Who doesn’t love a deck jam packed with Dragons, in standard at that. The deck seems too good to be true, however the results are better than I could have ever expected. The Record with this deck is around 16-4-2 since I have been playing it. This record is from mostly Friday Night Magic in which I usually take home first place, on top of having a 100% record over roughly five matches against someone who made top 4 at a 250 person PTQ in Toronto during the Theros season. I was also the only non aggro/burn deck to top 8 at my local game store for Game Day JOU in a crowd of around 30.
The original deck idea came from the idea of just the idea of wanting to play tribal dragons in standard. Immediately recognizing Scourge of Valkas is the strongest card with a tribal dragon synergy is where the brewing began. At 5 mana, a 4/4 with flying is fairly unimpressive on it’s own, especially in a world full of Desecration Demon’s and Stormbreath Dragons, therefore another approach to its value was necessary. Prophet of Kruphix is just what the dragons needed, and the colors of the deck were established; RUG Dragons. These two cards proved to be the solid foundation in which the deck is built around.
The Deck consists of eleven mana dorks and fifteen 5+ drops therefore the synergy between the cards had to be incredible to make the deck work as imagined.
Creatures:
Elvish Mystic & Sylvan Caryatid: These were obvious choices as the deck is racing to that 5 mana sweet spot. Once at five mana, short of god awful draws, the deck gets out of control, and fast.
Kiora's Follower: Another Mana dork, with an upside. Kiora’s follower allows you to tap any land twice, allowing for color fixing, helping with Scourge of Valkas’ triple R requirement. The ability to also untap a fatty after attacking allows for the deck to have an easier time racing your opponent. It also has synergy with the sideboard card Bow of Nylea allowing multiple activations of its ability per turn, which can be game breaking.
Polukranos, World Eater: I know, I know party foul! Polukranos is part of the deck because it direly needed a strong body early. Tribal Dragons is fun and all, but tribal dragons that is competitive and wins is much more appealing. Standard is still very cutthroat and Polukranos is just too much value to pass up. Also not having this guy would make mono blue the worst match up ever if they ever drew their Master of Waves before you hit your five mana.
Prophet of Kruphix: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Seedborn Muse’s love child, is probably one of the most broken cards I have ever seen, and it’s amazing that it doesn’t see more play outside of commander, which is another beast in of itself. Prophet can come out as early as turn three making your opponents fear what the rest of your hand is, especially after game one in which they will naturally assume is chalk full of big scary dragons. There is nothing greater that having a turn three Prophet of Kruphix untapping on their turn and slamming your Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, they are just too overwhelmed at that point if they do not have an answer immediately.
Scourge of Valkas: The card that makes this deck not only works but allows it to win as well. This card has so much synergy and value with the rest of the deck it is unreal. Scourge of Valkas is your removal suit in the main board, and it gets out of control quickly. Playing a lowly Scourge of Valkas most often only pings for one killing a Lifebane Zombie, or keeping that pesky enemy planeswalker one loyalty lower. However when a Mutavault is involved that ping is a virtually free 2 damage anywhere. When you begin playing multiple Scourge of Valkas’ and other dragon’s are coming into play the free value pings become exponential, as they play off each other, and just as you’re starting to have fun, your opponent’s life total hit zero after a few pings and a few swings. The greatest synergy of this card is when Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius enters the battlefield with one of these all-stars on the field, Niv-Mizzet is the source of damage on the triggered ability, and therefore if you direct the damage at the player, you even get to draw a card. On top of all that, the scourge has fire breathing, because why not.
Stormbreath Dragon: The Dragon that everyone assumes you have four of immediately. The reason this deck runs only two is because the five drop slot is already incredibly large and Prophet of Kruphix and Scourge of Valkas are just too good to cut.
Progenitor Mimic: Basically another dragon, however if this sticks, cloning a Scourge of Valkas you kind of just win.
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius: The machine gun of the deck. This dragon single handed can win you games through both the overwhelming card advantage, and his ability to just ping at will. This card with Prophet of Kruphix is insane, either you wipe a board, or draw 3 or more cards a turn, including on their turn.
Keranos, God of Storms: A card for pure value, I have only ever really flashed it in off a Prophet of Kruphix, as I feel it is too clunky of a card to spend your entire turn casting it. However, as a new addition to the deck it has proven strong against both decks with lower toughness creatures, and control. As well as adding card advantage, it has proven to be a great addition.
Prime Speaker Zegana: You are playing Dragons, you land her you draw a lot of cards its basically your sphinx’s revelation of the deck.
Planeswalkers:
Planeswalkers in this deck are used to create multiple angles of attack which is particularly useful against control.
