Theorycrafting! (Because I like competitive metagames too much)

[SnowFire]

Why Wasteland over Strip Mine?  Isn't Strip strictly better?

[metroid composite]

Err...yeah, sorry, I was running Strip Mine, not wasteland; that was a typo on my part.  (Not like I faced a single basic land...).

[metroid composite]

Did worse this round.  Should have ran Laboratory Maniac, Black Lotus, Street Wraith.  Would have gotten 48.  Instead ran the counterspell suite, and people came prepared for it; got 32.

One interesting deck I lost to:

Scythe TigerCavern of Souls, Strip Mine.

Beats removal.  Beats countermagic.  Doesn't care about being Strip Mined.  Has a Strip Mine to autowin against some decks.

(I've also seen a variant with Llanowar Reborn for a bigger Scythe Tiger, but this takes one more card, and opens up strip mine vulnerabilities, while dropping Strip Mine).

EDIT: here's another cute one:

Lion's Eye Diamond, Lion's Eye Diamond, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge.

You get to play it, and if it's countered or dies, you get to play it again!  It's not flawless (some people are running white exile creature spells) but it beats counter, and beats red removal.  And beats the Scythe Tiger deck--it dies once, and then you cast it again.  Actually, something cute you could add would be instead of a nother cute one I've seen is...

Black Lotus, channel, Platinum Angel

It beats a bunch of the "you win the game" clauses like Barren Glory.  Not sure if it's actually good, though (dies to removal).  What is interesting is this:

[eldrazi of choice], Lion's Eye Diamond, Shelldock Isle

Play LED first but don't activate it.  Then play Shelldock Isle.  The trigger for searching the top 4 cards of your library goes on the stack.  In response, sac the LED.  LED goes to graveyard.  Then LED's ability resolves, and the Eldrazi goes to the graveyard.  Then you shuffle your graveyard into your library due to the Eldrazi.  Then Shelldock Isle's trigger resolves, choose the Eldrazi obviously.  Next turn you draw Lion's Eye Diamond, and use it to activate the Isle.  I'm not sure if this is good, really, because unlike Channel, you're vulnerable to Strip Mine.  But you pay a lot less life.

EDIT: ok here's an interesting one.  Blackmail.  I haven't been too hot on selected discard, but this also lets you select lands, which is cool because it's not dead against triple land decks.  So um blackmail and...a creature; one high scoring deck this time around was running Mutavault.  I think that could be improved by using a dual-land and running Scythe Tiger or something.  This avoids the need for specific anti-counterspell tech (if they're running countermagic, Blackmail them first; you have time).  It does open the deck up to drawing against Strip Mine in half of the games (if they play an untapped Strip Mine, you can't play Tiger, as they'll kill the land before Tiger hits play; this is a problem that's averted by the version of the deck that runs two land).  So mmm...yeah, it'd open up some vulnerabilities to Strip Mine.  I think any Blackmail deck is going to have vulnerabilities to Strip Mine, though (certainly the Mutavault one does).

Hmmm...ok, here's one that looks cool to me:

Chalice of the Void, City of Trators, Porcelain Legionnaire

There's actually flexibility here; Chalice can be set on 0 or 1 (relevant since there are some decks with two 1 CMC things and a land).  And Legionnaire is really good in combat.  Beats or ties everything but Thalia.  Eventually loses to Student of Warfare, although probably not fast enough?  Student usually goes along with a 1 mana removal spell, so Chalice for 1, student gets levelled once, you're at 19.  Play Legionnaire.  Student gets levelled to 2, doesn't attack because it doesn't want a draw.  You attack (they're at 17).  Student level 3, they attack (16).  You attack (14).  Student level 4, they attack (13).  You attack (11).  Student level 5, they attack (10).  You attack (7).  Student level 6, they attack (7).  You attack (8).  Student level 7 they win.  And obviously if you don't attack they just sit back and level up.

Well...hmm...know what that can't race?  Stormkirk Noble.  Student of Warfare is a human!  As is Thalia.  And uhh...Mutavault which some people run.  Still probably not worth-it.

[metroid composite]

Side note, kinda cute deck concept I've thought of:

Chancellor of the Forge, Chancellor of the Forge, Leyline of the Meek.

I mean, it dies against people running creature removal, and it dies to most combos but it beats...

1. a lot of land destuction decks
2. most discard decks
3. most counterspell decks.
4. some mana cost disruption decks (Leyline Chalice, for instance.  Thalia has first strike so she does fine).

Hmmm...what am I trying to acomplish with this...let's see, I started thinking about this, because I was considering the idea of

Leyline of Anticipation / Black Lotus / Big Threat

The idea being there's lots of anti-black-lotus tech, but you can dodge that disruption due to playing Black Lotus at instant speed.

What are big threat options?  Well there's True Name Nemesis.  I don't really like it and here's why--the discard decks are running The Rack (which would deal 3 damage on upkeep).  Or alternatively Shrieking Affliction.  Both of these deal 3 damage to the player on their upkeep, and thus will always win the race because True Name Nemesis deals 3 damage during that player's combat step.

I don't like stuff with 2 power (dies to Thalia, trades with Mishra's factory).  If we're going to lose to Force of Will and instant win combos, we'd better beat the other decks.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos is a good example of what I'm talking about.  Kills in 4 turns.  Beats the 2/1 first strikes, the 3/2s, the 3/1 first strikes.  Bonus points for getting around Maze of Ith which is getting popular.  But on the other hand it does die to the free red spell (Pyrokinesis) that deals 4 damage.  Are there any tougher options?  Well there's Hanweir Watchkeep, which is cool I guess.  Although...honestly, even against the red deck it's still a draw, since they can block with their 1/1 token, and then deal the remaining 4 damage.  Leatherback Baloth isn't any more exciting.  Master of the Feast is hillarious in this format, and is flying so avoids the "chump and deal 4 damage" trick.  Nyxarthid is great.  If they try to kill it with the 4 damage  red spell, it immediately grows to 6/6.

