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The Nine Dragon Rulers of the Skies: Ranking Magic's Most Dominant Scaled Tyrants from Alpha to Tarkir Dragonstorm (Part 2)
#3: Old Gnawbone
Sometimes a card comes along that makes you question everything you thought you knew about Magic design. Old Gnawbone is that card. When Adventures in the Forgotten Realms dropped this seven-mana monster on unsuspecting Commander players, it fundamentally rewired how we think about mana advantage in green decks.
The premise sounds almost quaint: whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, create that many treasure tokens. In practice, this transforms every chip shot into a ritual, every combat step into a treasure hunt. EDHREC shows Old Gnawbone in nearly 30% of eligible green decks – not green dragon decks, all green decks. That's a staggering adoption rate for a seven-mana creature.
Understanding Old Gnawbone's dominance requires appreciating how it breaks Magic's fundamental resource system. Mana is supposed to be finite, growing incrementally each turn. Old Gnawbone laughs at this restriction. Connect with three creatures dealing 10 total damage? Here's 10 treasures. Take an extra combat step? Double your treasure count. God forbid you have any kind of evasion or double strike – the treasure generation becomes genuinely absurd.
The game flow impact is immediate and overwhelming. The turn after Old Gnawbone connects, you often have access to 15-20 additional mana. This isn't ramp in the traditional sense – it's a mana explosion that enables everything from massive X-spells to dumping your entire hand onto the battlefield. Opponents know they can't let Gnawbone untap, but at seven mana with flying, she's surprisingly difficult to prevent from connecting at least once.
Combo potential with Old Gnawbone stretches the definition of "combo" because everything becomes a combo with infinite mana. Aggravated Assault or Hellkite Charger create infinite combats and infinite treasures. Academy Manufactor triples your treasure output. Even fair cards like Pathbreaker Ibex become game-ending when you can generate 30+ mana from a single combat.
Competitively, Old Gnawbone occupies an interesting space. She's too expensive for true cEDH but absolutely dominates high-power casual tables. She's the perfect example of a card that's one mana cost reduction or one piece of fast mana away from breaking into competitive play. In metas where games regularly reach turn seven or eight, she's a must-answer threat that often wins the game on the spot.
What truly sets Old Gnawbone apart is her universality. Unlike many dragons that require tribal support or specific color combinations, Gnawbone slots into any green deck that can afford her mana cost. Stompy decks use her to fuel massive turns. Token strategies leverage go-wide boards for treasure explosions. Even control decks appreciate the mana advantage for holding up interaction while developing their board.
The D&D crossover that brought us Old Gnawbone proved that Wizards understood how to translate the feeling of fighting an ancient dragon into Magic mechanics. In D&D, ancient dragons don't just threaten with their attacks – they fundamentally alter the economics of any encounter with their massive hoards. Old Gnawbone captures this perfectly, turning combat damage into wealth that reshapes the entire game.
At $25-30, Old Gnawbone might seem expensive for a single card, but she's proven to be worth every penny. She's one of those cards that immediately upgrades any deck she's added to, providing both a must-answer threat and a value engine that can win games by itself. In a format increasingly defined by efficiency and optimization, Old Gnawbone offers something different: raw, overwhelming power that's still fun for everyone at the table (except the people getting beaten down by treasure-fueled nonsense).
#2: The Ur-Dragon
There are commanders that enable archetypes, and then there's The Ur-Dragon – a card so fundamentally powerful it doesn't just enable dragon tribal, it defines it. When Wizards designed this nine-mana monster for Commander 2017, they created something special: a legendary creature that impacts the game from the command zone before ever being cast.
The numbers tell the story. The Ur-Dragon helms over 11,000 decks on EDHREC, making it the single most popular dragon tribal commander by an almost embarrassing margin. It appears in virtually every five-color dragon deck as either the commander or in the 99. These aren't inflated numbers from a new release – The Ur-Dragon has maintained this dominance for over seven years.
Eminence is a controversial ability, and The Ur-Dragon showcases why. "Dragon spells you cast cost 1 less to cast" doesn't read like much, but the mana advantage compounds quickly. Your five-mana dragons come down on turn four. Your seven-mana bombs land on turn six. In a tribe already defined by expensive, powerful creatures, this discount fundamentally changes the deck's curve and speed.
