EDH Series: Dragonlord Silumgar

'Silumgar never passes up an opportunity to add to his opulence.' 

Dragonlord Silumgar Artwork by Steven Belledin

Hey guys! Welcome to our EDH Series where we'll be placing a spotlight on some of the sweet decks I've built or my friends have built in our playgroup. It's been a while since I've played Commander, but I'm really excited to cast some of the biggest and flashiest spells Magic has to offer once again with good friends.

What inspired you to build this deck?

Before I left for Peru, I built this EDH Dragonlord Silumgar deck that is now one of my pride and joys. At the time, I was exploring deck-building constraints. In the vast landscape of Commander with thousands of different cards, it's easy to default to some of the format's best spells and end up playing a deck with lots of value and very little synergy. In this deck, I thought about what Dragonlord Silumgar is. As one of these most greedy Elder Dragons, his whole focus is on stealing and collecting what belongs to others. Naturally, I wanted to play every card that stole permanents and spells, but I thought more about this dragon's intentions. He has no interest in destroying anything, he wants everything to be his. That's where I got the idea of the largest deck-building constraint: no destroy effects.

Outside of a lone copy of Crux of Fate (as a dragon-themed Wrath of God), our deck has very limited ways to killing our opponent's permanents. In some ways, this forces us to either steal it or let our opponent keep it. This dilemma has created some really interesting game interactions where I've had a Spelljack in my hand and I've had to hold it through several turn cycles to make sure that's the spell I wanted to steal.

Following closely to the theme, the deck has no actual win conditions. The only ways Silumgar can conquer a game is with other people's stuff. Often this can be really challenging when one of your opponent's casts a Coat of Arms that really doesn't care who controls it, just that it stays on the battlefield pumping up their army of Myr tokens. Those games challenge me to navigate the small amount of permission spells I do have like Forbid and Capsize and try to maximize the value I get out of each one.

What is your favorite part about playing this deck?

My favorite thing about this deck is trying to construct a gameplan with your opponents' permanents. Often your opponent's have these really fine-tuned engines that hum really well together. Mostly we steal the cards that are vital to their engines but really don't have a purpose with our deck. The fun is in free-for-all games to try and put all of those cards together into a cohesive gameplan to eventually win the game. Those games tend to really push me to be creative and I really enjoy playing those games.

Did Amonkhet bring any new cards for you to use?

The first and obvious inclusion was Fetid Pools since it is a cycling dual land that is also an Island and counts towards our Vedalken Shackles count. In the late game, we can cycle this away for another shot at a spell which can give you the slightest edge you need to draw the game-winning spell.

Amonket also brought us As Foretold, a very powerful enchantment that acts as Aether Vial allowing you to cast spells for free both on your and your opponents' turns. Although As Foretold is definitely a slow card, the games with Dragonlord Silumgar  tend to go longer, so you have time to build up your time counters. Alongside Vedalken Orrery, you're able to cast spells on each turn and recast Dragonlord Silumgar  over and over again through countermagic and removal spells.

Lay Claim is also another card I'd like to give a shot over Confiscate. Although it costs one more mana, it can cycle itself away if I need to draw a land in the early game.

Thanks for reading about my Dragonlord Silumgar EDH deck. I think it's the pefect deck to sleeve up if you're looking to play a strict control deck and are looking for a challenge. Please let me know what you think and share your stories of battling Commander with me!

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-David J.