Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest Deck Tech
Not Dragon Our Feet!
Hold onto your jaws, folks, because this one's gonna make them drop. In this deck, our Path to victory comes from Exile! Get it, one-drops? Path to Exile? That card may be white, but this deck will have your opponents seeing red. Lots and lots of red. They're going to be eaten alive by gigantic red Dragons. You see, while Bloomburrow has lots of cute little fluffy creatures, there are also mighty monsters that prey on them, and today's commander, Dragonhawk, puts the mighty in calamity beast!
Win Conditions
Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest is a beautiful card: it's a big flier, it deals direct damage when combat isn't available, and it's a source of impulse-based card draw. It does pretty much everything a midrange deck wants in one card. So, how can we make it better? How about making those ETB and attack triggers happen more often?
This gives a couple of clear options: extra combats and clones. Personally, I've found extra combats to be a little played-out, so let's fill the skies with Dragonhawks. As we fill the skies, adding extra ETB effects to clone, like Red Dragon and Inferno Titan, give the deck extra legs (literally) and can help the deck find its footing if Dragonhawk is cut off for whatever reason.
Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm Surge will make our Dragon clones deal big damage when they hit the field, whether or not they stick around to attack or see another turn. They're there to make an impact, and the tremors of their arrival will definitely make their mark. If you see the shadows conjured by their flames and don't run away... well, suffice it to say, you'll wish you had.
Core Synergy
Regardless of how long the clones stay around, they still enter the battlefield, and that's where we can start to do some nutty things. Helm of the Host is a particularly batty card to let go crazy, as we can make copies in combat that aren't legendary, stick around past the end of the turn, and have haste. Molten Echoes works well with creatures that enter as clones, as well as when we have to re-cast our commander. Having a spare copy around for the low price of a four-mana initial investment is solid.
Kindred Charge might just be the single most powerful card in the deck, but it is somewhat situational. By choosing Dragon, it'll make copies of each Dragon we control, including any and all copies of Dragonhawk that happen to be around. All of these will trigger on entering the battlefield, providing a huge number of cards to draw or plunk each opponent.
Ladies and gentlemen...we have a Splinter Twin situation. Actually, if we play it right, we kind of do. While the intention is to put the Twin on our commander and continue with the burst of draw and damage, the presence of Kiki-Jiki and ETB burn, like Warstorm Surge and Impact Tremors, does mean that we can accidentally create infinite Goblins. If your playgroup is opposed to such lines, replacing Kiki-Jiki would help to break that up.
Cursed Mirror is quietly an integral piece to the deck. It helps ramp into some of the more expensive pieces, and it can be a clone effect as needed. The fact that it can copy Dragonhawk and isn't a token is huge for triggering cards, like Molten Echoes, and it can be especially nasty if it comes down after Helm of the Host and can copy a token that circumvents the legend rule!
Mana Spells
A five-drop commander means our deck is as hungry for mana as our commander is for small woodland creatures. Luckily, red has been getting a lot of rituals, which work well with Rionya, Fire Dancer to make lots of copies, and there is no more potent ritual than Mana Geyser and no more efficient enabler of multiple spells than Ruby Medallion.
While the smaller rituals and Sol Ring have their places pretty well carved out, there are some more controversial pieces that could be replaced. For example, Dockside Extortionist serves a similar role to Mana Geyser, in terms of a burst of mana, but there is the odd chance that the deck could warp around it. For example, copying the little Goblin with our clone effects could be big game, but it might elevate the deck beyond the acceptable power level of a given pod, so replacing him with any of a number of mana rocks would be another way to reducing the deck to an acceptable power level while still allowing Solemn Simulacrum to fill a similar role.
Reckless Barbarian is another piece that sets up for the future and works well with the copying cards. Building up Barbarians to pop on a big turn can help with large spells or with casting spells exiled by Dragonhawk. The cards are only exiled for so long, so the window needs to be kept open by instant-speed mana.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Dragons... wait, those aren't the lyrics? Well, the Battle Hymn of Dragonhawk will have your pod singing a new tune, as a two-mana ritual makes red mana for each creature we control, token or otherwise, temporary or permanent. It's one of the few spells that can match Mana Geyser in explosive single-use mana, and it enables some nasty, nasty plays.
Removal
While a lot of red decks suffer from a lack of card draw, we have card advantage in the command zone, so we can use our flex slots to fix a problem ramp and combo decks often have: dealing with opponents' threats. While much of our removal is centered on clearing things off of the board, Chef's Kiss is a perfect card for interacting on the stack, enabling us to deal with difficult-to-interact-with threats, as well as to protect our threats from spells we don't like.
Delayed Blast Fireball is a cute little burn spell that synergizes well with our penchant for exiling lots of cards. While it can be foretold, it's much more likely that we'll find it on a Dragonhawk exile trigger. After all, it doesn't matter how it was exiled, the spell just cares whether or not it was cast from exile, and, if it was cast from exile, it makes a big boom!
The general plan is to ramp into a quick Dragonhawk, then copy it as many times as humanly possible. Why do we want to do this? Each ETB or attack impulse draws a bunch of cards, and all of the cards that stay in exile pops each opponent for two damage during the end step. It's not difficult to imagine exiling 20+ cards and taking the entire table out from full health in one big turn!
Commander's Herald Dragonhawk, Flame's Tempest Deck tech
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