Dragon Flash

[Methuselahn]

I love dragons.  I also love insanely cheap combos with outrageous draw engines.  I love winning with a wall of countermagic in my hand to back it up.  These things are partly the reason why the Johnny in me won't die, I guess.

'Dragon Flash' as dubbed by Josh Silvestri in one of his recent articles found here has been a pet project of mine ever since Flash got super powers.  While most people, including my teammates, worked on Legacy and Hulk Flash, I kept my attention on Vintage.  I knew that I wanted to try and push the limits with Academy Rector again.  I'd like to think that I'm very familiar with Rector decks in Vintage.  Teammate Brad Granberry (Rico Suave) and Max Joseph (Westerdale) had done an extensive amount of work back in '03 with the deck during the 'Donate Era'.  Because of this, I got to test with him and became intimately familiar with the mechanics of the deck.  We had always talked about how we wished Flash would be un-nerfed, and now, it's happened. 

I hadn't planned on writing anything for TMD, rather, only a Gencon report for the team forums.  After thinking about it, and being inspired by something Zherbus and others said somewhere recently, I've decided to piece this post together. 

I'm going to warn you right now, that if you're looking for matchup analysis and sideboarding strategies, I'm not going to go into detail here, rather, I'll point out some obvious and not-so-obvious observations about the deck.  Also, I'll copy/paste my Vintage Champs report from Gencon. 


When I first started testing Rector and Flash, I instinctively added Dark Ritual.  The 'Rectal Agony' lists of the past with Rituals were optimal at the time because you needed that boost to get Academy Rector on the table. Also, Rituals are good with Tendrils, a winning strategy that is good now but probably better comparatively back in the day. One way or another you needed to spend 3W + B (Therapy) + Flashback to go off.  Through playing and testing I started to notice a few problems.

Dark Ritual becomes less powerful with Flash in the deck.  Rituals aren't needed to cast Flash.  With Flash, you no longer need to spend five mana to get Bargain down.  Not only do you no longer need to spend that much, but five mana is quite expensive nowadays, especially compared to our modern Hulk Flash decks. 

Dark Ritual wants you to hardcast Rector, but Flash does not.  Flash is better for so many reasons, if only because of the fact that you can cast it at instant speed and it's much more inexpensive.  Testing and practice have taught me that it's just better to not design the deck to hardcast Rector unless I have to change plans.  The last thing that I want to do is resolve her and then topdeck a Flash.

One other thing that became obvious quickly is that Flash and Rector are not good at generating storm by themselves.  This is the real driving motivation for Tendrils of Agony as a plan A to a plan B finisher.  Rectal Agony wasn't cluttered with Flash previously and never had to deal with this hindrance.  At about this point the deck started to take on a different form.

I've tried to commit this build entirely to casting Flash then removing Rector to fetch an enchantment.  Instead of then switching gears and storming out on the spot, the deck is in a much better position to just draw a ton of cards off Bargain, cast Flash again and overwhelm your opponent right there with a brutal combo that not only can win the game directly, but can draw up to four cards during each players turn. At the same time, the combo can set up a defensive wall by filling your hand with  counters, shooting down enemy guys, and giving you a nice Moat to sit behind.

It's absolutely true that it may take a few turns to finish off your opponent with Form of the Dragon, but with a wall of counters a-la Bomberman style, you're in pretty good shape.  With a backup plan of Tendrils, you rarely need more than 2 hits to the dome with Dragon before you can easily go lethal with a mini storm count finisher anyway.  And while it is treated as a secondary plan here, it's actually fairly easy to pull off a small storm count without Rituals. Maindeck Chain of Vapor is a great enabler as well as being able to clear the way with a Duress/Therapy and then countering a dead Mox or something with Force and then Misdirecting the Force.  The amount of things you can do with Bargain + Form in play is ridiculous.  People have asked me after matches why I didn't make a certain play in-game and often, my answer is essentially that I just didn't want to invest game time into winning more.

One particular advantage that I want to point out that this deck has over Hulk Flash is that Flash is actually an instant in this deck.  With Pact laden Hulk decks, the combo is forced to go off at Sorcery speed since you're required to attack.  Forcing your GAT opponent to keep mana open, for instance, is a fair way to keep up tempo wise where Hulk Flash simply aims to win as soon as possible.  In my testing, Hulk Flash and Rector Flash decks have roughly the same fundamental turn.  Sure, Rector Flash might be slightly slower, but a Bargain on the table is game over almost always.