Domri Rade: The deck runs zero spells and big monsters, Domri is just sheer value and a low curve walker that has to be dealt with amongst all your dragons or his ult will just ruin the opponents
Xenagos, the Reveler: Xenagos’ +1 is Gaea's Cradle and you have eleven mana dorks, I’ve done some very explosive things with that. The rest of his kit is okay, especially against control when you don’t want to hyper commit the board into a verdict.
Kiora, The Crashing Wave: A one of as it is good to have more walkers against control, and being able to pump lands out quicker, especially when you’re flooding, drawing cards as an upside at the same time is just a lot of value.
No Spells Main Board: This deck is heavy with synergies, and that’s what makes it work, it often comes out game one explosive killing your opponent before they realize what you are playing. The deck is very proactive and any spells in these colors that follow this game plan are more reactive than proactive and hurt the core of the deck.
The Sideboard
The sideboard is partially reactive to what your opponents are playing. In other cases the sideboard is a complete change in the proactive game plan against certain decks.
UWx control: you want to side out many of your over the top cards such as two Prophet of Kruphix, two Scourge of Valkas, Progenitor mimic and Prime Speaker Zegana. These cards prove to reliant on other cards to work, and with all of controls permission they can prevent the value you would be getting by playing these cards. You also want to switch around the hydra’s, Polukranos, World Eater and the Mistcutter Hydra. You completely shift your game plan by bringing in Bident of Thassa, Negate, Swan Song[/card], and the Unravel the Aether. The game plan shifts from the synergy of dragons to winning through card advantage, dork beat downs and walkers, because supreme verdict is just not fun when you do creature shenanigans,
Aggro: The match up forces you to lower your curve, but you have to keep your synergy or you will accomplish nothing but losing slower instead of going for the win. Bringing in the removal to replace the over the slower cards such as Progenitor Mimic, and Keranos, God of Storms
Burn: The match up against burn sucks, its basically a coin flip. Burn will try to cheese your life down to zero, as that is what it is designed to do. Stick to your game plan, however do not pay life with your shock lands if you can prevent it. Burn can only do so much damage, don’t add fuel to the fire and try to win the way you would beat any other deck. Sideboard out the slower cards and if needed some walkers to bring in your 2 life gain sources Bow of Nylea and Courser of Kruphix, as well as your Negate, Swan Song to counter any big burn spells. Magma Spray is also handy for those Chandra's Pheonix
Monoblack: The best part about this match up is when they Thoughtseize you turn one. The opponent will have no idea what to expect from you and are dumbfounded. The main board is mostly well tuned, if they play whip you can side in Unravel the Aether. Negate and Swan Song are also good just to counter their removal along with Rapid Hybridization to kill a Desecration Demon to ensure you still rule the skies.
R/Gx Monsters: Another Matchup in which the main board is well tuned, bringing in the rapid Hybridization is fine, along with the Bow of Nylea to allow Polukranos, World Eater and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius to machine gun the opponent’s board.
There have been a few cards that have come and gone in the creation and testing of the deck. These are some ideas in which could still be viable but would not suit the meta I have found myself in.
Utvara Hellkite: This deck originally ran an Utvara Hellkite because, well dragons galore. It worked wonders but I found myself siding it out against every match up because either the opponent’s deck was too fast for it to work properly, or it was really soft to Detention Sphere and wrath effects.
Fathom Mage: Another original part of the deck. Playing dragons means Fathom Mage is going to have a lot of value off of it’s evolve triggers. However while drawing cards feels great, it felt like an underwhelming top deck and merely a win more when it was working.
Mana Confluence: In a three color deck Mana Confluence seems good. I found the card was a little to painful when you were tapping it twice a turn via Kiora's Follower or Prophet of Kruphix however and the shocks were just better value and more controllable.
Harness by Force: This card is worth considering because you should usually find yourself with a lot of red mana sources, due to Scourge of Valkas and it could be a massive blow out against certain decks, say mono black stealing multiple Desecration Demons or G/Rx Monsters.
Thanks for Reading
Any Thoughts, Criticisms or Suggestions are appreciated
Scourge Does not rotate out until october with khans also i came up with it a long time ago ive just been forum shy but the deck has worked wonders i do suggest trying it out its fairly cheap short from the lands, but they are necessary as the mana base is VERY demanding
I have tried both Progenitor Mimic and Utvara Hellkite, they both win the turn after they are played usually. However mimic is 6 mana compared to 8 and if it is on a Scourge of Valkas it wins without swinging due to the exponential increase in the scourge triggers
Who doesn’t love a deck jam packed with Dragons, in standard at that. The deck seems too good to be true, however the results are better than I could have ever expected. The Record with this deck is around 16-4-2 since I have been playing it. This record is from mostly Friday Night Magic in which I usually take home first place, on top of having a 100% record over roughly five matches against someone who made top 4 at a 250 person PTQ in Toronto during the Theros season. I was also the only non aggro/burn deck to top 8 at my local game store for Game Day JOU in a crowd of around 30.
