Sarkhan, Soul Aflame - ep. 1

[00:00:00] 

Taylor: What's up Wizards, it's time for Rule Zero, the show that helps you prepare for the best game of Commander. I'm Taylor. 

Shawn: And I'm Shawn. We're here to help you cultivate a great playgroup, great decks, and an openness to outside the box variants and homebrew rules. So, Taylor, what's something that has blown your mind this week?

Taylor: At FNM this week, I got to play my Galta deck. It's just a big green deck, I'm trying to put up big massive creatures and swing for the win. I got to hit a new card that I put in there

I got to play the emergent woodworm, which is out of the March of the machine commander pre cons. It's a seven drop that has backup three. And whenever this creature attacks, look at the top X cards of your library where X is its power. You may put a permanent card with mana value X or less from among them onto the battlefield.

After playing God Eternal Ronas [00:01:00] and Zopendrel I got to double Galta's power twice to get it up to 60 after the backup three counters.

Shawn: I bet your opponents love that. 

Taylor: Well, the easiest thing to do was to pick up my whole deck and just look through it and find my favorite creature and put it on the battlefield.

It was sick. It was awesome. 

Shawn: That sounds awesome. Yeah. Heck yeah. Galta's living the dream.

Taylor: But, this week's not about me. It's about a new deck. It's about a new deck that you've got. Sarkhan Solaflame. 

Shawn: Absolutely. I am a dragon aficionado like many, many magic players. I have a dragon skin deck box. I have Whistler's Mother with a dragon on it as the sleeves.

I just love big, dumb beat you in the face cards. So, Sarkhan Solaflame. Is not a card that a lot of dragon players play in fact the ur dragon Which you've probably seen at some EDH tables is number two of all time decks and then you've got Miriam sentinel worm At number five [00:02:00] incredibly powerful. I used to have a Miriam deck It's clearly a popular tribe, but Sarkin however number 1068 as of the recording of this podcast I wanted to highlight something that felt Super fun and flavorful because I love Sarkin and his backstory.

He is like the master of dragons He becomes dragons on a lot of cards at the helm of a deck that goes at dragons from a slightly different angle He goes at it from an angle of like haste, a little bit of chaos, as in like your opponents may not have any idea of what's coming and he makes a lot of dragons that have attack effects a lot better because he becomes them and gives them haste, so to speak.

So it makes a lot of dragons that people don't play in other decks reasonable. 

Taylor: Yeah, let's read that card so we know what's going on with it. 

Shawn: Totally sarkon, Soul of Flame. It is one, a blue, and a red. Legendary creature, human shaman dragon spells cast, dragon spells [00:03:00] you cast cost one less.

Whenever a dragon enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Sarkin's Soul of Flame become a copy of it until the end of turn, except its name is Sarkin's Soul of Flame, and it's legendary in addition to its other types. It has a 2 4 also. 

Taylor: You cast a big creature, whatever dragon you cast, Sarkin can become that dragon.

Shawn: Even if it's legendary, which is important. And it won't legend rule itself out. 

Taylor: That's pretty sweet 

it is, and as you'll see in this deck tech that we're talking about here, there's a lot of interesting synergies and combos that you can start to play and just kind of wow and amaze yourself, if not your friends who are kind of shying away and scared that you're overloading the board.

Right, with a bunch of dragons and getting gets out of hand really quick. Yeah. So talking about getting out of hand, the way that I would go about this, and I'm curious to see what you would do, is I would put in cards like Saheeli, The Sun's Brilliance, that can create a new copy of that dragon.[00:04:00] And I think it gives a good alternative to Sarkhan.

So if Sarkhan gets hated out, then you can play Saheeli, which is a blue and a red, it's got an activated ability, pay a blue and a red, tap it, create a token that's a copy of another target creature or artifact you control, except it's an artifact in addition to its other types. It gains haste, you sac it at the beginning of the next end step.

It's a 2 2 that can help. Get you those extra ETB effects or like I said if Sarkin gets hated out I would want another way to help give that pseudo haste like you were talking about.

Shawn: I love that. She's cheap I would totally add this to the deck. I'm a big fan of hitting the board early. So if I can go turn two Saheeli turn three Sarkin That will totally float my boat because then I've got two super dangerous effects for every dragon that comes out afterwards And her activated ability is just a blue and red tap to create a token of the biggest monster on the table, which is fantastic.

Taylor: Yeah, another way that I would go about it is to put in effects like Sneak Attack or the new [00:05:00] Purphoros where you can put a creature from your hand onto the battlefield. Sarkhan can become a copy of it. And so if you get your favorite dragon in your hand, drop it right away, get the extra ETB, get the attacks from both Sarkhan and that creature.

Yeah, you've got to sacrifice at the end of combat, but maybe there's a way that those dragons can help draw and refill your hand. I don't know. What do you think about sneak attack effects?