Alternatively, if I want to dodge removal, the removal in this format seems to be mostly white, red, and land (Karakas/Maze of Ith).  I can get around all but the lands with Phyrexian Crusader (who admitedly only trades with Thalia, mind you).  Is there anything with protection from lands?  hillariously yes, but it's no faster than True Name Nemesis, so no point in that.

So mmm...I don't think these options are all that great, (loses to counterspell, instant win decks, and often some kind of removal or just a faster clock).  But it's fun to think about.  Ooh, just realized there's plenty of people who run Karakas without Leyline of Singularity, so yeah, Brimaz is a definite no.  I think Master of the Feast is slightly better than Nixathid because it flies and thus can stalemate with Platinum angel?

EDIT:

OOh, just saw a deck with Black Lotus into Arc Blade.  That's a neat idea too, kills something.

EDIT 2:

Just saw someone running basically this deck but with Fiend Hunter as the creature; that's clever as it can potentially disrupt some of the instant win combos.  Aaand someone else is doing it with Magus of the Moon.  That's actually really smart, because it shuts down land based removal, and shuts down almost all white based removal (since every white deck runs Karakas).

[metroid composite]

Oh interesting--speaking of decks with fast clocks:

Strip Mine, Mishra's Factory, The Rack

Strip Mine actually serves double duty here, either screwing over the opponent, or turning on Mishra's Factory.  Mishra's Factory can block as a 3/3, so shuts down a lot of attackers.  The Rack is an unblockable clock.  There's two threats, which is good because pretty much only countermagic stops The Rack, and only land destruction (or removal) kills factory, and no deck has space for both removal and countermagic.

I guess it has a weird matchup against Force of Will Griffin.  Let's see...don't play the Rack right away because it'll just get forced, and then you'd need to blow up their land so that they can't play Griffin.  So...just attack several times; I think 4-5 depending on who goes first before they can cast Griffin.  They're forced to cast griffin to not die...and then the coast is clear to cast The Rack.  And...no need to blow up their land now, because there's nothing left to Force of Will, so if they swing with Griffin, swing back for 2.  Yeah, ok, this beats Force of Will decks.  (Now, if people start running Mental Misstep...).

[metroid composite]

Ooh, shiny tech: Leonin Squire.

Previously people had been doing shenanigans with Treasure Hunter, which costs 3, so its the entire cost of a black lotus.  This costs 2, which opens up possibilities for 4 cost spells, and opens up the possibility for two-colour spells like Meddling Mage.

Is this at all useful?  Ehh...probably not.  Planeswalkers...a lot of them just draw cards (useless) or make creature tokens (decent, but not super exciting).  Auriok Salvagers...you can probably set up infinite mana, but that doesn't help when you have nothing to spend it on.  Flametongue Kavu is cool, but leads to stalemates since if your opponent refuses to play their creature, you're forced to target your own stuff.

Lodestone Golem is cool.  Thrun, the Last Troll is handy because it doesn't die to removal.  But like...I don't think these are quite good enough (for a sorcery speed black lotus deck, you need to compete with combos that outright win the game).

Balancing act--ok now this is something that doesn't have a direct comparison.  On the draw you should beat basically everyone.  On the play you beat most decks, but they only have to sac down to 1 permanent, and the one permanent might be Emrakul.  The player I saw running this played Null chamber, but I'm pretty sure that's just worse than Balancing Act (except against Emrakul decks).

So...yeah, that's kind-of interesting.  I think Balancing Act is the good one.

[SnowFire]

Squire/Lotus/Act seems like it rolls to Force of Will decks.  (And Chancellor of the Annex decks, if it wasn't banned, but it is.)  Possibly goofy Loxodon Smiter tech too, for all that this is probably rare.  Unless they're already on round 3 & Force is banned?

Cool idea though, you should run with it.

[metroid composite]

Ha, well I already ran with Strip Mine, Misrha's Factory, The Rack.

Round 3 ban is Laboratory Maniac.

I think Blackmail is going to be very popular this round, and this deck survives Blackmail because it has two threats.  I think Flash Thalia is going to be popular this round, and this deck beats Thalia because it has two mana sources to pay the extra cost on her activation.

I also just expect the format to slow down a lot, with more people running tap lands.

I dunno though.  One of the draws of this deck are that it beats countermagic, and it's possible countermagic will be lower now that Lab Maniac is no longer the boogeyman in the format?  The Balancing Act deck certainly wins on the play against everything but countermagic.  Loses on the draw.

The other question is whether the Balancing Act deck really beats all that much that the Swamp, Strip Mine, Blackmail misses.  If you go first and Blackmail, that's usually enough to win, and Blackmail beats Force of Will decks because it Blackmail's out the Force of Will (whereas Balancing Act loses to Force of Will).  I guess Balancing Act is better against certain land destruction decks.

[SnowFire]

Hold on a sec - how does Balancing Act win so consistently again?  On the play, it can usually guarantee a draw with Act via emptying the opponent's hand (fails against Leyline of Anticipation + Lotus + Thalia, but not much else), but on the draw or waiting for 2nd turn on the play, you have to hope that the 1 permanent your opponent keeps loses the race to Squire.  So beats Memnite / Dryad Arbor, but loses to Thalia / The Rack / beefier threats / etc.

[metroid composite]

Hold on a sec - how does Balancing Act win so consistently again?

