Adapting Dragon

[dicemanx]

When I ran 5C WGD in the past, my lands were:

4 GSM
4 CoB
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Glimmervoid

The Glimmervoid wasn't stellar, but there's not much to choose from for the 13th land at least as far as 5C lands go. The only other half-decent option is Undiscovered Paradise, which even has some synergy with Bazaar, but I never got around to trying it so I'm not sure how good it would be. Like Meadbert suggests, there's also the option of going with a dual land.

I ran this deck on two occasions - the first was running a pure WGD build, and for kill cards I ran a Sliver Queen in addition to a Hellkite, which seemed enough to overcome the scenario of only having a CoB as an-on color land. Passing the turn with Queen isn't good in some cases, but you probably won't be in that situation against a deck where passing the turn might be fatal. The other time I opted for a 5C manabase was when I went with a CA-WGD hybrid that transformed into Masknaught, along with Survivals and Carpet of Flowers.

The Queen and Hellkite make for good alternate animate targets, and Queen could even be hardcast although that rarely came up in the past. Of course, Witness is a good substitute if running the RtR/Wish plan, and the Witness can easily be hardcast - that's a nice bonus.

How exactly does city of brass work from inside the loop?  City of Brass will still do 2 damage per 1 with the Shivan Hellkite.

It is assumed that you will have some "colorless/off color" source via your artifact acceleration, so it should end up being 1 damage to you per 1 damage to them. If this wasn't true,, the animate couldn't be cast unless you did it off a Lotus (or 2 CoB). Fortunately even in the worst case scenario, you at least draw the game.

Recurring Ancestral on someone who has 45 cards left in their deck will cost you at least 16 life.

If you're going off with a Witness, this will never happen so long as the Witness is not the last card. When the Witness stops the first loop, it fetches another animate spell to restart the loop. Once you restart it, Witness returns everything, including all of the artifact acceleration. You can always stop the loop again with a RtR, play your acceleration (or another non-CoB land if you haven't played a land for turn), and use the Sapphire to keep casting your AR.

[A-FLo]

Dragon Combo was one of the fastest combo decks in vintage compared to other combo decks, for example, pitch long.  It is so hard to win in turn one, two, or three if you don't have the winning hand.  I hope DCI won't change anything about this deck; dragon was so fun to play, but there is a lot of hate right now in the metagame.  In order to protect your graveyard you could use ground seal or use 5c dragon instead of the traditional build.  Dragon combo decks were also hard to pilot.  Dragon was more efficient when it came to building its combo.

This post constitutes a significant violation of Rule 1, Deficient Writing Skills.  While we appreciate new users voicing their thoughts on strong Vintage archetypes, the TMD moderation staff does ask that all posters proofread all their contributions to the forums to check for things like improper punctuation, misspelling, tense disagreement, syntax errors, and difficulties with overall clarity.  The forum rules elaborate on this expectation as well as the other posting standards on TMD.  Please familiarize yourself with the forum rules so your posts avoid this kind of problem in the future.  We look forward to your future contributions.

-DA   

[Sextiger]

Ground Seal isn't really good for protecting the dragon combo. Tormod's Crypt and Jotun Grunt do not target the graveyard at all.  Ground Seal also does nothing to stop bounce or enchantment hate.  Ground Seal best use is to simply hose welders.

[A-FLo]

Thanks for the info.  I didn't know that; I'm just new to playing magic.  I started almost two years ago.  I've been playing dragon since I started playing magic; thanks for the info.

Once again, please note that the ellipsis is not a universal substitute for appropriate punctuation.  -DA

[Demonic Attorney]

On a substantive note, the use of Ground Seal as graveyard protection in Dragon seems to be a self-defeating strategy since all reanimation cards used in the combo target cards in the graveyard and are therefore shut off by Ground Seal.

[islanderboi10]

I know this thread may be a little old, but has there been any updates to the 5 color build?

I really believe the 5 color build can be really good.  With 5 colors you do get an amazing sideboard, which can potentially help Dragon eliminate the number one concern: The Hate.

Also, is there a recent decklist?

Thanks.

[slyfer]

In the freshly new italian vintage forum, www.tipo1.it/forum (which has also a section for foreigners contributes, speaking in english), one the most experienced italian dragon player, Elinor, made a primer about dragon.
He included also historical dragon decklist of the past.
One was very interesting to me, made in 2004/2005 period (ok, another meta, but nice ideas) had red splash for 3 fire/ice 3 stifle main deck, and 3 red elemental blast sideboard. He used the squee based engine, and also had entomb, 1 crucible main deck (sb 2 sundering titan).

I've tested a bit the wdgx and really missed the stifle as an "all-pourpose card". Many times I saved a bazaar from wasteland. It has infinite applications, for my playstyle is really important. In nowadays metagame is nice to have 4 duress 4 force 3 stifle maindeck vs all those storm based combo or control-combo decks.
As far as I'm playing wdgx, I've found myself unable to recover from bad positions.... I mean, with the powa of squee I could overdraw any deck at the moment. Loosing a counterwar in a "instant speed try-kill" (like the example made before with necro-rtr-dragon + 5 mana) let you stay with almost 0 card in hand.

As I said, probably this is due to my playstyle, I like to force into bazaar and without squee I need to spend mana to dig (1U is the DA cost).
I know that "squee are useless", I'm just saying it's not that bad by the way in a deck built to "draw and discard".

Now the decklist I'm going to test in these days is UBw.
In italy we need the mana base as stable as possible because it's really infested of denial deck, aggro-control, wasteland, crucible and chalice to the oblivion. That's why italians cannot adopt 5c manabase.
Of course vs some decks of the format 5c is superior simply because they cannot do nothing to your lands. The only decks to care with 5c is artifact, which you have in USA in form of ubazaar that has many tools to shut down 5c mana base. In italy we have also other forms of artifact variations.

