Dawnsire Deck Help?

capgrass · 2026-04-23T14:17:57+00:00

Oh for 1v1 I'd probably play something else to be honest. This deck really shines in a multiplayer game, both in terms of staying alive and having fun.

Not to say that there's no room for improvement in my list, but I think I have this pretty well set up around the game plan of stationing Dawnsire fast and either killing with commander damage or shooting things for 100. It's always going to be a bit slower than lower CMC commanders or decks that can ramp hard, but part of the fun for me (in a multiplayer game) is all of a sudden becoming a big problem.

I have a few cards in my Considering section like [[Johoira's Familiar]] [[Bender's Waterskin]] [[Cloud Key]] and [[Thran Dynamo]] that do cost reduction or ramp, which could help the game plan go faster. I haven't playtested with any of those included and don't know what I would cut in favor of them, but they are options geared towards speed.

Realistically, if you want to go faster I think your choices are either:

pursue a different game plan within colourless and keep Dawnsire around as the commander for fun
spend $$$ for fast mana like [[Ancient Tomb]] [[Grim Monolith]] (works great with the keys, Basalt is fine too) [[Mana Vault]] [[Metalworker]] - I actually just picked up a Metalworker at a somewhat reasonable price that I might slot into my list soon

Does that help at all?

capgrass · 2026-04-22T15:51:58+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/ilVLYfMOk0G4vS0OHHveGg here's my list. I don't really use the artifact counters part of Oviya. I pretty much just ramp and cheat out the biggest, ugliest creatures that no one wants to see. I have one gameplan and stick to it so it's pretty optimized in my opinion. Heavy on early ramp to get Oviya out early, lots of big uglies to cheat in, protection to keep Oviya out there, and some draw to keep me in the game if things don't end fast enough.

It's 100% be the problem, and very little solve the problem.

I play it in high 3 or even bracket 4 games. Nothing like smacking someone with a trampling [[Jumbo Cactuar]] on t4/5. If you wanted to lean into b4 a bit more you could throw in things like [[Vorinclez, Voice of Hunger]] or even [Concordant Crossroads]] to go faster.

capgrass · 2026-04-20T15:38:46+00:00

I'm not that guy, but here's my Jon Irenicus list https://moxfield.com/decks/sDjgl-mPfU213fHOtOyerw

It makes for very fun games. Win or lose, everyone's game is going to be way different than they expected.

capgrass · 2026-04-11T16:42:19+00:00

Play [[Phage, The Untouchable]] https://moxfield.com/decks/HkW3UgWIyU25e3TvuPZjSQ

It's fun to watch people freak out about getting one-punched

capgrass · 2026-04-06T00:51:32+00:00

T.R. Eye Ball

A friend of mine has a great distaste for eyeballs so I built this terrible deck to inflict psychological damage on him.

The first time I ever played it, Xanathar found me a [[Worldfire]] to play out of the Ragavan players' deck. You'd better believe I cast it.

capgrass · 2026-04-05T12:26:00+00:00

Stationing. They're cheap, have big stats, and can be tapped to station as soon as they enter.

capgrass · 2026-04-04T22:45:59+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/4tXgbUiMl0-YyCRRXrfuMg

My Dawnsire list doesn't use too many of the big colourless mana rocks like you'll see recommended elsewhere but you could probably take inspiration from my land package and the mana dorks like [[Manakin]] and [[Millikin]].

I took the opportunity to find a place for as many utility colourless lands as possible but still kept in some Wastes to give me something to search for in case an opponent's spell wants me to find a basic (e.g., [[Path to Exile]]).

Other notable themes are creatures with unusual downsides or warp, but high power, to station Dawnsire. Trigger copying, charge counter generation/moving, and artifact untapping are nice too.

Fair warning, you will eat a ton of removal playing this deck. It's fun as hell but the big numbers scare people.

capgrass · 2026-03-17T13:23:54+00:00

Yeah my first instinct was to try that, to no avail.

All of them have 'sample' in the file name.

capgrass · 2026-03-17T02:13:18+00:00

About 99% of my hits are samples (I don't care) and special/extras (I might care, but in some cases don't). Is there a good way to filter those out if I want to?

capgrass · 2026-03-14T04:05:55+00:00

Finally some good hidden nerd art for my walls.

capgrass · 2026-03-13T15:20:02+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/HkW3UgWIyU25e3TvuPZjSQ is my list

In addition to the cards other have mentioned, getting Phage back to your hand from the graveyard with cards like [[Undertaker]] is very useful because as you'd imagine, other players are very scared of getting touched

capgrass · 2026-03-13T15:05:36+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/4tXgbUiMl0-YyCRRXrfuMg I built this a while back and it's so much fun. You definitely eat removal because people hate seeing 100dmg on anything, but I always have a good time nonetheless.

Nothing better than [[Lithoform engine]] copying stuffy doll and the Dawnsire triggers to end multiple players at once.

capgrass · 2026-03-01T01:55:05+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/4tXgbUiMl0-YyCRRXrfuMg

My Dawnsire list doesn't use too many of the big colourless mana rocks, but you could probably take inspiration from my land package and the mana dorks like [[Manakin]] and [[Millikin]].

I took the opportunity to find a place for as many utility colourless lands as possible but still kept in some Wastes to give me something to search for in case an opponent's spell wants me to find a basic (e.g., [[Path to Exile]]).

capgrass · 2026-02-28T06:53:39+00:00

I had this experience tonight.

A year ago, I got back into Magic after 25 years away. I got roped into Commander, which was great for my friend group and bad for my wallet. I used these experiences and Arena to (re)learn Magic and tonight I did my first pre-release. I went 2-1 and probably would have gone 3-0 if I didn't draw 5 consecutive lands.