The original deck idea came from the idea of just the idea of wanting to play tribal dragons in standard. Immediately recognizing Scourge of Valkas is the strongest card with a tribal dragon synergy is where the brewing began. At 5 mana, a 4/4 with flying is fairly unimpressive on it’s own, especially in a world full of Desecration Demon’s and Stormbreath Dragons, therefore another approach to its value was necessary. Prophet of Kruphix is just what the dragons needed, and the colors of the deck were established; RUG Dragons. These two cards proved to be the solid foundation in which the deck is built around.
The Deck consists of eleven mana dorks and fifteen 5+ drops therefore the synergy between the cards had to be incredible to make the deck work as imagined.
Creatures:
Elvish Mystic & Sylvan Caryatid: These were obvious choices as the deck is racing to that 5 mana sweet spot. Once at five mana, short of god awful draws, the deck gets out of control, and fast.
Kiora's Follower: Another Mana dork, with an upside. Kiora’s follower allows you to tap any land twice, allowing for color fixing, helping with Scourge of Valkas’ triple R requirement. The ability to also untap a fatty after attacking allows for the deck to have an easier time racing your opponent. It also has synergy with the sideboard card Bow of Nylea allowing multiple activations of its ability per turn, which can be game breaking.
Polukranos, World Eater: I know, I know party foul! Polukranos is part of the deck because it direly needed a strong body early. Tribal Dragons is fun and all, but tribal dragons that is competitive and wins is much more appealing. Standard is still very cutthroat and Polukranos is just too much value to pass up. Also not having this guy would make mono blue the worst match up ever if they ever drew their Master of Waves before you hit your five mana.
Prophet of Kruphix: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Seedborn Muse’s love child, is probably one of the most broken cards I have ever seen, and it’s amazing that it doesn’t see more play outside of commander, which is another beast in of itself. Prophet can come out as early as turn three making your opponents fear what the rest of your hand is, especially after game one in which they will naturally assume is chalk full of big scary dragons. There is nothing greater that having a turn three Prophet of Kruphix untapping on their turn and slamming your Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, they are just too overwhelmed at that point if they do not have an answer immediately.
Scourge of Valkas: The card that makes this deck not only works but allows it to win as well. This card has so much synergy and value with the rest of the deck it is unreal. Scourge of Valkas is your removal suit in the main board, and it gets out of control quickly. Playing a lowly Scourge of Valkas most often only pings for one killing a Lifebane Zombie, or keeping that pesky enemy planeswalker one loyalty lower. However when a Mutavault is involved that ping is a virtually free 2 damage anywhere. When you begin playing multiple Scourge of Valkas’ and other dragon’s are coming into play the free value pings become exponential, as they play off each other, and just as you’re starting to have fun, your opponent’s life total hit zero after a few pings and a few swings. The greatest synergy of this card is when Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius enters the battlefield with one of these all-stars on the field, Niv-Mizzet is the source of damage on the triggered ability, and therefore if you direct the damage at the player, you even get to draw a card. On top of all that, the scourge has fire breathing, because why not.
Stormbreath Dragon: The Dragon that everyone assumes you have four of immediately. The reason this deck runs only two is because the five drop slot is already incredibly large and Prophet of Kruphix and Scourge of Valkas are just too good to cut.
Progenitor Mimic: Basically another dragon, however if this sticks, cloning a Scourge of Valkas you kind of just win.
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius: The machine gun of the deck. This dragon single handed can win you games through both the overwhelming card advantage, and his ability to just ping at will. This card with Prophet of Kruphix is insane, either you wipe a board, or draw 3 or more cards a turn, including on their turn.
Keranos, God of Storms: A card for pure value, I have only ever really flashed it in off a Prophet of Kruphix, as I feel it is too clunky of a card to spend your entire turn casting it. However, as a new addition to the deck it has proven strong against both decks with lower toughness creatures, and control. As well as adding card advantage, it has proven to be a great addition.
Prime Speaker Zegana: You are playing Dragons, you land her you draw a lot of cards its basically your sphinx’s revelation of the deck.
Planeswalkers:
Planeswalkers in this deck are used to create multiple angles of attack which is particularly useful against control.
