Might of The Ur-Dragon's Brood Primer

<WIP> Primer
My first and favorite paper deck.
Power level (based on my playgroup): high power Casual EDH (6.5) (6.5 because of no fast mana rocks. On my scale is 8 the highest for Casual EDH decks)
Current deck tried to win around turn 6 or 7 and can with lots of luck kill one player at earliest turn 3 and the table turn 4.

>Introduction

Ok, this is my favorite deck so im writing a primer for it. Nobody will probably read it, but that does not matter. I have played a lot of card games, mostly on digital platforms. Then some of my friends got me to start playing paper Commander. My first deck was the The Ur-Dragon precon. I know that 5 -colour decks is not the best starting point for magic decks, but it was a new format for me and I just love dragons. My favorite colour combination is Jund(Black Green and Red) and my favorite arch-type is Reanimator. I relly enjoy the deck and have been upgrading it the whole time. There are some cards that I'm not putting in because it does not fit the aimed at power level and my current playgroup has banned mana positive mana rocks (Sol Ring, Mana crypt, mana vault, ...) and infinite loops and infinite combos that win the game, but if somebody request it then I can try to make a no budget deck list, but The Ur-Dragon will probably never be a commander for a cEDH deck because he is too slow.

>Deck History

The deck started as the Precon for The Ur-Dragon. Precons are a good starting point for a deck type that you have nothing for, but pre-cons have bad mana bases and the theme was not as clear cut as I wanted. After two or three games i decided that i needed to improve the deck to keep up with the other players decks. So i googled and found EDHREC and the page with stats for cards that people put in and cards that they cut from their precon. My focus was on a better manabase and more fun and powerful dragons. I also researched other decks and primers like Ur-dragons multiverse onslaught primer, this primer was a big inspirasjon for my deck and manabase.

So the first thing that i did after i got the deck and played it a couple of times was finding out what cards was other players upgrading there The Ur-Dragon deck with and making my own list. and a core of Gruul started to form as a lot of dragons have red in there colours and green had ramp to get the needed mana. The first thing that was upgraded was the mana base. Solid 5 colour mana bases are expensive, but it has alot of cards that is used in other decks and my playgroup is ok with proxis and i prefer not to proxi cards i don't own, unless they are very expensive and than it would just be for playtesting to see if I want to buy it. The decks design was based on playing Dragons and killing my opponents with combat damage. As a Student at that time, my budget was not endless so the most expensive part of the deck was the mana base because mana is important. Than i slowly bought the dragons that i liked and tried to fit them into the list and later refining after playing some games. The first iterations of the deck was slow, but it got better as i got better as a player and the deck got new and better toys like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
Because my group is more casual, the deck was build around facing 3 opponents. And i like the variety the deck give to each game by running few tutors. Sure tutors would make the deck more powerful and i would probably swap some of the creatures for the tutors, but i like my deck as it is. I am not that big of a fan of counterspells, i know they are good and needed to stop some combo decks, but as stated earlier this is not a deck that i expect to win each game so some flaws is ok in my mind. The deck is also very colour hungery, this can be a problem vs. land hate and some stax pieces.

I'm updating the deck after every set release if there are cards that might fit the deck.
You can find notes about the changes to the deck in the decks revisions page

>Why play "The Ur-Dragon"?

You might like this deck if

• You like dragons
• You like winning through combat damage
• You like playing big creatures
• Don't want to play Sol Ring
• Like making lots of treasure with "Old Gnawbone"
• Like to be proactive and not reactive

You might dislike this deck if

• Dislike Dragon tribal
• Dislike the combat Step
• Dislike 5-colour decks
• Dislike some of the Commander "staple" cards that's in the deck
• Love Sol Ring
• Don't like "Oath of Druids"
• Like to be reactive over proactive

>Alternative Commanders

You can also try:

• Tiamat - She is slower than The Ur-dragon, but fills your hand on cast
• Scion of the Ur-dragon - Would work, but there are decks better suited for using it. Scion decks tend to be more linear in playstyle, tutering up the same dragon comboes to kill with commander damage.
• Morophon, the Boundless - Normaly slower for playing dragons, but can be very explosive with the commander on the table
• Esika, God of the Tree - Would probably fokus on the Prismatic bridge, but turn 3 mana dork in to a turn 4 5-mana Dragon is not bad. Would be better with topdeck manipulation in the deck.
• Kenrith, the Returned King - This commander can do most things for 5-colour decks, mainly giving haste and trample, drawing cards and returning creatures from graveyard.

>Deck Tech + Some Deck Specs

!Written for Deck revision 88!

My playstyle

Mulligan until you get a hand with 3 lands and something to play before turn 5 or 2 lands and turn 2 ramp. What starting hands are keepable are depending on your play group so some might want to mulligen for faster hands or more greedy hands, just remember that the deck mainly draw from draw engines so try not to mulligan to lower than 5 cards.