The reason I'm running white is cunning wish for:
1) some bounce cards that I have in sideboard to have access game1, and even without cunning wish, any dragon should have some bounces in sideboard, according to me.
2) extirpate patch in the form of pull from eternity. Exirpate is not that often main deck, but who knows....it's a wishable 1x target that shuts down completely our deck.
3) xantid equivalent effect in the form of orim chant and/or abeyance.
the main problem is that they are misdirectionable targets.... 

So it should be enough to put some flooded+polluted, 2 tundra 1 scrubland....or maybe a basic plain...


edited: I made a mistake, thinking that pull from eternity can act as "entomb from side". this is not true. peace

[fury]

In the freshly new italian vintage forum, www.tipo1.it/forum (which has also a section for foreigners contributes, speaking in english), one the most experienced italian dragon player, Elinor, made a primer about dragon.
He included also historical dragon decklist of the past.
One was very interesting to me, made in 2004/2005 period (ok, another meta, but nice ideas) had red splash for 3 fire/ice 3 stifle main deck, and 3 red elemental blast sideboard. He used the squee based engine, and also had entomb, 1 crucible main deck (sb 2 sundering titan).

His analysis about the metagame is quite obsolete. For instance, saying that Stacks is an easy matchup for Dragon is not true today. I tested this matchup, and found an 55/45 post-side for dragon ; not as easy as we could think...

Red splash is a nice idea, in so far as it gives a lot of interesting things :
1) killing with kumano or shivan hellkite can run over true believer or platinium angel.
2) ReB is a cheap counter, with no drawbacks. It also destroy blue permanents like meddling Mage

Entomb is a must in that deck. Indeed, the dragon-deck beginning hand must have 3 cards to win : A dragon, a reanim, and bazaar. Playing entomb gives a 5th dragon, so that the deck find the win condition quicker. Moreover, entomb can put into the graveyard useful cards like Squee (to draw cards in a long match), the kill if bazaar has been wasted, a Deep analysis to draw, and so on.

Finally, I'm not convinced with crucible. To be efficient, this card should be played as at least 3 exemplaries. But I think you don't have enough place to play it. And most of the time, against non-waste decks, crucible is a dead card.

I've tested a bit the wdgx and really missed the stifle as an "all-pourpose card". Many times I saved a bazaar from wasteland. It has infinite applications, for my playstyle is really important. In nowadays metagame is nice to have 4 duress 4 force 3 stifle maindeck vs all those storm based combo or control-combo decks.

Stifle is a really good card in dragon. It saves lands from wastelands, can stifle an storm effect, is trashable on FoW, can "buy a turn" on beginning of the turn effects of Stacks, and so on.

As far as I'm playing wdgx, I've found myself unable to recover from bad positions.... I mean, with the powa of squee I could overdraw any deck at the moment. Loosing a counterwar in a "instant speed try-kill" (like the example made before with necro-rtr-dragon + 5 mana) let you stay with almost 0 card in hand.

As I said, probably this is due to my playstyle, I like to force into bazaar and without squee I need to spend mana to dig (1U is the DA cost).
I know that "squee are useless", I'm just saying it's not that bad by the way in a deck built to "draw and discard".

Some says that Squee is useless in dragon. I disagree. Bazaar+Squee is an uncounterable draw engine, and can give quickly solutions against any deck. Squees can be easily put into the graveyard with Intuition. But as you say, dragon players have the tentation to dig their deck with bazaar to achieve no card in hand. It's not efficient, and they'd rather play slowerly or fetch some squees in order not to make too much card disadvantage.

Now the decklist I'm going to test in these days is UBw.
In italy we need the mana base as stable as possible because it's really infested of denial deck, aggro-control, wasteland, crucible and chalice to the oblivion. That's why italians cannot adopt 5c manabase.
Of course vs some decks of the format 5c is superior simply because they cannot do nothing to your lands. The only decks to care with 5c is artifact, which you have in USA in form of ubazaar that has many tools to shut down 5c mana base. In italy we have also other forms of artifact variations.

Fish-like decks are difficult for dragon 5C. But 5C offers you a lot of solutions against hate. I'm not convinced that 5C should be abandoned only because of the denial.

The reason I'm running white is cunning wish for:
1) some bounce cards that I have in sideboard to have access game1, and even without cunning wish, any dragon should have some bounces in sideboard, according to me.
2) extirpate patch in the form of pull from eternity. Exirpate is not that often main deck, but who knows....it's a wishable 1x target that shuts down completely our deck.
3) xantid equivalent effect in the form of orim chant and/or abeyance.
the main problem is that they are misdirectionable targets.... 

Another great white card in dragon is Enlightened tutor. It can reach a reanim when Dragon is in the graveyard. Balance can also be chosen, because it helps to discard, and it ruins aggro decks. Finally, I would prefer abeyance rather than orim's chant, because it makes drawing and forbids the activated abilities (if for instance, there is a Tormod's Crypt on the table).

To conclude, I would defend the 5C dragon version because of its great adaptability.

[dicemanx]

I've tested a bit the wdgx and really missed the stifle as an "all-pourpose card".

WGDX came into being to trim down the number of circumstantially good cards (Squee being one example), and to reduce the overdependence on Bazaar (by running DAs and RtRs, as well as having a ton of instants to win without needing Bazaar). The fact that you "miss" Stifle suggests that you were adherering to that dependence too much, because when I was playing the deck I would actually bait Wastelands with Bazaar.

Stifle can be circumstantially amazing, but for me that isn't good enough - I dislike playing parity effects in WGD unless they are Duress or the mandatory FoW; this means that I'd much rather go with Abeyance instead as a nice catch-all, since Abeyance can also nicely stop Storm or buy a turn versus fast combo decks, and of course it offers protection on your turn when going off. There is, however, a more pressing, hopefully temporary need - Leylines main or SB. Given that Ichorid looms large on the horizon, and Hulk Flash along with it, this presents a potentially serious problem in that graveyard hate might start finding its way into the main deck. This could result in WGD(X), if its even playable, to start running bounce maindeck via Chain of Vapor or Echoing Truth.

