Dragons – the iconic fantasy creature of fire and destruction. Many people encounter dragons in generic fantasy, and when they're introduced to magic, they think about making a dragon deck. And then they plow right into that, since that's what Red does. We’ll rage on about all sorts of dragons and how to fry your enemies to ash. There's no time for thinking or worrying about others, THE FIRESTORM IS HERE!
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Dragons are big fat creatures, so the usual strategy is simple - play them as fast as you can and beat face until you win. There are a few combo decks that use CIP effects to get the kill, and I see the control aspect of this type of deck as burning everything that looks at you funny. Since every dragon costs at least 4, you need to either:
- ramp your mana to cast them earlier than normal
- cheat them into play with effects like Defense of the Heart and Elvish Piper
- or use rituals to temporarily gain the mana to cast them.
Ramping your mana is the safest way to reliably get your dragons out faster, as not many people will counter Rampant Growth, and you'll have that mana left over later if something does get countered or killed. Cheating them into play is an alright strategy, as your opponent won't know when your going to plop down some monstrosity, but this is fairly easily neutralized with a Pyroclasm, Naturalize, or Terminate, etc. Combos are perhaps the strongest, but most fragile way to build a dragon deck. The neutralizers above apply, as well as Counterspell, Safe Passage and other fog effects, and a few others.
The Dragons:
Legendary Dragons:
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon - New guy. He's a little smaller than the usual dragon, but lacking enemy first / double strike, he withers (-1/-1 counters) enemy creatures, can be given haste for a measly B, and regens for BB. A darned solid choice. Now some people say that you should focus on infect and not just toss them in random decks, but I think Skittles is good enough to ignore that.
Nicol Bolas – the strongest elder dragon, probably. His upkeep isn’t as bad as the other upkeeps seen here, because his effect of keeping your opponent’s hand (mostly) empty as he kills them makes it that much more likely that you’ll win, even though you’re down a few mana.
Treva, the Renewer – life gain isn’t the most solid strategy, but Treva works with ya. All the Invasion dragons suffer a little when you face multicolor, and suffer a bit more due to being multicolor themselves, but are still decent dragons.
Dromar, the Banisher – mass bounce is usually good, but he can only name 2 colors w/o bouncing himself. Alright, nothing to write home about.
Crosis, the Purger – If your opponent is drawing like crazy, hitting them once or twice should stop those shenanigans. Also would work with mass bounce. Late(r) game, not a whole lot of decks will have cards in hand, though. More for EDH perhaps, same with the other Invasion Dragons.
Darigaaz, the Igniter – more or less the same idea as Crosis. Hurt people with lotsa cards in hand, doesn’t do much besides bash otherwise.
Rith, the Awakener – I think he (she?) is the strongest Invasion dragon. Spawning a crapload of tokens is nothing to sneeze at, obviously a bit better late game, against monocolor.
Oros, the Avenger – The Planar Chaos dragons are some of my favorites, personally. But you do have to build around them, to a certain extent, partially because wedge colors are harder to pull off then alara-style tri-color. And they’re all mana efficient dragons too. Oros is good at keeping the board clear of creatures, consider running mostly white creatures, a way to protect them, or some additional sweepers. Powerful, flavorful choices for EDH as well.
Intet, the Dreamer – provides good card advantage, especially with more expensive cards, and with off-color costs. Just beware of opponents killing her and having cards exiled, possibly for good.
Teneb, the Harvester – great as a reanimation finisher, can steal your opponent’s corpses as well. As long as it wasn't exiled, Teneb can turn it around to beat your opponent around the bend.
Numot, the Devastator – Land Destruction on fiery, fleshrending steroids. Beware playing him if your playgroup hates LD, though.
Vorosh, the Hunter – growth is always fun, but it's really a win-more ability, and he isn’t the grandest dragon around.
Yosei, the Morning Star – the Kamigawa dragons are all good at punishing your opponent for dealing with them – just beware discard / exile / shuffle back effects, though. Yosei keeps some of your opponent’s stuff tapped down for a turn, letting you set up for a lethal alpha strike or infinite combo. Good control element on an efficient body, and that applies to all of them.
Keiga, the Tide Star – good in U control, good against creature heavy decks. Otherwise, just a pretty U dragon, of which there aren’t many good ones, much less U dragons in general.
Kokusho, the Evening Star – can be subbed in for Bogardan Hellkite, and scales fantastically to multiplayer, but be warned that people will hate the deck. And in general, he’s a dragon all-star, and just ridiculously good. A ten point life swing in your favor because he got terminated is quite a decent trade-off. Seriously, he’s ridiculous. There’s a reason he’s ~ $11 a copy.
Ryusei, the Falling Star – if you can pop him at will, he’s a little better at sweeping the ground. Otherwise, he’s not stellar as an at-random sweeper.
Jugan, the Rising Star – He’s good in the sense that, in most cases, it’s 5 more power and toughness on your board that won’t immediately go away. GGG hurts his splash-ability, though.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund – the closest thing that dragons will probably ever get for a lord. He gives your dragons hasty beatdown power, can steal your opponent’s creatures as well, both of which have always been good, and finally, could set you up for a lethal alpha strike. Shields of Velis Vel, Blades of Velis Vel, and Wings of Velis Vel all deserve mention at this point, even though two of them require splashing outside of Jund.
Malfegor – works best with reanimation as a strategy, and provides mana efficient beating and control. He’s a bit more suited to Grixis, though. Working him into a deck also requires graveyard recursion.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind – he’s the product of a focused block, so it’s harder / not as effective to just throw him in anywhere. He’s bonkers broken (or at least really close), and his 2 sidekicks are Curiosity and Ophidian Eye.
Rorix Bladewing – 6 Hasty power for 6 mana is a darn good deal, although his legendary status lessens that somewhat. Solid choice all the same.
Scion of the Ur-Dragon – probably the biggest “build-around-me” dragon on the list. He’s mana efficient with a cheap enough activated ability that sets up varied beatdown abilities and reanimation for the dragons in the grave. Add in a WUBRG cost so you can run any color dragon, and you get a really cool, powerful dragon.
Tarox Bladewing – another decent hasty dragon, one of the best options actually. If you’re planning a haste build, run him and run 4. Multiples aren’t bad because of his Grandeur ability, and if you can get the graveyard copies back to your hand, he can be a fairly scary beater for cheap.
Bladewing the Risen – useful for reanimation and pump, has an infinite combo possibility. The 7 mana 4/4 hurts a bit though.
Mono-color:
Alabaster Dragon – 6 mana, 4/4 Flying that doesn’t stay dead unless exiled / discarded. Not horrible, but not an all-star.
Eternal Dragon – Plainscycling is nice, and he has that phoenix-style revival as well. Has been used as a finisher in white as well, pretty solid dragon.
Phantasmal Dragon - Designed more as an illusion than a dragon, he still beats face quite efficiently as a 4 5/5 flyer.
Mist Dragon – gets points for being a half-decent U dragon, and for being able to dodge ground / flying based sweeping. He can also phase out to save himself from removal, lethal blocking, etc. but he’s nothing too special, just a 4/4 flyer otherwise.
Quicksilver Dragon – Another decent U dragon that has pseudo shroud as long as you have enough U mana and there’s enough creatures to target instead.
Day of the Dragons - While not a dragon per say, it can spawn a lot of dragons. Quickly turn mana dorks into dragons, or your metric ton of tokens into actual threats, instead of Pyroclasm fodder. UUU means that you're not gonna run it in more than 2 colors, though.
Catacomb Dragon – takes at least a 9/X creature to block-kill him, barring any abilities. Quite decent.
Ebon Dragon – a decent surprise for mono-B to pull out back in the day, but he’s not terribly mana-efficient and the discard isn’t random – plus your opponent may not have anything to discard, anyway.
Balefire Dragon - My favorite dragon they've released in a while. The flavor text sums it up; if they don't have an answer, they're dead. 'Cause getting wrathed and beaten in the face at the same time with one card is cruel.
Furyborn Hellkite - Cool dragon, but all he is, is big. You could drop him T5 with Geosurge and a Bolt I guess, but that's a fair bit of jumping through hoops just to have a huge flying beater.
Moltensteel Dragon - Flexibility. He can come down T4, T5, or T6, and can almost always get a power boost at instant speed. Plus with some of the other dragons that deal with artifacts, you should be able to build an artifact dragon deck nowadays.
