No-U Dragon

[Ruinn]

I haven't posted here for quite awhile but the recent un-restrictions inspired me to dust off a long-since retired deck I used to have some success with. 

The list is a B/G only dragon concotion which I now think can be just as good as the lists that contain blue due to now being able to run 4 crop rotations.  The premise of the deck is that bazaar of baghdad is your best card and this deck abuses it to its fullest potential.  I have only been able to do a limited bit of testing thus and would greatly appreciate any input.


Obligatory (12)
4x Worldgorger Dragon
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob
4x Bazaar of Baghdad

-The core of any dragon deck, no explanation necessary

Win Condition(s) (2)
2x Oona, Queen of the Fae

-I find it vastly superior to any other options out there, it may or may not be worth running 1 Oona, and 1 something else to get around pithing needle

Disruption (8)
4x Xantid Swarmp
4x Thoughtseize

-Xantid is amazing, it is a must counter or must deal with immediately card.  Thoughtseize is a little better than duress since life loss should not be an issue.  It is possible to use a few duress in addition to the other disruption elements in the deck although I generally found that to be overkill.

Broken Stuff (6)
4x Crop rotation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will

-Crop rotation is the card that makes this deck work.  It lets you run 8 bazaars and it can also turn a bazaar into a mana source in a pinch.  DT and Will are both obvious auto-includes.  No vampiric tutor or imperial seal because the card disadvantage tutors don't really play nice with the other cards in this deck and they are usually not needed due to how fast this deck can dig.

Animate Package (8)
4x Animate Dead
4x Necromancy

-No dance of the dead because it can't really be used on an Oona or Xantid swarm (which is a big deal).  8 Seems to be the right number to me, although I know some people prefer more/less.

The Catch-All (2)
2x Pernicious Deed

-I really like Pernicious Deed.  I don't find it as hard to cast as you would expect and it clears out pretty much everything that could be annoying.  This slot can certainly be something else though... popular choices include: naturalize, diabolic edict, smother, choke, pitching needle etc.

Bazaar Insurance (3)
3x Entomb

-I feel like this is the weakest card in the deck at the moment, but it certainly serves a purpose.  If you have a bazaar online it can make sure you get the dragon in the yard ASAP.  If you don't have a bazaar it can get the dragon in the yard, or it can get an oona in the yard to animate and stall an aggro deck.  This slot could certainly be more disruption/removal as well, or even a Life from the Loam/Darkblast.

Mana (19)
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Emerald
3x Bloodstained Mire
3x Polluted Delta
4x Bayou
2x Swamp

-Mana bases have never been my strength but this has worked for me so far.  I've toyed with the idea of ESGs/Sol Ring/Mana Crypt but never really loved them.  They may all have a slot in a more aggressive version of the deck however.

Sideboard (15)
TBD

-Can be transformational into oath or aggro (Goyf and Tombstalker work well for that).  I would probably go that way at this point considering how much graveyard hate is running around in peoples boards nowadays.  SB should also include 2 swamps and a forest, also choke can be extremely powerful.  More deeds certainly work as well.


Well, that is what I have come up with so far.  It is very straightforward to play. 1st turn -> xantid or thoughtseize, 2nd turn -> Bazaar (or rotate into bazaar), pitch dragon, play mox, animate, win.  I'm not sure if this deck will be a star in the GY hate-heavy metagame we'll probably be experiencing in the near future, but I do like it a bit more than the versions I've seen being tossed around that run blue.  This deck is faster to me and just as resilient.  It also dodges all the random blue hate cards that people play. 

Thanks for reading.

-Ruinn

[Oath of Happy]

I like Vamp and Imperial Seal better than both entomb and crop rotation.  Also, they let you run a single naturalize or something to get around a hate piece like leyline or needle, which is much faster than Deed.  the 2nd Oona is almost useless because as long as you have a bazaar you can infinitely mill yourself into the single copy.  Yawgs Will shuts off the Dragon combo and is even worse in this build since there are no blue cards to recur.

[zeus-online]

how about cutting the squee's? Adding the 4th entomb, 1-2 life from the loam (Tech with bazaar and entomb?)

You could also go with wooded foothills and a single forest (foothills finds bayou)

Unless your metagame is completely overrun by drains i'd suggest duress rather then xantid.

For additional draw Confidant or nights whispers could be usefull, confidant with bazaar is really awesome.

For the sideboard i'd suggest tarmogoyf, especially if you run confidant main, it's quite easy to shift to BG aggro-control to avoid graveyard hate. (Works better with duress then xantids)

[theLastGnu]

I think the entombs should stay, maybe even become a 4-of. If you do choose to run that way, I'd find room for singleton ancient grudge. It'll handle crypt and relic, and I don't see leylines running around anymore in anything other than ichorid to be totally honest.

