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How to build Dathon, His Heart Open

Dathon draws a card for every enchantment you cast and deals 2 damage to each opponent for every Saga, and for two mana he adds one more of any counter already on an enchantment you control. On a Saga that counter is lore, so this list runs twenty Sagas whose later chapters are worth buying on the turn they are cast.

Art by Dmitry Burmak

Two mana is a chapter, so a Saga can finish the turn it lands

Dathon's can only be activated when you could cast a sorcery. It chooses a counter already on an enchantment you control and adds one more of that kind. A Saga's counters are lore counters, and each new one triggers the next chapter straight away. Activate it again once that chapter has resolved and the one after it triggers too. Nothing limits it but mana, so a three chapter Saga can go from chapter I to the end in a single main phase for its own cost and four more.

There and Back Again shows it best. It costs . Chapter I stops a creature from blocking, chapter II puts a Mountain card from your library onto the battlefield, and chapter III makes Smaug, a legendary 6/6 flying Dragon token with haste. Cast it and pay twice and Smaug attacks the same turn, for nine mana in total, and a basic Mountain from chapter II pays for one of them. Steam Vents, Stomping Ground and Ketria Triome are Mountains as well, so chapter II can fix your colours instead of adding a basic.

Four Sagas turn into creatures after chapter III. They are Kumano Faces Kakkazan, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, The Legend of Roku and Boseiju Reaches Skyward, and pushing one through brings its creature in that turn instead of two turns later. Hit It! gives every creature you control haste, which lets Reflection of Kiki-Jiki tap the turn it arrives. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker costs three, its two later chapters cost each and Reflection's copy costs , so for eight mana the Goblin Shaman from chapter I is copied and both Goblins attack and make Treasure.

Read ahead lets The Elder Dragon War skip its own sweep

The Elder Dragon War has read ahead, so you choose the chapter it starts on and the chapters before that one never trigger. Start on chapter I when the other boards are full of small creatures. It deals 2 damage to each creature and each opponent, which makes 4 to each opponent with Dathon's trigger, but it also kills eight of yours: Herald of the Pantheon, Flux Channeler, Eidolon of Blossoms, Sanctum Weaver, Eternal Witness, Evolution Sage, Rydia, Summoner of Mist and Summon: Fenrir. Dathon is a 3/3 and lives through it. On a turn when your own board matters more, start on chapter II, which lets you discard any number of cards and draw as many, and pay for chapter III and its 4/4 flying Dragon.

City of Death turns one Smaug into seventy Treasures

City of Death costs . Its chapter I makes a Treasure, and chapters II to VI each create a copy of a token you control that is not a Saga. Aim every one of them at Smaug. He is legendary, so each copy leaves you with two Smaugs and you put one of them into the graveyard. That counts as dying, and Smaug makes fourteen Treasures when he dies. Five copies make 70 Treasures.

With Smaug already out, five mana from your lands casts City of Death and buys chapter II. The fourteen Treasures from that pay for the other four chapters with 8 of them, and the turn ends with Smaug on the battlefield and 63 Treasures beside him. Fated Firepower spends them. It has flash, it enters with X fire counters, and each source you control deals one more damage to opponents and their permanents for each fire counter on it. Spend 61 Treasures on it with X at 58 and the last two on Heaven Sent, and Dathon's trigger deals 60 to each opponent.

The same chapters copy any other token you have. The 8/8 Kraken from Kiora Bests the Sea God or Ominous Seas, the 5/5 Elephants from Roar of Endless Song and the Dragon from The Elder Dragon War are all worth doubling, and a Treasure will do when nothing else is on the battlefield.

Fire, time, quest and foreshadow counters cost the same two mana

Lore is only one of the counters Dathon can add. Each on Fated Firepower is another fire counter, which is one more damage on everything you aim at an opponent from then on. As Foretold gets a time counter in each of your upkeeps, and once each turn it lets you cast a spell for nothing if its mana value is no more than that count. After its first upkeep, two activations take it to three, and nine of the twenty Sagas cost three or less. At five, every Saga in the list but Kiora Bests the Sea God is free.

