The Commander
Menace
: Add two mana in any combination of colors. Spend this mana only to cast Dragon creature spells.
Once during each of your turns, you may cast a Dragon creature spell from your graveyard.
Whenever you cast a Dragon creature spell from your graveyard, it gains "When this creature dies, exile it."
Guide
Gameplan
Rivaz is a dedicated Dragon tribal commander that ramps into your fatties and recurs them from the graveyard. You ramp early, deploy big Dragons, and use Rivaz's tap ability plus self-mill/reanimation to keep casting threats — including replaying dead Dragons each turn — until you overwhelm the table with evasive fliers.
Strengths
- Built-in two-mana ramp every turn that funds Dragon spells
- Grindy graveyard recursion makes you resilient to spot removal and board wipes
- Access to powerful BR Dragons and beloved tribal payoffs like Dragon Tempest and Scourge of Valkas
- Cheap commander (MV3) that comes down early and immediately accelerates
- Menace makes Rivaz itself a real evasive threat
Weaknesses
- Heavily commander-dependent; without Rivaz the deck loses its ramp and recursion engine
- Top-heavy curve can stumble if ramp is disrupted or Rivaz is repeatedly removed
- Graveyard hate (Rest in Peace, Bojuka Bog) shuts down the recursion plan
- No card draw or interaction built into the commander — must supply it from the 99
- The 'exile when it dies' clause limits repeated reanimation of the same Dragon
Key Cards
- Dragon Tempest — Turns every Dragon you deploy or recast into immediate burn or a haste-enabled finisher.
- Scourge of Valkas — Each Dragon entering deals damage equal to your Dragon count, often killing the table outright.
- Terror of the Peaks — Punishes the board every time a Dragon enters, including all your recurred threats.
- Buried Alive — Stocks your graveyard with Dragons that Rivaz can recast directly, fueling the engine fast.
- Ancient Copper Dragon — Massive ramp Dragon that snowballs your treasures into more huge spells.
- Patriarch's Bidding — Mass-reanimates your milled Dragons in one explosive turn to refill after a wipe.
Upgrade Path
Tighten the curve with more cheap ramp (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Birgi) so you reliably stick early Dragons, and add fast graveyard fillers (Faithless Looting, Entomb, Vandalblast-style value) plus reanimation to abuse the engine. Lean into the burn payoffs (Dragon Tempest, Scourge of Valkas, Terror of the Peaks) as a combo-ish kill, and add protection (Lightning Greaves, Heroic Intervention) to keep Rivaz online against removal.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Beating down with a wide board of evasive, menacing Dragons
- ▸Burst damage from Scourge of Valkas / Terror of the Peaks triggers as Dragons flood in
- ▸Dragon Tempest pinging the table on each Dragon cast
- ▸Recasting recurred Dragons turn after turn to grind opponents out
Archetypes
- Dragon Tribal — Rivaz ramps, recurs, and rewards an all-Dragon roster better than almost any other commander.
- Reanimator — His graveyard recursion plus self-mill makes filling and emptying the yard a core line.
- Aristocrats — Dragons dying and re-entering pairs with ETB/death payoffs and sacrifice value engines.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BR), by popularity.
