How to Draft Lurrus of the Dream-Den

So you opened Lurrus in Ikoria draft. You probably know it’s good in Standard, but can you build a good draft deck around it?

That’s what we’ll talk about today. Everything about how to draft a good Lurrus deck and when should you go for it. Lurrus is the most fun companion to build around, so let’s get right to it.

Is Drafting Lurrus Worth It?

Well, drafting around Lurrus is very interesting, that’s for sure. Starting with an extra card in hand is nice, but you can only play permanents that cost 2 or less!

Drafting a Lurrus deck is worth it – when you get it in the first booster. That way you can plan your whole draft around it. That’s really necessary, as this deck has a really specific plan and relies heavily on Lurrus and the synergies it enables.

Lurrus Draft Tips

First thing first, don’t forget that only permanents are restricted. You can still play instants and sorceries of any costs, so pick your Blood Curdles early.

Besides premium removal spells, your pick order really changes when you decide to draft around this cat. Here’s how you should approach it.

Be Aggressive!

As most of your cards are cheap you’ll want to be an aggressive deck. You want plenty of cheap creatures that can start attacking early. Something like Serrated Scorpion is usually unplayable. However, that’s not the case with a Lurrus deck.

You can cast it early and get a couple of attacks in. Afterwards, you can either send it to its death by attacking or use it as a chump blocker. It deals another 2 points of damage and you get to replay it if you have Lurrus in play.

Combat tricks can also be good, but the one we specifically like in this deck is Spontaneous Flight, as it provides not only power boost, but also evasion. Don’t be afraid to cast it in your first main phase and just go to town.

Play Less Lands

Because you’re an aggressive deck with a lower mana curve you can afford to play less lands. We’d suggest 15 lands for an average Lurrus deck with a bunch of one and two drops. This way you’ll get flooded less often.

Go Wide

Playing cheap creatures gives you another benefit. You can play multiple creatures in the early turns. Then you take advantage of them with mass pump spells. There are two such cards worth mentioning.

First one is Coordinated Charge. It’s a bit pricey at five mana, but you can cycle it away when you don’t have enough lands. When you have lots of creatures in play and you managed to deal some damage in the early game, Charge will simply win you the game.

The second one is Regal Leosaur. This one is particularly great. If you’re in red-white you can play it early. However, even if you’re only in white, it deserves a spot in your deck as a mass pump spell, that you can replay with Lurrus.

That’s right, you can cast it from your graveyard with its mutate ability, if you have Lurrus in play. It gives you a nice different angle of attack.

Use Your Graveyard

We already talked about using your graveyard with Lurrus – it’s basically what the card tells you to do. But don’t forget that there are ways to get Lurrus back from graveyard too.

The best way to do so is with Call of the Death-Dweller. As Lurrus is the key component of your strategy, a card that serves as a second copy becomes very strong.

Of course, when Lurrus is doing fine and well, you can also get other creatures from your graveyard if you have plenty of them.

Another way is to play Unbreakable Bond. However, it’s quite pricey, so Corpse Churn might be better. It also fills your graveyard, which is great in this deck.

More Synergies

There are some other cool interactions with Lurrus. For example, Sleeper Dart is usually a very bad card. In this deck it becomes playable, because you can draw an additional card with Lurrus on each of your turns.

Similarly, you can play Springjaw Trap. In the late game it’s basically five mana for 3 damage every turn. You won’t have to repeat that many times, before your opponent is dead.

Game Plan with Lurrus

So all that being said, here’s how an average game with Lurrus should play out:

• You cast your cheap creatures and get some damage in.
• Lurrus gets you back some creatures that you traded off.
• You use a pump spell or combat trick with evasion to push the final points of damage in.
• If that didn’t end the game you use Serrated Scorpion or Springjaw Trap.

Somewhere along the way, you can also get Lurrus back to keep the value train going. Okay, let’s take a look at how such deck could look in practice.

Lurrus Draft Deck – Example

This one didn’t came quite together as we’d want to. It has some nice key cards for a Lurrus deck, but it only has 11 creatures.

However, in the actual games the deck worked really well and we managed to reach seven wins with it on Arena. Four Serrated Scorpions were really nice alongside three copies of Spontaneous Flight, which provided a much needed evasion.

Try to get more creatures if possible, but otherwise this deck is a fine example of how a Lurrus deck should look like.

Lurrus Draft Deck 

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Creatures (11)

1

Flourishing Fox

1

Garrison Cat

4

Serrated Scorpion

2

Checkpoint Officer

1

Drannith Healer

1

Durable Coilbug

1

Regal Leosaur

Spells (13)

1

Fight as One

1

Mutual Destruction

1

Swallow Whole

1

Divine Arrow

1

Fire Prophecy

1

Call of the Death-Dweller

3

Spontaneous Flight

1

Blood Curdle

1

Dark Bargain

1

Rumbling Rockslide

1

Coordinated Charge

Enchantments (1)

1

Pacifism

Lands (15)

1

Bloodfell Caves

1

Mountain

6

Plains

1

Savai Triome

1

Scoured Barrens

5

Swamp

Cards (40)

Lurrus Draft Tips – Recap

Let’s quickly recap what you need to do draft a great Lurrus deck:

1. Draft lots of cheap creatures.
2. Play less lands, if you managed to lower your curve.
3. Get some cards that pump your whole team.
4. Use your graveyard as a resource.

Conclusion

That’s all about drafting Lurrus. For more information about drafting, you can read our Ikoria Draft Guide.

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Until next time, have a blast and may your Lurrus never die.