I'm...not sure it does win consistently, that's why I didn't run it.  (Basically it wins if your threat is better than their threat...I mean...assuming you didn't just lose because all Black Lotus decks that aren't running Leyline of Anticipation just die to Black Lotus hate).  It wins if you go first, because you make them discard their entire hand and they never get to play their threat.  If you go second...you'd better hope they don't have a threat scarier than 2/2, AND that they don't have black lotus hate, or their own discard, or whatever.  Which is to say...yes, it's going to WL against a looooot of decks.  LL against Thalia and Force of Will decks.  So...overall...well let's just compare it to a random pod, shall we?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Gk2Sj-9FBvYAdd311Fkli0ne0ra0RA9EvTUzKIVt_H0/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true

Pod 1
2. Leyline Thalia: (LL 0)
3. The Rack: (WL 3)
4. Mishra's Factory, Karakas, Dismember: (WD 7)  (On the draw, they dismember the 2/2 in response)
5. Phyrexian Revoker: (WL 10)
6. Gaea's Revenge: (WD 14) (On the draw, they keep Maze of Ith)
7. Force of Will: (LL 14)
8. Liliana's Specter: (LL 14) (Flash gives it pseudo haste, and you can't even force a draw by threatening to block because it has flying)
9. Forbidden Orchard: (WL 17) (Yeah...so Orchard was super secret tech against Barren Glory.  This deck is actually terrible, since Leyline of Anticipation would make it beat every Barren Glory deck anyway)
10. Inkmoth Nexus: (WD 21) (They keep Maze of Ith)
11. Leyline of Singularity: (WD 24) (They bounce with Karakas in response to the Balancing Act; everything dies)
12. The Rack: (WL 27)

Actually we should have stopped at the 10th opponent because pods usually mean facing 10 people not 11.  But...yeaaah, 24/60 is bad.  My first round with Pyrokinesis I got 42/60 I think.  Second round with Force of Will I got 32/60, which is not where I'd like it to be.  Bear in mind, anyone can submit decks, some suck, I've seen ones that literally can't cast anything.  So...getting less than 30/60 is pretty bad to be honest.






Side note, there was one deck that I saw and didn't take particular note of, but now that I look at it more closely...ooh that is some damn good tech.

The deck centered around Gaea's Revenge (and storage lands to actually cast it, and then a third slot that can go to whatever disruption; Wasteland, Mental Misstep, Chalice of the Void; the version above runs Maze of Ith, which makes sense as it does take about 10 turns to build up the mana for the damn thing.

I hadn't fully clued in on why this is so good at first, but here's why: it can't be countered, so you don't need to worry about Cavern of Souls, and it can't be targeted by things that are not green.  Obviously this protects it from red removal and white removal.  But what I hadn't clued in on before is that...guess what's not green?  Lands are not green.  This dodges Karakas, Maze of Ith, etc.  I don't think the deck is good enough to run necessarily (has several vulnerabilities).  But for a top-end threat, this is a really, really cute one.  Thrun the last Troll might be better because it's hexproof, uncounterable, and cheaper, while being 4/4 (enough to beat almost everything in this format).  But like...in terms of high end threats?  This is a good one.

[Captain K]

*glances at topic*
*sees they reprinted Black Lotus*
*shakes head and leaves topic*

[Dark Holy Elf]

It was only "reprinted" for the online format specifically for Vintage play, which is pretty harmless but allows for players of the online game to actually experience the cards for themselves in certain formats.

[SnowFire]

It wins if you go first, because you make them discard their entire hand and they never get to play their threat.

That's a draw though unless I'm missing something obvious - YOU now have 0 permanents left too (you had to sac Squire to equalize at 0 permanents on the board, not just cards in hand) so it's a draw.

[metroid composite]

It wins if you go first, because you make them discard their entire hand and they never get to play their threat.

That's a draw though unless I'm missing something obvious - YOU now have 0 permanents left too (you had to sac Squire to equalize at 0 permanents on the board, not just cards in hand) so it's a draw.

Oh snap, didn't realize it would force you to sac the squire.  Derp.  OK that deck just plain doesn't work.

Anyway, round 4 results are in.  30/60 :/  There were four double-black-lotus style decks in my pod.  I would have done better with Blackmail, The Rack (but only 36/40).  All the anti-black lotus tech is kinda mediocre in the pod too.


So...decks that did well this round were mostly new threats, and mostly black lotus into discard.

Black Lotus, Channel, Karn Liberated (had two of these in my pod >_<).

Karn is impressive, because he matches well against basically every other frequent Black Lotus target right now.  (Emrakul?  WW.  Form of the Dragon?  WW.  Platinum Angel?  WW).  He does get some weird draws, though.  Like...Karn vs Karn neither player can ever win; DD.  Karn vs Pyrokinesis decks--they just exile their only win condition when Karn tries to take it.  DD.  Naturally it loses if you stop it from casting Karn; WL against every discard deck; LL against any deck running Leyline of Anticipation and approprate hate.

Black Lotus, Liliana of the Veil, Nether Spirit

This works very similar to Karn--on the play, it makes them discard.  On the draw, it kills their creature.  Nether Spirit is nice.  The matchups where you'd rather be running this than Karn are like...vs Karn (WL is worth more points than DD).  vs Pyrokinesis (this crushes Pyrokinesis.  WW worth a fair bit more than DD).  On the flip side, this loses to some funky stuff on the draw that Karn wouldn't lose to, like Barren Glory if those decks are still around, and Form of the Dragon, and Platinum Angel....  On the flip side, it's not the only Nether Shadow deck on the block; that card is now quite popular, and Loxodon Smiter is gaining some popularity too, so making them discard isn't always that great.  OH, derp, this draws against Emrakul on the play.  If you make them discard, they discard Emrakul; combo still intact.