Red splash is a nice idea, in so far as it gives a lot of interesting things :
1) killing with kumano or shivan hellkite can run over true believer or platinium angel.
2) ReB is a cheap counter, with no drawbacks. It also destroy blue permanents like meddling Mage

True Believer and Platinum Angel, if they even get played, can be handled by WGDX. You don't need R splashes to deal with these cards.

REB also isn't good enough in my opinion, particlarly in a deck that will want to focus on Bazaar as its primary kill card.

Some says that Squee is useless in dragon. I disagree. Bazaar+Squee is an uncounterable draw engine, and can give quickly solutions against any deck. Squees can be easily put into the graveyard with Intuition. But as you say, dragon players have the tentation to dig their deck with bazaar to achieve no card in hand. It's not efficient, and they'd rather play slowerly or fetch some squees in order not to make too much card disadvantage.

This is not a sufficient rebuttal. You're merely citing the positive aspects of Squee, aspects that we're all well aware of given that Squee was played in WGD over several years in North America. The reason Squee was cut was to reduce the number of individually useless spells from WGD (Squee is terrible without Bazaar), and because a temporary burst via DA is a lot better than the steady draw via Squee in such a fast environment. WGDX also boasted one of the highest blue card counts and could support FoW best in part because of the Squee-DA swap among other changes.

Stifle is a really good card in dragon. It saves lands from wastelands, can stifle an storm effect, is trashable on FoW, can "buy a turn" on beginning of the turn effects of Stacks, and so on.

I do not understand how your evidence supports your conclusion. I too can pick a candidate disruption spell, list all of the amazing things it can do, and then conclude how it is a "good card in Dragon". Watch:

Abeyance is a really good card in Dragon. It stops Storm, it counters certain versions of Flash decks, it buys a turn versus Ichorid, it stops every instant speed removal spell including the dreaded Extirpate, it stops Tormod's Crypt the turn you're going off, it stops Wasteland the turn you go off and before you put a Bazaar into play.

Or:

Chain of Vapor is really good in Dragon. It pitches to FoW, can bounce a Stax lock piece, it bounces annoying Fish creatures (Meddling Mage, True Believer), it bounces Crypt or Leyline of the Void (the deadliest anti-WGD cards).

So is it the case that CoV=Abeyance>Stifle>other candidate disruption? Of course not. It depends on the metagame: in essence, it depends on what premium you put on what effect. I just don't think you guys are being fair about your analyses.

[fury]

Red splash is a nice idea, in so far as it gives a lot of interesting things :
1) killing with kumano or shivan hellkite can run over true believer or platinium angel.
2) ReB is a cheap counter, with no drawbacks. It also destroy blue permanents like meddling Mage

True Believer and Platinum Angel, if they even get played, can be handled by WGDX. You don't need R splashes to deal with these cards.
REB also isn't good enough in my opinion, particularly in a deck that will want to focus on Bazaar as its primary kill card.

In the french Metagame, some decks play theses cards against dragon and Tendrils decks. But indeed, you can handle them with an "witness-kill with-bounce". Or perhaps something else ?

As a matter of fact, I splash red only to kill with kumano, and I keep ReB in the side. Do you think it's useless and should I change for a kill with witness ?

This is not a sufficient rebuttal. You're merely citing the positive aspects of Squee, aspects that we're all well aware of given that Squee was played in WGD over several years in North America. The reason Squee was cut was to reduce the number of individually useless spells from WGD (Squee is terrible without Bazaar), and because a temporary burst via DA is a lot better than the steady draw via Squee in such a fast environment. WGDX also boasted one of the highest blue card counts and could support FoW best in part because of the Squee-DA swap among other changes.

You just said that the main aim for dragon is to find bazaar the quickiest as possible.

particularly in a deck that will want to focus on Bazaar as its primary kill card

So I have difficulties to understand why squee can be useless, considering that you do as much as possible to find bazaar in the first turns of a match. You said that drawing with DA is better in a fast environment, but does dragon suffer from rapidity of the challenger decks ? I don't think so. Bazaar+Squee is mainly used if the match goes longer than a few turns, if there is something missing or dealt by the opponent in the dragon combo. Moreover, using DA is costly in mana, this mana should be used to win instead no ?

Stifle is a really good card in dragon. It saves lands from wastelands, can stifle an storm effect, is trashable on FoW, can "buy a turn" on beginning of the turn effects of Stacks, and so on.

I do not understand how your evidence supports your conclusion. I too can pick a candidate disruption spell, list all of the amazing things it can do, and then conclude how it is a "good card in Dragon". Watch:

I simply tried to show that the card could handle a lot of things in the french metagame, where we find a lot of storm and stacks decks. I do not pretend having the best solution, but I try to think about the cards used in the deck and build in consequence. I'm sure that you know the dragon deck far more than me, so I'm sorry if my "analyses" (which are not quite relevant I confess) seem quite naive...

Abeyance is a really good card in Dragon. It stops Storm, it counters certain versions of Flash decks, it buys a turn versus Ichorid, it stops every instant speed removal spell including the dreaded Extirpate, it stops Tormod's Crypt the turn you're going off, it stops Wasteland the turn you go off and before you put a Bazaar into play.

Or:

Chain of Vapor is really good in Dragon. It pitches to FoW, can bounce a Stax lock piece, it bounces annoying Fish creatures (Meddling Mage, True Believer), it bounces Crypt or Leyline of the Void (the deadliest anti-WGD cards).

So is it the case that CoV=Abeyance>Stifle>other candidate disruption? Of course not. It depends on the metagame: in essence, it depends on what premium you put on what effect. I just don't think you guys are being fair about your analyses.

So you think as follow :

1) Define the waited metagame
2) Choose the cards giving the metagame
3) Listing advantages and drawbacks for each card

Correct ?

[dicemanx]

You just said that the main aim for dragon is to find bazaar the quickiest as possible.

I didn't say this. I made the statement that WGDX aims to reduce the dependence of Bazaar.

So I have difficulties to understand why squee can be useless, considering that you do as much as possible to find bazaar in the first turns of a match.

Even if the goal was to find Bazaar as fast as possible, it wouldn't take away from the fact that Squee can be useless if your Bazaar is neutralized.

