Dragon Primer II

[dicemanX]

I have decided to release a portion of the Dragon primer earlier than I originally intended. Part 1 deals with a description of the deck, discussion of possible card choices, and ends with the presentation of decklists for T1, budget T1, and T1.5. The powered T1 build is the final version of the deck which features a powerful SB designed to deal with the most problematic match-ups and hate cards. This happens to be the SB that also brought me success at the last Carta Magica tourney. I might also add another example build at some point for those wishing to play budget T1 Dragon, but do not have access to Bazaars.

Part 2 will feature a discussion of match-ups and SBing strategies. All feedback is very much appreciated.
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I. The Worldgorger Dragon combo deck – what is it?

The Worldgorger Dragon combo deck came into existence after Judgment, 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.



II. Why play Dragon Combo?

Combo decks typically have three types of cards: combo pieces, search and/or card draw, and disruption (cards with the ability to "protect" your combo). 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. Decks such as Long.dec or Neo-Academy have the ultimate form of redundancy, as the decks revolve around generating lots of mana and usually 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, the Dragon deck is one of the fastest combo decks in T1, right behind long.dec.

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 and long.dec – they can simply afford more slots dedicated to disruption so they have more chances of success, especially against control decks.

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 long.dec which always have the possibility of running out of gas while going off. Also, long.dec and Academy are very difficult decks to play, which can cause play mistakes to crop up more frequently in the later rounds of a large tournament. Dragon, on the other hand, does not require you to make too many complex decisions, so its much easier to pilot it to consistent finishes.

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. This makes Dragon an excellent choice for those budget players who want to try playing something other than budget-aggro or aggro-control.

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 is a particular problem if the opponent knows when to destroy your Dragon. When the Dragon comes into play via an animate spell, its “permanents leave play” ability goes on the stack. If it is destroyed at this point, its “permanents return to play” ability goes on the stack. This causes the “permanents leave play” trigger to resolve last, which means that you will lose your permanents! Any form of removal 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. 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 usually present in sideboards to some extent of most high level decks. 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.  This deck can be hated out severely, but it still has a lot of tools available to survive and prosper in any metagame.



III. Building the Dragon deck – what are the best cards to play?

Because of the various approaches one can take to constructing the Worldgorger Dragon deck, builds may vary from person to person to quite an extent. However, there seems to be a most optimal build at the present time, which is presented below in the decks section. Despite the large amount of choices one can make, there are what could be considered “optimal card choices”. 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). The idea behind this is to allow the reader to pursue alternate builds if he has certain budget limitations, or if he’s feeling particularly adventurous and wishes to experiment with other approaches. Also, the idea is to give a list of choices that apply to T1.5, not just T1.
 
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 and lacks flexibility. 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: provided that you’re running the Ambassador or the Caravan, the Entomb can fetch those cards when you’re going off. It also helps you to remove cards from your library that function as card drawing (Deep Analysis). 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:  byfetching 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) when you go off. Intuition is one of the best cards to have in Dragon, due to its incredible flexibility. 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. Combo decks usually break the symmetry of this card, as they can usually win very quickly after replenishing their hand. Wheel is also an excellent card to fetch with Vampiric and Mystical Tutors against heavy hand disruption decks such as Suicide. The downside is the R requirement – red doesn’t add very much to Dragon outside of Wheel.. 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: 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

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 lands 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

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 to put the kill cards in your graveyard. Bazaar also has a limited search function, but this comes at no cost apart from a land drop and vulnerability to Strip Mine and Wasteland. 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, so it might be a wise idea to include multiple copies of such cards in your deck along with Bazaar.  Rating: excellent

Compulsion - Like the Bazaar, it serves many purposes – putting creatures in the graveyard, giving you search capabilities  by cycling cards through it, or serving as a win condition when going off by searching out your win conditions onceyou generate tons of mana. 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, and helps you draw cards if your Bazaars are destroyed by your opponent’s Wastelands. 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

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.  The Tome is similar to the Bazaar or Scrying Glass when going off - 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. The problem is that the Tome is a bit too slow. Rating: good

Survival of the Fittest – A slow way to get your creatures into the graveyard, and it’s dependent on having at least one creature in hand to begin with. Generally speaking, it’s a very poor choice, but there could be some strong possible builds that utilize a larger number of creatures (like a combination of reanimator + Dragon that uses mana creatures).  If you can generate green mana when you go off, and if you have a creature in hand, then Survival can serve as a kill card, allowing you to fetch your Sliver Queen or Ambassador Laquatus. This will not work very well outside of builds devoted to making Survival work. Rating: poor-good

Vodalian Merchant- When it enters play it can put a Dragon in the graveyard. Merchant is a win condition that offers Edict protection when going off - remember, it's ability triggers every time it leaves and re-enters play, 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. Otherwise, it serves as a chump blocker. Nevertheless, its minor ability outside of the combo makes it a generally weak choice for inclusion in the deck. Rating: poor

Undead Gladiator - A very slow method of discarding a drawn creature from your hand, but it allows you to cycle through your library to find your win condition if you go off during your upkeep. You can do this only with Necromancy. Otherwise, the Gladiator could be a way of drawing cards slowly over time. This is more of a budget build consideration. Rating: average
 
Hermit Druid  - With just one to two basic land in your deck, the Druid could be used to rapidly bury a Dragon along with the win condition. However, this plan is not always consistent, and the Druid is very vulnerable, especially against Sligh. It’s difficult to make the Druid work in Dragon. Rating: poor-good

Zombie Infestation - This is a cheap discard outlet, and can be effective  if you are running up to 4 WGD in your deck, as well as 4 Squees. It's purpose is to give you an alternate win condition so that you're not reliant on just the combo. The downside is that it doesn't contribute to the combo apart from the discard effect, so it has some stiff competition from more flexible combo pieces. Infestation might be appropriate in some budget mono-B builds.

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. It’s also an excellent card to stop your opponent from pulling off end-of-turn plays like fetching a land or casting an instant such as Fact or Fiction or Accumulated Knowledge. Of course, this can only happen if you’re set to go off with a Dragon in the graveyard. One final advantage of Necromancy is that, at 3cc, it allows you to get around a Chalice of the Void set at 2. Rating: 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 permanent-based kill card can be used an unlimited number of times when you're going off. This is because the permanents 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, or Entomb. The downside of Caravan is that you need U mana when going off, and you also need to include an actual kill card itself, like Stroke of Genius or a Cunning Wish to fetch it. 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. 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

Sliver Queen – When you go off with Dragon, the Queen allows you to use colorless mana to generate an infinite amount of 1/1 Sliver tokens. The big downside is that this extends the kill by a turn. The up-side is that the Queen makes a better reanimation target outside of the Dragon combo, and it gets around the occasional problem of Gaea’s Blessings which might foil your Ambassador from time to time.  Rating: good-excellent

Shivan Hellkite – The ultimate kill card. It kills on the spot and can kill creatures as well, which means it gets around potential problems such as Ankh, True Believer, or Gaea’s Blessing. It also makes an excellent reanimation target outside of the combo. However, the major problem is the red mana requirement when going off. This would be an automatic inclusion were it not for the downside. Rating: excellent