Anthropological Mission draws a card whenever you cast a noncreature spell and makes you discard one too until it has three quest counters. After the first spell puts one on, two activations reach three, and from then on it only draws. Ominous Seas gets a foreshadow counter whenever you draw a card and trades eight of them for an 8/8 Kraken, and in a list where most spells draw, Dathon's gets it there sooner.

Flux Channeler and Evolution Sage proliferate, Flux Channeler whenever you cast a noncreature spell and Evolution Sage whenever a land enters under your control. Proliferate lets you choose which permanents get a counter, so it can advance every Saga you control at once and leave out the ones whose next chapter you would rather wait for.

A second Dathon doubles every card and every 2 damage

Spark Double enters as a copy of Dathon that is not legendary, so both of them trigger on each enchantment you cast. That is two cards per enchantment and 4 damage to each opponent per Saga. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain draws whenever you cast a historic spell, and Sagas are historic, so with all three out a Saga is three cards.

The Apprentice's Folly makes the second Dathon for a while. Chapters I and II each create a hasty token copy of a nontoken creature you control, and chapter III sacrifices those copies. Copy Dathon with chapter I. Chapter II cannot copy him again while a token with his name is out, so copy Eidolon of Blossoms instead, and its copy draws two cards as it enters, one for itself and one for the Eidolon already there. Do not spend Dathon's on Folly. Paying it brings chapter III forward a turn, and the token Dathon is gone before your next main phase instead of staying for it.

Every Saga that finishes can be cast again

A Saga goes to the graveyard after its last chapter, and casting it a second time is another card and another 2 damage. The Aesir Escape Valhalla brings itself back. Chapter I exiles a permanent card from your graveyard and gains you life equal to its mana value, chapter II puts that many +1/+1 counters on a creature you control, and chapter III returns the Saga and the exiled card to your hand. Exile Kiora Bests the Sea God with it and that is 7 life, seven counters and two Sagas in hand ready to cast again, and paying twice gets all of it in one turn.

Heaven Sent is built to repeat. Chapters I and II each investigate. Chapter III deals 1 damage to each opponent, then exiles the Saga and lets you cast it again that turn, unless an opponent is already at 0 life or less, in which case you draw seven cards instead. With Dathon each lap is six mana, to cast and twice, for two Clues, a card and 3 damage to each opponent. With Fated Firepower out, each lap adds twice its fire counters to that 3.

Get Out costs and returns one or two creatures or enchantments you own to your hand. Cast it while a Saga's last chapter is on the stack and the chapter still resolves, with the Saga back in your hand instead of the graveyard. Crystal Chimes returns every enchantment card in your graveyard at once, Season of Renewal returns a creature card and an enchantment card, and Eternal Witness returns any one card.

Rydia, Summoner of Mist and Estrid's Invocation put Sagas onto the battlefield without casting them, so Dathon gives nothing for either one. They earn their slots anyway. Rydia pays X and taps to return a Saga with mana value X from your graveyard, with haste and a finality counter, so a Summon creature can attack that turn. Estrid's Invocation enters as a copy of an enchantment you control and can leave and come back in each of your upkeeps as a fresh copy, so a Saga it copies starts again at chapter I. Dathon's works on both.

The Akroan War and Maximum Carnage are better a chapter a turn

Not every Saga wants the . The Akroan War takes a creature with chapter I for only as long as the Saga stays. Chapter II makes every creature your opponents control attack each combat until your next turn, and chapter III has each tapped creature deal damage to itself equal to its power. Rush it and you give the creature back and spend the forced attacks on a turn nobody is attacking. Left alone, chapter III arrives on your turn while their attackers are still tapped.

