Nicol Bolas, the RavagerNicol Bolas, the Ravager | Art by Svetlin Velinov

Elder Dragons have been a central part of Magic: The Gathering since 1994's Legends. That set gave birth to five iconic fire breathers, the most famous being Nicol BolasNicol Bolas, who would go on to be Magic's quintessential villain for over a decade.

Since then we've gotten 22 more Elder Dragons, and we just got five more previewed in the new Secrets of Strixhaven expansion. So how do all these Dragons compare to each other? Well, some of them are better, and some of them are a lot worse. So what better way to sort them then on a tier list?

The Original Legends Cycle

Lets start at the very beginning, with the five Dragons who've been a part of Magic lore for 32 years.

• ChromiumChromium
• Nicol BolasNicol Bolas
• Vaevictis AsmadiVaevictis Asmadi
• Arcades SabbothArcades Sabboth
• Palladia-MorsPalladia-Mors

Iconic and notable cards for sure, but, um, they're pretty terrible, to say the least. Back then, a 7/7 flyer for eight mana was really good, so they balanced it out by giving each an upkeep cost of three colored mana every single turn. Unfortunately, that makes these cards almost unplayable now, and so four of them are going straight to F tier.

The only one who escapes is Nicol BolasNicol Bolas, because his one other ability is actually pretty powerful, forcing an opponent to discard their hand when he deals combat damage. Still, I'm only bumping him up to to C Tier, because three mana every turn is just too much of a downside. The only saving grace for this cycle is the gorgeous art, especially on ChromiumChromium and Bolas.

Tier: F (C for Nicol Bolas)

The Tarkir Dragonlords

• Dragonlord DromokaDragonlord Dromoka
• Dragonlord SilumgarDragonlord Silumgar
• Dragonlord AtarkaDragonlord Atarka
• Dragonlord KolaghanDragonlord Kolaghan
• Dragonlord OjutaiDragonlord Ojutai

After 1994, we didn't get another set of Elder Dragons until 2015's Dragons of Tarkir, where we got five Dragonlords who presided over five two-color broods. (Interestingly, when we got a second version of all these dragons in Commander 2017, they were no longer Elders.)

Unfortunately, these Dragons were also pretty underwhelming - probably because they were designed with Standard in mind. Dragonlord DromokaDragonlord Dromoka is easily the best, a beefy flyer who gives you complete security on your turn, while Dragonlord AtarkaDragonlord Atarka is the worst, doling out a measly five damage when it enters.

Ultimately though, all these Dragons are going in the C Tier.

Tier: C

Arcades, the Strategist

Next, we got an updated cycle of the original Elder Dragons in Core Set 2019, which I'm gonna tackle one at a time, because their designs were very diverse.

Arcades, the StrategistArcades, the Strategist is still the #1 Defender and Toughness strategies commander, despite having competition from dozens of other legends. Anyone who's played against Arcades knows that this deck packs a punch, enabling defender creatures to attack with their rear ends.

What seems like a docile strategy ends up being formidable, even seven years after Arcades was printed. In my opinion, the Strategist is the best Elder Dragon commander, and an easy S Tier.

Tier: S

Chromium, the Mutable

Chromium always had the coolest art of all the Elder Dragons. A mirror finish on every scale? That's so sick. Unfortunately, his card never lived up to the hype, as it's basically just a 7/7 that's impossible to kill. Very neat thematically, but not worth playing in any deck.

Tier: C

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager

There have been six iterations of Nicol BolasNicol Bolas over the years, but this one is my favorite, and it's definitely gonna get a boost for sheer coolness factor. It's the one Bolas planeswalker we can actually play as a commander, and man, it certainly does feel like we're the villain of the Multiverse when we flip him.

That being said, it's pretty tough to actually get there when we have to pay 11 mana into it, and when we do, we'll be spending all our resources to protect the planeswalker. Still, there's no better way to feel like an omnipotent archenemy in Commander, and I've got to put this card in A Tier just for being so awesome to show off.

Tier: A

Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner

Another Elder Dragon who looks and sounds insanely cool, but doesn't do anything. Palladia-Mors, the RuinerPalladia-Mors, the Ruiner has hexproof until she deals damage? Okay. And?

I have no idea why Palladia wasn't given anything even remotely interesting, but it's super disappointing because the art is incredible. Maybe the third time will be the charm for this character.

Tier: D

Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire

I've really loved this card for years because I think its design is very unique and fun. Vaevictis can take care of our opponents' threats while adding a little bit of chaos to the game, and gives us the chance to flip something crazy from the top of our deck.

The issue is, I like Vaevictis so much that I built the deck, and it just doesn't play nearly as well as I'd hoped. We have to spend six mana for this Dragon that's immediately gonna get classified as an Avengers level threat, and it doesn't even have haste. Either we've got to give it haste beforehand, or we need to hold up mana for protection spells.

