Worldgorger Dragon Combo -- Still Viable?

[dicemanx]

Permanents that only offer protection while in play are also a nombo with WGD - once you go off they will leave play exposing you to removal. Canonist's main value instead is against counterspells only, but counterspells only are not the main problem for WGD; the problem is either being outraced or facing some combination of counters and removal. The optimal approach thus far seems to be either running the solid disruption package of FoW and Duress/Thoughtseize or just running FoW and more combo pieces.

Of course, the irony of running Canonist against counter-heavy decks with the intention of comboing off is that Canonist makes you weaker against counter-heavy decks when trying to set up the combo.

If you are considering Canonist, why not just play Xantid Swarm?

A valid point, although Canonist is proactive disruption against fast combo decks (Long/TPS/Ad Nauseam) which are traditionally a problem for WGD as they are usually slightly faster and feature similar disruption bases.

[nineisnoone]

Actually, I did think why don't I just play Swarm instead, when I was playing Canonist.  But like Diceman said, it's actually a disruption piece rather than just a combo protector.

Admittedly, it's more a improvement forum idea than an open forum idea.

[playkenny]

Hey all, first off, I just wanna say thanks for this threads thoughts and idea's, it really helped me with constructing and learning how to play the deck. I just got 3rd in a small tourney, loosing 2-1 for stax after a long fought battle, but 2-0's all matches (bar the one i mulled to 4...sigh).

List: TD - WGD
4 WGD
1 Oona, the Drag Queen
1 Mulldrifter

3 Animate Dead
3 Necromancy
1 Dance of the Dead
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Brainstrom
4 Intuition
3 Read the Ruins
3 Deep Analysis

1 Demonic tutor
1 Vamp Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Chain of Vapour
1 Ancestral Recall

5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 mana Crypt

4 Bazzar of Bagdad
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
3 Forbidden Orchard

Sideboard:
4 Oath of Druids
2 Hellkite Overlord (can be 1)
2 Bogarden Hellkite (can be 3)
2 Energy Flux
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Echoing Truth

I did have timewalk in the main/side, but it turned out rather lacking. Chalice was also not to good, and usually not sided in, but that may be to the high stax matches i played. I also think that energy flux may not be correct, and hurkuls/rebuild is better. Chain of Vapour is really good, but not against stax as much. I also think a darkblast can fit the deck well is space permits. If I had to do it again, I would:

-1 Hellkite Overlord/Bog Hellkite
+1 Hurkles Recall / Darkblast

The math on Hellkite overlord and Bog Hellkite is such that you just need to oath twice to win in most cases. The only reason you want multiples is to reanimate it without oath. For the metagame, I would cut the chalices for more bounce.

A QnD report:

Round 1: Cooroo - tezzerets
G1 - I'm on the play, and open with delta. Coo tinkers for DSC and plays Gorells shaman. I DT for chain, chain the DSC, intuition for WGD/WGD/Deep anal, Necro WGD --> infi mana, into inftution for Oonna, Mulldrifter and whatever. Stop the loop my animating either oona/drifter and eat the library, then anal him.

[Side the oath plan]

G2 - I have turn 2 Oath, Cooroo has turn 3 Tezzeret w timewalk acceleration, but Hellkite overlord eats plainswalkers and other dragons kill him soon after.

Round 2: Tim - 5C stax
G1 - I open with Sea, crypt, imp seal for animate. I force an attempted gorella shaman. I drop land and pass. Tim has sphere and waste - response I intuition for WGD/WGD/Oona - for some reason he puts Oona and WGD in the yard. I untap and animate. If he gave me oona, i stop the loop by animating his gorella shaman, then hardcast the oona.

[Side in the Oath plan]

G2 - Tim has Leyine, and bazzars away a trisk and stuff. I have land and pass. I Fow a Welder, then drop moxen and necro his trisk. He plays smokestax and crucible, and i animate his welder and well...yeah....you get the picture.