Another thing that I find interesting about this deck is that the more popular Hulk Flash is, the better Rector Flash is.  This is because of the way people build their sideboards.  Right now, you just don't see Stifle, Tormod's Crypts, things like Coffin Purge, or many other conventional Rector hating bullets.  Leyline is the biggest obstacle and that is handled with bounce, which is maindeck with many ways to find it.

For anyone looking for an alternative to common Hulk Flash and the ever adapting meta, Dragon Flash may be worth looking into.  The deck still uses the quickest combo ever while still being an unfamiliar matchup to most opponents right now.

That's the jist with this deck.  I found the deck to not only be quite fun, but rather powerful.  The question I would ask to you is not one of Hulk Flash or Rector Flash, but rather, is there a Rector Flash deck with Rituals that performs better?  I've tried to find it, but I keep coming back to the pitch-counter version.
 
That's all I got for now.

Jeff


---From the Reflection boards:

I had a wonderful time at Gencon.

Meeting Vintage players ranging from Canada to California was the real prize. Talking at some length with Rich Shay (Sr) and other Vintage enthusiasts that I haven't had a chance to meet before was what made the event worth driving 10 hours.

So anyway.

Rich gushes about how good GAT is. I become convinced to play it in the preliminaries. I end up losing only 1 match during this tournament. Unfortunately, I draw three matches. This is a problem. I cannot afford to go to time and draw in the championship rounds. So, I choose the Ritual-less version of Rector Flash that I have much more experience with. I'm very pleased that in the 8 rounds of the championship tournament, I didn't draw a single round.

Onward to the tourney. I played a lot of rounds of Magic in the past four days, details may be fuzzy.

Round 1: Marc Sims with Aggro-Workshop-Stax. Marc wins the die roll and opens with Juggernaut and beats me with it for a few turns. At some point close to death, I reveal my Flash deck and Tendrils him for 20. This game was unique. It was the only game where I actually Tendrils somebody for more than 8 life.

Game 2, I counter a sphere then proceed to Double Flash on my turn, turning into a Dragon and holding a Bomberman style wall of counters off Bargain+Form combo. Dragon eats him because I counter anything relevant. Marc goes on during the tournament to finish with prize payout.
1-0

Round 2. A gentleman who seems to have taken a Threshold deck, Vintage-ified it, and now sits in front of me. He leads with ground dudes. I Double Flash on my first or second turn and win.

Typical of how many games went, I side in Smothers, Tinker, and Platinum angel. I can't remember if he opened with Leyline, but I did win by Tinkering in a Platinum Angel and then actually hard casting Dragon to seal the deal..
2-0

Ray Robrillard, with the obvious.
I remember winning the die roll and keeping a hand with Island, Sapphire, Lotus, Brainstorm, Scroll, and stuff. Sapphire, Brainstorm reveals Flash and Rector. Ray sees no turn that matters.
Game 2 is Rays. He gets permanents out including Welder, Sphere, and Jar. After abusing Jar once, Walking, and welding Jar back in, I decide to scoop, which proved to be critical to me winning the third game and not drawing.
Game 3, I go busted with Flash sometime after my second turn. I may have countered a sphere or something early. So I get Bargain out but have a tough time turning into a Dragon. I'm in the middle of a long turn when time is called. In that turn, I manage to get the dragon, walk to steal turn 1, Will/Walk to steal turn 2. All I have to do is counter anything frightening. Not hard with a wall of counters.

I *almost* punted game 3 by Brainstorming into Lotus, a Brainstorm, and something, NOT putting back Form (Flash and Rector in hand) then casting Flash. As I declared the second Flash, I remembered Form was still in my hand. Before passing priority, I remembered to Brainstorm in response (which generated a confused look by Ray, rightfully so) and put Form on top. Whew. Rich was there watching this game. I think I could sense his heart stop beating for a second as he watched me almost punt it.

Ray mulliganed 6 times in this round and mentioned that none of them were to find any of the 4 Leylines. (which I never saw) I think this qualifies as the one match in the tournament where you draw the nuts/your opponent draws the crap. As everyone knows by now, Ray went on to top 8, me being his only loss in the swiss.

Previously, I had always sided out Will and Tendrils vs Stax, but Rich and experience shows me that Tendrils should probably be kept in because of going to time. That said, I didn't need it though.
3-0

Round 4 Dan Yarrington, with BR hate.  As soon as I saw this devil in a vest, I knew he and I were going to have problems.  Sure, he looks all smiley and polite and whatnot on the outside, but the deck says it all.  Deep beneath that gentle, nice looking exterior is a man that has burning rage in his belly.  Every card in his deck says “I hate you and I'm going to not let your deck work.”

