Draconic Dissent Upgrade Guide

What would a Dungeons & Dragons set be without a Dragon Tribal deck? Well Draconic Dissent is just that. If you like playing big Dragons, forcing your opponents to attack each other, and drawing cards, this could be the deck for you. Check out these five unique Draconic Dissent upgrade paths for taking the pre-constructed deck and making them your own.

Table of Contents

A Brief Note on Budget

In these upgrade guides, I choose to not impose a budget restriction. I want these to be a valuable brainstorm for anyone looking to build a fun deck based around this precon. As a result, I don’t plan to exclude any recommendations based on their monetary value. However, I will try to include any budget alternatives that are available. In instances where I can’t find any such card, consider asking your playgroup if they would be okay with playing with proxies.

This article has five fun ideas for upgrading this deck. However, I’m sure there are cards and strategies that I didn’t come up with. If you think of a great deck based on this precon, please tell us about it in the comments below.

If you don’t already own a Draconic Dissent deck, you can order one on Amazon.

Draconic Dissent Baldur's Gate Commander Decks

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Draconic Dissent Decklist

*These are the new exclusive cards in this deck.

Draconic Dissent – General Upgrades

Firkraag, Cunning Instigator Baldur's Gate Upgrade Guide

Overall, this deck does an excellent job sticking to its theme. There are few if any cards that I would consider subpar. However, as with almost every deck, there are still a few basic improvements we can make before we dive into the specific upgrade paths.

The Mana Base

Overall, the mana for this deck is pretty solid. It is only a two-color deck, so there are fewer constraints on what colors you need. That being said, its always possible to draw only Mountains or only Islands. In order to mitigate mana screw, try to include more lands that tap for both of your colors and/or enter the battlefield untapped.

Sulfur Falls Draconic Dissent Upgrade Guide

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Here are some of the best options for this deck:

What to Take Out

Pretty much every card in this deck has a purpose. I don’t think there are any cards that I feel good about taking out of every version of this deck. That being said, in each section of this article I’m going to discuss cards that I don’t think belong in that version of the deck. Oftentimes I might recommend cutting cards like Chain Reaction or Chaos Warp. I don’t mean to say that those cards are bad by any means.

Each deck should have some amount of removal, card advantage, ramp, etc. However, there are plenty of cards that can serve these purposes. I think that if you can find cards that fill these utility roles and synergize with your deck’s theme at the same time, they are even more valuable.

5 Ways to Upgrade Draconic Dissent

These are the five directions I thought of taking this deck:

Goad
Tribal
Treasures
+1/+1 Counters
Card Draw

Power Level

At the beginning of each the next sections I included a range of numbers. That range is what I expect this deck to be able to perform at on a 1-10 power scale (Based on the power scale established by the Command Zone Podcast). For more information on the Commander power scale, you can take a look at the table below.

Power Level	Name	Description
1-2	Jank	Very little synergy among cards. No Commander staples. Under powered on purpose.
3-4	Casual	Some synergies, but lacking the strong ones. The deck still lacks focus. Mana curves mostly neglected. A deck that a new player would build.
4-6	Focused	Synergy exists, the deck has a focused gameplan, although it doesn't always win in the exact same way, usually after turn 13. Includes staples and a small amount of tutors. On the same power level as most Commander precons.
7-8	Optimized	Powerful and varied synergies between the cards. A decent number of good tutors. Good mana curve. Has an efficient and consistent way to win on turns 10-12 (level 7) or 7-9 (level 8). Some social rules — like no mass land destruction, no consistent combo wins — still exist.
9-10	Competitive	The most powerful decks, on competitive EDH level. Quick and explosive, can win on turns 4-6 (level 9) or 1-3 (level 10). No social rules, no jank cards. Only the most powerful commanders and strategies can reach this level.

Actual power levels may vary, but let those numbers be a guide when considering upgrading this deck in those ways.

1. Goad (4-7)

Recommended Commander: Firkraag, Cunning Instigator or Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer

Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist Draconic Dissent Upgrade Guide

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Firkraag and Baeloth are both commanders that let you Goad your opponents’ creatures. I’ve said it before, and I have a feeling I’ll say it again: Wizards loves this mechanic. Its perfect for speeding up slow games and forcing your opponents to act. In recent sets, we’ve seen a lot of new Goad cards. I expect this trend to continue, so be on the lookout for new cards to add to this deck. In the meantime, here are the cards we currently have with Goad that don’t already come in the precon:

If you run Firkraag as the commander, you might want to consider including more Dragons or cards that give you additional combat steps. If you choose Baeloth, you probably want ways to pump his power up. I talk a little bit about each of these strategies in later sections of the article.

