[Deck Discussion] Dragon

[Jönsson]

About a week ago, Stockholm hosted a tournament to which some 30 or so people showed up. The prize was a Library, with an Alpha Demonic Tutor for second place. Now, what seemed strange was that a grand total of five people choose to play the Dragon-deck, but only one making it to the Top8. And he didn't even made it to the finals.

One of us Stockholm-players in particular have been tinkering with Dragon.dec more than any other. Marcus "Lomaw" Michel. I believe he's been in contact with DicemanX, and various other innovators about the deck, and until recently he played the commonly-seen UB/g-variant, featuring Xantid Swarms, Pernicious Deeds and Verdant Forces in various mixtures between the maindeck and sideboard. For this tournament however, he choose to dismiss the green splash altogether in favour of maindecked Abeyances and Orim's Chant's. His reasoning for the fundamental change was in short:

- Dragon hate have become more and more common. Nobody leaves home without a way to hose the combo, be it Crypts, Swords, Stifle's or Withered Wretches.
- While Swarms do the work against Swords and other similar hosers, the top decks here in Stockholm - Welder MUD and MaskNought - depends on permanents with activated abilities, Wretch and Crypt, to stop the Dragon-deck dead in it's tracks. Abeyance solves the problem to a large degree.

After the tournament, we discussed on the future of Dragon, and Marcus seemed quite depressed. He felt he had missed something along the way, that would put Dragon back as a top-tier deck. People had seen the change coming, and looked for pro-active answers for the Dragon such as Humility and Damping Matrix, to which even the UB/w-version had troubles with. We came to the conclusion that what Dragon needed was to return to it's roots. To overpower the opposition with brute speed and simply just win before any resistance can be made, before such bombs would be dropped on you. We tinkered with the idea, and it seemed like a basic UB-deck with a little modifications to the sideboard would be best suited to accomplish that goal.

For reference:

Lomaw's ''Back to the Roots'' Dragon Build:

// Mana (20) :
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scrubland
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Swamp
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

// Search (19) :
4 Intuition
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Squee
3 Compulsion
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

// Combo (14) :
4 Worldgorger Dragon
3 Necromancy
2 Animate Dead
2 Dance of the Dead
1 Cunning Wish
1 Ambassador Laquatus

// Disruption (7) :
4 Force of Will
3 Duress

..With white goodness in the sideboard to justify the scrublands.

Now, I would like to ask you guys about your opinion. Is Dragon hosed out of the metagame? Should Dragon's goal be to build up it's board position to a point where it simply can't lose (And risk having a Humility dropped on you) or simply go for speed and attempt to win ASAP? (With the risk of losing the game should someone had topdecked a Swords)

[Wollblad]

Could be added for clearity that the Swedish meta game is perhaps more combo and prison than seems to be elsewhere. Tog is for example a relativly rare sight. Actually, the most common controllish deck is Fish (including all versions) with Keeper as runner up.

I would also like to add another question: How does this version and the mono-black version compare? As I have understood it, the mono-black version is faster while the blue splash adds stability. If you want to go for speed, wouldn't then the mono-black one be prefered?

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

If you want to go for pure speed, porting over Phatom Tape Worms 1.5 SpoilsDragon should be a pretty good option. The deck is regularly faster than T1 UBg versions even in it's 1.5 form, so it should be even faster in T1.

For reference:

Spoils Dragon or turn2win.dec by PTW:

4 duress
4 spoils of the vault
4 buried alive
4 animate dead
4 dance of the dead
2 necromancy

4 world gorger dragon
4 squee, goblin nabob
1 ambassador laquatus
1 sliver queen

4 bazaar of baghdad

4 dark ritual
4 elvish spirit guide
16 swamp


You can even alter the manabase to include green in the board (for xantid swarms and p.deeds) by doing this:
-8 swamp
+4 bayou
+4 polluted delta

Discussion of the 1.5 version can be found here.
In case the link doesn't work (same board as at old-tmd before, here is the actual address to be copied into your browser:
http://grexin.shonic.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=c7f7c3d9c3546be5b76e1c295e376963;act=ST;f=7;t=65

[Smash]

The "speed kill" version has 3 compulsion and only 7 reanimation effects, yet no rituals?  If you want "speed" cut intuition for spoils, and squee and 2 mana sources for 4 dark rituals and 2 more reanimation effects.

But if you want speed in t1, why play dragon? Tendrils based decks should give you better speed. If you want a good fight vs. control, then dragon is nice, but the hate is a pain in the rear...

[RoadTrippin]

But if you want speed in t1, why play dragon? Tendrils based decks should give you better speed. If you want a good fight vs. control, then dragon is nice, but the hate is a pain in the rear...