Round 3: John - Blue metalworker combo
At this point everyone is expecting i'm on Oath, but unsure as to what's going on!
G1 - I mull to 4...John opens with turn 1 chalice @ 2. I have Force for Metalworker to stop the staff combo, but trisk eventually kills my really bad draws.

[Side 1 WGD for 1 Hellkite overlord]

G2 - I open with sapphire, solring. John has again turn 1 chalice @ 2. I dont draw land, and read the ruins for 2, droping dragon, untap, drop forbidden orchard and necromancy the dragon, make many mana, and intuition for Onna, mulldrifter and deep anal.

[Side the oath plan now that john knows whats what]

G3 - John opens with turn 1 Chalice @ 2 AGAIN! I Fow, and...HE FOWS! WTF!? So i play some mana to offset stips, then bazzar away a hellkite overlord, necro it and beat face Ftw...LOLS!

ID for top 4. With the smaller than expected turnout, the TO had to cut to top 4, and is already loosing $, so no one really minds.

Top 4 - Tim again - 5c Stax
G1 - Tim has DT (countered), Trinisphere, tinker (Sundering titan) and smokestax within the first 2-3 turns...i'm not in this one.

[Side Oath - but he does not side his leylines as it turns out]

G2 - turn 1 energy flux and oath wins this after some very close welder and 2 smokestax's.

[ i resideboard, but he is sideboarding too, and settle to stick with the oath]

G3 - I keep this hand - DT, VT, Lotus, 2 Moxen, Land, Recall - broken as, but Tim opens with chalice @ 0 and VT's for workshop after a mull - very risky as the gemstonemine he used was his only land souce! He follows up with tripple spheres. I am in the game for a long time, but the deck is not nice to me, not drawing land. I have very few outs and don't hit any...and die after a very long and tense game.

Anyways, thats bout it, hope you enjoyed reading!

[Noah_33]

I'm so glad you did well with this arctype! I love how you used my list too (a bit different sideboard but oh well.) I still live by Mis Direction in this new format over the Duress effects.

[playkenny]

I'm so glad you did well with this arctype! I love how you used my list too (a bit different sideboard but oh well.) I still live by Mis Direction in this new format over the Duress effects.

Thank you for your list! I agree entirely that misd > Duress in at least this build. Waiting for an extra black source just gives your opponent an extra turn.

@ your list, I did tweak it a bit, but in the end, it was just better without any changes, and i think the numbers are pretty much spot on. If there is any change, it would be adding another orchard for brainstorm/CoV in the main to get a slightly better synergy between MD/SB but its not hugely important.

The other card was darkblast over the brainstrom. I found brainstorm more bad than good interms of WGD mode, and with darkblast, it not only deals with welder (which is such a beating against this deck - weld in crypts/slaver/memory jar if you dont have intution and need reads to win), but opens lines of play like - "VT/impseal for dragon, dredge darkblast, animate and win via blue cards" which is fan-frekin-tastic Its also got the added bonus of killing orchard tokens which ended up killing me in the quarters vs stax.

Have you made any recent changes to your lists since your last tourney?

[Noah_33]

No I haven't changed the deck at all. It's been running fairly smoothly so far in testing. I've been trying other archtypes in tourney in the mean time but will be trying out WGDX in the new Tezzeret meta soon enough.

[theLastGnu]

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm still failing to see what mulldrifter is for in this list. The only possible application I could see is mulling it into your yard with a bazaar and having animate hit that instead similar to the e-witness kill, but if you already have a bazaar, what's the point? Thanks in advance for setting me straight, I've always been a fan of WGD and this thread is full of excellent discussion

[playkenny]

theLastGnu: dan?

Mulldrifter has a few options:
1. You can evoke for 2 cards and use excess animates to bury opponents in CA. Seriously.
2. It acts as part of the kill (to stop the loop) in intuition piles
3. You can go off without bazzar, reads or intuition in hand if its in play - have it in play when looping either hardcasted or animated or evoke (require necromancy in responce to the evoke sac trigger).