Shawn: I'm loving it, because one thing I also love is outside the box plays, and you know what you can do with sneak attack?

Is you can play it when it's not your turn. Oh. So I can put out an 8 8 ancient bronze dragon, or whatever kind of dragon, and then Sarkhan might become it if I'm on the defensive side, and all of a sudden I'm blocking with two 8 8s, versus whatever. They thought I had, which is just a 2 4. I also love that the art from this, whatever this is, Double Masters or something like that?

 Or Dominaria remastered? Right. Has a giant lazy dragon on the front. So it has to go in for that reason alone. 

Taylor: But you've built it with some other things in mind. I'm curious What are some of the cards that you put in this deck that [00:06:00] you think really help to take it to the next level or Create a unique play style.

I know you like to play unique decks. What have you found to be so successful? 

Shawn: Well, one of my pet cards, and it's only become this way since playing a lot of Brawl on Arena has been Mana Form Hellkite.

So this two mana, two red, 4 4 flying dragon says whenever you cast a non creature spell Create an XX red dragon illusion creature with flying and haste where X is the amount of mana spent to cast that spell XL the token at the beginning of the next end step So what I like to do is I like to put out mana form hell kite when I have Plenty of extra mana on backup whether it's through treasures Or maybe I have some delve effect spells like treasure cruise So if I can get two mana form hell kites on the battlefield, not only is that two four four dragons already Which is a little scary, but then you've got say a dig through time that you cast which is an eight mana spell now You're making two eight eight red [00:07:00] dragons with haste or like a very little amount of mana and even if you're making just one ones and two twos you're brainstorming pondering whatever Like, those add up.

And you're swinging like, you know, ten little guys before you even realize it. 

Taylor: And they have flying, and I've realized that, at least at our game shop and our playgroup, Flyers are the key to victory. If you've got Flyers that can go over the top that people can't block, you're gonna be able to chip in for that damage.

And so sure, you brainstorm, you ponder, and you get in with a 1 1 here and a 1 1 there, but then later in the game, you're hitting that dig through time, and now that 1 1 turns into an 8 8. That seems like a pretty outstanding play to get to line up if you can get that mana form hell kite out 

Shawn: I think it's universal too.

 Obviously we've listened to other podcasts like command zone and whatnot Even on their shows where they're all very professional magic players. So to speak they play this format for a living They talk about how flyers are just so good in their metas and and they see the world So I'm assuming that flyers are just good in every meta which is another [00:08:00] reason you should play dragons because guess what?

There's very few dragons that don't fly and that means you're always hitting for a lot of damage. 

Taylor: Yeah, absolutely I love my decks that can make tokens that are flyers. They're great blockers this next card that you have down is another pet card of mine and I'm trying to find more decks to put it in and justify it.

I think I found a home in my Raft deck. I don't know. But, tell me about this next card. 

Shawn: Yeah, so, C Double. It's an instant from March of the Machines for two colorless and two blue. This spell can't be copied because they didn't want it to be broken. You choose one, or, if an opponent has eight or more cards in the graveyard, you may choose both.

You can copy target spell, you can choose new targets for the copy, or you can create a token that's a copy of a target creature. In my Sarkhan deck, I tend to run more of these spell clone effects rather than creature clone effects because I want to trigger things like Manaform Hellkite.

Often times I'm [00:09:00] holding back mana, I'm in blue, so I'm always representing counterspell or some kind of instant speed action. And in a pinch, if I'm not on the aggressive side, I can cast C double as a defensive card, and then all of a sudden make tons of dragons on the board where there were none before.

And I just love that element of surprise. 

Taylor: Absolutely. I think that, especially with the idea of Manaform Hellkite kind of being the impetus for why you're playing C double or how you get to play those types of effects, A card that I've really loved recently is out of March of the Machine as well, Breach of the Multiverse.

And so if you get to copy that , that's insane. 

Shawn: Hopefully you win the game at that point. Or everybody just kind of shuffles up and is like, alright, let's go get lunch. 

Taylor: Yeah.

Shawn: We've got some of what we call the more Timmy combos in the deck What are the like things that are just gonna make?

Your little kid brain explode like the meme, you know, where the mind is just like exploding into a multiverse or whatever of colors. Right. Some of my favorites for this this is how I know I'm [00:10:00] having a great time at the table, even if it doesn't mean a great time for everybody else necessarily. Is combo is Kyga the tide star with right of replication.

Now, Rider Replication is a great card. It's two and a blue, kicker five, create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell is kicked, create five of those tokens instead. And Kaiga the Tidestar is the old Kamigawa dragon legend. Flying five five for five and a blue. When Kaiga the Tidestar dies, gain control of target creature.

And this is where you abuse that legend rule. And you put out five Kaiga the Tidestars. Plus the original one five of those copies are going to get sacked which means you're gonna steal Five of the best creatures on the battlefield permanently. 