But The Ur-Dragon offers so much more than cost reduction. When it finally hits the battlefield (and with the cost reduction, it's easier than you'd think), it brings an overwhelming board presence. Flying and a 10/10 body demand respect, but the attack trigger is what breaks games open: draw cards equal to the number of attacking dragons, then put a permanent from your hand onto the battlefield.
Let that sink in. In a deck full of dragons, you're drawing 3-5 cards and cheating something into play. That "something" could be another dragon, a game-ending enchantment, or even a planeswalker. The value generated from a single attack often wins the game on the spot, and that's assuming opponents can even survive the combat damage from your dragon army.
The deck building philosophy around The Ur-Dragon is beautifully straightforward: play dragons, play ramp, play protection, win games. The five-color identity gives access to every dragon ever printed, from efficient beaters like Glorybringer to game-ending bombs like Terror of the Peaks. The challenge isn't finding good dragons – it's deciding which ones to cut.
What makes The Ur-Dragon truly special is how it scales across power levels. In casual pods, it enables the ultimate Timmy fantasy: assembling a massive dragon army and turning them sideways. The deck can be built on a budget using common dual lands and affordable dragons, yet still feel powerful and synergistic. Increase the budget, and suddenly you're playing with Ancient Gold Dragon, Old Gnawbone, and every other mythic dragon that's ever terrorized a table.
The Ur-Dragon also created a template for tribal commanders that Wizards continues to follow. Eminence abilities that provide incremental advantage, cost reduction to help expensive tribes compete, and payoffs for going all-in on the tribal theme. Every tribal commander since has been compared to The Ur-Dragon, and most have been found wanting.
From a competitive standpoint, The Ur-Dragon will never be cEDH viable. Nine mana is simply too much, and the strategy is too fair for cutthroat pods. But in the vast middle ground of Commander – from precon level up through high-powered casual – The Ur-Dragon reigns supreme. It's the deck that lets players live their dragon fantasy while still winning games.
The cultural impact extends beyond just deck building. The Ur-Dragon precon introduced countless players to both dragon tribal and five-color mana bases. It showed that tribal decks could be more than just turning creatures sideways – they could generate value, play interaction, and create memorable gameplay moments. Most importantly, it proved that Wizards understood what Commander players wanted: big, splashy effects that felt powerful without being oppressive.
#1: Tiamat
At the pinnacle of our list sits a goddess. When Tiamat was spoiled in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, the Commander community collectively realized that Wizards had finally printed the perfect dragon tribal commander. Not the most powerful in raw stats, not the flashiest ability, but the perfect combination of efficiency, consistency, and inevitability that defines format dominance.
The statistics are overwhelming. Despite being less than three years old, Tiamat has already climbed to become the second most popular dragon commander on EDHREC with over 8,000 decks. She appears in an astounding 40% of five-color dragon decks that don't run her as the commander. For a seven-mana creature in a format full of powerful options, these numbers indicate something special.
To understand Tiamat's dominance, you need to appreciate what she represents: solving Commander's fundamental tension between power and consistency. In a 100-card singleton format, finding your key pieces is challenging. Tutors help but are often expensive or limited. Tiamat says "why choose?" and finds five dragons when she enters the battlefield.
Five cards. Let that sink in. For seven mana, you're getting a 7/7 flying body and tutoring five cards from your deck. In any other format, this would be banned instantly. In Commander, it's merely the best thing you can do with seven mana and a dragon tribal deck.
But Tiamat's genius lies not in raw power but in flexibility. Those five dragons can be anything you need. Grabbing combo pieces? Find Bladewing the Risen and Hellkite Courser for an infinite loop. Need to stabilize? Grab removal on wings like Balefire Dragon and Silumgar, the Drifting Death. Want to end the game next turn? Terror of the Peaks, Scourge of Valkas, and three other dragons usually does the trick.
The game flow impact of Tiamat is unlike any other commander. Before she's cast, you're playing a normal game of Commander. After she resolves, you have inevitability. Your hand is full of threats, each one carefully chosen for the current game state. Opponents know they need to answer not just Tiamat but the five dragons she brought to the party. It's overwhelming in the best possible way.
Competitively, Tiamat pushes the boundaries of what's possible in high-powered casual. While still too expensive for true cEDH, she's fast enough with the right ramp package to compete at tables just below that level. Turn four or five Tiamat is achievable, and at that speed, filling your hand with dragons often means winning within the next turn cycle.
