Primer: Dragon Combo

[dicemanX]

I will post this in sections. There are 5 so far, with one more that I will post later.


I. The Worldgorger Dragon combo deck – what is it?

The Worldgorger Dragon combo deck came into existence after Judgement, the third set in the Odyssey cycle, became legal in all formats in the early part of 2002. It revolves around the abilities that trigger when a Worldgorger Dragon is animated from the graveyard using an enchantment such as Animate Dead. When the Dragon enters play this way, all other permanents leave play, including the Animate Dead. This causes the Dragon to return to the graveyard, causing all removed permanents to return to play, untapped. The Animate Dead returns as well, and can re-target the Dragon and thus  begin the process all over again. During each loop, the lands that leave play can be tapped for mana prior to their departure, and they come back untapped so that an endless supply of mana can be generated. These loops cannot be stopped (causing the game to be a draw), unless the Dragon player can target another creature with the Animate Dead, or if he can use instant effects to kill his opponent after generating large amounts of mana. The kill of choice for a long time was either Stroke of Genius, Ghitu Fire, or Magma Mine, until players started discovering new possibilities. Some experimented using other targets for Animate Dead, such as Ambassador Laquatus or Aerial Caravan, which could respectively either mill the opponent completely, or draw every single card in the library to find the kill card. Although many builds and strategies of this combo deck have emerged, there is often a big difference in opinion with respect to determining the most optimal build, if one exists.


II. Why play Dragon Combo vs any other combo?

Combo decks typically have three types of cards: combo pieces, search and/or card draw, and disruption. A fair way of comparing combo decks would be to examine both the amount and quality of these three card types. Other important criteria would be a combo deck’s speed, vulnerability to various forms of hate, and the stability of the mana base.

Worldgorger Dragon decks typically have the following advantages:

1. Redundancy of combo pieces – The fastest combo decks tend to have the most redundancy when it comes to their combo pieces. If there is a limit on the number of combo pieces that you can run, the average time it takes for the deck to combo the opponent increases - you will typically have to spend precious turns tutoring or drawing cards to set up your combo. The Academy combo deck has the ultimate form of redundancy, as the whole deck revolves around generating lots of mana and massive card drawing. Dragon decks are not too far behind, having multiple ways of getting the Dragon into the graveyard, multiple ways of animating the Dragon, and multiple ways of finishing off the opponent once an “infinite” amount of mana is generated. As a consequence, Dragon and Academy decks tend to be the fastest combo decks in T1.

2. Casting cost of combo pieces - Apart from the redundancy, another important consideration for a combo deck is the casting cost of its combo pieces. Dragon decks use very inexpensive cards to go off, including cards like Entomb at one mana, various Animate cards at two or three mana, or Intuition or Buried Alive at three mana. With a bit of mana acceleration, which could include something as simple as Dark Ritual, it is theoretically possible to go off on turn 1, perhaps turn 2; even without any acceleration, it is possible to pull off the combo on turn 2. Such feats do not even require particularly remarkable initial hands - this fact makes Dragon decks especially fearsome.
  
3. Flexibility of combo pieces – This is where Dragon combo decks really shine. Many of their combo pieces, especially the kill cards, have other potentially important functions such as tutoring power, card drawing, and creature destruction. This allows Dragon decks to have an incredible amount of flexibility, allowing you to contend with a wide variety of T1 decks.  The flexible combo pieces will be discussed in more detail below.

4. Number of available slots for disruption cards – Disruption is important for the combo deck to contend with control decks running counterspells and with decks using “hate” cards that can disrupt your combo. The more disruption you can run, the better you can protect your combo and the more chances you have of going off sooner. This is where Dragon decks outshine Academy – they can simply afford more slots dedicated to disruption so they have more chances of success, especially against control decks. In fact there are few combo decks that run as much disruption as Dragon; the only notable exceptions are Trix decks and Army of Squirrels decks, which tend to be slower on average with much less flexibility.

5. Reliability of the combo & time required for kill – If you go off with the Dragon deck unimpeded, you win immediately and 100% reliably. This gives you a slight advantage over decks like Academy and Turboland which always have the possibility of running out of gas while going off, or waste a lot of time trying to kill which might be a factor in a 50 minute round.

6. Ability to go off on opponent's turn – This is a huge point against control based strategies. Dragon is the only combo deck that can win with instants on your opponent's turn, or at least start counter wars on their turn. No other combo deck can do this.

7. The cost of building the deck - Worldgorger Dragon combo decks are one of the least expensive competitive combo decks to build, as they run fairly well without any power.

  


Disadvantage to running Worldgorger Dragon decks:

1.Vulnerability to hate cards – Because Dragon decks rely on a creature that needs to be animated from the graveyard with an enchantment, they are vulnerable to creature removal, enchantment removal, and graveyard removal. This might seem like a death knell for this deck, but the situation is not as hopeless as one might think. Enchantment removal is very scarce in most T1 metagames. Also, there are few top level decks that run significant amounts of creature removal spells that are capable of destroying the Dragon once it enters play. In fact, once you start looking at the optimal deck lists for the top level T1 decks, you will see very few Swords to Plowshares and Diabolic Edicts played in these decks. Those decks that do run such removal are often slow decks in any case, so they allow you to play around this form of disruption. Finally, graveyard hate is on the rise since TnT is proving to be a very popular deck choice. Nevertheless, most decks will not devote more than 1-3 graveyard hate cards in their SB, which allows the Dragon deck to remain very competitive.  


III. Choosing your approach to building a Dragon combo deck

Dragon decks can be constructed in a number of different ways, depending on a few factors. They can be either powered or unpowered, they can be either mono-black, black-blue, or 5-color, and they can feature either the two card combo (Buried Alive version; see below), three card combo (non-Buried Alive version; see below), or a hybrid of the two combos. Each of these approaches has both advantages and disadvantages:

1. Power vs non-Power – Builds that use Moxes, Lotus, Ancestral, and Timetwister tend to be stronger and faster, but this consideration is out of the player’s hands in any case. You can still compete with non-power builds.


2. Choice of colors in the Dragon deck

There are really just three choices here: mono-B, B/U, and 5-color. There is no distinction between the 5-color builds and 3 or 4-color builds - the reason is that every land in the Dragon deck should ideally be producing both U and B in addition to another color, so you end up using lands that produce any color of mana.

