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SpiralMask

[new player, coming from YGO] Red-Eyes Black Dragon deck suggestions?

Looking for Advice

my friends have invited me to play some commander with them, but my knowledge on mtg is slim and mostly memes, but a (not-even-rogue) playstyle i enjoy over in my usual TCG is red-eyes stuff, so if i could get something emulating that to get my feet under me that'd be perfect.

theme-wise, red-eyes is an archetype centered on:
- mostly chunky dragons (with a few warriors/knights, demons, and zombies on the periphery)
- a decently heavy life burn/tax substrategy
- treats the graveyard as a revolving door waiting room (and usually benefits from tagging out dragons to/from the grave)
- as a smaller focus on powering up its monsters for decently big swings

!(in YGO it also has several monsters that can negate enemy effects, but im not sure if counterspelling on a monster is super common) !<

some cursory googling has shown me a few cards of interest along those lines >!(the two black spirit dragons that love dying, rivaz of the claw makes energy and can one-time revive dragons, bladewing 1 and 2 as a complete slam dunk in terms of aesthetic and theming, a few black skeleton- or zombie-dragons that tag out from grave by eating stuff or just in general, several red ones that do burn damage either directly or to monsters (or generating treasure when attacking), vito/cuthroat/blood artist help get some burn off the grave movement...)!< but i'm unsure on much of anything to fill out a full 100 cards

a friend recommended ziatora the incinerator as a potential commander, which does seem fitting (tags out stuff, burns, makes effectively more energy to keep doing stuff) but most of the searching has shown red and black cards so far, so i dont even know where to start on green stuff that might work on top of that, or if i should just make a red/black deck with an odd commander

any suggestions? we're apparently shooting for bracket 2 or 3 >!(apparently 1 is nonfunctional stuff and 4 is infinite loops and turnskips?)!<

Posted May 12, 2026, 8:21 AM UTC

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