Adam Haggerty's Dargons
 
Type: Deck Idea
Format (legal 👍) pioPioneer
Approx. Value:
$336.04

0 Likes 0 Comments
Avg. CMC 3.42
Card Color Breakdown
Card Type Breakdown

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Main Deck - 93 cards, 45 distinct
Columns
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (26)
4 Dragonkin Berserker
$0.18 Creature - Human Berserker
2 Dragonlord Atarka
$3.63 Legendary Creature - Elder Dragon
2 Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge
$0.44 Legendary Creature - Dragon
4 Goldspan Dragon
$7.54 Creature - Dragon
2 Magda, Brazen Outlaw
$0.53 Legendary Creature - Dwarf Berserker
2 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen
$15.72 Legendary Creature - Elder Dragon // Legendary Planeswalker - Bolas
4 Sprite Dragon
$0.39 Creature - Faerie Dragon
1 Terror of the Peaks
$16.32 Creature - Dragon
4 Thunderbreak Regent
$0.72 Creature - Dragon
1 Verix Bladewing
$0.36 Legendary Creature - Dragon
Instant (19)
1 Blossoming Defense
$0.63 Instant
4 Draconic Roar
$0.10 Instant
1 Dragonlord's Prerogative
$0.25 Instant
1 Open the Omenpaths
$0.02 Instant
1 Raking Claws
$0.06 Instant
1 Shock
$0.07 Instant
4 Silumgar's Scorn
$0.18 Instant
1 Spell Swindle
$1.13 Instant
2 Spit Flame
$0.63 Instant
1 Stubborn Denial
$2.11 Instant
1 Temur Battle Rage
$0.37 Instant
1 Wild Slash
$0.16 Instant
Sorcery (2)
1 Genesis Ultimatum
$0.60 Sorcery
1 See the Unwritten
$0.53 Sorcery
Artifact (3)
1 Dragon's Hoard
$2.99 Artifact
2 Treasure Map // Treasure Cove
$0.36 Artifact // Land
Enchantment (1)
1 Dragon Tempest
$5.87 Enchantment
Planeswalker (8)
2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
$0.20 Legendary Planeswalker - Saheeli
1 Sarkhan the Masterless
$1.94 Legendary Planeswalker - Sarkhan
4 Sarkhan, Fireblood
$6.73 Legendary Planeswalker - Sarkhan
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
$19.69 Legendary Planeswalker - Ugin
Land (34)
1 Castle Embereth
$0.25 Land
2 Hanweir Battlements
$4.68 Land
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
$2.14 Land
14 Mountain
$0.09 Basic Land - Mountain
4 Mutavault
$6.45 Land
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
$35.71 Legendary Land
4 Ramunap Ruins
$0.27 Land - Desert
1 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
$5.63 Land // Land
1 Shivan Reef
$0.83 Land
1 Spire of Industry
$0.33 Land
1 Spirebluff Canal
$2.49 Land
1 Steam Vents
$12.51 Land - Island Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls
$0.80 Land
1 Surtland Frostpyre
$0.07 Land
Sideboard - 43 cards, 33 distinct
Name  Edition $ Type Cost
Rarity Color
Creature (21)
1 Bloodline Pretender
$1.65 Artifact Creature - Shapeshifter
4 Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp
$0.24 Creature - Giant // Instant - Adventure //
1 Darigaaz Reincarnated
$0.63 Legendary Creature - Dragon
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
$4.01 Legendary Creature - Elder Dragon
1 Flamewake Phoenix
$0.31 Creature - Phoenix
1 Glorybringer
$0.34 Creature - Dragon
1 Immersturm Predator
$0.18 Creature - Vampire Dragon
1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
$0.74 Legendary Creature - Dragon
1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen
$4.51 Legendary Creature - Dragon
1 Metallic Mimic
$5.96 Artifact Creature - Shapeshifter
1 Mistwalker
$0.03 Creature - Shapeshifter
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
$0.78 Legendary Creature - Dragon Wizard
1 Orvar, the All-Form
$3.65 Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter
1 Savage Ventmaw
$0.65 Creature - Dragon
1 Scourge of Valkas
$3.73 Creature - Dragon
1 Stormbreath Dragon
$1.10 Creature - Dragon
1 Tilonalli's Skinshifter
$0.19 Creature - Human Shaman
1 Utvara Hellkite
$7.39 Creature - Dragon
Instant (5)
1 Cast Down
$0.59 Instant
1 Fatal Push
$1.88 Instant
1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
$0.07 Instant
1 Kolaghan's Command
$0.88 Instant
1 Mystic Reflection
$0.71 Instant
Sorcery (8)
2 Banefire
$0.55 Sorcery
2 Crater's Claws
$0.23 Sorcery
1 Dreadbore
$0.58 Sorcery
1 Rakdos's Return
$0.60 Sorcery
1 Stain the Mind
$0.18 Sorcery
1 Thoughtseize
$8.27 Sorcery
Enchantment (5)
4 Leyline of Combustion
$0.98 Enchantment
1 Reflections of Littjara
$3.30 Enchantment
Planeswalker (4)
1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
$12.92 Legendary Planeswalker - Chandra
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
$2.01 Legendary Planeswalker - Chandra

Notes
 
What I stumbled on here is something neat in the big red color pie. The overlap of abilities between leyline of combustion, bonecrusher giant, and thunderbreak regent make net that basically leaves you and your creatures with pseudo hexproof. Combine that with a fast clock they can't ignore and you have a recipe for wins. All the double red means nykthos is interesting, especially with an x spell to just close the game. Dragon's roar, mutavault, and sarkhan, fireblood offer interesting tribal options for our dragon cards. Chandra's also round out that end. Flamewake pheonix links into devotion, fast clocking damage, and combo's with sarkhan and our high powered creatures. This deck historically has problems with curve competition and velocity, so that's a consideration, and would have to be better than the multitude of other big red decks available. With more built in reach, if we exploit that angle, our deck should be more difficult to interact with or slow down.

