Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant is Sarkhan’s second appearance since he was desparked, and allows him to be used as your commander. Sarkhan is a staple of Magic: The Gathering and is responsible for a lot of what happened to Tarkir over the course of its history.
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Obsessed with dragons in-lore, it makes sense his creature card is heavily focused on Dragons. This mono-red commander wants you to constantly be playing Dragon creature spells, flooding the battlefield with these flyers. If you like Dragons and want to avoid some of the costliness that comes with multi-color Dragon decks, Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant is a great choice in commander.
Decklist
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Commander: Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant |
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Sarkhan the Masterless |
Balefire Dragon |
Bonehoard Dracosaur |
Carven-Hoard Dragon |
Dragonlord’s Servant |
Dragonmaster Outcast |
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Dragonspeaker Shaman |
Drakuseth, Maw of Flames |
Ganax, Astral Hunter |
Goldlust Triad |
Goldspan Dragon |
Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei |
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Hellkite Tyrant |
Lathliss, Dragon Queen |
Leyline Tyrant |
Minion of the Mighty |
Nogi, Draco-Zealot |
Scourge of the Throne |
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Scourge of Valkas |
Stormscale Scion |
Hellkite Charger |
Terror of the Peaks |
Thunderbreak Regent |
Twinflame Tyrant |
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Utvara Hellkite |
Wrathful Red Dragon |
Blasphemous Act |
Dragonstorm |
Earthquake |
Mana Geyser |
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Big Score |
Chaos Warp |
Great Train Heist |
Sarkhan’s Triumph |
Seething Song |
Unexpected Windfall |
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Wild Magic Surge |
Arcane Signet |
Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind |
Commander’s Sphere |
Dragon’s Hoard |
Dragonstorm Globe |
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Fellwar Stone |
Hazoret’s Monument |
Herald’s Horn |
Orb of Dragonkind |
Patchwork Banner |
Ruby Medallion |
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Sol Ring |
Sword of Hearth and Home |
The Reaver Cleaver |
Thought Vessel |
Urza’s Incubator |
Breaching Dragonstorm |
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Crucible of Fire |
Descent into Avernus |
Dracogenesis |
Dragon Cultist |
Dragon Tempest |
Sarkhan’s Unsealing |
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Shared Animosity |
Sneak Attack |
There and Back Again |
Warstorm Surge |
Haven of the Spirit Dragon |
Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon |
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Mines of Moria |
x28 Mountain |
Myriad Landscape |
Rogue’s Passage |
Spinerock Knoll |
War Room |
The decklist contains one planeswalker, 25 creatures, four sorceries, seven instants, 16 artifacts, 11 enchantments, and 35 lands. The deck primarily consists of Dragons or permanents that support the Dragon creature type.
Key Cards
Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant
The commander of the deck, Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant ramps you while slowly growing its stats. Every Dragon that you play slowly grows the stats of Sarkhan, allowing Sarkhan to scale with the rest of your battlefield. As such, you want to cast Sarkhan as early as possible so you don’t miss a growth trigger.
Sarkhan can only make a Treasure token when it enters the battlefield, but it helps you to get ahead of your mana curve early. Dragons want as many Treasure tokens as possible, as they have high mana costs, so the extra mana is very helpful.
Breaching Dragonstorm
With the exception of one card, all nonland cards have a mana value of eight or less. As such, Breaching Dragonstorm will always hit a spell that you can cast for free (unless you’re unlucky enough to exile Carven-Hoard Dragon). This allows you to cheat around mana costs, something Dragons appreciate.
You have the option to not cast the spell that gets exiled. While you generally always want to play any creatures, board wipes and removal spells are best put into your hand unless there’s something you actively want to remove immediately.
It’s very easy for a Dragon to enter the battlefield, letting you constantly re-cast Breaching Dragonstorm. There is a chance that you’ll exile a cheaper spell, but it helps to thin your library to make it more likely to draw your other key cards.
Hellkite Charger
Hellkite Charger is one of your best late-game attackers once you have a lot of mana. Just seven mana can potentially lead you to an infinite amount of combat steps. Even if it doesn’t, with how powerful Dragons are, just one extra attack can sometimes be enough to take someone out of the game.
The combo for infinite combat steps isn’t necessary to win the game, but it can win you the game quickly. It helps to guarantee victory as opposed to slowly grinding towards it, and that is why Hellkite Charger is such an important card in the deck. Here is how the infinite combo works.
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Prerequisites |
Hellkite Charger is on the battlefield. The Reaver Cleaver is attached to a creature that can deal seven damage. Seven mana is available. |
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Step 1 |
Attack with Hellkite Charger and equipped creature. |
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Step 2 |
Hellkite Charger triggers, paying seven mana to untap all creatures and gain an extra combat step. |
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Step 3 |
Damage is dealt. The Reaver Cleaver creates Treasure tokens equal to the damage the equipped creature dealt. |
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Step 4 |
Repeat steps 1-3, using the Treasure tokens to pay the seven mana needed for Hellkite Charger’s effect. |
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Results |
Infinite combat steps, infinite Treasures (if equipped creature can deal more than seven combat damage). |
Descent Into Avernus
Descent into Avernus makes every game move a lot quicker, and in the case of a Sakrhan, Dragon Ascendent deck, you have a high chance of coming out on top. The burn damage and Treasures it makes grow every turn cycle, giving everyone extra mana to work with and turn on a timer.
Descent into Avernus will deal burn damage to you as well, so be careful of leaving yourself defenseless. Against other creature or burn decks, they might be able to take you out before you can take them out.
The burn damage Descent into Avernus does can become big in the later stages of the game if you cast it early. Dragons have high attack stats, so it mixed with the burn damage Descent into Avernus can do can melt life totals down to zero very quickly.
How To Play The Deck
A Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant Commander deck casts a ton of Dragons as quickly as it can, flooding the battlefield with flyers. The deck is a very aggressive one, generally always wanting to attack at your opponents to quickly bring their life totals down.
Dragons cost a lot of mana, so permanents that can discount them are vital to get onto the battlefield early. Mana rocks and cards like Urza’s Incubator and Dragonspeaker Shaman are huge boosts.
The deck is primarily made up of creatures, so you don’t have a ton of interaction with your opponents. Due to how powerful Dragons are, you often don’t need interaction in the first place. Your creatures are going to be able to block a lot of what your opponents can throw at you, and can deal large amounts of damage to take anyone problematic to your game plan out of the game quickly.
The primary win condition of the deck is winning through combat. Dragons are amazing in combat thanks to most of them having flying and high stats, making them harder for most opponents to block. You can also win through burn damage, since there are a handful of permanents that can deal burn damage when a Dragon enters the battlefield.
The biggest downside to the deck is its speed and weakness to board wipes. There is no good way to protect your creatures from removal in mono red, so there’s generally little you can do if all your creatures get removed. It can be hard to build back up after a board wipe as well because of how costly Dragons can be. However, if you can dodge removal, you can snowball out of control consistently. It’s a race to take your opponents out before they can wipe your battlefield.
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