No, I didn't want to make general statements on duress, I was just assuming that WGDX player knows he's facing GAT, of course if he expected combo I'd not questioned the choice - while for myself, I've nonetheless tutored for Lotus, given the strength this archetype develop when pushing on his front leg.


Yes, sorry to not make it clean, but that was what I intended.
I think that, given the cards, it would have been clever to sit on vamp->gush,opt , instead of night whispering for the same net, while I totally get what you mean when you talk about "urgency" with regard to GAT development.


I agree that draw spells are of a critical importance.
What I intended was that if the GAT player choose to follow up so heavily the draw street, as a WGDX player I'll gladly race with him instead to trying to stop it.

On a conclusive note, I'm arguing that it seems to me more productive playing WGDX with a more aggressive attitude, while, on the other hand, I'd prefered GAT challenge the match with a more cautious approach.
This raise a long time question of mine.
I've really like WGDX instance of Dragon for being so persistent in producing threats, while I feel somewhat uncomfortable in taking the control role, this is why I've always felt uncomfortable in playing the deck, for example, with an high count of disruption, or with a low count of dragon or animate spells.
What do you think are WGDX strong points and right attitudes when taking the control role?

thanks once again and sorry in advance for any mistakes.

First of all I'd like to thank you for continuing to pushing effort in the archetype, you really light up awesome pieces of advice everytime you wrote about dragon.
The article is very well written and it was from such time that I (as I think a lot of people) really long for a play by play discussion on WGDX matchups that it is really a nice surprise.

On topic, there are a couple of choices that I'd like to comment:


At the moment GAT hand has draw, disruption and next land drop, I don't see any need to make Night's Whispers,given that he can just leave the vamp+opt option backed-up by mana drain.
As a dragon player I've never felt myself threatened by draw spells, so I think GAT player choice
here as an unnecessary rush, while it has been a priority developing while keeping potentials.
I think this is the key in GAT defeat in this match (other than running rebuild instead of echoing truth in his maindeck ).


I think I don't get WGDX line of play here. He let resolve fastbond, but he decide to to counter the ancestral fetched off by mystical tutor ?? He seems to me just picking up a plan and not adhering to it.
IMHO, if WGDX player chooses to let fasbond resolves, then, on his next turn he would just have sea, pearl -> demonic -> lotus, opening to intuition-> 3 deep (on GAT threat), then force ( removing deep) just to have the 2nd intuition open up in the future .
Underground -> duress, seems just like a tempo loss, I'd have prefered to force the attrition war first then just playing duress in a more developed scenario (once decided to let fastbond resolve).   
Letting fastbond resolve is right imho, while bothering about it in the immediate isn't.

From a general point view I think that GAT is a slightly favorable match-up for WGDX, given its ability to put pressure both via threatening comboing out and outdrawing with DA, and this way depleting GAT resources, or at least those were my impressions when I tested the matchup some month ago.
Sure I may be totally wrong, I just want to point out some play I don't get, probably for lack of experience or different playstile.

I'd be really glad to see this series of WGDX vs the World continues (maybe with flash and ichorid, which are the real dragon's nightmares...), and I have some point on sideboard choices which I'd like to comment, while for now I just prefer to rest on  the topic WGDX vs GAT.

Again, thank you for the article and sorry for the bad english.

 

Hi, I'm an italian player and since the releasing of WGDX I've tested the deck a lot.
I'd like to share some personal thoughts about the deck and the current metagame.
 
As dicemanx as long pointed out the three main concern dragon has currently to worry about
are:
1) Extirpate
2) Leyline
3) Faster Combo

Before answering those treats it has to consider how far the last iteration of dragon build has gone.
WGDX has the merit of having very strong hate-dodging capabilities both  in its draw engine (deep and tons of instants),
and in combo-execution (7 animate, 4 dragon and again tons of istants win-cond).
Such structural features allow to develope dragon game in presence of crypts, needles,
bouncers and other hosers, more than often even without relying on your wishing capabilities.
The second valuable aspect is that it has the best storm-combo match-up dragon has ever
had,  via the speed enhancement (provided by higher redundancy and artifact acceleration),
supported by duress and high reliable( blue spell density) and available (rtr, wishes) pitch counters.
That ascertained, imho there aren't other points worth consideration, while at the opposite
it'is a crucial point not to lose the benefit this build gives.

1) Extirpate.
The card for sure is annoying, the most annoying part being you have to address it or accepting
random defeat. I don't think reducing the density of combo pieces or augmenting proactive
disruption in maindeck are good solutions, because you really end up weakening up your early
game. I've tried both, by raising disruption and/or running alternate winners but I've eventually end up rejecting them unless justified as very good metagame choices.
Those facts point me to answer extirpate by adopting green as splash color, entering Life from the Loam maindeck (in place of the 4th deep analysis) and placing 1 Research/Develoment in side.
This is imho the best solution you have when facing both kind of extirpate, extirpate as a singleton and extirpate en masse.
The last because you have multiple way to consolidate and recover your draw ( with LftL
as an option), the first because you can follow up the card advantage route and safe re-comboing out.
As a side note, Life from the Loam is enhanced by a an high count of fetchlands, adds power
to entomb and themes to intuition. I was skeptical at first, considering it too slow, but after
a lot of test I've decided for inclusion lowering duals and raising fetches.
For sake of completeness I've also tried pull from eternity in UBW and 5C configuration of the deck, the choice proving to be weaker in ubw for mana destabilization and in general for being too focused.

2) Leyline.
While extirpate is a stabber, leyline is the big dumb guy which holds you while his smarter friends punch you in the stomach. With almost every manoeuvres inhibited the deck really became a mass of mud. Frankly speaking, going head to head with the big guy doesn't seems to me the safer choice (given his friends ...), so again, unless packing a big amount of removals/bouncers is appealing for other reasons (as was ray of revelation in the oath matchup), I think leyline needs a different approach. Going transformational sideboard may be a good option, for example if you run a 5C configuration of the deck oath seems great. Tinker is similar, while a bit unreliable if left alone in this particular circumstance.
Imho a good manoeuvre is inserting a parallel theme in your engine, in such a way that you can develope (and capitalize hardcast deep analysis).
I personally tried Lim-dul's Vault which is also a good wish target in your first game.
Here in Italy dragon players have had success with WGDX-builds that run night's whispers as a 3x, which has also the benefit of  giving developing power to black.
A third option for sure is represented by the omnispeaked merchant scroll that find both protection/business and bouncer.

3) Faster Combo.
For the reasons exposed above I don't like the idea of raising-up maindeck disruption slot.
Given that the deck has by itself  good chances of quick comboing-out I think is better stretching the odds towards speed (by running entomb, more fetches, maindeck lotus petal, 7 animate, 4 dragon,..), than reducing combo or business slots.
Regarding focused sideboard options I think is a matter of metagame, with spell snare shining for being good also against archetypes other than flash.
Even in this matchups the 3x parallel business slot( ldv, whisper's or scroll) proved to shine post board, fact that lead me towards this kind of choice.
 

 
just my 2 cents.