Hello happy folks! Just like last week, we're turning to a new legendary creature from Tarkir: Dragonstorm for my latest Commander brew! Today, we'll be looking a card that's a little on the expensive side when it comes to mana value....

It's Ureni, the Song Unending, an 8-drop Spirit Dragon in Green, Blue, and Red (Temur) with a huge 10/10 flying body and protection from key removal colors, White and Black, to keep it safe and protect it from damage. When it ETBs, you can deal damage, equal to your land count, divided as you choose to dorks and or planeswalkers your opponents control. Ureni is great at taking out many small things, or maybe even one larger threat! I'll be building it around ramp spells, not creatures or rocks.

Ready?

Land, Mana, and Ramp

I don't want two-mana ramp spells that only grab a single land, like Rampant Growth. I need something like Kodama's Reach that ramps a land into play and then also puts a land in my hand, or the four-cost ramp spells that put two lands on the battlefield. I also want the enchantment Encroaching Dragonstorm that ETBs and tutors up two lands, one tapped and then one in your hand, and it returns to your hand each time a Dragon enters, like say, our Commander!

The 5-drop 4/5 flying Bloomvine Regent with the ability to gain life when it or another Dragon enters, and then the three-mana Omen half that is a Cultivate but for basic Forests. And it shuffles back in when the Omen resolves! Then, Boundless Realms will ramp out basics equal to your current land count to really improve our Commander's ETB ability.

This duo of Green dorks that act as both extra land ramp with extra bonuses are here. The Elf Shaman lets you play lands off the top of your library at the cost of having the top card revealed at all times. Then the enchantment dork Nymph Dryad costs three and then your lands are every basic land type. Both are great for us!

The Blue tapping land from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Mistrise Village, taps for a Blue man to make the next spell you cast uncounterable! That's nasty for your Commander or other big threats. Then we have Command Beacon that ETBs untapped and then can be tapped and sacced for no mana to put Ureni in your hand from the Command Zone! Cactus Preserve ETBs tapped, taps for any color your lands can already make and then for three mana can become a Plant Dork with reach that starts out as an 8/8 with Ureni as our Commander. Ancient Greenwarden costs six, has reach and 5/7 body, and lets you play lands from your graveyard while doubling your land ETB stuff. I also tossed in the three fetches here too.

Cool Ramp Targets, Landfall Stuff

Now, let's turn to cool and fun landfall and lands matter stuff! Starting with this Red pair, we can turn our landfall triggers into pain for our opponents! The 3/2 one that costs three deals 1 damage to each opponent, as does the 3/4 one for 4 mana too.

This pair makes creatures when we hit landfall, and the tokens are big enough to turn the tables, unlike the 1/1 Saprolings from something like Sporemound. The Gruul legendary Elemental has landfall to make a beefy 5/5 Elemental and then when it or another elemental dies you can Lightning Bolt any target! The six-drop on-curve trampling 6/6 makes 4/4 Beast with each landfall trigger! I also tossed in Avenger of Zendikar which is brilliant here too.

The 4/3 first strike Geode Rager will goad every dork a player controls. Send folks at each other's faces all day long! The three-cost Mossborn Hydra has trample and starts at 1/1 size and then gets perma-doubled in size for each land you drop, which is huge for going over the top while the bigger tokens can go around!

Synergies and Winning Conditions

This Mono-Green three-drop 1/4 with the ability to drop another land is first up! You can tap it for six mana to dig six cards into your library and drop a creature with cost equal to or less than your land count. That's really nasty in this deck with the number of lands we're dropping! Bonny Pall, Clearcutter has a 6/5 body with reach and will ETB with a legendary dork named Beau with size equal to your land count. When she swings, you can draw a card and drop a land from your hand or graveyard. Hellkite Courser is a 6/5 flying Dragon that will ETB to drop Ureni onto the battlefield... with haste... for a turn! You can easily clear out the battlefield with that extra drop - which is great when you are Commander Taxed out of replaying Ureni. Plus, it doesn't increase your Commander Tax!

When Lumra, Bellow of the Woods EBTs, you mill four and then return all lands from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Scute Swarm costs three for a 1/1 with landfall to make additional 1/1s. And if you have at least six lands? You make copies of Scute Swarm instead! Then the eight-cost 5/5 haste Beast Craterhoof Behemoth will win games fast as your team gets trample and size boosts equal to your creature count!