You said that drawing with DA is better in a fast environment, but does dragon suffer from rapidity of the challenger decks ? I don't think so.

The format is a lot faster now than say a year or two ago. In fact, WGD has to cede and play the control role in some match-ups, including Long, unless it gets randomly lucky with its opening seven cards. Other decks like Belcher and Flash are much faster than WGD, and Ichorid is around the same average speed; Gifts is slower, but has very strong disruption components to allow it to outcombo WGD. Squee-Bazaar is simply not very strong anymore given that the control archetypes have been superceded by Gifts, a powerful control-combo hybrid.

That's the fast decks, where the Squee-Bazaar engine is inferior to DA. The slowest decks in the format that are tenable, Fish and Stax, are not very friendly towards the Squee-Bazaar engine because of the manner in which they can hammer at the Bazaar itself.

Bazaar+Squee is mainly used if the match goes longer than a few turns, if there is something missing or dealt by the opponent in the dragon combo. Moreover, using DA is costly in mana, this mana should be used to win instead no ?

Squee has its advantages, but the time it takes to get a return on the investment, and the fact that Squee is useless if the Bazaar gets shut down (via Wasteland or Pithing Needle, or if a tutor is countered), and the fact that your draw engine places a lot more pressure of finding an early Bazaar (the overdependence on the card) cannot be underestimated. Furthermore, a greater importance is placed on supporting FoW these days as best as possible because of the speed and the bombs present in the format.

I simply tried to show that the card could handle a lot of things in the french metagame, where we find a lot of storm and stacks decks. I do not pretend having the best solution, but I try to think about the cards used in the deck and build in consequence.

I don't pretend to have the solutions either. All I ask is fairness in considering disruption slots, because each piece of disruption has its own strengths and weaknesses, and focusing solely on the amazing things any one card can do isn't going to make for a convincing argument.

1) Define the waited metagame
2) Choose the cards giving the metagame
3) Listing advantages and drawbacks for each card

Yes - the disruption should address the needs for particular metagames. Right now, it is almost impossible to predict if WGD is going to be a decent choice given the big emphasis placed on the graveyard by Ichorid and Hulk-Flash. WGD already has had issues with Extirpate (that card annoyingly surfaces in some metas probably more than it should, as it continues to underwhelm me when I see it in action), and now it faces an even bigger issue with Leyline possibly in some main decks. The fact that Ichorid has a good game against the current iterations of Gifts, and that Stax has very good tools against Hulk Flash does complicate the picture - WGD might have to wait and see what its biggest challengers are after May 20th when FS becomes legal.

[fury]

Thanks for your concern, dicemanx.

I would like to draw the future of dragon in the new metagame which is going to emerge with the new B&R list in Vintage.

I will draw the point on different ways :

1) How consistent become Dragon with the apparition of Flash Hulk decks ?
2) How can the deck be adapted with more gravehates and bounces in the metagame, because of the presence of Ichorid and split second cards ?

1) First of all, Dragon has always being a fast combo deck. The kill has taken very few slots : 1 animation, 1 WGD in the graveyard, and one win condition. Moreover, the use of bazaar is not counterable. If we consider the flash hulk kill, it takes more slots but :
* the way to start the combo is more redundant (4 flash, 4 merchant scroll, compared to 6-7 animation spells). Moreover, the tutoring power is Flash decks is very more important than in dragon (9 tutors instead of 3-4)
* Dragon needs some cards to have quickly a bazaar on the table, Flash needs only 2 cards in hand. Thus, it seems to me that slots are more restricted in dragon than in Flash, especially in the 5CDragon version.

Dragon have still some advantage on Flash in a certain manner :
* It draws fast more than hulk flash
* It less sensitive to chalicex2, since it can start the combo with necromancy
* It can kill in the turn while Flash needs another turn (with is not synergic with pact of negation)
* It can overpass ensnaring bridge, orb of dreams or platinium angel with kills like kumano or call of the claws (but since the two decks needs to have bounces in the metagame, this argument is weak)

Common points of the two decks :
* they fear grave hate the same manner (leyline, tormod's, extirpate)
* they fear anti-creature the same way (sword to plowshare).
* they both fear stifle and trickbind

To conclude, I would say that Hulk seems to be more consistent and faster for the combo, but less polyvalent than dragon. I will test further to see if my intuitions are correct.

2) With the postFS ichorid irruption in the metagame, More than before, Dragon needs to take into account Leyline and tormod's crypt. Moreover, with extirpate and trickbind, Dragon must protect the combo more than before.

I would adjust the Dragon build with more protection cards like xantid and abeyance, to avoid tormod's crypt and all sort of counterspells. Moreover, these cards prevent the WGD to be removed with extirpate the turn we start the combo.

To manage Leyline or planar void, Dragon should have Ray of revelation in side. Or, for the 3 color versions (which seems to me to be weak in the new metagame) some bounces like Chain of Vapor or Echoing Truth.

To conclude, I would say that adapting dragon is now very difficult, because the vintage has become very diversified, and every combo decks must anticipate a lot of hate and threatens. Any other ideas to manage this deck nowadays ?

Thanks for your concern,

[zulander]

While I haven't played the deck in a long time I'd recommend Pact of Negations if you opt to run the FoWless list. If your main concerns are people stopping you while going off and not wanting to pitch that blue card so the game isn't a draw then why not run the card, even if it's just a 3 of.

And has anyone thought of running one copy of clone? That way you don't loose to someone with one copy of STP in their hand or even stifle while going off. When clone comes into play you can copy worlddragon if you think they have an StP or bogardian to kill one cycle faster.

[A.-1.]

