The Greatest Dragons in EDH

Magic’s dragons are the ultimate outlet for those of us who are Timmies at heart. They’re almost universally big, splashy powerful creatures that will win games quickly if you can cast them and keep them in play. Sure, they are always magnets for removal in Commander thanks to their ability to deal huge chunks of evasive damage on top of their powerful abilities. But that respect is well justified – decks that can ramp up enough to regularly cast five, six and seven drop dragons will win many an EDH game.

Dragons have been around in magic for a long time, and they offer an embarrassment of riches when it comes to powerful EDH choices. They’re even stronger in dedicated dragon decks that can play off their synergies, and many of the cards in this list – though by no means all – are perfect in dragon tribal. Let’s run down the strongest of them all.

Honorable Mention - Kokusho, the Evening Star

Kokusho fell just short of making our main list, but her power to swing a game in commander is undeniable. As a classic dragon, she of course comes with the large flying body you’d expect, but her real power is in death.

On dying, assuming all your opponents are still in the game, Kokusho will drain them for a massive 15 life, boosting your life total by the same amount. That’s a huge lifeswing, and can suddenly make games winnable where otherwise your life total might have fallen hopelessly low. She gives your opponents a major dilemma about whether or not to remove her, particularly later in the game when their life totals may already be perilously low.

Combine with instant-speed sacrifice outlets like Vampiric Rites to take the decision out of your opponents’ hands and offer yourself the option to drain for 15 whenever you choose.

10. Dragonlord Dromoka

Part of the cycle of powerful dragonlords from Tarkir, for our money Dragonlord Dromoka is the strongest of them all when it comes to commander.

He’s completely uncounterable and hits for a whopping five lifelink damage in the air, allowing you to push damage while padding your own life total. But his most eyecatching ability is his last one, effectively a blanket ban on your opponents casting spells during your turn. That’s absolute gold-dust in any deck that relies on hitting with big threats, preventing your opponents from messing with your combat step at instant speed and effectively making everything you do during your turn uncounterable too. That will hurt some decks far more than others, but it’s brutal against controlling blue decks. That’s important because they can be one of the biggest foils to the types of deck Dragonlord Dromoka will find himself in thanks to their ability to cheaply counter expensive plays and put you at a serious mana disadvantage.

Say no to counterspells with Dragonlord Dromoka today!

9. Teneb, the Harvester

Teneb is a fantastic reanimation tool for dragon decks, and for any reanimator deck that can provide access to his colours.

Like many dragons, the ability does have the drawback of requiring him to connect with an opponent for damage, which is what keeps him toward the bottom of our list. But a 6/6 flier isn’t exactly trivial to block, and the effect is one of the strongest combat damage triggers available on any dragon. With a properly stocked graveyard, this can end up putting some of the most powerful creatures in Magic into play for two and a black, all while hitting for six in the air. Note too that the ability doesn’t specify that the creature needs to be pulled from your graveyard. In the right matchups, if your opponent is playing reanimator themselves or has just had a powerful creature go to the yard, Teneb threatens to put it right back onto the battlefield under your control. No wonder he looks so smug.

8. Lathliss, Dragon Queen

Lathliss is a card that lives squarely in dragon tribal and nowhere else, but in that archetype she is very hard to match for pure value.

With Lathliss out, every single dragon you put into play generates another 5/5 dragon, that in turn will trigger all your other dragon synergies. That’s an insane amount of evasive power and toughness, particularly given the endless synergies those tokens offer in dragon tribal. It’s especially strong with enter the battlefield triggers that care about dragons entering play, as well as those that don’t like the damage ability of Terror of the Peaks. On top of single-handedly providing her own dragon army, Lathliss also offers a mass firebreathing effect that is stronger than it looks. If you can pump a good amount of mana into her second ability, very few opponents will be able to withstand the sheer flying power she offers.

