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Draconic Destruction is the Gruul deck from the 2022 Starter Commander set, and it is one of the cheapest ways to sit down at a Commander table with a pile of dragons. It is also a viewer request: someone asked for it in the comments on our last upgrade guide, so it went on the table. The deck has good bones and a lot of fat around them. Here are two ways to trim it: an affordable budget pass anyone can build, and a premium baller build if you want the dragons to end games on the spot. Every swap below is grounded in the official decklist, EDHREC data, and the card's actual rules text.
How Atarka actually wins
Atarka, World Render is seven mana for a 6/4 with flying and trample, and one line of text that is the whole deck: whenever a Dragon you control attacks, it gains double strike until end of turn. Every dragon hits twice. Every "deals combat damage" trigger fires twice. Ramp into big flying lizards, turn them sideways, and let double strike do the math. The precon already ships the right engine pieces: Dragon Tempest for haste, Crucible of Fire for +3/+3, and Savage Ventmaw, which makes six mana every time it attacks. Both packages lean on those, because they are already in the box.
Where the precon is soft
The reviews agree, and the EDHREC cut data backs them up:
- Only 21 dragons in a dragon deck. That is thin for a commander whose only job is to buff dragons.
- Not enough ramp for a seven-mana commander with no haste. The good stuff starts at five mana and the general costs seven. The stock deck gets there late.
- Clunky draw and a bloated removal suite. Pump spells pretending to be removal, and symmetrical sweepers that hurt your own board.
- Filler. Furnace Whelp is a 2/2 for four. Loaming Shaman shuffles graveyards. Provoke the Trolls is a pump spell. Out they go.
The budget pass
Twelve swaps and nothing is filler. It includes the two most-added cards to this precon on EDHREC, real ramp that also counts as dragons, a haste rock, a one-sided sweeper, actual card draw, and an extra-combat pair that the precon's own Savage Ventmaw pays for. The dragon count goes from 21 to 24.
- Thrakkus the Butcher · attacks: double the power of each dragon you control. Atarka then gives them double strike, so a six-power dragon deals 24. The most-added card to this precon, and the whole reason the package exists.
- Lathliss, Dragon Queen · every nontoken dragon that enters brings a 5/5 flying dragon token with it, and she pumps the team. Second most-added card.
- Ganax, Astral Hunter · a Treasure whenever he or another dragon enters. Ramp that scales with the tribe.
- Goblin Anarchomancer · red and green spells cost one less. Stack it with the precon's Dragonlord's Servant and Dragonspeaker Shaman and Atarka costs three.
- Scaled Nurturer · a two-mana dragon that taps for green and gains you life when that mana casts a dragon. Turn-two ramp that counts toward the dragon total.
- Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind · a three-mana rock, and a dragon cast with its red mana has haste. Same cost as Atarka Monument, except the commander attacks the turn she lands.
- Kodama's Reach · Cultivate number two. One land to the battlefield, one to hand. The deck lives at seven mana, so it needs both.
- Dragonlord Atarka · an 8/8 flying trample that deals five damage divided among opponents' creatures and planeswalkers when it enters. Clears the blockers, then swings for sixteen.
- Scourge of the Throne · the first time it attacks each turn into the highest life total, untap your attackers and take an additional combat. Every dragon double strikes twice.
- Hellkite Charger · attacks: pay seven for an extra combat. Savage Ventmaw makes six on attack, so each extra combat costs one real mana.
- Sarkhan's Unsealing · cast a power four-to-six creature and deal four to any target. Cast a power seven or more and deal four to each opponent and everything they control. One-sided, and Atarka triggers it from the command zone.
- Return of the Wildspeaker · instant: draw cards equal to your greatest non-Human power, or give the team +3/+3. With Atarka and Crucible on the table that is nine cards.
Those come in for the precon's weakest slots: Furnace Whelp, Dream Pillager, Loaming Shaman, Dragonkin Berserker, Provoke the Trolls, Atarka Monument, Return to Nature, Runehorn Hellkite, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Dragon Mage, Sweltering Suns, and Shamanic Revelation.
The baller build
If you want to spend, this is the premium version of the same plan: two infinite-combat lines, the tribe's best payoffs, the format's best cost reduction and card selection, a burst-mana turn, and the one protection spell that keeps a table full of dragons alive through a wrath. The dragon count stays at 21, but every one of the five that come in is a game-ender.
- Old Gnawbone · combat damage to a player makes that many Treasures. Under Atarka it triggers in both damage steps, so Gnawbone alone makes fourteen from one attack.
- Jeska's Will · with your commander out, add red mana for each card in an opponent's hand and play the top three cards of your library. A turn-three Will into a turn-three Thundermaw Hellkite is a real line.
- Aggravated Assault · pay five to untap your creatures and take an extra combat and main phase. Savage Ventmaw makes six every attack and that mana sticks around, so every combat pays for the next one. That is infinite combats with a card the precon already ships.
- Sylvan Library · see two extra cards every draw step and pay life to keep the ones you want. The best card selection green has ever printed.
- Twinflame Tyrant · sources you control deal double damage to opponents and their permanents. Double strike times double damage is four times the hit.
- Terror of the Peaks · whenever another creature enters, it deals damage equal to that creature's power to any target. Every dragon becomes a burn spell, and Lathliss tokens count too.
- Urza's Incubator · name Dragon, and every dragon costs two less. Stack it with Dragonspeaker Shaman and Dragonlord's Servant and Atarka costs two.
- Balefire Dragon · combat damage to a player deals that much to every creature they control. Double strike does it twice, and one attack wipes a board.
- Xenagos, God of Revels · at the start of combat, another creature gains haste and gets +X/+X where X is its power. Atarka swings for twelve with double strike and trample the turn she lands.
- Bear Umbra · +2/+2, and whenever the enchanted creature attacks, untap all your lands. With Aggravated Assault that is the second infinite. The umbra armor eats the first removal spell on the way.
- Utvara Hellkite · whenever a dragon you control attacks, make a 6/6 flying dragon token. Dragon Tempest gives the tokens haste, so extra combats send them in the same turn.
- Heroic Intervention · two mana at instant speed: everything you control gains hexproof and indestructible. Wrath insurance for the whole build.
Those replace Rapacious Dragon, Hunter's Prowess, Unleash Fury, Loaming Shaman, Dream Pillager, Dragon Mage, Atarka Monument, Runehorn Hellkite, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Provoke the Trolls, Furnace Whelp, and Dragonkin Berserker.
A note on prices
We keep prices off this guide on purpose, because singles move constantly and any number here would be stale within a week. The budget pass is built to be genuinely cheap and the baller build is the premium version of the same plan. For current, live prices on any of these cards, check them at the store.
Build it
Want the full walkthrough with the reasoning on every card? Watch the video here. When you are ready to build, you can grab the singles at arcanearena.net, every one at real market price.
Which precon should we upgrade next? Tell us in the comments and we will put it on the table.
Unofficial fan content. Magic: The Gathering is © Wizards of the Coast. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast. Card and synergy data from EDHREC and Scryfall.