@Fury
Activating Bazaar is counterable. It can be Stifled or Trickbinded.
The argument that Dragon draws faster is offset by the redundancy of Flash like you mentioned. Flash doesn't need to draw a large number of cards to win and relies more on tutors and it's 4-ofs to win.
Xantid Swarm, Abeyance, Orim's Chant, etc. have been used to some success in the past but right now and after the B&R changes they seem awfully slow. (Example: Turn one City of Brass, play Xantid. Turn two play a Mox and a Bazaar, activate Bazaar putting a Dragon into the graveyard, tap the Mox and the City of Brass to play a two mana animate. A turn two kill on the play is just fine but any form of disruption like getting Duressed, Wasteland, Tormod's in play, etc. slows down Dragon by at least a turn. On top of that you need exactly a 5C land, Xantid or Orim's Chant, Bazaar, Dragon, and a two-mana animate in your top 10 cards.)
Hopefully Dragon like many decks is cyclical and will one day return but for the time being it should be put on the backburner.

[Akuma]

I think this calls for:



That's a joke, in case someone takes it seriously 

As far as adapting Dragon, I don't think that is going to happen right now, given that two of the most hyped decks at the moment (Ichorid, Flash) use the graveyard. It seems like EVERYONE is playing Leyline of the Void in their sideboard. It would be a nightmare to play Dragon in a 6-8 round tourney because of the graveyard hate being used at the moment.

[islanderboi10]

I think this calls for:



That's a joke, in case someone takes it seriously 

As far as adapting Dragon, I don't think that is going to happen right now, given that two of the most hyped decks at the moment (Ichorid, Flash) use the graveyard. It seems like EVERYONE is playing Leyline of the Void in their sideboard. It would be a nightmare to play Dragon in a 6-8 round tourney because of the graveyard hate being used at the moment.

But Flash and Ichorid both play around the hate, why can't Dragon?

Dragon is a very resiliant deck, and I believe it could make a come back.

[Kowal]

You win slower than both decks, and you don't have anywhere near as good a game one as either of them.  You're also hosed by more cards.

Even given all the advantages of Ichorid or Flash over Dragon, they don't consistantly top eight either.

[dicemanx]

There's good news: Ichorid continues to underachieve, and Flash is OK, but nothing amazing; both decks have significant vulnerabilities that will prevent them from ever reaching top tier, and there's hope that would-be Ichorid enthusiasts stop playing the archetype once they get it "out of their system" (ie once they play it enough in events). This means that WGD might have to lurk in the background until some of the hate subsides.

Flash will likely stick around, but honestly, what good player will want to play Flash when they can play a deck like a Long/TPS/Ritual-Scroll/GushTPS variant that minimizes the number of useless cards and minimizes vulnerabilities associated with a combo deck; alternately, they can play a very punishing archetype like Fish, Landstill, SS or Bomberman which have fantastic disruption suites that can hold fast combo in check. Flash reminds me of Belcher or MeandeckSX - there's always some randoms that will bring such archetypes to an event, but they are more of a speed-bump than legitimate contenders.

As a side note, given that Shivan Hellkite is coming back in 10th edition as a foil, I will have to resurrect the archetype in 5color form. Let's hope that the Leylines are gone from most SBs by then.

[islanderboi10]

There's good news: Ichorid continues to underachieve, and Flash is OK, but nothing amazing; both decks have significant vulnerabilities that will prevent them from ever reaching top tier, and there's hope that would-be Ichorid enthusiasts stop playing the archetype once they get it "out of their system" (ie once they play it enough in events). This means that WGD might have to lurk in the background until some of the hate subsides.

Flash will likely stick around, but honestly, what good player will want to play Flash when they can play a deck like a Long/TPS/Ritual-Scroll/GushTPS variant that minimizes the number of useless cards and minimizes vulnerabilities associated with a combo deck; alternately, they can play a very punishing archetype like Fish, Landstill, SS or Bomberman which have fantastic disruption suites that can hold fast combo in check. Flash reminds me of Belcher or MeandeckSX - there's always some randoms that will bring such archetypes to an event, but they are more of a speed-bump than legitimate contenders.

As a side note, given that Shivan Hellkite is coming back in 10th edition as a foil, I will have to resurrect the archetype in 5color form. Let's hope that the Leylines are gone from most SBs by then.

I am sooo waiting for a list.

I believe that you are right, though.
The hate should be clearing out.  Flash, though a good deck, is dying down.  As is Ichorid.

[fury]

@Akuma : The thread is one month old, and I wanted to wait for the new B&R list to argue for the Dragon deck. But I noticed your point of humor

While I haven't played the deck in a long time I'd recommend Pact of Negations if you opt to run the FoWless list. If your main concerns are people stopping you while going off and not wanting to pitch that blue card so the game isn't a draw then why not run the card, even if it's just a 3 of.

Thank you, I'll test it. But I feel that this counter is very dangerous and cannot really counter an opponent's win condition, unless we kill in the turn just after. I'll test to be sure.

And has anyone thought of running one copy of clone? That way you don't loose to someone with one copy of STP in their hand or even stifle while going off. When clone comes into play you can copy worlddragon if you think they have an StP or bogardian to kill one cycle faster.

I didn't understand. How could you cast Clone while reanimating WGD ? May you explain please ?

Activating Bazaar is counterable. It can be Stifled or Trickbinded.

Right. I meant that we don't need a spell to put cards in the graveyard, and to draw with squee or Deep Analysis. This is an advantage according to me. Of course, the win condition (any reanimation) is always counterable.

The argument that Dragon draws faster is offset by the redundancy of Flash like you mentioned. Flash doesn't need to draw a large number of cards to win and relies more on tutors and it's 4-ofs to win.

This idea is interesting : should a deck be more redundant or should it draw more to raise the hand-possibilities of the player ?

Most of the time, we want to have both advantages. Dragon is a redundant deck too (4WGD, 4BoB, 7reanim), and it's draw engine is consistent, though it takes time to be efficient (BoB+Squee or BoB+DA needs mana ressources or time to draw effectively).

Moreover, though Flash goldfishes faster (because of the drop of bazaar in dragon), it can be slowed by the opponent deck. And when the opponent counter the first threats you put on, you need to draw again to find other solutions. For instance, if you have the following broken hand :

Flash
Protean Hullk
land
land
mox
pact of negation
force of will

And you don't start the game. The opponent put a chalice@0 in play, which you counter with Force. You only stay with the combo piece in hand, and if you start the combo next turn, I could be countered with only one card in hand. So you must wait for a new way to protect the combo.