A. Mono-B build

Advantages: Mono-B Dragon decks are not vulnerable to non-basic hate, including Wastelands, Dwarven Miner, Blood Moon, and Back to Basics. This could be an extremely important consideration based on your metagame. For instance, if there is a lot of Keeper “hate” and many aggressive decks are using main-deck blood moons, or if you face mono-U decks that run main-deck Back to Basics, then mono-B might be the way to go. Also, mono-B is very consistent, and you’ll have no trouble casting any spell if you have any mana on the table.

Disadvantages: You lose some speed and flexibility, since you can run less tutors, card drawing, and blue-based disruption.



B. B/U  build

Advantages: Not as vulnerable to some non-basic hate (particularly Blood Moon and Back to Basics), but still susceptible to Wastelands on occasion. This build is also very consistent as far as being able to cast all of its cards, and you’re not forced to use any lands with significant drawbacks like the 5-color version.

Disadvantages: While more flexible than mono-B and having the two colors necessary for the fastest possible Dragon version, you still lose some flexibility against very specific cards, particularly permanents that function as enchantment removal or graveyard hate (e.g. Elvish Lyrist, Seal of Cleansing, Planar Void etc.). You still have the resources to deal with these cards, but they are slower and less reliable compared to what the 5-color version has to offer.

C. 5-color build  

Advantages: Highly flexible, giving you a wide range of choices against many different disruption and/or hate cards that might be used against you. This is discussed in considerable detail below.

Disadvantages: This version is highly susceptible to non-basic hate, while forcing you to run lands with annoying drawbacks, such as Gemstone Mines, City of Brass, and Undiscovered Paradise. It’s very difficult to discern how serious of a drawback this is compared to the advantage this deck gives you, so it really comes down to the metagame.  


3. Combo versions

A. Two card combo – This approach uses Buried Alive to fetch a Worldgorger Dragon and either Ambassador Laquatus or Aerial Caravan, followed by an Animate card. The upside to this approach is that you only need two cards to win, and you will usually have more slots open for disruption spells compared to the other builds. However, there is a serious drawback - you lose redundancy for one of your combo pieces, as you absolutely need Buried Alive or you cannot go off. This can seriously affect your consistency and speed, especially against decks that can disrupt you by either countering your Buried Alive or Duressing it out of your hand early. Furthermore, Buried Alive is a three-casting-cost Sorcery, which forces you to cast it on your turn. This can have serious implications against a number of decks, especially those that can drop a Tormod’s Crypt on their turn in response post SB.

B. Three card combo – This approach uses Entomb and/or Intuition to get a Worldgorger into the graveyard, followed by an Animate spell to generate infinite mana so that you can finish off with your kill spell. The problem is that you need three cards to pull this off. Even though Dragon decks tend to be very redundant as far as the combo pieces are concerned, it is nevertheless difficult to assemble the correct components to win. Counterspell based control decks tend to be quite problematic, as you will be forced to assemble not only your three combo pieces, but some sort of disruption spell(s) to force your combo through.

C. Hybrid combo – This approach combines both the two card combo and three card combos. This combination virtually eliminates the inherent drawbacks discussed above. You are no longer reliant on Buried Alive, you still have the two card combo for more consistency, and you have even more redundancy as far as getting your Worldgorger Dragon in the graveyard (since you are running both Entomb and Buried Alive, as well as Intuition).

[dicemanX]

IV. Card Choices

Because of the various approaches one can take to constructing the Worldgorger Dragon deck, there is in all likelihood no single optimal build. However, there are still optimal card choices you can make. In this section, all of the possible card choices for Dragon decks will be discussed (for main deck and sideboard), with a rating given for each card (either excellent/good/average/poor). In section V, example builds will be given.

The cards are broken down into various categories: combo pieces, tutors/search/card drawing, disruption, and mana sources. A number of cards qualify for more than one category, so they might be listed more than once. Such cards have typically very high ratings, so deserve serious consideration when building the deck.


A. Combo pieces

i. Cards that put creatures into graveyard

There are two types of such cards. The first type searches out the creatures from your library and puts them in the graveyard. There are only three cards that do this: Buried Alive, Entomb, and Intuition. The rest of the cards provide the means for getting a drawn creature into the graveyard, such as Wheel of Fortune, Bazaar of Baghdad, Read the Runes etc. This might seem like a very narrow set of cards to use because you will not draw your creatures very often. However, they are listed here because they are usually very flexible cards, and can provide card drawing or function as win conditions.


Buried Alive – This card allows you to put both a Worldgorger Dragon and either Ambassador Laquatus or Aerial Caravan into your graveyard to set-up the two card combo. It also usually serves to clear your library of all creatures at once, which improves your draws. The drawback to this card is the fact that it is a 3-cc sorcery, but as long as you don’t rely on this card completely you can minimize this down-side. Rating: excellent

Entomb – Another high-quality card that puts a Worldgorger Dragon into the graveyard, at instant speed and only one mana, while often functioning as a kill card when you’re going off as well. It also helps you remove cards from your library that are no longer useful (such as a Buried Alive or other Entombs etc), since Entomb can search out any card, not just creature cards. Rating: excellent
 
Intuition – A must in any Dragon deck, this card has multiple functions. It can put Dragons in the graveyard, it can serve as a regular tutor for any card that you have three copies of in your library, and it functions as your kill card when you’re going off. You must use two Dragons in your deck for this card to be effective. Rating: excellent

Wheel of Fortune – This puts a Dragon in the graveyard only when you’ve drawn one. This is an excellent inclusion in a Dragon deck as it helps you to draw more cards; despite its symmetry, it is the combo deck that will benefit most from refilling the hand. Only useable in the 5-color version, unfortunately. Rating: excellent

Windfall - Similar to Wheel, but weaker as it doesn't work very well if opponent has few cards in hand. It still merits consideration if you are not running red in your build. Rating: average

Read the Runes - This puts a Dragon in the graveyard only when you’ve drawn one. This card is also very flexible. It can allow you to have a net gain of cards if you sacrifice useless permanents or discard any creature cards; it also helps to cycle through your cards much faster to set up your hand, and it can serve as a kill card as well. A must have. Rating: excellent

Frantic Search – Similar to Read the Runes, except that it limits the amount of cards you can draw and cannot be used as a kill card. Untapping up to three lads is marginally useful, given that this can be used at instant speed anyways. It’s restricted to boot. Rating: poor