Taylor: Yeah, they don't get them back Nine mana take the five best creatures out there sounds pretty good 

Shawn: in a format with a lot of creature decks This can be crushing imagine if I took your Galta No, and then I took [00:11:00] four other creatures that were also scary.

Yeah at that point. I feel like I'm in a commanding position. 

Taylor: Yeah. If you're stealing those best creatures, then I think you should be winning the game soon. And like you said, you like to hold on to those cards until you're later in the game able to do it. And Rite of Replication is a great card because Worst case scenario you cast it a bit early Sure, and you get a copy of a great creature or like you said in this scenario you 

Shawn: cast a lot later Absolutely.

Another Timmy combo I love is Wrathful red dragon it has wrath in the name. So I think it's kind of hinting at what it does It's three mana two red for a flying five five dragon Whenever a dragon you control is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to any target that isn't a dragon. 

Taylor: This is like that new dinosaur that's doing that in the Pantlazo deck.

Absolutely. So whenever damage is dealt, so this next card you paired it with seems brutal. 

Shawn: Well, it's just the tip of the iceberg, to be fair, because red does one thing [00:12:00] really well, and that's wipe the board with an insane amount of damage. This one, Blasphemous Act, is a card you've probably seen. Eight and a red.

Cost one less to cast for each creature on the battlefield. It deals 13 damage to every creature. So let's say, you've got Manaform Hellkite, Wrathful Red Dragon, and that's it. Period. And the board is getting overwhelming for you. You need to clear it. You cast Blasphemous Act for one red mana. Because, like I said, the board is overwhelming.

All of a sudden, you're dealing 26 damage. Because of Wrathful Red Dragon's effect, to whoever, whatever you want to. Straight to the face, 26 damage, and that's, this is like the bare bottom of the barrel, sort of thinking. Right. This is not Christmas land. Right. So like, you're dealing 26 damage to a player, you can take them out.

Like, late in the game, not hard. 

Taylor: And you can split that up too, because I think it's two triggers, right? So, if Blasphemous Act does this to the Wrath of the Red Dragon and your Manaform, [00:13:00] you can hit two people for 13 even, 

Shawn: Yeah. I also run in this deck Star of Extinction.

Oh. Which destroys the land and does 20 points of damage to each creature. So for me if Lafamizak doesn't get the job done, Star of Extinction will. 

Taylor: Which seems quite fitting. 

Shawn: Absolutely. 

Taylor: So I think you've got some really cool things in here. When we were talking about this episode and trying to see what would work for Sarkhan and things that wouldn't work so well, we came across some cards to be kind of careful of and I've seen these next couple of cards and a few decks and I think the people that are brewing this deck default to just typing in dragon and descrifle and they find their favorite ones or maybe they're building it out of their collection from recent sets and I've got two cards I think you're kind of trap cards like you play these two cards thinking that they're good because they're dragons Where they have like cool effects, but they're not actually going to be working with what Sarkhan wants to do for his game plan.

Sounds like he wants to [00:14:00] be able to reduce the cost, play a bigger dragon ahead of curve, and get the effects right away because he gets to swing in. So this first one, I think is It's hilarious, that's what it is. It's great if you've got a lot of mana, and you get the reduction from Sarkhan as well, and it has haste, which is great, but it doesn't trigger Sarkhan in a meaningful way.

If you choose to let it affect Sarkhan I think Sarkhan dies. He just kills himself, yeah. So the card I'm talking about is Shivan Devastator. It's an X spell. It's red and X. Flying, haste, it enters the battlefield with X encounters on it. And so if you dump a lot of mana into this, you can have a big swingy play where you're coming in with 10, 15, how much ever damage right away.

But because it's a 0 0, if Sarkhan becomes a copy of it, it just Newt's himself, right? 

Shawn: Yeah, absolutely. And if for whatever reason you've got this in your Sarkhan deck, no shame But replace it with Fireball because you know what Fireball does that this card doesn't? Triggers Manaform [00:15:00] Hellkite 

Taylor: It would trigger this next card too, but I think again we were talking about like in an ideal line of play I'd much rather play that Saheeli that I mentioned earlier than this card and this one I think is coming up in like a fifth of the decks a fourth of the decks on EDH rec And that's Sprite Dragon.

It's a blue and a red, it's a 1 1 with flying haste whenever you cast a non creature spell. You put a plus one plus one counter on Sprite Dragon. I think it's a great, like, alternative threat. It's something that can build up over time. But I think the impact isn't what you want out of a dragon. And in this case I'd much rather play a piece of ramp to help me get to that next bigger dragon.

I could play a signet or whatever it might be just to help get me to some of those bigger threats that you have on the deck. 