Another cool deck was
Black Lotus, Blackmail, Bitterblossom

On the list of "what is the scariest card you can run for 2 mana" yeah, Bitterblossom is absolutely terrifying.  Hmm...this loses to Emrakul on the play, which is not a problem that either Liliana or Karn had.  Hmm...I am having trouble thinking of a scenario where this wins, and Liliana/Nether Spirit does not, however.  OH!  Maybe like against the deck I ran this round, which had The Rack, but did not have Blackmail.  Let's see...Liliana loses to any Rack deck like 100% (only takes two cards to play The Rack so she can't make them discard it, and she can't outrace it, and her ult can never kill it).  Blackmail into Bittlerblossom on the play would make me discard The Rack, would make a Blackmail, Rack player discard their land, get a win there.  On the draw against Blackmail, just loses the Lotus of course.  On the draw against my version of The Rack...can't stop The Rack from coming down.  Can stop Mishra's Factory.  The clock is still too fast, I think (with the self-harm of the bitterblossom, 5 turn clock).

So ok, it wins in cases when targeted discard is better, Bitterblossom will win on the play.  On the draw I think Liliana is almost always better.

Let's see...in my pod (so out of 66) it would go...Karn 48, Liliana 35 Bitterblossom 36.

In the pod of the person with the highest score (Mountain, Burning inquiry, Nether Spirit; easy pod to be honest...).  The relevant differences are that...against a hymn to tourach deck the Liliana deck still got a Nether Spirit  so had a draw instead of a loss (should have been a loss if they used Shrieking Affliction like a normal optimal Hymn deck).

There's a Citadel of War, Inkmoth Nexus, Tabernacle deck.  Tabernacle kinda wrecks both Liliana and Bitterblossom.  BB has to break up the Inkmoth Nexus combo and not play Bitterblossom (DD).  Liliana is DL?  Actually no, she can threaten an ult--have to kill her first.  Takes 4 turns to kill her, and then 5 to poison the player--yep, still an outright loss.  And there's a Form of the Dragon deck (Karn beats, everyone else WLs against).  Oh, and a Dark Depths, Black Lotus, Vampire Hexmage; instant 20/20 indestructible flying.  Liliana beats that via sac.  Karn draws on the play, since literally all their cards are in the graveyard; nothing to steal.  Oh, Karn also gets a draw against some stupid deck that can't win.

Overall by my count Karn: 59, Liliana 53, Bitterblossom 53, (the deck that won that pod: 47--like I said, really easy pod)

Next highest score was like...one of the Karns in my pod, ok.

Ooh, ok, here's an interesting, kinda suboptimal deck in another pod.  Nether Spirit, Lion's Eye Diamond, Violent Eruption.  Liliana goes DD against that (she dies to Eruption).  Bitterblossom goes WW? (on the play, take LED, on the draw...force em to burn your face, 16.  Next turn, he can't attack yet, you get a faerie, 15.  Turn after that, he attacks, no blocks, 13, you get another faerie, go to 12, attack to 19.  He attacks, 10, get a faerie, 9, attack 17.  He attacks, 7, get a faerie 6, attack 14.  Now you start chump blocking, and attacking with 3 faeries.  Yep, win, but down to the last turn).  Karn just wins, ofc.

Another suboptimal but moderately scary deck in that pod (which nonetheless got 45 points) makes a vanilla 2/2, and a vanilla 5/6.  Karn smashes that WW.  Liliana...wins on the play of course.  Draws on the draw (the sacrifice will kill the 2/2, then the 5/6 kills her.  Every turn after that Nether Sprit blocks).  Bitterblossom wins on the play, gets murdered on the draw.

But yeah, definitely seeing a pattern here.  Karn is good.  Karn exiles, and this matters.  +4 loyalty is a lot--True Name Nemesis can't stop him from ulting (although does force a draw when on the play--that's one place Liliana is better as she can kill TNN.  Bitterblossom gets wrecked vs TNN.  But nobody is playing that deck right now so whatever).

[metroid composite]

Ooh, ok, round 5 banlists are out.

4 cards added to the banlist

The Rack
Blackmail
Strip Mine
Ghost Quarter (Ghost Quarter is functionally identical to Strip Mine in this format)

lolol, none of this stops me from running Karn!  Submitted!

The Rack...one of the key decks that beat it was Chancellor of the Forge...which is also the deck that obnoxiously goes DD against Karn, so that makes me happy.  Blackmail...literally there are equivalent cards that just can't take lands, so all this does is power up the triple land decks a bit.  The removal of Strip Mine...like a bunch of people are going to jump on that and make basic land decks now.

[metroid composite]

lololol got destroyed 24/54, slightly below 50% winrate.  Hit literally the only Pithing Needle deck in the pool (all 1 of them).  Hit one of two Phyrexian Revoker decks in the pool.  After submitting I realized "theoretically Revoker could be used to counter planeswalker decks, but...naaaaah won't get run much."  I was right!  But my pool .  One force deck.  One Flash Thalia deck.  A few decks with T1 discard going WL or whatever.  Karn decks in other pods did fine.

Someone did get a perfect score in a different pod, though.  Black Lotus, Channel, Ulamog.  I realize now why some people run Ulamog over Emrakul: The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is a destroy effect, so Ulamog survives it.

If I had to guess about a ban card this round, it's probably going to be Barren Glory, as lots of people are complaining about it.  I don't think it's necessarily the best of the double lotus style decks.