Intuition – See above. Rating: excellent

Entomb – See above. 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. When you go off with WGD and generate tons of mana, you can use Cunning Wish to fetch a Stroke of Genius from the SB and deck your opponent. Wishes are also highly flexible, allowing you to tutor up disruption or answers from the side board as well. A very strong choice. Rating: excellent

Read the Runes – See above. 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 –See above. Rating: excellent

Compulsion – See above. Rating: good-excellent

Jalum Tome –See above. Rating: poor

Survival of the Fittest – See above. Rating: poor-good

Vodalian Merchant – See above. Rating: poor

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. The Scroll can also remove some nasty anti-Dragon creatures prior to going off, such as Withered Wretch, True Believer, or Elvish Lyrist. 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. Since you will require six mana to start generating card advantage, this will not help you very much in the card drawing department. Otherwise, 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. 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, but only in instant-heavy builds. Particularly good against suicide, allowing you to hide your card on top of the library. Rating: excellent

Intuition – See above. Rating: excellent

Cunning Wish – See above. 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, but it’s probably too slow. Rating: good

Lim-Dul’s Vault – Decent tutoring power, but the mana requirement is a bit harsh. However, Vault does have fantastic synergy with Bazaar of Baghdad, as it can help stack your deck to amazing effect. Rating: average - excellent (in Bazaar builds)

Spoils of the Vault - This is an excellent cheap tutor, but is extremely risky to use. In some builds this could very well be suicidal, as you might lose critical combo parts when using it(like WGD or Ambassador). Also, losing too much life might spell your doom against fast aggro decks like Sligh. Spoils gains in reliability in decks that have a large amount of redundancy and that mix reanimator and Dragon strategies. One such build is presented in the budget T1 build section. Rating: good


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. The problem with such cards is that Dragon functions best as a massively redundant deck. Instead of adding search, it’s best to just include more copies of the combo pieces instead. Adding too much search results in wasting turns trying to find the right combo pieces, because Dragon has a limited amount of mana to work with. Rating: poor-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: poor-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 – See above. Rating: excellent

Compulsion – See above. Rating: good-excellent

Jalum Tome – See above. 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. In fact, Time Walk really shines in Bazaar-Squee builds, where it could allow you to draw more cards if your Bazaar engine is going. Rating: poor-excellent


iii. Card Drawing

Ancestral Recall – Rating: excellent

Wheel of Fortune – See above. Rating: excellent

Timetwister – This might seem quite surprising, but in fact Timetwister is not a bad choice. 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: poor-excellent

Windfall – See above. Rating: average

Read the Runes – See above. Rating: excellent

Scrying Glass – See above. Rating: excellent

Deep Analysis - A great card to fetch with Entomb or Intuition. However, this card can be a bit weak if you actually draw it, as 4 mana is a tall order for Dragon. Still worth considering, even though it doesn’t contribute at all to the combo. It could theoretically be used to win right away when used in conjunction with Ambassador Laquatus (rather than waiting for the opponent’s next draw phase). However, this is usually of very minor importance, unless your opponent has a Necropotence in play and isn’t drawing any cards. 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 – See above. Rating: poor
 
Stroke of Genius – See above. 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 final form of disruption, usually saved for the sideboard, is removal – this gives you the ability to remove any permanents that impede you from going off.


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.

Last Rites - This is a discard spell that doubles as a way to discard your creatures from hand, and gives you the opportunity to remove multiple spells from your opponent's hand. The downside is that it's very costly at 2B, and isn't very efficient if you don't draw any creatures.

Mind Twist – A very serious consideration for fully powered 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 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. The down side is having to splash white, which is otherwise a weak color to include.

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.

Xantid Swarm – An excellent way of dealing with Instant-based Dragon hate, stopping everything from counterspells to creature removal (StP, Edict, “Stifle”) to instant speed graveyard removal (Coffin Purge).

Petrified Field - This is card is specific for Bazaar-based decks. It can be added in anticipation of heavy Wasteland use if your Dragon deck relies heavily on Bazaar.


iii. removal

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, Withered Wretch or cards that help other decks outdraw you or outrace you like mono-U’s Ophidian, Sligh’s 1 cc creatures etc.

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. Plus, it takes out everything in one fell swoop – if your opponent has multiple permanents stopping you from going off (Crypt, Ankh), then Powder Keg might not be sufficient.

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.

Chain of Vapor –Like Rushing River, but much cheaper.


D. Mana sources

Dragon functions best when full power is included. The reason is that there are many combo pieces at 2 and 3 mana, which means that acceleration is a must for this deck to kill quickly and consistently. The following are must cards:

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

A sufficient number of mana sources in Dragon ranges approximately between 21-26, depending on the amount of search/card drawing. For instance, Bazaar versions run fine with just 21 sources, while other versions heavy in 3cc combo pieces (Intuition, Cunning Wish, Buried Alive) need 25-26.  

Non-permanent sources of mana, such as Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal are usually excluded. This is because the deck runs a minimal number of mana sources, and consequently every source should ideally be permanent. This is especially important against control, where building up your mana base is essential. However, if power is unavailable because of budget considerations or because of the format (T1.5), then the following make for good choices:

Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Dark Ritual
City of Traitors
Ancient Tomb
Jeweled Amulet

City of Traitors or Ancient Tomb help with the casting costs of Intuition, Necromancy, or Buried Alive, while Jeweled Amulet likewise helps out early with the 3cc cards. However, Jeweled Amulet is more of a T1.5 card, and functions best in builds that use Bazaar of Baghdad (which take away a land drop early in the game, making the Amulets decent choices for acceleration).




IV. Dragon Builds

In this section I will list builds for both T1 and T1.5, with consideration for budget builds in both formats as well. Note that these are just example builds; there are many good card choices when constructing your Dragon deck, so it's impossible to exhaustively list all of the possibilities here. Therefore, some cards that received "excellent" ratings might not appear in these sample builds.

Generally speaking, there are two main approaches when constructing Dragon. The first way is to include a relatively large number of creatures and rely on discard effects (cards like Bazaar of Baghdad, Compulsion, Read the Runes, JalumTome, Last Rites) to get them to the graveyard. This approach can allow for the effective mixing of Dragon and reanimator strategies, as you can fill your main deck with Dragons and other non-combo creatures such as Verdant Forces. Build "A-I" is a prime example of this strategy.

The second approach is to rely solely on cards that fetch your creatures from the library and put them into the graveyard - these include Buried Alive, Intuition, and Entomb. This allows you to reduce the number of main-deck creatures to the bare minimum, creating more room for more combo pieces and disruption. That's the upside; the downside is that this is a less efficient strategy than the discard approach, and  also much easier to disrupt as you have to run more expensive spells. Build "A-II" is an example of this approach.