Point 3 is the most important. I can't think of anymore +'s for good old mully atm.

[nineisnoone]

Pitches to FoW
Removes Bridges
While this goes with 1, it's a card that you don't mind throwing away to Bazaar.

[fury]

Since several months, I have replaced Deep Analysis by Mulldrifter. It's seems to be a better choice, as Deep Analysis is more expensive, and have no synergy with reanimation spells. What is your opinion about it ? According to me, Mulldrifters allow us to draw more with less mana. With only 3 mana sources, we may cast Mulldrifter with its evoke cost, and reanimate it next turn. This provides four cards and a creature on the table. With 3 manas and Deep Analysis, we see only 2 cards, as we must discard DA to use it with its flashback cost. Moreover, as it is been said, Mulldrifter reduces the dependence on bazaar, in so far as a Dragon loop with Mulldrifter in it means drawing our deck to find the kill. Finally, Mulldrifter is not affected by Misdirection, and its presence in the graveyard makes a pressure on the opponent, as he must choose if he prevents the reanimation of a mulldrifter.

Thus I would consider 3-4 mulldrifter and no Deep Analysis in the Dragon build, which leaves space for disruption or more reanimation (8 or 9 instead of 7), according to the more hateful and controlling metagame.

What do you think of that ?

EDIT : I don't understand why the new lists of Dragon have more than 3-4 drawing ways like Mulldrifter or Deep Analysis. The core of the combo is not reinforced, so may we justify the use of more drawing spells ? I would rather disrupt the opponent or setting the combo than drawing cards.

[millertimeinc]

Why does no one use buried alive in this deck? Seems like a cheap way to get wgd and oona in the gy

[fury]

Why does no one use buried alive in this deck? Seems like a cheap way to get wgd and oona in the gy

Intuition is just better. It's an instant, may tutor any card we need, and also put into the graveyard the win condition. Buried Alive should be used in a mono black version of WGD, which has his weaknesses.

[playkenny]

Fury:
First off, thanks so much for your primers and work on this deck, it really helped my understanding of the deck.

On to your topic of discussion, I tried a version of dragon with something like (not exactly sure of the numbers) 9 animates, 3 mulls, 3 DA's, 3 bazzars. The draw power was insane, and the best is getting round thorns. I did find it "difficult" to dump WGD in the yard, so adding the 4th RtR is a good idea.

My problem with the deck vs the traditional build is i found is slower, since most instances, you lead with land - tutoring for a bazzar. Next turn dump DA's, mox, DA for cards. Mulldrifter needs an animate or another turn. In the mulldrifter case, you can lead with land, then turn 2, land mox, evoke. But you lack the dump ability if you draw a dragon. Also, you loose the intuition stack of WDG/DA. Your dependance on bazzar has shifted on to reliance on animate.

I think its a meta thing though, since running DA's in a more aggro field is scary. Btw, how does it free up slots? Are you not replacing 3 da's with 3 mulls?

Kenny

[GNU]

Hi Kenny,

This be Dan from melbourne. I'm erally dissapointed I didn't get to see the deck running, its a really amazing list. Have to do some playtesting sometime.

[fury]

Fury:
First off, thanks so much for your primers and work on this deck, it really helped my understanding of the deck.

On to your topic of discussion, I tried a version of dragon with something like (not exactly sure of the numbers) 9 animates, 3 mulls, 3 DA's, 3 bazzars. The draw power was insane, and the best is getting round thorns. I did find it "difficult" to dump WGD in the yard, so adding the 4th RtR is a good idea.

My problem with the deck vs the traditional build is i found is slower, since most instances, you lead with land - tutoring for a bazzar. Next turn dump DA's, mox, DA for cards. Mulldrifter needs an animate or another turn. In the mulldrifter case, you can lead with land, then turn 2, land mox, evoke. But you lack the dump ability if you draw a dragon. Also, you loose the intuition stack of WDG/DA. Your dependance on bazzar has shifted on to reliance on animate.