A deck that's good and that I haven't been paying attention to:

Ensnaring Bridge, Mishra's Workshop, Scalding Tongs

There's been maybe two people running it, but it has performed consistently well.  Beats Eldrazi.  Beats manlands.  Beats general beatdown.  Goes DD vs force of will.  Goes LL to Thalia.  Goes LL vs planeswalkers.  Often draws against discard.

[metroid composite]

So...I wrote this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/31goxb/analysis_who_does_win_in_a_fight_between_all_the/

My original writing was actually about double the length, but it wouldn't fit within reddit's character limit, so I had to cut out some parts of the analysis.  But the core is still there.

[metroid composite]

So...pretty interesting decks played at the pro-tour.  The one that caught everyone off-guard was the Chromanticore deck.  (Didn't win or anything, but was played by some pretty serious players).  You can ctrl+f for Zvi Mowshowitz here to see the deck.  The story being that they were testing a lot of different decks in the channel fireball teamhouse and this one kept performing the best.

Now, Chromanticore is a card I look at, and think it's not that great.  The comparison, for a 5 mana creature, is Baneslayer Angel.  Chromanticore gains vigilance and Trample, in exchange for being 4/4 instead of 5/5 (and losing protection from D&D...which would be crazy relevant right now as the dragon set just came out).  Frankly, flying doesn't do that much.  Vigilance is relevant--against an aggro deck, being able to attack, gain life, and then threaten to block and gain life (for a net 8 lifegain per turn) is a big deal.  4 toughness probably hurts more against the aggro decks, though; if they can't kill Baneslayer because it's a 5/5, they still tend to lose like...100% of the time.

The relevant combo with Chromanticore is Soulflayer, which lets you get a creature with these abilities, often for as little as 2 mana, and often with extra abilities as well.  What extra abilities?  Well...

Hexproof from a card you were probably running anyway.

Indestructible from a card you're ok with running.

And then a bunch of cards that dump things in your graveyard.  Satyr Wayfinder, Commune with the Gods, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant.  (Note that the former two have a strong interaction with Sidisi by making more zombies).

But wait, you say, none of these cards are new.  Why did people just start playing this deck now?

The answer seems to be Deathmist Raptor, Den Protector.  Two more cards that really like being in a self-mill deck.

Despite being technically a 5 colour deck, which is very capable of casting/bestowing Chromanticore thanks to dual lands and triple lands, the deck is mostly green black (and heavier green of the two).  Blue being the only other colour used for non-Chromanticore spells (3 Sidisi, 2 Silumgar).  Neat stuff.

[metroid composite]

As for the rest of the pro tour...it pretty much comes down to this.

The most recently released set, "Dragons of Tarkir", has some really powerful expensive creatures (dragons).  Kind of the point of the set.  They're in every colour.  Here's a couple of them.

Dragonlord Atarka 8/8 flying trample for 7 mana; when it enters the battlefield deal 5 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers.

Dragonlord Ojutai 5/4 flying, can't be targeted while it's untapped.  When it deals combat damage to an opponent, you get to Impulse!  (Or, more accurately, Anticipate).

If these look good, it's probably because they are, and yeah people were playing them.


So...what's the best thing to play when people are casting 7 mana creatures?  How about countermagic?  Disdainful Stroke, Silumgar's Scorn.  And as it turns out, there's pretty good instant speed card draw right now too, like Anticipate (linked above) Dig Through Time, Jace's Ingenuity, and plenty of instant speed creature kill so....you can play draw-go.

Which means going into the top 8, the most common archetype by far was blue black draw-go control.  The other common archetype was mostly mono-green, ramping up for the big 7 mana red/green dragon, but the blue black control decks crushed all of those.

This then had a nice control path laid out for the eventual winner...a red aggro/burn deck with 13 one-drops, and lots of haste, and some token making spells, and a bunch of burn spells to point at the opponent's face.  Notably the deck is built around optimising its splash card, The red/green command which when it pumps a bunch of tokens can deal easily 6 damage from a 2 mana spell.  Know what other spell can do that?  Become Immense, which is included as a 1-of since the deck was already splashing green for the red-green command.

Anyway, deck fought three control decks during the top 8, and kinda rolled through all three.

Funnily enough, red aggro wasn't uncommon in the tournament (lots of people were running it) but its overall numbers across everyone playing it were very average.

[metroid composite]

So I'm vaguely thinking about making a dragon EDH deck, since I did get a number of dragons from fate reforged.  Problem is, ones I got are like...white/green and black/red.  So that's already pushing me into four colour.  And once I'm in four colour, there are no four colour legendaries so I'm basically pushed to 5 colour.

Another thing to note: a dragon set just came out.  A lot of dragons are just up in price.  Like...look at the price history on Utvara Hellkite.  Not played in any format.  Not currently in standard.  Quadrupled in price around the time a bunch of dragon sets were made.  If I actually want to buy cards for this instead of just proxying, my best bet would be to wait a year or so for the novelty to wear off.

What general to use?

Scion of the ur-Dragon is obvious, but also maybe not the deck I want to build, as it would probably tutor the same silver bullet every time.

OK, so what are the cards that really synergize with running lots of dragons?


Dragon Tempest (which I have)
Thunderbreak Regent
Dromoka, The Eternal (which I have)
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury (which I have)
Silumgar, the Drifting Death
Atarka, World Render
Ojutai, Soul of Winter
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (mostly just for haste+untap)
Scourge of Valkas[//url]
[url=http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=247401]Baldewing the Risen
Crucible of Fire
Crux of Fate
Kilnmouth Dragon
Sarkhan the Mad

So that's 14 cards that benefit from a tribal theme.

And then you know, a few cards that can go into any tribal deck like

Patriarch's Bidding

OK, so what does the deck look like?