A. Full Power, T1
----------------

I. Full Power Bazaar-WGD

While there are a large number of possible builds that could be assembled from cards that received a good-excellent rating above, one build in particular is considered ideal right now. It’s a build that abuses Bazaar of Baghdad, along with 4xSquee. What makes this build stand out in particular is the Squee-Bazaar card-drawing engine; this deck can use it to outdraw control decks and overwhelm them with disruption and combo pieces. Here is the build.


Vintage Dragon (build by ShockWave and Dicemanx)

Combo pieces:

4x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Ambassador Laquatus
4x Squee

3x Animate Dead
2x Dance of the Dead
3x Necromancy

4x Intuition
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
3x Compulsion
-----------------------------
28


Disruption/Tutoring/Other

4x Force of Will
3x Duress
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
-----------------------------
11


Mana

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 Polluted Delta
2x Bayou
1x Tropical Island
1x Gemstone Mine
1x Swamp
----------------------------
21



SB:

4x Xantid Swarm
4x Pernicious Deed
3x Verdant Force
4x xxx

The last four slots are metagame dependent. The might include:

Stifle (vs Dragon or long.dec)
Tormod’s Crypt (vs Dragon or Hulk)
Chalice of the Void (vs long.dec or any control deck packing StP and Coffin Purge)
Reanimate (vs wMUD, which gets around Chalice set to 2 when trying to animate up a Verdant Force and is easier to cast under Sphere)


This build utilizes Intuition, Bazaar, and Compulsion to get a Dragon into the graveyard. Consequently, there are 4 Dragons included in this build to maximize the probability of drawing one to discard to the Bazaar or Compulsion. Four Squees have been added in order to create a powerful draw engine. There is a mix of pro-active and reactive disruption here as well; this deck is quite mana shy in the early stages, so it relies on pitch-counters to protect the combo.  FoWs are also necessary in today’s metagame, as a few decks can literally win on the first turn or at least set up a hard lock. Duresses are also present as they help to check opposing hands for creature removal and clear the way for the combo. Duress is also an excellent tool in slowing down fast decks like long.déc or wMUD.

This deck operates in two modes. The first mode is pure combo mode – trying to combo out as fast as possible. This style of play is used when racing a deck like Sligh, wMUD or other combo decks like long.dec. The deck can combo out on turn three on average, with frequent turn 2 kills. Intuition is often used to fetch critical combo pieces, while Bazaar is usually dropped early to start cycling through the library looking for the combo, without regard to card advantage. If you’re losing cards when cycling, so be it. In this mode, card advantage is irrelevant, so the Squee-Bazaar engine plays a minimal part. Compulsion rarely plays a significant role either, but it can still come out early from time to time and let you drop a Dragon in the grave quickly.

The second mode is the slow-play card-advantage route. In this mode you take your time, set up your draw engine(s), draw cards and explode in one big turn once you’ve amassed your Duresses, FoWs, and animate spells. This mode of play is used against slower control decks that typically have countermagic and creature/graveyard removal, such as Hulk or Keeper. Intuition is usually played to fetch 3xSquee or 2xSquee and 1xWorldgorger, while your tutors often fetch the Bazaar of Baghdad. Even if you cannot overcome all of their removal with your disruption, you can use your animate spells instead. For instance, when going off, you can Animate your Dragon. If they StP it, you can Necromancy in response, and go off again. Alternately, you can hold back a mana source, put all mana into your mana pool, and cast Animate. If they kill your Dragon at instant speed, you can let it resolve, losing your all your permanents. Then you drop your mana source, and try to go off again with another animate spell. Note  that these plays might only work if you have multiple Worldgorgers in the graveyard. Because of the massive card advantage that you will generate over the course of the game, chances are that you will eventually punch through with disruption or multiple animates. Note that if you draw a Duress, it isn’t an automatic play; better to amass your disruption for one critical turn then to randomly cast it and waste it before you go off. Also, their card drawing doesn’t mean very much as long as you’re keeping pace. Since they can only hold seven cards at a time, drawing cards will only improve their card quality, not the total number of cards! Meanwhile, if you have Bazaar going, on your turn you can find yourself with 9-10 cards to their 7 when you are set to go off.  If they destroy your Bazaar(s), your Compulsion is an excellent back-up. In fact, if you only manage to find a single Squee early, you might be Compulsioning more often than using the Bazaar. Compulsion is very important part of your slow-play strategy, which  is why 3 are included in the deck. I would be wary of cutting them down to 2 or less, unless your metagame is light on control. Some players have chosen to cut one for a Deep Analysis, which I think is a mistake. Deep Analysis cannot function as a combo piece, and it will draw less cards over the course of the “long-game” than Compulsion. Since Wastelands are probably going to be more and more prevalent, it will be imperative to have multiple Compulsions in the deck.

While playing this deck is fairly straightforward, there are some “tricks” that the Dragon player needs to be aware of. The first is what to do in the event that the Bazaar or Compulsion is destroyed, or not drawn at all, while you hold Intuition(s) in hand (along with Animate spells). One possibility is to Intuition up 2x WGD and 1xAmbassador. Chances are that they will put Ambassador in your hand. You can then cast the Ambassador, then go off the following turn if you run out of mana. This gives you the added benefit of creating a chump blocker if need be, but don’t make this play if you suspect your opponent plays with StP. Alternately, if you have 2x Intuition, you can likewise fetch 2x WGD and 1xAmbassador. With Ambassador in hand, you can go off, then Intuition again as you’re going off for 3xSquee. Once you generate a million mana (you need blue mana),you can move the Animate to Squee to break the cycle, then hard-cast your Ambassador and mill them. They of course cannot kill your Ambassador in response, as they never get priority.

Other tricks help you get around certain problem cards. If your opponent plays an Ankh of Mishra or Necropotence, or has Gaea’s Blessing in his deck, then you can still win via Compulsion and Ancestral Recall. Just combo off with Compulsion in play (on opponent’s turn with Necromancy if Ankh is on the table), then dump Ambassador into the grave when cycling with Compulsion. Use Compulsion to track down an Ancestral, then cast it on them once the Ambassador has milled them. They will lose while either lethal damage (via Ankh) or a Gaea’s Blessing trigger is on the stack. You can even use Compulsion to track down FoWs to protect the Ancestral once you’re ready to cast it.

One final thing to remember is that you have the option to draw the game in case something goes wrong. To do this, all you have to do is animate the Worldgorger without any other creatures in either graveyard. Since you cannot break the loop by moving the animate onto another creature, the game is declared a draw. You might have to resort to this option when you are unable to win. For example, if your Ambassador is Extracted or Crypted/Coffin Purged away, or if your opponent has Gaea's Blessings and you cannot find your Ancestral, then a draw is your main hope. Alternately you might find yourself with a Dragon in the graveyard without a way to fetch the Ambassador because, for instance, your Bazaar was Wasted. Your opponent might be putting severe pressure on you, and you might have to bail out with a draw. The problem is what to do if you need to draw and there are multiple creatures in one or both graveyards. In such a scenario, you need two animate spells to draw the game. First, you cast one animate spell on any non-WGD creature in any graveyard. Then, you cast the second animate on the WGD itself. After the first cycle of the WGD loop, the first creature and the first animate spell return to play. However, that creature forgets that it was "dead", so it cannot be re-targeted with that animate - it just remains in play. Instead, you can use that first animate spell to target a new creature in any graveyard, repeating the process until you have retrieved every single creature in every graveyard. The end result is that you will have all of the creatures from all graveyards in play, plus the WGD loop is continuing. The first animate spell ends up in the graveyard, as it eventually finds itself with no targets. A draw will ensue if no player can break the cycle at this point. Just be careful with multiple Squees in your graveyard. Squee is a legend, so you cannot have more than one in play. This is rarely a problem, as you can retrieve all of your Squees during each of your upkeeps.