Domri Rade: The deck runs zero spells and big monsters, Domri is just sheer value and a low curve walker that has to be dealt with amongst all your dragons or his ult will just ruin the opponents
Xenagos, the Reveler: Xenagos’ +1 is Gaea's Cradle and you have eleven mana dorks, I’ve done some very explosive things with that. The rest of his kit is okay, especially against control when you don’t want to hyper commit the board into a verdict.
Kiora, The Crashing Wave: A one of as it is good to have more walkers against control, and being able to pump lands out quicker, especially when you’re flooding, drawing cards as an upside at the same time is just a lot of value.
No Spells Main Board: This deck is heavy with synergies, and that’s what makes it work, it often comes out game one explosive killing your opponent before they realize what you are playing. The deck is very proactive and any spells in these colors that follow this game plan are more reactive than proactive and hurt the core of the deck.
The Sideboard
The sideboard is partially reactive to what your opponents are playing. In other cases the sideboard is a complete change in the proactive game plan against certain decks.
UWx control: you want to side out many of your over the top cards such as two Prophet of Kruphix, two Scourge of Valkas, Progenitor mimic and Prime Speaker Zegana. These cards prove to reliant on other cards to work, and with all of controls permission they can prevent the value you would be getting by playing these cards. You also want to switch around the hydra’s, Polukranos, World Eater and the Mistcutter Hydra. You completely shift your game plan by bringing in Bident of Thassa, Negate, Swan Song[/card], and the Unravel the Aether. The game plan shifts from the synergy of dragons to winning through card advantage, dork beat downs and walkers, because supreme verdict is just not fun when you do creature shenanigans,
Aggro: The match up forces you to lower your curve, but you have to keep your synergy or you will accomplish nothing but losing slower instead of going for the win. Bringing in the removal to replace the over the slower cards such as Progenitor Mimic, and Keranos, God of Storms
Burn: The match up against burn sucks, its basically a coin flip. Burn will try to cheese your life down to zero, as that is what it is designed to do. Stick to your game plan, however do not pay life with your shock lands if you can prevent it. Burn can only do so much damage, don’t add fuel to the fire and try to win the way you would beat any other deck. Sideboard out the slower cards and if needed some walkers to bring in your 2 life gain sources Bow of Nylea and Courser of Kruphix, as well as your Negate, Swan Song to counter any big burn spells. Magma Spray is also handy for those Chandra's Pheonix
Monoblack: The best part about this match up is when they Thoughtseize you turn one. The opponent will have no idea what to expect from you and are dumbfounded. The main board is mostly well tuned, if they play whip you can side in Unravel the Aether. Negate and Swan Song are also good just to counter their removal along with Rapid Hybridization to kill a Desecration Demon to ensure you still rule the skies.
R/Gx Monsters: Another Matchup in which the main board is well tuned, bringing in the rapid Hybridization is fine, along with the Bow of Nylea to allow Polukranos, World Eater and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius to machine gun the opponent’s board.
There have been a few cards that have come and gone in the creation and testing of the deck. These are some ideas in which could still be viable but would not suit the meta I have found myself in.
Utvara Hellkite: This deck originally ran an Utvara Hellkite because, well dragons galore. It worked wonders but I found myself siding it out against every match up because either the opponent’s deck was too fast for it to work properly, or it was really soft to Detention Sphere and wrath effects.
Fathom Mage: Another original part of the deck. Playing dragons means Fathom Mage is going to have a lot of value off of it’s evolve triggers. However while drawing cards feels great, it felt like an underwhelming top deck and merely a win more when it was working.
Mana Confluence: In a three color deck Mana Confluence seems good. I found the card was a little to painful when you were tapping it twice a turn via Kiora's Follower or Prophet of Kruphix however and the shocks were just better value and more controllable.
Harness by Force: This card is worth considering because you should usually find yourself with a lot of red mana sources, due to Scourge of Valkas and it could be a massive blow out against certain decks, say mono black stealing multiple Desecration Demons or G/Rx Monsters.
Thanks for Reading
Any Thoughts, Criticisms or Suggestions are appreciated
Nissa seems really strong as long as shocks are in rotation, but might lose some power post rotation as she will be unable to splash colors so efficiently
Ajani, Caller of the Pride would be really good as Uril only needs to reach 11 power to kill in a single swing with the upside of both flying and future +1/+1 counters
Celestial MantleAfter a swing or two short of infect, general damage, or infinite combos you would be really hard to kill.