Year of Hell has each player draw a card and take 2 damage on all three chapters, you included. Run it in one turn when you have the most life at the table and let it tick otherwise. With three fire counters on Fated Firepower, seven mana for Year of Hell and both activations deals 20 to each opponent and 6 to you, and every player draws three cards. Maximum Carnage belongs after combat. Cast in your second main phase, its chapter I forces every creature to attack a player other than you until your next turn. Chapter II then adds on your turn, two of which pay for chapter III and 5 damage to each opponent.

Lightning Greaves does not get in Dathon's way

Shroud usually costs a commander its own targeted abilities. Dathon's targets the enchantment and not him, and his draw and damage come from a trigger with no target at all, so Lightning Greaves protects him for nothing. Heroic Intervention gives everything you control hexproof and indestructible until end of turn, which also saves the Sagas from a sweeper. Destiny Spinner stops your creature and enchantment spells from being countered, and Swan Song, Negate, Arcane Denial and Get Out cover the rest. The other new card with his name on it, Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel, is an instant with two modes. One gives a creature +3/+3 and trample until end of turn, and the other makes each opponent sacrifice a nontoken artifact or enchantment of their choice.

Three enchantments left out because they hit Dathon or you

Battle of Frost and Fire deals 4 damage to each creature that is not a Giant, and Dathon has 3 toughness. Summon: Leviathan returns every creature that is not a Kraken, Leviathan, Merfolk, Octopus or Serpent to its owner's hand, him with them. Fiery Emancipation looks made for this deck and is not, because it triples the damage your sources deal to every player and permanent, yours included. Beside Year of Hell that is 6 damage to you on each chapter, 18 in all, and The Elder Dragon War's chapter I would deal 6 to Dathon. Fated Firepower only adds to damage aimed at opponents and what they control, which is why it is the one in the list.

Twenty seven green sources, and six of the duals are Forests

The list runs 35 lands, 16 of them basic, for 27 green, 26 red and 24 blue sources. That finds a first green source by turn two in 93 percent of games, a first red in 92.1 percent and a first blue in 90.1 percent. A second source of one colour is harder to find. A second green by turn three comes in 76.4 percent of games, for Eternal Witness and Eidolon of Blossoms, and a second blue by turn three in 69.4 percent, for Get Out and Kiora Bests the Sea God. Four cards want double red, Fated Firepower, The Elder Dragon War, The Legend of Roku and There and Back Again, and a second red by turn four comes in 79.8 percent, which is enough because none of them is a card you need on turn three.

Nature's Lore and Three Visits each put a Forest card from your library onto the battlefield, and six lands here are Forests by type: Ketria Triome, Breeding Pool, Stomping Ground, Hedge Maze, Commercial District and Cinder Glade. So each one can fetch two colours, or three with Ketria Triome. Farseek finds an Island or Mountain card, tapped. Utopia Sprawl goes on a Forest and adds a colour you choose each time it taps, Wild Growth adds green to any land and Fertile Ground adds any colour, and all three are Auras that draw a card as they are cast. Sanctum Weaver taps for one mana of a single colour for each enchantment you control, and late in a game that is what pays for the extra chapters. Five lands always enter tapped, Ketria Triome, Frontier Bivouac and the three surveil lands, which a deck that spends its early turns on two and three mana Sagas can afford.

The core list

Dathon and his ninety nine, each priced at its cheapest paper printing on 29 October 2026. Hover a name and you see the exact printing that price belongs to.

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Fewer draw engines at bracket 2, and Doubling Season at bracket 4

Neither rung touches the Saga engine. There and Back Again, City of Death, Fated Firepower, Heaven Sent, Spark Double and The Apprentice's Folly are in every version of the deck. What moves is how many other cards draw, how cleanly the mana comes in, and how many counters each buys.