The deck building innovation Tiamat enables is remarkable. Instead of jamming every dragon possible, Tiamat rewards careful curation. You want a toolbox of dragons that serve different purposes, allowing you to find the right answers for any situation. This creates interesting decisions both in deck construction and gameplay – which five dragons solve this particular game state?
What truly cements Tiamat at the top of our list is her effect on the entire dragon tribal archetype. She didn't just provide a new option – she fundamentally changed how players approach dragon decks. Quality over quantity became the mantra. Singleton dragons with powerful effects became more valuable than redundant beaters. The entire evaluation metric for dragons shifted from "is this good in multiples?" to "is this worth tutoring?"
Tiamat also represents perfect flavor translation. In D&D lore, Tiamat is the five-headed dragon goddess, mother of all evil dragons. In Magic, she literally summons five dragons to your hand, each potentially representing one of her aspects. It's a perfect marriage of mechanics and flavor that makes the card feel special beyond just its power level.
At $20-25, Tiamat is surprisingly affordable for the best dragon tribal commander ever printed. She's powerful enough to build around, consistent enough to rely on, and fun enough to keep games interesting. Unlike many commanders that eventually feel solved, Tiamat's toolbox nature means the deck constantly evolves as new dragons are printed.
Most importantly, Tiamat respects what makes Commander special. She's powerful without being oppressive, consistent without being repetitive, and enables big splashy plays while still allowing interaction. She doesn't win immediately upon resolution but creates an inevitable advantage that closes games in satisfying ways.
Building Your Dragon's Hoard
So you’ve seen the best of the best, but how do you actually build around these scaled monsters? The beauty of dragon tribal in 2025 is the variety of viable approaches, each with different budget requirements and power levels. Different dragon species offer unique abilities and synergies for deck construction, allowing you to tailor your strategy to your preferred playstyle.
For those just starting their dragon journey, mono-colored options like Lathliss, Dragon Queen offer the most accessible entry point. A solid Lathliss deck can be built for under $100, focusing on efficient red dragons and basic tribal synergies. You lose the flexibility of multiple colors but gain consistency and avoid expensive mana bases. Key budget all-stars include Dragon Tempest, Dragonlord’s Servant, and Demanding Dragon.
Two-color combinations open up more options while keeping mana bases reasonable. Gruul gives access to both Atarka, World Render and crucial green ramp. Izzet enables spell-slinging dragon strategies with cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun. Rakdos brings the powerful combination of red dragons and black removal. Each color pair offers unique advantages while remaining budget-friendly.
Three-color dragons represent the sweet spot for many players. Temur brings together the best of blue’s protection, red’s dragons, and green’s ramp, with Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm as the perfect commander. Jund offers the value engines of Korvold alongside powerful removal and dragon synergies. Mardu might lack ramp but makes up for it with the best removal suite in the format.
Five-color dragon decks remain the ultimate expression of the tribe, but require significant investment. Beyond the expensive mana base, you need to decide between The Ur-Dragon’s eminence value and Tiamat’s tutoring consistency. Both are viable, with Ur-Dragon favoring aggressive builds that leverage cost reduction and Tiamat rewarding toolbox approaches with carefully curated dragon selections.
Regardless of color combination, certain cards appear in nearly every dragon deck. Dragon’s Hoard provides both ramp and card draw. Herald’s Horn offers cost reduction and card selection. Crucible of Fire turns even modest dragons into serious threats. Each dragon can have a specific job in your deck, such as ramping, providing removal, or serving as a finisher. These tribal staples should be your first acquisitions after selecting a commander.
Protection is crucial for any dragon strategy. Your threats are expensive and obvious, making them prime removal targets. Heroic Intervention, Teferi’s Protection, and Deflecting Swat help ensure your dragons stick around. Don’t skimp on protection to fit more dragons – a few protected threats win more games than many vulnerable ones.
The Future of Dragons
As we look ahead to the rest of 2025 and beyond, the future of dragons in Commander has never been brighter. Tarkir Dragonstorm has already introduced powerful new options, with dragons that explore new design space while respecting the tribe’s traditional strengths. The return to a plane defined by dragons signals Wizards’ continued commitment to supporting the tribe.
The design space for dragons remains surprisingly deep. We still lack efficient dragons in certain color combinations – where’s our Azorius dragon lord? Mechanical space also exists for dragons that care about different zones, phase mechanics, or even partner dragons that could create new deck building opportunities. Future dragon designs could also draw inspiration from dinosaurs, much like how ancient myths may have been inspired by the discovery of dinosaur fossils, leading to legendary creatures in Greek, Chinese, and Indian mythologies.
