[Duel Commander] Zirilan

[ApothecaryGeist]

Zirilan

[crimsonking]

Hi,
I don't play Duel Commander, so I have no idea how a normal EDH deck will play out in that format, but I've had a Zirilan deck since many years now, so I think you may want to take a look at it anyway:
https://deckstats.net/decks/54477/386493-zirilan-s-deck
The main point is that, provided you have something like Minion Reflector or Flameshadow Conjuring (or Molten Echoes, although my deck doesn't play it), if you tutor for Worldgorger Dragon with Zirilan of the Claw, you can win on the spot.
Regardless of if you want to run the combo or not, here are some general comments:

• You can surely improve your land compartment by adding stuff like Ancient Tomb, Crystal Vein etc.
• You definitely need more ramp. Stuff like Mana Vault and Fellwar Stone are a must (I guess even Mind Stone would be fine).
• If you're playing Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, I suggest you to put more land ramp, like Myriad Landscape etc.
• Crucible of the Spirit Dragon is a trap card. It's too slow and you're not playing that many dragons to really justify it, after all. Moreover, your plan is to cheat them into play with Zirilan, not to actually cast them and, even so, stuff like Urza's Incubator would be better.
• I don't see how Curse of Opulence could be worth it in this deck, especially in 1-vs-1. I mean, you're not going to attack that often and, when you do, you're likely to have already plenty of mana.
• Crucible of Fire is another trap card. Think about it: 4 mana to give a dragon +3/+3, provided you have one in play... If you ever get to have more than one dragon in play, you're already kind of winning (and that's surely because you didn't waste time casting this).
• Stuff like Scroll Rack and Winds of Change help you shuffle costy dragons from your hand back into your library, so that you could tutor them with Zirilan.
• Changeling Berserker might be a valid option to protect your commander at instant speed.
• Dragon Tyrant is possibly the best dragon you can tutor for, when it comes to beat faces.
• I don't think you have enough discard outlets to reliably have Anger in your graveyard.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Hi,
I don't play Duel Commander, so I have no idea how a normal EDH deck will play out in that format

I've only played Duel a handful of times so far.  My LGS runs a Duel tournament once a month.  With prize support. 


Duel plays a lot like cEDH, except that all the fast mana is banned.  Very incremental mana advantage has proven to be very effective for me.  Lotus Petal was The Bomb before it was banned a few months ago.


The early turns are very important when you only have one opponent.


You have given a lot of advice for someone who admitted they have no idea how Duel plays out.  Many of the cards you suggested are banned in the format, like Ancient Tomb and Mana Vault.


Card evaluation is much different in a 1v1 format.  Much like card evaluation differs a lot between Standard and multiplayer Commander.  1v1 is not quite as solved a multi-player.  Winds of Change and other wheels are horrible in 1v1.  You never want to give your opponent more cards.  All of them will get used against you.


I admit that many of the cards I am trying out to see how well they work in Duel.  Like Curse of Opulence.  It is only one mana; and I plan to attack.


I don't need many sac outlets of Anger to be useful.  Discard is a very common tactic in duel.  Much more useful than in multi-player.


Direct damage is much more useful in Duel too, as the starting life total is 20.


With all due respect Crimsonking, please save your lengthy bullet-pointed advice for a format you have some knowledge about.

[crimsonking]

I mean, I don't need to be an expert of the format to understand that a mono-colored commander that costs 5 mana and does nothing until next turn (even if you grant it haste, it's 3 mana to activate. You do the math...) is not a good pick for 1-v-1.
Moreover, you're not even going for the combo kill, you're kind of activating it for value (or so you believe...).
As you said, I'm surely missing something fundamental here, because I thought I were looking at a mediocre deck that could only get decent at best, now I see I'm facing someone who knows better and wants to play tournaments with it.
What to say? Good luck. Let me know if you manage to ever win a game...