Ten swaps bring the price down from at least $344.60 to at least $143.75, and the budget list keeps no Game Changers. Rhystic Study, Cyclonic Rift and Sylvan Library go first, and they are most of the saving. Enchantress's Presence puts some of the draw back, since it does what the first half of Dathon's trigger does for three mana. Summon: Shiva taps and stuns a creature an opponent controls with each of its first two chapters and draws a card for every tapped creature your opponents control with chapter III, so paying twice gets all three at once while both targets are still tapped. Aetherize returns every attacking creature to its owner's hand in place of Cyclonic Rift. Five of the duals become three gain lands and two bounce lands, which puts seven lands that always enter tapped in the list instead of five, and Annul and Snakeskin Veil take over from Swan Song and Heroic Intervention.

Nine swaps raise it to at least $685.95, with seven Game Changers and a floor of 4. Doubling Season is the card that changes how the deck plays. It doubles the counters any effect puts on your permanents, so each adds two lore counters and triggers two chapters, and it doubles the tokens you create, so Smaug dies into twenty eight Treasures. Ichormoon Gauntlet adds a counter the same way Dathon does whenever you cast a noncreature spell, without the mana and without waiting for your main phase. Urza's Saga is a land and a Saga, so two activations take it to chapter III on the turn you play it, and that chapter puts Sol Ring or Mana Vault onto the battlefield. Crop Rotation finds it at instant speed. Worldly Tutor puts Spark Double or Summon: Bahamut on top of your library, and Fierce Guardianship and Force of Will replace Negate and Arcane Denial with counterspells that need no mana.

FAQ

Is Dathon, His Heart Open a good commander?

For enchantments, yes. Enchantress's Presence costs three mana for the draw half of his trigger alone, and Dathon adds 2 damage to each opponent on every Saga and a ability that can finish a Saga on the turn it is cast. He is a 3/3 with no protection of his own, which is why this list carries Lightning Greaves and Heroic Intervention.

Do enchantment creatures and Summon cards trigger Dathon?

Yes. Any spell with the enchantment type counts, so Eidolon of Blossoms, Sanctum Weaver and Destiny Spinner each draw a card when cast. Summon: Fenrir is a Saga as well, so it also deals 2 damage to each opponent. Auras count too, which is why Utopia Sprawl, Wild Growth and Fertile Ground are in the list.

Does Dathon trigger when a Saga enters without being cast?

No. His trigger is on casting an enchantment spell, so a Saga returned by Rydia, Summoner of Mist or copied by Estrid's Invocation gives no card and no damage. His still works on any enchantment you control, however it arrived.

Which counters can Dathon add besides lore counters?

Any kind already on an enchantment you control. Here that means fire counters on Fated Firepower, time counters on As Foretold, quest counters on Anthropological Mission and foreshadow counters on Ominous Seas. The enchantment needs one counter of that kind first, because he adds another of a counter that is there rather than choosing a new kind.

How does Dathon work with read ahead Sagas?

A read ahead Saga starts on the chapter you choose, and the chapters before it never trigger. The Elder Dragon War is the one in this list. Dathon's then adds one lore counter at a time from that point, so starting it on chapter II and paying once gets you the discard and draw and the 4/4 flying Dragon in the same turn.

What does it cost to build Dathon, His Heart Open?

At least $344.60 for the core list on 29 October 2026, at least $143.75 for the budget rung and at least $685.95 for the bracket 4 rung. Up to five cards in each list have no price before Star Trek is released, which is why each figure is a minimum, and The Wrath of Khan, Hit It! and Anthropological Mission are priced as preorders.

What bracket is a Dathon, His Heart Open deck?

Bracket 3 or higher for the core list, because Rhystic Study and Cyclonic Rift are Game Changers. The budget rung drops both and is built for bracket 2, and the bracket 4 rung runs seven Game Changers. Treat all three as floors. Wizards may add Star Trek cards to the Game Changers list at its next revision, and that can only move a list up.

When can Dathon, His Heart Open be played in Commander?

Once Star Trek is out on 13 November 2026. The seven other Star Trek cards in these lists arrive the same day, and nothing in any of the three lists is banned.