The sideboard – One place where this version really shines is the SB. It turns out through testing and tournament success that if a color is to be splashed in U/B Dragon, it should be green. The reason is that green offers two terrifying solutions for two types of Dragon hate cards – instant based (counterspells, creature/enchantment removal, graveyard hate, and Stifle), and permanent based (Ankh, Tormod’s Crypt, Sphere of Resistance, Seal of Cleansing, Withered Wretch, Planar Void, Blood Moon etc). Two cards are enough to completely handle both types of problem cards – Xantid Swarm for instants, and Pernicious Deed for permanents. All four Xantids are sided in against most control decks – resolving an early Xantid is pretty much game, just as it is game when Xantid resolves in long.dec against control. An added bonus is that you can use your excess Animate spells to bring back a Xantid if it was countered or killed via removal (Fire, for example). Against permanent-based hate, Pernicious Deed completely cleans up. It is sided in against decks like Stacker3, wMUD, Sligh, Parfait, Suicide, Sligh or any deck that you suspect might side in permanent-based hate. A resolved Deed is practically game, regardless of what hate they might be running, as it can clean up all problematic enchantments, artifacts and creatures in one fell swoop. It might still be advisable to run Powder Kegs in the open SB slots to complement the Deeds if you anticipate heavy permanent hate, as Kegs are easier to cast.

Apart from the removal, the SB features Verdant Forces. The Forces are in there because, when Animated, they are near auto-wins against certain decks such as wMUD, Suicide, Sligh. They replace Squees post SB in accordance with the aggressive play mode against such decks where Squees play a limited function. This gives you up to eight animate targets post SB, with four of them being the “slow kill”. Verdants are usually also near-autowins versus URPhid and perhaps even Hulk. They are even brought in against Keeper to soak up the creature removal.  However, here they just serve as additional threats; they do not replace Squees in these match-ups! The Verdants allow you to use your Animate spells to “test the waters” and see if the opponent is holding creature removal, without worrying about losing all of your permanents. The precise sideboarding strategies will be given in the match-ups section of this primer. The remaining slots are variable, and depend on what you expect to face in the local metagame. Some possibilities have already been listed above and constitute my prime considerations – Stifles or Crypts for both the mirror and either long.dec or Hulk respectively, or otherwise 3xReanimate with a fourth Verdant  if I expect a ton of Chalice-wMUD.


II. Full-Power, non-Bazaar WGD

Here is an alternate build, fully powered but without Bazaars.

Vintage Dragon II – classic speed build (Dicemanx)

Combo:

2x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Aerial Caravan

3x Animate Dead
2x Dance of the Dead
2x Necromancy

4x Buried Alive
4x Intuition
1x Entomb
3x Cunning Wish
---------------------------
22

Disruption/tutor/search

4x FoW
3x Defense Grid
3x Duress
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
---------------------------
13

Mana

4x Dark Ritual
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 River
4x Polluted Delta
4x Underground Sea
1x Swamp
----------------------------
25


SB:

1x Rushing River
1x Stroke of Genius
1x Read the Runes
1x Coffin Purge
4x Powder Keg
2x Verdant Force
1x Mind Twist
4x Stifle


Since Bazaars are a hot commodity right now not easily obtained, Dragon enthusiasts might have to search for non-Bazaar versions to play. This is one such build, which attempts to use the maximum amount of acceleration, including Dark Rituals, along with a large amount of disruption in order to force through the combo as quickly as possible.  The kill method here is the superior Caravan for Cunning Wish and Stroke, although the Caravan is not absolutely necessary. There are only 2 WGD in the deck, since 4 are only necessary if you want to draw them. This deck doesn’t. This deck has Defense Grid as a way to fight control, to make up for the lack of a drawing engine. Also, the Cunning Wishes add some flexibility to the deck, as you can fetch removal, card drawing, or disruption. The SB plan is similar to the first build with respect to Powder Keg and Verdant Force, while a lot of Instants have been added to make the Wishes maximally useful. Mind Twist is there to remove instant-based hate that an opponent might hoard in their hand waiting for you to go off. This deck is not as consistent as the Bazaar build as it lacks a draw engine, but it’s still quite fast while packing lots of disruption.



B.  Budget T1
-------------

I. Budget Bazaar WGD

For those Dragon players on a budget, the following build is still competitive:

Vintage Budget Dragon (build by bebe, with some Dicemanx assistance/adjustments)

Combo:

4x Worldgorger Dragon
3x Verdant Force
1x Sliver Queen
1x Ambassador Laquatus
2x Squee

4x Dance of the Dead
1x Animate Dead
3x Necromancy

3x Buried Alive
1x Entomb
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
---------------------------
27

Disruption/tutor/search:

4x Duress
3x Cabal Therapy
3x Spoils of the Vault
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
---------------------------
11


Mana:

1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
4x Dark Ritual
12x Swamp  
2x Ancient Tomb
1x City of Traitors
----------------------------
21


SB:

4x Null Rod/Chalice of the Void
3x Tormod's Crypt  
4x Powder Keg
1x Verdant Force
3x Reanimate


This is bebe’s build with my minor modifications. The idea here is to mix Dragon with reanimator. Animating a Verdant, as mentioned above, is already game over against a lot of decks, so their inclusion, along with Sliver Queen, makes a lot of sense against many decks in the field. Going the partial reanimator route is especially good against Sui, Sligh, and wMUD. Notice that Entomb is added to this build.  Also notice the Reanimates in the SB, once again included to fight against Chalice-MUD. Squees have been cut down in number because there aren’t that many ways to abuse them in this deck against control –there are no Compulsions, and no Intuition to fetch Bazaars if need be. The mana base is less vulnerable to Wasteland and Blood Moon, while the acceleration is sufficient to muscle out some quick kills. Three Spoils of the Vault have been added to help in finding Bazaar or other combo pieces; in this scenario, having search cards makes a lot of sense, as Bazaar is such a critical component in this deck. Spoils are less of a risk in the reanimator-Dragon hybrid since losing an Ambassador or your Dragons is not very crippling - you still have Sliver Queen and Verdants as back-up reanimation targets.