So then we're waiting at least five turns before we even play the card we built our deck around, and after that, we've got to play a bunch of top-deck manipulation without blue, all while trying to keep our very threatening commander alive. Ultimately, there are just better things to do in Jund.

Tier: B

Beledros Witherbloom

After the Core Set 2019 cycle we get to Strixhaven: School of Mages, which came with five very unique Elder Dragons. Beledros WitherbloomBeledros Witherbloom was the Golgari... sorry, the Witherbloom founder, and probably the most powerful commander from the set.

She can make four tokens a turn cycle, fueling the sacrifice engines that Golgari decks are known for, and at the small cost of 10 life, she lets us untap every land we control. I really like how this commander supports the typical Golgari themes while also incentivizing life gain, something that was new for green and black at the time.

Some people might disagree with this, but I think Beledros is an S Tier commander.

Tier: S

Galazeth Prismari

Galazeth PrismariGalazeth Prismari is a pretty awesome commander, and one that I've built multiple times. All his deck really does is make a ton of Treasure tokens, use those tokens to make more Treasure tokens, and then accumulate wealth until you have enough mana to cast a game-winning X-spell.

It's a good bit of fun, and a very strong strategy, but nothing groundbreaking. Yup, Treasure decks are great, no surprise there.

Tier: A

Tanazir Quandrix

Quandrix was the one Strixhaven house that disappointed me. Witherbloom cared about life, Prismari cared about big spells, Silverquill cared about politics, and Lorehold cared about resurrecting artifacts. These were all new yet interesting themes for those color combinations. But Quandrix cared about +1/+1 counters, something that Simic has focused on for over a decade.

As a result, most of the green and blue cards from the set were pretty boring to me. But Tanazir QuandrixTanazir Quandrix is still a strong card and decently fun to play, so he fits right in with Galazeth PrismariGalazeth Prismari.

Tier: A

Shadrix Silverquill

Here's a commander that I think is a tad bit overrated. Shadrix SilverquillShadrix Silverquill leads almost 3,000 decks, but he does barely anything worthwhile. Silverquill was meant to be a political color combination in this set, and Shadrix certainly does support this theme, but only with a bunch of random unrelated abilities.

There's just no great way to build around a few tokens, counters, and cards. The only thing we can really do with this deck is lean into politics, and then we're just playing a bunch of vague group hug cards that don't actually have synergy. I mean, the most played card in Shadrix decks is Breena, the DemagogueBreena, the Demagogue, who was the Silverquill precon commander and does what Shadrix does but better.

I won't say Shadrix SilverquillShadrix Silverquill is a bad commander, but it is pretty pointless.

Tier: B

Velomachus Lorehold

Velomachus LoreholdVelomachus Lorehold is one of those popular commanders that I always have to reread whenever someone pulls up to the table with it. Oh ok, he lets you cast free spells if their mana value is less than his power. I guess that kind of incentivizes you to play Voltron, but not much else.

Once again I'll give it the rating of good, but not interesting. At this point I oughta make that its own tier.

Tier: A

Piru, The Volatile

Piru is our first Elder Dragon who wasn't released as part of a cycle, but mechanically, she fits perfectly into the original group of Elder Dragons, costing eight mana and having a three mana upkeep cost. The difference is that Piru is actually good.

When she dies, she deals seven damage to each nonlegendary creature, and conveniently her upkeep cost gives us a great way to let her die. An eight-mana board wipe still isn't amazing though, except for the fact that she has lifelink. When she dies and deals damage, we gain life equal to seven times the number of nonlegendary creatures on the board. Which is usually a lot.

Essentially Piru is a very explosive means of gaining a ridiculous amount of life. Yeah, it's a pretty linear and predictable game plan, but it's nothing short of spectacular when you pull it off. Plus, it doesn't require the support of every card in your deck, so you can build a perfectly normal Lifegain deck while keeping a bomb in the command zone.

Tier: A

The Ancient Dragon Cycle

• Ancient Copper DragonAncient Copper Dragon
• Ancient Bronze DragonAncient Bronze Dragon
• Ancient Silver DragonAncient Silver Dragon
• Ancient Gold DragonAncient Gold Dragon
• Ancient Brass DragonAncient Brass Dragon

Ah, the Ancient Dragons, who do things on a scale of 1 - 20. To say the least, this cycle was nuts. Every single Dragon here has the potential to dominate the game, and they each rightfully become removal magnets as soon as they're played.

Ancient Copper DragonAncient Copper Dragon in particular is known for just winning the game in Treasure decks, and the others show similar results. Unluckily for us, that means they've got the price tag to match. Ancient Bronze DragonAncient Bronze Dragon, the cheapest of the bunch, still sits at $20, while the Copper Dragon is over $100! Jeez.

