Reign of Dragons precon upgrade guide

Lathliss makes a 5/5 only when another nontoken Dragon enters, and five cards in her own box make Dragons she never sees.

What are the best Reign of Dragons upgrades?

Ranked by how much each one feeds Lathliss, which isn't the same order as price.

1. Maskwood Nexus ($3.28). Every creature you control, and every creature card you own, becomes every creature type. The eight non-Dragons in the upgraded list start triggering Lathliss and start taking the Dragon discounts.
2. Urza's Incubator ($19.24). Name Dragon and every Dragon costs {2} less, Lathliss included. Beside Dragonspeaker Shaman she costs {R}{R}.
3. Fire-Belly Changeling ($0.22) and Universal Automaton ($0.70). A two-drop and a one-drop that are Dragons in every zone, so each one brings a 5/5 flier with it once Lathliss is out.
4. Sarkhan's Triumph ($2.89). Any Dragon in your library, at instant speed. With Lathliss down, the right answer is usually Scourge of Valkas.
5. Delayed Blast Fireball ($14.86). A sweeper that only touches your opponents' side, in place of three that hit yours.
6. Glorybringer ($0.41). A hasty 4/4 flier that deals 4 to a non-Dragon creature every time you exert it.
7. Professional Face-Breaker ($6.75). A Treasure whenever your creatures connect, and any Treasure can become a card off the top instead of mana.

The other three adds and all eleven cuts are in the cut list and the decklist below.

Five of the box's Dragon makers never wake the queen

Lathliss reads "another nontoken Dragon". Dragonmaster Outcast, Skyline Despot, Utvara Hellkite, Goldlust Triad's myriad copies and the third chapter of The Elder Dragon War all make Dragon tokens, and not one of those tokens triggers her. Neither do her own, which is what stops her from going infinite, and it also makes the box less of an engine than it looks.

Nineteen creature cards in the 99 do trigger her. Eighteen are printed Dragons and the nineteenth is Taurean Mauler, a changeling and so a Dragon in your hand, on the stack and on the battlefield. Eleven of the eighteen cost five or more, and only Firespitter Whelp and Shivan Devastator come in under four. Cursed Mirror can be a twentieth. If it copies a Dragon as it enters, it's a nontoken Dragon until the end of the turn, and Lathliss triggers on it like any other.

The tokens aren't wasted, though. Seven other cards in the deck care about any Dragon entering, token or not: Scourge of Valkas, Dragon Tempest, Dragon's Hoard, Spit Flame, Breaching Dragonstorm, Dragonstorm Globe and Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant. That's where Lathliss turns into damage. One nontoken Dragon arriving with Scourge of Valkas out is two Scourge triggers, because the 5/5 she makes is a second Dragon entering. Let her trigger resolve first and both of them count the token.

So the upgrade has one job. It needs more cards that are Dragons at the moment they enter, and it needs them cheap.

Three changelings and an artifact that makes everything a Dragon

Fire-Belly Changeling and Universal Automaton join Taurean Mauler. Changeling works in every zone, so all three take {1} off from Dragonlord's Servant and Nogi, Draco-Zealot, take {2} off from Dragonspeaker Shaman, get revealed by Herald's Horn, and trigger Lathliss on the way in. With her on the battlefield, one mana for the Automaton buys a 1/1 and a 5/5 flying Dragon.

Maskwood Nexus does the same thing to the whole deck. Eight creatures in the upgraded list aren't Dragons: Dragonmaster Outcast, Minion of the Mighty, Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant, Dragonlord's Servant, Nogi, Dragonspeaker Shaman, Anger and Professional Face-Breaker. With the Nexus out all eight trigger Lathliss, all eight get cheaper, and Breath Weapon, which deals 2 to each non-Dragon creature, stops touching any creature of yours. The Nexus's own {3} activation makes a 2/2 changeling token. That one won't wake Lathliss, because it's a token, but it still fires Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest.

Thundermaw Hellkite and Glorybringer are the two printed Dragons on the list, both five mana and both hasty, so each attacks the turn it lands. Glorybringer is removal on a body as well. Exert it and it deals 4 to a non-Dragon creature, then it skips an untap and does it again.

Name Dragon twice, and the discounts stop at two red

Two cards in the upgraded deck make you choose a creature type, Herald's Horn and Urza's Incubator. Name Dragon on both. Counting the changelings, twenty-three of the thirty-one creatures are Dragons, Lathliss among them, while Human and Shaman manage four printed members each.