One last point is with the choice of Animate spells. Four Dances have been included to make it easier to find one with Spoils of the Vault. Furthermore, if you Dance up a Verdant, it can kill in two turns (if the Verdant and the tokens are unblocked). With an Animate Dead, it would take three turns. This can be important against control - you kill them a turn sooner to deny them an extra turn to find answers. However, there are a couple of downsides - you need mana during upkeep to untap your creature; furthermore, by Dancing up a creature you deny yourself a blocker against fast aggro decks like Sligh, which in conjunction with your Vault, can dish out heavy damage very quickly. If you face a lot of aggro, or decks like Suicide that can Sinkhole your precious few lands and prevent you from untapping a Danced creature, then 4x Animate Dead might be the way to go.

While this build is designed with the budget T1 player in mind, do note that this build is easily adapted to T1.5. For example, Crater Hellion's build is as follows:

+1 Buried Alive
+1 Animate Dead
+3 Defense Grid or Chalice of the Void
+1 Swamp

-1 Vampiric Tutor
-1 DemonicTutor
-1 Sol Ring
-1 Mana Crypt
-1 Entomb
-1 Spoils of the Vault

This build features even more disruption in the form of Defense Grids, which is a fine metagame choice if control is rampant in your area. The cost of the extra disruption is the slightly weaker mana base, but the risk might very well be worth it.


II. Non-Bazaar Budget WGD

For those that cannot afford Bazaars, here is a possible build that you can try:

Budget WGD (build by Morphon, with suggestions by DicemanX)

4x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Ambassador Laquatus
3x Verdant Force

4x Animate Dead
4x Necromancy

3x Buried Alive
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Entomb
4x Jalum Tome
2x Scrying Glass

4x Duress
4x Last Rites

4x Dark Ritual
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
14x Swamp
3x Ancient Tomb
1x City of Traitors

SB

4x Defense Grid
4x Powder Keg
3x Tormod's Crypt
4x Null Rod

This build is mono-B, as it is debatable if blue adds anything significant to the deck. The Bazaars have been replaced by alternate discard outlets in the form of Tomes and Last Rites. Squees have been cut, as they are only marginally useful in this deck. Also, notice that Buried Alive is an alternate way of burying creatures. Like bebe's build, this deck mixes reanimator and Dragon stategies to good effect.

This is a mere example build; you have to experiment with what's available to you budget-wise and see how effective it is in your metagame.



C. T1.5 Dragon
--------------

I. U/B Bazaar WGD

Not surprisingly, one of the best 1.5 builds is very similar to the fully powered T1 build.


Vintage-Restricted Dragon (build by ShockWave/DicemanX)


Combo:

4x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Ambassador Laquatus
1x Sliver Queen
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob

3x Animate Dead
2x Dance of the Dead
3x Necromancy

4x Intuition
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
3x Compulsion
-----------------------------
29


Disruption/tutor/search

4x Force of Will
3x Duress
1x Rushing River
3x Lim-Dul’s Vault
-----------------------------
11


Mana

4x Underground River
4x Polluted Delta
4x Underground Sea
1x Island
1x Swamp
2x City of Traitors/Ancient Tomb
4x Jeweled Amulet
----------------------------
20


SB:

3x Rushing River
4x Powder Keg
4x Verdant Force
4xTormod’s Crypt


This deck is similar to the powered T1 build. It can also operate in two modes (combo and slow play card drawing). It’s a bit slower of course because of the lack of good acceleration in the format, but since the format is slower as a whole, there is less pressure to combo so quickly. The Amulets are particularly effective in this build, since they give you acceleration while you spend a land drop to play the Bazaar. A start such as land-Amulet turn 1, Bazaar and combo turn 2 occurs with some appreciable frequency. Rituals are not played here because there is no Buried Alive in this build, and Amulets are more important than City of Traitors/Ancient Tomb because those lands compete with Bazaar for early plays. However, the deck is a bit land light, so it’s possible to cut a disruption spell (FoW most likely, since it’s not so essential in this format) for a third City/Tomb. This deck features a lone Sliver Queen because you need a win condition against Oath, which plays Gaea’s Blessing. The SB is also similar to the T1 powered build, except that Rushing Rivers have been added to deal with permanent-based hate in addition to the Kegs. It might be possible to splash green in this build for Xantids and Deeds, but it’s something that still needs to be tested.


II. Mono-B Speed-WGD

Since T1.5 is much slower than T1, it is possible to throw caution to the wind and take a few risks to make the Dragon combo lightning-fast. This is achieved by running four copies of Spoils of the Vault in a mono-B version of the Bazaar build, and adding Elvish Spirit Guide for acceleration. This is very risky, but makes the deck extremely quick with an average goldfish turn of 2. That's insane for a relatively slow format.

Spoils Dragon (build by Phantom Tape Worm, with minor alterations including a green splash)

4x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Ambassador Laquat

[bebe]

Excellent read. Just afew commrents on the budget build. It should be noted that post Mirrodin, in the budget version, Tainted Pacts are replaced by Spoils of the Vault making the deck a turn faster and more consistent. However, I do expect Spoils to be restricted. I'm not yet sure Reanimates are necessary but I will test them if I start losing ( note that I only sideboarded once all last tournament but will need to against Long and Mud ). Also Cabal Therapies/Duress are key to fueling your wins. There are synergies in the deck that od=ften get overlooked ... eg., Force/Cabal Therapy, Also your build is actually 59 cards. You are missing a Dance of the Dead and have ek=leven not twelve Disruption/tutor/search. The extra redundancy in the combo pieces suits me.  
My sideboard is a bit different from yours but essentially we target thew same decks. Your assistance in bringing my build along was invaluable.

Your Vintage build is so synergistic that I cannot find a card that I would change. I discussed this with Richard and acknowledged the work both of you have put into this deck. I still remember the first time I saw you play Dragon at Hairy Ts.

[wuaffiliate]

very good read, and i look forward to the second installment :}

after seeing Paul's build in action im very interested in building it.

good job :}

[dicemanX]

Thanks guys for the kind words .

Paul: I will edit the post and add a 60th card to the budget build. I was thinking of adding a 22nd mana source, but another Dance is fine as well. However, perhaps another Spoils of the Vault could be added instead (for a total of three). I'm still quite skeptical of the Vaults even after so much playtesting that you did, but they make more sense if you are mixing reanimator with Dragon. Vault for instance would probably not be as good in the fully powered build. I should at least add Vault as a possibility in the search/tutor section.

[Black Explosion]

The Canadanandains continue to develop the dragon tech.

This deck is scary.

Good job boys.

[jpmeyer]

Your analysis is rock-solid, but I think in the card-by-card section you could stand to cut out some of the redundency or obviousness.  Granted, some things seem obvious but are actually subtle and need to be explained (like Dance vs. Animate,) but others can be left out entirely (if I had a quarter for every time I read "Ancestral Recall: Obvious" in a Type 1 article...)  It also seemed like an awful lot of the card descriptions were repeated over and over (like Intuition and Cunning Wish) and those could be trimmed to make it more streamlined.  I know when I kept seeing the same card names over and over, I just started scrolling down looking for something new.