7. Atarka, World Render

Think your 5/5 and 6/6 fliers aren’t hitting hard enough? Atarka agrees. He’ll double the damage of every one of your dragons that connects with an opponent, as well as enabling them to first strike away other large fliers that might actually be able to trade with them.

Even alone, he’s effectively a 6/4 flying, trample double striker that threatens to end games single handedly. And we haven’t even got to the best part yet. Many dragons have some seriously punishing combat damage triggers, as we’ll see throughout this list. Because Atarka gives them all double strike, in addition to doubling their damage, he will also double every one of those damage triggers. That has the potential to be absolutely back-breaking, particularly as he can be played just before combat when multiple dragons with combat damage triggers are ready to swing in.

Opponents facing your dragon tribal deck will need to be constantly aware of the threat of Atarka dropping on a well-developed board.

6. Ramos, Dragon Engine

Ramos isn’t exactly your typical dragon, mostly because he’s entirely made out of metal. Despite being an artifact castable for six colorless mana, Ramos is designed to be played in five colour decks, and can serve well as a commander in that shell.

If you can cast a five colour spell after playing Ramos, he will immediately grow to a 9/9 flier. But far better than that, he can become a ramping machine. Removing those five counters allows Ramos to generate ten mana, perfectly distributed across the five colours. Needless to say, that will let you cast practically any spell in the history of magic, especially when combined with any additional mana your lands and artifacts can generate. They don’t call this thing the Dragon Engine for nothing.

Ramos is a five-color powerhouse, and it’s hard to imagine not wanting a copy in plenty of dedicated five colour decks that are trying to go big. The card is even stronger in five colour dragons where it can take advantage of all those sweet dragon synergies.

5. Scion of the Ur-Dragon

A five-colour dragon tribal card through and through, Scion of the Ur-Dragon fully deserves its place on this list for being one of the absolute strongest.

When it’s ready to attack, assuming you have a mere two colorless mana to spare, Scion can instantly tutor to become a copy of whichever dragon offers the most devastating attack trigger. The ability isn’t even limited to being cast at sorcery speed, meaning you can wait until after blocks have been declared to pick your opponent’s poison. Possibly literally if you’re running Skithiryx! Even better, the copy effect also puts whichever dragon you chose directly into your graveyard. With a decent suite of graveyard recursion – perhaps even in dragon form via Teneb, the Harvester from earlier in our list - you’re giving yourself instant access to the most powerful dragons in your deck on demand. You can even do this multiple times per turn in response to removal if you really want to load your graveyard with dragons.

Incidentally, this card also pairs perfectly with Ramos, instantly giving it the five counters it needs to generate ten mana across all the colours. It’s also worth noting that if your deck can find room for Morophon, the Boundless (naming dragons), Scion’s normally tricky mana cost suddenly allows it to be cast completely free.

4. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

There have been several versions of Niv-Mizzet, Magic’s second most famous (and second most arrogant) legendary Dragon. Magic’s story establishes him as ruthless and ingenious in equal measure, and his strongest version, Niz-Mizzet, Parun, delivers on both fronts.

For a start, this Niv is uncounterable, meaning he will almost inevitably hit the battlefield. Even if he’s immediately hit by instant-speed removal, he will still generate guaranteed value, drawing you a card and allowing you to point one damage anywhere – ideally at a 1/1 utility creature but failing that at the offending player’s face.

If he sticks around, Niv can completely take over a game. Aside from being a 5/5 flier, every instant or sorcery spell cast around the table will generate you card advantage and targeted damage. That includes your own, so Niv-Mizzet is at his best in dedicated Izzet Spells decks (often as their Commander) running lots of cheap cantrips like Opt that can let you generate enormous value from the Dragon Wizard.

3. Nicol Bolas, the Ravager/Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

Having just named Niv-Mizzett as the second most famous dragon in Magic, it should be no surprise who pips him to the top spot. Nicol-Bolas is probably the premier villain in Magic’s history, and most versions of him in print match his fearsome reputation in the lore.