[Ruinn]

I actually really like the idea of ancient grudge and the more I think about it, the more a single life from the loam probably belongs.

re: cutting yawg/squees... Yawgs really has to stay as a late game bomb.  No, you cannot animate a dragon the turn you cast yawgs, but it lest you get so many things back, that I feel like it has to stay in.  Squees to me are an essential part of the deck.  There are a lot of things you really do not want to just discard in this deck, and while I could see making a squee-less version, I think it would have to look very different; starting over from scratch with that idea in mind might lead to something interesting.

re: Xantid swarm vs. Duress... Xantid is not just great against drains.  It is better than duress against force, (simply because rather than just stripping the force from their hand you get it and a blue card out), and also stops stifle, daze, spell snare and lots of other random things like spellstutter sprite that tend to float around.  Duress is good, but I think xantid is better.

[zeus-online]

You do realize that i meant drains as an archetype?
Xantids is just so the suck in the combo mirror, they are only good when you are the aggressor.

Squee is just so incredibly bad without bazaar, i'd much rather play a few loams or 4 dark confidant (They offset the card-disadvantage from bazaar)

[Ruinn]

Agree that squees are bad without Bazaar, however, the point of 4 crop rotations is that you are almost never without a bazaar.  Even if the first gets met with a wasteland, you have a real good chance of hitting a second one instantly.

With the xantids, according to Steve's articles, drain decks make up over 40% of the metagame these days, and Xantid's just single handedly prevent them from stopping you.  Since traditionally those types of decks are your biggest foe, I do think it's worth 4 maindeck slots for the xantids over duress.  Most ritual-based decks at this point run force of will these days also, which as I said, xantid is great against.  I guess the biggest reason for xantids to me is that game one, it is the drain matchup I fear the most, and one I have almost a 50/50 (fish decks should also be considered part of this) shot of facing.

Confidant is another great card, but is again one that I feel is unnecessary.  This deck just really doesn't have a problem drawing enough cards because of how efficiently it gets and uses bazaar.  When playing this deck you almost do so in a way similar to ichorid; mulligan into a bazaar or crop rotation unless you have an amazing hand, bazaar will find a way to get you what you need in very short order.

Replacing the whole bazaar-squee engine with confidants/loam/entomb is taking the deck in a whole new direction that I have not tried so I cannot say how effective it would be.  If you feel like working out a list I'd definitely be curious to see the final product.

[Troy_Costisick]

how about cutting the squee's? Adding the 4th entomb, 1-2 life from the loam (Tech with bazaar and entomb?)

You need Squee to stop the combo.

[zeus-online]

Why do you need to stop the combo?....You just switch to oona, and mill his deck? Also with xantids in the deck, and my confidant suggestion, i really don't think stopping the combo should be anything to worry about.

There are only 2 ways for this deck to actually win once the combo get's going: 1 Mill your own deck with bazaar, 2 cast entomb after oona - Not that there's anything wrong with that, but that just makes me question, why do the deck need squee to stop the combo?

[Troy_Costisick]

Why do you need to stop the combo?....You just switch to oona, and mill his deck?

Stopping the Dragon reanimation is what I was talking about.  You have to have a way to stop it.  I wasn't speaking about Oona.

[Harlequin]

I guess a better question is why do you want to stop the combo.  Starting the combo with only Squee +WGD in the yard seems futile.  You've got like 1 card (DT) that would require you stop the combo -THEN- you'd need a 2nd animate to restart it.  So unless your hand is DT, Animate, Animate - you have no reason to stop the combo for anything.  If you don't have bazaar but you have entomb or crop rotate... again you still don't want to stop the combo.  You want to get your mana and respond to a WGD trigger with your Entomb->Oona or Rotate->Bazaar ... then continue to combo.

I'm with zues, run Squee for any other reason than "stop the combo" bc if you started it with no way to win, you probably did it wrong.

[zeus-online]

I guess a better question is why do you want to stop the combo.  Starting the combo with only Squee +WGD in the yard seems futile.  You've got like 1 card (DT) that would require you stop the combo -THEN- you'd need a 2nd animate to restart it.  So unless your hand is DT, Animate, Animate - you have no reason to stop the combo for anything.  If you don't have bazaar but you have entomb or crop rotate... again you still don't want to stop the combo.  You want to get your mana and respond to a WGD trigger with your Entomb->Oona or Rotate->Bazaar ... then continue to combo.

I'm with zues, run Squee for any other reason than "stop the combo" bc if you started it with no way to win, you probably did it wrong.

Actually, there's a pretty good reason to start the combo even if you can't win - To draw the game, but that dosn't work if there's any creatures in any graveyards So again, as you said, why would you want to stop the combo?

Squee/Bazaar is not strong enough anymore, which is why i started suggesting other cards.

[Troy_Costisick]

I guess a better question is why do you want to stop the combo.  Starting the combo with only Squee +WGD in the yard seems futile.  You've got like 1 card (DT) that would require you stop the combo -THEN- you'd need a 2nd animate to restart it.  So unless your hand is DT, Animate, Animate - you have no reason to stop the combo for anything.  If you don't have bazaar but you have entomb or crop rotate... again you still don't want to stop the combo.  You want to get your mana and respond to a WGD trigger with your Entomb->Oona or Rotate->Bazaar ... then continue to combo.