[bebe]

Spoils is used for a sure win. EG
Dragon/Laquatious in yard - looking for animate spell.
Dragon/Laquatious in hand - looking for Bazaar
Bazaar/Dragon in hand - looking for animate
Combo in place  - looking for Duress/Therapy
Bazaar in hand - looking for Verdant (against Mud)
 
It rarely causes a game loss as noted before. There is no good reason not to run three in mono black.

One final note on Dance of the Dead -
In conjunction with Verdant Force you do twenty points of damage a turn earlier. Aleays use it against control over another reanimator if possible as an extra turn might mean a solution for the control player.\n\n

[Shock Wave]

For what it's worth, I've tested SOTV in the powered build, with the following configuration:

+ 3 Vault

- 1 Compulsion
- 1 Squee
- 1 Duress

It's really difficult to understand how tight the decklist is until you try and fit in seemingly excellent search cards. Moreover, SOTV is only really good when you need a Bazaar. If you have a Bazaar, you can just rip through your deck and find what you need. There is no need to tutor under such circumstances.

SOTV is very comparable to Dark Ritual. Essentially, all it really nets you is added speed at the cost of consistency.  I'm not going to waste space in this thread by explaining why Dragon does not need to be any faster. There are going to be those that argue that it is a "tutor", but unfortunately, that argument just doesn't stand. Granted, SOTV is a tutor, but it is a tutor that arbitrarily costs you the game.

It really is futile to say things such as "Well what if you have this-and-this in hand... ". If you look at the Dragon decklist, there are no such conditional cards in the deck.

[bebe]

Well then don't stick SotV in the U/B dragon build.  Your Vintage build is already synergistic and beautifully designed so I won't argue Spoils here but in relation with the mono black only.   

It absolutely adds to both the consistency and speed of mono b. Mono b's problem is that it did lack the extra search at times and since this build is predicated on speed that can be a problem. Bazaar is my usual target - yes - but I often Spoil for others as noted above. Notice Rituals are also included in the mono b version and are essential - buried alive, duress/animate, etc. To say "Well what if you have this-and-this in hand... ". is a little off target in the mono b build as you almost always have a hand of 'you have this-and-this in hand...'.  At the worst you already have your combo pieces and Spoil for a Duress or Ritual.

Just as an added comment - Long is totally degenerate. It is in fact as degenerate a deck as I have ever tested - remember I've played Academy, AoS and Trix extensively. It uses Spoils (Rico's build). I have found that Spoils is very skill intensive and in early testing I was guilty of misplaying it. Not so now. It is broken and should be restricted. Long is so damn fast and consistent that a combo deck that goes off a turn later is faced with an uphill battle - read needs luck to win. I'm hoping Chalices will even out the match somewhat ( notice that Rods can be a turn too slow as well).\n\n

[Shock Wave]

Quote It absolutely adds to both the consistency and speed of mono b.

Absolutely. I think SOTV in Mono-B is a perfect fit. As DicemanX has already stated, the assorted number of win conditions makes SOTV far less of a hazard. As a result, you can reap the full benefits of the "tutoring" power with very little drawback.

[Smmenen]

Quote (Shock Wave @ Oct. 21 2003,06:51)For what it's worth, I've tested SOTV in the powered build, with the following configuration:

+ 3 Vault

- 1 Compulsion
- 1 Squee
- 1 Duress

It's really difficult to understand how tight the decklist is until you try and fit in seemingly excellent search cards. Moreover, SOTV is only really good when you need a Bazaar. If you have a Bazaar, you can just rip through your deck and find what you need. There is no need to tutor under such circumstances.

SOTV is very comparable to Dark Ritual. Essentially, all it really nets you is added speed at the cost of consistency.  I'm not going to waste space in this thread by explaining why Dragon does not need to be any faster. There are going to be those that argue that it is a "tutor", but unfortunately, that argument just doesn't stand. Granted, SOTV is a tutor, but it is a tutor that arbitrarily costs you the game.

It really is futile to say things such as "Well what if you have this-and-this in hand... ". If you look at the Dragon decklist, there are no such conditional cards in the deck.

What happens if you remove Laquatus - you have to just draw the game and move onto the next?

Steve

[Shock Wave]

Quote What happens if you remove Laquatus - you have to just draw the game and move onto the next?

If you remove Laquatus, your only hope is to draw the game. Even that might prove to be a difficult feat, as by that point, life loss from SOTV might become a factor versus aggro and loss of resources from SOTV might become a factor versus control.

I've tutored up some disastrous Vaults before. The problem with SOTV is that it is only really good for finding a Bazaar. If you have a Bazaar, there is no reason to cast that spell at all. You don't need to find a Dragon or Squee as Bazaar or Intution will do that for you. It really is a hazardous, extraneous card choice in this version.

[bebe]

Like I said, it is skill intensive ... and no you did not drive me into retirement.
 

For the record after testing yesterday i've changed my animatioin spells to ...
4 Dance of the Dead
4 Necromancy
1 Animate Dead
The four of Dances can be critical if the piece you are missing is an animation spell.

Just another note ... I will always play Symbiotic Wurm in the sideboard. It is very strong against StPs, disenchant effects and Stax.\n\n

[dicemanX]

The primer is updated to include SOTV. In the reanimator/Dragon build its OK to lose the Ambassador to a  Vault, as you still have Verdants and Sliver Queen for back-up. Otherwise, Vault is too much of a risk, and as Rich says, too much tutoring power is not essential in the Bazaar build.

Paul, I don't agree with upping the Dances to four in your build for that extra damage via your beef. You would need to pay 2 mana to untap the Verdant every time, and there might be instances where you just won't have the mana (because of Wasteland, or because you ritualed out an animate spell with only one land). With an Animate you do lose one point of power, but the tokens that the Verdant generates still assure you a kill in three turns against control. This holds true for the Sliver Queen - if you have the mana to untap it you have the mana to create tokens too. Plus, making sure that the creature you animated comes into play untapped can be very crucial to stop Sligh's many attackers.

I'd also recommend a fourth Verdant over Symbiotic Wurm in the SB. Verdant is *better* against Stax/wMUD. The Wurm could be wiped out by Smokestack and Powder  Keg, for instance. The Wurm also doesn't yield tokens if it's StPed. Finally, getting *two* blockers right away when you animate Verdant against Sligh could mean the difference between winning and losing, especially if you cast Vault earlier. You can't race Sligh with Symbiotic anyways (or many other aggro), but you can with Verdant.

The only way the Wurm is better is if its Disenchanted (or Terrored), but if that happens to your Verdant, you have 8 other animate spells to keep bringing it back.

@jpmeyer

Thanks for the feedback. I agree that I should do something about the redundancy of listing the same cards over and over. I still think that the cards should be listed multiple times (so that a particular function of a card is not omitted), but have the description only in the first section that they are mentioned. I will work on making the changes.\n\n

[bebe]

As mentioned, I liked the Dances for the Force ( assuming two mana is available) for a turn faster kill. Wastelands do not bother the new build much as I use twelve basic swamps. But four Animate Dead/ Dance of ther Dead might be better.
I like Symbiotic. But yes Verdant might indeed be better. So far I've not gone wrong with your suggestions.

