For this, our final look at decks based on characters from Fourth Wing, we're going to talk about Andarna, Violet's other dragon. Violet is the only rider in history to bond two dragons.
Friendly reminder: movie-trailer-level spoilers on the way for all three books in the series.
Andarna, it turns out, is young. Dragons, in this story, are notoriously closed about their own society - they refuse to answer to humans, instead choosing to work with them to protect themselves in a mutually beneficial alliance. They do not, however, take orders from humans, and don't share details unimportant to the joint war effort. One of the things humans didn't know is young dragons don't bond, but Adarna bucked the system and insisted on bonding younger than any other dragon.
We also find out (later) that Adarna is a breed of dragon humans didn't know about. She waited as an egg for several hundred years for the correct rider to be born, then hatched herself so she could bond that rider. The goal is not completely realized yet, but she has a purpose in being born.
Choosing her color identity was harder than the rest, but here's where I landed.
Andarna is fulfilling a natural purpose. She is destined to change the course of history and the war. She waited a long time to fulfill that purpose, and is doing so because it's her destiny. That is a very Green trait, fitting into the natural order.
She has the passion, and impetuousness, of a teenager. Despite being small, not armed or trained in fighting, or even being a particularly strong flier, she still insists on accompanying Violet and Tairn in battle. She also loves Violet and Tairn, and those emotions drive her decisions often. She even changes her color to match Tairn because she wants to be like him so much (an ability specific just to her breed - the others are the color they are, but Andarna can change her color). That's pretty Red.
She also is rather selfish. When she wants something she regularly ignores requests to do anything else, even putting people she loves at risk because of it. While I don't think she seeks power, she is willing to bend, break, or outright ignore rules to get what she wants (it's just nice that what she wants often aligns with the right thing). That's all Black.
(One more thing. Like Violet, Andarna has a disability. Also like Violet, this is an important, beautiful, and empowering aspect of her - it affects her life and the life of her bonded rider, but also like with Violet I think trying to represent that in a trading card game would be in poor taste.)
That places us in Jund (![]()
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). And given Andarna's love for a delicious meal, only one Dragon made sense.
Korvold asks us to sacrifice permanents to make itself cheaper, and gains power based on how many different types of things we've sacrificed. We're going to have to stretch our brains a bit, but we're going to think about this as eating like a teenager, then doing what you're supposed to do when you're a teenager and eat a lot - growing.
Andarna | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper
- Commander (1)
- 1 Korvold, Gleeful Glutton
- Creatures (20)
- 1 Baba Lysaga, Night Witch
- 1 Cankerbloom
- 1 Diamond Lion
- 1 Dryad Arbor
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 1 Fear of Missing Out
- 1 Gatebreaker Ram
- 1 Gilded Goose
- 1 Goldhound
- 1 Haywire Mite
- 1 Ignoble Hierarch
- 1 Mayhem Devil
- 1 Orcish Lumberjack
- 1 Reckless Barbarian
- 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
- 1 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Springbloom Druid
- 1 Tinder Wall
- 1 Tireless Provisioner
- 1 Wild Cantor
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 1 Grist, the Hunger Tide
- 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
- Instants (7)
- 1 Assassin's Trophy
- 1 Beast Within
- 1 Deadly Dispute
- 1 Drag to the Roots
- 1 Entish Restoration
- 1 Harrow
- 1 Peer Past the Veil
- Sorceries (7)
- 1 Blasphemous Act
- 1 Cultivate
- 1 Faithless Looting
- 1 Farseek
- 1 Nature's Lore
- 1 Rise of the Witch-king
- 1 Victimize
- Enchantments (8)
- 1 Awakening Zone
- 1 Cindervines
- 1 Font of Fertility
- 1 Font of Return
- 1 Seal of Doom
- 1 Seal of Primordium
- 1 Unbridled Growth
- 1 Vessel of Volatility
- Artifacts (8)
- 1 Claws of Gix
- 1 Commander's Sphere
- 1 Conduit of Worlds
- 1 Heaped Harvest
- 1 Jade Orb of Dragonkind
- 1 Matzalantli, the Great Door // The Core
- 1 Mind Stone
- 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
- Battles (3)
- 1 Invasion of Azgol // Ashen Reaper
- 1 Invasion of Mercadia // Kyren Flamewright
- 1 Invasion of Shandalar // Leyline Surge
- Lands (44)
- 6 Forest
- 2 Mountain
- 2 Swamp
- 1 Bojuka Bog
- 1 Cinder Glade
- 1 Command Tower
- 1 Commercial District
- 1 Crystal Vein
- 1 Dwarven Ruins
- 1 Ebon Stronghold
- 1 Evolving Wilds
- 1 Exotic Orchard
- 1 Fabled Passage
- 1 Ghost Quarter
- 1 Golgari Guildgate
- 1 Great Furnace
- 1 Gruul Guildgate
- 1 Havenwood Battleground
- 1 High Market
- 1 Myriad Landscape
- 1 Rakdos Guildgate
- 1 Raucous Theater
- 1 Reliquary Tower
- 1 Restless Cottage
- 1 Riveteers Overlook
- 1 Rogue's Passage
- 1 Savage Lands
- 1 Shifting Woodland
- 1 Smoldering Marsh
- 1 Terramorphic Expanse
- 1 The Shire
- 1 Treasure Vault
- 1 Tree of Tales
- 1 Twisted Landscape
- 1 Underground Mortuary
- 1 Vault of Whispers
- 1 Ziatora's Proving Ground
Before we go on, let's review the card types in question. Korvold cares about permanent types in the Graveyard. The permanent types are: Land, Creature, Artifact, Battle, Planeswalker, and Enchantment, for a total of six. Instants and Sorceries don't count.