Shawn: Yeah, I agree. This version of Sarkin is all about utilizing Sarkin to make heavy, heavy punches in the air with giant dragons. Whereas the sprite dragon is much more about like a spell slinger y type build, which [00:16:00] you can totally do with blue red dragons.

That's a great build. You use like Galazeth of the Prismari or whatever to do that. But Sarkin's much more concerned with just like , a Mike Tyson knockout punch. 

Taylor: Yeah, and talking about big punches, I think this next card that you have on here I think it's the difference between a Mike Tyson punch and a Muhammad Ali punch, like they're both gonna knock you out, but I don't think that you can tell the difference between which is which.

So, tell us about this card that you think is in way too many decks.

Shawn: Absolutely. So in 51 percent of Sarkin decks through EDHREC. com, They play crucible of fire. It's a three mana red Enchantment dragon creatures you control get plus three plus three. I Love the big Timmy energy, right? I don't want to shame people for playing this card But dragons are huge.

Like I'm looking through my collection here. I've got six six seven seven even eight eight power You're copying that with clone effects [00:17:00] You don't need this random enchantment that doesn't do anything when it hits the battlefield, which is my biggest problem with it. It has so little effect, and it puts a target on your head saying, I have even scarier dragons now, which to me is kind of a downfall of it.

Taylor: Yeah, I think that this is one of those cards that it has really high ceiling in terms of like you can increase your damage, you can do some cool stuff. But like you said, if you cast this onto an empty board just because you want to try and use your mana and then everyone at the table looks at you and says, Oh, as soon as he casts the next dragon, it's going to be big.

Shawn: My test for all the cards in this deck is, does it impact the board when I play it that turn? Because, like I said, I'm just trying to win the game right there on the spot, and if I'm drawing a Crucible of Fire, I'm not winning the game on the spot.

I'm just hoping to draw another card on top of it, because it won't do anything. 

Taylor: and I think that's what Sarkhan really wants to [00:18:00] do, right? Is he wants to impact the game immediately. You cast these big spells, and normally you cast these big 6, 7, 8 mana creatures, and you've got to wait a whole turn.

 To get to swing in with your Udvar, Hellkite, or whatever. But Sarkhan says, no, no, no, I want it now. And so then you get to swing in, right? 

Shawn: Absolutely. So this next one I've also seen in 51 percent of decks on EDHREC. And it's Renari, Merchant of Marvels. A legendary creature, dragon artificer for three and a blue.

It's a 2 4. It says you may cast dragon spells and artifact spells as though they had flash. I like the flash aspect. But there's something about this card. It isn't a bad card, but I feel like it's much more for an artifact deck than it is for a dragon deck. I don't know. What do you think about it?

Taylor: I get it. I mean you want to be able to hold up your mana for different options. If you're here in blue, you want to Hold up some counter [00:19:00] magic and if you don't use it, it's great to cast it on a dragon at the end step of the player before you. But, at the same time, I don't know, I just think that it's not as impactful.

If I draw that, I'd much rather have drawn that sneak attack that I talked about. Because for one mana, you can sneak in any dragon or any creature that you've got. 

Shawn: 100%, sneak attack is so much better than this card. In addition, like, if you're really bent on playing this kind of style I'd rather play Ley Line of Anticipation, just for the fact that it could come out on turn zero. And it's not as easily killable, right? Because it's not a creature. 

Taylor: Right. Yeah, I think that Renari dies pretty easily, and Say that you cast this on your turn, the next person on their turn says, Oh, I've got this generous gift in my hand, how about you have this 3 3 elephant instead, and you've just wasted 4 mana.

Shawn: I think the biggest test for the deck, honestly, is if you care about Sarkhan, imagine yourself playing Renari. Am I gonna copy Renari with Sarkhan? Right. The answer is no. Like, there's no reason to. It doesn't even fly. It's one of the few [00:20:00] dragons that does not fly. So it doesn't even help you get in. And to me, that says it all right there.

You do not want to even have this guy in your deck in my opinion. 

Taylor: No, that makes sense. So, up next we've got some card combinations that we think are some important cards to play. Maybe some hidden gems, things like that. And, I've got listed on here one of my favorite cards of all time. And it's Felden of the Third Path.

So, it's red, red, and one colorless. It's a 2 3 human artificer. It has an activated ability. Two and a red. Tap it. Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of target creature card in your graveyard. Accept it's an artifact in addition to it's other types. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next instep.

I love this card. Because if your biggest dragon gets path to exiled No. Yeah, you don't have to exile. Then he is just gone. If your biggest dragon gets [00:21:00] destroyed, or you have to clear the board with that Blasphemous Act synergy you were 

Shawn: talking about. 100%. Why not do it again with Felda? 

Taylor: Yeah, put him back out there.

