How To Train Your Dragon *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Aggro Artifact Dragons Humans Knights Primer RW (Boros)

NinjaKitty778

Creature (25)

• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Bloodsworn Steward
• 1x Cavalier of Dawn
• 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1x Guardian of Faith
• 1x Gustcloak Cavalier
• 1x Hoard-Smelter Dragon
• 1x Knight Exemplar
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Knollspine Dragon
• 1x Lathliss, Dragon Queen
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Puresteel Paladin
• 1x Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer
• 1x Riders of Gavony
• 1x Scalelord Reckoner
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Taurean Mauler
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x Thalia's Lancers
• 1x Tori D'Avenant, Fury Rider
• 1x Valiant Knight

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x By Force
• 1x Collective Effort
• 1x Deafening Clarion
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Khorvath's Fury
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Chandra, Flamecaller
• 1x Nahiri, the Harbinger

Land (36)

• 1x Alpine Meadow
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Furycalm Snarl
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Needle Spires
• 9x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1x Temple of Triumph

Artifact (12)

• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Dragon's Hoard
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x The Circle of Loyalty

Commanders (2)

Instant (10)

• 1x Burn Away
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Crush Contraband
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Magmaquake
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Volcanic Offering

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Stolen Strategy
• 1x Sunbird's Invocation

---

It's been a while since I made a brand new deck; but here we are. This time around, I took a shot at a Boros deck. My friend Sehros has been going through an EDH deck building phase lately and we were talking about commanders we'd like to build. He mentioned wanting to build a Sylvia/Khorvath partner commander for a number of reasons: he loves the Boros guild, he loves knights, and he LOVES dragons. So it makes sense that when he found out about Sylvia Brightspear and Khorvath Brightflame he'd want to build a deck based around them. He asked me for some advice and this decklist is the result. So without further delay, lets delve into this.

Introduction

Knights and Dragons are already really deep tribes. You could make a fully functioning deck just fine with either of them; and I have. But now with these new partner Commanders playing off of each other and boosting the opposite tribe, it makes for a new interesting interaction; but boy howdy were there some cuts that had to be made.

With so many cool Knights and Dragons, there were a lot that didn't make it into the final iteration. Such as Forgestoker Dragon which allows me to attack through my opponents defenses. It's a great ability but it just didn't have the same "wow factor" the other dragons did. In EDH you want cards that have an immediate impact on the board; especially if you're paying a lot of mana for that card. That's why I didn't add Scourge of the Throne since dethrone only works if our opponents have more life than us and our goal is the attack as quickly and constantly as possible. Hellkite Charger wasn't a good fit either - we frequently tap ourselves out in this deck, especially later in the game when our knights have haste. Even though Hellkite Chargers ability is potent it does us no good if we can't activate it most of the time.

Since we're a tribal deck (so to speak) I also opted out of EDH "Staple" cards like Sun Titan and Karmic Guide. That's not to say you can't add these cards to your deck if you decide to build Sylvia/Khorvath, but I decided to include some graveyard hate since a lot of EDH decks rely on graveyard recursion and this deck does not. You'd be surprised how often this will give you the edge in battle.

Deck Synergy

Ok so despite our deck containing two very different creature types there are some synergies. First up is our Commanders - yep, that's plural. Sylvia and Khorvath have the partner mechanic so we're allowed to have them both in our command zone at the start of the game. An important thing to note is that they are both seperate sources of commander damage and each accrue commander damage separately. This has pros and cons, but the way I see it having access to two great commanders and being able to judge when to play each is really strong. Sylvia can come down early and start swinging so I've included Mask of Memory and Sword of the Animist to fix the two major problems that most Boros decks have: card advantage and ramp. So take advantage of these and apply some early pressure. Khorvath will be played later in the game so the fact that he has haste, and gives our knights haste, is a nice bonus. Both Commanders are very flexible and if one gets priced out of the game too much we can still play the other.

Other than our intertribal synergies, there isn't much more we can fit into the deck; especially since we're accommodating two tribes instead of just one. There is a light 'first strike' package in the deck which makes us very potent at attacking and blocking. For this reason I went a little lighter on board-wipes and instead focused on spot removal. There is also a light 'wheel' theme in the deck to help is with our card draw. Boros is a color scheme that runs our of steam quickly so refilling our hand can help us keep up the pressure and survive in the late game.

The Goal

The deck aims to win through creative combat phases. I say creative because one of the main ways the deck wins is through commander damage. Getting Sylvia down early can really start to build up toward that perilous 21 points, and when you have ways to buff her or make her unblockable (or at least hard to block) she can provide a really fast clock. One of the ways you can win is by focusing Sylvia on a single opponent while your other creatures deal with another; and if Khorvath is also on the field you can split their individual commander damage among two separate opponents while the rest of your creatures deal with a third opponent. Ultimately, you want to play a super aggressive game. The deck struggles with a VERY long game, but it can have some controlling starts with the right hand. Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, Rogue's Passage, and Hanweir Battlements   put a lot of work to closing the game to. Finally, Bloodsworn Steward gives both Commanders +2/+2 and haste, allowing for more aggression.The Circle of Loyalty is nice because it power's up ALL our creatures and spit's out 2/2 knights for us; which can assist in build back our board-state after a board wipe.

