Precon Upgrade Guide
Reign of Dragons Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the mono-red Dragon precon from the Foundations Commander decks, commanded by Lathliss, Dragon Queen.
Foundations Commander Decks
Reign of Dragons
Ramp, then cast a Dragon: the plan is simple, the mana costs are not. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
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Quick verdict
Reign of Dragons is the deck a new player buys because they want to cast Dragons, and it does not make them wait: seven separate cards make Dragon spells cheaper or pay for them, so the six-drops start landing on turn four rather than turn six. Lathliss then doubles every one of them into a 5/5 token. Its weaknesses are the ones every big-creature red deck has: no way to protect the board, almost no way to refill the hand, and a curve that punishes any turn where the ramp doesn't show up.
TurnZero rates Reign of Dragons a 3 out of 5 on strength and a 2 out of 5 on difficulty. See it alongside every other precon we cover on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Lathliss, Dragon Queen creates a 5/5 flying Dragon token whenever another nontoken Dragon you control enters, and pumps the whole team for {1}{R}. That turns every Dragon in the deck into roughly twice its printed body, which is why the 99 is built to cast as many of them as early as possible.
The ramp is all Dragon-shaped: Dragonspeaker Shaman takes two off every Dragon spell, Dragonlord's Servant and Nogi, Draco-Zealot take one, Herald's Horn takes another, and Orb of Dragonkind and Haven of the Spirit Dragon make mana that can only be spent on them. Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind taps for red like any rock and only adds haste when that mana goes on a Dragon. Treasure fills the rest: Rapacious Dragon, Unexpected Windfall, Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant and Hit the Mother Lode all leave tokens behind.
Once the Dragons land, the damage payoffs do the closing. Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest both deal damage equal to your Dragon count each time one enters. With Lathliss on the battlefield, one Dragon spell triggers both twice. Warstorm Surge turns every creature into a bolt, Terror of Mount Velus hands the board double strike, and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames deals ten damage spread across the table every time it attacks.
What works out of the box
Dragon Tempest ↗
Two mana. Each creature with flying you control gains haste the turn it enters, and each Dragon that enters deals damage equal to your Dragon count to any target. With Lathliss making tokens, that number climbs twice per spell.
Scourge of Valkas ↗
The same effect on a 4/4 flying body, and it can pump itself. The two together end games nobody saw ending.
Utvara Hellkite ↗
A 6/6 Dragon token every time any Dragon attacks. Left alone for one turn cycle it wins the game on its own.
Drakuseth, Maw of Flames ↗
Ten damage spread across creatures and players every attack, which in a four-player pod is usually a kill and a board wipe at once.
Dragonspeaker Shaman ↗
Two mana off every Dragon spell. The single most important card to see in an opening hand.
Terror of Mount Velus ↗
Double strike for the whole board the turn it lands, which is the cleanest way to turn a stalled Dragon board into a lethal attack.
What needs improvement
Card advantage is thin and most of it is impulse draw. Outpost Siege, Count on Luck, Thundermane Dragon and Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest all exile off the top and give you one turn to use it, which is real but punishing when the mana isn't there. Mono-red's genuine draw is Dragon's Hoard and Bonders' Enclave, and two sources is not enough. See how much card draw a Commander deck needs →.
The deck also has no protection. Every Dragon in it is a five- or six-mana investment that a single removal spell answers, and Swiftfoot Boots is the only card in the 99 that says otherwise. With a curve this high, one wipe is often the game. See how much protection to run →.
10 cards to cut
Each of these has a real function, but each does less for this specific 99 than the card replacing it.
Magmaquake deals X damage to each creature without flying. Almost every creature you control has flying, but the deck's own ramp creatures don't, and they are the ones that die.
Chain Reaction scales with the number of creatures on the battlefield, and you are usually the player with the most.
Breath Weapon deals 2 to each non-Dragon creature. It spares your Dragons and misses everything a table plays that actually threatens you.
Count on Luck costs {R}{R}{R} for one impulse card a turn. That is triple red on turn three in a deck that wants that mana for ramp.
Anger only grants haste from the graveyard, and the deck has no discard outlet to put it there other than two rummage spells.
Goldlust Triad is a five-mana 4/3 whose myriad copies are tapped and attacking. It is good on an empty board, bad into any blockers, and it dies to everything.
Firespitter Whelp pings each opponent for one. Three damage a turn in a deck whose other cards deal ten at a time.
Parapet Thrasher needs Dragons to connect before it does anything, and by then the game is usually decided by the damage rather than the artifact destruction.
Temple of the False God produces nothing until you control five lands, which is a blank land during the turns this deck most needs one.
Bitter Reunion is a one-shot rummage plus a haste enabler you have to sacrifice. Both halves are covered better elsewhere in the 99.
First upgrades
Budget, first
Where Ancients Tread ↗
Five damage to any target whenever a creature with power 5 or greater enters, and every token Lathliss makes is a 5/5, so the Dragons that don't trigger it bring one that does.
Dragon Mage ↗
Refills your hand and everyone else's whenever it connects. Crude, but it is the cheapest real draw a mono-red Dragon deck can add.
Ruby Medallion ↗
Takes one off every red spell rather than only the creatures, which stacks with the four Dragon-specific reducers the deck already runs.
Next
Deflecting Swat ↗
Free while you control your commander, and it redirects the removal spell aimed at Lathliss back at its caster. The deck's best single protection slot.
Sarkhan, Fireblood ↗
Two mana toward a Dragon spell every turn, or a loot to trade the land you no longer need for a card. Cheap, and it does both of the deck's jobs.
Jeska's Will ↗
Three mana for a burst of red equal to an opponent's hand size and three cards off the top, so it is the ramp and the refill in one card.
Sarkhan's Triumph ↗
Three mana at instant speed to find whichever Dragon the board actually needs: Drakuseth to close, Utvara Hellkite to go wide, Terror of Mount Velus to finish.
Higher-investment
Terror of the Peaks ↗
Damage equal to each entering creature's power, so Lathliss's 5/5 tokens each throw five. The strongest single addition this shell can take.
Ancient Copper Dragon ↗
A roll's worth of Treasure every time it connects, which is both the ramp and the explosive turn a Dragon deck is trying to buy.
Extraplanar Lens ↗
Doubles the mana from every Mountain. Swap the basics for Snow-Covered Mountains first so the doubling stays yours alone.
Win conditions
The upgraded deck wins by turning one Dragon spell into several triggers. Lathliss, Dragon Queen makes a token, Dragon Tempest and Scourge of Valkas each deal damage equal to the Dragon count twice, and Warstorm Surge adds the body's own power on top. From there it is a flying board that Terror of Mount Velus or Hellkite Charger converts into a single lethal attack. The upgrades don't change that plan; they make sure the commander survives to see it.
The upgraded 99, in shape
The finished list cuts the three symmetrical damage sweepers that hurt your own board, the small pingers, and the lands that don't produce mana on time. What goes in is protection for the commander, a real burst of ramp, and one more damage payoff. The deck still has the plan a new player opened (cast Dragons, make more Dragons, win in the air), but it stops losing to the single removal spell pointed at Lathliss.
Who should buy this precon
The right pick for a player who wants big creatures and a short decision list: the deck's whole plan is "make the Dragons cheaper, then cast them," and it is exciting the first time Dragon Tempest and Lathliss share a board. It is a weaker fit for a player who wants to grind, because the deck has very little to do when it is behind, and no way to rebuild after a wipe other than drawing another Dragon.
Track Reign of Dragons from your first game.
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