In April of 2015, I wrote an article with a deck built around Marchesa, the Black Rose. It was an important moment for me for a few reasons. It's a deck I've built in paper and have continued to play regularly ever since. I wrote a follow-up article this year with a new take; the deck still worked mostly the same, but it got rid of a specific hallmark which made the deck especially important to me: the original iteration used a lot of self-mill.

For some of you, this is no big deal. For me, it's huge. I hate throwing away my own cards. I chose those cards! I wanted them in the deck for a reason! The idea of intentionally dumping them into the 'yard is one I continue to struggle with, even as I force myself to do it when I play Marchesa.

But we get stronger when we challenge ourselves and step outside our comfort zones. When I saw this... thing land on the other side of the table at my Bloomburrow Prerelease, I thought it might be a good chance to revisit letting go of some carefully chosen cards.

Not exactly the most creative of names, but this is a beast. We get a 5/5 flier for five mana, which isn't bad to begin with. But whenever Dragonhawk enters or attacks, we get to impulse-draw cards and cast them until the end of our turn. Any we don't cast turn into damage for our opponents! Sweet.

We get to see more cards and do more damage the more cards we impulse, and that number is determined by the amount of Creatures we control with power 4 or greater. Mono-Red very nicely tends to have higher powers for mana cost than other colors, so we're in a good spot there. That said, we still have a five-mana Commander, and we'll often see several cards per turn and we probably want to cast many of them. That means ramp.

We've got 40 Lands, 26 of which are Basic Mountains. I like Arena of Glory here, as the Haste is relevant and the it supplies can be quite useful. Bonders' Enclave and War Room both draw us some extra cards, another thing we want to be doing. Mines of Moria often will just be a Mountain for us, because we don't have that much which winds up in the Graveyard, but in the event some things do we can make some extra mana. It seems pretty silly at this point to not run Rogue's Passage in just about every Commander deck which has Creatures, and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle can end up being valuable even if we're not focused on it.

We would like to get Dragonhawk out early, but more importantly we want extra mana over the long term, so we have an assortment of ways to get extra. Sol Ring and Worn Powerstone both provide . Mind Stone and Dragon's Hoard both draw us cards. Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind can give something Haste, and Cursed Mirror can let us impulse an extra card. Glittering Stockpile is an interesting one, perfect in , and possibly useful should we impulse something we just can't let go of but also can't quite afford normally.

Ruby Medallion is really good here, and Hazoret's Monument is nearly as good. But the two real all-stars are the Treasure makers and Neheb, the Eternal. Neheb gives us mana exactly when we need it - after our Combat phase. And Goldspan Dragon, Professional Face-Breaker, and the Reaver Cleaver are fantastic in this deck, generating more and more mana the longer they sit out there.

Most of our Creatures fly, so Rogue's Gloves is a great choice to make sure we keep cards moving into our Hand. I really like Big Score here, and Demand Answers is also fantastic because we can often sac a Treasure rather than discard. I wanted a few more ways, so we've also got Arcane Encyclopedia and Illuminated Folio, which doesn't see much play anymore but can be wonderful in mono-color decks.

Dragonhawk, of course, gives us access to some extra spells, but we've got more ways to impulse, too. Etali, Primal Storm hits us and everyone else. Bonehoard Dracosaur does too, and makes us Tokens and Creatures while we're at it. Laelia, the Blade Reforged cares about all the spells we cast from Exile, and Season of the Bold gives us the option to look at two more. Chandra, Torch of Defiance is great in pretty much all modes. Oh, and Wild-Magic Sorcerer gives something we cast from Exile Cascade, which should give us another spell.