Runes of the Deus This is probably one of the best enchantments you can stick on him
Who doesn’t love a deck jam packed with Dragons, in standard at that. The deck seems too good to be true, however the results are better than I could have ever expected. The Record with this deck is around 16-4-2 since I have been playing it. This record is from mostly Friday Night Magic in which I usually take home first place, on top of having a 100% record over roughly five matches against someone who made top 4 at a 250 person PTQ in Toronto during the Theros season. I was also the only non aggro/burn deck to top 8 at my local game store for Game Day JOU in a crowd of around 30.
The original deck idea came from the idea of just the idea of wanting to play tribal dragons in standard. Immediately recognizing Scourge of Valkas is the strongest card with a tribal dragon synergy is where the brewing began. At 5 mana, a 4/4 with flying is fairly unimpressive on it’s own, especially in a world full of Desecration Demon’s and Stormbreath Dragons, therefore another approach to its value was necessary. Prophet of Kruphix is just what the dragons needed, and the colors of the deck were established; RUG Dragons. These two cards proved to be the solid foundation in which the deck is built around.
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Kiora's Follower
3 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Prophet of Kruphix
4 Scourge of Valkas
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Progenitor Mimic
2 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
3 Domri Rade
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Kiora, The Crashing Wave
Lands :24
4 Steam Vents
4 Breeding Pool
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Temple of Mystery
2 Mutavault
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swan Song
1 Negate
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Bident of Thassa
3 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Magma Spray
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Unravel the Aether
The Deck consists of eleven mana dorks and fifteen 5+ drops therefore the synergy between the cards had to be incredible to make the deck work as imagined.
Elvish Mystic & Sylvan Caryatid: These were obvious choices as the deck is racing to that 5 mana sweet spot. Once at five mana, short of god awful draws, the deck gets out of control, and fast.
Kiora's Follower: Another Mana dork, with an upside. Kiora’s follower allows you to tap any land twice, allowing for color fixing, helping with Scourge of Valkas’ triple R requirement. The ability to also untap a fatty after attacking allows for the deck to have an easier time racing your opponent. It also has synergy with the sideboard card Bow of Nylea allowing multiple activations of its ability per turn, which can be game breaking.
Polukranos, World Eater: I know, I know party foul! Polukranos is part of the deck because it direly needed a strong body early. Tribal Dragons is fun and all, but tribal dragons that is competitive and wins is much more appealing. Standard is still very cutthroat and Polukranos is just too much value to pass up. Also not having this guy would make mono blue the worst match up ever if they ever drew their Master of Waves before you hit your five mana.
Prophet of Kruphix: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Seedborn Muse’s love child, is probably one of the most broken cards I have ever seen, and it’s amazing that it doesn’t see more play outside of commander, which is another beast in of itself. Prophet can come out as early as turn three making your opponents fear what the rest of your hand is, especially after game one in which they will naturally assume is chalk full of big scary dragons. There is nothing greater that having a turn three Prophet of Kruphix untapping on their turn and slamming your Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, they are just too overwhelmed at that point if they do not have an answer immediately.
Scourge of Valkas: The card that makes this deck not only works but allows it to win as well. This card has so much synergy and value with the rest of the deck it is unreal. Scourge of Valkas is your removal suit in the main board, and it gets out of control quickly. Playing a lowly Scourge of Valkas most often only pings for one killing a Lifebane Zombie, or keeping that pesky enemy planeswalker one loyalty lower. However when a Mutavault is involved that ping is a virtually free 2 damage anywhere. When you begin playing multiple Scourge of Valkas’ and other dragon’s are coming into play the free value pings become exponential, as they play off each other, and just as you’re starting to have fun, your opponent’s life total hit zero after a few pings and a few swings. The greatest synergy of this card is when Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius enters the battlefield with one of these all-stars on the field, Niv-Mizzet is the source of damage on the triggered ability, and therefore if you direct the damage at the player, you even get to draw a card. On top of all that, the scourge has fire breathing, because why not.
Stormbreath Dragon: The Dragon that everyone assumes you have four of immediately. The reason this deck runs only two is because the five drop slot is already incredibly large and Prophet of Kruphix and Scourge of Valkas are just too good to cut.
Progenitor Mimic: Basically another dragon, however if this sticks, cloning a Scourge of Valkas you kind of just win.
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius: The machine gun of the deck. This dragon single handed can win you games through both the overwhelming card advantage, and his ability to just ping at will. This card with Prophet of Kruphix is insane, either you wipe a board, or draw 3 or more cards a turn, including on their turn.
Keranos, God of Storms: A card for pure value, I have only ever really flashed it in off a Prophet of Kruphix, as I feel it is too clunky of a card to spend your entire turn casting it. However, as a new addition to the deck it has proven strong against both decks with lower toughness creatures, and control. As well as adding card advantage, it has proven to be a great addition.
