Article -- Head to Head: Dragon

[Rakso]

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=6269

Quote Right now, I'm obliged to finish my long-delayed Mirrodin review, plus the Black-based aggro-control features of The Control Player's Bible. However, I decided that I want to have a bit of fun and at the same time give people something more related to December 1. So, I'll break the Bible's order again.

Dragon, Hero 't Mannetje, Champion, October 26, 2003 Eindhoven
Engine (27)
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Intuition
2 Compulsion
3 Animate Dead
2 Dance of the Dead
3 Necromancy
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Ambassador Laquatus
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

Disruption (7)
3 Duress
4 Force of Will

Other spells (5)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Cunning Wish
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Mana (21)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Rebuild
1 Stroke of Genius
3 Verdant Force
4 Xantid Swarm

[MoreFling]

way too many logs, and no real info yet again.

O_o

[Dr. Sylvan]

I appreciated that this was against a far better deck than last time, but I thought the logs chosen should've been ones without play mistakes to better illustrate the matchup. Commentary could still have been included such as "and right here is where he screwed up in an earlier game, so be warned." Most importantly, I think the Head to Head would be more instructive if there was a little more explication of why the opposing deck runs certain cards and a little less meandering Appr log. The general SCG reader also has little idea why Dragon is good now, as opposed to six months ago when it was being referred to as a n00b combo deck.

While mulliganing a lot sucks, the fact that the first 'tournament report' Rakso has ever included about himself in his articles essentially read "manascrew!!1!" didn't rub me the right way. I would've preferred to simply get the "I went 3-2-1 and this is how the matches happened" version, which would've made it fairly clear how bad the draws were.

[/aiming for constructive criticism]

[Desert Fox]

Wow, Rakso actually admitted to getting pwned by budget aggro in a real life tournament with Keeper! I was expecting tedious, boring logs with him winning.

Quote The original decks worked with the Entomb, then Animate Dead play, and they had to make sure Stroke of Genius was in hand, a Blue mana source was on the board, Animate wasn't countered, and Dragon wasn't killed by instant removal, especially not by Swords to Plowshares.

Actually, most early Dragon decks I saw (and played) used Cunning Wish to get the Stroke and drew their entire deck with Aerial Caravan for protection of the win.

Maybe I missed the first iterations of the deck, though.

Quote The games where I won over Freddy were very entertaining, so here's another one.

I just about died when I read that.  \n\n

[spevack]

114 articles to discover that playing in a REAL TOUNAMENT is worlds apart from playing online.

[glenchuy]

to his credit.  i personally watched one game where he mulled down to five. it's not your day when mulling down to five is the norm instead of being the exception.