Earlier this Spring I found myself with a few too many full art Islands and some extra time on my hands. I've struggled with building casual mono-Blue EDH decks for lower powered metas. I don't want to lean too hard into countermagic, and it can feel like a challenge to find strong combat-centric finishers in Blue.

Over the winter I went through a few different Blue decks and in the run-up to Tarkir: Dragonstorm, I decided to try something different. Mono-Blue Dragons in EDH. My goal wasn't to build a mid-to-high powered deck. I've got plenty of those. I was looking to build something a little lower in power, or in the "bracket system", as a deck to play if I'm looking to hang at a lower-powered table or to play after a win.

The trouble, as you'll soon see, is that Dragons in Blue aren't all that powerful. That's a good thing if I'm looking to build a weaker deck, but I also want it to be fun, interactive, and interesting. My solution was to pick a commander who doesn't bring all that much to the party, but sets me up to be able to keep my mana up and play on my opponents' turns more than any deck I've built in a while.

Renari, Merchant of Marvels is a Dragon Artificer who costs four mana, lets me cast Dragon and artifact spells as though they had flash, and will let me choose a background. I wouldn't have picked Renari if it wasn't for that background I'd be able to pair with him.

Feywild Visitor is a legendary enchantment with background, meaning it can be played and cast out of the command zone if it's paired with a legendary creature with the "choose a background" ability. These enchantments give your commander an additional ability without the downsides of being an aura enchantment. This one will let me make those adorable 1/1 Blue Faerie Dragon creature tokens with flying that came out of the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set.

The trigger my background enchantment provides is that whenever one or more creatures I control deal combat damage to a player, I'll create a 1/1 Blue Faerie Dragon creature token. Damage happens at the same time, so at a table of four players I'll be able to make at most three of them on my turn by hitting each of my tablemates. If I had double-strike, token doublers, or extra combats, I might be looking at more, but in mono-Blue those aren't easy to come by.

This commander / background pairing means I'm going to be building a deck with a lot of Dragons, a lot of artifacts, and a game plan of trying to win through combat damage and defensive Blue interaction. I'm unlikely to just overwhelm my opponents with the kind of combat threat you can assemble in other colors, so I'll probably get some of my wins through well-timed bounce spells like Aetherize and Aetherspouts.

A is for Artifact

Before I talk about Dragons, it's worth talking about the fact that Renari will let me cast both Dragons and Artifacts at instant speed. I'm not playing a ton of artifacts, but they are worth a mention.

Dragons are expensive, so to start with I'm playing a mana rocks that can create a good amount of mana. Gilded Lotus costs five mana and can generate three mana of any color. Thran Dynamo costs one less and can tap to make three colorless mana. Hedron Archive, Worn Powerstone, Sol Ring, Thought Vessel, and Arcane Signet are also in the mix, and should give me something to spend my mana on if I've got Renari in play and I've gotten through a turn cycle without having to use it to protect myself or deal with a problem. End step mana rocks right before my turn will be a common mid-game play, and my turn will likely see me drawing, playing an Island, and passing the turn so I have mana up for the next turn cycle.

A higher-powered build that was less interested in Dragons might play even more mana rocks and either aim to hit Dramatic Reversal and Isochron Scepter to make infinite mana, or possibly turn them into an army with an overloaded Rise and Shine. This isn't that deck.

I want to play and do fun things with Dragons so I'm running a couple of pieces of equipment that tend to draw removal. Blade of Selves is a two-mana Equipment that gives equipped creature myriad. That means that when it attacks I'll make token copies of the equipped creature, exiling those tokens at the end of combat. That's good but it isn't usually a huge problem for the table. Helm of the Host can very much be a problem for the table. It's a four mana Equipment that will let me make a hasty nonlegendary token copy of the equipped creature.

Helm of the Host famously pairs with Godo, Bandit Warlord to win games in cEDH in one of the most straightforward cEDH decks you'll ever see. In this deck it's nowhere near as dangerous. I chose to include Helm and Blade of Selves because I'll be able to play them on an end step, untap on my turn and equip them to a creature. Often a Helm of the Host sits around for a turn cycle, giving everyone else a chance to remove it. Renari's ability to let me play artifacts as though they had flash should let me play these and equip them right away.

This decklist suffers from being one that I put together with cards I had available, so there are artifacts I should be running but have not included. Blackblade Reforged and Strata Scythe are examples of ways to make a flying threat much bigger. If I enjoy this deck but find it's falling short, I may pick up a few ways to make a Dragon into a legitimate problem for my tablemates.

I'm running a bunch of artifact creatures in this deck in addition to my mana rocks. I'll be able to cheat them out as instant speed blockers, and they help take care of some basic needs of any EDH deck. Pilgrim's Eye, Skittering Surveyor, Solemn Simulacrum, and Burnished Hart all help with lands in various ways, and Etherium Sculptor reduces the cost of my artifacts by 1 mana.

In a deck with lots of Dragons, Etherium Spinner should have lots of chances to make 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact tokens. They aren't as cute as my Faerie Dragons, but they fly and will serve as decent blockers. Removal is always best when you can play it at instant speed, and Renari, Merchant of Marvels will let me do just that with Meteor Golem. It's overcosted at 7 mana, but flexible enough to destroy any target nonland permanent an opponent controls.

Sandstone Oracle is an artifact creature with the Sphinx subtype. It's got flying and might just draw me a few cards when it enters. I'm also running an artifact dragon in Steel Hellkite. Some of these are old school commander staples, often found in precon decklists and just about perfect for a low-to-mid powered casual deck in 2025.