Both cards work on Lathliss in the command zone, because she's a Dragon creature spell when you cast her. Six cards in the upgraded deck make Dragons cheaper: Dragonlord's Servant, Nogi and Herald's Horn take {1} each, Hazoret's Monument takes {1} off any red creature, and Dragonspeaker Shaman and Urza's Incubator take {2} each. They only remove generic mana, so she bottoms out at {R}{R}, and the Shaman and the Incubator get her there on their own. Orb of Dragonkind, Haven of the Spirit Dragon and the +1 on Sarkhan, Fireblood all make mana that can only go on Dragons, which in this deck is rarely a restriction.

Naming Dragon costs you the eight non-Dragons, which the Incubator won't discount and the Horn won't reveal. They're cheap already, and Maskwood Nexus hands the discount back.

The Horn's upkeep reveal is where the changelings pay twice. Twenty-two of the 99 cards behind Lathliss are Dragon creature cards once the three changelings are counted, so about one upkeep in five puts a free Dragon in your hand. With the Nexus out every creature card counts, and that's thirty of the 99.

Three of the box's sweepers kill your Dragons first

Blasphemous Act deals 13 damage to every creature, which on your side of the table means Lathliss and every token she made. Chain Reaction deals damage equal to the number of creatures on the battlefield, and Lathliss with two of her tokens against two opposing creatures already makes that five. Chandra's Ignition reads "each other creature", yours included, so aiming it with a 6/6 Lathliss puts 6 into each of your own 5/5s.

Delayed Blast Fireball replaces all three. It deals 2 to each opponent and each creature they control, or 5 if you foretold it, and your side takes nothing. The box's other three board effects stay, because all three leave flying Dragons standing: Breath Weapon spares Dragons, Magmaquake spares fliers, and The Elder Dragon War's first chapter deals 2, which a 5/5 shrugs off.

Mana Geyser and Hit the Mother Lode are big mana in the wrong place. Geyser adds {R} for each tapped land your opponents control, and on your own turn most of theirs have untapped. Mother Lode costs seven, and the Treasures it makes enter tapped. Sarkhan, Fireblood does their job better at three mana, with two mana for Dragon spells every turn from the turn he lands.

Fire Diamond enters tapped to make one red mana. Urza's Incubator costs one more and saves two on every Dragon after it. Temple of the False God makes nothing until your fifth land, in a deck whose commander needs {R}{R}. Castle Embereth goes in for it. It enters untapped beside any of the 32 Mountains, and late in a game it gives the whole team +1/+0 for {1}{R}{R}.

Goddric, Cloaked Reveler is a Dragon only on a turn when two nonland permanents have entered under your control, himself included. He triggers Lathliss only if something else landed before him that turn, and none of the Dragon discounts ever reach him, because on the stack he's a Human Noble. Fire-Belly Changeling is a Dragon every turn, in every zone, for one mana less.

Tyrant's Familiar was one of five cards at seven mana in the box. Glorybringer does the same job, a hasty flier that burns a creature when it attacks, for five. Crucible of Fire spends four mana making Dragons you already have bigger, and Basilisk Collar puts deathtouch and lifelink on one creature at a time. Neither adds a Dragon.

Why Warstorm Surge, the Boots and the Kobolds stay

Warstorm Surge costs six and does nothing alone. With Lathliss out every nontoken Dragon is two creatures entering, so the Surge throws the Dragon's power at something and then 5 more for the token.

Swiftfoot Boots is the one equipment staying. Every card in this guide is worth less once Lathliss dies, and a six-mana commander costs eight the second time.

Minion of the Mighty and Nogi, Draco-Zealot are the deck's two Kobolds. The Minion puts a Dragon from your hand onto the battlefield attacking when your attackers total 6 power. The Minion itself has none, so it wants Lathliss or two of her tokens in the same attack. A Dragon put onto the battlefield still enters, so Lathliss sees it. Nogi takes {1} off every Dragon and becomes a 5/5 flier when he attacks beside three of them.

Breaching Dragonstorm costs five and keeps coming back. It casts the next nonland card off your library for free if that card costs eight or less, and it returns to your hand the next time a Dragon enters, which with Lathliss out happens every time you cast one.