If play-testing is any sign, this deck deals a lot of damage. The whole thing starts with big Creatures, many of which fly, so that's damage right there. Add in the cards we don't cast with Thunderhawk and we're doing a fair bit each turn. Defiler of Instinct cares when we cast Red permanent spells, dealing a damage. Keeper of Secrets makes each of our Impulse-cast spells deal extra damage. Torban, Thane of Red Fell buffs up everything we do to do damage by 2, and Solphim, Mayhem Dominus doubles up all of Thunderhawk's "I-didn't-cast-that" damage. That gets out of hand quickly.

Scytheclaw Raptor makes it costly for people to do things not on their turn, Thunderbreak Regent makes removal harder to use, and Sunspine Lynx punishes people with greedy mana bases. We do a lot of damage.

We have a few point removal spells like Lightning Bolt and Chaos Warp. Delayed Blast Fireball is fantastic, because we get to cast it for its normal cost but get the benefits of casting it from Exile. People don't like it when that works the way it does - I speak from experience. Abrade is useful, and Return the Favor will often surprise people when you cast it. Blasphemous Act and Vandalblast are great to clear the board of clutter.

There are a couple of particular spells to point out, but before that, the deck takes extra combat steps. The thinking is simple: more attacks means more cards for Dragonhawk, which (often) means a bunch more damage to all our opponents. Those effects don't all work the same, though, so it's worth it to remind you to read the text when it happens. Karlach, Fury of Avernus untaps everything and gives us another Combat, but there's no main phase in between. Scourge of the Throne does the same but only if we've attacked the person with the most life. Relentless Assault and Seize the Day are both Sorceries, so we get an additional combat phase and main phase, but Seize the Day only untaps one Creature. See? Make sure you know the particulars of each effect.

Lathliss, Dragon Queen and Dragonmaster Outcast both make big tokens which will count toward Dragonhawk's total in addition to being 5/5 fliers. And finally, Nalfeshnee is one of the most powerful things we can do; there are very few things we don't want copies of, even if the permanents are temporary.

Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1 Bloodsworn Steward
• 1 Bonehoard Dracosaur
• 1 Combat Celebrant
• 1 Defiler of Instinct
• 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Giant Cindermaw
• 1 Goldspan Dragon
• 1 Karlach, Fury of Avernus
• 1 Keeper of Secrets
• 1 Laelia, the Blade Reforged
• 1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen
• 1 Leyline Tyrant
• 1 Nalfeshnee
• 1 Neheb, the Eternal
• 1 Professional Face-Breaker
• 1 Scourge of the Throne
• 1 Scytheclaw Raptor
• 1 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 1 Sunspine Lynx
• 1 Terror of the Peaks
• 1 Thunderbreak Regent
• 1 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
• 1 Wild-Magic Sorcerer

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

• Instants (12)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Big Score
• 1 Bolt Bend
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Delayed Blast Fireball
• 1 Demand Answers
• 1 Great Train Heist
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Return the Favor
• 1 Thrill of Possibility
• 1 Unexpected Windfall
• 1 Wild Magic Surge

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Overpowering Attack
• 1 Relentless Assault
• 1 Season of the Bold
• 1 Seize the Day
• 1 Vandalblast
• 1 World at War

• Artifacts (14)
• 1 Arcane Encyclopedia
• 1 Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Cursed Mirror
• 1 Dragon's Hoard
• 1 Glittering Stockpile
• 1 Hazoret's Monument
• 1 Illuminated Folio
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 The Reaver Cleaver
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (40)
• 26 Mountain
• 1 Arena of Glory
• 1 Bonders' Enclave
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Demolition Field
• 1 Flamekin Village
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Mines of Moria
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1 War Room

Buy This Deck Export text

This deck is fast, aggressive, and quite even in how it throws its damage around. As long as you play in a group which doesn't mind attacking, this will be a great one to have in the stable. Just make sure to keep track of all your triggers!

One tip: once Dragonhawk gets rolling, don't play your Land for turn until after you've seen what you get with Dragonhawk. You may just want to let the damage happen, but it probably makes more sense to play a Land from the Exiled cards instead.

Thanks for reading.