The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon | Art by Justine Jones

Welcome to a article new series, Commander Makeover, where we'll look at a commander from among the top 200 on EDHREC that's over two years old, and pick the best cards from the last two years that should be added to their decks.

Our first commander of the series sits at #1, and rightfully so. It's The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon.

The Ultimate Dragon

What Timmy/Tammy doesn't like to smack people with overgrown lizards? Our Commander costs a hefty nine mana, but we don't need to cast it to get value from it. This is thanks to its eminence ability, reducing the cost of every Dragon spell we cast by one.

If/when we do cast our commander, and get to swing, we draw cards and put any permanent into play. That's one heck of an ability.

That said, our commander was first printed nearly a decade ago in Commander 2017, and a lot has changed since then. What cards should we be looking at then (Spoilers: One set dominates this list, and the word Dragon is part of the name)?

New Cards for The Ur-DragonThe Ur-Dragon Commander Decks

DracogenesisDracogenesis

Our first card for this article comes from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, of which a fair few cards will make it here. There's a lot of Dragon support in the set, and Dracogenesis is no exception.

The ability to cast Dragons for free is a big deal, but it also non-bos with The Ur-Dragon itself. However, Dracogenesis costs eight mana, so you're not likely to cast it so quickly. Worse still, you might not even have Dragons to put down once this resolves.

However, it does leave mana open to interact and protect your board.

Ureni of the UnwrittenUreni of the Unwritten

Wow, that's a doozy. While Dracogenesis leans more on a 50/50 side of things, Ureni is an absolute slam dunk into an Ur-Dragon deck. Sure, seven mana is a lot to pay, but we're bound to be running a heavy load of ramp anyway.

Also, when running enough Dragons (and we will!), we're very easily going to hit a creature that'll make the heavy initial investment worth it.

Ureni's also one of those cards that, if unchecked, will snowball and run away with the game, so it's very much a "kill-on-sight" card. But you'll almost always get at least one Dragon out of the ability.

Twinflame TyrantTwinflame Tyrant

I love me a damage doubler, and Twinflame Dragon doesn't disappoint. It's one of the cheaper options, essentially costing four mana to cast with our Dragon discount. It also puts our opponents on a clock to deal with it before the damage gets out of hand.

Note that this doubles the damage from any source we control. But let's face it, it's going to be our lizards doing the talking. Dealing double damage to permanents also gives a sort of reach that Dragons could use to take out threats, but that isn't saying much since they're huge anyway.

Betor, Kin to AllBetor, Kin to All

This inclusion might have some of you scratching your heads. Why on earth would I be including a card so famously found in toughness matters decks here? Because Dragons naturally have big stats, including toughness, so this version of Betor is bound to do some silly things here.

At worse, they'll draw us a card, perhaps untap our Dragons so they can block. If we get to the last mode, we'll likely be in a position to win anyway. That'll just soften up our opponents for the finishing blow.

It can feel win-more, but Betor's worth it for the other two abilities alone.

Scavenger RegentScavenger Regent

Four-drops are rare in Dragon decks, and it's always bothered me. Thankfully, this is a good one to add. The creature half isn't much, but it's the Omen half where this card shines.

Like Crux of FateCrux of Fate before it, this will spare our Dragons while killing off everything else. As a bonus, it gets around indestructible. That said, you may have to pay a considerable amount of mana into it for it to be effective. On the other hand, casting Exude Toxin will cause the card to get shuffled back into the deck, allowing us to cast it more than once. That is, assuming we draw into it again.

Broodcaller ScourgeBroodcaller Scourge

This might cost a bit of mana, but that comes with the creature type. That said, getting permanents out for (somewhat) free is huge, as the Ur-Dragon already demonstrated. As a bonus, we get a permanent out for each opponent we hit. The more damage dealt, the bigger the card we can put in.

Smuggler's SurpriseSmuggler's Surprise

I'm quite sure you're thinking what I'm thinking: It's about time we got a card that's not from Tarkir Dragonstorm! This card is actually very flexible in what it can do. The worst option is to pay for just the first mode. While this isn't bad, it's not ideal for our expensive Dragons.

The other two options are where this card shines; from there, the worst we could do is a pseudo-Heroic InterventionHeroic Intervention. Otherwise, we can dump some Dragons out, or perhaps the two we get back, should we decide to pay for the first mode (Just don't pay for that alone. That's for Graveyard decks).

Being instant-speed makes Smuggler's Surprise even better, not just because we can protect our board more reliably, but also get around that accursed summoning sickness our lizards will have when they enter.

Call the Spirit DragonsCall the Spirit Dragons

Let's face it: we have to be the luckiest devils in the world to pull off that win condition. Our opponents will see this coming from a trillion miles away, and will do anything they can to remove the enchantment or disrupt our board to keep us off that win condition.

Worst case scenario, this grants our Dragons indestructible, which does help ease our minds a bit. That said, when we're going against three other people, someone will likely have a way to remove the enchantment.

The key to get there faster is changelings. They're cheap, and they come down reliably. An Ur-Dragon deck filled with pretend-Dragons is where this card will truly make its home.

The Dragonstorm Cycle from Tarkir: Dragonstorm

Each of these have an effect when they enter, then can be bounced when a Dragon comes in so we can cast it again. That said, only the ones pictured above (Encroaching DragonstormEncroaching Dragonstorm, Roiling DragonstormRoiling Dragonstorm, Breaching DragonstormBreaching Dragonstorm) are worth running. Considering it's Dragons, it's not surprising that red got the best card in the cycle, but the green one comes quite close.

The card quality then drops off to Roiling Dragonstorm (we've likely got better choices for card advantage). The other two are not worth it.

Frostcliff SiegeFrostcliff Siege

The ideal mode for Frostcliff Siege is Temur. We're likely going to have better ways to draw boatloads of cards, so we can prioritize giving haste to our creatures. Giving trample is icing on the cake, and would go a long way to soften up our opponents, making them tasty morsels.

To pick the Jeskai mode means you're desperate for card draw, which, if you build the deck right, should be a non-issue.

Only the Beginning

The way things came out, this may as well have been an article for Tarkir: Dragonstorm that's almost one year overdue. Frankly, here's hoping this is just an anomaly and not the trend. That being said, none of it comes as a surprise, considering our commander.

The week after next will be the next installment, where we learn why Vampires suck so bad (That was a joke).