Card draw is the number the swaps barely move

Average mana value falls from 3.69 to 3.44. Creatures rise from 28 to 31, and the creature cards that trigger Lathliss go from nineteen to twenty-two, or to all thirty creatures in the 99 once Maskwood Nexus lands. Lands stay at 38, with 46 red sources before and after.

Draw is the weak spot, and it stays one. The box draws with Thrill of Possibility, Unexpected Windfall, Bitter Reunion, Dragon's Hoard and Commander's Sphere, and digs with Count on Luck, Outpost Siege, Thundermane Dragon and Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest. Professional Face-Breaker and Sarkhan, Fireblood add two more, and the deck still refills mostly by attacking. Bonders' Enclave and War Room are the fallback, and the Enclave turns on the moment Lathliss or one of her 5/5s is on the battlefield.

Mana rocks drop from nine to eight with Fire Diamond gone. That's a real loss on paper and a small one in play, because Sarkhan, Fireblood makes two mana for Dragons every turn and the Incubator and Dragonspeaker Shaman save more than a rock makes.

Two Dragon-deck staples are missing on purpose. Ancient Copper Dragon is $133.11, more than twice what the box's own cards are worth, for a 6/5 that makes a d20's worth of Treasure when it connects. Jeska's Will is $41.42, roughly three quarters of the whole add list in one card, and it's a Game Changer, so one copy lifts this deck's floor from Bracket 1 to Bracket 3 by itself. If you already own the Copper Dragon, play it. Neither is worth buying for this deck before the eleven above.

The box ships with no Game Changers and the eleven adds bring none, which leaves its bracket floor at 1. Sarkhan's Triumph is the only tutor on either list, and it can only find a Dragon.

The eleven adds come to $56.51. The box's own hundred cards come to at least $60.71, with one card carrying no market price, so that's a floor rather than a total. Every number on this page comes from the shipped decklist, at October 2026 market prices for default printings.

The upgraded decklist

All 100 cards with the eleven swaps in, grouped the way the deck builder groups them. Hover any name for its image and price.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena — no account needed.

FAQ

Do Dragon tokens trigger Lathliss, Dragon Queen?

No. She reads "another nontoken Dragon", so her own 5/5s don't chain, and neither do the tokens from Utvara Hellkite, Skyline Despot, Dragonmaster Outcast, Goldlust Triad or The Elder Dragon War. Those tokens still count for every card that says a Dragon you control enters, which in this deck means Scourge of Valkas, Dragon Tempest, Dragon's Hoard, Spit Flame, Breaching Dragonstorm, Dragonstorm Globe and Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant.

Does a changeling count as a Dragon for Lathliss?

Yes. Changeling makes a card every creature type in every zone, so Taurean Mauler, Fire-Belly Changeling and Universal Automaton each trigger her when they enter, as long as they aren't tokens. They also take the discount from Dragonspeaker Shaman, Dragonlord's Servant, Nogi and Urza's Incubator, and Herald's Horn reveals them.

What should I buy first for Reign of Dragons?

Maskwood Nexus, at $3.28. It turns the eight non-Dragon creatures in the deck into Dragons, so they trigger Lathliss and get cheaper, and it makes Breath Weapon one-sided. Fire-Belly Changeling and Universal Automaton come next because together they cost under a dollar, then Urza's Incubator, which is the most expensive card on the list and the biggest discount on it.

Why cut Blasphemous Act from a red Dragon deck?

Because it deals 13 damage to your creatures too, and this deck's whole plan is a board of Dragons. Chain Reaction and Chandra's Ignition go for the same reason. Delayed Blast Fireball takes their place and only hits your opponents and their creatures, for 2 damage or 5 if you foretold it.

How much does it cost to upgrade Reign of Dragons?

$56.51 for all eleven adds at October 2026 market prices for default printings, a little under the $60.71 floor on the box's own cards. Urza's Incubator and Delayed Blast Fireball are $34.10 of that, so the other nine come to $22.41 if you want to start with the cheap half.

Is Reign of Dragons good straight out of the box?

It's a real Dragon deck. Nineteen of its creature cards trigger Lathliss and it has 46 red sources. The problems are the three sweepers that kill its own board, a curve where eleven of those nineteen Dragons cost five or more, and thin card draw, which the swaps help with and don't fully solve.