Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon

Dragonlord Atarka

Mana value7EDHREC#4,664

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The Commander

Flying, trample

When Dragonlord Atarka enters, it deals 5 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers your opponents control.

Guide

Gameplan

Ramp hard into Dragonlord Atarka to clear blockers and value creatures with her 5-damage ETB, then close fast with a big flying trampler and a wide Gruul board. Most games are won by ramping into fatties, recurring Atarka's ETB via blink/reanimation, and beating down before opponents stabilize.

Strengths

Powerful ETB that doubles as removal and a planeswalker check, repeatable with blink/flicker
Evasive flying trample body that ends games quickly
Lives in green's best ramp and red's best damage, so it deploys early and threatens broadly
Strong against go-wide/token strategies and superfriends decks

Weaknesses

7 mana means a slow start if ramp doesn't show up
Only damages opponents' creatures/planeswalkers — useless against pure control or pillowfort with no targets
No card advantage built in; can run out of gas
Vulnerable to spot removal and counterspells right as you tap out
No native protection or recursion in the command zone

Key Cards

Cultivate — Cheap, reliable ramp that fixes and accelerates you into Atarka and other fatties.
Conjurer's Closet — Repeatedly blinks Atarka to fire her 5-damage ETB every end step.
Deflecting Swat — Protects Atarka or redirects removal/counters while developing your board for free.
Xenagos, God of Revels — Doubles Atarka's power and grants haste, turning her into an immediate lethal threat.
Greater Good — Converts your fatties into cards and sets up reanimation, fixing the deck's card-advantage problem.
Worldspine Wurm — A reanimation/cheat target that pairs with Atarka's beatdown plan for explosive, evasive damage.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana and ramp (Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Birds of Paradise, mana dorks) to deploy Atarka sooner, then lean into blink (Conjurer's Closet, Eldrali Displacer-style effects) or reanimation (Animate Dead, Reanimate via splash isn't possible, so use Defense of the Heart, Sneak Attack, Through the Breach) to abuse her ETB and cheat threats. Round out with protection (Heroic Intervention, Deflecting Swat) and card advantage (Greater Good, Beast Whisperer, Guardian Project) so you don't run dry after the first wave.

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

▸Commander damage from a hasty, pumped flying trampler
▸Wide Gruul beatdown after Atarka clears blockers
▸Repeated Atarka ETBs grinding away opponents' creatures and planeswalkers until you overrun
▸Cheating multiple fatties into play for an alpha strike

Archetypes

Ramp / Big Creatures — Green ramp powers out Atarka and a parade of large threats ahead of curve.
Blink / Flicker — Flickering Atarka reuses her 5-damage ETB as repeatable removal each turn.
Reanimator — Cheating Atarka and other giants from the yard triggers removal and applies pressure cheaply.
Voltron / Aggro — Flying trample plus power-doublers make Atarka a fast commander-damage clock.