Hellkite Igniter - 7 mana for a 5/5 hasty dragon isn't horrible in itself, but he's best used with artifact ramp. Gauntlet of Power, Iron Myr, and so on. If he goes unblocked, you can spring his 1R ability and possibly double his damage as a surprise.
Hoard-Smelter Dragon - Unless your buddies / tournaments / etc are packing serious artifact decks, he's sideboard material. He's perfectly efficient, don't get me wrong, but he's more of a utility kinda dragon.
Bogardan Hellkite – another dragon that’s more of a combo-er. Even w/o a combo, flashing him in opponents EOT and taking out a couple creatures or 25% of their life is fantastic. Downside is his 8 mana cost, but that’s what the ramp / acceleration / cheapening is for.
Brimstone Dragon – 8 mana 6/6 Hasty Flyer. Not too bad, but the fact that its Portal-block ups the price some.
Covetous Dragon – 5 mana for a 5/5 flyer would be good, but he’s 6/5, so even better. decent if you use a lot of artifact acceleration, etc. although Furnace Dragon outclasses him some.
Crimson Hellkite – has the classic feel going for him, but he’s outclassed in some ways by Flameblast Dragon now. More defensive than FD below.
Flameblast Dragon – comes down much faster than CH above, and you can use his ability multiple times a turn if you have a way to get more combat phases. More Offensive than CH above.
Dragon Mage – good to reset your hand if you’re running low / carrying junk, and resets your opponent as well.
Dragon Tyrant – ridiculous mana for a fairly ridiculous dragon. The upkeep hurts quite a bit, and pretty much forces you into mono-R. But the double strike and trample should close out games.
Dragon Whelp – if you want more of a “natural” curve, this little guy’s probably better than Furnace Whelp. The 3 time activation limit hurts a little bit, though.
Fledgling Dragon – while a potential Shivan Dragon for a guaranteed 2 less is nice, it’s only Shivan Dragon at best, and suckier than Furnace / Dragon Whelp at worst.
Furnace Dragon – Better than Covetous Dragon, because he could be only 3 mana, and he affects your opponent’s artifacts as well. Turn all cards into artifacts, and then play this guy = doom.
Furnace Whelp – IMO, Dragon Whelp is a little bit better, but this guy can be pumped until the cows come home. But DW needs a lightning bolt or more to be killed, while FW only needs a shock.
Hellkite Charger – new dragon, a solid choice as a 6 mana 5/5 hasty flyer. If you can use his ability, even better. And it had better end the game.
Hunted Dragon – undercosted haste is always nice, but the tokens he gives your opponent could be a problem. People tend to build the deck around the hunted creatures, instead of just throwing them in anywhere.
Imperial Hellkite – as a creature, he’s nothing to write home about. As a tutor, he’s pointless and really, tremendously overcosted. Just run a good black tutor.
Kilnmouth Dragon – Quite a decent package here. He should be the first dragon you cast so you can ideally amplify him at least a couple of triplets, and he can either burn blockers out of the way for bigger dragons, or point it at the opponent’s face. Solid choice, although a touch more on the expensive side.
Knollspine Dragon – same general idea as Dragon Mage, but you need to hurt your opponent beforehand. He hits harder, but he only replenishes you, and needs prior set-up, so I don’t think he’s as good.
Lightning Dragon – This little guy gets points for being cheap, flavorful, and effective, but the echo is what makes him fairly unplayable.
Pardic Dragon – I think this one’s fairly bad. Even powering his suspend out first turn probably means you’re looking at a turn 3 or 4 mini-shivan dragon, which isn’t the most jaw-dropping play, and you may as well forget it if you’re opponent can speed out cards like crazy.
Predator Dragon – one of the best finishers for a token deck, or a deck that doesn’t need its early creatures after a while (dragonspeaker shamans even). RRR hurts the splash-ability.
Rakdos Pit Dragon – one of the best cheap dragons. Red can certainly drop its hand fairly quickly, and so you have a cheap, pumpable, evasion-gaining dragon that eats face with the best. Consider Braid of Fire for the deck, as well as Rite of Flame.
Rathi Dragon – undercosted beater, used in Stompy decks to the best of my knowledge.
Rimescale Dragon – good as a control element in a dragon deck. Obviously, you need snow mana, but he’s unique and provides decent control to a color that doesn’t do control as well as other colors.
Scourge of Kher Ridges – red’s creature control at its finest, methinks. He can blast things off the ground and toast anything else in the air with his spammable Pyroclasm and Tumble abilities. Due to that second ability, though, you should either use another card to take care of flyers, run Scourge as your only flyer (ie not in a dragon deck), or make your creatures safe.
Shivan Dragon – he was the classic dragon for a looong time, but he’s been outclassed by the other 6 drop dragons. Decent enough budget option, though.
Shivan Hellkite – A bit better than his dragon-named buddy. Spammable pinging is decent, although you should consider running mana doubling effects (heartbeat of spring, gauntlet of power, etc) to make him more usable.
Thunder Dragon – I like this guy. He’s efficient enough, but what I like is the impact of the body and ability he has. Considering he’s only been printed in Portal and a FTV set, he’s going to be a little pricey no matter how you slice it.
Two-Headed Dragon – decent enough, I suppose. I would use cards like Familiar Ground to make him unblockable. His pump is a little mana-intensive, and I feel that the fact that he has to be blocked by 2+ creatures just means he’s going to die faster, unless you give him first / double strike.
Volcanic Dragon – hasty dragons are always scary, but his day came and went a long time ago. He’s outclassed by most all other 6 drops in this day and age. But with his M12 reprint, he's accessible once again and very cheap to pick up.
Worldgorger Dragon – Undercosted and strong, but risky. The ways I can see using him would be to steal a lot of your opponent’s things and then play him, or to play and then kill him to abuse CIP (ETB) effects.
Zodiac Dragon – expensive, both in mana and money, but he’s a huge, recursive beater that needs to be exiled or discarded to have been (temporarily) dealt with. He doesn’t have any evasion, but that’s easy to cover, and he’s flavorful.
Dragon Roost - While a 5/5 flyer for 7 mana ain't the greatest, the strength of this card is the spammability. Could be fairly screwy with Braid of Fire.
Canopy Dragon – You can switch between trampling tokens or flying past deathtouchers, but still rather mediocre.
Multicolor:
Broodmate Dragon – 6 mana for 8/8 flying power on 2 bodies. Gives control fits, bit of a downside in his triple colors though.
Dragon Broodmother – Crazy in multiplayer. You can have several dinky dragons, a couple of decent ones, or a big baby. Consider Crucible of Fire for the deck as well.
Firestorm Hellkite – efficient dragon for the mana, but the cumulative upkeep really hurts. Best in an upkeep-skip deck, or when you know you can finish them off in 1 or 2 attacks.
Hellkite Hatchling – suited for token decks, or decks where the starting creatures quickly get pointless, as a decent midcost threat. Plus he’s so cute...
Hellkite Overlord – I think this thing is a beast. If you can get him out fast enough, your opponent will need removal on hand or they will lose. He swings the turn he’s played, he tramples through blockers, can regenerate (not always a guarantee, though), and can funnel excess mana into near-certain death. His triple color cost is a touch painful, however.
Spellbound Dragon – another dragon that was printed for the block, not necessarily the overall game. Useful for unearth, general reanimation, and / or other hand / graveyard shenanigans. Efficient enough mana cost and body.
Vampiric Dragon – like the Shivan Hellkite, spammable ping is nice, but his vampiric growth ability is what makes him cool, and a decent enough pick. His cost and his ability say “Don’t pay full price, find a sale!” (heartbeat, gauntlet, dragonspeaker, etc).
Artificial Dragons:
Steel Hellkite - Ah, that's what the artificial ones needed. Give him trample, unblockability, whatever, and you get a Ratchet Bomb effect! Given that he's an artifact and his "fire"breathing is colorless, you can easily get him into play and pump him til the spawns come home.
Clockwork Dragon – 7 mana 6/6 that can grow is quite good. The fact he’s an artifact gives him a fair number more decks. Should probably be built around, at least to a certain extent.
Draco – In a WUBRG deck, 6 mana for a 9/9 flyer is great, and he won’t have an upkeep. You could possibly run him in 3 color decks, but he shines in 5 color.