Things have changed a lot since I first mocked this up when pioneer started. For one, terror of the peaks is a thing now, clearly better than scourge of valkis. Gadrak is a cheaper dragon with high upside if built around. We wanted to play treasure map anyway, so this might be right up our ally. I've also realized that the cheap artifact changeling lords helps our curve, particularly metallic mimic. A Mindstone variant is also fine.

The big re-evaluation is kladheim. Very sneakily, this set has completely juiced the viability of dragons in pioneer, and probably historic. Dragon tribal is a passion project for most, but for those in the know this deck is ready to be tested for Tier 1 power level Let me break down some new additions. First and foremaost, there is dragonkin besrker. The beserker is a 2 drop 2/1 with first strike, an aggressively slanted early play is exactly what the tribe needed. It is not a dragon, but has two relevant abilities. The first is that all boast abilities are reduced by 1 for each dragon you control. The second is 4r: Boast, make a 5/5 dragon. It is pretty easy to underestimate how easy it is to make this ability to read R: make a 5/5 dragon. Having that ability on this creature is absurd surely. How does it scale fast you may ask? Aren't dragons expensive. Well there are a few cheap changelings like mutavault and metallic mimic for one, it only takes a dragon or two to activate once, then that dragon makes automatically cheaper, so there's a natural tension that you have reduced to R by the midgame. The more absurd part is that this card is not legendary, and the reduction ability stacks. That's right, if I have 2 of these in play, any 2 dragons reduces the cost to R. Can you understand how quickly you can start shitting out dragons now? Do I need to spell out how many 5/5 flying dragons for R you need to make to close the game? It's not many.

This re-evaluates all the dragon cards. All the "many dragons matters" cards that have been lackluster are now more exciting. Both the new terror of the peaks and dragon tempest turn these activations into free thunderous wrath. Let how absurd that is sink in. And sarkhan the masterless turns into a one-sided ensnaring bridge. So there's that, seems like a pretty drastic effect on this card pool. Between draconic roar and thunderbreak regent, our opponents can't even touch our dragon's without getting into range from one of them to close.

The other big shift is the mana. This is higher curve than most decks, which is not a recipe for being competitive. We had a number of 3 drops that offered us mana before, the best of which is sarkhan, fireblood. This curved us the following turn into an earlier 5-6 drop, not the most back breaking but almost good enough. Now, however, we have open the omenpaths to cut out the middleman. We spend the card to do the sme with fixing, but we get the added ability to cast a 4 drop on T3, like thunderbreak regent. With enough creatures, it's top deck mode pushes damage as well. This is a great mode. If this and sarkhan is present, you can reach a multicolred 7-8 drop fairly easy on T4. That means Atarka on T4, which is certainly killing their best threat or wiping a small board. And if there is a dragon tempest in play? At least another 8+ damage. You would think this is exciting enough, but the whole I reason I took this relook is Goldspan dragon, the premier card from kladheim. Who further reinforces the (don't touch this) train. Who leave's up silumgar's scorn on attack. Who ramps us and fixes us, creating another path to Atarka/ Nicol-Bolas. Who even makes Gadrak much more than questionable. Magdra looks a little too cute (But maybe not when you consider mutavault), but a base of  Treasure Map, Gadrak, Goldspan Dragon does not. I mean pair that core with Silumgar's scorn, Spell Swindle, Dragonlord's Perogative? Spell swindle and goldspan dragon? What is life bro. Saheeli Sublime artificer even starts to get a little spicy at that point. Izzet mana is great in pioneer too.This tribe is looking robust, and I definitely got to mock a list.

Additionally, further into blue, we have multiple changeling effects to consider, and the utility land that scrys and nukes a small board. Could be a sweet free effect in the mana, just a little built in sweeper action that's mostly one sided.

I totally forgot about Sprite Dragon! Another interesting low-drop, especially in the blue red treasure list I described above. It triggers off of planeswalkers, so it's pretty serviceable. I looked for any hype on the the beserker, and the only thing I saw was patrick chapin's red review where it's mentioned as a good outlet in red aggro and then again as the 4th impactful card from the context of standard. He made a list to explore an all in approach on it, which was centered on abusing changelings with disparrate card type matters effects. There's a lot of room for that with the new changelings, but his list was more focused on what you can do with changelings than what the beserker means for dragons. His conclusion was that dragons in themselves were mostly unnecessary. This card did not make the list for the pioneer or historic reviews, so I believe that dragon tribal in those formats is going under the radar, which is my favorite place to brew!

There might be up to 3 versions of this deck, the mono red, the izzet, and red based 5 color.
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