If you’re anything like us, you just want to jam as many Dragon cards into yourMagic: The GatheringCommander deck and rain fire on your foes. With the Temur Roar preconstructed Commander deck from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, you have a solid starting deck, ready to play right out of the box.
After getting a few games out, you might realize a few cards don’t do as much as you might expect or perhaps just flat-out underperformed in games. Those are opportunities to upgrade your deck, and if you’re on a budget, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to tune these upgrades as if we were using Ureni of the Unwritten as the main commander since it is a bit more fun to play and keeps the Dragon-kindred theme a bit more unified.
10Add: Genesis Ultimatum
Cut: Verix Bladewing
You’re already playing big Temur-colored spells, so you might as well go big with a copy of Genesis Ultimatum. This seven-mana spell lets you take a look at the top five cards of your deck, taking any number of permanents from among them and putting them directly into play, with the rest going to your hand.
It might feel a little counterintuitive to cut Dragon creatures from the deck, but a good number of the Dragons in the deck simply aren’t very good. Verix Bladewing is just a 4/4 for four mana or two 4/4s for seven mana. It’s fine mana-wise, but you could just play Genesis Ultimatum and potentially get upwards of five Dragons for the same cost.
9Add: Firkraag, Cunning Instigator
Cut: Gadrak, The Crown-Scourge
A neat Dragon that can sow chaos across the battlefield with each attack, Firkraag, Cunning Instigator lets you goad one of your opponent’s creatures anytime one or more of your Dragons attack an opponent. Firkragg has haste, so you can all but guarantee that you’re going to be goading something the turn he comes down.
Swapping out Gadrak, The Crown-Scourge is an easy one since even though the big red Dragon costs only three mana, he can’t do anything on his own. It can’t attack or block without four or more artifact tokens under your control, and it only makes Treasure tokens if a non-token creature dies on your turn.
8Add: Dragonspeaker Shaman
Cut: Harbinger Of The Hunt
Easily one of the best cards to run in a Dragon deck and a surprising omission from the base deck, Dragonspeaker Shaman does just one thing but does it exceptionally well. It reduces the overall cost of your Dragon spells by two generic mana, dropping the overall cost of your commander down to just five mana.
Cutting Harbinger of the Hunt is an easy choice since it can’t quite hold a candle to practically every other Dragon you’re playing. You can deal three damage of two different varieties to deal one damage to either a creature with flying or a creature without flying. It just can’t compete with other effects.
7Add: Lightning Greaves
Cut: Storm’s Wrath
Board wipes absolutely have a place in your Commander decks, but a board wipe that doesn’t guarantee everything is going to die is a bit lackluster compared to other cards. So we’re cutting Storm’s Wrath to bring in some guaranteed protection with Lightning Greaves.
This little piece of equipment gives the attached creature both shroud and haste, which is huge when you’re playing big dumb creatures that are going to be immediate targets. Sure, there’s time for your opponents to respond when you’re equipping the Greaves, but if they don’t immediately have targeted removal, you’re golden.
6Add: Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
Cut: Whirlwing Stormbrood
A very flexible planeswalker in a deck like Temur Roar, Kiora, or Behemoth Beckoner comes down quickly, as soon as your second turn with the right opening, and will reward you throughout the game. Anytime a creature with a power of four or more enters the battlefield, you get to draw a card, which is great since most creatures in your deck are pretty beefy.
Then, you can use her -1 ability to untap any permanent, giving a strong Dragon virtual vigilance orletting you ramp up in manaby getting two uses out of a Sol Ring or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
5Add: Raise The Palisade
Cut: Stormshriek Feral
Omen cards are a neat twist on the Adventure mechanic from previous sets but the ones included in the Temur Roar deck just don’t do a whole lot for you. Stormshriek Feral and its omen counterpart Flush Out can be swapped for a more useful board control piece with Raise the Palisade.
This kindred bounce spelllets you pick a creature type and return all creatures not of that type back to their owner’s hand. The neat thing is you can save your own creatures if you want to cast your board wipe or if you’re expecting an opponent to play one by naming a creature type not on the battlefield so everything gets bounced.
4Add: Scourge Of Valkas
Cut: Rapacious Dragon
A one-for-one Dragon swap, you’re taking a five-mana Dragon with a mediocre ability for a slightly harder-to-cast Dragon that has a huge upside. Scourge of Valkas has an ability that triggers when eitherit or another Dragon comes into the battlefieldunder your control you get to deal damage to any target equal to the number of Dragons you control.
The ability scales the longer the game goes on, with the more Dragons you have out, the more damage you get to do. It might not be up to snuff stat-wise, but that ability will let you finish off any low-powered creatures or sneak some damage through to your opponents.
3Add: Rhythm Of The Wild
Cut: Zenith Festival
The Temur Roar deck has no counterspells in the main 99 and that’s okay despite having access to blue. Sure, adding a Stubborn Denial or a Counterspell would probably be better, we can also just make it so your Dragons will always touchdown.
Rhythm of the Wild makes it so your creatures can’t be countered and gives them all riot, letting you choose to give them haste or a +1/+1 counter which is nice depending on the board. Zenith Festival requires so much mana to be useful, and even though you can play those cards until your next turn, if you hit more than two bombs you’re likely not going to get the full value of this card.
2Add: Ureni, The Song Unending
Cut: Spit Flame
Yes, the deck already has Ureni as the head of the deck but getting a second, more powerful one in the 99 is always a good option. Ureni, the Song Unending is a massive 10/10 Spirit Dragon, one that has protection from both white and black spells.
When this Ureni comes into play, you can have it deal damage split up however you like between creatures and planeswalkers with the damage equal to the number of lands you control. Spit Flame is a neat burn spell, but there are just so many better things you can be doing or playing if you want targeted removal.
1Add: Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm
Cut: Draconic Lore
One of the more popular commander picks for a Temur Dragon deck also makes for a fantastic inclusion in the 99 as well. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm lets you make a token copy of every nontoken Dragon that comes into play under your control.
If that Dragon was legendary, the token is no longer legendary, letting you double up on abilities that you have no right to have two of. Draconic Lore is at best four mana draw three spell, but you can get much better milage from the planeswalker Kiora we talked about earlier.