Teeka’s Dragon – this thing is slightly ridiculous. Since it’s an artifact, the cost can be dropped a lot by various means, and when it hits play, it means business. Trample + Rampage 4 = unblocked dragon, or massive game-ending dragon, both of which I hear are quite good. The artifact-ness also plays against it though, since a good number of cards screw with / destroy artifacts.
Tek – another domain dragon kinda like Draco. If you control WUBRG, he’s a 4/4 Flying Trample First Strike for 5, which ain’t too shabby. Nowhere near as powerful if not in a domain / 5 color build.
The Ramp / Acceleration / Cost Reduction / CIP Cheating:
Rampant Growth – obvious option if you’re running green, thins the deck.
Sakura-Tribe Elder – RG on a body, helps gum up the ground early on, can serve as a blocker + RG any time, really.
Into the North – the snow version of RG, obviously use if you’re going with a snow subtheme. Also thins the deck.
Search for Tommorow – You probably aren’t doing much on the first turn anyway. This one is great because the land you eventually get can be used right away, and it thins the deck.
Harrow – I dare say one of the stronger ramp spells printed, helps accelerate, fix, and also thins the deck. Helps with threshold as well, if that’s a part of the deck. Instant speed activation puts it over the top.
Kodama’s Reach – In some ways, a lesser Harrow, and in others, a superior Harrow. You don’t always get to play both lands, and even if you do, one is tapped. But Harrow involves sacrificing a land, and depending on your metagame, that could be a very bad thing.
Explosive Vegetation – a doubled RG, not an auto-include due to the mana cost. Harrow is usually a better option, due to speed and the lands CIP untapped.
Braid of Fire - Now with M10's rules, there is no mana burn, so this gem slowly gives you exponential mana. Say it with me - Lots...of...mana. Upwelling would let you use that mana to actually cast something, but otherwise you can only use it on firebreath abilities or things like that.
Rite of Flame – Having multiples in the opening hand and first couple of draws helped make the Time Spiral block Dragonstorm deck viable. Run 4 or none, and for more of a combo / cheat-into-play deck. The same goes for the other ritual. Beware of the fact that these can lead to card disadvantage, though.
Seething Song – A bit more reliable that RoF. Also used in Dragonstorm, and on occasion in R based dragon decks as acceleration. A 2nd turn Rite of Flame into a Seething Song into a Tarox Bladewing summon and discard should be a fairly scary thing if your opponent doesn’t have (the mana for) an answer.
Dragonstorm – this should be used for more of a combo, otherwise the game’s probably been going too long. Ramping up to it with rituals and grabbing 4 Kokusho, the Evening Star or Bogardan Hellkite is usually good game unless your opponent can pull off something crazy.
Lotus Bloom – Like the Rituals, run 4 or none. You want to be able to play one or two of them your first turn so that, if you hit your land drops every turn, you’ll have 7 mana turn 4, and a fair bit of flexibility in colors as well.
Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Worn Powerstone, Thran Dynamo, Mox Ruby and kin, Ruby Medallion and kin – all decent choices for (colorless in most cases) acceleration, the main variables being the mana cost, which can affect how much mana it produces, which affects the real world cost. Since some of them are quite powerful / expensive, ask your playgroup beforehand if they’re ok with 4 of ____.
Belbe’s Portal, Cryptic Gateway, and Dragon Arch – all are ways to cheat your dragons into play on the cheap. The portal is the most mana expensive one to use, while the gateway is probably the slowest at first, but then could get rather explosive. The gateway would work best with as few hasty dragons as possible so that you can immediately tap them to bring more of their friends into play. And finally, the arch is best for heavily multicolored dragon decks. All of these also have the advantage of pseudo-flashing in your dragons at your opponent’s EOT. Elvish Piper also does the same thing, but she’s a 1/1 that people target ASAP.
Dragonspeaker Shaman and Urza’s Incubator – both cost the same mana, and do the same thing – they lessen the cost of your dragons by 2 mana per copy. If you’re strapped for cash, go with the shamans. The incubators are something like double the price per copy, but they have the plusses of not being creatures, and being usable in other fatty tribe decks should you dismantle your dragon deck.
Helpers / Support:
Lightning Bolt – Pretty much the best burn spell ever printed, great for clearing individual creatures off the field.
Lightning Helix – Very similar to LB, but is potentially twice as good. Off-ing a creature and gaining some life is good, or causing a 6-point life swing by aiming it at the face is also the sh…stuff.
Pyroclasm – good against fast / weenie / aggro decks, good in multiplayer. Volcanic Fallout deserves mention if you have a problem with countermagic.
Terminate - one of the best flat-out kill spells printed. If you can target it, it's dead.
Firespout – a bigger ‘clasm, and you have the option of sweeping ground, air, or both.
Jund Charm and kin – obviously depends on what shard colors you’re building with. Jund I believe is the strongest here – stops any reanimation sillyness (one of the things that’ll be faster), has an instant speed Pyroclasm, which is quite good, and if nothing else, give a creature a permanent little boost in combat. Grixis and Bant get honorable mentions.
Sulfurous Blast – Another instant speed Pyroclasm if you need it, and if you don’t, it’s a RG-paid Firespout that hits players as well.
Lightning Greaves – Quite useful if most of your dragons don’t have haste, and / or if they have tap abilities. The shroud also makes sure that they can’t be taken out w/o using global cards.
Crucible of Fire - Some people love it, some people hate it. Most people will argue that your dudes are big enough, but it works well with the cheap dragons and Broodmother.
Steely Resolve - Cheaper than greaves, and gives all your guys shroud so you don't have to worry about targeted removal.
Sarkhan Vol - A flavorful choice for a deck, and fairly useful. Use a bunch of things without haste so his first ability speeds up your deck, and / or use the +1/+1 boost for your cheap hastys. His second ability steals a creature so you can beat them with it, sac it, etc. And his final ability is rather brutal if you're running, say, Doubling Season. Who doesn't love having 40 evasive power and toughness ~ turn 6?
Sarkhan the Mad - Once again, more fun with Doubling Season. Planeswalkers in general come into play with double the counters (but gains/losses stay the same), and Mad Sark should be fun with 14 counters :evillol:. I would avoid his first ability because dragons all cost a good bit, which would cost you life you might have, or be able to afford. But you can turn Dragonspeaker Shamans or what have you into threats later on, and his ultimate says "Bye bye player X".
Lands:
Savage Lands and kin, Vivid Marsh and kin – They’re decent lands, and easy on the wallet. CIPT (ETBT) hurts a touch, but their sheer fixing should more or less make up for that.
Ancient Tomb – This is basically Sol Ring in land form. I would suggest only running 3, as a fair few dragons have fairly color-heavy requirements, but other than, you should be faster in the damage race, so the drawback can usually be ignored.
Spinerock Knoll – If your deck can pull off the 7 damage in one turn cost, you could possibly cast a Dragonstorm or any dragon for free, which should shorten the game clock quite a bit. CIPT (ETBT) hurts the use of this land though. More for combos, and it’s not a terribly reliable way to go about things, either.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle – Best in Mono-R decks, or with lands that count as mountains and X, this new gem turns your mountain #6 and onward into Lightning Bolts. Due to CIPT (ETBT) and needing 5 other lands, don’t run more than 2 in a deck.
Forgotten Cave, Smoldering Crater, and their kin – Thought I’d mention the cycle lands briefly. The ones that cycle for mana of a certain color I think are better in general, but the colorless cyclers are more forgiving in multicolor builds, if you go this route.
Scalding Tarn, Polluted Delta, Sacred Foundry, Twilight Mire, Shivan Reef, and their kin – If your deck is multicolor, and you have these, use them. They power out the colors you need (fetches at your opponent’s EOT), and for usually negligible costs. And just for reference, Onslaught has the allied color fetches, Zendikar has the enemy colored ones. Tenth Edition has the painlands, and the Ravnica: City of Guilds block has the shocklands. Shadowmoor and Eventide have the filter lands.
The signets and bouncelands serve as your acceleration, and Ghostly Prison + Mana Leak are your early-game protectors. Ancestral Vision draws you cards on the cheap, and Breath serves as reanimation and controlled Kamigawan effects.
Wrath of God and Gifts Ungiven are alternatives to Ghostly Prison and Ancestral Vision, respectively.