But their power can't be denied, and these cards are easily A Tier. Notably, they're also the only Elder Dragons that can't be your commander.

Tier: A

Hraesvelgr of the First Brood

This is the only Universes Beyond card on this list, and it's got the least pronounceable name I've ever seen on a Magic card. Huh-rase-vel-gur? Who knows. It's a pretty decent card though, giving creatures unblockable whenever you cast noncreature spells.

Solid mechanics, somewhat unique, and cool art. It's nothing crazy, but it certainly makes the B Tier.

Tier: B

Lorehold, the Historian

Finally, we're on to the newest Elder Dragons. The design for these geezers is a lot simpler than the old ones, with the new Dragons just adding a keyword to instants and sorceries. Quandrix gives cascade, Witherbloom gives affinity, and so on. Right away, I think Lorehold, the HistorianLorehold, the Historian who gives instants and sorceries miracle, might be my favorite.

Miracle is a very underexplored mechanic, only ever embraced by Aminatou, Veil PiercerAminatou, Veil Piercer, and her precursor, Aminatou, the FateshifterAminatou, the Fateshifter. Now, Lorehold is giving us the opportunity to check out the mechanic in red and white. I really think this is going to be an exciting deck to play, and to play against.

Miracle encourages top-deck manipulation and shenanigans which will be a unique challenge in Boros, but, I think a lot of games with this commander are going to come down to a wild gamble, like when you Chaos WarpChaos Warp your own creature hoping that whatever card you flip is a life-saving permanent.

I expect this commander to create a lot of fun interactions and stories, and I'm gonna give it a preemptive S Tier.

Tier: S

Prismari, the Inspiration

Prismari, the InspirationPrismari, the Inspiration, on the other hand, will be the exact opposite of Lorehold. It's Thousand-Year StormThousand-Year Storm in the command zone, and that's not gonna be fun to play against at all. As soon as this commander hits the field and sticks this deck is gonna go off, probably casting at least 30 cards and drawing an entire library.

Sure, I bet the pilot will be having the time of their lives, but the rest of the table is gonna be on their phones while they wait for the game to finish. Obviously this commander is extremely powerful, but it looks like such a drag to play against that I'm gonna have to give it a low B.

Tier: B

Quandrix, the Proof

It's the same story with Quandrix, the ProofQuandrix, the Proof. Yeah, it's powerful, but is it even worth playing? Quandrix offers no direction whatsoever, simply giving you crazy value for literally any instant and sorcery you cast. Somehow, this commander is even less restrictive than Tatyova, Benthic DruidTatyova, Benthic Druid. It's Simic goodstuff, that's it.

There is one interesting build, however, where we get to seven mana, cast Quandrix and a one mana spell, and cascade for HypergenesisHypergenesis. Now that would be sick. Still, this commander is getting a B. It's just not interesting.

Tier:B

Silverquill, the Disputant

Ooh ok, so instead of copying your spells for free like Prismari, Silverquill, the DisputantSilverquill, the Disputant asks you to sacrifice a creature, and costs only four mana. I actually like this design a lot more than the previous two, because it's balanced, unique, and pushes your deck into a relatively unexplored space.

It just really sucks that Silverquill is part of this Elder Dragon cycle because the other Dragons are making it look really wimpy. But even in the shadow of the other Dragons Silverquill looks like an awesome commander, and I hope to see him played a lot.

Tier: A

Witherbloom, the Balancer

Luckily we're gonna end this article on another design I like a lot: Witherbloom, the BalancerWitherbloom, the Balancer. Instant and sorcery spells get affinity for creatures! Affinity has always been a busted mechanic, mostly because of all the artifacts that had affinity for other artifacts. Those decks snowball like crazy and can seem impossible to stop.

Witherbloom, on the other hand, gives two card types affinity for a different card type. Will that stop it from being nuts? Probably not, but it is a limitation that prevents this deck from becoming generic goodstuff, like giving creatures affinity for creatures might have. Instead we get a commander that incentivizes us to split our deck half and half between the two archetypes, or play instants and sorceries that make tokens.

It's a challenge to build, but the payoff is really good. Overall, I like this commander a lot, although I may have to change my ranking if it's ridiculous to play against.

Tier: A

Well, that's every Elder Dragon across the years, ranked on a tier list. There's a lot of powerful ones here, and even the not so powerful ones have a cool story to go with them. But do you think that Lorehold, the HistorianLorehold, the Historian isn't an S Tier? Do you think the first Elder Dragons are actually playable? Maybe you think Prismari, the InspirationPrismari, the Inspiration is gonna be a dud.

Unfortunately for you, my opinion is completely objective, and if you disagree with me you're wrong. That being said, if you do have a dissenting opinion you'd like to voice, go ahead and put it in the comments!