Careful Study – Similar to Read the Runes and Frantic Search, but likewise limited in terms of the number of cards you can draw and the fact that it cannot be used as a kill card. Rating: average

Vodalian Merchant - Not only can this put a drawn Dragon into the graveyard, but it also serves as a win condition. Because it's a creature it can also protect your Worldgorger against Diabolic Edict, while giving you the option to (chump) block. The downside is that if he is killed after coming into play, your no longer have the option to draw the game in desperation by animating a Dragon. Rating: good

Bazaar of Baghdad – Similar to Read the Runes. The upside is that it is re-usable and could conceivably find you a kill card when you’re going off - Bazaar comes back untapped with each cycle, so you can use it multiple times. It’s a kill card if you have either Ambassador Laquatus or Aerial Caravan in your deck, as you can mill yourself repeatedly when going off. Bazaar could be excellent with multiple Squees, but its often difficult to find room for them main deck. The downside is that Bazaar costs you a land drop, and is vulnerable to Strip Mine and Wasteland. Rating: good-excellent

Compulsion - Like the Bazaar, it serves many purposes, including being a win condition. The upside is that it is much less vulnerable to removal, but the downside is that it is slower. Compulsion is particularly good with Squee, however, if you choose to run them in your deck. Rating: good-excellent

Anvil of Bogardan – A colorless way of getting a drawn creature into the graveyard, while allowing you to rapidly cycle through your deck. The symmetry might be a potential problem, however. Rating: poor-average

Jalum Tome – A non-symmetric version of Anvil of Bogardan, but it costs three to put into play and has an activation cost of  two. It improves your card quality, and functions as a kill card, so it has excellent flexibility. Might or might not be more effective than Bazaar of Baghdad – it’s a tough call. Rating: good-excellent



ii. Cards that animate the Dragon

Dance of the Dead – only 2 cc, and increases the Dragon’s toughness by one. This might be very significant against a deck like Sligh, which cannot use a Fireblast + Lightning Bolt to kill the Dragon and end the combo. Rating: excellent

Animate Dead – Exactly like Dance of the Dead, except toughness is not boosted. However, Animate Dead can be more useful when you might want to animate a non-Dragon creature (the Caravan, or a Verdant Force; see below). Rating: excellent

Necromancy – This is a three-casting-cost enchantment, which makes it potentially a little slower as you will need three mana to go off – you only theoretically need two mana to go off with the Dance of the Dead or Animate Dead. However, Necromancy can be played as an instant, forcing a control deck to counter on their turn, or allowing you to get around Planar Void or Ankh of Mishra post SB. Rating: good-excellent



iii. The kill cards when you’re going off

Before I list the cards, I want to clarify what exactly constitutes a "kill" card. While something like Stroke of Genius or Ghitu Fire actually win the game for you, I consider the game over if you are able to draw every card in your deck, or if you have the means to find the kill. This is why cards like Aerial Caravan and Read the Runes (mass card draw) , Bazaar of Baghdad (search card for Caravan/Ambassador),  Entomb and Intuition (instant speed tutors that find the kill cards) are listed here. Also, don't forget that cards like Bazaar of Baghdad, Cursed Scroll, Scrying Glass, and any other kill card that's a permanent in play, can be used an unlimited number of times when you're going off. This is because the pemanents all leave play and come back untapped. Here is the complete list:

Aerial Caravan – This is a non-counterable way of drawing your whole library when you go off, provided you have a pain-free source of blue mana on the table. It’s a creature to boot, having excellent synergy with cards like Buried Alive, Read the Runes, multiple Entombs. A virtual must-inclusion in any Dragon deck. Rating: excellent

Ambassador Laquatus – A non-counterable win condition, having the same synergies as Aerial Caravan. The upside of the Ambassador is that he will win you the game single-handedly; the Caravan still requires that you play a kill card to finish off the opponent. Also, the Ambassador is excellent against Orim’s Chant or Abeyance, as the Animate on Worldgorger will be the last spell you will have to cast to win the game, provided that the Ambassador is already in the graveyard or has a way of getting there (via Bazaar). Another advantage to the Ambassador is that he can mill the library with only colorless mana, which allows you to play him in mono-B builds. The downside to the Ambassador, compared to the Caravan, is that he cannot handle Gaeas’s Blessings very well, which are played by Oath decks. Furthermore, the Caravan can actually be cast or animated providing a very useful draw effect; the Ambassador’s ability in such scenarios is virtually useless. Rating: excellent

Intuition – Intuition can fetch any instant kill card when you’re going off, which can include cards like Entomb, Cunning Wish, Read the Runes, etc. You can also Intuition for either the Ambassador or Caravan and another non-Dragon creature (if you choose to run one). Rating: excellent

Entomb – Provided that you’re running the Ambassador or the Caravan, the Entomb can fetch those kill cards when you’re going off. Rating: excellent

Cunning Wish – These are usually played if you do not want to include a main-deck kill card like Stroke of Genius, relegating it to the side board instead. Wishes are highly flexible, allowing you to fetch disruption or answers from the side board as well. They are absolute must-haves in your deck. Rating: excellent

Read the Runes – You can draw your whole library with this card when going off, keeping whatever cards you need by sacrificing all the permanents that you have on the table. Rating: excellent

Scrying Glass – Provided that your opponent has at least one colored-card in hand, you can use this card to draw your entire library when going off (the Glass returns to play untapped after each cycle). If your opponent doesn’t have any colored cards in hand, chances are that he’s playing a non-control deck which you should be able to defeat regardless. Furthermore, the Glass gives you much needed card drawing and gives you a peek at the opponent’s hand to scan for any creature/enchantment removal. A highly flexible card. Rating: excellent

Bazaar of Baghdad – This is a kill card if you use either the Caravan or the Ambassador in your deck by repeatedly milling yourself until you get one of them in your graveyard. Rating: good-excellent

Compulsion - Similar to Bazaar. Rating: good-excellent

Jalum Tome – Similar to the Bazaar or Scrying Glass - you can either use it to cycle through your deck to find the kill or eventually drop a Caravan/Ambassador into your graveyard. The problem is that it doesn't net you card advantage outside of the combo and its more vulnerable than Compulsion (as all artifacts are compared to enchantments) Rating: good