Not even close. My essentially monoblack list kills turn a higher percentage than any other turn- it's got to be at least a full turn faster than Tendrils based decks post restrictions. The hate can be a pain, but the hate for Tendrils decks can be worse.

[BreathWeapon]

I concur, B/g Spoils-Dragon is the fastest Combo deck in all of Magic right now. TPS/Neo-Long/Twister.dec rarely go off before turn 3 with any sense of stability.

Note: You don't have to splash Green for Xantids, you can pitch them to the Bazaar and Animate them. Even if your running U/b Xantid should still be a SB consideration ... tho definately not 4x.

[Irish31]

While we are on the topic, the U/B version, what sort of matchup chances does it have aganist prison based Workshop? Slavery, Mud and Stax? What is the best build to get around losing to lockdown via 1st turn Trinisphere/Resistence?

Also, what would be the best SB options if you are expecting a heavy Workshop field? Deed's obviously, but any other thoughts?

I have been goldfishing the U/B version by Richard M, I am finding I miss that 4th Duress alot, I have tried dropping the 4th Squee, for now it seems to be working out.

Any thoughts on this as well as what it will weaken the deck aganist or with the meta right now it's a decent change.

Thanks

Jay

[Jönsson]

While I believe a good tuned Storm-deck can still go off with some frightening stability as early as turn two in the hands of a good player, Dragon seems to me better fitted to do so since it really only involves getting a Bazaar/Compulsion in play and a Dragon in the 'yard to simply go off. While that will certainly make you run into Swords or the like and just die every now and then, I wonder if the option isn't worse - the plan to wait and be absolutely sure when you go off backfires too easily around here, mainly due to beforementioned pro-active solutions.

I will certainly put together some weird hybrid of the decks posted above and see what results I get. Spoils seems like a perfect fit in that deck. Also, someone mentioned that keeping Squee in the deck is quite useless since you don't want to see a long-game anyway. It's more of a "all-or-nothing"-approach, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's worse.

As for the matchup Workshop-prison vs Dragon, I really have no idea. That's another matchup that would seem to look better if your goal is to win ASAP before stuff like Smokestack come down and ruin your day.

[RoadTrippin]

I started a new thread for this, but realized I should have just posted here, so I apologize in advance if issues have been touched upon or if something doesn't seem to make sense.

Lately people are talking about how Dragon has been "hated out". I don't feel this is true, but then again I haven't put the deck down for a tournament since Judgment came out... I'm curious as to what other devoted D4gr0n players are testing out. I'm personally working on taking the deck down two separate paths:

4 Academy Rector
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Yagmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Entomb
4 Animate Dead
2 Dance of the Dead
2 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Ambassador Laquatus
3 Abeyance
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Seal of Cleansing
4 Buried Alive
1 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
7SoLoMoxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Glimmervoid (maybe a second Laquatus, or Sliver Queen)
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Scrubland
SB: Maybe transformational, most likely running Negators at least, and probably more Seals of Cleansing.

and

4 Animate Dead
2 Dance of the Dead
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Viridian Zealot
4 Wild Mongrel
1 Anger
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Shivan Hellkite
4 Squee
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Verdant Force
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Black Lotus
4 Moxen
1 Mana Crypt
4 Bayou
4 Taiga
1 Riftstone Portal
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
SB: 2 Viridian Zealot
SB: 3 Oxidize
SB: 2 Xantid Swarm
SB: 2 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Goblin Welder

I've taken a lot out of the sideboard now that Zealot is accessible, and I'm confident I've made the right choices so far.

The first list is perhaps better off as a budget deck, but I definitely would like to test it again. Back in the summer when I ran it (as a _joke_  ) I ran 3 Bazaars, because that's what I had. Now I'm reconsidering, and I think maybe the deck is better off without them. The land drop can obviously potentially slow you down a turn, and drawing into multiple Cabal Therapies via Bargain should let you discard anything you need to, or just cast a Buried Alive.

The second list, which I derived from Roland Bode's deck if I'm not mistaken, is the coolest deck I've ever played. It consistently goldfishes a turn slower than my essentially monoblack lists, but it obviously makes up with consistency- being able to run utility creatures maindeck because of Survival. It's just amazingly resilient. This deck can easily take games from control through its inherent capabilities to circumvent the most potent hate cards because of its multiple paths to victory. It can steamroll aggro as well simply by making use of the Dragon combo with Survival and/or Bazaar. I am admittedly a little uncomfortable about how the deck has been doing against opposing combo, but it's still fast enough to attempt to race, and if your opponent happens to be playing Dragon and not be too familiar with it, you can often times trick them into letting you win by animating their own Dragon. Welders are present in the sideboard simply because I can't stand the artifact prison matchup. The same goes for the 1 maindeck Verdant Force.

