After some friends started discovering and playing MTG, I decided to dust off the remnants of my old collection (again) and build some decks to start playing again. I'm not fond of the new stuff that's been released since I stopped playing (which was the Onslaught cycle), but hope I might still be a force to be reckoned with, although the power level of the newer cards seems to be way higher than most of the older ones.
Anyway, would love to hear some feedback on my Dragon deck:
Are you willing to buy new cards, or do you just want to see what you can build with stuff from Scourge and before? For now, I'll assume your card availability to be the later.
My own multicolored dragons deck, built sometime around Kamigawa, was heavily Onslaught based, so I can draw some ideas out of that. The sweeper of choice for me was Slice and Dice, and up to a value of X=4, it is better than Starstorm most of the time. I used it frequently to clear away early small swarms or just some mana dorks by cycling it, and when I had developed my mana enough to start pumping out big dragons, I would first clear the board by casting it. Don't know, how well that would still work nowadays, though.
My mana accel came from land search in the form of Sakura-Tribe Elder (awesome card, even now) and Kodama's Reach. I would go up to 6 mana by turn 4 quite fequently. In Onslaught, you have a similar card to the Reach in Explosive Vegetation, which can bring you from 4 to 6 mana in one step. The advantage of massive land search over mana dorks is, that you thin out the deck's lands so that you get to draw more business spells. A few land search effects are usually negligible in that regard, but on a larger scale, this becomes significant. Wood Elves could be a substitute for the Elders, since all you really need is more lands. Such small utility creatures are quite good at stalling untilthe big guys arrive, since they already had their main effects. Chump blocking is just a bonus and no real loss, because they would die to the sweeper prior to the first dragon anyway.
Another small Scourge creature you really want to play is Fierce Empath, tutoring up more dragons, which is, what your Kilnmouth Dragons need. Or get the Kilnmouth to cash in the dragon goodness in your hand.
I would not bother with small spot removal like Incinerate. You are playing dragons, so think big.
With green land search, you can easily add a third color, like black for some copies of Bladewing the Risen. Other graveyard reanimation will also be handy, since your dragons will have huge targets on their heads. You can run the generic Zombify, for exmaple, if you don't have anying better. A few copies of Aphetto Dredging can also get back your dragons and give you fuel for a big Kilnmouth Dragon. I originally had Death Denied in my deck, and it once got me a fricking 21 counters on my lone Kilnmouth due to a hand full of dragons. And I made it even bigger with a dying Jugan, the Rising Star. "t: target player loses the game." on a 31/31 flying beatstick. Fun times.
In my experience, cost reducers like Dragonspeaker Shaman don't work so well, since without them you don't get to your dragons very fast. Reliable mana from searched up lands is better.
Rorix was the first single I ever bought! You're right in thinking that many newer creatures are much more powerful than older ones. Not really too terrible of a thing though. Thunderbreak Regent could be something you'll want to pick up. Sarkhan the Unbroken could be an interesting inclusion. With all the ramp, a copy or two of Dragonspeaker Shaman could be awesome, along with Dragon Tempest. Just some thoughts to help you out.
Thanks for the input guys, these new Dragons look indeed tasty!
And I like the way you are approaching such a deck, Rezzahan, that was a lot of helpful input! Going for land search in place of cost reducers sounds like a great idea, since I could cut some "useless" stuff from it like the Dragonspeaker Shaman and maybe even the Krosan Tusker - what about Yavimaya Elder as an additional land digger? And adding black would open the possibility of adding Darigaaz, one of my first and all time favourite self bought MTG cards. <3
I'm a bit tired right now and out of ideas... still feel though that the 4x Bladewing/Shivan/Kilnmouth could be somehow reduced and/or partially replaced with other stuff?
Also, what about Fires of Yavimaya - although I already of Bladewing to go charging...? Or Dragon Whelp for some more early game creatures still having synergy with Kilnmouth? Pyroclasm as an alternative to Slice'n'Dice? Although I like the cycling...
How about this, only has some minor changes. Maybe cut the two Temples for Yavimaya Elder? Although <24 lands might be a bit too few for three colours and the amount of high cost cards?
I still feel this might lack some carddraw though... Phyrexian Arena maybe? Utopia Tree instead of Birds of Paradise was an idea to keep it safe from Slice/Dice cycling, though it's somewhat slower.
EDIT 2:
Tested out the latest deck and it's WAY too horribly slow. Will stay with the colours, but deviate from the Dragon theme and go the Fires route. Got something like this in mind:
After some friends started discovering and playing MTG, I decided to dust off the remnants of my old collection (again) and build some decks to start playing again. I'm not fond of the new stuff that's been released since I stopped playing (which was the Onslaught cycle), but hope I might still be a force to be reckoned with, although the power level of the newer cards seems to be way higher than most of the older ones.
Anyway, would love to hear some feedback on my Dragon deck:
4x Rorix Bladewing
4x Shivan Dragon
4x Kilnmouth Dragon
4x Dragonspeaker Shaman
4x Ravenous Baloth
4x Krosan Tusker
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Incinerate
Sorceries:
3x Starstorm
1x Decree of Annihilation
Land:
2x Temple of the False God
2x Contested Cliffs
2x Karplusan Forest
8x Forest
10x Mountain
While I feel that the mana acceleration is fine so far, card draw could be far better - any ideas?