Vodalian Merchant - A win condition that offers Edict protection and serves occasionally as a chump blocker - remember, it's ability triggers every time it leaves and re-enters play when you're going off, so it has a similar function to cards like Compulsion and Bazaar of Baghdad. It's two-toughness also helps to block Ophidians vs mono-U, which could be very important. Rating: good

Cursed Scroll – Allows you to win when going off by dealing damage, provided that you have at least one card in hand. It also doubles as creature removal or an alternate route to victory, which makes this card potentially very useful against certain decks. For instance, it can be used to kill most of suicide-B’s creatures after they whittle down your hand with their hand disruption and stop you from going off early. Very flexible card. Rating: good (or excellent depending on the deck you’re facing)

Whispers of the Muse – You can use Whispers to draw your entire library when you go off. However, it’s cantrip ability is virtually useless – if you cast Whispers to draw a card, you are trading a kill card for a random top-deck. Compare this to Read the Runes, for instance. Rating: poor

Stroke of Genius – Generally a poor main deck choice, as it lacks flexibility. You cannot even cast it if you draw it if it’s your only kill card in the deck an you have no graveyard recursion. This is better off in the SB while using main deck Wishes instead. Rating: poor

Ghitu Fire/Flaming Gambit – See Stroke of Genius. You have to have a red source of mana in play when you go off to boot. Flaming Gambit has good synergy with Intuition, as you can cast it from the graveyard as an instant due to its flashback cost. However, it becomes a very poor kill condition if your opponent gets a creature on the table before you can go off. Rating: poor

Magma Mine – Again, not very flexible. Much worse than Cursed Scroll, for instance. Rating: poor



B. Tutoring/search/ card drawing

i. Tutoring

Demonic Tutor – A no-brainer. Rating: excellent

Vampiric Tutor - A no-brainer. Particularly good against suicide, allowing you to hide your card on top of the library. Rating: excellent

Mystical Tutor - A no-brainer. Particularly good against suicide, allowing you to hide your card on top of the library. Rating: excellent

Intuition – A highly flexible card, as described above. Another no-brainer. Rating: excellent

Cunning Wish – A fantastic tutor for specific cards in the sideboard, including disruption cards and/or Entomb, Read the Runes etc. A must have. Rating: excellent

Merchant Scroll – It’s not an instant, so it cannot be used as a kill condition. The Scroll is never bad if you’re running Ancestral Recall, and can help you track down an Intuition or Cunning Wish. A tough call on this one. Rating: good (maybe excellent)

Lim-Dul’s Vault – Excellent tutoring power, but the mana requirement is a bit harsh. It’s generally weaker than either the Mystical or Vampiric Tutors, so the question is whether you want a third, less reliable tutor that puts a card on top of the library. Rating: average


ii. Search

Impulse – A cantrip that gives you a limited search is always a good inclusion. However, Impulse is a bit weaker in the Dragon deck compared to other search cards such as Read the Runes, which can function additionally as kill. It lacks flexibility, but it is still very useful nonetheless. Rating: average

Tainted Pact – Like Impulse, but could potentially search deeper into your library. The trade-off is that you can hit the same spell twice and draw zero cards as a result. Nevertheless, the Pact can be a decent choice in mono-B. Rating: average

Brainstorm – Lacks flexibility, and can be quite poor if you do not combine it with your few shuffle effects (tutors, Entomb, and fetch-lands). Impulse is probably better. Rating: poor-average

Frantic Search/Careful Study – As mentioned above, not as flexible as some of the other choices. Rating: poor

Bazaar of Baghdad – Very flexible, but vulnerable as mentioned above. It has very limited search function, but this comes at no cost and can be included in the mono-B version. If you run Squees, then Bazaars could be very strong, although Squees could be wasted slots if you don't draw into a Bazaar or if you cannot keep it on the table. However, Squees could power your Compulsion or Jalum Tome, so it might be a wise idea to include multiple copies of such cards in your deck along with Bazaar.  Rating: good-excellent

Compulsion - Excellent with Squee as mentioned above, without the vulnerabilities to removal compared to Bazaar or Jalum Tome. Otherwise, its a decent search card that doubles as a win condition. Rating: good-excellent

Jalum Tome – It’s a bit slow against fast aggressive decks because it takes a while to use it for it’s searching ability; it’s much more effective against slower decks. However, it might still be strictly worse than Scrying Glass, since it doesn’t give you card advantage. Compulsion might also edge this one out. Rating: good  

Time Walk – Included in the search category, because it helps you to dig one card deeper while both accelerating and/or re-setting your mana. However, Time Walk could actually have a drawback in this deck: if you see it in your opening hand, it is effectively a placeholder for the next card in your library that you don’t get to see. This can affect mulliganing decisions, as a Time Walk does not help you with evaluating your starting hand. Still, you cannot underestimate the potential strength of this card. Rating: poor-excellent


iii. Card Drawing

Ancestral Recall – No brainer. Rating: excellent

Wheel of Fortune – Combo decks usually break the symmetry of this card, as they can usually win very quickly after replenishing their hand. This has the added bonus of putting creatures into the graveyard if you’ve draw them. Wheel is also an excellent card to fetch with Vampiric and Mystical Tutors against heavy hand disruption decks such as Suicide. Rating: excellent

Timetwister – This might seem quite surprising, but in fact Timetwister is often another no-brainer. Replenishing you hand, even if it means re-shuffling your graveyard into your library, is often a game-winning play. Plus, Timetwister also helps out against Suicide (particularly if you’re not even running a 5-color build so you cannot include Wheel), and helps you reclaim any lost win-conditions (if all your Cunning Wishes end up in the graveyard, for instance, because they are countered or Duressed away). Rating: excellent

Windfall - A replacement for Wheel of Fortune in Decks that don't run red mana. Very decent card, although a bit conditional - if opponent dumps his hand, this will be a dead card. Rating: average

Read the Runes – Excellent card drawing and win condition in one card. A virtual must-have in any Dragon deck that includes U. Rating: excellent

Scrying Glass – Another excellent draw card and win condition. Rating: excellent
 
Deep Analysis - A great card to fetch with any excess Entombs. However, Entombs will function as win conditions at times (unless you cast an early Buried Alive), so they might not be so expendable. Also, this card can be a bit weak if you actually draw it. Still worth considering, although I'd probably want to play a Read the Runes over this. Rating: average-good