Second, remember we're building a deck which reflects Andarna, not one which optimizes Korvold. While we will certainly use Korvold's abilities, we're not going to attempt to wrench out every bit of value we can, instead trying to make a deck which reflects Andarna's personality.
First thing to note is that 44 Lands. That's a lot! But Korvold is expensive, and I found in play-testing the extra Lands were very useful. Once you get two or three permanent types in the 'yard, we draw so many cards we just rip right past too many Lands. In addition, we have a few mana rocks and some ramp spells to stuff the 'yard like Font of Fertility. The permanent-based ones are best, of course, because they often end up in the 'yard and that's great for us, but pulling those Lands and fixing color is worth the slots in Cultivate and Farseek.
Notice there are a few unusual choices. While I opted against the classic fetch Lands just due to price, they'd be great here - Terramorphic Expanse and other Lands that self-sacrifice are an excellent way to start building up that 'yard. Wayfarer's Bauble is another example of a great early play. Perhaps my favorite is Heaped Harvest, which is an honest Food Artifact - Andarna eats and gains power! Perfect. Also, should an Artifact Land or Dryad Arbor wind up in the 'yard somehow, that gives us two permanent types in one card. Sacrifice an Artifact Land with Entish Restoration and you're well on your way on turn three!
We're really relying on Andarna Korvold for our card draw. A 4/4 flyer with Haste and Trample should be able to get in for damage somewhere, and once you start adding the counters, it just gets easier. That should keep cards flowing into our Hand, and in the event we draw too many, we pitch some to increase permanent types in our 'yard!
Our primary method of winning will be Commander damage. Korvold Andarna will just get so big she'll be able to smash through for a ton of damage and just kill opponents. That said, let's have some alternatives. Vraska, Golgari Queen has an ultimate which can win us the game with anything that can get through. Sometimes a bunch of pieces come together and win in an unexpected way. Lean into winning with Andarna, then keep your mind open as you play along.
We do have a few ways to deal with threats, like Assassin's Trophy, Beast Within, and Drag to the Roots. Andarna fights on instinct, ferociously, so Beast Within and Drag to the Roots are well-named. Additionally, she idolizes Tairn, and black dragons use cover of night to hide and surprise their enemies - like an assassin. These seem like they work. We also have Blasphemous Act and Rise of the Witch-king.
We have a bunch of Enchantments which sacrifice themselves for effects, which is a concession to making the deck work. We're going to have to do things like make mana and destroy problematic permanents, and doing so this way puts another permanent type into the 'yard, plus gives us things to sacrifice when we need to cast Andarna. Same with Creatures like Cankerbloom. In all these cases, we're imagining Andarna snacking on whatever she can get her jaws around!
A couple more notes. The Battles here represent the battles Andarna has fought with Violet and Tairn - not specifically, but generally. She is fearless when it comes to flying into battle, even when she is outmatched. They also give us a chance to get another permanent type into our 'yard. Also, Claws of Gix was a last-minute replacement for Ashnod's Altar. While the Altar is surely stronger from a game perspective, Claws of Gix lets us sacrifice anything, so we have more options. And Andarna has claws, but no altar.
One thought I had was adding some Game Changers to the mix. I tend to avoid those because I don't want these decks to get bracketed up on a technicality, but given intent is the most important aspect of the bracket system, and any GCs here would certainly not break the game, it's possible you could run them and still be bracketed where you belong (probably between 1 and 2). The GCs I considered running are:
Why run Game Changers in this deck? Because Andarna changed the game. She broke a system which had been in place for 600 years by bonding Violet as a second dragon. Her entire existence is changing dragon society, dragon/human relations, and the shape of the war. If anyone deserves to be called a game changer, it's our girl Andarna. Representing that with cardboard seems a fitting tribute.
The deck plays well. Now that all four are built, I'm actually fairly convinced they'd play well together, fairly evenly matched. This deck will certainly work and will hang at a bracket 2 table, it's just not optimized at all and won't necessarily do what you want it to do all the time. If I were going to slide away from the theme a bit to make the deck work more smoothly, I'd probably include more removal, and a few combat tricks to make Andarna more lethal. A couple of ways to give Double Strike or seriously increase her Power might not be bad. Me? I'm keeping it like this.
Thanks for reading.