And I think this is a great way to recur it. Now again, I like to kind of think about decks as, what happens when my commander isn't on the battlefield? What are some other synergies I can build in? He's another three drop it can help to get some extra benefit and it works with Sarkin because that token Comes on the battlefield Sarkin sees it.

It can become a copy of it as well 

Shawn: Absolutely. I think that's a great pick in part because the activation cost is so low it's a cheap creature on the battlefield and It does give you this necessary recursion. You are gonna get board wiped. I'm sure and a dragon deck We're not running a whole bunch of counter spells just because I don't want to sit back and just counter things randomly I want to be more aggressive and action oriented with this deck.

Taylor: Yeah, and That's where the card that I think pairs well with this is spellbound dragon from shards of Alara It's [00:22:00] red blue and three mana flying whenever spellbound dragon attacks or sarkhan Draw a card then discard a card Spellbound Dragon gets plus X plus O until end of turn where X is that discarded card's converted mana cost.

And so if you have Sarkhan swinging in and you pitch your biggest dragon, it might be enough to be commander damage. And if you've got Felden on the field, you can just create a copy of that on a later turn to knock out the next 

Shawn: person. That's an element of Sarkhan that people forget sometimes, I think.

Even myself, in playing it, that when it becomes an 8 8, it's still Sarkhan Soulflame. And that means it's hitting for 8 commander damage. Right. 

Taylor: You see it on the battlefield and you think, oh, that's just 2 power. And then, out of nowhere, oh, no, it's swinging in for 8, 10, 12, whatever. 

Shawn: Right. No, I think this is a really fun one.

And I love anything that lets me draw and discard a card. Because I actually run a Smuggler's Copter in this deck too, just to have that effect. Turn 2 Smuggler's Copter, turn 3 Sarkhan, just because I want to filter. [00:23:00] Yeah. 

Taylor: Because sometimes you don't need that. Particular card or you want to get rid of your renari, but you're not playing renari So you don't need to worry about getting rid of it.

Yeah So what about you you've got some hidden gems in here One of these I really like 

Shawn: one of these we already kind of talked about a little bit dig through time It might seem like you are not going to be able to have enough cards to exile from your graveyard. I Disagree I find that people constantly try to get rid of your dragons and so So, if for whatever reason you don't have Felden or some more recursion out you're just trying to dig for your best dragons off the top of the library and Dig Through Time is one of the best cards to do it.

And I just love the fact that it really pumps Manaform Hellkite. It was one of the inspirations for the deck in the first place. Next up is a card that everybody and their mama should run. It's called Bolt Den. If you don't know about it. Yeah, this is my favorite one. It's amazing. Three colorless and a red for an instant.

This spell costs 3 less to cast if you control a creature with power [00:24:00] 4 or greater. Sarkin itself is not 4 or greater, but every single dragon you have in the deck is. Huh. Then with this instant speed spell, you can change the target of a target spell or ability, which is great for like a planeswalker

yeah. That might be trying to get you with a single target. , I think this card's amazing. It's a very budget friendly version, of Deflecting Swat, which is a much more expensive kind of card that does a similar thing. 

Taylor: Yeah, and we've got some kind of house rules that we follow. And you've made this deck to fit those house rules.

I have. And we, we call it our, our Rule 7. You gotta have an actual seven power level deck. And so we don't play certain cards, and we don't play Deflecting Swat. We don't play 

Shawn: any of the free spells, basically. 

Taylor: Right.. And so Bolt Bend's a way that you still have to pay for it, but it's a great effect.

Shawn: It's just one red. Yeah. It's not that bad. No. And in a pinch, honestly, you can pay four. Cause like I said, you do play a lot of sort of things like C double. So you're holding up four mana anyway. 

Taylor: [00:25:00] So worst case scenario, somebody's trying to kill your Sarkhan the fifth time and you just don't have the mana to cast him again.

Shawn: Hey, guess what? Your guy dies now. 

Taylor: So some cards that I think we should also be careful of, but I think are really popular right now, are two, I think, that really stand out for me. And the first one that I really want to talk about is Roaming Throne. I feel like in these typal decks, where you care about a creature type, Roaming Throne is seeing this explosion, right?

It's great in the new merfolk decks, it's great in sliver decks, it's great in whatever type of kindred playstyle you're pursuing. But Roaming Throne is a 4 with ward 2, because of course, why not? As Roaming Throne enters the battlefield, choose a creature type, sure, choose dragon. It's a dragon in addition to its other types.

And if a triggered ability of another creature you control of the chosen type triggers, It triggers an additional time. I think my problem with this is, [00:26:00] sure, some of your dragons have great attack triggers. Some of them have great ETB triggers. But, like we've been talking about, it itself doesn't come down and do something for your board.

Because, I just don't think that Sarkhan wants to turn into a roaming throne and not do anything when it attacks. What do you think about a card like this? 