The shamans again serve as your "acceleration", while Swords and Bolt control the field. Landing a Numot early enough, with some removal in hand, should be good game, as your opponent will be feeling the mana screw while their creatures are headed for oblivion.
Once again, AV could be GU, and Lightning Bolt can become Lightning Helix if other decks prove to be too fast.
Sac-cing Yosei or Kokusho to greater good provides great CA, and Teneb can quickly lock opponents out or quickly kill a table full of players by reanimating either Kamigawa dragon every turn when he hits. Pernicous Deed serves as the board wipe, and the rest should be fairly obvious. If this deck was played in 1v1 I would suggest Phyrexian Arena in the place of Syphon Mind.
All the cycling triggers Astral Slide, which either protects your creatures, or messes with your opponent (either by getting rid of blockers for your alpha strike, or by ending their combat phase, basically). This version uses a fair number of cycling lands and Life from the Loam to constantly cycle and exile creatures, and accelerate your plains count.
Ramp your mana and hold things off until you hit 6 mana. Greater Good is your late-game CA engine. Sac-cing either Dragon star to it is brutal, and then reanimating then for the effect again, and possibly a hasty attack is just cruel. And then you may as well sac the dragon for some life to completely infuriate your opponent. Some versions will also run U for Gifts Ungiven's tutoring.
When Time Spiral came out, this was a fairly feared tournament-level deck. The rituals and lotusi would ideally be used after a gigadrowse to ramp up mana and storm for dragonstorm, powering out Bogardan Hellkite and / or hasty dragons (if a Hellkite was drawn) FTW. I remember more color fixing lands being played...
Hunted Dragon can probably be switched out for another hasty dragon of your choosing.
The elders serve as block and ramp, the shamans enable multiple dragon drops, and Skred serves as removal. Rage Reflection's spot could easily be more acceleration like Search for Tommorow, or more dragons.
Ramp up to a Scion, and go nuts with his ability, which grants him the abilities of every other dragon in the deck. This is suited slightly more for multiplayer (more sweeper spells and reanimation).
Same idea, and the "original" list if you will. This build is suited slightly more for 1 on 1 matches.
I will be glad to edit in lists, cards, etc as new sets come out and new ideas are revealed.
If others could supply some ideas for the following decks, I'd really appreciate it.
- decks based on the Planar Chaos Dragons (wedge-colored obviously)
- other shard-color decks
- snow-less Jund
- RB reanimation with Bladewing and Malfegor
- other mono-:symr: lists
- any other color combos you come up with.
- upkeep skip to use echo / ***. upkeep dragons
and if you see any grammar, bad explanations, etc, just point them out and I'll fix 'em.
Until then, may your inner fire always burn and light your path of life.
(Many thanks to Spiderboy4 at High~Light Studios for the thread banner - link)
Cool primer man. Much better than my Mill Primer. I'm sorta jealous, lol. Anyway, I have no suggestions as it seems to me you have everything down there that's worth putting in. Good job.
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Decks
UUU - Go Go Gadget Ninjitsu! (casual) GGG - Beatdown Elves (casual) (G/R)(G/R)(G/R) - Progenitus/Elfball (legacy) BBB - Crucible Pox (legacy) (B/G)(B/G)(B/G) - Eva Green (legacy)
Thanks. How well do you know mill, btw? My friend has a dragon deck of his own, and I've been drafting up my own for a while.
I think it really helps when you know the primer material almost backwards, forwards, and from inside someone's mother (no offense to anyone, trying to be funny).
Thanks. How well do you know mill, btw? My friend has a dragon deck of his own, and I've been drafting up my own for a while.
I think it really helps when you know the primer material almost backwards, forwards, and from inside someone's mother (no offense to anyone, trying to be funny).
I know a decent amount, just apparently not enough to make a decent primer, lol. I know elves the most. It was first type of deck and is still my best and favorite deck.
But in all honesty, I mainly created the primer so that EVERYONE could participate in writing it. I know I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to knowing of card names off the top of my head, but when I make a deck I can think of unique ways to use cards and find the best synergy. Check out my Modular Mill thread and you'll see what I mean.
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Decks
UUU - Go Go Gadget Ninjitsu! (casual) GGG - Beatdown Elves (casual) (G/R)(G/R)(G/R) - Progenitus/Elfball (legacy) BBB - Crucible Pox (legacy) (B/G)(B/G)(B/G) - Eva Green (legacy)
Maybe I missed it, but if it's not on here, Braid of Fire should be included. This card provides an exponential source of red mana and has no real drawback. Now that Mana Burn has been eliminated, this card gives you a slowish way to ramp up to ridiculous mana. This works well with dragon decks that are trying to ramp into mana rather than cheat them into play and win on the 3rd turn.
Edit 1: next to your description of Niv-Mizzet where you talk about him being broken but needing his own deck, you could include that he combos with Curiosity and Ophidian Eye. You don't really need to build the deck around him too much for that combo.
Maybe I missed it, but if it's not on here, Braid of Fire should be included. This card provides an exponential source of red mana and has no real drawback. Now that Mana Burn has been eliminated, this card gives you a slowish way to ramp up to ridiculous mana. This works well with dragon decks that are trying to ramp into mana rather than cheat them into play and win on the 3rd turn.
Edit 1: next to your description of Niv-Mizzet where you talk about him being broken but needing his own deck, you could include that he combos with Curiosity and Ophidian Eye. You don't really need to build the deck around him too much for that combo.
The drawback to braid of fire is that it can only be used for instants ;/
The drawback to braid of fire is that it can only be used for instants ;/
Don't forget about activated abilities. Remember, when you pump a dragon it almost always lasts till eot. Say for instance, a Braid of Fire with say 5 age counters on it is in play along with a Rakdos Pit Dragon. Guess what? You get to activate his abilities during your upkeep!
Edit: Also forgot to mention, if you feel like being awesome-silly, you can dump a blue mana into your pool during your upkeep, hit a Quicken, and Dragonstorm at least 2 dragons into play off Braid of Fire mana, and draw a card!
The drawback to braid of fire is that it can only be used for instants ;/
True, but with the amount of firebreathing and other abilities that the majority of dragons have, you could pump a shivan dragon to a 10/5 "for free" basically, in addition to whatever mana you actually have in terms of land.
I think that karthus and scion edh decks should be a good inclusion as well as a dragon stompy list, I can aquire said lists if you wish.
Oh and whats involved in making a primer, do you need permision or anything or do mods just stick primers they see? I would like to look into doing one for casual mana ramp, mbc or gbx rock.
Added your list and credited you. Could you also write up a quick sentence or 2 on the strategy? I'm about to head off to class.
A dragon stompy list would be great, I don't have much experience with them. I dunno about the EDH lists, though. We do have the EDH forum for that, etc.
It may have been pushed off the page by now, but I started a discussion thread on primers people here could do. There's a list of what the thread decided on, and other primers that are in the works / up for grabs. I believe Rock was a solid choice, and there may have been someone who claimed it. But you could PM them and work on it together. MBC was taken fairly quickly, and I'm not sure mana ramp is enough of a topic.
And I personally kinda talked with Memnarch. He suggested a couple changes, and (I imagine) when he had some free time he gave my primer the sticky of approval.
The basic strategy of my deck is to sack yosei and kokusho to greater good for immense advantage, it can lock out if you reanimate yosei with teneb every turn or can wipe out a multiplayer table very quickly if you do the same with kokusho. The deed is a solid board reset and as this deck is made mainly for ffa multiplayer it runs only 2 pte more for the intimidation of potential attackers after you have played one. Obviously if the core strategy dosen't work it is easy to switch to dragon beat-down mode which I find quite enjoyable. If this deck was played in 1v1 I would suggest phyrexian arena in the place of syphon mind.
I'll have a look for this thread and possibly fling Memnarch a pm. Thanks.
Yes, that would be better. It's 1 mana cheaper for the same effect in a duel.
Honestly, I wouldn't use Unhinge in a dual. Regarding Syphon Mind, the great thing about it is not the fact that it makes everyone discard (as letting the opponent choose is the weakest type of discard), it's the massive card advantage it generates without really pissing everyone off.
I've always loved dragons and then decided to make a deck (and now i'm $80 short) but the deck consist of dragon speaker shamans (makes dragons spells cost 2 less for each one out on the field) and i put in many multi-colored dragons so i can do a cheap and unfair play of a dragon arch whichs makes me play any multi-colored creature for 2 color-less mana.