Knights

We're running a fair amount of knights, including Sylvia. Most have some form of evasion or first strike. This is important since we can use this to out advantage and profit from Mask of Memory and Sword of the Animist to get our engine going. Dauntless Bodyguard provides some nice insurance while Knight of the White Orchid, Puresteel Paladin, and Thalia's Lancers provide some consistency. We have three creature lords in the deck that provide some nice additional bonuses - Knight Exemplar grants indestructible to our other knights (get those Swiftfoot Boots or Darksteel Plate equiped pronto!), Valiant Knight grants our knights double strike when we really want lay a beat down, and Riders of Gavony can give our knights pseudo-unblockable against some tribes. Along the same road, Gustcloak Cavalier gives us a way around some immovable bodies.

Dragons

There are less dragons than knights in the deck, obviously, but each has been selected for a certain role. Scalelord Reckoner gives us some nice karmic justice whenever someone wants to take out Khorvath or another dragon. Our larger threats tend to be more expensive and powerful, so any way to prevent them from being removed is incredibly valuable. Knollspine Dragon gives us that much needed card advantage and we also have some token generation in the form of Lathliss, the Dragon Queen(who can also buff our dragons), and Dragonmaster Outcast.

Our other dragons provide us with extra removal. Balefire Dragon and Steel Hellkite can remove threats en mass, and Terror of the Peaks and Hoard-Smelter Dragon provide repeatable, single target removal stapled onto evasive flyers.

Outside the Tribe

Ok so not every creature in the deck is a Knight or a Dragon; we are running some non-tribal cards. Partly because we're Boros and we don't hate ourselves and partly for value. Solemn Simulacrum and Dire Fleet Daredevil are self-explanatory - the later at least fits our first strike theme. There are also two changelings. Changelings are pretty great in tribal decks but since we're running a deck with two tribes they help all the better. Taurean Mauler gets bigger and bigger, but the real all-star is Mirror Entity, allowing us to fuse our knight and dragons into knights AND dragons. Allowing use to have X/X Dragon Knights with flying, haste, and double strike for X mana.

Card Draw & Ramp

The deck wants to ramp up to 5+ mana fairly quickly. It works best with explosive starts and most ramp packages in Boros are kinda slow, so we'll be relying on artifacts for help. Land Tax, Sword of the Animist, Coalition Relic, and Smothering Tithe all fix our mana. Sol Ring gives us a nice boost, and Dragon's Hoard gives us some nice acceleration and in the late game gives us card draw.

Speaking of card draw, we have the ever-present Mask of Memory which is very potent in this deck; often providing us four cards per combat. Inventors' Fair can grab us something spicy like Steel Hellkite or Darksteel Plate. We can also search our deck for answers with Enlightened Tutor and Thalia's Lancers.

Lastly, we can cycle our hand or refill it completely with cards like Reforge the Soul, Chandra, Flamecaller, and Khorvath's Fury; the later giving us the reach we need on clustered boards to finish off opponents. I also included Faithless Looting so we can continue to dig through our library for what we need. Sunbird's Invocation and Stolen Strategy also make a more than welcome appearance. Nahiri, the Harbinger rounds out our card advantage suite allowing us to draw cards, exile problematic permanents, and if all goes well grab a big dragon from a deck and give it haste.

Answers

We do need to run some answers in the deck, too, and outside of our flexible threats like Steel Hellkite we run a strong suite of removal. Staples like Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, and Chaos Warp are joined by Collective Effort, which provide a way to remove bigger threats, remove enchantments, and buff our creatures. We also have Burn Away which fits our graveyard hate subtheme.

Speaking of graveyard hate, we're also running Rest in Peace, Scavenger Grounds, and Relic of Progenitus; the latter of which can provide us with some card draw in a pinch.

Crush Contraband, By Force, and Volcanic Offering round out our targeted removal. I went with By Force over Vandalblast because its tougher for us to work up to it's overload cost and we usually have something else to play that turn. At least with By Force we can choose how much many we want to dump into it and leave room to play another card. I also decided on Crush Contraband over Return to Dust because sometimes we only have one white mana to spare as opposed to two. The casting cost of a lot of our other cards often have double red or double white.

Outside of the dragons that have board-wipes stapled onto them, we are running Deafening Clarion, which helps us gain life and wipe out the smaller creatures on the field; namely tokens. Magmaquake leaves most of our board intact and Blasphemous Act has the potential to do a lot of damage for low cost.

Closing Statements

Knights and dragons was super fun to build as they are among my favorite fantasy tropes. This deck has the potential to have some really explosive turns. The value of commander damage cannot be understated in this deck. Being able to handle multiple opponents with multiple commanders is a huge boon in a multi-player setting. Play aggressively at the start, play conservatively when you have to, and you should be on your way to victory. If you like the deck please give it +1! Happy Gaming :)

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 52 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 3 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.56
Tokens	Dragon 5/5 R, Elemental 3/1 R, Elephant 3/3 G, Golem 3/3 C, Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Treasure
Folders	Interesting Deck