Prime Speaker Zegana: You are playing Dragons, you land her you draw a lot of cards its basically your sphinx’s revelation of the deck.
Planeswalkers:
Planeswalkers in this deck are used to create multiple angles of attack which is particularly useful against control.
Domri Rade: The deck runs zero spells and big monsters, Domri is just sheer value and a low curve walker that has to be dealt with amongst all your dragons or his ult will just ruin the opponents
Xenagos, the Reveler: Xenagos’ +1 is Gaea's Cradle and you have eleven mana dorks, I’ve done some very explosive things with that. The rest of his kit is okay, especially against control when you don’t want to hyper commit the board into a verdict.
Kiora, The Crashing Wave: A one of as it is good to have more walkers against control, and being able to pump lands out quicker, especially when you’re flooding, drawing cards as an upside at the same time is just a lot of value.
No Spells Main Board: This deck is heavy with synergies, and that’s what makes it work, it often comes out game one explosive killing your opponent before they realize what you are playing. The deck is very proactive and any spells in these colors that follow this game plan are more reactive than proactive and hurt the core of the deck.
The sideboard is partially reactive to what your opponents are playing. In other cases the sideboard is a complete change in the proactive game plan against certain decks.
Aggro: The match up forces you to lower your curve, but you have to keep your synergy or you will accomplish nothing but losing slower instead of going for the win. Bringing in the removal to replace the over the slower cards such as Progenitor Mimic, and Keranos, God of Storms
Burn: The match up against burn sucks, its basically a coin flip. Burn will try to cheese your life down to zero, as that is what it is designed to do. Stick to your game plan, however do not pay life with your shock lands if you can prevent it. Burn can only do so much damage, don’t add fuel to the fire and try to win the way you would beat any other deck. Sideboard out the slower cards and if needed some walkers to bring in your 2 life gain sources Bow of Nylea and Courser of Kruphix, as well as your Negate, Swan Song to counter any big burn spells. Magma Spray is also handy for those Chandra's Pheonix
Monoblack: The best part about this match up is when they Thoughtseize you turn one. The opponent will have no idea what to expect from you and are dumbfounded. The main board is mostly well tuned, if they play whip you can side in Unravel the Aether. Negate and Swan Song are also good just to counter their removal along with Rapid Hybridization to kill a Desecration Demon to ensure you still rule the skies.
R/Gx Monsters: Another Matchup in which the main board is well tuned, bringing in the rapid Hybridization is fine, along with the Bow of Nylea to allow Polukranos, World Eater and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius to machine gun the opponent’s board.
Mono Blue: Mono blue is basically a race. Since Scourge of Valkas cannot hit Master of Waves, short of Polukranos, World Eater you have no real way to interact with that card, and however you can be explosive enough to make their life points zero before yours does. Sideboard you want to bring in the Mizzium Mortars for removal to keep the devotion down, Magma Spray for an early Cloudfin Raptor, and Rapid Hybridization because a 3/3 Froglizard is a lot easier to deal with than a Master of Waves.
There have been a few cards that have come and gone in the creation and testing of the deck. These are some ideas in which could still be viable but would not suit the meta I have found myself in.
Utvara Hellkite: This deck originally ran an Utvara Hellkite because, well dragons galore. It worked wonders but I found myself siding it out against every match up because either the opponent’s deck was too fast for it to work properly, or it was really soft to Detention Sphere and wrath effects.
Fathom Mage: Another original part of the deck. Playing dragons means Fathom Mage is going to have a lot of value off of it’s evolve triggers. However while drawing cards feels great, it felt like an underwhelming top deck and merely a win more when it was working.
Mana Confluence: In a three color deck Mana Confluence seems good. I found the card was a little to painful when you were tapping it twice a turn via Kiora's Follower or Prophet of Kruphix however and the shocks were just better value and more controllable.
Removal: If weenies or mono red beat down becomes more dominant in the meta more Mizzium Mortars, Magma Spray or even Anger of the Gods could replace the Courser of Kruphix in the sideboard.
Harness by Force: This card is worth considering because you should usually find yourself with a lot of red mana sources, due to Scourge of Valkas and it could be a massive blow out against certain decks, say mono black stealing multiple Desecration Demons or G/Rx Monsters.
Who doesn’t love a deck jam packed with Dragons, in standard at that. The deck seems too good to be true, however the results are better than I could have ever expected. The Record with this deck is around 16-4-2 since I have been playing it. This record is from mostly Friday Night Magic in which I usually take home first place, on top of having a 100% record over roughly five matches against someone who made top 4 at a 250 person PTQ in Toronto during the Theros season. I was also the only non aggro/burn deck to top 8 at my local game store for Game Day JOU in a crowd of around 30.