Probably 10 signet, 10 Karoo, 10 Tri-lands.  Some 5 colour lands like Haven of the Spirit Dragon, Command Tower.

I probably want Chromatic Lantern for colour fixing?  Although it is bad with Karoos.  Cultivate+Kodama's reach, Explosive Vegetation.  And like...the number of karoos are going to make stuff like Surveyor's Scope, or Khalni Heart Expedition good.  There's also Gilded Lotus as an option, although 5 mana is around the time I'll want to be slamming out dragons, so maybe not.  Also, Sol Ring, despite not making coloured mana is still really good at casting signets.

And...I think this is a deck that actually does run less than 40 land, because of all the signets and karoos.  Roughly 22 land is already spoken for.  I probably want extra green if I'm doing green mana searching.  And some dragons require triple red, so probably at least 3 mountains.  So...bare minimum basics would be like...1 plains, 1 island, 1 swamp, 3 mountain, 3 forest, that's 9 basics (up to 31 land).  Add Bojuka Bog because Karoos bounce that.  So...32 land.

I think I also want Amulet of Vigor, because like...21 of the 32 lands ETB tapped, and Amulet does really powerful stuff with Karoos (you can play a Karoo, untap it, tap it for mana, and then return the karoo to your hand).

OK, so what's this looking like...

32 land
10 signet
8ish other mana spells?  (Amulet, Sol Ring, Surveyor's Scope, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, Khalni Heart Expedition, Coalition Relic).

Coalition Relic seems better than Chromatic Lantern given that the land ability doesn't mean as much for me.  Although...Coalition Relic is actually a $5 rare; not sure I care that much.  Not that Chromatic Lantern is any better.  Well there's Burnished Hart as an alternative that has been used against me and seemed really good.  Or just cut that slot; 49 mana cards is fine.

Hmm...kinda want to cut Khalni Heart Expedition--it's good with Karoos, but bad with 32 land.

I am vaguely tempted by Etherium Sculptor, because it lets you play signets for 1 mana.  But like...there's equivalent cards that reduce the cost of dragons which I own, so maybe I should just play that.

Hmmm...an interesting alternative manabase would be Maze's End and replace all the tri-lands with gates.  But...naaah, not sure that's worth it; not unless the tri lands are prohibitive.

Ok, so what am I thinking for the rest of the deck?

Some control and removal elements.  Possibly ones that say dragon or have dragon mechanics.  Reserve like...5-10ish deck slots for these or something.

Some card draw.  I'm actually thinking that cards which cost 4+ should basically all be dragons (for thematic reasons and to put deckbuilding restrictions on myself), so this would mostly be lower cost stuff like Phyrexian Arena and Mystic Remora and Underworld Connections and maybe Grim Haruspex?  Maybe babyjace?  Dragonlord's Perogative says dragon on it, so that.

OK, so on to the dragons that don't explicitly have tribal interactions.  First off, because there are so many tribal interactions, I think we want every card that makes multiple dragons, so like...

Broodmate Dragon
Dragon Broodmother
Dragonmaster Outcast
Sarkhan Unbroken
Sarkhan Vol

(And there's a few others, but they tend to involve some significant investment like Dragon Roost so...mmm)

So like...ok given that the deck is about 50% mana, we're looking at about 50 non-mana spells.

15 dragon tribal cards outlined above.
5 dragon token producers
5-10 controlish cards
Card draw...I listed 4-5 above.

Fill the deck out with 15-20 dragons?

Yeah, something like that.

Again, I'd probably proxy first, and then wait for the gold rush of "cards with 'dragon' on them are way more expensive right now" to calm down.



A few random cards I took note of, but did not mention above.

Probably for being cool
Descent of Dragons

Kinda sorta maybe
Bladewing's Thrall
Fearsome Awakening

Some tutor options (noting that I prefer to stay light on tutors in the spirit of the format)
Scion of the ur Dragon
Dragonstorm
Imperial Hellkite
Zirilan of the Claw

[metroid composite]

Alright, a few that I missed

Kaalia of the Vast

And then some general dragons that I'm filling out that "15-20 dragons" with:

Hoarding Dragon
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Spellbound Dragon
Destructor Dragon
Flameblast Dragon
Forgestoker Dragon
Hoard-Smelter Dragon
Mana-Charged Dragon
Mordant Dragon
Balefire Dragon
Dragon Mage
Knollspine Dragon
Furnace Dragon
Slumbering Dragon
Dragonlord Ojutai
Harbinger of the Hunt
Icefall Regent
Sunscorch Regent
Thundermaw Hellkite
Dragonlord Dromoka
Dragonlord Kolaghan
Dragonlord Silumgar
Dromar, the Banisher
Hellkite Charger
Hellkite Tyrant
Intet, the Dreamer
Keiga, the Tide Star
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Malfegor
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Rith, the Awakener
Savage Ventmaw
Scourge of the Throne
Steel Hellkite
Teneb, the Harvester
Yosei, the Morning Star
Deathbringer Regent
Dragonlord Atarka
Siege Dragon
Tyrant's Familiar
Bogardan Hellkite
Nicol Bolas
Scourge of Kher Ridges


How many is that?  45?  Hmmm...ok, going to have to break this down.

Two things that strike me:

1. priority goes to those that provide card advantage, or removal.
2. Additional priority goes to those that don't require mana to do so.