Shawn: I mean, it's a super powerful card. I tend to fall on the politics side of EDH too, so. I'm consistently and hyper aware of cards that paint me as a target.

I'm already playing a Dragon deck, which is a little scary. And one of the reasons that Sargon's good in the first place, just a small aside, is because he's not Mirim and he's not Ur Dragon. He's less threatening to people and I think even less threatening overall, honestly, than a Rambo's Dragon Engine or something like that.

So, you put out a Roaming Throne, I feel like all eyes turn to you. It's just a frighteningly good card. 

Taylor: Yeah, you were talking about Miro, I think if people sit down and [00:27:00] cross the table for Miro, they're gonna say, I can't let that card stick around. And so as soon as you cast it, it lands on the battlefield, people are thinking, okay, I've got to pay its ward cost, that's fine, but I have to get rid of Miron because if they get to untap, it goes bonkers quickly.

And Roaming Throne, I think, is a card like that too, where it paints that target on you. 

 I think we talked a lot about the impact of this deck and how quickly it wants to play.

If you cast this and it sticks around, that's great, but you took a whole turn off to do it. And you're going to get double the effect for some of these cards anyways, since Sarkhan's getting you that extra effect. It's becoming a copy of that Ancient Brass or Ancient Copper Dragon, whichever one. 

Shawn: Yeah, turn four, I'm getting Roman Throne in my hand, say.

I would much rather have Gold Span Dragon. 

 I can hit people for 8 damage, create 2 treasures, then make 4 mana. Yeah. Epic. Roaming Throne, I put it down, it does nothing. Yeah. And makes everyone scared. 

Taylor: And too, we've talked about flying and how important that is.

Sure, Roaming Throne becomes a [00:28:00] dragon, but it doesn't give itself flying when it does that. Nope. I think that's a card that maybe just be cautious of, like, be aware of that play pattern when you have Roaming Throne in a deck like this. I think it paints a huge target on your back, but it's also potentially not the speed you want to be playing 

Shawn: Right. Agreed. I don't know if you wanted to talk about this Bonehoard Dracosaur? Recency bias, I think, comes into play here. 

Taylor: Yeah. People see this card, it's new, it's splashy, they opened it in a pack because they were drafting, they bought some packs from Lost Caverns, a big salon, and they say, oh I got this really cool mythic card and I want to play it.

It's red, red, and three, it's a dinosaur dragon, flying, first strike, at the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top two cards of your library, you may play them this turn. If you exile a land card this way, create a three, one, red dinosaur creature token. If you exile a non land card this way, create a treasure token.

Okay, this is great. I think it gives you some card advantage that you might need. You might find yourself wanting to play some [00:29:00] cards from exile. You might have emptied out your hand somehow. I love that. I think that the problem is, it doesn't do anything. For Sarkin the turn it comes in. I'm sensing a theme here.

I think that with Sarkin, because your ideal pattern is to get to attack with Sarkin as soon as you cast your big dragon. Sure, you now have a flying 5 5 with first strike out of Sarkin, but you don't get that ability at all. Because Sarkin is going to stop being the copy of Bonehorde, comes back to your turn, and sure, the original Bonehorde does trigger and it activates its ability but It's not going to do anything the turn it comes down, and I think in blue you have enough card draw that you should be able to find a way to fill your hand consistently versus having to play this kind of impulse draw style that red has here out of Bonehorde.

And, again, you just mentioned Goldspan Dragon. I'd much rather be manufacturing treasure tokens out of Goldspan than 

Shawn: out of Bonehorde.

Last thing I [00:30:00] want to mention about this card. Very important though because we haven't mentioned this card dragon tempest one and a red for an enchantment.

Oh, yeah It says whenever the second half of the text the important part for this point Whenever a dragon enters the battlefield or in your control it deals X damage to target creature or player where X is the number of Dragons you control, you know kind of tokens bone whore dragosaur makes Dinosaur.

Dinosaur tokens. It's not going to help you with any of the dragon synergies. And there are more than one dragon synergy in the full deck list such as Invasion of Tarkir. . 

Taylor: I think somebody gave you a copy of Invasion of Tarkir 

Shawn: one. It's actually, it's amazing. I'm very thankful and 

Taylor: excited about it.

No, it's great. I think it's a good card to mention. It's a red and one, is that right? Yes, 

Shawn: it is. It read in the one

it's a battle siege. Well, we're in a red It has five on the bottom. Do you know what that nomenclature is for battles? 

Taylor: These are the defense counters, 

Shawn: okay That's my defense counters on it So as it enters the battlefield choose an [00:31:00] opponent to protect it You and others can attack it when it's defeated exile it and then cast it transform its initial ability is when it enters battlefield reveal any number of dragon cards from your hand and When you do invasion of Tarkir deals X plus 2 damage to any other target where X is the number of cards revealed this way Oftentimes is enough to get rid of like a death rite shaman or whatever and that's all you really care about Because the backside when you flip it with five This is where dragons having flying is amazing because 

Taylor: literally somebody and then swing it right away 

Shawn: One dragon Flip this thing it flips into defiant thundermaw a 4 4 flying trample dragon And it says whenever a dragon you control attacks.