Necropotence – If the mana base supports this card, it’s a virtual no-brainer. Perfect for mono-B builds, as they are bound to run Dark Rituals. Not as good in the U/B or 5-color versions, which run fewer black sources and no rituals (usually). Rating: good-excellent

Yawgmoth’s Will – This is strong if you play lots of pro-active disruption (see below), but it is nevertheless a bit too conditional and won’t give you the type of card advantage as Keeper could generate, for instance. Rating: poor-average

Whispers of the Muse – Since you will require six mana to start generating card advantage, this will not help you very much against any deck. Rating: poor

Stroke of Genius – This is a poor card drawer, as it will most likely have to be saved to function as your win condition. Very inflexible as a result. Rating: poor



C. Disruption

Dragon can use either reactive or pro-active disruption. Reactive disruption includes cards like counterspells and Red Elemental Blasts, while proactive disruption involves using cards like Defense Grid, Duress, or Abeyance to pre-empt your opponent’s plans. Since the choice of disruption and the number used is deck-dependent (i.e. what colors you use) or metagame dependent (i.e. what types of decks you will face or what hate cards you have to contend with) , this section does not offer card ratings. Reactive disruption has the advantage of stopping anything, including buying you time against aggro, or stopping hate cards from entering play. The downside is that it’s very difficult to protect your combo early with reactive disruption, as you might not have the mana to force through your combo against a control deck on your turn. Pro-active disruption helps to get around that problem, as you can cast your disruption cards first and then combo them out. However, this type of disruption doesn’t help you to buy time in some instances, and it cannot always deal with hate cards (a Duress cannot stop a top-decked Tormod’s Crypt, for instance). The other problem with pro-active disruption is that it cannot take advantage of a “squeeze play”: for instance, if opponent has two blue mana open with two Counterspells in hand, then a single Duress will not be sufficient, because it doesn’t force them to tap mana. The disruption choices will be discussed in the final section of this primer.


i. Reactive disruption

Force of Will –A free counter is always an excellent inclusion, but you might find yourself lacking a non-important blue card to pitch. Also, you have to watch out and make sure that you are running enough blue cards to make FoW more useful. Around 15-18 blue cards is usually recommended.

Mana Leak – Your best counterspell, particularly if you are running a fully powered Dragon build so that a Mox and land gives you first turn counterspell ability.

Mana Drain – The ultimate counterspell in this deck, helping you to power your more expensive spells. However, the double UU casting cost is a major concern, so it’s not an automatic inclusion.

Red Elemental Blast – Purely a metagame call, this is the cheapest counterspell, in terms of mana and card efficiency, against counterspell-based control decks. However, it lacks any flexibility.


ii. Pro-active disruption

Defense Grid – More of a metagame call, the Grid can be cast as quickly as the first turn to hose counterspell strategies and stop certain creature/enchantment removal spells such as Diabolic Edict or Disenchant. The down-side is that Grids are vulnerable to Powder Kegs, and they are not guaranteed to stop counterspells for long – in fact, opponents can cast Force of Will when they reach three mana. Nevertheless, Grids are a powerful option to deal with control decks, as they can stop counterspells long enough for you to win the game. 3-4 Grids are a virtual must-inclusion in many metagames that feature, strong, fully-powered control decks.

Duress – Your cheapest and one of the most effective disruption spells, and let’s you peek at an opponent’s hand to evaluate whether or not it’s safe to go off. It’s also an excellent choice against other combo decks. However, it doesn’t let you use the aforementioned “squeeze-play”.

Cabal Therapy – This is excellent only if you are running a full complement of Duresses and Scrying Glasses to see your opponent’s hand. It is particularly good at cleaning out multiple copies of the same spell – for instance, using Therapy to nail three Swords to Plowshares against Parfait after you peeked at their hand would be a marvelous play. The down side is that it is weak without Duress or the Glass.

Unmask – Weaker than Duress, but might be included if four copies of Duress are used. Still, finding a black card to pitch to this early might be problematic, so this spell might be a little too conditional - especially since you might invest two cards only to find that your opponent doesn’t have anything important in hand and top decks something thereafter. You cannot underestimate a free disruption spell, though.

Mind Twist – A very serious consideration for fully powered U/B and 5-color builds. It helps to clear out any hate cards in opponent’s hand before going off, but it’s difficult to do this to a player playing counterspells, unless you can get a very early Defense Grid into play.

Abeyance – This is limited to the 5-color version, but it is one of the strongest proactive disruption spells available to you. It stops just about every hate card (including cards like Tormod’s Crypt, Elvish Lyrist, Aura Fracture, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant, Edict, etc). If you are running Cunning Wish, you can even fetch it out of the sideboard.

Orim’s Chant – It’s cheaper than Abeyance, but it doesn’t stop activated abilities on permanents, like Seal of Cleansing or Elvish Lyrist, which could be a potentially serious shortcoming. On the other hand, it can buy you a turn if you use it on your opponent’s turn to stop them from casting any threats.
 

D. Mana sources

Despite the low average casting costs of most Dragon builds, it is still important to include enough mana sources to power the deck. For non-mono-B builds, 24-26 permanent mana sources are recommended. Mono-B can get away with less permanent sources, substituting 4 slots with Dark Ritual for acceleration instead. The Rituals are not recommended if you run other colors, unless you are going for sheer speed. For the U/B and 5-color versions, every land should ideally produce both U and B. The following are automatic inclusions in the non-mono-B builds:

Black Lotus
Mox Jet
Mox Sapphire
Mox Pearl
Mox Emerald
Mox Ruby
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt


As for the lands, the following are your options for the B/U version:

Swamp (only if you run Polluted Delta)
Island (only if you run Polluted Delta)
Underground Sea
Underground River
Polluted Delta

The following are used in the 5-color version, in addition to the lands listed above:

Gemstone Mine
Undiscovered Paradise
City of Brass


Two examples of mana bases are given in the decks section.



E. Sideboard

The sideboard is highly variable, and should reflect the metagame. However, you should have answers to most of the problematic cards for Dragon, especially graveyard removal cards and creature/enchantment destruction. Furthermore, much of the disruption discussed above could be put into the sideboard initially; conversely, some of the SB cards listed here could be main-decked.

Stroke of Genius – If you use Cunning Wish as your kill card, this is the first inclusion in the SB.

