Firkraag, Cunning Instigator helms the Draconic Dissent precon from Battle for Baldur’s Gate. Kristen is here to review the precon and offer tips for upgrading it.
Firkraag, Cunning Instigator
Firkraag is a cool Dragon, that’s for sure, and if you’ve ever played with dragons before, getting new ways to brew with them is always nice. Card draw in the Command Zone is even better, and coupled with Goad is an interesting proposition.
If you love Dragons then there’s every reason to build a dragons deck here, though Lozhan, Dragons’ Legacy might be a more straightforward build—just slap in Terror of the Peaks, Warstorm Surge, and the like.
The alternate Commander this time round is Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer, and the background Clan Crafter. Baeloth is all in on the Goad, and is probably one of the strongest Goad Commanders we’ve seen yet.
DRACONIC DISSENT DECK REVIEW
Draconic Dissent is a bit of a weird one. Of the precons, it suffers from the most split identity issues, wanting to jam dragon synergies, top end beaters, and Goad. The thing is, hidden amidst this at times inconsistent build is a very capable deck, with some of the best new-to-Commander designs.
Astral Dragon is just cool, and a card many players are going to want to jam with. Mocking Doppelganger is a much better clone than we’ve seen for some time, and it comes with the Goad text.
Artificer Class is a value piece, but honestly? It’s just a combo piece, right? You put one artifact in your deck, like Isochron Scepter, and this gets it every time.
The deck also comes with arguably the two strongest Goad cards printed yet – the repeatable Bothersome Quasit, and new red finisher, Spectacular Showdown.
The manabase, though lacking in a shockland, is decent, especially when coupled with the generous and realistic curve of mana rocks. You’re not going to have mana issues here, and that’s true with the other precons too.
Reprints wise, there are some good hits:
- Curse of Opulence
- Goblin Spymaster
- Will Kenrith
- Blasphemous Act
- Castle Vantress
- Reliquary Tower
- Terrain Generator
- Talisman of Creativity
- Izzet Signet
Though not as many big hits as some of the other decks, there’s still some high-demand cards here, and some solid staples.
Draconic Dissent manages to bring a solidly workable precon to the table, and though it doesn’t land as high as, say, Undead Unleashed, it does do a better job than Upgrades Unleashed. To… unleash, ahem… the full potential of the deck, you’re going to have to decide which avenue you want to take it down. As is stands, that’s either Goad or dragons. For my upgrades, I’ve gone for Goad.
DRACONIC DISSENT $50 BUDGET UPGRADE
The first thing we’re doing is shipping Firkraag into the 99. It’s still a card I’m happy to play, but it’s time for Baeloth to shine. The Background we’re going for is Sword Coast Sailor. The deck needs a win condition, and Commander damage is a good one.
Coming out are:
- 1 Avatar of Slaughter
- 1 Bloodthirsty Blade
- 1 Curse of Verbosity
- 1 Dissipation Field
- 1 Domineering Will
- 1 Dragon’s Hoard
- 1 Goblin Spymaster
- 1 Island
- 1 Mountain
- 1 Psychic Impetus
- 1 Pursued Whale
- 1 Rowan Kenrith
- 1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
- 1 Sly Instigator
- 1 Stuffy Doll
- 1 Territorial Hellkite
- 1 The Akroan War
- 1 Thunder Dragon
- 1 Warmonger Hellkite
- 1 Will Kenrith
The cards I’ve taken out are either too expensive, mana wise, or they don’t help us with our substrategy – attacking with equipped creatures.
For what we’re putting in, I’ve chosen ways to pump Baeloth’s power, ways to augment him with strong equipment, and some consistency pieces.
As we’re playing some early game consistency equipment like Goldvein Pick, Sword of the Animist and Mask of Memory, we’ll want cheap evasive flyers. Enthusiastic Mechanaut and Thieving Skydiver are perfect here, and the latter might well snag us something impressive across the board.
Evasive creatures will be great for us in this build, and so Etched Champion and Kappa Cannoneer are obvious includes that both wear equipment well, and help us push damage through.
I really love reconfigure equipment, as we get the choice of creature or equipment when we need it. Goad with Komainu Battle Armor is hot, and Lizard Blades gets to trigger on-damage effects twice if we equip it with equipment.
Of course, a power boost is needed to keep things Goaded. We have plenty of ways to achieve this, both already in the deck, and in these nice power boosts.
Finally, we’re pushing the boat out for some strong effects. Kaldra is a hot buff, especially when we’re unblockable, and Hearth and Home continues to be one of the best equipments in the game.
FURTHER THOUGHTS
Adding what we’ve added today pushes the deck in a great direction, and to truly expand on this, you’ll want to add more ways to buff and protect Baeloth. Voltron can be expensive, so it’ll depend on what’s in your collection already.
If I was to truly take this Goad Commander to the limits, I would actually want to make it a Red/White deck. Noble Heritage is a great background for Baeloth, and White gives you a bunch of ways to buff Baeloth with counters. Boros decks are, however, notoriously expensive to take to the limit, and so I have opted for an Izzet deck in keeping with the precon for today’s budget upgrade.
If you want some budget equipment tips, I have an article here, and one ranking the Swords of X&Y cycle.
Let me know what you’re doing with your precon on Twitter. Dragons, or Goad?
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer, and member of the Commander Advisory Group. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.