Don't forget that in vintage, the ways for winning are so fast that the opening hand should be very well optimized. That why I think that drawing remains important for combo according to me.

Xantid Swarm, Abeyance, Orim's Chant, etc. have been used to some success in the past but right now and after the B&R changes they seem awfully slow. (Example: Turn one City of Brass, play Xantid. Turn two play a Mox and a Bazaar, activate Bazaar putting a Dragon into the graveyard, tap the Mox and the City of Brass to play a two mana animate. A turn two kill on the play is just fine but any form of disruption like getting Duressed, Wasteland, Tormod's in play, etc. slows down Dragon by at least a turn. On top of that you need exactly a 5C land, Xantid or Orim's Chant, Bazaar, Dragon, and a two-mana animate in your top 10 cards.)

I totally agree with you. I heavily tested a version of 5CDragon with Xantid, Abeyance and orim's main deck, and I effectively concluded that it's too slow. The main deckbuilding of dragon should, according to me, be done with disruption and counters instead of only combo protection. Indeed, disrupting/countering also protects directly the combo...

But disrupting/countering has two effective drawbacks in the current metagame :

1) It counters/eliminate *one* only threat to combo. If you only have a duress, and the opponent's hand 2 FoW, you cannot start the combo
2) It cannot manage split second cards, especially extirpate.

That why I tried a 5Cdisrupt/counter version of dragon, with some abeyance/xantid/orim's in side (4 cards seems to be suffisant).

Hopefully Dragon like many decks is cyclical and will one day return but for the time being it should be put on the backburner.

I don't think so, for all the reasons I gave. I think dragon should find new ways to adapt to a very aggressive and gravehated metagame.

It seems like EVERYONE is playing Leyline of the Void in their sideboard. It would be a nightmare to play Dragon in a 6-8 round tourney because of the graveyard hate being used at the moment.

The matchups against Leyline are very tough indeed. But I tested Dragon against Ichoridpost-FS, and I find that dragon could find ways to go through. I found a 40/60 for ichorid preside, and the inverse proportion postside. That's not so bad with a very hard gravehate for dragon. Of course, I had to bounce Leyline or destroy it before doing anything.

You win slower than both decks, and you don't have anywhere near as good a game one as either of them.  You're also hosed by more cards.

As I argue, I don't think so. Both decks have their advantages and drawbacks. It's true that Flash don't really fear the bounces like chain of vapor, as dragon do, but ichorid do fear them.

Even given all the advantages of Ichorid or Flash over Dragon, they don't consistantly top eight either.

Why, according to you ?

Many thanks for your contributions gentlemens (and sorry for my bad english )

[7filo7]

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

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

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

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

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

 
just my 2 cents.

[fury]

I globally agree with your analysis. I just want to point out some arguments.

As you said, Dragon can easily manage extirpate with some good sideborad cards. Le R&D choice is merely good, it also can be trashed on FoW. I retained another choice : xantid or abeyance, can give safety to put a WGD into the graveyard without the threat of extirpate. Of course, thus, you need to reanimate in the turn. It's also useful against control or control/combo. The drawbacks are that this choice can only be done in the 5CDragon version.

For Leyline, the idea of a transformal side is interesting. Is there any way to keep a dragon build against Leyline ? Vs Ichorid, I tried to put in mass bounces and enchantment destruction, and the classic dragon build could win after side (near 60/40 favorable match up against ichorid). But maybe if the metagame makes people always playing Leyline in their main deck, the transformal choice is a good one. Finally, could you explain why merchant can be a good choice in Dragon ? To seek what ?

Concerning faster combo than dragon I find your argumentation quite surprising. Faster combo are faster than dragon right ? ( quite an evidence ) So how can you improve the matchups by reducing the business slots and raising the combo slots, which is slower than the other archetypes ? If your opponent has a faster deck than you (and dragon is slower than some decks, especially because of the drop of bazaar), you need to slow down it to win, by choosing some good disrupt/business cards.

Could you explain ? Or perhaps I misunderstood something, sorry...


Well, another more general question : What is the metagame in italy which Dragon should take care of ? And in The United States ? In France, there are lot of Fish, Ywill, and stacks decks, so Dragon must side against these...

[meadbert]

Dragon has a terrible Ichorid matchup and there is not much to be done about that.  The fact that Ichorid decks bring in an insane amount of Enchantment hate post board does not help either.

To make Dragon competitive you must isolate the matchups that you can win and then try to win those.

Boarding into Oath works well for both Fish and Stax.  Versus fast combo you want to keep your maindeck for the most part, but possibly add Tinker in case your opponent opens with Leyline.
Adding Tinker to the main deck might make sense to handle maindeck Leyline.  At the same time maindeck Leyline is mostly seen from Ichorid and that is a matchup that I would pretty much concede.

Incidently the fact that Dragon can easily run 4 Duress and 4 Force of Will and can combo out very early makes it a strong foil for other Combo/Control decks.  It runs just as much turn 1 and turn 0 disruption and more draw than pretty much any other deck.

Everyone has said that Flash is the new Oath, but to me it is the new Dragon.  They are both two card combos.  They are both vulnerable to graveyard hate.  They are both somewhat vulnerable to Pithing Needle.  They can both combo out at instant speed.

I continue to find the Quiet Speculation/Deep Analysis draw engine to be insane in game 1.  It is frequently terrible in game two because of graveyard hate so it may not belong in the current metagame, but it is still worth considering.
The other idea would be to run a full set of Scrolls along with Chain of Vapor and some Misdirections.  You can use the Scroll/Ancestral draw engine and then post board Scroll can find bounce to deal with Leyline of the Void.

Dragon has a huge advantage over Ichorid in that it can simply play control till it is ready to combo out.  Ichorid needs two or three turns to get its combo online.  All Dragon needs to do is EOT chain Leyline, Bazaar Dragon into yard, Animate Dragon.