Our goal at the start of the game is to accumulate resources so that we have 6 mana and a haste enabler. As dragons tend to be big treats, try to keep at least one in play to protect your self and as a bargaining chip. Our goal is to go for an explosive play in the mid game to try and win the game.

Our primery explosive play is trying to put Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm and Hellkite Courser on the board on the same turn to temporary put 36+ CMC
(6 in Miirym, 6 X2 in Hellkite Courser and the copy and 9 X2 in The Ur-Dragon and token + whatever you put out with The Ur-Dragon trigger X2)
For what we try to put out with The Ur-Dragon's trigger the main goals are Old Gnawbone and/or Fiery Emancipation.

Our Primary way to put out Miirym and Hellkite Courser on the same turn is:

• Defense of the Heart
• Sneak Attack
• Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded

Defense of the heart is the fastest, possible to do proc on your turn 4, but it depends on your opponents to play creatures or you using Forbidden Orchard without them killing the tokens. And it needs both creatures to be in the library.
The second fastest is Sneak Attack and it's not dependant on your opponents it will cost in total 6 mana and if an opponent has an effect that makes creatures enter tapped or you don't have haste it possible to Sneak Attack in the creatures on the end step before your turn to untap them and have them from the start of your turn as both Sneak Attack and Hellkite Courser trigger there negative effect at the start of the next end step.
Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded can be used in the same way as sneak attack, but it cost 11 mana to do in one turn unlike Sneak Attack so you probably have to first play Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded and the next turn if you have 6 mana put out the dragons. The advantage with Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded over Sneak Attack is that the token copies of Hellkite Corser and the Ur-Dragon can attack to digging you deeper with the Ur-Dragon tiggers.

Bonus for Sneak Attack and Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded is if you have Teferi's veil on the table tha you get to keep the creatures you attacked with and ignore the negative trigger because they are phased out when the trigger happens.

My backup plan and one of my favorite things is:

• Oath of Druids
• The Prismatic Bridge

Just cheating out a creature for free every turn. (Warning!: Oath of Druids is symetrical and put cards in graveyard so be careful because around graveyard players and big creature deck)
I find oath to be fun and some card have good synergy with it (Life from the Loam, Spit Flame, Uro, titan of Nature's Wrath). If people are not putting out creatures to not trigger it, than is kind of a stax piece that lets us set up our enchantments in peace and we can force it with Forbidden Orchard.
The Prismatic Bridge is just upside but cost more mana to play.
This is my main way to deal with mass land destruction because it still put out our creatures.

The Backup-Backup plan is Magda and Smothering Tithe to make an army as our opponents gives us creasures.
(have won of this as my opponent tried to Dark Deal and win after, but I killed him instant speed with Terror of the peaks and Scourge of Valkas)

Edit: I took out Patriarch's Bidding because of the amount of graveyard hate in the group and the players don't give it time enough to naturally fill the graveyard. Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Survival of the fittest could fill the graveyard but i swapped out Survival so I testing new cards to see if I miss Patriarch's Bidding. TLDR; Patriarch's Bidding is good if there is not too much graveyard hate but I am currently testing new cards.

Ramp:

The deck is currently running 18 "ramp" cards:
-6 land ramp
-4 mana rocks
-2 mana dorks
-6 temporary ramp (for example making treasure tokens)

Interaction:

Interaction in this deck is mostly creature based on needing creatures to enter the battlefield under our control or through attacking. This makes most of the decks interaction to be sorcery speed unless Sneak Attack is involved.
Testing Spit Flame as most commanders in my playgroup die to 4 damage and it recurable for 1 red mana and works great with my pet card Ebondeath, Dracolich.

Tutors:

Dragon tutors in : Tiamat, Draconic Muralists and Scion of the Ur-dragon.
Creature tutor in : Defense of the Heart
Enchantment Tutor : Sterling Grove
Land Tutor : Kura, the Boundless Sky
Flexible tutor in : Demonic Tutor

Main targets for Dragon tutor are Hellkite Courser, Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm, Old Gnawbone, Scourge of Valkas/Terror of The Peaks or any dragons that fit your current situasation
For Defense of the heart: depends on situation but generally Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm and Hellkite Courser or Dragonlord Dromoka and Hellkite Courser if you belive opponents have instant speed interaction with your play
For enchantment tutor, depends on situation but Haste enabler or one of the card to try to do our explosive play with Hellkite Courser and Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm.
For lands just get the most useful lands from your deck, Boseiju, Who Endures are useful as a recurable removal spell with Life from the Loam. You can use the "Triome lands"(Ketria Triome, Jetmir's Garden and Ziatora's Proving Ground) for draw in very slow games. Haven of the Spirit Dragon can be used to get back an important Dragon.