[dicemanX]

Ah yes, I miscalculated. With a Dance, you can kill in two turns along with the tokens you generate (9 damage turn 1, 11 damage turn 2). I suppose it comes down to whether it's more important to have that extra blocker vs aggro, or whether you want to kill faster against control.

Since this is an important point, I'll add it to the primer.

[Crater Hellion]

You explain vodalian merchant twice  
Also- you neglect to go over cunning wish as a "kill" condition, and I think it is worth mentioning.
It would be cool if you put my monoblack 1.5 list in because it's incredibly solid and basically the format's best deck..

@bebe-"Just another note ... I will always play Symbiotic Wurm in the sideboard. It is very strong against StPs, disenchant effects and Stax."
basically what I see here is "it's better vs stp, because the other 2 are not asgreat a factor as this is. Verdant is better vs stax imo, symbiotic is better vs disenchant, but verdant is *slightly* better vs stp (rtfc plsthx)  \n\n

[dicemanX]

@Crater Hellion

I will add the non-Bazaar 1.5 build sometime soon. Give me a link to the post where I can find your deck or PM it to me. I will change the V.Merchant duplication and explain the Cunning Wish a bit better.

[waSP]

As Bebe runs Cabal Therapy, Symbiotic is indeed better against StP.  You get to sacrifice the Wurm to Therapy before your opponent gets priority to send your monster farming.

Excellent read DicemanX.  I love well written stuff, so keep up the good work.  I think your description of cards is kind of unclear.  You say that most cards are excellent but some appear in all decklists and others in only one.  Maybe if the ratings took into account the style that each card is good in, that might be slightly more effective.

Thanks for the effort in writing that piece.

[Crater Hellion]

I have the bazaar 1.5 build, I'll edit in the bazaar-less list once I tune it a little more if that's cool.

4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Ambassador Laquatus
1 Sliver Queen
3 Defense Grid/ Chalice of the Void
4 Duress
3 Unmask
2 Spoils of the Vault
4 Buried Alive
1 Entomb
2 Animate Dead
4 Dance of the Dead
3 Necromancy
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Verdant Force
2 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Dark Ritual
5 Fetchlands
3 City of Traitors
8 Swamp

edit: yeah sorry about that bebe guess I'll have to learn to rtfp  \n\n

[bebe]

Ahh. Wasp is smart. Yes, Symbiotic stays for now as it won me a game. As discussed before, Cabal Therapy works very well in this deck. Much better than Unmask as it interacts with Forces and Wurm and is powerful after Duress.
I found control players FoWing my Duresses so that they could keep their hand secret. Note also that IF a smokestack or tangle wire comes into play the Wurm is as good as Forces. Therapy it away and you have time to go off comfortably.  
Dragon is about synergy. The Vinyage build is one of the best examples of a deck where each card works well alone and better with the other cards in the deck. This is a lesson I took to heart when discussing my build with Peter. That's why Wu has my Unmasks now.
Crater -
The Bazaars often make your Unmasks unplayable. Why threm over Therapies which are so good in the deck?
Why City of Traitors over Ancient Tombs?
Do you never have mana problems? You run twenty sources of which eight are designed to be destroyed.
With Verdants main decked do you never miss an Entomb over the fourth Buried Alive?
You are almost playing my deck (n without the Crypt, Lotus and Sol Ring) These are easily replaced with Tombs as damage is rarely a factor ( even with Spoils).
Also three Verdants are needed. I played two and a Nishoba but in retrospect I would always go three.
Last - I promise - I do not understand your fascination with Defense Grids. They are slower than Therapies and removable. We tried them in Stax/Mud way back and eventually learnt that there are just better options in a tight deck. I know you love them but to me they are3 a win more or a 'shit I wasted my turn card'.

[Crater Hellion]

"The Bazaars often make your Unmasks unplayable."

Oh. No, not really. not at all actually.

"Why threm over Therapies which are so good in the deck? "

Because therapy isn't so good in the deck- it's a win more card if I ever saw one. You need verdant in play to make it happen and if you have a verdant in play you are about to win.

"Why City of Traitors over Ancient Tombs? "

I run tombs IRL but they screwed me SAVAGELY last tourney, so I swapped them out. No testing yet.

"Do you never have mana problems? You run twenty sources of which eight are designed to be destroyed. "

"Again, irl I use tombs. I probably should have just posted that.
With Verdants main decked do you never miss an Entomb over the fourth Buried Alive? "

4 Buried Alives are key

"You are almost playing my deck (n without the Crypt, Lotus and Sol Ring) These are easily replaced with Tombs as damage is rarely a factor ( even with Spoils). "

You are almost playing MY deck, only I view yours as strictly worse. sorry. The only monoblack list I play is for 1.5 anyway.

A"lso three Verdants are needed. I played two and a Nishoba but in retrospect I would always go three. "

I don't see why you want 3 verdants maindeck. I really don't. I would maindeck 2 and sideboard 2 more before that, which I might actually consider. Nishoba is trash in combo anyway- I'm not sure what the thought process was there.

"Last - I promise - I do not understand your fascination with Defense Grids. They are slower than Therapies and removable. We tried them in Stax/Mud way back and eventually learnt that there are just better options in a tight deck. I know you love them but to me they are3 a win more or a 'shit I wasted my turn card'. "

They are not the same in stax/welder mud by any stretch of the imagination. They are meant to follow up disruption, so after that you can take your time and win at your leisure, which is exactly what they do. Eric (ELD) or pretty much any of the 5 control players I played at the cape cod power tourney will tell you that maindeck grids is why I won vs. them. They really aren't slower. In fact, buried alive and defense grid is about all I cast with ancient tomb. Another nice thing is having 3 slots to swap in 3 long.dec hosers, which is also what I did at our power tourney to success.

[bebe]

Well we must be testing different decks.

Bazaar/Unmask - I must have had an unmask in my hands without a card to throw at least half a dozen times before i dropped it. Without Squee, you losec a card each time you use Bazaar. After three turns you will have difficulty casting Unmask the turn you go off. It happened way too often for me and Peter found Unmasks wanting as well.

Cabal Therapy - Quite apart from its synergy with Forces, it is excellent with Duress. also once you know what your opponent is playing its even better. I won't argue this more.

The mono black build is NOT strictly combo. If it was you would not need any Forces. It can and will play as Reanimator if necessary. Nishoba, while not trash, is strictly inferior to Forces though. I main decked because i expected and saw a lot of Sligh but really Forces handle Sligh anyway. I main deck for redundancy and because this plays as reanimator at times.

Buried Alives - Of course they are needed. But I regularly go off without them and often have a second turn Force out with a lucky entomb draw. It costs one mana. An opening hand of two Buried Alives is not so good. That said, playing four is an option.

Grids - I still am not sold on the Grids. I won comfortably without them and the Therapies won me more than ome game. But i see your point.  

I think we have very different play styles. Last Sunday I never went more than five turns except the one game I lost. I averaged turn three kills. Not to say that one philosophy is better than another.