Or would it be an overall better idea to completely redo the deck, and go with B/R Dragons instead?
My own multicolored dragons deck, built sometime around Kamigawa, was heavily Onslaught based, so I can draw some ideas out of that. The sweeper of choice for me was Slice and Dice, and up to a value of X=4, it is better than Starstorm most of the time. I used it frequently to clear away early small swarms or just some mana dorks by cycling it, and when I had developed my mana enough to start pumping out big dragons, I would first clear the board by casting it. Don't know, how well that would still work nowadays, though.
My mana accel came from land search in the form of Sakura-Tribe Elder (awesome card, even now) and Kodama's Reach. I would go up to 6 mana by turn 4 quite fequently. In Onslaught, you have a similar card to the Reach in Explosive Vegetation, which can bring you from 4 to 6 mana in one step. The advantage of massive land search over mana dorks is, that you thin out the deck's lands so that you get to draw more business spells. A few land search effects are usually negligible in that regard, but on a larger scale, this becomes significant. Wood Elves could be a substitute for the Elders, since all you really need is more lands. Such small utility creatures are quite good at stalling untilthe big guys arrive, since they already had their main effects. Chump blocking is just a bonus and no real loss, because they would die to the sweeper prior to the first dragon anyway.
Another small Scourge creature you really want to play is Fierce Empath, tutoring up more dragons, which is, what your Kilnmouth Dragons need. Or get the Kilnmouth to cash in the dragon goodness in your hand.
I would not bother with small spot removal like Incinerate. You are playing dragons, so think big.
With green land search, you can easily add a third color, like black for some copies of Bladewing the Risen. Other graveyard reanimation will also be handy, since your dragons will have huge targets on their heads. You can run the generic Zombify, for exmaple, if you don't have anying better. A few copies of Aphetto Dredging can also get back your dragons and give you fuel for a big Kilnmouth Dragon. I originally had Death Denied in my deck, and it once got me a fricking 21 counters on my lone Kilnmouth due to a hand full of dragons. And I made it even bigger with a dying Jugan, the Rising Star. "t: target player loses the game." on a 31/31 flying beatstick. Fun times.
In my experience, cost reducers like Dragonspeaker Shaman don't work so well, since without them you don't get to your dragons very fast. Reliable mana from searched up lands is better.
Former Rules Advisor
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(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
And I like the way you are approaching such a deck, Rezzahan, that was a lot of helpful input! Going for land search in place of cost reducers sounds like a great idea, since I could cut some "useless" stuff from it like the Dragonspeaker Shaman and maybe even the Krosan Tusker - what about Yavimaya Elder as an additional land digger? And adding black would open the possibility of adding Darigaaz, one of my first and all time favourite self bought MTG cards. <3
1x Darigaaz, the Igniter
1x Bladewing the Risen
4x Rorix Bladewing
4x Shivan Dragon
4x Kilnmouth Dragon
4x Ravenous Baloth
2x Fierce Empath
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Terminate
2x Darigaaz's Charm
Sorceries:
3x Slice and Dice
1x Pernicious Deed
4x Harrow
Land:
2x Temple of the False God
2x Karplusan Forest
2x Llanowar Wastes
1x Darigaaz's Caldera
7x Forest
6x Mountain
4x Swamp
I'm a bit tired right now and out of ideas... still feel though that the 4x Bladewing/Shivan/Kilnmouth could be somehow reduced and/or partially replaced with other stuff?
Also, what about Fires of Yavimaya - although I already of Bladewing to go charging...? Or Dragon Whelp for some more early game creatures still having synergy with Kilnmouth? Pyroclasm as an alternative to Slice'n'Dice? Although I like the cycling...
EDIT:
Still awake enough! :-D
2x Darigaaz, the Igniter
1x Bladewing the Risen
2x Rorix Bladewing
4x Shivan Dragon
3x Kilnmouth Dragon
4x Ravenous Baloth
4x Utopia Tree
4x Terminate
2x Darigaaz's Charm
Sorceries:
4x Slice and Dice
4x Harrow
Enchantments:
2x Phyrexian Arena
Land:
3x Karplusan Forest
3x Llanowar Wastes
1x Grand Coliseum
7x Forest
6x Mountain
4x Swamp
How about this, only has some minor changes. Maybe cut the two Temples for Yavimaya Elder? Although <24 lands might be a bit too few for three colours and the amount of high cost cards?
I still feel this might lack some carddraw though... Phyrexian Arena maybe? Utopia Tree instead of Birds of Paradise was an idea to keep it safe from Slice/Dice cycling, though it's somewhat slower.
EDIT 2:
Tested out the latest deck and it's WAY too horribly slow. Will stay with the colours, but deviate from the Dragon theme and go the Fires route. Got something like this in mind:
1x Darigaaz, the Igniter
2x Spiritmonger
4x Flametongue Kavu
3x Blastoderm
3x Phyrexian Rager
3x Horned Kavu
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Utopia Tree
4x Terminate
2x Darigaaz's Charm
Enchantments:
3x Saproling Burst
3x Fires of Yavimaya
Land:
3x Karplusan Forest
3x Llanowar Wastes
1x Grand Coliseum
7x Forest
6x Mountain
4x Swamp