Blood moon effects and attacking dudes ultimately destroy my ability to win both games. Dan opens with Leyline both games, also. Game 2 was a bit more interesting as I was in it for a while with Tinker/Plats, but he was able to kill it with Pyrokinesis. Pyrokinesis had to be a result of scouting. Why the hell would you side in Pyrokinesis vs Rector Flash.
3-1

Mitch ? (from the RIW/michigan area?)with Hulk Flash. Mitch and Demars were sitting next to me in the previous round with hate-boy. So I knew what I was up against. Because of this, I knew that Therapy early naming Flash was the right play. And it hit. Dirty, but hey, that's how this game rolls. I get out Bargain and turn into a Dragon and eat him.

Game 2 involves mulling on both sides, I think, and him opening with casting Virulents. Platinum joins the party and it's a topdeck war. I come out on top. The match was played perfectly as far as I could tell. The good luck fell upon me.
4-1

Round 6 Vincent Forino "Ghetto Storm"
Game 1, I force his second Cabal Ritual mid storm, which was critical to him not killing me. I Bargain, turn into a Dragon and eat him.
Game 2. Vincent destroys my hand with all of his disruption, draws cards with Bob and NW. Tendrils for the win.
Game 3. I open with Tinker/Platinum Angel. Vincent helps me get him down to 4 life with Bobs and Whispers before sucking out all my counters and Echoing Truth my Platinum Angel. Vincent goes on to place in the semi finals.
4-2

Round 7 Some gentleman with Hulk Flash. I wish I could remember this guy's name, but I suck.
This match ends in two games. I mulligan a few times during the match. I think this is the time during the tourny where you draw the crap and your opponent draws the nuts.
4-3

Round 8. Vroman with BRW Baghdad Bob.
Game 1, the enemy drops leyline. But I don't care. I'm holding Land, Lotus, Sapphire, Rushing River, Merchant Scroll, Rector, Force. I Scroll up a Flash with Leyline still in play. At some point, after taking Bob and Factory beats, I Rushing River the Leyline and forego Bargain and just turn into a Dragon right away.
Game 2, I do the Double Flash thing, just barely surviving the ground assault and then eat him.
5-3

There is no doubt that Hulk Flash would have lost this match. A ground assault by me would have been futile.


So I end up with 20th place, having the best tiebreakers over the entire field left standing. I collect my "grab" bag and Timespiral Draft set.  I decide to crack my Timespiral draft set and find a foil Ancestral Visions.  Could be worse, I guess.

I'm pretty happy with the list, although it's worth noting I avoided all sorts of Dryads, but running into a few hate decks in the form of Stax and vest-hate.dec.


// Lands
2  Flooded Strand
3  Island
4  Polluted Delta
1  Tolarian Academy
1  Tropical Island
1  Tundra
4  Underground Sea

// Creatures
4  Academy Rector

// Spells
1  Ancestral Recall
1  Black Lotus
4  Brainstorm
1  Cabal Therapy
1  Chain of Vapor
1  Demonic Tutor
4  Flash
4  Force of Will
1  Form of the Dragon
1  Lotus Petal
1  Mana Crypt
4  Merchant Scroll
2  Misdirection
1  Mox Emerald
1  Mox Jet
1  Mox Pearl
1  Mox Ruby
1  Mox Sapphire
1  Mystical Tutor
1  Sol Ring
1  Tendrils of Agony
1  Time Walk
1  Vampiric Tutor
1  Yawgmoth's Bargain
1  Yawgmoth's Will
1  Duress
1  Rushing River

Edit: the sideboard..

2 Duress
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Massacre
2 Oxidize
1 Platinum Angel
1 Rebuild
2 Smother
1 Tinker

[Grand Inquisitor]

sideboarding strategies, I'm not going to go into detail here

Would you be willing to at least post the SB without notes?  The tropical island is sort of bewildering without it (reverent silence?).

Also, were your GenCon matches indicative of this deck having trouble racing other combo, or were these flukes?  You mention no GAT matchups, but I'm assuming that you'd rather play GAT than lots of hate and combo, right?

[Methuselahn]

Most of the time, sideboarding included

-1 Flash, -1 Rector, +1 Tinker, +1 Angel

Edited in the sideboard.