New Cards From Battle for Baldur’s Gate

To illustrate my point about Wizards making plenty of new Goad cards, here are the cards from the new set that have it. Specifically the ones that don’t already appear in the precon:

Any or all of these could make great additions to your Goad deck if you open them in Commander Legends 2 booster packs.

What to Take Out

This Draconic Dissent upgrade doesn’t need the tribal synergies that show up in this deck. If its doesn’t have Goad or otherwise force combat, you can probably cut it. Remember to include as many utility cards as you need, but you can even find some Goad cards that meet some of those needs.

2. Tribal

This deck is designed to be a tribal Dragons deck. However, Baeloth is also an Elf Shaman. Even though the rest of this deck is not designed to be built around those tribes, I want to see if he could add anything to either of those tribes. The dragons deck will likely be the most powerful tribe I discuss here. Elves will likely be the worst.

Dragons (5-8)

Recommended Commander: Firkraag, Cunning Instigator

Lathlis Dragon Queen Best Cards for Dragon Deck Draconic Dissent

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This deck is called Draconic Dissent. Obviously, Dragons are the tribe that Wizards intended to focus this deck around. And honestly, Blue/Red might be the best color combination for tribal Dragons. If you just chose sixty three random Dragons, this deck would probably play out fine. However, there are plenty of cards, including, but not necessarily limited to:

Like I said, you could likely choose whichever Dragons you want. These are simply a few ideas to consider. Just like with staples, I believe that Dragons that synergize well with each other are better than Dragons that are just powerful. Feel free to experiment and see which ones you like best, though.

New Cards From Battle for Baldur’s Gate

Wizards never disappoints with these Dungeons and Dragons sets. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms had plenty of Dragons in it, and Battle for Baldur’s Gate has even more. Here are the new Dragons that you might be able to open in packs:

And remember, these are only the new cards from Baldur’s Gate, and only in Blue/Red. If you love five color Dragons, there are probably three times this many card. Chances are good that you will be able to find something to go in your deck from this set.

Elves (1-2)

Recommended Commander: Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer

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I know that it seems like there wouldn’t be very many if any Elves, but the Dungeons and Dragons sets introduce Elves in all colors. The tribe is not exactly powerful, but there are actually cards that could go in it. For example:

Even though Izzet Elves exist, that doesn’t mean that they are very powerful. Some of them roll dice, some of them draw cards, but overall, there isn’t much of any synergy to tie them together. Unless you’re trying to build an interesting meme deck, stay away from Blue/Red Elves.

New Cards From Battle for Baldur’s Gate

Neera, Wild Mage, Tomb of Horrors Adventurer, and Winter Eladrin are new Elves from Battle for Baldur’s Gate. They are cool cards, but they still don’t change the fact that Izzet Elves are bad.

Shamans (4-6)

Recommended Commander: Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer

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Similar to Elves, Shamans have very little synergy in these colors. But, at the very least, there are like to be enough Shamans to fill out the deck’s needs. There are a few that also synergize with the rest of the tribe. For example:

You will likely want to also include tribal synergy cards like Kindred Discovery and Kindred Charge to fill in the gaps that inevitably appear in this deck. Shamans are not a very well-fleshed out tribe yet, so you will need some of these. Any card that say’s “choose a creature type” qualifies in this category. For example:

All that being said, Baeloth does not have very much synergy with the Shamans tribe. If you want to use him as the commander for this deck, I would say you should almost exclusively plan on using him for the colors. However, there are probably other Izzet Shaman commanders that could potentially work better than Baeloth.

New Cards From Battle for Baldur’s Gate

None of these new cards from Baldur’s Gate synergize explicitly with Shamans, but if you are cracking packs and come across on of them, they could probably go in this kind of deck:

What to Take Out

With tribal decks, I always say that you should only include creatures that are members of the tribe. It helps the aesthetics of the deck, and makes it so your tribal payoffs always apply to all of your creatures. However, not everyone agrees with me on this. If you want to include creatures that are off-tribe, feel free. Everyone has pet cards or cards they feel are too powerful to not include in their decks.

3. Treasures (4-8)

Recommended Commander: Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer

Treasures are a pretty new archetype. Despite that, Wizards has decided to go all in on supporting them in Commander. There are so many cards that produce, care about, or utilize Treasures, that it barely matters that Baeloth is not the ideal commander for a deck like this. Unless you lean into aspects of the Goad version of the deck (which could also be very cool), Baeloth is less efficient than other Izzet commanders who also make Treasures.

