Commander Deck Tech: Sivitri, Dragon Master
It's time!
Dominaria United released last week across the United States and has brought with it several interesting Legendary Creatures. It also brought with it just a few Legendary Planeswalkers that can be played as your Commander. After looking over some of the spoilers I decided I wanted to build yet one more Dragon deck. Something about the new Game of Thrones just has me craving more Dragon themed fun.
Traveling back to 1994:
“Even the brave have cause to tremble at the sight of Sivitri Scarzam. Who else has tamed Scarzam's Dragon?”
Sound's kind of like a Targaryen right? Who knows, maybe they are cousins.
Take a look at Sivitri, Dragon Master. At four converted mana cost she comes into play with 4 loyalty. She's also got three different abilities to choose from. The first ability is just an annoyance more than anything. We punish your opponents who attack you or your Planeswalkers. We are also up-ticking Sivitri to possibly get to a Crux of Fate. The second ability is really the creme-dela-creme as we get to tutor for a Dragon. Then the last ability or ultimate ability is just a Minus 7 to destroy all non-dragons. Early I said Crux of Fate, but really it's only half of a Crux of Fate, since Crux also lets you destroy all dragons as an option. That's alright though we are going to run a Crux of Fate in the deck as well.
I decided to run 35 dragons as a round lot of many, many dragons. Within those 35 dragons, 6 are actually Shapeshifters, but hey they still count as dragons! The Shapeshifters consist of: Phyrexian Metamorph, Clever Impersonator, Glasspool Mimic, Graveshifter, Spark Double, and Metallic Mimic. With all the clones you do have some weird possibilities like having 2x Sivitri, Dragon Masters in play at the same time.
The deck also runs several wrath effects and some pieces of spot removal.
In total the deck runs three wrath effects in: Damnation, Kindred Dominance, and Crux of Fate
We are also running four pieces of spot removal in: Feed the Swarm, Infernal Grasp, Go for the Throat, and Foul-Tongue Invocation.
I also wanted to be able to have some control within the game to help protect against combo decks, and protect our dragons versus removal. In total the deck also runs four counterspells in: Counterspell, Mana Drain, Countersquall, and Silumgar's Scorn.
With any blue deck we also want to be able to draw some extra cards. Card advantage is a good way to go, and this deck runs seven copies of card advantage spells. These consist of: Phyrexian Arena, Rhystic Study, Monastery Siege, Kindred Discovery, Vanquisher's Banner, Heralds' Horn, and Dragon's Hoard.
We also should have some different ways to accelerate our mana. We want to hopefully be able to play our Commander earlier, and tutor for a dragon. If we have enough acceleration we can do that and also be able to play the more expensive dragons earlier in the game. With the exception of a few cards that cross over and act as both accelerates and card advantage like Dragon's Hoard and Herald's Horn, the deck also runs five spells which help us ramp up our mana. Those consist of: Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Lapis Orb of Dragonkind, Midnight Clock, and Sol Ring.
I also decided to spice things up a bit and run a copy of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. There are a ton of different planeswalkers you can run in a blue black deck with Sivitri, but I wanted to stick with a heavy dragon flavor and run more creatures. Note that Ashiok does have some extra synergy with one of the best dragons in the deck, Brainstealer Dragon.
The deck should play similar to most blue black decks. It's an aggro-control deck with lots of dragons. Accelerate as much as you can and tutor for some dragons. Play the dragons and start to plan out your attacks, and removal. Try and gain some card advantage along the way and don't let your opponents catch up. Get even extra value by cloning key targets in the game. If you get behind, use the wrath option. We have several dragons we can play from the graveyard, and a couple that lets us get them back. This deck should be a blast to play without a huge learning curve. The main thing that will take time in testing is the Dragon Tutors. We won't know at first which dragon is the best to get for each situation. Over time you'll know which dragon or few dragons to tutor up right away.
I hope this Sivitri, Dragon Master build gives you some excellent ideas for your own Sivitri build.
I can't wait to brew even more Dominaria United Commander decks!
Until Next Time,