The original deck idea came from the idea of just the idea of wanting to play tribal dragons in standard. Immediately recognizing Scourge of Valkas is the strongest card with a tribal dragon synergy is where the brewing began. At 5 mana, a 4/4 with flying is fairly unimpressive on it’s own, especially in a world full of Desecration Demon’s and Stormbreath Dragons, therefore another approach to its value was necessary. Prophet of Kruphix is just what the dragons needed, and the colors of the deck were established; RUG Dragons. These two cards proved to be the solid foundation in which the deck is built around.
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Kiora's Follower
3 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Prophet of Kruphix
4 Scourge of Valkas
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Progenitor Mimic
2 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
3 Domri Rade
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Kiora, The Crashing Wave
Lands :24
4 Steam Vents
4 Breeding Pool
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Temple of Mystery
2 Mutavault
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swan Song
1 Negate
2 Courser of Kruphix
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Bident of Thassa
3 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Magma Spray
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Unravel the Aether
The Deck consists of eleven mana dorks and fifteen 5+ drops therefore the synergy between the cards had to be incredible to make the deck work as imagined.
Elvish Mystic & Sylvan Caryatid: These were obvious choices as the deck is racing to that 5 mana sweet spot. Once at five mana, short of god awful draws, the deck gets out of control, and fast.
Kiora's Follower: Another Mana dork, with an upside. Kiora’s follower allows you to tap any land twice, allowing for color fixing, helping with Scourge of Valkas’ triple R requirement. The ability to also untap a fatty after attacking allows for the deck to have an easier time racing your opponent. It also has synergy with the sideboard card Bow of Nylea allowing multiple activations of its ability per turn, which can be game breaking.
Polukranos, World Eater: I know, I know party foul! Polukranos is part of the deck because it direly needed a strong body early. Tribal Dragons is fun and all, but tribal dragons that is competitive and wins is much more appealing. Standard is still very cutthroat and Polukranos is just too much value to pass up. Also not having this guy would make mono blue the worst match up ever if they ever drew their Master of Waves before you hit your five mana.
Prophet of Kruphix: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Seedborn Muse’s love child, is probably one of the most broken cards I have ever seen, and it’s amazing that it doesn’t see more play outside of commander, which is another beast in of itself. Prophet can come out as early as turn three making your opponents fear what the rest of your hand is, especially after game one in which they will naturally assume is chalk full of big scary dragons. There is nothing greater that having a turn three Prophet of Kruphix untapping on their turn and slamming your Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, they are just too overwhelmed at that point if they do not have an answer immediately.
Scourge of Valkas: The card that makes this deck not only works but allows it to win as well. This card has so much synergy and value with the rest of the deck it is unreal. Scourge of Valkas is your removal suit in the main board, and it gets out of control quickly. Playing a lowly Scourge of Valkas most often only pings for one killing a Lifebane Zombie, or keeping that pesky enemy planeswalker one loyalty lower. However when a Mutavault is involved that ping is a virtually free 2 damage anywhere. When you begin playing multiple Scourge of Valkas’ and other dragon’s are coming into play the free value pings become exponential, as they play off each other, and just as you’re starting to have fun, your opponent’s life total hit zero after a few pings and a few swings. The greatest synergy of this card is when Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius enters the battlefield with one of these all-stars on the field, Niv-Mizzet is the source of damage on the triggered ability, and therefore if you direct the damage at the player, you even get to draw a card. On top of all that, the scourge has fire breathing, because why not.
Stormbreath Dragon: The Dragon that everyone assumes you have four of immediately. The reason this deck runs only two is because the five drop slot is already incredibly large and Prophet of Kruphix and Scourge of Valkas are just too good to cut.
Progenitor Mimic: Basically another dragon, however if this sticks, cloning a Scourge of Valkas you kind of just win.
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius: The machine gun of the deck. This dragon single handed can win you games through both the overwhelming card advantage, and his ability to just ping at will. This card with Prophet of Kruphix is insane, either you wipe a board, or draw 3 or more cards a turn, including on their turn.
Keranos, God of Storms: A card for pure value, I have only ever really flashed it in off a Prophet of Kruphix, as I feel it is too clunky of a card to spend your entire turn casting it. However, as a new addition to the deck it has proven strong against both decks with lower toughness creatures, and control. As well as adding card advantage, it has proven to be a great addition.