Here Be Dragons

I'm in Blue, so as of this writing it's hard to say that these are particularly great Dragons, but my first draft included as many decent Dragons as I could find. Fortunately there were a few that were well worth running.

Shimmer Dragon is a favorite of mine, though I think it would be at its best in a deck with a lot more artifacts. Both Keiga, the Tide Star and Kairi, the Swirling Sky are also strong cards for this deck and really shine when I'm able to equip one with Blade of Selves. Unlike Helm of the Host, Blade of Selves makes exact copies of the equipped creature when it attacks. Keiga and Kairi are both legendary, so I'll have to sacrifice the extra copies to the legend rule, immediately giving me their death triggers.

I'm also running Rite of Replication to quickly grow my army. That four-mana sorcery will make a token copy of target creature, but if I kick it for five extra mana I'll make five token copies instead. That's a lot of mana, but if I use it with either Keiga or Kairi I'll get five of their death triggers as the copies will die to the legend rule. If I've used Helm of the Host to make a nonlegendary token copy of either of them, I'll get to keep those copies, as the legend rule won't kick in.

I'm running a handful of other dragons but most of them aren't even five power. If I decide this deck is fun enough to invest in, I will definitely pick up an Ancient Silver Dragon and an Astral Dragon along with a few new Dragons from Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

As of this writing, the only ones spoiled that would fit in this deck are Marang River Regent, Dirgur Island Dragon, Transcendent Dragon, and Voracious Bibliophile. Those first two have an Adventure mode and River Regent has a beefy 6/7 stat line. Transcendent Dragon will let me Commandeer a spell and Bibliophile can give me much needed card draw. I'm hopeful that we'll see at least a few more monocolored Blue Dragons, as it would be nice to have something more to add to this list.

Fey-wild about Renari

I've been able to play this deck a few times with mixed results, but that is what I expect when playing an intentionally lower powered deck. You don't go play mono-Blue if you're seriously interested in building a Dragons deck, so this struck me as a fun experiment and a somewhat novel approach to a tried-and-true deck type.

The list below includes some of the new Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards and does not match the lower powered list I've been playing in paper. I've dropped out all game changers, as I'm not confident it would do well against your average bracket 3 deck. Whether that makes it "bad" or just low-powered is a matter of interpretation, but I've enjoyed playing it and I'm happy to have an interesting mono-Blue deck to play at low powered tables.

Feywild Renard | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander/background (2)
• 1 Renari, Merchant of Marvels
• 1 Feywild Visitor

• Creatures (37)
• 1 Ancient Silver Dragon
• 1 Belltoll Dragon
• 1 Blue Dragon
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Dirgur Island Dragon
• 1 Enduring Curiosity
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Etherium Spinner
• 1 Faerie Mastermind
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Icefall Regent
• 1 Juvenile Mist Dragon
• 1 Kairi, the Swirling Sky
• 1 Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1 Ledger Shredder
• 1 Marang, River Regent
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Mindscour Dragon
• 1 Murktide Regent
• 1 Nimbleclaw Adept
• 1 Oceanus Dragon
• 1 Oculus Whelp
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Pseudodragon Familiar
• 1 Sandstone Oracle
• 1 Sapphire Dragon
• 1 Shimmer Dragon
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Sword Coast Serpent
• 1 Thieving Skydiver
• 1 Thought Sponge
• 1 Transcendent Dragon
• 1 Voracious Bibliophile
• 1 Warden of Evos Isle
• 1 Young Blue Dragon

• Instants (11)
• 1 AEtherize
• 1 Aetherspouts
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 High Tide
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Strix Serenade
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Wash Away

• Sorceries (2)
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Stolen by the Fae

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 1 Sapphire Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (38)
• 37 Island
• 1 Reliquary Tower

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To power this list up, you could load up with Blue game changers like Rhystic Study, Cyclonic Rift, and some fast mana. I'd probably throw in Astral Dragon and try to cobble together some combos that could win with that powerful creature. It's very possible that we will see more mono-Blue Dragons in the days after I wrap up this column that could also power up this list a bit. Having Renari, Merchant of Marvels as the commander puts a lower ceiling on the deck so you might eventually consider switching to Kairi, the Swirling Sky or Keiga, the Tide Star if you want to play Blue dragons but don't love Renari.

This list is already pretty modest in power, but you could drop out some of the stronger dragons if you wanted to drop the power level. That doesn't mean it couldn't still be fun, but you'd really need to make sure you were playing against other relatively weak decks. Some groups love to play at lower power levels, so this might be just the deck for some of you out there.

Final Thoughts

While I enjoy playing EDH at all power levels, I'm looking forward to writing about some much more powerful Dragons in the weeks to come. Tarkir: Dragonstorm is full of interesting new legendary creatures to build around, and many of them are three colors, so I expect we'll be seeing lots of interesting strategies and combos to use with those new commanders.

This deck's most interesting games will probably revolve around your ability to keep mana up and make tablemates nervous with what you're planning to do with it. You should absolutely use your mana, so even if you drop a little three or four mana artifact creature on the end step before your turn, it's usually better to do something than to hold back.

The other neat play pattern may be playing Keiga and Kairi and watching your tablemates try to figure out how to keep you from abusing their death triggers. Kairi can let you return any number of target nonland permanents with total mana value of 6 or less, so you can clear the field of every token in play before you even need to start counting up to 6 mana. Blade of Selves is so good with these two legends that I might even suggest adding a Fabricate so you can tutor it up.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!