It deals two damage to any target That will trigger a whole bunch, but it won't trigger with dinosaurs, 

Taylor: right? That seems pretty good just to help knock those little flyers out because birds of paradise [00:32:00] Gilda goose sure they're great flyers in the early game But they're gonna die really quickly to something like this or you can even hit it with the front side and clear the way to make sure that you get that full damage through because 

Shawn: that's a good point You definitely want to kill their birds of paradise This is a bolt the bird deck because that bird is gonna somehow block and for a hell kite And we don't know how that physically happens 

Taylor: It's magic.

We can suspend our disbelief for just a moment. Sure And you've got a card to be Weary of what you got 

Shawn: Sarkins unsealing it has the Sarkin on it It's three in a red enchantment for red whenever you cast the creature spell with power four five or six Sarkins unsealing deals four damage to any target Whenever you cast a creature spell with power seven or greater It deals four damage to each opponent and each creature and planeswalker They control like this is another one of those crucible of fire type cards for me Comes down, does nothing.

It's a 4 mana enchantment that looks really scary. And I've got to go a whole turn before I can start to [00:33:00] really activate this thing. And the first ability for 4, which is a majority of your dragons, Yeah. Isn't even that much. It's like 4 extra damage to any target. I'd much rather have another 4 mana spell in my deck, I don't care what it is, that can do, have more impact.

in a moment's notice. 

Taylor: Another 6 spell can probably do at least 4 damage either through attacking or off of your dragon tempest ETBs, things like that. You've got other opportunities to do a whole bunch of dragon damage other than Sarkin's Unsealing. It seems like a worse blasphemous act to me.

Shawn: I think people have Warstorm Surge on the brain.

I saw that in some of the Sarkin decks and they're like, well I have big creatures, let me put down an enchantment that lets me Warstorm Surge. I think the secret to Warstorm Surge is actually you're doing it in token decks. Yeah. Where you're creating like, I create 20 tokens with my anointed procession or whatever.

And this is in 17 percent of Sark and Soul of Flame decks currently. [00:34:00] Flavor wise, on point. If that's your goal, amen. But In playtesting it, I found it to be bad, and I really love the card. In fact, it was one of the things that inspired my Mirim Dragon deck in the first place, was that I just loved it in historic brawl.

Well, it's not great in EDH. 

Taylor: I think it's too slow, and I think the whole format has just sped up over time, and so if you're taking a turn off to cast this, sure, you might be building up for a better board state later on, but you're probably creating Target that causes more harm than good in the long run 

Shawn: and I think when we talk about the fun of decks You're playing red and blue with this deck.

You do not want to be in a world That green players are in where they just play a big dumb thing on their turn and on everyone else's turn They just sit there helpless right waiting to see if it's destroyed or whatever with heroic intervention and stuff. That's Changed a little bit over time, but you're in red and blue.

The sky [00:35:00] is the limit what you can do at instant speed. 

Taylor: Yeah So some final thoughts on this deck. You've been playing this for a while. You seem to really like it. Love it I love the way this deck plays out I've played against it only twice now, but it is scary when it pops off but it's doesn't a really cool way where I don't feel like You're racing to the finish line, although we got there faster than I expected.

So what are your final thoughts on this deck? What are some things that people should be aware of when they're building Sarkhan or playing Sarkhan? 

Shawn: Well The joy of playing Sarkhan is to just become a 12 year old all over again in your head. It's unimpeded damage over the top, the way magic used to be played back in the day.

Like when a Serra Angel took over the game, This is the same feeling that you get with this deck because there's so many people that don't play flyer I'm unbound I can just hit people for five hit planeswalkers over the top of the head Quickly in an instant speed like that turn everything's hasted Boom, and there are some [00:36:00] combo finishes that I really enjoy because like I said I love to be able to do the one punch kill.

So sometimes that Dragon Tempest and Defiant Thundermaw all come together like a beautiful dinner and just smashes everyone for a million jillion damage. 

Taylor: My final thoughts are just three words. Double Uvara Hellkite. 

Shawn: Fantastic. I don't know if you, you weren't in the game when it popped off that way.

I don't think so. What happened there? So, turn one, Soul Ring. When I was playing Soul Ring in the deck, I no longer am, to meet our rule 7. However, on that game, it was turn 2 Sarkhan, turn 3, Gold Span Dragon. Tapped and attacking for 8 damage, creating the treasures. The turn after that, I played Udvar Helkite.