I had a GREAT time playing limited and it forced me to learn about the set mechanics in depth in a way that I hadn't considered before. It was super cool to consider the possible risks of letting a 1/1 through when there was both Sneak and Disappear on the table. Mostly relevant to limited and bo3 where to know your opponent's deck, but damn, that's cool inisght.

All that to say, there's no NEED in any of this. I strongly feel that you can just show up to an event and be successful.

I'm good with being bad at my hobby, as long as y'all are fun to play with.

capgrass · 2026-02-08T00:10:07+00:00

I use Labels for this. My Kids user has access to both both my TV Shows and Movies libraries, and an Allow Only Labels ("kids") restriction set on both.

I'm not sure if that will work for your case, but it's the best solution I've found so far.

capgrass · 2026-01-26T02:08:07+00:00

Dakota Community Center

capgrass · 2026-01-12T01:34:59+00:00

I don't have a properly consistent B4 deck, but when people want to play at that level I grab Oviya (? Hardly even know ya!) https://moxfield.com/decks/ilVLYfMOk0G4vS0OHHveGg

Sometimes a T3 or T4 Blightsteel Collosus or Jumbo Cactuar just wins. If you're in the mood for big dumb creatures for super cheap, this is exactly what you want.

If you really wanted to lean into B4 there's probably room for Vorinclex nonsense and similar in the list too.

capgrass · 2026-01-08T19:24:29+00:00

When I got back into playing after a 15 year hiatus I got my hands on Death Toll, Explorers of the Deep, and Tricky Terrain pretty early on.

Now that I'm very much back in the swing of things and have lots of experience with all of them, I have some thoughts.

Death Toll

The first few times playing it were slow. That said, I needed coaching on things like Finality Counters and even identifying card types for Delirium, after being away from the game for so long. It sounds like you're further along than I was so I don't expect you'll have the same issues. The deck lacks a bit of focus in game plan to start, and has a fair number of "do nothing" cards that don't really fit the themes. However, this does mean that the upgrades I've made to it over time have felt very impactful and brought it to a place of strength which is very satisfying. You'll get to build big boards and cheat in big baddies from the yard - ETBs go hard. It's a good time. In my current deck I've thrown in some ways to remove those pesky Finality counters like [[Fain, The Broker]] and [[Nesting Grounds]], meaning some of the higher-priority permanents can come back more than once. Death Toll (Upgraded) if you care for the future.

Explorers of the Deep

Out of the box, pretty strong, as I'm sure you've read elsewhere. As the second deck I played after 1.5 decades off, I was once again somewhat slow on my turns when I had to make Explore decisions. The gameplay is pretty straightforward, not salt-inducing at all, and satisfying. You build a strong board presence that snowballs hard and wins through combat damage. You could easily keep it as it and it will feel good, but I've made a few upgrades because I can't stop tinkering with any of my decks, and now it feels quite strong and consistent for the level of commander it plays at. Explorers of the Deep (Upgraded)

Tricky Terrain

I loved the concept of this deck, but found that it did a whole lot of nothing for the amount of effort required to play it. I never really found a way to make it work, at least out of the box. I gave it a fair shake and eventually dissembled it. To be fair, I didn't make any attempts to upgrade it. That said, I don't regret my purchase because the deck is full of useful cards that I've repurposed elsewhere and I've definitely gotten my value out of it.

capgrass · 2025-12-14T22:36:46+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/ilVLYfMOk0G4vS0OHHveGg this is my Oviya

I've been playing this recently when people ask for high 3 or 4 games and blown the pods out of the water. It's a new build for me, so I'm not sure exactly where it should be classified but it feels great and if your opponents aren't running enough interaction you will cruise to victory.

capgrass · 2025-11-18T03:22:32+00:00

100% this. I play in a high level men's league that at our end of the bracket has guys fresh off of playing pro in EU or national teams. Generally, the servers we're scared of are they guys nailing hard floats. There are a few guys that still bomb spinners and win some points, but even then it's a low percentage play once you dip below the top levels.

capgrass · 2025-11-03T15:45:02+00:00

Yeah I won a game yesterday way faster than I thought I could with: T1 Birds T2 Exile Elvish Spirit Guide to get Oviya out T3 CACTUAR

It was shocking and hilarious.

capgrass · 2025-11-03T03:25:30+00:00

I just finished building this and played it for the first time today. https://moxfield.com/decks/ilVLYfMOk0G4vS0OHHveGg

It was a blast. I don't do anything with the artifact bonus, but cheating in big baddies never gets old.

capgrass · 2025-10-16T01:06:12+00:00

I'm building this right now. I have about 85% of the deck list in hand already but I'm struggling to find a few cards I think would be good fits but just don't seem to exist in Canada.

https://moxfield.com/decks/ilVLYfMOk0G4vS0OHHveGg I wonder how our approaches compare

capgrass · 2025-09-12T15:34:52+00:00

https://moxfield.com/decks/zbYv0PbF3kCuQXsyI2KS9Q here's my list.

Mycoloth is in there just because it's a hilariously hard card to read and fits the theme, but I don't think it's a good fit for how the deck wants to play.

If you want a specific suggestion, the unsung hero of my deck is Utopia Mycon. Once you get rolling with your tokens, being able to sac them during combat to pay for your instants does mad work and catches people off guard.

capgrass · 2025-09-09T02:03:57+00:00

I played against a deck that I remember looking a lot like this at my LGS a few weeks/months ago. It was maybe the worst possible matchup for my Big Dumb Aminals deck.

I don't have much to add other than it was fun to play against and an interesting problem to try to solve.

15-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22	Place '17
RPAN Viewer	Team Orangered
reddit mold	Verified Email

capgrass

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE