One of my favorite things about Commander is how the process of building a deck is an exercise in problem solving. Every legendary creature is a puzzle to be solved, but in the long run there is no "right" way to build a deck. One player's "bad" deck that might not work at the tables they play at might be the perfect deck for another player and the pods they play in.

Today's column is about a legendary Spirit Dragon with a relatively straightforward ability, but a lot of different ways to build around it. Before we explore the many flavors we might mix into today's brew, let's take a look at today's subject.

This Dragon has Flying and a cool party trick. If a creature I control that entered play this turn would deal damage, it deals twice that much damage.

That's it.

It may not seem like a lot, but it should be plenty for a low to mid powered Commander deck.

I'll be building around ways to take this ability and make the most out of it. That could mean creatures that deal ETB damage. It could mean building with a focus on creatures with haste so they can swing on the turn they come into play and pack a little extra punch when they hit. I could build a combo deck around Murderous Redcap or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. I could even dig into the archives for some Worldgorger Dragon spice.

In the spirit of Tarkir: Dragonstorm I've decided to focus on dragons that have ETB triggers, damage doublers/triplers, and a dash of flicker spells. Because I'll be hoping to get my test game in with a group that plays mid-power and avoids combos, my list won't be going to combo town, but I'll take a look at what a combo build might look like.

Demanding Dragons

One of the best things about running Dragons in this list is that they can check off two boxes for Neriv. There are a lot of Dragons that have ETB triggers that deal damage, and there are even more dragons that have haste. Thundermaw Hellkite even checks both boxes, having flying, haste, and dealing 1 damage (and tapping) each creature with flying my opponents control.

Demanding Dragon is in today's list, but it's far from my best option, only dealing 5 damage to target player unless they sacrifice a creature. Red Dragon is a more reliable option, dealing 4 to each opponent when it enters play. Scourge of Valkas is an old standby in Dragon decks, bringing an ETB trigger of X damage to any target where X is the number of Dragons I control. Scourge will deal damage when it enters, and it lets my other Dragons also push out damage when they enter.

Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest has a high ceiling, but it will depend upon me controlling other creatures with a power of four or greater. When it enters or attacks, I'll exile the top X cards of my library, where X is the number of power 4+ creatures I control. I may play those cards this turn. At the beginning of my next end step Dragonhawk will deal 2 damage to each opponent for each of those cards that are still in exile. A really optimistic scenario might see me with four other big creatures, so that could be 10 damage to each of my tablemates.

Double your Pleasure

All of those numbers would be doubled with Neriv on the battlefield if the creature doing the damage entered play that turn. Demanding Dragon's 5 damage becomes 10. Red Dragon would be hitting my tablemates for 8. Scourge of Valkas' damage output would be doubled and that 10 damage from Dragonhawk would become 20 to each opponent. Play Dragonhawk, flicker him once, resist the urge to play those exiled cards, and that could be enough to get the win.

While my commander is able to double this damage for creatures that just entered the battlefield, it would be nice to have a little help for those creatures on later turns. Cards like Gratuitous Violence and the new Twinflame Tyrant will help to double up my damage and will turn any damage source doubled by Neriv into a serious problem for my tablemates.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight won't just double my damage output, it will halve the damage I take. This can totally nerf an army of 1 power creatures even if that army is in the hundreds or thousands of attackers.

If doubling my damage output isn't enough, I can always triple it with Fiery Emancipation or City on Fire. These are very expensive enchantments, but if a game goes long enough for me to play them, they ought to help me wrap things up.

While some of my damage sources are able to target players, some are only able to target creatures. I'm running Stuffy Doll and Brash Taunter as potential ways to take that creature damage and make it hit a player. If I'm doubling or quadrupling my damage from sources I control, that will work nicely with both, as the initial damage will get multiplied, and then the Stuffy Doll or Brash Taunter damage might also get multiplied again. With Neriv, Heart of the Storm, Fiery Emancipation, Brash Taunter, and a brand-new Inferno Titan, I could target Brash Taunter with 3 damage. That 3 damage would get doubled to 6, then tripled to 18, then Brash Taunter would deal damage that would get tripled to 54. If Brash Taunter had also entered that same turn, its damage would have also been doubled so the damage output would be 108.

Isn't math fun?

Let's be Hasty

Entering the battlefield and pushing out damage is one trick this deck wants to get up to, but it's not the only one. I also want to be able to play creatures and have them attack that same turn so that their damage gets doubled by Neriv.

Thundermaw Hellkite, Inferno of the Star Mounts, and Goldspan Dragon are my three hasty Dragons. I mentioned Hellkite earlier. Inferno is a six mana Dragon with flying, haste, and firebreathing. That isn't a keyword but it means you can pay a red mana to give it +1/+0 until end of turn. If I were to get it up to 20 power, it would deal 20 damage to any target, but that's highly unlikely to happen in this deck. Goldspan Dragon is a five mana 4/4 with flying and haste that will have me create a Treasure token when it attacks or becomes the target of a spell. It will also let my Treasure tokens generate two mana of any one color instead of just one mana.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is in this list not to combo with Combat Celebrant, Zealous Conscripts or something else to get a quick win. It's in the list to let me generate additional copies of my various ETB damage sources. Even tapping Kiki-Jiki to make a copy of Knollspine Dragon in order to draw cards, or Solemn Simulacrum to get another land might make sense in the right situation.

If I want to give all of my creatures haste, I need look no further than Urabrask, the Hidden. I don't normally run Praetors as I find them too oppressive for casual play, but the OG Red Praetor is an exception. He'll give my creatures haste and will force my opponents' creatures to enter tapped. Kaalia of the Vast is also in this list. She doesn't give haste, but she has an attack trigger that will let me put an Angel, Demon or Dragon card into play tapped and attacking.

Heart of the Storm

This list is aimed at mid-power tables but its high mana curve might actually pull its power level down a bit. It's going to have trouble against decks that are too fast, but if the game goes long enough it should have a good shot at pushing out a ton of damage. I didn't run any combo lines, but there are some fun bits of synergy to be sure. If I've got Warstorm Surge and Neriv, Heart of the Storm in play, someone attacks me with 10 creatures and I cast Inkshield, I'll create 10 2/1 White and Black Inkling creature tokens with flying. Warstorm Surge will have them deal damage equal to their power to any target, and Neriv will double that damage, allowing me to push out 40 damage.

Most good commander decks are built with certain scenarios in mind. I don't know if it will ever pull it off, but I'd love to be able to play a 4 power Goldspan Dragon with Neriv, Aurela, and City on Fire in play so I can swing at someone and do 4 x 2 x 2 x 3 = 48 damage to some poor soul whose only sin was not having a flying/reach blocker or the mana and interaction to keep from dying.

Neriv, Heart of the Storm | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Neriv, Heart of the Storm

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Archivist of Oghma
• 1 Brash Taunter
• 1 Breena, the Demagogue
• 1 Demanding Dragon
• 1 Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest
• 1 Dragonlord's Servant
• 1 Dragonspeaker Shaman
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Flametongue Kavu
• 1 Foundry Champion
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Goblin Cratermaker
• 1 Goldspan Dragon
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Inferno of the Star Mounts
• 1 Kaalia of the Vast
• 1 Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1 Knollspine Dragon
• 1 Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury
• 1 Rakdos Firewheeler
• 1 Red Dragon
• 1 Scourge of Valkas
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sonic Shrieker
• 1 Stuffy Doll
• 1 Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1 Twinflame Tyrant
• 1 Tymna the Weaver
• 1 Tyrant of Kher Ridges
• 1 Urabrask the Hidden

• Instants (11)
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Deflecting Palm
• 1 Disenchant
• 1 Eerie Interlude
• 1 Ghostway
• 1 Inkshield
• 1 Lae'zel's Acrobatics
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Damn
• 1 Damnation

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 City on Fire
• 1 Fiery Emancipation
• 1 Gratuitous Violence
• 1 Legion Loyalty
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Smothering Tithe
• 1 Smuggler's Share
• 1 Warstorm Surge

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Conjurer's Closet
• 1 Coveted Jewel
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Panharmonicon
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (37)
• 13 Mountain
• 7 Plains
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Haunted Ridge
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Shattered Sanctum
• 1 Spectator Seating
• 1 Sundown Pass
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Vault of Champions

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If you wanted to power this list up, you're in Black and it would be relatively easy to load in a few tutors to help get what you need when you need it. This feels like the kind of deck that might just want to switch over to Kaalia of the Vast if you really want to push up into a higher power bracket. Kaalia is old, but can still pack a punch.

To tune this list down I think you could drop out some of the "win more" cards. Shifting the focus over to creatures with the Dash ability could let you reliably play out attackers and have them get their damage doubled before returning them to hand at the beginning of the next end step. That does mean you'll need to keep paying to play them out again and again, but playing a strategy that is less efficient is definitely a way you can drop your deck down in power. Dropping out Smothering Tithe in favor of a big mana rock like Gilded Lotus could also help.

Final Thoughts

I was able to get this list into a game and it did fairly well. I didn't win, but if I had held up mana for an Inkshield, I probably could have taken it. The pivotal play from my perspective was having my City on Fire get hit with a Negate. I was able to play a Thundermaw Hellkite and swing at that player for 10, but in the end a mounting commander tax was probably the biggest thing that kept me off of my game plan. We ended up dying to a big Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer turn when we were all well under 20 life.

I definitely had lots of interesting options available to me. I was able to play a Brash Taunter and follow it up with a Blasphemous Act, but I didn't have the mana to play out Neriv ahead of those two spells. I had a Kiki-Jiki in hand and was also imagining playing Kiki, using it to make a copy of Brash Taunter, and then casting Blasphemous Act with Neriv in play to hit two opponents for 26 each. I just didn't have the mana for that kind of play all in a single turn and I hadn't been able to keep Neriv in play for long enough to set up any really big plays.

The biggest challenge for a Mardu Dragons deck is probably making all the mana you'll need to do big splashy things. Usually a winning game will see you doing multiple big splashy things, but when you're worried about playing only one big spell and then passing and hoping it's still there when your next turn comes around, it gets much harder. This deck could probably benefit from a Gilded Lotus, a Mana Geyser, and maybe a Ruby Medallion given that it's so strongly leaning into red.

If your playgroup is high power and your games are relatively short, I think Neriv, Heart of the Storm might struggle to keep up with faster high-powered decks. You could always lean into combo but I suspect this commander will be at its best in mid powered games.

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