Even against a Leyline heavy meta Dragon should have a strong game.  If the Oath plan turns out not to work, then I could see Dragon running 4 Chain of Vapor and some other bounce post board along with Scrolls and in that manner it can play control versus Fish/Stax till it is ready to go off.

[fury]

I globally agree. Some new considerations about Dragon and things I have tested :

1) Leyline : mass removal/bounces (Chain of Vapor, Echoing Truth) seems to be a good solution, instead of a Oath-transformal side. I tested OathDragon&Dragonless vs Aggro-Control, Combo Control and Ichorid, Oath-Dragon is too slow. Or the 15 cards of the side should be used to switch into a Oath build, which is not a good choice in a very diversified metagame.

I also tested a new way to manage Leyline : Steal Enchantment. It's UU, which is expensive, but it can inverse the power of Leyline, forcing the opponent to manage it before doing anything else. Against ichorid, Flash or combo, it's most of the time a winning condition. Against control matchups, it can buy time to combo out, if it's not countered. The drawback is that Steal Enchantment is only useful against Leyline, though it can be trashed on FoW. Any comments on that ?

2) Including some extirpate in dragon can be useful against control matchups. Indeed, it cannot be countered, and can remove Fow/drain/bounces from the opponent's hand. Xantid/Abeyance is sometimes not enough to pass the combo, in so far as a lot of decks have anti-creatures solutions and bounces. And extirpate is really synergetic with duress. Moreover, it can stop agressive combo. Examples : extirpate on the tutor/kill after a Yawgmoth's Will, on Kiki or Karmic guide against Flash-Hulk, against Mindslaver, against Black Lotus in Bomberman, and so on. But I consider Extirpate as a side card, because against some matchups, it can be a nearly-dead card.

To manage extirpate in the opponent's deck, Dragon can include Research/Development. It can pick up back WGD which has been removed, and can find solutions in the sideboard preside, though this tactic is quite slow according to my tests. Maybe some Wishes, like Living Wish, should do the business more effectively, I didn't test.

To be continued...

[Thegreatgonzo]

Dragon used to be considered a combo deck because it usualy kills by turn 3. But now, the format is quite faster, and a turn 3 kill means control deck. That's the way we should consider dragon at the moment. So, like every control (read : combo control) deck, it should pack tutors, lots of disruption, and maindeck bounce. You only need one kill : eternal witness (he rules!). Tinker -> stupid robot is nice, but should be kept in the sidboard (unless your meta is loaded with maindeck graveyard hate). I'll go for Merchant scroll, Duress, F.O.W., and maybe stifle (so that you can attack with the dragon if there's nothing else you can do).

Deep analysis is indeed quite slow at the moment, and I agree that Scroll -> Ancestral is all you need. Scroll also fetch intuition or Read the runes (instant wins). I don't like Cuning wish, but I think it's a necessary evil, so that you can win without ancestral recall (in case it gets removed).

Yawgmoth's will is a must have. It's a good bait (the way Ancestral recall is in grim long), and it will turn into a win before your opponent gets another turn, providing you play time walk (something you should do, since you plan to loose a land drop to play Bazaar).

About City of brass : I prefer the U/B version, but you should notice that if you play with squee (or sundering titan), you can cast as many Ancestral as you need to for a minimal amount of life : Tap city for  , animate dragon, begin the loop with Bazaar, then target eternal witness with the reanimator, regrowth necromancy and gemstone mine, or any mox you like, if you already played a land, along with all the counters of your deck, stop the loop by targeting something else than dragon with the first reanimator (squee, titan), then play gemstone mine, play necromancy on dragon, and here it is!. (Thanks to OlafGrosbaff from Solomoxen for this one).
Arf! Need to go to work More on this later.
Thanks for reading

[Purple Hat]

Dragon used to be considered a combo deck because it usualy kills by turn 3. But now, the format is quite faster, and a turn 3 kill means control deck. That's the way we should consider dragon at the moment. So, like every control (read : combo control) deck, it should pack tutors, lots of disruption, and maindeck bounce. You only need one kill : eternal witness (he rules!). Tinker -> stupid robot is nice, but should be kept in the sidboard (unless your meta is loaded with maindeck graveyard hate). I'll go for Merchant scroll, Duress, F.O.W., and maybe stifle (so that you can attack with the dragon if there's nothing else you can do).

Deep analysis is indeed quite slow at the moment, and I agree that Scroll -> Ancestral is all you need. Scroll also fetch intuition or Read the runes (instant wins). I don't like Cuning wish, but I think it's a necessary evil, so that you can win without ancestral recall (in case it gets removed).

Yawgmoth's will is a must have. It's a good bait (the way Ancestral recall is in grim long), and it will turn into a win before your opponent gets another turn, providing you play time walk (something you should do, since you plan to loose a land drop to play Bazaar).

About City of brass : I prefer the U/B version, but you should notice that if you play with squee (or sundering titan), you can cast as many Ancestral as you need to for a minimal amount of life : Tap city for  , animate dragon, begin the loop with Bazaar, then target eternal witness with the reanimator, regrowth necromancy and gemstone mine, or any mox you like, if you already played a land, along with all the counters of your deck, stop the loop by targeting something else than dragon with the first reanimator (squee, titan), then play gemstone mine, play necromancy on dragon, and here it is!. (Thanks to OlafGrosbaff from Solomoxen for this one).
Arf! Need to go to work More on this later.
Thanks for reading

playing a 8-12 card combo in your maindeck is probably gonna hose your ability to build a control deck.  if you're gonna go this route you're probably better off just playing 4x squee and some zombie infestations.  there's a list from gencon 05 around somewhere that would be a useful starting point I think, but it was a bit slow for the current meta.

[fury]

Dragon used to be considered a combo deck because it usualy kills by turn 3. But now, the format is quite faster, and a turn 3 kill means control deck. That's the way we should consider dragon at the moment.

Which archetype can now keep a 1 or 2 turn-kill ? Dragon has never been the fastest deck in T1 since the rise of Long, SX and TPS decks. Combo always had to include some control to pass the combo pieces. But I agree, since the meta is going to move to a fast and hategraveyard based one, Dragon must adapt to counter the threats before comboing. We resumed these threats before : gravehate, bounces, denial.