Powder Keg – Your best answer against the most frequently side boarded card against you: Tormod’s Crypt. It also handles other problematic cards like Ankh of Mishra, Elvish Lyrist, Obstinate Familiar, or cards that help other decks outdraw you or outrace you like mono-U’s Ophidian, Sligh’s 1 cc creatures etc. I would strongly consider four Kegs in the SB.

Nevinyrral’s Disk – Like the Powder Keg, but more expensive. However, Disk helps you deal with Planar Void,  Aura Fracture, Humility, or any other enchantment that might shut down your combo.

Pernicious Deed – This is a faster and more selective form of Nevinyrral’s Disk. However, it’s also more difficult to cast.

Rushing River – An excellent catch-all that you can wish for. It can bounce two problematic permanents at once.

Verdant Force – This can be a very good answer against Planar Void, provided you can get a Verdant into your graveyard before the Void makes it into play. Verdants are also practically an auto win against two problematic decks: mono-U and Suicide. They can turn your deck into a two card combo: Entomb (for Verdant) + Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead. Might even be a main deck inclusion. Verdants are the creature of choice because they not only survive The Abyss and potentially Edicts as well, but they allow you to attack while creating tokens to hold off the opponent’s creatures.

Hypnotic Specter - While Verdants are excellent in partially transforming your Dragon deck into reanimator, Specters can also do this while being castable as well. Their purpose is obviously not beatdown, but to disrupt control decks. Even if Specters are countered if you cast them, you can repeatedly try to bring them back with your Animate cards. Their effectiveness increases the more Animate spells you run and if you run Dark Rituals in your build. Consider siding in four Specters against control decks like mono-U.

Phyrexian Negator - Like the Hypnotic Specter, this is a castable creature whose primary purpose is beatdown, not disruption. Another interesting strategy to try vs control, as once again you can try bringing back Negators with Animate spells if your opponent counters them or destroys them somehow. Academy decks often try to bring in these these guys vs control, but they are definitely much better in Dragon
with all of the animate effects. Again, they are more effective with main deck Rituals and a high Animate spell count.

Mana Short – For non-5-color decks, this is a very good substitute for Abeyance. It could even be better in some instances, initiating counter wars on the opponent’s turn.

Other potential inclusions (discussed above):

Force of Will
Mana Leak
Duress
Defense Grid
Red Elemental Blast
Abeyance
Orim’s Chant



V. Decklist Examples

This section includes some sample builds, which are mostly comprised of highly flexible cards that received an excellent rating in the card choices section above. There doesn’t seem to be an optimal build for the time being, so Dragon players have some flexibility as far as what cards are included and in what numbers. Plus, it might be a wise idea to keep changing the build from tournament to tournament to keep your opponents guessing. I will include an example of a mono-B build  and two 5-color builds, complete with side-boards, followed by a brief explanation of the deck and the choices made. Section VI will deal with specific match-ups, and how each build stacks-up against top-tiered T1 decks.


***5-color Dragon***

2x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Aerial Caravan

3x Entomb
3x Buried Alive

3x Intuition
3x Cunning Wish
1x Read the Runes
1x Scrying Glass

4x Animate Dead
3x Dance of the Dead
-----------------------------
24 combo cards
         10 creature “buriers”
          7  animate effects
         11 win conditions (without help from Caravan)

1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Timetwister
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Ancestral Recall
-----------------------------
6 tutor/card drawing

1x Abeyance
3x Defense Grid
3x Mana Leak
-----------------------------
7 disruption


1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Ruby
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt

4x Underground Sea
4x Underground River
4x Gemstone Mine
2x Undiscovered Paradise
2x City of Brass
-----------------------------
24 mana sources


SB:

1x Stroke of Genius
1x Rushing River
1x Abeyance
3x Red Elemental Blast
4x Powder Keg
2x Verdant Force
1x Defense Grid
1x Read the Runes
1x Scrying Glass



This deck is on the low end of the number of permanent mana sources, but in exchange it is very quick with an average goldfish kill of 3 turns. There are many 3-ofs in this deck, because of Intuition, and to preserve maximum flexibility by including many different types of spells. The deck also has very good redundancy with respect to its combo pieces. There are 61 cards, because it’s impossible to cut down this deck to 60 without losing an essential card. The sideboard is well stocked to deal with Tormod’s Crypt (four Kegs are included), and Verdant Forces are present for the Suicide and mono-U match-ups. The Abeyance, REBs, and Rushing River are included to add to the disruption count via Cunning Wish. The Wishes can also be used to get card drawing in the form of Read the Runes. Notice that the Buried Alives could be removed in favor of a fourth Entomb and a fourth Intuition (while dropping the card count to 60), to convert the deck into the three-card combo only. However, this will make the deck less consistent and increase the average number of turns it takes to go off.


***Gorgercombo.dec by Roland Bode (22.09.2002)***

2 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Aerial Caravan

3 Cunning Wish
3 Intuition

3 Buried Alive
4 Entomb

4 Necromancy
4 Animate Dead
3 Dance of the Dead
---------------------
27 combo pieces
      10 creature "buriers"
      11 animate effects
      10 win conditions (if Buried Alive is not used)

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Necropotence

1 Abeyance
1 Deep Analysis
---------------------
7 tutor/draw/disruption

1 Black Lotus
4 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
5 Mox
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Underground Sea
3 Underground River
-----------------------
26 mana sources

SB:
2 Abeyance
1 Whispers of the Muse
4 Duress
4 Hypnotic Specter
1 Hoodwink
1 Stroke of Genius
1 BEB
1 Mana Leak


This deck, built by Roland Bode, focuses on winning as quickly as possible by running Moxes and Rituals to maximally speed up mana production, while also maximizing the redundancy of the combo pieces. It attempts to overwhelm control by running 11 animate effects, 4 of which can be cast at the end of opponent's turn to bait counterspells. It's extremely light on disruption as a consequence, relying on just a single main-deck Abeyance and Wishable disruption in the side to deal with any potential disruption that the opponent can muster. A risky strategy perhaps, but it must be admired for its dedication to winning as fast as possible. The SB is partly transformational, primarily directed against control decks. Specters and Duress can be brought in to attack the control player's hand before attempting to go off. If Specters are countered, they can be readily brought back with the numerous animate cards that this deck runs. The SB Whispers of the Muse is designed to get around Misdirection, although it would be likely replaced by Read the Runes in an updated version of this deck. Hoodwink is a card that can get rid of any troublesome permanents that cannot be stopped by Abeyance, such as Ivory Mask or Planar Void. It's one mana cheaper than Rushing River, although the River handles two permanents at once. One card this deck would have no way of stopping is Meddling Mage, so it might be advisable to run some Red Elemental Blasts or Kegs in the SB. Kegs will also help against cards such as Tormod's Crypt and Ankh of Mishra, while the REBs are effective against conterspell-based strategies.



