The MetaWorker: Episode 2 — Focus Dralnu!, Focus!

Looking at the original list in this light, I can draw a few conclusions about how this deck runs:

– The pilot will spend about 75% of the time on the back foot – either responding to threats or tutoring for responses.

This is due to the fact that 43 out of the 62 non-land cards in the deck pose no real threat to an opponent aside from

keeping the board clear.

– This deck doesn’t do a whole lot until turn 6, which is something that is fairly common in Commander. The only card aside from mana acceleration and disruption with CMC < 4 is Notion Thief, which may not affect the game unless the opponents are running a strategy involving a lot of card draw.

– There is a shocking lack of ways to fill up graveyards. Being that Dralnu functions best with a full graveyard, and one of the two win conditions in the deck relies on all graveyards being full, there are very likely some issues with being able to close out the game even after mana acceleration and tutoring puts the pilot in a position to cast their wincon.

What are the strengths of Dralnu, Lich Lord?

From the sounds of things, /u/Stupidwill92 has made a pretty solid choice in Dralnu as a commander – especially given his preference for draw-go control as a playstyle. Dralnu really excels at hand hate, selective disruption, and a grindy, attrition-based strategy. Dralnu is one of a few commanders that allows you to treat your (and quite often your opponents’) graveyard like an extension of your hand. This allows you to break the symmetry of mass discard and mill cards, abuse sacrifice outlets, and get a few recursion engines of your own going.

Being that /u/Stupidwill92’s is right around $100 with no more than $30 spent on a single card, it’s most reasonable to start with tweaking this deck. In the next episode we’ll explore the concept a little more fully, taking the list into a colour identity that I feel is a little more prepared to handle the lockdown strategies he is describing in his meta.

Being that this is the case, I feel very comfortable setting some goals that will help direct my card selection.

1) Let’s fill up those graveyards!

2) Captalize on full graveyards by including a reanimator package.

3) Pare down the disruption package to ensure our ability to participate in the early game.

 

I’ve included some strict upgrades to the mana acceleration package. Liliana of the Dark Realms and Crypt Ghast are

some of the most effective pieces to any big mana strategy in black. They’ll get you there a lot faster than Caged Sun, and you might even grind out some life by extorting along the way. Expedition Map is a strict upgrade over Wayfarer’s Bauble because it allows you to grab some of your utility lands, and get your Cabal Coffers / Urborg interaction online more reliably.

I felt we were a little light on wincons, so I’ve included one that I think is incredibly appropriate for our strategy. Consuming Aberration can outright kill people in the late game, is a prime reanimator target, and isn’t quite as reliant on big mana.

Finally, as a replacement for Talrand, I really like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. Teferi is going to allow you to cast your wincons uncontested, and I think it fits right into what you’re trying to do here.

The revised decklist fills up graveyards with terrifying efficiency. It utilizes top-tier black mana acceleration to set up our late game bombs, and sheds some of the overcosted disruption in the original list in favour of cards that serve to advance our own strategy.

Stay tuned for the next episode, where we’ll look at an alternate approach to handling this meta – taking a dive into the Sultai colour identity with Damia, Sage of Stone.