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cylian elf vs. Marit Lage
Cylian Elf: Wait what the *@ is that thi-
Marit Lage: NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM
That's a fairly conflicting strategy, Slade. You have the shamans, which don't affect dragon arch's cost. and then you have the arch to cheat your dragons into play for cheap. I would say just go one route or the other - use the artifacts to speed them out on the cheap, or use Sakura-Tribe Elder + Dragonspeaker Shaman, etc to ramp up to dragons.
Are lands like Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors not considered casual? Because I have been looking to build a casual deck and around my area Dragons are over looked as being good simply because of their mana cost. My idea was to play City and Tomb to ramp up my mana super fast and drop fatties. I could produce a sample deck list later to get some feedback.
Because of their power level, some people / playgroups may say you can only run one copy, or none at all. My idea of casual is that, if you can get your hands on it, you can play it (for the most part, if someone got a black lotus and waved in my face, I wouldn't play them).
Casual is what you make of it, so for you, it's apparently multiplayer. It's just as much dueling as it is multiplayer for me. We can always just say if we want a deck based for multiplayer.
I've been looking for a long time for a way to make a dragon deck that works. I am so glad I found this forum. I especially like the build of Snow Jund.
Dragons – the iconic fantasy creature of fire and destruction. Many people encounter dragons in generic fantasy, and when they're introduced to magic, they think about making a dragon deck. And then they plow right into that, since that's what Red does. We’ll rage on about all sorts of dragons and how to fry your enemies to ash. There's no time for thinking or worrying about others, THE FIRESTORM IS HERE!
Dragons are big fat creatures, so the usual strategy is simple - play them as fast as you can and beat face until you win. There are a few combo decks that use CIP effects to get the kill, and I see the control aspect of this type of deck as burning everything that looks at you funny. Since every dragon costs at least 4, you need to either:
- ramp your mana to cast them earlier than normal
- cheat them into play with effects like Defense of the Heart and Elvish Piper
- or use rituals to temporarily gain the mana to cast them.
Ramping your mana is the safest way to reliably get your dragons out faster, as not many people will counter Rampant Growth, and you'll have that mana left over later if something does get countered or killed. Cheating them into play is an alright strategy, as your opponent won't know when your going to plop down some monstrosity, but this is fairly easily neutralized with a Pyroclasm, Naturalize, or Terminate, etc. Combos are perhaps the strongest, but most fragile way to build a dragon deck. The neutralizers above apply, as well as Counterspell, Safe Passage and other fog effects, and a few others.
The Dragons:
Legendary Dragons:
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon - New guy. He's a little smaller than the usual dragon, but lacking enemy first / double strike, he withers (-1/-1 counters) enemy creatures, can be given haste for a measly B, and regens for BB. A darned solid choice. Now some people say that you should focus on infect and not just toss them in random decks, but I think Skittles is good enough to ignore that.
Nicol Bolas – the strongest elder dragon, probably. His upkeep isn’t as bad as the other upkeeps seen here, because his effect of keeping your opponent’s hand (mostly) empty as he kills them makes it that much more likely that you’ll win, even though you’re down a few mana.
Treva, the Renewer – life gain isn’t the most solid strategy, but Treva works with ya. All the Invasion dragons suffer a little when you face multicolor, and suffer a bit more due to being multicolor themselves, but are still decent dragons.
Dromar, the Banisher – mass bounce is usually good, but he can only name 2 colors w/o bouncing himself. Alright, nothing to write home about.
Crosis, the Purger – If your opponent is drawing like crazy, hitting them once or twice should stop those shenanigans. Also would work with mass bounce. Late(r) game, not a whole lot of decks will have cards in hand, though. More for EDH perhaps, same with the other Invasion Dragons.
Darigaaz, the Igniter – more or less the same idea as Crosis. Hurt people with lotsa cards in hand, doesn’t do much besides bash otherwise.
Rith, the Awakener – I think he (she?) is the strongest Invasion dragon. Spawning a crapload of tokens is nothing to sneeze at, obviously a bit better late game, against monocolor.
Oros, the Avenger – The Planar Chaos dragons are some of my favorites, personally. But you do have to build around them, to a certain extent, partially because wedge colors are harder to pull off then alara-style tri-color. And they’re all mana efficient dragons too. Oros is good at keeping the board clear of creatures, consider running mostly white creatures, a way to protect them, or some additional sweepers. Powerful, flavorful choices for EDH as well.
Intet, the Dreamer – provides good card advantage, especially with more expensive cards, and with off-color costs. Just beware of opponents killing her and having cards exiled, possibly for good.
Teneb, the Harvester – great as a reanimation finisher, can steal your opponent’s corpses as well. As long as it wasn't exiled, Teneb can turn it around to beat your opponent around the bend.
Numot, the Devastator – Land Destruction on fiery, fleshrending steroids. Beware playing him if your playgroup hates LD, though.
Vorosh, the Hunter – growth is always fun, but it's really a win-more ability, and he isn’t the grandest dragon around.
Yosei, the Morning Star – the Kamigawa dragons are all good at punishing your opponent for dealing with them – just beware discard / exile / shuffle back effects, though. Yosei keeps some of your opponent’s stuff tapped down for a turn, letting you set up for a lethal alpha strike or infinite combo. Good control element on an efficient body, and that applies to all of them.
Keiga, the Tide Star – good in U control, good against creature heavy decks. Otherwise, just a pretty U dragon, of which there aren’t many good ones, much less U dragons in general.
Kokusho, the Evening Star – can be subbed in for Bogardan Hellkite, and scales fantastically to multiplayer, but be warned that people will hate the deck. And in general, he’s a dragon all-star, and just ridiculously good. A ten point life swing in your favor because he got terminated is quite a decent trade-off. Seriously, he’s ridiculous. There’s a reason he’s ~ $11 a copy.
Ryusei, the Falling Star – if you can pop him at will, he’s a little better at sweeping the ground. Otherwise, he’s not stellar as an at-random sweeper.
Jugan, the Rising Star – He’s good in the sense that, in most cases, it’s 5 more power and toughness on your board that won’t immediately go away. GGG hurts his splash-ability, though.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund – the closest thing that dragons will probably ever get for a lord. He gives your dragons hasty beatdown power, can steal your opponent’s creatures as well, both of which have always been good, and finally, could set you up for a lethal alpha strike. Shields of Velis Vel, Blades of Velis Vel, and Wings of Velis Vel all deserve mention at this point, even though two of them require splashing outside of Jund.
Malfegor – works best with reanimation as a strategy, and provides mana efficient beating and control. He’s a bit more suited to Grixis, though. Working him into a deck also requires graveyard recursion.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind – he’s the product of a focused block, so it’s harder / not as effective to just throw him in anywhere. He’s bonkers broken (or at least really close), and his 2 sidekicks are Curiosity and Ophidian Eye.
Rorix Bladewing – 6 Hasty power for 6 mana is a darn good deal, although his legendary status lessens that somewhat. Solid choice all the same.
Scion of the Ur-Dragon – probably the biggest “build-around-me” dragon on the list. He’s mana efficient with a cheap enough activated ability that sets up varied beatdown abilities and reanimation for the dragons in the grave. Add in a WUBRG cost so you can run any color dragon, and you get a really cool, powerful dragon.
Tarox Bladewing – another decent hasty dragon, one of the best options actually. If you’re planning a haste build, run him and run 4. Multiples aren’t bad because of his Grandeur ability, and if you can get the graveyard copies back to your hand, he can be a fairly scary beater for cheap.
Bladewing the Risen – useful for reanimation and pump, has an infinite combo possibility. The 7 mana 4/4 hurts a bit though.
Mono-color:
Eternal Dragon – Plainscycling is nice, and he has that phoenix-style revival as well. Has been used as a finisher in white as well, pretty solid dragon.
Phantasmal Dragon - Designed more as an illusion than a dragon, he still beats face quite efficiently as a 4 5/5 flyer.
Mist Dragon – gets points for being a half-decent U dragon, and for being able to dodge ground / flying based sweeping. He can also phase out to save himself from removal, lethal blocking, etc. but he’s nothing too special, just a 4/4 flyer otherwise.
Quicksilver Dragon – Another decent U dragon that has pseudo shroud as long as you have enough U mana and there’s enough creatures to target instead.