The real excitement comes from Universes Beyond. With D&D proving how well dragons translate across properties, imagine the possibilities. How would Smaug from Lord of the Rings translate to Magic? What about dragons from other gaming properties or mythology? Each new universe offers opportunities for fresh takes on Magic’s most iconic tribe.
Power creep remains a concern, as each new dragon must compete with an increasingly powerful field. But recent design suggests Wizards has found a balance, creating dragons that offer new strategies rather than simply bigger stats or more efficient rates. The future isn’t about making Tiamat obsolete – it’s about giving players more ways to express their love of dragons.
Commander’s evolution as a format also benefits dragons. The bracket system helps players find appropriate power level games, meaning both casual Lathliss builds and optimized Tiamat lists can find homes. The continued growth of webcam play expands the player base, creating more opportunities for dragon enthusiasts to share their passion.
Conclusion
From Ancient Copper Dragon’s chaotic treasure generation to Tiamat’s toolbox mastery, these nine dragons represent the pinnacle of what the tribe offers in Commander. Each brings something unique to the table, whether it’s Korvold’s value engine, Terror of the Peaks’ damage multiplication, or The Ur-Dragon’s tribal leadership.
What makes these dragons special isn’t just their power level – it’s how they create memorable gameplay experiences. They turn combat math into puzzles, create explosive turns thatswing games, and most importantly, they deliver on the fantasy of commanding massive, flying threats that demand immediate answers.
The evolution from Shivan Dragon’s simple firebreathing to today’s complex engines shows how far Magic design has come. Modern dragons don’t just attack and block – they generate value, enable combos, create tokens, draw cards, and fundamentally alter how games play out. Yet they still capture that primal excitement of casting a huge flying creature and watching opponents scramble for answers.
What’s remarkable about our top nine is how they serve different players and playstyles. Competitive players gravitate toward Korvold’s efficiency and Tiamat’s consistency. Casual players love The Ur-Dragon’s tribal payoffs and Lathliss’s explosive token generation. Everyone can appreciate Terror of the Peaks turning every creature into a removal spell or Old Gnawbone transforming combat damage into mana advantage.
Dragons occupy a unique position in Commander’s ecosystem. They’re simultaneously the most “Timmy” tribe (big creatures turning sideways) and one of the most strategically complex (multiple viable commanders, toolbox strategies, combo potential). They scale from precon power level to fringe cEDH viability. Most importantly, they create stories – those moments where Atarka gives everything double strike for lethal, or Miirym chains three dragons into an overwhelming board state.
Your dragon journey might start with a budget Lathliss build, evolve into a three-color Miirym deck, and eventually culminate in a fully optimized Tiamat toolbox. Or maybe you’ll fall in love with Korvold’s value engine and never look back. The beauty is that there’s no wrong answer – only different expressions of what makes dragons magical.
As you build your own dragon’s hoard, remember that the best dragon isn’t necessarily the most powerful one. It’s the one that creates the games you want to play. Whether that’s Ancient Copper Dragon’s variance, Terror of the Peaks’ inevitability, or Tiamat’s consistency, there’s a dragon for every player and every table.
Share your own dragon stories in the comments. What moments has your dragon deck created? Which dragon do you think deserves a spot on this list? Have you discovered secret tech that makes an overlooked dragon into a powerhouse? The dragon tribe thrives on shared knowledge and enthusiasm.
In a format about legendary creatures, dragons remain the most legendary of all. They’ve been with Magic since the beginning, and they’ll be here until the end. As long as players dream of commanding massive flying threats, as long as kitchen tables shake under the weight of dragon tokens, as long as someone somewhere is calculating exactly how much damage Atarka enables with double strike – dragons will rule the skies of Commander.
Across cultures and throughout history, dragons have been revered as mythical creatures and mythological figures, appearing in countless myths and legends. They have been depicted as gods, symbols of war, and as protectors or adversaries in stories involving a princess. The red dragon stands out as a powerful symbol in both myth and religious vision. Japanese dragons, for example, show how different civilizations interpret these legendary animals in unique ways.
So shuffle up your dragon deck, drop your commander, and remind the table why dragons have captured imaginations for thirty years of Magic history. After all, in a game where anything is possible, sometimes you just need to be the person with the biggest, scariest flying creatures.
The skies are waiting. Time to claim them.
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