Made Sarkhan a copy of it. Made, and then I also had a Gold Span Dragon. So I attack with an Hasted Udvar Helkite. Goldspan dragon and then I'm making Let's see. I have to do the math again, but it just started to [00:37:00] get exponentially out of hand So in that turn both of our hell kites triggered for two different dragons.

I made four six sixes on that turn Yeah, the turn after I think I got up to like 36 dragons total or something and it was just turned five in the game Yeah at that point it was just over People were digging for board wipes, but they just didn't have them. Right. 

Taylor: And I think that's important. We'll talk more about this deck building philosophy that we've started to adapt, where we kind of power down our decks just a little bit.

That's a great example of how Sol Ring can accelerate you to that point where you don't always want to be, right? Because, just like we saw with Mirum and the Ur Dragon, you don't want people to sit down and say, Oh, Sarcan's going to do that thing. If they play a couple of games, and you don't have soul ring, so you're not able to get that, you know, turn 4 Udvar Hellkite going out.

It's going to help you create a little bit of political sway, where you can say, I just want to attack with this one hasty creature. [00:38:00] And if it pops off, it does, but it's a little bit later in the game. You don't maybe have those feel bads where you've got 36 dragons out on the board, and everyone's just trying to catch up.

Shawn: I mean, turn 3 Sarkhan's just as fun. Like, you're not going to miss. Those occasional soul ring wins. Yes, it was a cool crazy story But everyone at the table was kind of like I think bored with it by the time it happened They were just kind of like, okay, we're all dead so dead 

Taylor: Because I think that's something to talk about for Sarkane too Okay, you get rid of the attacking Sarkhan, while the original dragon that Sarkhan became a copy of is still on the board.

And so I think there's a bit of built in resiliency for this deck as well. 

Shawn: Yeah, absolutely, because Sarkhan's just a 2 4, right? Yeah. So, yes, he is scary, but he dodges removal in that way. Because the Uthar Hellkite is what they're targeting. But that means that you've still got an ancient copper dragon in your hand.

Or whatever. And then all of a sudden it starts all over again. Sarkim becomes [00:39:00] another huge threat, but then disappears. He like, hides in the shadows. Right. Until the following turn. 

Taylor: Isn't that part of the story? He like, went through the different timelines? Sure. Maybe that's what's happening. He's just trying out different timelines to see which dragon he wants to be.

Shawn: He's living his best life. If you look at the art, he is, he's just letting his hair out and he's having a great time. Yeah. 

Taylor: I think he watched Barbie or something. Yeah, 

Shawn: totally. I don't know. I don't know. I 

Taylor: don't know. So tell me about these last two cards and why they are so important in this deck. 

Shawn: The ones I want to talk about, Ancient Silver Dragon, it is 6, 2 blue, flying, 8, 8, Elder Dragon. When Ancient Silver Dragon deals combat damage to a player, roll a d20, draw cards equal to the result, and then this kind of hidden clause on the bottom which stays even if the dragon disappears from play, you have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game.

I mean, Sarkin gives this haste and surprise. I like to say the surprise element too, because even though it's kind of in the haste word itself, when you play ancient silver [00:40:00] dragon and decks, or at least when I have, like people are not shocked by it and they're ready to block it or stop it or whatever.

They find a way to interact with it. Find a way to interact. Yeah. But when you're playing it, you're choosing your shot with Sarkin. You're like, I can see defenses are down on the table. They paid a bunch of manor to destroy my Utvar Hellkite last turn. Guess what? Everyone's tapped out.

Ancient Silver Dragon comes in and draws me. And if you only draw one, whatever, it's a funny story for EDH. But if you draw, like, 16 or 17, I mean, it's just blissful. 

Taylor: I'm curious about the math on rolling the d20. I mean, I would assume that the average is that you're drawing 

Shawn: 10, right?

Right 9 or 10 or something. 

Taylor: You're at least replacing itself, right? And you hit for eight. Yeah And if it's sarcan that's eight commander damage and so I think that's another way to go about this it's like a weird alternative reality to voltron because Sarkin's turning into all these dragons, and he can knock out a player or two.

And then whoever's left over, you have [00:41:00] these other dragons on the 

Shawn: board. And the only other card was Goldspan Dragon, but we talked about that at length, about how thrilling it is to play Sarkin, who then reduces the cost of Goldspan Dragon so they are a natural curve together.

Yeah. They are best friends. 

Taylor: That's a great one, because it has haste already, so, yeah, swinging in for haste. They're both swinging in. Yeah. And your treasures get 

Shawn: doubled up. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank y'all so much for listening to this deck tech in this first episode.

Taylor: We're the Weekend Wizards. Feel free to follow us on Twitter, at RuleZeroPodcast. Or send us an email at RuleZeroPodcast at gmail. com. That's Rule, the number zero, podcast.

Shawn: In magic, there's no problem that a rule zero conversation cannot solve.