I think its a meta thing though, since running DA's in a more aggro field is scary. Btw, how does it free up slots? Are you not replacing 3 da's with 3 mulls?

Kenny

Right point. Making the deck drawing reduces some ways the power of the combo. That's why, according to me, WGD builds should have the following core :

4 Intuition
3 Read The Runes
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3, eventually 4 drawing spells (DA or Mulldrifters)

Playing only 3 bazaar reduces your discard possibilities. It's the same think for Intuition. So it is normal that you found the deck slower, as a part of the Dragon engine was weakened.

The choice between Mulldrifters or DA is still not fixed for me. It is true that Mulldrifter doesn't allow the classic Intuition's choice "WGD/DA/DA", in so far as the drawing power depends on a reanimation spell, and it's better to reanimate a Dragon... So it would be better to play only 1 or 2 mulldrifter and 2 DA. I will test more to balance the power of different cards of the core of the WGD build.

Finally, starting from WGDX, I tried to replace DA with mulldrifters. I said it saved space comparing to new versions of Dragon which use 3 DA and 3 mulldrifters, sacrificing the disruption (which is not a good idea in some metagames, especially with the return of Long decks).

[playkenny]

With the return of long decks, its has to be correct in speeding up the combo to race Game 1 so for now, i'm sticking with DA's, although i would ove to hear your testing results fury on mulldrifter. I'm tempted to add lotus petal to increase turn 2 wins. If long is heavy, is it correct then to play duress effects main?

Game 2/3, I was wondering what the best SB plan is. Oath/noughts, xantid swarms etc seem to be useless/too slow vs storm combo. My first thought was to splash white for chants and abeyance, seeing as they double as combo/yard protection as well as combating storm. Furthermore, the white splash grants access to kataki and serenity for the stax match.

The only problem is the main is tight, and it may hamper the combo. So a possible fish switch may be correct. The Ad Naus thread shows TK UW cannonist.dec being the main tendrils threat, so having a board of cannonists, meddling mage, abeyance/chalice can be devestating.

What board ideas are everyone running atm?

[dicemanx]

The only problem is the main is tight, and it may hamper the combo. So a possible fish switch may be correct. The Ad Naus thread shows TK UW cannonist.dec being the main tendrils threat, so having a board of cannonists, meddling mage, abeyance/chalice can be devestating.

I've been testing Spooky's AdTendrils versus WGDX (4DA, 1 Mulldrifter, 3 Duress/4FoW)and WGDX has a superior game 1 on account of being both the faster combo and better disruption base. I therefore think its a mistake to overboard against AdTendrils; I am satisfied with bringing in 3 CotV only.

Also, after testing quite a few configurations, I am dissatisfied with multiple Mulldrifters and 0 DAs - I suspect that the configuration of 4 DA and 1 Mulldrifter is the right one. Plus, I believe that multiple Mulldrifters make the most sense if the number of animates is elevated to 8-9, but that ends up cutting into the disruption count and I think the deck needs FoWs and Duresses to deal with the fast combo decks more effectively.

[playkenny]

I've been testing Spooky's AdTendrils versus WGDX (4DA, 1 Mulldrifter, 3 Duress/4FoW)and WGDX has a superior game 1 on account of being both the faster combo and better disruption base. I therefore think its a mistake to overboard against AdTendrils; I am satisfied with bringing in 3 CotV only.

This is really good news! I'm guessing Duress is the key here?

Also, after testing quite a few configurations, I am dissatisfied with multiple Mulldrifters and 0 DAs - I suspect that the configuration of 4 DA and 1 Mulldrifter is the right one. Plus, I believe that multiple Mulldrifters make the most sense if the number of animates is elevated to 8-9, but that ends up cutting into the disruption count and I think the deck needs FoWs and Duresses to deal with the fast combo decks more effectively.

I tend to agree with your Mulldrifter/DA assessment. As to your deck sturcture, did you basically run +3 duress, +1 Da over the 2 Misd, Brainstorm and CoV in my/Noah_33's list?
If so, in this configuration, do you have "trouble" getting FoW+Blue card? or does duress fill that gap for you?

