Firkraag, Cunning Instigator | Art by Andrew Mar

Goad Tell it on the Mountain

Welcome back. This is Lenny from the Scrap Trawlers with the primer for the Draconic Dissention deck from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. This deck is led by Firkraag, Cunning Instigator.

Firkraag comes down at five mana and goads one of an opponent's creatures when you attack them with a dragon. He also gets a +1/+1 and draws a card whenever an opponent's creature connects with another opponent, provided that creature was forced to attack. Firkraag's first ability suggests a dragon deck similar toThe Ur-Dragon or Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm from the same set, but I think it has more in common with goad commanders like Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva and Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, though I think it's much less oppressive than the latter. As a commander, I think he's in the low end of mid power. Five mana means he comes out a bit later in the game, but that's also where you might want to be casting other dragons. He also doesn't have any game changing synergies or combos and takes a while to be a legitimate threat himself. Goad can also be tough to rely on since its power depends on what your opponents play and since this commander doesn't provide any evasion to the creatures it goads, you might have a tough time getting cards from him. Still card draw in the command zone is good to have and Izzet is a good color combination for finding card draw, and as we can see in the decklist, messing with combat.

If Firkraag isn't your bag, you could swap him out for some of the other potential commanders in the deck. Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer can use the Clan Crafter background to increase his power and draw cards. Will Kenrith and Rowan Kenrith actually work pretty well in a deck that's directing combat, but there isn't much to benefit using their ultimate abilities. Niv-Mizzet, Parun is a powerful commander in his own right, but this deck is built to lean on Firkraag for card draw and there are only 10 cards among instants and sorceries. Personally I would pick Firkraag or Baeloth and Clan Crafter if you're playing out of the box, and for the purpose of the article I'll be discussing.

The Long and Winding Goad

Goad is clearly this decs primary strategy. Including the commander, there are 20 cards that force combat for one or more creatures so you don't really need to rely on attacking with a dragon to benefit from Firkraag. There's a good mix of combat control effects that come down early like Bloodthirsty Blade and Shiny Impetus alongside bigger and more costly effects like Geode Rager and Avatar of Slaughter. Alongside these effects are cards that make it very unattractive to attack you, like Propaganda, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, and the best goblin, Brash Taunter. This deck also gives us some fantastic new cards new cards for this strategy. Even if we can't raise his power, Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer gives us treasure when attacking which helps cast those big spells. Bothersome Quasit can take blockers out of the equation, which helps us draw cards from our commander. Death Kiss and Spectacular Showdown can be lethal for opponents. Mocking Doppelganger is an interesting way to have the best creature on the board and make sure the original goes elsewhere.

It's tough to honestly call this a dragon deck. Aside from the commander, Dragon's Hoard is the only other card that cares about the type. Instead it seems like the dragons are there to support the primary game plan and to give you something to fall back on when you get into a 1v1 situation and your goad effects no longer protect you. It turns out that some dragons are pretty good when you want to force attacks. Warmonger Hellkite and Vengeful Ancestor not only makes players attack, but add extra damage, while Ryusei, the Falling Star and Keiga, the Tide Star present compelling arguments to go elsewhere. We didn't get much in the way of new dragons, but Astral Dragon gives us three dragons for eight mana, and Loot Dispute is a fun way to introduce the initiative into the game and make some extra mana while you work your way to getting dragon tokens for completing dungeons.

Artificer Class and Clan Crafter were printed for this deck point to a bit of an artifact subtheme. These are cool cards, but outside of the mana rocks and a handful of treasure producers they're just taking up space in the deck.

For the most part the goad effects are the win conditions, and hopefully you can just beat down any remaining opponents with a few dragons. That said Drakuseth, Maw of Flames is a solid way to end a game at the power level this deck plays at. Aside from that a well placed Disrupt Decorum or overloaded Spectacular Showdown can often take out a player or two and leave you in a good position to deal with the survivors.

Goad Vibrations

In Commander games, this deck is an agent of chaos. You'll be disrupting the plans of your opponents by forcing attacks they don't want to make and if all goes well, your opponents will take each other out and leave you with one opponent staring own a flight of dragons. This deck takes a bit of planning and a lot of persuasion to pull off. When picking a starting hand, you want to look out for the cheaper dragons like Vengeful Ancestor or Chaos Dragon so you can have them ready to attack when you drop your commander. As the game progresses you want to stick to single target goading until your opponents have enough creatures to make using a Geode Rager or Angler Turtle particularly problematic. Your opponents' creatures are a resource for you, so hold off on removal and boardwipes until you really need them. You also want to identify who you're going to have the toughest time with in 1v1 so you can try to get them out of the game before that happens.

This style of deck can be fun and challenging to play, but it comes with some major drawbacks. First of all, you need your opponents to play along. If they aren't casting creatures, you may end up with dead cards in your hand and your commander will tip them off as to what your intentions are. This deck is also very reliant on its commander to draw cards, with only six other ways to draw cards. Another issue is that if thing proceed according to plan, you're going to end up with one opponent left and suddenly they're free to attack you and likely have had time to prepare for it. This strategy can also draw a lot of attention from the table. When that goaded creature slams into someone, everyone knows full well whose fault that is and as soon as the other player can hit you, they will, hard. Players also don't like losing agency in games and this deck can be a frustrating experience for them. As always talk your playgroup before and after.

Let the Goad Times Roll

Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate added a bunch of awesome new cards to the format and the new ones from this deck are no exception. In my opinion, Astral Dragon is the best of them. Getting two copies of any noncreature permanent and 10 power in the air for eight mana is a steal and there are a ton of applications for this card. It's a great top end for blink decks and clone decks. Spectacular Showdown is a great surprise finisher for red aggro decks. Finally Mocking Doppelganger is a fantastic new tool for clone decks and a way deal with those pesky hexproof voltron commanders.

We didn't get as much love in the reprints with this deck, but there are still a few I want to shout out. This is the first time we've seen a reprint of Dissipation Field, so it's good to get that into players' hands. Propaganda is one of those cards that always seems to find it's way back to the $5 range. Finally Reins of Power is a reprint I'm personally happy to see, not for price or rarity, but because it's a cool card that creates great moments in games, and more players should try it out.

Let it Goad

Going into this review, I was expecting not to like this deck. We have better dragon commanders and the deck seems disjointed trying to combine dragons, goading, and artifacts. After spending some time with it, I've come to appreciate it. It's can be challenging to play and it rewards good table talk. It also has you interacting with what your opponents are doing and makes you thing about their boar state rather than playing solitaire to get to a combo or alpha strike. That said it's not a deck for every player or every playgroup and it's far from the strongest precon you can buy these days. I think with a bit more draw, and a little bit more to do besides goad, this could be a great deck. Still, I can't recommend buying it over getting the singles you want, unless you want the deck as is or are looking to improve it. There aren't many cards that work well outside the goad strategy, and even the staples like Chaos Warp can be found in other decks. I've got some wild ideas for upgrading this deck so be sure to check out my upgrade article, and as always, remember t budget before you buy it.