Well, you mill a guy's deck to zero and then what?  This thread says No-U so you're not going to cast Ancestral on him.  So you have to stop the combo and pass the turn so he can draw, right?

[Ruinn]

The combo stops when you switch the animate onto Oona after you've generated enough mana to mill their library with her.

[Darkenslight]

The combo stops when you switch the animate onto Oona after you've generated enough mana to mill their library with her.

What about Shivan Hellkite as an alternate for Oona?  IF youi have arbirarily large amounts of mana, then doming the opponent is going to be better than milling, right?  OR is it the added token-making effect of Oona that helps the most?

[Ruinn]

Shivan Hellkite (and Kumano which does the same thing) requires red mana, which this deck run so that it can have a couple basic swamps at its disposal.

[suffocation2157]

this is the list ive been testing

3 bloodstained mire
2 polluted delta
4 bayou
4 bazaar
3 swamp
5 mox
1 lotus
1 sol ring
1 urborg tomb of yawgmoth
-24-

4 animate dead
3 necromancy
3 entomb
4 WGD
1 oona
4 duress
3 thoughtseize
2 crop rotation
4 dark confidant
2 s. divining top
1 vamp. tutor
1 demonic tutor
2 ancient grudge
1 life from the loam
1 yawgmoths will
-36-

3 xantid swarm
2 pithing needle <-- should this be t. crypt? as it hinders my own bazaars...
4 leyline of the void
3 yixlid jailer
1 ancient grudge
2 naturalize
*still working on SB*

the deck has been working very well. i am slightly worried about not running U for counterspells in the new meta. do you think being consistantly explosive is reliable enough? tezz will be fining its pieces easier with tutors and stax will be able to lock us out easier.

[Suicideking]

this is the list ive been testing

3 bloodstained mire
2 polluted delta
4 bayou
4 bazaar
3 swamp
5 mox
1 lotus
1 sol ring
1 urborg tomb of yawgmoth
-24-

4 animate dead
3 necromancy
3 entomb
4 WGD
1 oona
4 duress
3 thoughtseize
2 crop rotation
4 dark confidant
2 s. divining top
1 vamp. tutor
1 demonic tutor
2 ancient grudge
1 life from the loam
1 yawgmoths will
-36-

3 xantid swarm
2 pithing needle <-- should this be t. crypt? as it hinders my own bazaars...
4 leyline of the void
3 yixlid jailer
1 ancient grudge
2 naturalize
*still working on SB*

the deck has been working very well. i am slightly worried about not running U for counterspells in the new meta. do you think being consistantly explosive is reliable enough? tezz will be fining its pieces easier with tutors and stax will be able to lock us out easier.

Why not run Pact of negation.  Its awesome when youre trying to go off.  I would cut Dark confidant with thoughtseize plus 5 6 drops you could fall in trouble quickly with life totals.

Also the main deck ancient grudges seem loose.  Id rather play a card that helps you win, like a fourth entomb.

[suffocation2157]

ancient grudge is in against tezz and stax, in my meta there is a fair amount of stax/workshop aggro. in our last tourny 2nd, 3rd and 5th place all went to workshop.deck. with the amount of 0/1 casting cards the dmg i take from confidant doesnt seem that bad and on the occasional time i did flip a WGD or something i was usually able to just go off that turn anyways. i just found that often enough i wanted to bazaar again for the secod turn in a row and didnt have the cards to pitch for it while holding combo pieces. with confidant i'm drawing 4 a turn and pitching 3. i could see myself taking them out but i'm not really sure what i would want to replace them with. i think the deck is lacking card draw from removing blue..i tried night's whisper but dark confidant just seems to do a better job while still able to block.

[gkraigher]

if you're going to run pact of negation you should be running xantid swarm main instead. 

its a permanent so you can still cycle through your deck using one of your eight bazaars and would be better off.  i also think a tabernacle at pendrell vale in the main deck is good.

you should be playing more urborg, tomb of yawgmoth as well.  its really good. 


 

[BruiZar]

I would run vampiric and imperial seal. THey both serve as an extra entomb with bazaar and they can get you a card you actually want to play instead of only pitch to GY.

[suffocation2157]

so what exactally is the advantage of no  dragon opposed to regular dragon? ive been trying all kinds to find 1 that works the best and i'm currently testing

3 bloodstained mire
2 polluted delta
3 underground sea
2 bayou
4 bazaar
2 swamp
5 mox
1 lotus
1 sol ring
1 urborg tomb of yawgmoth
-24-

4 animate dead
3 necromancy
4 entomb
4 WGD
1 oona
4 duress
3 pact of negation
1 crop rotation
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 brainstorm
1 ponder
3 deep analysis
3 impulse
1 vamp. tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 yawgmoths will

the deck seems to run a lot smoother..other than "always having a bazaar" how is it better than the above list?