Hoarding Dragon -- maybe (+1 card, an artifact.  I have specifically Amulet of Vigor in mind, but even that might not be all that wonderful by the time I play a 5 mana dragon and it dies.)
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon -- no
Spellbound Dragon -- maybe (looting is semi card advantage)
Destructor Dragon -- no ish (it's a 2-for-1, but not great)
Flameblast Dragon -- maybe (repeated killing...but only for a mana sink)
Forgestoker Dragon -- no (repeated killing, but underwhelming at it for mana)
Hoard-Smelter Dragon -- maybe (repeated artifact kill...but costs mana)
Mana-Charged Dragon -- maybe (fails my criteria, but it's hillarious)
Mordant Dragon -- tentative yes (kills things without mana)
Balefire Dragon -- yes (much stronger Mordant Dragon)
Dragon Mage -- maybe (draw 7 is pretty good, I just fear other decks can take advantage of it better)
Knollspine Dragon -- yes (card draw, plenty of it)
Furnace Dragon -- yes (mass artifact exiling)
Slumbering Dragon -- ...maybe (it's just big, but the fact that it costs 1 is relevant; I'll get to that later)
Dragonlord Ojutai -- yes (card draw)
Harbinger of the Hunt -- maybe (sweeper, but costs mana)
Icefall Regent -- yes (removal; can shut down certain problem commanders)
Sunscorch Regent -- yes (it is "just big" but in a way that's very good in EDH, and lifegain will probably be relevant)
Thundermaw Hellkite -- yes (it's not much AoE, but it's free, and it's a tap, and it's haste)
Dragonlord Dromoka -- yes (I own it; lifegain may be relevant)
Dragonlord Kolaghan -- maybe (it's another source of "your creatures have haste"--actually it belongs more in the "buffing" category)
Dragonlord Silumgar -- yes (removal)
Dromar, the Banisher -- maybe (it's...powerful, but costs mana, but it also hits my stuff...)
Hellkite Charger -- maybe (that's a lot of mana, but a second attack step is good)
Hellkite Tyrant -- yes (steal all the artifacts)
Intet, the Dreamer -- yes (the ability costs mana, but it nulls the mana of the card, so it's a win.  And card draw)
Keiga, the Tide Star -- yes (removal)
Kokusho, the Evening Star -- yes (lifegain)
Malfegor -- yes, I think (removal, and just hits a different vector than the damage based removal that most dragons do)
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius -- yes (card draw)
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind -- yes (card draw)
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher -- no (a little bit tempting just for the "sacrifice a creature:" text but...no)
Rith, the Awakener -- no (powerful card but...I won't be running ways to make saprolings good)
Savage Ventmaw -- yes (a bit unorthodox, but yes, 6 mana is cool)
Scourge of the Throne -- yes (completely free extra attack?  ok)
Steel Hellkite -- yes (costs mana, but it kills literally anything if you're using it)
Teneb, the Harvester -- yes ("from a graveyard" you say?)
Yosei, the Morning Star -- maybe (yosei is disgusting with recursion; don't have much; but locking down one player for one turn is...a bit borderline?)
Deathbringer Regent -- yes (it's a wrath that will basically always be active)
Dragonlord Atarka -- yes
Siege Dragon -- yes (note that it doesn't have to get through unblocked)
Tyrant's Familiar -- yes (note that it doesn't have to get through unblocked)
Bogardan Hellkite -- y...maybe (the comparison to Atarka isn't looking great here)
Nicol Bolas -- yes? (I suppose technically this should be a maybe if I was being consistent, but fuck it, it's nicol bolas)
Scourge of Kher Ridges -- maybe (costs mana, etc)

ok...next pass...taking Spellbound Dragon over Mordant Dragon, but mostly looking at the yes count...this is still 26

Spellbound Dragon -- maybe (looting is semi card advantage)
Balefire Dragon -- yes (much stronger Mordant Dragon)
Knollspine Dragon -- yes (card draw, plenty of it)
Furnace Dragon -- yes (mass artifact exiling)
Dragonlord Ojutai -- yes (card draw)
Icefall Regent -- yes (removal; can shut down certain problem commanders)
Sunscorch Regent -- yes (it is "just big" but in a way that's very good in EDH, and lifegain will probably be relevant)
Thundermaw Hellkite -- yes (it's not much AoE, but it AoEs for free, and it's a tap on all blockers, and it's haste)
Dragonlord Dromoka -- yes (I own it; lifegain may be relevant)
Dragonlord Silumgar -- yes (removal)
Hellkite Tyrant -- yes (steal all the artifacts)
Intet, the Dreamer -- yes (the ability costs mana, but it nulls the mana of the card, so it's a win.  And card draw)
Keiga, the Tide Star -- yes (removal)
Kokusho, the Evening Star -- yes (lifegain)
Malfegor -- yes, I think (removal, and just hits a different vector than the damage based removal that most dragons do)
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius -- yes (card draw)
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind -- yes (card draw)
Savage Ventmaw -- yes (a bit unorthodox, but yes, 6 mana is cool)
Scourge of the Throne -- yes (completely free extra attack?  ok)
Steel Hellkite -- yes (costs mana, but it kills literally anything if you're using it)
Teneb, the Harvester -- yes ("from a graveyard" you say?)
Deathbringer Regent -- yes (it's a wrath that will basically always be active)
Dragonlord Atarka -- yes
Siege Dragon -- yes (note that it doesn't have to get through unblocked)
Tyrant's Familiar -- yes (note that it doesn't have to get through unblocked)
Nicol Bolas -- yes? (I suppose technically this should be a maybe if I was being consistent, but fuck it, it's nicol bolas)

Need to cut at least six more.  Anything I'm hesitating on is probably out, soo...Nicol Bolas, Spellbound Dragon.  I don't think I want to cut much that costs 4-5, cause you know, curve matters.  I think I want to cut one Niv Mizzet because the mana cost kinda sucks, and it would be unfortunate to have two in my hand.  Hmm...I dunno which is better in this deck.  Dracogenius is cheaper, though, so cut Niv-Mizzet the firemind.  Umm...I have three cards on lifegain; if I'm keeping the 5 drops, and running Dromoka because I own it, that means cutting Kokusho.  Siege Dragon...ehh...I have lots of ways to clear small creatures, and 2 damage won't always do things.  Knollspine Dragon...you know, this is a little bit winmore, even by EDH standards; if I have dragons in play and attacking and not being blocked, I can refill my hand, yes.  But then there'll be times when I can't attack, and just want to play a dude.  OK, this reduces us to...