As far as the side goes, I've never felt the need to include more solutions to Leyline than the two maindeck bounce spells.  This could be suboptimal, though.

Also, sideboarding for games 2 and 3 often saw the deck cutting Will and Tendrils.  Both are late game cards and are just not needed against some decks.  However, they do come back in depending how much time I have left going into game 3.

Generally, the deck doesn't have trouble racing other combo.  Vincent's deck gave me trouble, but I think that deck is borderline suicide style deck, packing 4 Leylines, 4 Therapy, and 4 Duress post board.  The combo deck that DID beat me was a standard looking Sliver Flash deck.

I'd much rather play GAT than hate decks.  I'd much rather play against combo decks than hate decks as well. 

Yeah, the Tropical was in there for SB Oxidize.   There was one other reason though.  Bluffing.  So few decks are running wastes right now and fetching out a Tropical right away was meant to signal GAT.  Havijng it over a basic Island hasn't hurt me yet.

[moxpearl]

Very nice explanation of your deck.  Personally, I like the "Look at me! I'm a Dragon!" name as I envision this old lady being thrown to the ground and standing up as a firebreathing dragon shouting...
But I guess that's too long for a catchy Vintage deck name.

Of course, as you know, I'm partial to the "other" Rector Flash version WITH dark rituals.   My build differs from yours in these aspects:
-4 lands, +4 dark ritual
-2 misdirection, -1 duress, -1 scroll; +3 daze, +1 gush
And, my deck converts into a Razormane Masticore beat down deck.

Here are reasons why I think dark ritual is very helpful:
1.  Casts bargain
2.  Allows for better Yawgmoth's will
3.  Hardcast Rector.  Followed by having or tutoring for therapy.
4.  Dark ritual for mana to cast tutor and flash in same turn.
5.  Supports my SB of hardcasting Razormanes (which isn't relevant in your deck build.)

In playtesting and in tournament play, I've won many times via #1-#4.  It's not that uncommon that you're able to cast one or two flashes that are countered, only to follow it up with one of the other win conditions for the win.  Dark Ritual gives you more flexibility to win through other means.   The advantage of Lands over Dark Ritual is more protection against mana screw, but I generally have not found that to be an issue.

Funny that no one plays Rector Flash.  I think it's more resiliant than the Flash-Hulk builds and it's not so one dimensional.  As an aside, I think Rector Flash is the flash deck that can survive a restriction of scroll or flash....maybe not both.

[Shock Wave]

It was a pleasure to meet you that weekend. I enjoyed our match in the Thursday event, it was pretty exciting! It seems you tuned your deck well and it has the potential to be both broken in  the early game and has a better mid-game than Hulk Flash.

[master_p]

I've spent the the last several days testing and fiddling with your list, and I must say that I think it is very good. It seems to be excellent in the current metagame. One issue that has come up repeatedly for me in testing is my inability to reliably find Rector. Have you ever noticed anything like that? Merchant scroll means flash is very easy to get a hold of, but the lack of a dedicated draw engine and anything comparable to summoner's pact make getting a hold of rector a bit of a pain in my experience so far. The only idea I have to help with that is Eladamri's Call, which doesn't exactly seem promising. I'm also futzing around right now with playing 2-4 mana drains, which have been pretty amazing. With the full suite of 4x FoW 4x Drains 2x misdirection the deck absolutely steamrolls sliver flash so far in testing. I haven't played much of the GAT matchup yet, but I would think that mana drains would be very helpful in that matchup as well. Drains also make hardcasting rector quite easy, though in my experience the probablem really isn't casting rector so much as finding the bastard.

[LotusHead]

Thank you so much for posting your list, and more importantly, your tourney experiences (Gencon) with it.

Most people only try out decks if someone else has done well with it in as tourney. 

Many top players don't do tourney reports for whatever reason (Some are too busy, other's don't care to share).

Many players (me) need tourney reports to gain insights into how people approach each match, why they play the deck they do, etc, because we (I) live in an isolated meta.  thanks for sharing.

That being said, I've already sleeved up your build and it goldfishes wonderfully.

I like that you don't need crap like Pacts in your deck.

[Zherbus]

Really good write up; I am glad you posted it.

[Methuselahn]

thanks all,

Of course, as you know, I'm partial to the "other" Rector Flash version WITH dark rituals.   My build differs from yours in these aspects:
-4 lands, +4 dark ritual
-2 misdirection, -1 duress, -1 scroll; +3 daze, +1 gush

Tom,

I know I'd have a hard time of convincing you that Rituals should be cut, seeing as how you've won a Lotus as well as other, smaller tournaments in our area, but I'd have to simply reiterate the main reason to cut Dark Ritual is because Rector and Flash are not good storm cards.  Maybe if I address your points.