I mentioned that it looked like mine because I remember your mono black dragon thread where you used four Squees and no Forces. Not withstanding the creature base was really tuned for me by Peter as mine was a bit off originally.  

That said, keep playing your build if you think it better. I just did not find some of your choices as good when I tested them. I like any dragon player. I'm all for borrowing tech and testing.

[dicemanX]

Guys, your builds are pretty much identical. Neither can be considered optimal, because frankly an optimal list probably does not exist. Crater Hellion just decides to risk more by playing less mana sources so that he can fit in more disruption (Grids). This is neither inferior or superior to bebe's more mana heavy build. It's just a calculated risk. Plus, in some metas Grids are trash, while in others they are good. The downside to Grids is that they don't stop creature removal, so they are not necessarily 100% effective against control. However, Grids have a huge upside as well, protecting your early plays against heavy counterspell decks. Also, bebe runs 3 Verdants, which is perfectly fine. The extra Verdant adds to the redundancy and increases the likelihood of finding one with Bazaar if you can't hunt down a Dragon. Since an animated Verdant wins games against so many decks already, it makes for a fine addition to the deck.

The Unmask vs Therapy issue is a tough one too. Both cards can stink. Therapy is a blind Duress, while Unmask costs you a card. Which is better then? It's too situational to tell. I personally stay clear of Unmasks, but that's just me.

@Crater Hellion

I'd like a non-Bazaar build for T1.5 for inclusion in the primer. PM it to me or post it here. The build you posted so far is too similar to bebe's budget T1 build - I want some variety. I have updated the primer and mentioned that bebe's build can be easily adapted to 1.5, and listed the changes that would be necessary to achieve your build. However, I didn't change the Cabal Therapies and didn't include the fetchlands to keep the changes more simple -I'm assuming that these changes are not that crucial anyways. If this is OK with you, let me know. I had to cut your Entomb though, as it's illegal in 1.5.

@waSP

Thanks for the feedback! I was thinking of dropping the card ratings altogether, as they are a bit outdated. Otherwise,I'll try to stress the point that the builds presented in the primer are only example builds, and that many more good possibilites exist.\n\n

[T-Funk]

First off, great article dicemanX.

@Everyone

Has anyone run a successful mono-black version of Dragon? Does one exist? I have been playing around with a powered version of Bebe's deck list, and it seems to run fairly well. dicemanX, you stated that an optimal build of Dragon does not exist; do you think a mono black version could be as competitive as the U/B version(s)?

To some extent I guess I am asking about card choices, and not just which cards are better overall but which fit better in the deck.  Some things I considered, related to running mono black build over a U/B build were:

Cabal Therapy + Duress vs. FoW + Duress
Buried Alive + Bazaar vs. Intuition + Bazaar or Buried Alive + Intuition
Slightly more redundancy and stability vs. Blue brokenness

What do the experts think? I am very interested in people's opinion.    

Thanks,
T-Funk

[Crater Hellion]

T Funk I got t4 last power tourney (40?) people with my monoblack dragon because I didn't have access to cards for U/B. IT was obviously a competitive environment as it was for power and proxies were allowed. The real key to my success was being prepared for control as of the 9 matches I ended up playing, 7 were against control. Ironically, the last control deck was artifact prison which I thought I was prepared for, but in the semis Jacob Orlove beat me 2-1.

[dicemanX]

To respond to your question T-Funk, I think that U has much more powerful and flexible cards to offer. FoW is in general much better than Cabal Therapy right now, and Intuition is likewise superior to Buried Alive. The loss of Compulsion in the Bazaar-Squee build is also a significant downside, as well as losing a good SB option in Stifle. On the other hand, mono-B, while losing out in power and flexibility that U offers, has a significantly more stable mana base. Blood Moon and B2B (if it ever rears its ugly head again) are less of a worry, and Wastelands cannot mana-screw you. Still, in general, I would say that there is no reason not to splash U right now. I'd only make an exception if non-basic hate is a particular problem in the meta. Mono-B can of course be very competitive,  but you just lose out on the minor nuances of U/B.

And when I claimed that there is no optimal build, I meant that there isn't one outside of the Bazaar-Squee fully-powered T1 build, at least for now. That build has proven itself to be much stronger than any of the previous versions of Dragon. However, since there are a lot of players that have difficulty getting their hands on either full power and/or Bazaars (or want to play Dragon in 1.5), they must turn to other alternatives. I just think that there isn't a superior alternative build right now.\n\n

[Desert Fox]

First off, great primer and insight into Dragon, Diceman.

However, given the rising costs of Bazaar of Baghdad (I'm seeing them run for around $60 each on eBay right now), I'm not sure how budget the budget build is anymore.

I guess what I'm asking is if it's possible to play unpowered Dragon without Bazaar of Baghdad, and if so, what would you (read: anyone) play?

Would including more ways to get the Dragon into the graveyard work? How about something that allows you to dig deeper in the deck as well, like Read the Runes (which I know is used in some other builds)?

[Blofeld]

Quote (Crater Hellion @ Oct. 27 2003,17:25)The real key to my success was being prepared for control as of the 9 matches I ended up playing, 7 were against control.

When you write: "prepared for control", does it mean a SB full of Xantid Swarm, Cabal Therapy, Deed, Counterspell, REB,  Chain Of Vapor, [something else] ?

I think the control matchup is the hardest. I'd like some opinions on what to use. Currently I'm having trouble deciding between Xantid Swarm, Counterspell or Cabal Therapy in my SB.

I like the Symbiotic Wurm tech.. nice idea.
*adds one to the SB*

[dicemanX]

The Bazaar-Dragon version of the deck is already built to handle control - there is no need to bulk up on additional disruption apart from 4x Xantid Swarm in the SB. What I think CH was referring to was the MD inclusion of Defense Grids in addition to Duress and Cabal Therapy in his build. This is his metagame call as he faces more control decks in his area.

I would not put any counterspells or Therapies in the SB. Either run the Therapies MD, or don't bother with them at all. Getting UU for a counterspell is too difficult, but if you have full power, then Mana Leak is a very decent option. Even so, don't bother with reactive disruption in the SB against control. That plan never works, as you'll never be able to outcounter them with such a  small manabase. Instead, the SB should feature *powerful* proactive disruption rather than the relatively weaker 1-for-1 cards like counters or Duress/Therapy. Xantids are the best option if you can splash green, otherwise you can give Defense Grid a try. If you look at the SB of the Bazaar build in the primer, all I include for the control match-up are 4 Xantids. This is sufficient. I would also consider siding in Verdants against control, and Crypts for Hulk specifically.

About the Symbiotic Wurm: In my opinion, there is no room in the SB for such luxuries. I'd stick to the superior Verdant over the Wurm, and wouldn't put in any more fat in the SB beyond 4xVerdants. The Wurm pales in comparison to a Verdant vs Tangle Wire or Smokestack/Keg combo in wMUD, while the Wurm+Therapy play vs control is really not significant enough to matter.

Edit: I've updated the primer to include the 2 Animate trick to draw the game when in trouble (with multiple creatures in grave).\n\n