Did you notice a theme with my dorks so far? You'll see it again later too, but we really want to get our Blink on to use and abuse our Commander over and over. One of the best ways to do that is with Deadeye Navigator. We can spend to blink what was soulbounded to the Navigator. I rarely run it, but here? It just makes sense. Conjurer's Closet costs five for a free blink once in your End step. Thassa costs four for a 6/5 that at the end of your turn give you a free blink trigger!

Let's finish with this Mono-Green trio! The five-cost legendary Ashaya, Soul of the Wild has size equal to your land count. Your nontoken creatures become Forests as long as Ashaya is in play, and I also tossed in Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth. Next up is the X-cost spell Awaken the Woods. It makes X 1/1 Forest Dryads for ramping or beating! Last is Majestic Genesis, which lets you reveal eight cards from the top of your library and then you can drop - for free - any number of permanents. I think you'll agree Majestic Genesis is pretty sexy, keen and cool here. It was the 61st card I added to the deck.

Answers

I didn't toss in my normal 15 or so answers since our Commander is our answer. I threw in counters like card]Counterspell[/card] and Mana Drain. Sorry, but we need them. I also love counter-creatures like Frilled Mystic too. Mystic Snake will counter any spell for four and is great with instant speed blinks! Draining Whelk will counter anything and then grow in size to it's cost. I also added in the point removal suite of Reclamation Sage, Acidic Slime, and Beast Within.

Card Draw

I started with cards that draw more than one and then ramp a land too, like this Eureka Moment and Urban Evolution. The instant is common and draws two and ramps a land and then the sorcery costs five and draws three and then ramps one.

Then I added in Green power-based card draw! Rishkar's Expertise costs six and then draws cards equal to the greatest power among creatures you control, and you can cast a spell that costs five or less for free! Return of the Wildspeaker is instant speed and gives you the choice between cards or a +3/+3 team-wide pump for your Non-Human creatures.

Will of the Temur costs six and lets you either make a 4/4 Dragon with flying or draw equal to the highest mana cost among creatures you control. And if you control Ureni you can do both! Tireless Tracker turns landfall triggers into Clues, and I also have Tatyova, Benthic Druid to gain life and draw from landfall. I also tossed in Mulldrifter to blink and draw all up and down the block.

Here's my deck!

Commanding and Ramping with Ureni | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ureni, the Song Unending

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Ancient Greenwarden
• 1 Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Bloomvine Regent
• 1 Bonny Pall, Clearcutter
• 1 Coiling Oracle
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Frilled Mystic
• 1 Geode Rager
• 1 Hellkite Courser
• 1 Lilysplash Mentor
• 1 Loot, Exuberant Explorer
• 1 Lumra, Bellow of the Woods
• 1 Mossborn Hydra
• 1 Mystic Snake
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Scute Swarm
• 1 Spitfire Lagac
• 1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Timeless Witness
• 1 Tunneling Geopede
• 1 Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1 Ulvenwald Hydra

• Spells (22)
• 1 Archdruid's Charm
• 1 Awaken the Woods
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Boundless Realms
• 1 Circuitous Route
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Eureka Moment
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Explore
• 1 Flare of Cultivation
• 1 Growth Spiral
• 1 Hunter's Prowess
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Mana Drain
• 1 Migration Path
• 1 Majestic Genesis
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Urban Evolution
• 1 Will of the Temur

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Encroaching Dragonstorm
• 1 Exploration

• Artifact (1)
• 1 Conjurer's Closet

• Lands (40)
• 6 Forest
• 6 Island
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Alchemist's Refuge
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Cactus Preserve
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Commercial District
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Hedge Maze
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Ketria Triome
• 1 Mistrise Village
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Grounds
• 1 Thundering Falls
• 1 Training Center
• 1 Woodland Falls
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Buy This Deck Export text

There we go! I have about 20 ramp cards or spells or effects like Explore to Archdruid's Charm to Exploration to Azusa. That's almost a 60-40 card split. This is a fun take on ramp with built in mass-ish removal on the Commander. I'm in love with Ureni's potential, and I hope you're excited! I hope you have an awesome day and that good stuff happens in your life and deck-building in equal measure!