Also, whats your sideboard plan atm?

Thanks Dicex!

[dicemanx]

I'm most satisfied with the classical approach:

4 DA
3 RtR
4 Intuition

4 Bazaar

4 WGD
1 Oona
1 Mulldrifter

3 Necromancy
3 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall

4 FoW
3 Duress
1 CoV

1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
5 Mox
4 Underground Sea
1 Island
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Tropical Island
1 Forbidden Orchard

SB:

3 CotV
2 Forbidden Orchard
4 Oath of Druids
4 Bogardan Hellkite
1 CoV
1 Echoing Truth

I'm thinking of ditching the Orchards completely as the Oath plan is probably only worthwhile against Fish and Shop Aggro; I'm also thinking of swapping the maindeck CoV for a 4th Duress since there are few things I want to bounce game 1. Finally, I'm wavering on ditching green completely and axing the Tropical Island and Mana Vault for 2 Ancient Tomb and bringing back the potentially more devastating Null Rod to the SB. There are just too many options to test.

Then there is this weird approach that I've been toying with again recently:

4 FoW
3 Misdirection
4 Mana Drain
-------------------
11 disruption

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Deep Analysis
4 Intuition
2 Cunning Wish
1 Gifts Ungiven
3 Read the Runes
3 Compulsion
------------------------
18 draw/tutoring

2 WGD
2 Necromancy
1 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead
------------------------
6 combo


7 SoLoMox
1 Mana Crypt
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
1 Underground Sea
7 Island
--------------------
24 mana

SB:

1 Stroke of Genius
1 Misdirection
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Chain of Vapor
9 other cards

The idea is to have a rock solid mana base, ample disruption, and solid card advantage/card selection engines while keeping an explosive combo finish that doesn't require ramping up to 5 mana (Tezzeret) and passing the turn. A resolved Compulsion is any control mirror is pretty much curtains without even considering the WGD combo, and Intuition for DAs is superior to AKs since individual AKs are weak and Inutitioning for AK leaves you needing to resolve that AK or the play is useless.

Of course there are other variations of this deck (using a heavier B component for tutors, Entomb, and 1 Bazaar, and possibly Duress) although I prefer to keep the non-basics to an absolute minimum for that amazingly impervious manabase. If someone could make this approach work that would be quite exciting; I'm still working on it.

[CHOZO]

I really like your second list. What cards would you pick with Gifts Ungiven?

[playkenny]

Thanks for sharing your lists Dice! As i suspected, your using duress over misd.

One card I noticed is your not running imperial Seal - which is fantastic. I highly recommend it. Infact, I am loving top deck tutors in Dragon so much more right now. Interactions with your compulsion and bazzar and darkblast (i'm trying now, and its insane) is just to die for.

@ your compulsion list - is it very wierd looking indeed! Does it control the game then bust out the dragon combo much like painer/tezzeret decks do? The list seems it would love squees! Did you try them?

Kenny

[dicemanx]

One card I noticed is your not running imperial Seal - which is fantastic. I highly recommend it. Infact, I am loving top deck tutors in Dragon so much more right now. Interactions with your compulsion and bazzar and darkblast (i'm trying now, and its insane) is just to die for.

Imperial Seal would get stiff competition from the double tutor - Lim Dul's Vault. I used to run 3 LDV in previous iterations of WGD, with the goal of setting up Bazaar + WGD (or WGD + Animate if Bazaar was in play) with the Vault as consecutive cards.

@ your compulsion list - is it very wierd looking indeed! Does it control the game then bust out the dragon combo much like painer/tezzeret decks do? The list seems it would love squees! Did you try them?

Squees are not necessary, since the deck doesn't run Bazaars - previous versions that ran 4 Bazaar and 3 Compulsion ran 3-4 Squees, but with only 3 Compulsions Squees would only occupy valuable space. Plus, it isn't necessary in many cases to generate card advantage with Compulsion; instead, better card quality can be enough to do the job.