So, like every control (read : combo control) deck, it should pack tutors, lots of disruption, and maindeck bounce. You only need one kill : eternal witness (he rules!).

Tutors : vampiric tutor, mystical tutor, demonic tutor seems to be auto-included in Dragon. For the 5C color, I add enlightened tutor : it can fetch a reanim spell, and a black lotus or a mox if the mana base is not suffisant to cast the combo and the protection. I wonder if it's really a good card, but it made me win some games.

Disruption : 4 Duress is also auto-included. Some extirpate in side can manage the opponent's graveyard. Anything else ?

Maindeck bounces : Chain of Vapor, Echoing Truth, Hurky's recall, Rebuild ?

For the kill, I agree : witness is very flexible. You can kill with infinite time walk, infinite draw, and you can manage anything which prevent you from winning (examples : platinum angel, orb of dream, ensnaring bridge, true believer,etc). But I think it's too dangerous to have only one kill in a very diversified metagame. I would add another kill in side : kumano, or shivan hellkite, or laquatus, or caller of the claws.

Tinker -> stupid robot is nice, but should be kept in the sidboard (unless your meta is loaded with maindeck graveyard hate). I'll go for Merchant scroll, Duress, F.O.W., and maybe stifle (so that you can attack with the dragon if there's nothing else you can do).

Anyone has heavily tested Merchant scroll ? I think it's a good idea to include it in a Dragon build, but it seems to be quite slow. How many Merchant Scroll would you deck in ?

Yawgmoth's will is a must have. It's a good bait (the way Ancestral recall is in grim long), and it will turn into a win before your opponent gets another turn, providing you play time walk (something you should do, since you plan to loose a land drop to play Bazaar).

Yawgmoth's will is a powerful card, but I don't understand why it could be in a Dragon build. Indeed, it costs 3, can only be casted when the graveyard is full of great cards, and the deck doesn't do a big amount of mana, so that playing yawgmoth's will is very difficult. Moreover, using this card makes you more dependant of the graveyard. Did you test it heavily ? I'll do to see if it can be included.

About City of brass : I prefer the U/B version, but you should notice that if you play with squee (or sundering titan), you can cast as many Ancestral as you need to for a minimal amount of life : Tap city for  , animate dragon, begin the loop with Bazaar, then target eternal witness with the reanimator, regrowth necromancy and gemstone mine, or any mox you like, if you already played a land, along with all the counters of your deck, stop the loop by targeting something else than dragon with the first reanimator (squee, titan), then play gemstone mine, play necromancy on dragon, and here it is!. (Thanks to OlafGrosbaff from Solomoxen for this one).

That's the power of the witness kill
But I prefer Forbidden Orchard and Gemstone Mine in the 5C color version, so that the life points are not a problem. In a more control version of dragon, which seems to be necessary in the current metagame, playing hurting-lands is not a good idea in my opinion.

[Metalizer]

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=646 I just found this..... Maybe this will speed things up in here .

He plays a lot of Disruption Main I dont like that (But maybe it were the right metagame call ?). PLus he is missing Read The Runes and the 5 bazaars must be an error. But the living wishes are very interesting and the creatures he wishes for plus the bazaar. He didnt need a transformational side to go top 4. Ill test living wishes since I never likes them because of sorcery speed..... But maybe this list proofs me wrong. Any other ideas on the build?

[fury]

The correct list is here :

#3/ Dragon / Kenji HIYAMA (Na mo naki Mono) 4-1-0
3 Intuition
2 Cunning Wish
4 Duress
3 Animate Dead
3 Necromancy
3 Worldgorger Dragon
3 Living Wish
4 Force of Will
1 Massacre
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Echoing Truth
1 Eternal Witness
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Crop Rotation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Swamp
2 Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Library of Alexandria
SB: 3 Xantid Swarm
SB: 1 Bazaar of Baghdad
SB: 1 Trygon Predator
SB: 1 Worldgorger Dragon
SB: 1 Gilded Drake
SB: 1 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 1 Naturalize
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Stroke of Genius
SB: 3 Massacre

I will post some comments as soon as I have time (because his result and decklist are quite surprising!).

EDIT : only 25 players, but a high level of playing and only a few random decks.

[fury]

Well, some comments on this result and the list.

First of all, the result of such a dragon deck should not be in contradiction with the theoretical build of this archetype. Indeed, the list, according to me, has some weakesses if we compare it with other dragon builds. But It's probable that the skill of the player balanced these weaknesses. Thus, I won't say that Dragon should consider a wish build or something like that. The meta of the tournament was quite diversified and quite competitive with some Flash, Ichorid, GAT, Stax, random.

Some critics on the list :

* only 3 bazaar, and 1 in side : it's a strange choice. I understand that the new build of dragon should not be too dependant from bazaar, but this card stays the best way to win quickly. Moreover, we don't find a lot of pithing needle to counter the ichorid threat, people prefer managing the graveyard. Keeping a bazaar in side with living wish seems to be quite slow.

* only 3 worldgorger and 1 in side : I would criticise this choice the same way. It seems to be a good solution to keep a dragon if the other disappear into a Leyline of the void. Living wish can reach the one which is in the sideboard. But would it be more efficient to manage Leyline, instead of using recuperation techs for vanished dragons ?

* the kill : the witness' one. Classic, efficient, and another kill in the sideboard (Stroke).

* reanim : I would prefer -1 animate dead, +1 dance of the dead, to be sure not to be disturbed by a meddling mage. Fish is commonly played.

* Library of alexandria : I don't understand this choice. Dragon needs colored mana, and Library is anti-synergic with bazaar... Any idea about this card in a WGD build ?

* the deck don't draw that many. No Squee and no deep analysis. This obliges the player to keep an opening hand with the main pieces of the combo,and he cannot rely on card advantage to reach the missing pieces.

That's all for now
Any other suggestion ? Especially with the new upcoming extension Lorwyn ?