As I mentioned, both decks can easily be converted to budget. The rector deck becomes substantially worse, but still pretty good for a budget deck in my opinion and testing. The AngryDragon list can substitute out the Moxen for Elvish Spirit Guides readily, but Bazaar is still a pretty expensive card, and most people who own Bazaars own Moxen, while not all who own Moxen own Bazaars.

So I'm anxious to hear what other players are doing, and I'd even like to hear what non-Dragon players are doing to "hate out" the deck so much.

[cssamerican]

All or Nothing Dragon (Almost)
Lands (16)
4-Bazaar of Baghdad
4-Bayou  
4-Polluted Delta
4-Swamp

Accelerates (12)
1-Black Lotus  
1-Lotus Petal  
1-Mana Crypt  
1-Mox Jet
4-Dark Ritual
4-Elvish Spirit Guide
 
Animate Spells (8)
4-Animate Dead  
4-Dance of the Dead

Killing Engine (7)
4-Worldgorger Dragon
3-Caller of the Claw
 
Tutors (9)
1-Demonic Consultation
4-Spoils of the Vault
4-Buried Alive  

Disruption (8)
4-Duress  
4-Xantid Swarm

Sideboard (15)
3-Squee, Goblin Nabob
4-Pernicious Deed
4-Verdant Force
4-Meta-Dependant

I have taken the speed dragon approach. This seems to work the best for me. Because Caller of the Claw is my kill condition I have effectively neutralized Root Maze and Damping Matrix which is most of the permanent based hate I was seeing. I choose to run Caller of the Claw exclusively just so I could use Spoils of the Vault comfortably without worry about removing it in the games I needed it, and Xantid Swarm and Duress are in the deck to handle the instant-based hate. The deck's kill is now vulnerable to a well timed Balance, but that is a small price to pay for a consistent, fast combo deck. I am a little weaker against other combo decks because of the extra turn needed after the combo goes off to kill, but I am usally faster than them anyway. And if this changed I can always slip in some Ambassadors to rectify that problem. The deck is consistent even in a hate filled meta and consistently fast, and that is what I like.

Radical approaches to make Dragon less susceptible by hate will in most cases make the Deck less focused. This will cause you lose more games than you would have if you had just played a versatile version of Dragon like DicemanXs or a speed version like the one I presented. Just my 2 cents  

Edited: For grammer cause I am an idiot who can't spell.

[Astro]

Here's the partially powered deck that I run.  As for power, I own a Lotus, Pearl, and Jet.  I could still run B/G or B/U/G (xantid, plus power) however with B/U/G I lack the moxen to power Intuition and don't own the Big Blue (Ancestral and Time Walk).  Therefore, I have been running B/W.  I have to say that prison generally isn't a bad match up as this deck is fast.

As far as Abeyance and Chant goes, I prefer the Chant.  Both cards are nice as they both can disrupt your opponent from countering your Animates.  However, Chant costs W, while Abeyance costs W1.  Chant can stop creatures for a turn while Abeyance cannot.  Chant can act as a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd turn Time Walk, Abeyance is less reliable as they can still cast creatures.  Abeyance does draw you another card, however doesn't Chant do the same thing?  It basically lets you play another turn, which retroactively draws you another card in which to replace itself.

Anyway, heres a carbon copy of the deck I play, I've been playing Dragon for over a year now and to my knowledge this is the best build for a partially powered player in my position (only owning a Lotus, Pearl, Jet).   Running 4 Time Walks that can also act as disruption is good!

Partially powered B/W DRAGON:

Combo:  7
4x  World Gorger Dragon
1x  Ambassador Laquatus
1x  Sliver Queen
1x  Eternal Dragon

Animates:  8
4x  Dance of the Dead
2x  Animate Dead
2x  Necromancy

Draw:  7
4x  Bazaar of Baghdad
3x  Squee Goblin Nabob

Search:  4
1x  Demonic Tutor
1x  Vampiric Tutor
2x  Spoils of the Vault

Disruption:  8
4x  Duress
4x  Orim's Chant

Mana:  22
1x  Black Lotus
1x  Mox Jet
1x  Mox Pearl
1x  Mana Crypt
1x  Sol Ring
1x  Lotus Pedal
4x  Dark Ritual
4x  Scrubland
4x  Polluted Delta
4x  Swamp

Sideboard:  15
2x  Necromancy
3x  Tormod's Crypt
4x  Verdant Force
1x  Eternal Dragon
4x  Disenchant
1x  Vindicate

[StasisMage]

Heres the build I have been tweaking around with. Im running a few proxies here and there but will be acquireing almost all of the deck I dont have yet next month minus moxen and mabye the duels. Its a B/U build that I havent had much to test it against (I have a scrub filled enviroment their not into comptition so...). So here she be.