What cards would you pick with Gifts Ungiven?

There is a lot of flexibility here; for instance, Gifts can fetch WGD + DA alone (to put both in the graveyard, serving as a super Entomb), or fetch 3 animate spells + WGD. Alternately, Gifts can get 3 disruption spells + 4th card (blue card most likely). The deck could also run Fact or Fiction in addition to Gifts, and could possibly benefit from Brainstorm as well given that there are 7 fetchlands.Merchant Scroll and Mystical Tutors are also possibilities. That's part of the problem testing this beast - there are simply an overwhelming number of iterations for any one person to test.

[swawagon]

Mulldrifter has really changed the way I play Dragon. I'm upping to 3 and toyed with 4. It draws cards. Its basically a win condition in a Dragon loop. It's an alternate win condition that flys, and draws cards without a Dragon loop. It's not a terrible Animate target when you have more Animate spells than yarded Dragons. The only major drawback is sometimes you just want to create an inifi loop to draw a game you cannot win, and with a Drifter in the yard the loop can be broken...

I like additional counters (DicemanX's second deck) in Dragon, but Mana Leak over Mana Drain seems to make more sense. Dragon wins quick making Leak 90% of the time a hard counter. Plus the potential Drain mana is not much an issue when your kill costs 1B or 2B. And because with full moxen Leak is up an running much faster that Drain and Leak is less specific-mana intensive when backing up your own spells.

Merchant Scroll is that card that is still on the fence with... And Merchant Scroll's stock is falling less while Mulldrifter is rising.

Also I love and hate the Oath SB plan. I'm tempted to try just aggro beats over Oath pieces. With all the mono-blue TEZ decks with multiple counters popping up - getting an Oath to stick is much harder than getting one of 10 say Negators, Serendib Efreets, Sea Drakes, etc. down. Part of me thinks aggro is a terrible SB route though.

Also what is the new role of Cunning Wish;  Win-more, a toolbox, absolutely necessary, or safe in your binder?

[dicemanx]

Mulldrifter has really changed the way I play Dragon. I'm upping to 3 and toyed with 4. It draws cards. Its basically a win condition in a Dragon loop. It's an alternate win condition that flys, and draws cards without a Dragon loop. It's not a terrible Animate target when you have more Animate spells than yarded Dragons. The only major drawback is sometimes you just want to create an inifi loop to draw a game you cannot win, and with a Drifter in the yard the loop can be broken...

The major drawback is that Mulldrifter, when in the graveyard, costs you a combo piece (Animate spell) to draw actual cards, while DA costs you 3 life. This can matter a great deal in attrition wars. The fact that Mulldrifter is a "win condition" shouldn't come up very often, at least not in the traditional WGDX build.

I like additional counters (DicemanX's second deck) in Dragon, but Mana Leak over Mana Drain seems to make more sense. Dragon wins quick making Leak 90% of the time a hard counter. Plus the potential Drain mana is not much an issue when your kill costs 1B or 2B. And because with full moxen Leak is up an running much faster that Drain and Leak is less specific-mana intensive when backing up your own spells.

I would possibly play Mana Leak in addition to Mana Drain, not as a substitute for Mana Drain. The Drain version isn't very fast, as it only features 2 WGD and 4 Animate spells; instead, it focuses on building mana, cards, and increasing card quality while having enough combo pieces to win sooner than the Tezzeret decks. Mana Drain can help power out some of the more expensive spells like RtR, Cunning Wish, Intuition, and most notably DA.

Also I love and hate the Oath SB plan. I'm tempted to try just aggro beats over Oath pieces. With all the mono-blue TEZ decks with multiple counters popping up - getting an Oath to stick is much harder than getting one of 10 say Negators, Serendib Efreets, Sea Drakes, etc. down. Part of me thinks aggro is a terrible SB route though.