Card draw:

13 draw sources

• 4 Draw spells
• 9 Draw engines

>Some card Inclutions and exclutions with explanations

Exclutions

Mana Positive Mana Rocks: Banned in my playgroup and not the power level I want for the deck. Would make the fastest possible win for the deck earlier so would make the deck stronger add them if you want.
Duel Lands: Not within my budget.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund: Was removed from the deck because someone i played with always bribary'ed it. Its bad vs cloning effects too.
Urza's Incubator: While its great for tribal decks, the impact it has for the deck was not too big, so i made the decision to swap it for Arcane Signet to help cast all spells in the deck

Inclutions

Oath of Druids: Oath is an interesting and risky card because it symmetrical. So we need to be a bit careful when we play it, if our opponents have bigger and scarier creatures or like to put non-creature cards into graveyard, then maybe holding on to it until you are in an situation where they can't take to much advantage from Oath of druids is the right option. But most decks are not built to take advantage of Oath of Druid and sometimes letting another player get a scary creature out can be good to take off aggro from you. From my experience Oath are either a soft stax card making opponents not play out creatures which gives us time to build up our mana or gives us a free creature each turn for free value. If people ignore it than it accelerate the game which are mostly good for the deck. TLDA; is good value, but can be risky.
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath: Great for long games and against mill decks, it's "ramp", life gain and draw in one card. Also triggers Garruk's Uprising, Temur Ascendancy, The Great Henge, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Terror of the Peaks.
Cyclonic Rift: Very powerful and flexible card, would swap for Blasphemous Act if not available or if people ban Cyclonic Rift from their playgroup.
Stinging Study: We can die from playing it if we don't have enough life, but it is draw 9 cards instant speed. Its great for sneak attack or refilling our hand in the midgame/lategame.
Teferi's Protection: The card wins games when played at the right time, and its great with Sneak Attack and Hellkite Courser, because you can't sacrifice or return to command zone creatures that are phased out. This lets us keep our expensive commander or the army we cheated out with sneak attack.
Steely Resolve: Great tribal card, nothing more to say.
Binding the Old Gods: Was added to give me more interaction. the card slot was previously Skyshroud Claim. It has worked out great so far. + 3 lore counter with Terror of the Peaks can be fun :)
Ebondeath, Dracolich: More of a pet card than a good option. it has it upsides like scion can put it in to graveyard, nice for triggering card draw enchantments, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, terror of the peaks, scourge of valkas and dragon tempest for only 3 mana or for rebuilding a board after a boardwipe. + it can help ramp out the great henge on turn 4.

>Mana curve with The Ur-Dragon as commander

The curve shown in Deckstats are more or less the curve of the deck. The cost reduction from The Ur-Dragon's eminence ability is accounted for by using deckstats override funtion to lower the cost in the shown curve. The only strange/ notable thing is that i excluded Scion of Draco from the mana curve. This is because its 12-mana cost is never paid in full, and in most cases will cost 1 or 3 mana within turn 3. The varietions in cost makes it hard to put on a spot on the curve, so i removed it to better show the deck's mana curve.

>List of Cards in current decklist under testing:

The Kami War
-- Pros: More interaction, good to put down with The Ur-Dragon trigger. O-Kagachi Made Manifest can be great for slower, longer games
-- Cons: The card is expensive and hard to cast or cheat in and it is slow. Not like higher impact card like Fiery Emancipation or The Great Henge.
Reconnaissance
-- Pros: Great card for getting attack triggers and still keep up defenses. Has some nice interations with Dragonlord Ojutai giving him permanent hexproof, free way to tap Magda, Brazen Outlaw through attacking, Glorybringer can exert every turn. Great effect for the deck For a low cost. From the small amount of testing done, It has preformend very well.
-- Cons: Can't be used on dragons with Steely Resolve on the table.
Authority of the Consuls
-- Pros: Testing to add more life gain to offset the life loss from the land base and slow down aggro from opponents.
-- Cons: Nothing to bad, can have little impact late in the game
Black Market Connections
-- Pros: Draws cards, makes Treasure and Can make Dragons*(they are changelings)
-- Cons: Slow value, does nothing when played, forced loss of life, can and probably will cost a lot of life(but if you ever use Sylvan library to draw 1 extra card than this is a good deal)
Glorybringer
-- Pros: Haste 4/4, possible multiple times interaction with non-dragons, good to get from the Prismatic bridge or from Oath of Druids, can be found with dragon tutor effects. Nice Art :)
-- Cons: The 1 turn staying tapped from exerting is bad as 1 turn is slower and more dangerous in commander than in 1vs1 formats. Not Instant speed, Opponents have time to interact before you us it ability.
Firkraag, Cunning Instigator
-- Pros: Can draw card, has haste, trigger on attacking dragons. Toski, bearer of Secrets trigger its ability if it hits an opponent.
-- Cons: Hard to draw cards, has 3 power, can only goad 1 creature per player(needs 3 Dragons attacking a different players)
Painful Truths:
-- Pros: 3 mana + 3 life for 3 cards = good value and efficient. Wnted more early draw to help with hitting lands in the early game
-- Cons: Need for 3 mana of different colour, loss of life.