I've been playing this list on MTGA with some decent results. Its a decent control deck which seeks to capitalize on playing dragon spells. There are a bunch of win cons, the dragons obviously are very strong on their own, but with the addition of the planeswalkers and the captive audience there is a variety of ways for this deck to finish an opponent if you survive into the lategame.
I've done a lot of testing and I've changed the card counts/choices to this. Its been working really well for me. If anybody has any feedback or tries this list out lemme know. I've been playing it in MTGA, the deck is like $300 USD.
I took this list out to a 12 person Standard tournament. I think it was a case of being lucky rather than good, but, hey, I'm always happy with a 4-0.
I started against Izzet Phoenix. Game one started well for them as they got a Goblin Electromancer down and dredged up two Arclight Phoenixes to knock me down to twelve. However, two Lava Coils soon dealt with the Phoenixes and Ral dropped down and drew me out of trouble and into victory. Out: Ritual of Soot; in: 2 Hostage Taker + 1 Duress. G2 left them with only one Phoenix after some countering and killing which was brickwalled by a Rekindling Phoenix and Taken Hostage.
Match 2 was Esper Control. G1 was a mess of tapped lands. A pair of Thought Erasures wasn't enough to clear the way for a Thief of Sanity. Teferi got down and two Thieves of Sanity succumbed to Kaya's Wtrath before I packed it in. G2 was picture perfect. Thought Erasure to clear a Cast Down into Thief of Sanity which hit before countering Vraska's Contempt. Thief then ran away with G2. Opponent kept a hand without B mana G3 and Legion Warboss goldfished to a quick victory.
Match 3 was Mono-U. G1 was the nuts for them and I was never in it. G2 Phoenix held off an Obsessively Curious Djinn until joined by a second and Pirate Captain Angrath. G3 I Lava Coiled an early suited up merfolk but endured beats from a trickster and Siren Stormtamer down to 5 before Ral, Rekindling Phoenix and Hostage Taker took over.
Match 4 was Jeskai Control. G1 Opponent mulled to 5 while I had 3 lands, Insights and Counters. They made their land drops while I drew some cards and countered a few Teferi. Then Ral came down and helped me pull away. G2, they got their Legion Warboss down just before mine. But when Nicol hit the board, Warboss stopped attacking. They had some trouble getting to enough mana to cast Niv or Nezahal and scooped when Nicol Bolas flipped.
Small sample size, but I had a fair number of all tapland hands, So I would add the fourth Blood Crypt. I was lucky, sure, but the deck was great.
Edit: @ColdBlackShadow - This was the closest thread I saw to what I was doing, but if it isn't dragony enough for you, I can post elsewhere. Please just let me know.
I put the Blood Crypt in for a Dragonskull Summit and ran it back last night. It was a humbling bit of karmic balancing overall, as I went 1-2, losing twice to Mono-R. I did beat Gates 2-0 and activated Nicol Bolas as a planeswalker, so not a total loss.
Actually, I made a number of tweaks including the manabase to come up with the following. The second Discovery // Dispersal is an idea of the deck's author. It's a durdle, but hopefully leads to being able to play the right cards on time.
Hey nice to see your list! I hadn't checked the forum in a while. I'm going to try them out on MTGA since I have all of those cards unlocked. I find that thief of sanity never lives when it lands, but im intrigued by your second list with the rekindling phoenix just being a major pain for every type of deck.
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4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dragonskull Summit
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
3 Island
1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
2 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
-- Spells --
2 Spell Pierce
3 Sinister Sabotage
3 Thought Erasure
4 Fiery Cannonade
2 Chemister's Insight
2 Lava Coil
2 Vraska's Contempt
2 Sarkhan, Fireblood
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
-- Enchantment/ Artifacts --
2 Dragon's Hoard
2 Search for Azcanta
2 The Eldest Reborn
1 Treasure Map
1 Captive Audience
3 Mountain
3 Island
3 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Demanding Dragon
2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
2 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
//Artifacts/Enchantments//
2 Dragon's Hoard
2 The Eldest Reborn
2 Search for Azcanta
//Spells//
3 Sinister Sabotage
3 Thought Erasure
4 Fiery Cannonade
3 Discovery // Dispersal
3 Lava Coil
2 Vraska's Contempt
2 Essence Scatter
2 Sarkhan, Fireblood
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
I started against Izzet Phoenix. Game one started well for them as they got a Goblin Electromancer down and dredged up two Arclight Phoenixes to knock me down to twelve. However, two Lava Coils soon dealt with the Phoenixes and Ral dropped down and drew me out of trouble and into victory. Out: Ritual of Soot; in: 2 Hostage Taker + 1 Duress. G2 left them with only one Phoenix after some countering and killing which was brickwalled by a Rekindling Phoenix and Taken Hostage.
Match 2 was Esper Control. G1 was a mess of tapped lands. A pair of Thought Erasures wasn't enough to clear the way for a Thief of Sanity. Teferi got down and two Thieves of Sanity succumbed to Kaya's Wtrath before I packed it in. G2 was picture perfect. Thought Erasure to clear a Cast Down into Thief of Sanity which hit before countering Vraska's Contempt. Thief then ran away with G2. Opponent kept a hand without B mana G3 and Legion Warboss goldfished to a quick victory.
Match 3 was Mono-U. G1 was the nuts for them and I was never in it. G2 Phoenix held off an Obsessively Curious Djinn until joined by a second and Pirate Captain Angrath. G3 I Lava Coiled an early suited up merfolk but endured beats from a trickster and Siren Stormtamer down to 5 before Ral, Rekindling Phoenix and Hostage Taker took over.
Match 4 was Jeskai Control. G1 Opponent mulled to 5 while I had 3 lands, Insights and Counters. They made their land drops while I drew some cards and countered a few Teferi. Then Ral came down and helped me pull away. G2, they got their Legion Warboss down just before mine. But when Nicol hit the board, Warboss stopped attacking. They had some trouble getting to enough mana to cast Niv or Nezahal and scooped when Nicol Bolas flipped.
Small sample size, but I had a fair number of all tapland hands, So I would add the fourth Blood Crypt. I was lucky, sure, but the deck was great.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I put the Blood Crypt in for a Dragonskull Summit and ran it back last night. It was a humbling bit of karmic balancing overall, as I went 1-2, losing twice to Mono-R. I did beat Gates 2-0 and activated Nicol Bolas as a planeswalker, so not a total loss.
Overall, I think Mono-R may be a bad matchup, but I want to give a slot or two to improve it. I am looking at Fungal Infection, Murmuring Mystic, Vampire Sovereign, Dire Fleet Daredevil and Shivan Fire, but none of them seem great. What do people think? I also want to make the mana more able to get to BB sooner.
Actually, I made a number of tweaks including the manabase to come up with the following. The second Discovery // Dispersal is an idea of the deck's author. It's a durdle, but hopefully leads to being able to play the right cards on time.
3 Thief of Sanity
3 Rekindling Phoenix
3 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Enchantment
1 Search for Azcanta
Land
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Dragonskull Summit
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Sulfur Falls
4 Watery Grave
4 Steam Vents
4 Blood Crypt
2 Vraska's Contempt
1 Negate
2 Cast Down
3 Sinister Sabotage
3 Chemister's Insight
Sorcery
4 Thought Erasure
2 Lava Coil
3 Ritual of Soot
3 Discovery // Dispersal
Planeswalker
1 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
2 Hostage Taker
1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
2 Legion Warboss
2 Moment of Craving
1 Negate
1 Cast Down
1 Chemister's Insight
2 Duress
1 Lava Coil
2 Cry of the Carnarium
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.