Day of the Dragons - While not a dragon per say, it can spawn a lot of dragons. Quickly turn mana dorks into dragons, or your metric ton of tokens into actual threats, instead of Pyroclasm fodder. UUU means that you're not gonna run it in more than 2 colors, though.
Ebon Dragon – a decent surprise for mono-B to pull out back in the day, but he’s not terribly mana-efficient and the discard isn’t random – plus your opponent may not have anything to discard, anyway.
Balefire Dragon - My favorite dragon they've released in a while. The flavor text sums it up; if they don't have an answer, they're dead. 'Cause getting wrathed and beaten in the face at the same time with one card is cruel.
Furyborn Hellkite - Cool dragon, but all he is, is big. You could drop him T5 with Geosurge and a Bolt I guess, but that's a fair bit of jumping through hoops just to have a huge flying beater.
Moltensteel Dragon - Flexibility. He can come down T4, T5, or T6, and can almost always get a power boost at instant speed. Plus with some of the other dragons that deal with artifacts, you should be able to build an artifact dragon deck nowadays.
Hellkite Igniter - 7 mana for a 5/5 hasty dragon isn't horrible in itself, but he's best used with artifact ramp. Gauntlet of Power, Iron Myr, and so on. If he goes unblocked, you can spring his 1R ability and possibly double his damage as a surprise.
Hoard-Smelter Dragon - Unless your buddies / tournaments / etc are packing serious artifact decks, he's sideboard material. He's perfectly efficient, don't get me wrong, but he's more of a utility kinda dragon.
Bogardan Hellkite – another dragon that’s more of a combo-er. Even w/o a combo, flashing him in opponents EOT and taking out a couple creatures or 25% of their life is fantastic. Downside is his 8 mana cost, but that’s what the ramp / acceleration / cheapening is for.
Brimstone Dragon – 8 mana 6/6 Hasty Flyer. Not too bad, but the fact that its Portal-block ups the price some.
Covetous Dragon – 5 mana for a 5/5 flyer would be good, but he’s 6/5, so even better. decent if you use a lot of artifact acceleration, etc. although Furnace Dragon outclasses him some.
Crimson Hellkite – has the classic feel going for him, but he’s outclassed in some ways by Flameblast Dragon now. More defensive than FD below.
Flameblast Dragon – comes down much faster than CH above, and you can use his ability multiple times a turn if you have a way to get more combat phases. More Offensive than CH above.
Dragon Mage – good to reset your hand if you’re running low / carrying junk, and resets your opponent as well.
Dragon Tyrant – ridiculous mana for a fairly ridiculous dragon. The upkeep hurts quite a bit, and pretty much forces you into mono-R. But the double strike and trample should close out games.
Dragon Whelp – if you want more of a “natural” curve, this little guy’s probably better than Furnace Whelp. The 3 time activation limit hurts a little bit, though.
Fledgling Dragon – while a potential Shivan Dragon for a guaranteed 2 less is nice, it’s only Shivan Dragon at best, and suckier than Furnace / Dragon Whelp at worst.
Furnace Dragon – Better than Covetous Dragon, because he could be only 3 mana, and he affects your opponent’s artifacts as well. Turn all cards into artifacts, and then play this guy = doom.
Furnace Whelp – IMO, Dragon Whelp is a little bit better, but this guy can be pumped until the cows come home. But DW needs a lightning bolt or more to be killed, while FW only needs a shock.
Hellkite Charger – new dragon, a solid choice as a 6 mana 5/5 hasty flyer. If you can use his ability, even better. And it had better end the game.
Hunted Dragon – undercosted haste is always nice, but the tokens he gives your opponent could be a problem. People tend to build the deck around the hunted creatures, instead of just throwing them in anywhere.
Imperial Hellkite – as a creature, he’s nothing to write home about. As a tutor, he’s pointless and really, tremendously overcosted. Just run a good black tutor.
Kilnmouth Dragon – Quite a decent package here. He should be the first dragon you cast so you can ideally amplify him at least a couple of triplets, and he can either burn blockers out of the way for bigger dragons, or point it at the opponent’s face. Solid choice, although a touch more on the expensive side.
Knollspine Dragon – same general idea as Dragon Mage, but you need to hurt your opponent beforehand. He hits harder, but he only replenishes you, and needs prior set-up, so I don’t think he’s as good.
Lightning Dragon – This little guy gets points for being cheap, flavorful, and effective, but the echo is what makes him fairly unplayable.
Pardic Dragon – I think this one’s fairly bad. Even powering his suspend out first turn probably means you’re looking at a turn 3 or 4 mini-shivan dragon, which isn’t the most jaw-dropping play, and you may as well forget it if you’re opponent can speed out cards like crazy.
Predator Dragon – one of the best finishers for a token deck, or a deck that doesn’t need its early creatures after a while (dragonspeaker shamans even). RRR hurts the splash-ability.
Rakdos Pit Dragon – one of the best cheap dragons. Red can certainly drop its hand fairly quickly, and so you have a cheap, pumpable, evasion-gaining dragon that eats face with the best. Consider Braid of Fire for the deck, as well as Rite of Flame.
Rathi Dragon – undercosted beater, used in Stompy decks to the best of my knowledge.
Rimescale Dragon – good as a control element in a dragon deck. Obviously, you need snow mana, but he’s unique and provides decent control to a color that doesn’t do control as well as other colors.
Scourge of Kher Ridges – red’s creature control at its finest, methinks. He can blast things off the ground and toast anything else in the air with his spammable Pyroclasm and Tumble abilities. Due to that second ability, though, you should either use another card to take care of flyers, run Scourge as your only flyer (ie not in a dragon deck), or make your creatures safe.
Shivan Dragon – he was the classic dragon for a looong time, but he’s been outclassed by the other 6 drop dragons. Decent enough budget option, though.
Shivan Hellkite – A bit better than his dragon-named buddy. Spammable pinging is decent, although you should consider running mana doubling effects (heartbeat of spring, gauntlet of power, etc) to make him more usable.
Thunder Dragon – I like this guy. He’s efficient enough, but what I like is the impact of the body and ability he has. Considering he’s only been printed in Portal and a FTV set, he’s going to be a little pricey no matter how you slice it.
Two-Headed Dragon – decent enough, I suppose. I would use cards like Familiar Ground to make him unblockable. His pump is a little mana-intensive, and I feel that the fact that he has to be blocked by 2+ creatures just means he’s going to die faster, unless you give him first / double strike.
Volcanic Dragon – hasty dragons are always scary, but his day came and went a long time ago. He’s outclassed by most all other 6 drops in this day and age. But with his M12 reprint, he's accessible once again and very cheap to pick up.
Worldgorger Dragon – Undercosted and strong, but risky. The ways I can see using him would be to steal a lot of your opponent’s things and then play him, or to play and then kill him to abuse CIP (ETB) effects.
Zodiac Dragon – expensive, both in mana and money, but he’s a huge, recursive beater that needs to be exiled or discarded to have been (temporarily) dealt with. He doesn’t have any evasion, but that’s easy to cover, and he’s flavorful.
Dragon Roost - While a 5/5 flyer for 7 mana ain't the greatest, the strength of this card is the spammability. Could be fairly screwy with Braid of Fire.
Multicolor:
Broodmate Dragon – 6 mana for 8/8 flying power on 2 bodies. Gives control fits, bit of a downside in his triple colors though.
Dragon Broodmother – Crazy in multiplayer. You can have several dinky dragons, a couple of decent ones, or a big baby. Consider Crucible of Fire for the deck as well.
Firestorm Hellkite – efficient dragon for the mana, but the cumulative upkeep really hurts. Best in an upkeep-skip deck, or when you know you can finish them off in 1 or 2 attacks.
Hellkite Hatchling – suited for token decks, or decks where the starting creatures quickly get pointless, as a decent midcost threat. Plus he’s so cute...
Hellkite Overlord – I think this thing is a beast. If you can get him out fast enough, your opponent will need removal on hand or they will lose. He swings the turn he’s played, he tramples through blockers, can regenerate (not always a guarantee, though), and can funnel excess mana into near-certain death. His triple color cost is a touch painful, however.
Spellbound Dragon – another dragon that was printed for the block, not necessarily the overall game. Useful for unearth, general reanimation, and / or other hand / graveyard shenanigans. Efficient enough mana cost and body.