***Mono-B Dragon***

2x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Ambassador Laquatus
1x Verdant Force

3x Animate Dead
4x Dance of the Dead

4x Buried Alive
4x Entomb

4x Scrying Glass
3x Cursed Scroll
--------------------------------
26 combo pieces
        8 creature “buriers”
        7 animate effects
       11 non-Ambassador win conditions


1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
--------------------------------
2 tutors


4x Duress
4x Cabal Therapy
--------------------------------
8 disruption


4x Dark Ritual
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Jet
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
14x Swamp
1x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
--------------------------------
24 mana sources


SB:

4x Powder Keg
4x Nevinyrral’s Disk
4x Defense Grid
2x Necromancy
1x Crosis, the Purger

alternate SB:

4x Phyrexian Negator
3x Hypnotic Specter
3x Powder Keg
3x Necromancy
2x Defense Grid


This mono-B version is slower than the 5-color version, but packs more disruption and runs more solid card drawing in the form of  Scrying Glass. Cabal Therapy is a solid choice here, with a combined total of eight Duresses and Scrying Glasses. The three win conditions included in this deck are Cursed Scroll (effective against creature decks), the Glass (which you can use repeatedly under Worldgorger to draw cards until you hit Entomb, then Entomb for Ambassador), and of course the Entomb itself. A Verdant Force is included in the main-deck, as it allows for very quick Entomb + Animate wins. Combining Dragon and reanimator strategies can be quite effective. The SB includes Disks and Kegs to clean up any permanents that hit the table, especially Tormod’s Crypt, Planar Void and Seal of Cleansing. Grids and Necromancies are for control decks – Necromancies can start counter wars at the end of opponent’s turn, while also being effective at contending with Planar Void if you fail to draw a Disk. The Crosis is a recurring Mind Twist that can be animated, and is typically brought in versus mono-U decks.

The alternate SB presents another way to fight control decks or problematic cards like Tormod's Crypt: you can side out most of your combo cards and bring in the Negators and Hypnotic Specters to try and beat down the control deck quickly. If the creatures are countered or destroyed, no problem - you will have 10-11 Animate cards (after bringing in the Necromancies) to keep recurring your beasts.

Notice that this deck is very easily converted into a powerless version, just by substituting the Mox and Lotus with basic Swamps.


VI. Match-ups

coming soon…

[Often Lost]

Quote (dicemanX @ Nov. 08 2002,16:06)The Worldgorger Dragon combo deck came into existence after Torment, the second set in the Odyssey cycle, became legal in all formats in the early part of 2002.

[nitpick]

Umm, Worldgorger came out in Judgement.

[/nitpick]

Other than that, very nice work

[Zherbus]

Moved to Extreme Vintage.

[Iuewen]

Heh Zherbus you moved it right before I posted my fixes /bonk

Quote 6. The cost of building the deck – Worldgorger Dragon combo decks are the only competitive combo decks that do not require full power.

I beg to differ. The very combo decks you previously mentioned require realitively little power to run, if any. I would say that Academy is the only competetive combo deck that requires full power. Sure, it helps any of them out a lot, but they still run without them. I would change this to something like:

6. The cost of building the deck - Worldgorger Dragon combo decks are one of the least expensive competetive combo decks to build, as they run fairly well without any power.

Quote
Timetwister – This might seem quite surprising, but in fact it’s often another no-brainer. Replenishing you hand, even if it means re-shuffling your graveyard into your library, can be a very strong play anyways. Plus, Timetwister also helps out against Suicide (particularly if you’re not even running a 5-color build so you cannot include Wheel), and helps you reclaim any lost win-conditions (if all your Cunning Wishes end up in the graveyard, for instance). Rating: excellent

Cunning wishes get removed from the game when used, might want to reword the end of this paragraph.

[dicemanX]

I want to thank ahead of time those people that provide suggestions for improving this primer. I will make the changes as they are suggested by editing the original posts.

Quote Cunning wishes get removed from the game when used, might want to reword the end of this paragraph.

Actually, I meant if they get countered, Duressed, Wheeled away, etc. in addition to those that get used up. I will reword the paragraph.

Quote I beg to differ. The very combo decks you previously mentioned require realitively little power to run, if any. I would say that Academy is the only competetive combo deck that requires full power. Sure, it helps any of them out a lot, but they still run without them.

I still think that most combo decks require some power to be competitive. Trix, AoS, Pandeburst all benefit greatly from full power. Perhaps Turboland/Turbonevyn is the exception. I will edit the paragraph regardless - the way you phrased it is perfect as it is, so I hope you don't mind if I include it   .

[Mr. Argyle]

there are 5 kegs in the 5c sideboard.  Other than that, great job.

[Iuewen]

Of course, be my guest  Glad to be of help.

[Fastbond]

Dragon is not the only combo deck that can win with instants.  Reaplace can do this as well.

[dicemanX]

Quote Dragon is not the only combo deck that can win with instants.  Reaplace can do this as well

I know that reap-lace uses a ton of instants, but it still needs the main phase to go off with Lotus or Time Walk. Dragon could go off with Entomb/Intuition + Necromancy on opponent's turn...

I'll rework that paragraph to clarify this point.

[mrieff]

Great Article!

You state that the 'hybrid form' comes with virually no disadvantages.
Could you elaborate on that? When both the approaches are used, doesnt the combo take up more slots than can be used for drawing/disruption?

If the hybrid form is always superior, maybe its a good idea to focus on including both approaches, rather than making the sharp distinction?

[dicemanX]

Quote Great Article!

Thank you!

Quote You state that the 'hybrid form' comes with virually no disadvantages.
Could you elaborate on that? When both the approaches are used, doesnt the combo take up more slots than can be used for drawing/disruption?

When I say that it doesn't have "disadvantages", this is relative to the 2 and 3-card combo approaches: it doesn't have the weaknesses of both decks.

The Buried Alive isn't necessarily just added to the three card combo. You can remove some win conditions when you add them, so that you end up with the same overall number of cards devoted to the combo. The reason is that Buried Alive is a creature "burier" and win condition in one.