Usually printed as a pure Planeswalker these days, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager/Nicol Bolas the Arisen offers double value as both a dragon creature in the early game and later an extremely strong planeswalker.

Both sides of Nicol Bolas offer powerful effects, and we’d expect no less from the Forever Serpent himself. As the Ravager, Nicol Bolas is a very efficiently costed flier that offers some great built in card advantage. His discard effect is particularly strong in Commander, where it instantly puts you up three cards against the table as a whole.

If you can keep him around long enough to use his activated ability, Nicol Bolas can be transformed into his Planeswalker form, where he becomes a game-ending threat that needs to be answered within a couple of turns before he can start wiping out opponents. Again, card advantage is the name of the game, with Bolas’ +2 drawing you two cards. He can also minus to remove almost any conceivable target without hexproof or indestructible, or to put any creature from any graveyard straight into play under your control. Most dangerously of all, if your opponents cannot pressure him enough and he’s able to plus a couple of times, Bolas threatens to activate his ultimate and exile an entire library. That will almost inevitably kill the targeted player, and it feels appropriate given Bolas’ infamous cruelty that leaving them with a solitary card gives the victim one more turn to suffer while he savours his victory!

2. The Ur-Dragon

The Ur-Dragon is pure greed made cardboard. This monster is expensive as hell, difficult to cast and doesn’t do anything the turn he enters play without a dragon army to back it up. Despite all that, it absolutely deserves its spot in our top three.

The undisputed king of dragon tribal, the Ur-Dragon makes its presence felt simply by sitting in your command zone. The constant discount on every other dragon you cast is a huge deal, and let’s face it needs to be given that even before Commander tax, the Ur-Dragon costs a massive 9 mana to cast, including requiring every single colour of mana. But that discount on other dragons counters one of the key weaknesses of dragon tribal: the sheer bloated expense of most of its cards!

Don’t underestimate the fact that the effect is absolutely guaranteed either – there is essentially no way for your opponents to interact with it while it sits in your command zone and you will have access to it every game even if you never actually cast the thing, making it the perfect build around. If you ever do actually get to drop the Ur-Dragon into play with other dragons ready to attack, your opponents surely don’t have long to live.

For every dragon you attack with (including the Ur-Dragon itself) you’ll draw a card. That’s already excellent. But far more importantly, you’ll then be able to put any permanent card in your hand right into play for free. As we’ve already discussed, dragon decks love big, greedy and expensive plays, so you should have no shortage of terrifying bombs to drop with this ability.

1. Hellkite Tyrant

The Ur-Dragon may be the king of the dragons, but the most feared dragon in commander is a whole lot cheaper, and just as devastating if it can connect in combat even once.

Commander is a format dominated by artifacts, whether they be powerful enablers like Panharmonicon or Vedalken Orrery or the ever-present mana rocks that players rely on to ramp, particularly in certain colours. In that environment, Hellkite Tyrant threatens one of the biggest swings imaginable if it can hit the right opponent. If your target can’t block it – and bear in mind chumping with something like a 1/1 spirit is not good enough against Hellkite Tyrant because of that all important trample – you will yoink every single one of their artifacts instantly. That’s likely to cripple their manabase while supercharging yours, in addition to giving you control of every other artifact they might have permanently, including even the most powerful artifact creatures like Blightsteel Colossus or Wurmcoil Engine. The Tyrant doesn’t even care if they have hexproof or shroud since it doesn’t target, and just swipes them regardless.

As if that wasn’t enough – spoiler; it already is – Hellkite Tyrant will just outright win you the game if you can hoard twenty total artifacts. That’s not even as insane a number as it sounds when you take into account all the things it can steal, plus easily generated token artifacts like treasures or clues in a deck built around it. That’s just gravy on top of the insane combat damage effect, but it’s just another reason this card is the number one dragon in Commander.

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Jonathan Widnall

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Feb 16, 2021
Jon Widnall

The Greatest Dragons in EDH

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