Vampiric Dragon – like the Shivan Hellkite, spammable ping is nice, but his vampiric growth ability is what makes him cool, and a decent enough pick. His cost and his ability say “Don’t pay full price, find a sale!” (heartbeat, gauntlet, dragonspeaker, etc).
Artificial Dragons:
Clockwork Dragon – 7 mana 6/6 that can grow is quite good. The fact he’s an artifact gives him a fair number more decks. Should probably be built around, at least to a certain extent.
Draco – In a WUBRG deck, 6 mana for a 9/9 flyer is great, and he won’t have an upkeep. You could possibly run him in 3 color decks, but he shines in 5 color.
Teeka’s Dragon – this thing is slightly ridiculous. Since it’s an artifact, the cost can be dropped a lot by various means, and when it hits play, it means business. Trample + Rampage 4 = unblocked dragon, or massive game-ending dragon, both of which I hear are quite good. The artifact-ness also plays against it though, since a good number of cards screw with / destroy artifacts.
Tek – another domain dragon kinda like Draco. If you control WUBRG, he’s a 4/4 Flying Trample First Strike for 5, which ain’t too shabby. Nowhere near as powerful if not in a domain / 5 color build.
The Ramp / Acceleration / Cost Reduction / CIP Cheating:
Rampant Growth – obvious option if you’re running green, thins the deck.
Sakura-Tribe Elder – RG on a body, helps gum up the ground early on, can serve as a blocker + RG any time, really.
Into the North – the snow version of RG, obviously use if you’re going with a snow subtheme. Also thins the deck.
Search for Tommorow – You probably aren’t doing much on the first turn anyway. This one is great because the land you eventually get can be used right away, and it thins the deck.
Harrow – I dare say one of the stronger ramp spells printed, helps accelerate, fix, and also thins the deck. Helps with threshold as well, if that’s a part of the deck. Instant speed activation puts it over the top.
Kodama’s Reach – In some ways, a lesser Harrow, and in others, a superior Harrow. You don’t always get to play both lands, and even if you do, one is tapped. But Harrow involves sacrificing a land, and depending on your metagame, that could be a very bad thing.
Explosive Vegetation – a doubled RG, not an auto-include due to the mana cost. Harrow is usually a better option, due to speed and the lands CIP untapped.
Braid of Fire - Now with M10's rules, there is no mana burn, so this gem slowly gives you exponential mana. Say it with me - Lots...of...mana. Upwelling would let you use that mana to actually cast something, but otherwise you can only use it on firebreath abilities or things like that.
Rite of Flame – Having multiples in the opening hand and first couple of draws helped make the Time Spiral block Dragonstorm deck viable. Run 4 or none, and for more of a combo / cheat-into-play deck. The same goes for the other ritual. Beware of the fact that these can lead to card disadvantage, though.
Seething Song – A bit more reliable that RoF. Also used in Dragonstorm, and on occasion in R based dragon decks as acceleration. A 2nd turn Rite of Flame into a Seething Song into a Tarox Bladewing summon and discard should be a fairly scary thing if your opponent doesn’t have (the mana for) an answer.
Dragonstorm – this should be used for more of a combo, otherwise the game’s probably been going too long. Ramping up to it with rituals and grabbing 4 Kokusho, the Evening Star or Bogardan Hellkite is usually good game unless your opponent can pull off something crazy.
Lotus Bloom – Like the Rituals, run 4 or none. You want to be able to play one or two of them your first turn so that, if you hit your land drops every turn, you’ll have 7 mana turn 4, and a fair bit of flexibility in colors as well.
Sol Ring, Grim Monolith, Worn Powerstone, Thran Dynamo, Mox Ruby and kin, Ruby Medallion and kin – all decent choices for (colorless in most cases) acceleration, the main variables being the mana cost, which can affect how much mana it produces, which affects the real world cost. Since some of them are quite powerful / expensive, ask your playgroup beforehand if they’re ok with 4 of ____.
Belbe’s Portal, Cryptic Gateway, and Dragon Arch – all are ways to cheat your dragons into play on the cheap. The portal is the most mana expensive one to use, while the gateway is probably the slowest at first, but then could get rather explosive. The gateway would work best with as few hasty dragons as possible so that you can immediately tap them to bring more of their friends into play. And finally, the arch is best for heavily multicolored dragon decks. All of these also have the advantage of pseudo-flashing in your dragons at your opponent’s EOT. Elvish Piper also does the same thing, but she’s a 1/1 that people target ASAP.
Dragonspeaker Shaman and Urza’s Incubator – both cost the same mana, and do the same thing – they lessen the cost of your dragons by 2 mana per copy. If you’re strapped for cash, go with the shamans. The incubators are something like double the price per copy, but they have the plusses of not being creatures, and being usable in other fatty tribe decks should you dismantle your dragon deck.
Helpers / Support:
Lightning Bolt – Pretty much the best burn spell ever printed, great for clearing individual creatures off the field.
Lightning Helix – Very similar to LB, but is potentially twice as good. Off-ing a creature and gaining some life is good, or causing a 6-point life swing by aiming it at the face is also the sh…stuff.
Pyroclasm – good against fast / weenie / aggro decks, good in multiplayer. Volcanic Fallout deserves mention if you have a problem with countermagic.
Skred – snow-based version of LB, basically.
Terminate - one of the best flat-out kill spells printed. If you can target it, it's dead.
Firespout – a bigger ‘clasm, and you have the option of sweeping ground, air, or both.
Jund Charm and kin – obviously depends on what shard colors you’re building with. Jund I believe is the strongest here – stops any reanimation sillyness (one of the things that’ll be faster), has an instant speed Pyroclasm, which is quite good, and if nothing else, give a creature a permanent little boost in combat. Grixis and Bant get honorable mentions.
Sulfurous Blast – Another instant speed Pyroclasm if you need it, and if you don’t, it’s a RG-paid Firespout that hits players as well.
Lightning Greaves – Quite useful if most of your dragons don’t have haste, and / or if they have tap abilities. The shroud also makes sure that they can’t be taken out w/o using global cards.
Crucible of Fire - Some people love it, some people hate it. Most people will argue that your dudes are big enough, but it works well with the cheap dragons and Broodmother.
Steely Resolve - Cheaper than greaves, and gives all your guys shroud so you don't have to worry about targeted removal.
Sarkhan Vol - A flavorful choice for a deck, and fairly useful. Use a bunch of things without haste so his first ability speeds up your deck, and / or use the +1/+1 boost for your cheap hastys. His second ability steals a creature so you can beat them with it, sac it, etc. And his final ability is rather brutal if you're running, say, Doubling Season. Who doesn't love having 40 evasive power and toughness ~ turn 6?
Sarkhan the Mad - Once again, more fun with Doubling Season. Planeswalkers in general come into play with double the counters (but gains/losses stay the same), and Mad Sark should be fun with 14 counters :evillol:. I would avoid his first ability because dragons all cost a good bit, which would cost you life you might have, or be able to afford. But you can turn Dragonspeaker Shamans or what have you into threats later on, and his ultimate says "Bye bye player X".
Lands:
Savage Lands and kin, Vivid Marsh and kin – They’re decent lands, and easy on the wallet. CIPT (ETBT) hurts a touch, but their sheer fixing should more or less make up for that.
Ancient Tomb – This is basically Sol Ring in land form. I would suggest only running 3, as a fair few dragons have fairly color-heavy requirements, but other than, you should be faster in the damage race, so the drawback can usually be ignored.
Spinerock Knoll – If your deck can pull off the 7 damage in one turn cost, you could possibly cast a Dragonstorm or any dragon for free, which should shorten the game clock quite a bit. CIPT (ETBT) hurts the use of this land though. More for combos, and it’s not a terribly reliable way to go about things, either.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle – Best in Mono-R decks, or with lands that count as mountains and X, this new gem turns your mountain #6 and onward into Lightning Bolts. Due to CIPT (ETBT) and needing 5 other lands, don’t run more than 2 in a deck.
Forgotten Cave, Smoldering Crater, and their kin – Thought I’d mention the cycle lands briefly. The ones that cycle for mana of a certain color I think are better in general, but the colorless cyclers are more forgiving in multicolor builds, if you go this route.