The Bloated Corpse

Critters
3x Worldgorger Dragon
2x Ambassador Laquatus

Combo goodness
4x Animate Dead
4x Necromancy
4x Buried Alive

Disruption
4x Counterspell
4x Rites of Refusal
4x Mana Leak

Search and Destroy Squad
3x Compulsion
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Lim Dul's Vault
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
3x Sickening dreams

Mana Sources
4x Dark Ritual
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault (or a mana crypt depends if I can find one)
1x Mox Jet (Dont have a line on one)
1x Mox Sapphire (See above)
4x Underground Sea
5x Island
7x Swamp

Sideboard
2x Thorn Elmental
2x Chill
3x Tormonds Crypt
4x Null Rod
4x Denfense Grid

I didnt run Bazzars becuse I feel that the land drop they take up is to percious for the deck to loose so I opted for Compulsion instead.

Also I disliked Last Rites as a discard outlet so I opted for the use of Sickening Dreams instead. One I felt it cost tomuch to play and have run into problems where I need to deal with creatures on the board or Im killing my opponet with a Thorny I sided in for the last few points of damage so it serves a two main pourpuses a way to pitch drawn combo pieces and creature kill.

I choose to run the a Rites of Refusal as another Discard outlet and as an alternate to Last Rites as well. for the same casting cost of a Mana Leak and it pitchs a dead card or a sombo piece or two make it worthwhile for me.  

The Disk I should run more but cant find a spot for another Disk or two and dont know what to cut for it. Mabye Sickening Dreams if I acquire more Disks.

Thron Elementals over Verdent Forces. This was what I have on hand it has yet to disappoint me I havent run Verdents in the build yet that may change though.

As for the Chills I dont like to play against red and felt that it was Nesscery(SP?) in my sideboard.

Also as for Dragon being hated out well. I hopefully have provided a few ideas with my decks build for answers to the being hated out problem if not well just yell at me or what have you peace.

[Jönsson]

Righty, I put together this monstrosity during the week and played with it to some quite frightening results:

Combo, step 1:
4 Bazaar
4 Buried Alive
4 Dragon
2 Ambassador

Combo, step 2:
4 Dance
4 Animate
2 Necromancy

Find:
1 Demonic
1 Vampiric
4 Spoils

Disruption:
4 Duress
4 Unmask

Speed mana:
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
9 Swamp

An essentially monoblack version inspired partially by cssamerican's build posted above, but also by tips from our local MaskNought-players. They wouldn't leave home without Unmasks in their binders, and after testing running it I must agree - Unmask is awesome in this deck:

- The deck aims to win on turn two. This is critical. You do not want to end up stalling. You have no Squees to abuse the Bazaar with, it's used mainly to drop a dragon in the yard and go off from there, not as a card advantage machine. Use Bazaars carefully.
- The deck is a whore for black mana. The presence of two sources of black mana that can be dropped turn one on the opening hand is basically what makes or breaks the desired turn two kill.
- Unmask fits into this just like it fitted into SpoilsMask. Tempo is everything, and Unmask is as cheap as it gets. I also like how it often turn Animates into must-counters, after ripping a hand of Swords or Stifles or the like.  

What are your opinion on this approach? Have you encountered problems with similar versions of all-or-nothing-Dragon? Are Unmask pure gold, or is it just me who has a skewed result?

[RoadTrippin]

Sure, but no one realizes how good monoblack is while I'm winning a dozen tourneys with it    It's awesome. I fully think I've explored absolutely every facet of the deck since I started playing it last June or so- so I'll be testing and posting results of other innovative builds.

[StasisMage]

Jönsson I like your approach I think I may try something similar to it and see what I can come up with. Unmask seems like a nice choice to go with ill give it a try.

[RedACE]

What does the mono B version do if you spoil away your laquatus? rely on sliver queen? How often does this situation come up?

[BreathWeapon]

Well, considering this thread is already list happy i'll throw in my own deck list for grins. I wouldn't worry too much about stripping away Laquatos with Spoils, the odds aren't that high and you can do a lot more with 2 additional Tutors or Mana Sources than you can with 2 additional Win Conditions.

Creatures (5)
4xWorldgorger Dragon
1xAmbassador Laquatos

Outlets (8)
4xBazaar of Baghdad
4xBuried Alive

Animates (8)
4xAnimate Dead
4xDance of the Dead

Search (7)
1xDemonic Tutor
1xDemonic Consultation
1xVampiric Tutor
4xSpoils of the Vault

Disruption (8)
4xUnmask
4xDuress

Acceleration (8)
4xDark Ritual
4xElvish Spirit Guides

Mana (16)
1xBlack Lotus
1xLotus Petal
1xMox Jet
4xFetch Lands
4xBayou
5xSwamp

Sideboard
4xVerdant Force
4xXantid Swarm
4xPernicious Deed
3xMeta Dependant