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Here are some of the cards that could work well in a Treasures deck:

Other than these, there are also tons more cards that simply make Treasures. If you have any of them laying around, they are likely to be reasonable includes in this deck. However, if you find you have too many cards in your deck, these also might be good cards to consider cutting.

New Cards From Battle for Baldur’s Gate

Just like in Magic as a whole, there are tons of Treasure cards in Battle for Baldur’s Gate. If you crack these when opening Commander Legends 2 boosters, feel free to run them. However, not all of them are of a high enough power level to be good enough in Commander.

The cards that make a Treasure when they enter the battlefield or give everyone a Treasure are probably not that good. Since none of them are Treasure payoffs, you don’t have to include any of them. On the other hand, the Ancient Copper Dragon seems extremely strong to me in general, let alone this deck.

What to Take Out

You probably don’t need any of the Goad cards or forced combat cards in this Draconic Dissent upgrade, so feel free to cut those. Basically, if it doesn’t make a Treasure, or care about artifacts, I don’t think you need to include it in the deck. Feel free to cut any of the cards that don’t fit this description.

4. +1/+1 Counters (3-5)

Recommended Commander: Firkraag, Cunning Instigator or Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer

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I list both Firkraag and Baeloth as being potential commanders for this kind of deck. However, I think that these two cards are good for different reasons. Firkraag gets the counters as a reward for Goading a bunch of your opponents’ creatures. Baeloth, however, doesn’t give himself counters, but can use them to be able to Goad your opponents’ creatures by virtue of having higher power. This subtle difference will change which of these creatures are valuable in your version of this deck:

Of these cards, the ones that add more counters to any creature are probably better with Baeloth. The ones that give additional abilities to all creatures with counters are fine for either. Firkraag is going to have to be responsible for its own counters, so there are only a few of these cards that are especially good with them. However, being tied to card draw is also good with Chasm Skulker.

Blue also has a good number of proliferate abilities. These are likely to be pretty important to this deck, so see if you can lean into any of the abilities of these cards:

New Cards From Battle for Baldur’s Gate

+1/+1 counters are not a prominent theme in CLB, especially in Blue/Red. There are only two cards in the main set that deal with them, and those cards are Kenku Artificer and Wyll, Blade of Frontiers. Wyll kind of opens up an interesting dice-rolling option, but that would require running a lot more odd cards. On the other hand, Kenku could be just fine, especially if you already have the cards that buff each creature with counters, proliferate, etc.

What to Take Out

For this version of the deck, Dragons are fine because they trigger Goad on Firkraag. Other Goad cards also work fine, because Firkraag and Baeloth both care about that. Other than those, I would recommend keeping things that use +1/+1 counters and taking out whatever else you have. Make sure you have your utility pieces, but try to find synergistic ramp/removal/etc if possible.

5. Card Draw (3-7)

Recommended Commander: Firkraag, Cunning Instigator

Ormos, Archive Keeper MTG How to Upgrade Draconic Dissent

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This deck is so streamlined that finding a fifth option for upgrading it was legitimately difficult. However, Firkraag generates a small amount of card advantage in the form of card draw. It is not a great, but there are a handful of synergies in Magic for this kind of effect. If you have been paying attention in earlier parts of this article, you might have noticed some of them.

But as I mentioned, you likely won’t be able to draw too many cards with Firkraag alone. Consider some of these cards to help speed up the number of cards you are drawing:

New Cards From Battle for Baldur’s Gate

Ancient Silver Dragon is made for this kind of deck. Kindred Discover (which is a reprint) could also work well if you were still trying to play a bunch of Dragons alongside Firkraag. Other than that, you have a few cards that draw incidentally, such as:

Any of these spells could make for good additions, but Ancient Blue Dragon is by far the best.

What to Take Out

This archetype is vague enough that you could reasonably include any cards that you want and have them fit in the deck. In fact, some of these cards are probably just good options to upgrade one of the other versions of this deck.

Overall, if you draw more cards in a deck, you have more opportunities to see the cards that you are going to need most. As a result, you are more likely to do the thing your deck wants to do and ultimately win. As far as taking cards out of this version of the deck, though, I have no recommendations. Take out anything that doesn’t draw cards, but be sure to cover your bases as far as utility goes.

Draconic Dissent Upgrade Guide – Conclusion

Thats it for this deck. If you have any questions or comments, you can leave them down below, or find me on Instagram or Twitter.

If you’d like to try your luck and perhaps open some cards for your Draconic Dissent upgrade process, you can get a Baldur’s Gate Set booster box on Amazon.