You first have to ask yourself why the Oath plan is used in the first place; opting for the aggro approach is probably either unnecessary or weaker than the Oath plan against certain decks. Unless Tez has many hate cards in the SB the Oath plan sounds unnecessary - even if they bring in a few anti-graveyard cards from the SB it is probably best to just stick with your strength, which is the WGD combo. Oath was mainly a response to two things: Leyline (which are very much on the decline by all appearances) and Fish decks that run stuff like StP, Bounce, Stifle, and other annoying anti-WGD cards.

 

Also what is the new role of Cunning Wish;  Win-more, a toolbox, absolutely necessary, or safe in your binder?

Cunning Wish is the best win condition in the Drain version of the deck, not Oona. You need to max out on instant speed combo pieces since Bazaar is not used in the deck. 2 Wish is the right number because that allows you to actually cast the first one you see for a non-Stroke card.

[God_Campbell]

Peter, if you are going to go with a drain shell, then would thirst for knowledge be a consideration, as it will allow you to ditch combo pieces to the graveyard to be animated later, jsut a thought as I love the idea of drains in a dragon build.

[dicemanx]

Peter, if you are going to go with a drain shell, then would thirst for knowledge be a consideration, as it will allow you to ditch combo pieces to the graveyard to be animated later, jsut a thought as I love the idea of drains in a dragon build.

TfK is a superior draw spell than RtR, but it doesn't double as a combo piece unfortunately (You can combo off Intuition, Animate and RtR, but not Intuition, Animate and TfK for instance). I've used TfK in WGD before when I fused WGD with Cerebral Assassin, but in that deck I was running more cards that could be ditched to TfK that functioned outside the WGD loop (Sundering Titans primarily).

Of course the question might be whether TfK can be run with RtR, but it is difficult to suggest what to cut, especially since there are so many other cards competing for slots (tutors, Brainstorm, etc.). Since the Drain version is still a work in progress, who knows - maybe the best version will include TfK. 

[islanderboi10]

Has many people been testing this drain version?

Also, with Leylines on the decline, what would your sideboard look like without Oaths?

When playing Null Rod in the sideboard, do you think a 5-color build could be viable again?

Main Deck

60 cards
 
4  Bazaar of Baghdad
3  City of Brass
4  Forbidden Orchard
4  Gemstone Mine
2  Ancient Tomb

1  Shivan Hellkite
1  Oona, Queen of the Fae
4  Worldgorger Dragon
1  Mulldrifer

1  Ancestral Recall
3  Animate Dead
3  Necromancy
1  Dance of the Dead
1  Vampiric Tutor
3  Deep Analysis
1  Demonic Tutor
1  Echoing Truth
4  Force of Will
4  Intuition
4  Duress
2  Read the Ruins

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



 Sideboard
3  Null Rod
2  Pernicious Deed
2  Rack and Ruin
3  Ray of Revelation
2  Sacred Ground
3  ???

 

[fury]

When playing Null Rod in the sideboard, do you think a 5-color build could be viable again?

With denial decks still in the metagame, I would not choose a 5C version, as the mana base is too weak. If you want to play some sideboard cards in a particular color, a simple splash is enough (W or G most of the time). Or you would prefer include more bounces instead of playing Ray of Revelation.

In your sideboard, finding place for gravehate should be a good idea, as Ichorid is still played (Extirpate or Tormod's Crypt).

[Noah_33]

I dont think graveyard hate is nessessary in a Dragon sideboard. You always want proactive cards not defensive ones, it just defeats the goal of the deck. Ichorid isn't that bad of a match up for the most part anyways.

[fury]

I dont think graveyard hate is necessary in a Dragon sideboard. You always want proactive cards not defensive ones, it just defeats the goal of the deck. Ichorid isn't that bad of a match up for the most part anyways.

So what would you side against Ichorid ? Is the Oath plan enough quick to race Ichorid ?

After some tests, I have chosen to board 3 Extirpate (replacing the 3 useless duress) to have time to combo off before Ichorid have plenty of tokens.