Prime Speaker Zegana: You are playing Dragons, you land her you draw a lot of cards its basically your sphinx’s revelation of the deck.
Planeswalkers:
Planeswalkers in this deck are used to create multiple angles of attack which is particularly useful against control.
Domri Rade: The deck runs zero spells and big monsters, Domri is just sheer value and a low curve walker that has to be dealt with amongst all your dragons or his ult will just ruin the opponents
Xenagos, the Reveler: Xenagos’ +1 is Gaea's Cradle and you have eleven mana dorks, I’ve done some very explosive things with that. The rest of his kit is okay, especially against control when you don’t want to hyper commit the board into a verdict.
Kiora, The Crashing Wave: A one of as it is good to have more walkers against control, and being able to pump lands out quicker, especially when you’re flooding, drawing cards as an upside at the same time is just a lot of value.
No Spells Main Board: This deck is heavy with synergies, and that’s what makes it work, it often comes out game one explosive killing your opponent before they realize what you are playing. The deck is very proactive and any spells in these colors that follow this game plan are more reactive than proactive and hurt the core of the deck.
The sideboard is partially reactive to what your opponents are playing. In other cases the sideboard is a complete change in the proactive game plan against certain decks.
Aggro: The match up forces you to lower your curve, but you have to keep your synergy or you will accomplish nothing but losing slower instead of going for the win. Bringing in the removal to replace the over the slower cards such as Progenitor Mimic, and Keranos, God of Storms
Burn: The match up against burn sucks, its basically a coin flip. Burn will try to cheese your life down to zero, as that is what it is designed to do. Stick to your game plan, however do not pay life with your shock lands if you can prevent it. Burn can only do so much damage, don’t add fuel to the fire and try to win the way you would beat any other deck. Sideboard out the slower cards and if needed some walkers to bring in your 2 life gain sources Bow of Nylea and Courser of Kruphix, as well as your Negate, Swan Song to counter any big burn spells. Magma Spray is also handy for those Chandra's Pheonix
Monoblack: The best part about this match up is when they Thoughtseize you turn one. The opponent will have no idea what to expect from you and are dumbfounded. The main board is mostly well tuned, if they play whip you can side in Unravel the Aether. Negate and Swan Song are also good just to counter their removal along with Rapid Hybridization to kill a Desecration Demon to ensure you still rule the skies.
R/Gx Monsters: Another Matchup in which the main board is well tuned, bringing in the rapid Hybridization is fine, along with the Bow of Nylea to allow Polukranos, World Eater and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius to machine gun the opponent’s board.
Mono Blue: Mono blue is basically a race. Since Scourge of Valkas cannot hit Master of Waves, short of Polukranos, World Eater you have no real way to interact with that card, and however you can be explosive enough to make their life points zero before yours does. Sideboard you want to bring in the Mizzium Mortars for removal to keep the devotion down, Magma Spray for an early Cloudfin Raptor, and Rapid Hybridization because a 3/3 Froglizard is a lot easier to deal with than a Master of Waves.
There have been a few cards that have come and gone in the creation and testing of the deck. These are some ideas in which could still be viable but would not suit the meta I have found myself in.
Utvara Hellkite: This deck originally ran an Utvara Hellkite because, well dragons galore. It worked wonders but I found myself siding it out against every match up because either the opponent’s deck was too fast for it to work properly, or it was really soft to Detention Sphere and wrath effects.
Fathom Mage: Another original part of the deck. Playing dragons means Fathom Mage is going to have a lot of value off of it’s evolve triggers. However while drawing cards feels great, it felt like an underwhelming top deck and merely a win more when it was working.
Mana Confluence: In a three color deck Mana Confluence seems good. I found the card was a little to painful when you were tapping it twice a turn via Kiora's Follower or Prophet of Kruphix however and the shocks were just better value and more controllable.
Removal: If weenies or mono red beat down becomes more dominant in the meta more Mizzium Mortars, Magma Spray or even Anger of the Gods could replace the Courser of Kruphix in the sideboard.
Harness by Force: This card is worth considering because you should usually find yourself with a lot of red mana sources, due to Scourge of Valkas and it could be a massive blow out against certain decks, say mono black stealing multiple Desecration Demons or G/Rx Monsters.
Cloudstone Curio is a card worth looking into if you do invest into the eldrazi as they can make an infinitely big Animar amongst other things.
Blood Speaker lets you tutor our some big demons at will or Rune-scarred Demon who is a free tutor with Kaalia
Celestial MantleAfter a swing or two short of infect, general damage, or infinite combos you would be really hard to kill.
Runes of the Deus This is probably one of the best enchantments you can stick on him