I will try to squeeze in a clarification into the primer. Thanks for the feedback!

Quote If the hybrid form is always superior, maybe its a good idea to focus on including both approaches, rather than making the sharp distinction?

The problem is that the three approaches to building a Dragon deck are very close to one another. You can just remove Buried Alive from the decklist I provided and replace them with win conditions (a fourth Intuition and an Entomb - then we have 60 cards again) to give you the other "type" of approach. However, this just isn't a wise idea, because you will have the same disadvantages that I talk about when mentioning the 3-card combo.

[Kheoinn]

Didn't you forget about a U/B example build?--Kh

[dicemanX]

I decided not to include one in the primer, as many different sample builds are possible. I suppose that I could add it, but it would probably end up looking very similar to the 5-color version with the non-U/B cards (Wheel and Abeyance) probably replaced with either FoWs or Scrying Glass/ 4th Entomb. I would replace the Abeyance in the side with Mana Short, and the REBs with Necromancies most likely.

Incidentally Kheoinn, you asked on mtgnews.com what the fastest Dragon combo deck looks like, without considering any disruption. If you want me to answer that question, start a thread in the vintage forum and I'll reply (I am unable to post on mtgnews.com). It might be an interesting read for those that face little control in their metagames, and want to win as fast as possible against aggro.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

Nice Primer, good to finally have one!
But for completenesses sake, there is a mino error in this:

Quote 6. Ability to go off on opponent's turn – This is a huge point against control based strategies. Dragon is the only combo deck that can win with instants on your opponent's turn, or at least start counter wars on their turn. No other combo deck can do this.

High Tide, though being a bad T1 combo-deck, is able to go off during it's opponents turn occasionally.

If you are looking for a, IMO, pretty ideal version of a disruptionless Dragon.dec, which did also fair well against control, due to it's extreme redundancy, can be found here:

http://www.morphling.de/deckarchiv.php?deck=14

and in this thread:

http://www.zkforum.de/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9670

/edit: hmm, my post should have been a lot earlier, if I remember right. Tried to post it in Vintage and not here.

[taion]

Have you considered playing Windfall instead of either Wheel of Fortune or Read the Runes? Although you're not assured of drawing 7 cards as you would be with Wheel, Windfall is blue, meaning that a U/B build can run it, and it can be pitched to FoW. It seems that at 3 mana, Windfall is rarely worse than RtR for seeing new cards, and while it can't be used as a win condition, I don't see this as that much of a problem — Dragon really isn't hurting for extra victory conditions, what with all the Intuitions, Wishes, and soforth.

It's proven occasionally useful to me, although I didn't get it very often. YMMV, of course.

[dicemanX]

Quote High Tide, though being a bad T1 combo-deck, is able to go off during it's opponents turn occasionally

I'll update the primer to only include "competitive" (or otherwise popular) T1 decks for point #6.

Quote If you are looking for a, IMO, pretty ideal version of a disruptionless Dragon.dec, which did also fair well against control, due to it's extreme redundancy, can be found here:

Hmm, that's very similar to what I had in mind. The only change to the deck I would make would be to add Read the Runes. Otherwise, that deck is pretty fast. Thanks for the link! I'll have to try to incorporate that into the primer. The single Deep Analysis is a very interesting choice - I should definitely include it as well.

Quote Have you considered playing Windfall instead of either Wheel of Fortune or Read the Runes? Although you're not assured of drawing 7 cards as you would be with Wheel, Windfall is blue, meaning that a U/B build can run it, and it can be pitched to FoW. It seems that at 3 mana, Windfall is rarely worse than RtR for seeing new cards, and while it can't be used as a win condition, I don't see this as that much of a problem — Dragon really isn't hurting for extra victory conditions, what with all the Intuitions, Wishes, and soforth.

I think that Dragon decks can always use more win conditions, given that their win conditions might be used for other purposes. For instance, your Intuitions might be used up as tutors or Dragon "buriers", your Wishes might be important in fetching you your SB disruption, and RtR might be important in the early game to improve card quality and put a Dragon in the graveyard. I think its very important to completely maximize your combo components.

Windfall can be a great card at times, but it is a bit too conditional. It might be terrible against aggro or Suicide (the deck which the draw-7s help out against the most), and against control, if they have a full hand, they will most likely deny you a full hand with this card. In the U/B version I'd stick with just the Timetwister, and replace the Wheel with disruption or Read the Runes. I will make a note of Windfall in the primer though, as it is still a consideration - thanks!

[taion]

Regarding Flaming Gambit, there is that cute trick with Intuition (Intuition for Dragon, Dragon, Gambit — you get a Dragon in the yard and a castable win condition, so long as the opponent has no creatures out). Granted, it's mostly obsolete now given 3x MD Cunning Wish (although I suppose you can still use it if you have an Intuition but no Entomb/BA), but I think it's cute enough to warrant a little historical note, if nothing else.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

You got a typo in the description of Roland Bodes Gorger-version: There are 11 animate-effects, not 10.
You could also mention, that it has no way of removing Meddling Mage, so that anyone wanting to play that deck should include at least one REB/Boomerang/StP in the Board. I forgot about that lack when posting the links, sorry.

/edit: I think Mana Crypt should be in the MonoB-Version, especially the unpowered (Crypt is not much more expensive than the Verdant).

[Kheoinn]

Isn't there a rushing river in the board? That would do it, I think.--Kh

[dicemanX]

Thanks Mon and Taion - I've made the changes/additions to the appropriate sections.

Quote Isn't there a rushing river in the board? That would do it, I think.--Kh

The River unfortunately doesn't do the trick, because the Mage will name Cunning Wish in the first place. You need to have SB cards that you can bring into the main deck to kill the Mages.

[dicemanX]

I made the following additions:

I've added Compulsion to the card choices section - I overlooked this card, which could potentially have a game-winning synergy against control with a Squee main deck (which you can Entomb or Intuition out). This permanent is cheap, very difficult to remove as its an enchantment, and it functions as card drawing AND a win condition in one card.

I also added the following choices for the SB section, prompted by Bode's transformational SB approach:

Hypnotic Specter
Phyrexian Negator

Both of these look like excellent choices for a deck with a high Animate spell count; if you get an early Hyppie or Negator against control and they deal with it, you can repeatedly try to reanimate them.