Scalding Tarn, Polluted Delta, Sacred Foundry, Twilight Mire, Shivan Reef, and their kin – If your deck is multicolor, and you have these, use them. They power out the colors you need (fetches at your opponent’s EOT), and for usually negligible costs. And just for reference, Onslaught has the allied color fetches, Zendikar has the enemy colored ones. Tenth Edition has the painlands, and the Ravnica: City of Guilds block has the shocklands. Shadowmoor and Eventide have the filter lands.
Deck Lists:
Mono-:symr: Firestorm
4 Flameblast Dragon
4 Hellkite Charger
4 Kilnmouth Dragon
2 Dragon Mage
2 Dragon Tyrant
4 Pyroclasm
4 Seething Song
4 Lightning Greaves
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Rogue Lists
4 Keiga, the Tide Star
4 Quicksilver Dragon
3 Eternal Dragon
4 Mana Leak
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Breathe of Life
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Azorius Chancery
9 Plains
5 Island
Wrath of God and Gifts Ungiven are alternatives to Ghostly Prison and Ancestral Vision, respectively.
:symr::symw::symu: American Dragons
3 Yosei, the Morning Star
3 Keiga, the Tide Star
3 Quicksilver Dragon
3 Numot, the Devastator
3 Eternal Dragon
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Breathe of Life
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Plains
4 Island
4 Mountain
Once again, AV could be GU, and Lightning Bolt can become Lightning Helix if other decks prove to be too fast.
:symb::symg::symw:
4 Eternal Witness
4 Kokusho, the Evening Star
4 Yosei, the Morning Star
3 Teneb, the Harvester
3 Harrow
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Syphon Mind
4 Greater Good
10 Forest
5 Plains
5 Swamp
4 Eternal Witness
1 Loxodon Hierarch
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Putrefy
4 Renewed Faith
2 Decree of Justice
3 Life from the Loam
4 Living Wish
4 Wrath of God
4 Astral Slide
3 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Plains
4 Secluded Steppe
1 Swamp
2 Temple Garden
4 Tranquil Thicket
4 Windswept Heath
1 Genesis
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Withered Wretch
4 Cranial Extraction
3 Duress
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Yosei, the Morning Star
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Loxodon Hierarch
3 Kodama of the North Tree
4 Goryo's Vengeance
2 Wear Away
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Putrefy
2 Footsteps of the Goryo
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
3 Plains
4 Swamp
8 Forest
:symu::symr:
4 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Grozoth
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Gigadrowse
4 Telling Time
4 Remand
4 Seething Song
4 Rite of Flame
4 Dragonstorm
4 Steam Vents
8 Island
4 Mountain
Hunted Dragon can probably be switched out for another hasty dragon of your choosing.
:symr::symgb:
4 Dragonspeaker Shaman
4 Broodmate Dragon
4 Hellkite Charger
2 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
3 Rimescale Dragon
3 Hellkite Overlord
4 Into the North
4 Gauntlet of Power
3 Rage Reflection
6 Snow Forest
6 Snow Swamp
:symw::symu::symb::symr::symg:
4 Scion of the Ur-Dragon
3 Teneb, the Harvester
3 Bladewing the Risen
2 Oros, the Avenger
2 Intet, the Dreamer
2 Vorosh, the Hunter
2 Numot, the Devastator
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Pyroclasm
4 Firespout
8 Forest
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Island
3 Teneb, The Harvester
3 Vorosh, the Hunter
3 Oros, the Avenger
3 Intet, the Dreamer
3 Numot, the Devastator
3 Scion of the Ur-Dragon
2 Bladewing the Risen
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Pyroclasm
4 Lightning Bolt
If others could supply some ideas for the following decks, I'd really appreciate it.
- other shard-color decks
- snow-less Jund
- RB reanimation with Bladewing and Malfegor
- other mono-:symr: lists
- any other color combos you come up with.
- upkeep skip to use echo / ***. upkeep dragons
and if you see any grammar, bad explanations, etc, just point them out and I'll fix 'em.
Until then, may your inner fire always burn and light your path of life.
(Many thanks to Spiderboy4 at High~Light Studios for the thread banner - link)
-Memnarch
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
UUU - Go Go Gadget Ninjitsu! (casual)
GGG - Beatdown Elves (casual)
(G/R)(G/R)(G/R) - Progenitus/Elfball (legacy)
BBB - Crucible Pox (legacy)
(B/G)(B/G)(B/G) - Eva Green (legacy)
Visit Maelstrom Graphics for awesome signatures and avatars
I think it really helps when you know the primer material almost backwards, forwards, and from inside someone's mother (no offense to anyone, trying to be funny).
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
I know a decent amount, just apparently not enough to make a decent primer, lol. I know elves the most. It was first type of deck and is still my best and favorite deck.
But in all honesty, I mainly created the primer so that EVERYONE could participate in writing it. I know I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to knowing of card names off the top of my head, but when I make a deck I can think of unique ways to use cards and find the best synergy. Check out my Modular Mill thread and you'll see what I mean.
UUU - Go Go Gadget Ninjitsu! (casual)
GGG - Beatdown Elves (casual)
(G/R)(G/R)(G/R) - Progenitus/Elfball (legacy)
BBB - Crucible Pox (legacy)
(B/G)(B/G)(B/G) - Eva Green (legacy)
Visit Maelstrom Graphics for awesome signatures and avatars
Edit 1: next to your description of Niv-Mizzet where you talk about him being broken but needing his own deck, you could include that he combos with Curiosity and Ophidian Eye. You don't really need to build the deck around him too much for that combo.
Currently Playing:
The drawback to braid of fire is that it can only be used for instants ;/
Don't forget about activated abilities. Remember, when you pump a dragon it almost always lasts till eot. Say for instance, a Braid of Fire with say 5 age counters on it is in play along with a Rakdos Pit Dragon. Guess what? You get to activate his abilities during your upkeep!
Edit: Also forgot to mention, if you feel like being awesome-silly, you can dump a blue mana into your pool during your upkeep, hit a Quicken, and Dragonstorm at least 2 dragons into play off Braid of Fire mana, and draw a card!
RHomura Control EDHR
UBWydwen EDH (1v1)BU
Under Development
WUGwafa Hazid, "Friend" EDHUW
True, but with the amount of firebreathing and other abilities that the majority of dragons have, you could pump a shivan dragon to a 10/5 "for free" basically, in addition to whatever mana you actually have in terms of land.
Currently Playing:
Edited for Braid and Niv.
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
10 forest
5 plains
5 swamps
4 eternal witness
4 kokusho, the evening star
4 yosei, the morning star
3 teneb, the harvester
3 harrow
4 pernicious deed
4 syphon mind
4 greater good
I think that karthus and scion edh decks should be a good inclusion as well as a dragon stompy list, I can aquire said lists if you wish.
Oh and whats involved in making a primer, do you need permision or anything or do mods just stick primers they see? I would like to look into doing one for casual mana ramp, mbc or gbx rock.
A dragon stompy list would be great, I don't have much experience with them. I dunno about the EDH lists, though. We do have the EDH forum for that, etc.
It may have been pushed off the page by now, but I started a discussion thread on primers people here could do. There's a list of what the thread decided on, and other primers that are in the works / up for grabs. I believe Rock was a solid choice, and there may have been someone who claimed it. But you could PM them and work on it together. MBC was taken fairly quickly, and I'm not sure mana ramp is enough of a topic.
And I personally kinda talked with Memnarch. He suggested a couple changes, and (I imagine) when he had some free time he gave my primer the sticky of approval.
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
Question on Syphon Mind: If you were running this one-on-one, would you go with Unhinge instead?
RHomura Control EDHR
UBWydwen EDH (1v1)BU
Under Development
WUGwafa Hazid, "Friend" EDHUW
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
I'll have a look for this thread and possibly fling Memnarch a pm. Thanks.
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
Honestly, I wouldn't use Unhinge in a dual. Regarding Syphon Mind, the great thing about it is not the fact that it makes everyone discard (as letting the opponent choose is the weakest type of discard), it's the massive card advantage it generates without really pissing everyone off.
Unhinge is just weak. Yes, it's card advantage, but I'd say in a dual it's better to run something like Duress, Thoughtsieze, Hymn to Tourach, Ostracize , etc.
Currently Playing:
Cylian Elf: Wait what the *@ is that thi-
Marit Lage: NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
EDIT: 4:10 am?
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
probably want to proxy the deck before you buy, though.
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---