2.  Allows for better Yawgmoth's will

This is true, but I'd argue that you don't need Will if you have Bargain + Form in play.  You're already drawing 6-8 cards every untap.

3.  Hardcast Rector.  Followed by having or tutoring for therapy.

Being able to hardcast Rector and then flashing back a Therapy is a necessary option.  It's why I keep one Cabal Therapy in the deck.  Hardcasting Rector followed by tutoring for a Therapy hasn't been attractive to me since Flash has changed.  The reason is that Flash wants you to keep Rector in hand.  Flash is the card that is easier to abuse and is more broken.  Also, I'd much rather save the four mana and just use 2 to cast Flash.  Instead of burning black tutors to find Therapy, you still have Merchant Scroll to find Flash as well.

4.  Dark ritual for mana to cast tutor and flash in same turn.

This is a real doozy.  In my experience, the deck runs more pitch counters in the form of Misdirection which helps the deck get to the next turn where you can untap, cast another Flash, fetch Dragon, and finish the job.  Ritual decks want to play Bargain and win right there.  Without Form of the Dragon, Bargain likes this plan very much, but when you DO turn into a Dragon, suddenly you have a renewable source of continuous draw and can play a longer game much more safely.  Counters instead of mana acceleration makes this possible.  That's the theory.

5.  Supports my SB of hardcasting Razormanes (which isn't relevant in your deck build.)

Ahh yes, the transformational board.  Of all the transformational boards, yours is the most innovative.  Your maindeck includes Rituals and a single Gush.  You then bring in three or so Razormanes and three more Gushes!  Those are 8 very good cards with Razormane.

I know my teammate, Josh, has spoken on these boards somewhere that transformer boards may not be necessary.  Siding in anti-hate may be a better solution because Flash will likely be more broken than any strategy you're boarding in.  He's probably right. 

I haven't played much of the GAT matchup yet, but I would think that mana drains would be very helpful in that matchup as well. Drains also make hardcasting rector quite easy, though in my experience the probablem really isn't casting rector so much as finding the bastard.

Adding Imperial Seal somewhere may help.  It's playable in this Flash deck.  Mana Drains are bad here. You don't want to slow the deck down with Drains.  Trust me. 

If you add Drains, you deserve to be mauled by angry, menstrating goth chicks wielding rabid badgers on a stick.  with PMS.  Don't do it.

[Grand Inquisitor]

How do you sideboard against GAT, you don't bring in smother, do you?

Also, this is sort of a niche deck, but is oath problematic?  I can see Form being kinda slow here, and one activation into angel ends it for you.

[Methuselahn]

Against GAT, with the above sideboard, I would sideboard something like:

+2 Duress, +1 Tinker, +1 Angel, -1 Flash, -1 Rector, -1 Mystical Tutor, and for the last cut, Chain of Vapor or maybe Lotus Petal, depending on the match state and what hate I see.  On the draw game 2, I'd often side out Will and Tendrils if there was ample time left.  Smother is mainly in the side for small aggro decks and Welders.  Killing a Dryad with a Smother is a bad plan because you're better off racing their draw engine than running solutions to their win conditions.

Oath is problematic. I faced JACO and his oath deck during the Sunday tournament at Gencon and lost.  I would probably not play this deck if I expected a bunch of oath.  Form is the first thing to come out here.  Tinker/Platz comes in, obviously.  As does more Duress.  Rebuild isn't bad either.

[moxpearl]

2.  Allows for better Yawgmoth's will

This is true, but I'd argue that you don't need Will if you have Bargain + Form in play.  You're already drawing 6-8 cards every untap.

I agree Will is unnecessary post-Flashing with the Bargain/Form engine running (which is hilarious...people should play this deck just to try out this neat combo.)  I was referring to playing Yawgmoth's Will without Bargain/Form in play.  A Will/Tendrils win (or even Tendrils w/o Will) without Flash resolving is only realistic with the rituals in the deck.  So, the rituals create flexibility when you don't have both Rector and Flash (or tutor).  Tendrils and Bargain are actually not dead cards in your hand.

The value of these side-win conditions of ritual is debatable.   Your alternative is four more lands.   Why four more lands vs. maybe two more lands and two more utility/pitch spells?