Balefire Dragon -- yes (much stronger Mordant Dragon)
Furnace Dragon -- yes (mass artifact exiling)
Dragonlord Ojutai -- yes (card draw)
Icefall Regent -- yes (removal; can shut down certain problem commanders)
Sunscorch Regent -- yes (it is "just big" but in a way that's very good in EDH, and lifegain will probably be relevant)
Thundermaw Hellkite -- yes (it's not much AoE, but it's free, and it's a tap, and it's haste)
Dragonlord Dromoka -- yes (I own it; lifegain may be relevant)
Dragonlord Silumgar -- yes (removal)
Hellkite Tyrant -- yes (steal all the artifacts)
Intet, the Dreamer -- yes (the ability costs mana, but it nulls the mana of the card, so it's a win.  And card draw)
Keiga, the Tide Star -- yes (removal)
Malfegor -- yes, I think (removal, and just hits a different vector than the damage based removal that most dragons do)
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius -- yes (card draw)
Savage Ventmaw -- yes (a bit unorthodox, but yes, 6 mana is cool)
Scourge of the Throne -- yes (completely free extra attack?  ok)
Steel Hellkite -- yes (costs mana, but it kills literally anything if you're using it)
Teneb, the Harvester -- yes ("from a graveyard" you say?)
Deathbringer Regent -- yes (it's a wrath that will basically always be active)
Dragonlord Atarka -- yes
Tyrant's Familiar -- yes (note that it doesn't have to get through unblocked)

Mmm...I'm not feeling great about cutting Kokusho.  On the other hand, this is a casual EDH deck I don't plan to spend a ton of money on, and he costs money.  Could swap Thundermaw Hellkite (being another money card) but...naaah, the haste is super relevant with the triggers; getting through unblocked is super relevant with the triggers; whatever, this set of 20 is fine.

[SnowFire]

As a quick side comment, not sure what WotC balancing was thinking when they printed Thunderbreak Regent.  I guess they figured it's the Dragons set so what the hell, but a 4/4 flyer for 4 in RED?!  With an upside?  Way better than Furnace Whelp / Dragon Whelp & the like.

Been meaning to make on MTGO a Crucible of Fire (dragons get +3/+3) aggro deck that just ran cheap Changelings (5/5 Woodland + Avian Changelings & Taurean Maulers!!1!) but dang it that is so above the curve that the Regent should really go in even to a crazed Changeling aggro deck, despite actually being a Dragon.  Sigh.

[metroid composite]

Given the current state of creatures, it's good, but it's not -that- good.  It is noteworthy for being red, yes.  Buuuut like...

Butcher of the Horde 5/4 flying for 4 in multicolour, with upsides.

Conundrum Sphinx 4/4 flying in blue, with...theoretically it's even, but you can build your deck to trigger off of it more often.

Horobi Death's Wail 4/4 flying for 4  in black from kamigawa that technically has a downside, but once again you can build your deck to better exploit it.

Indomitable Archangel 4/4 flying for 4 in white, with upside.

Tower Gargoyle 4/4 flying **uncommon** for 4.  Multicolour, granted.

Duskmantle Seer dark confidant draw effect for everybody!!1  And a 4/4 flying for 4.


I mean, it's a good card and got played in the pro tour.  But like...of the decks that could run it, mono-red did NOT run it, green ramp splashing red did NOT run it (either of them; there were two), and there's a red/green midrage dragon deck that ran 4.  But like...it wasn't even the most played dragon in the top 8 (I believe that would be Icefall Regent).  Icefall Regent, by the way, is way better than it looks.  It's basically removal; they can kill it to end the removal effect yes.  But then they typically have to pay 4+ mana to kill it.  So...even though it's a 5 mana creature, it almost never gets badly tempoed by a removal spell.



Aaanyhow, I hope you're putting Draconic Roar into your changeling deck.  I mean, it's not something I'd put into an EDH deck, but that card is rlly good 요!

[metroid composite]

Alright, some cleanup...

-1 Kilnmouth Dragon
+1 Kaalia of the Vast

I'm shorter on 4 drops.  There are other cards that do what Kilnmouth does, with haste or ETB triggers.

So...I'm looking at

15 Dragon Tribal cards
5 Dragon token producing cards
20 other dragons

50 mana sources?

That leaves...4 card draw, 5 control, so like...

Card draw:
Mystic Remora
Phyrexian Arena
Dark Tutelage
Underworld Connections

So for control, I feel like dragons do a lot of killing creatures and killing artifacts, so I want enchantments featured here.
Mortify
Descent of the Dragons
Trygon Predator
Hull Breach
Back to Nature
Ratchet Bomb

Out of these...cut Mortify I guess?  Only one that can't two-for-one.  That or back to nature.  Hmm...y'know back to nature has some potential issues, as I'm thinking of trying to run an enchantment as a commander (Chromanticore--it's not legendary, but the other options are mostly too dull or too good).  What about none of the above and Ray of Revelation.  There's a few times this deck might discard, so...yeah.  So...I think that's a reasonable cap to non-mana cards.  Need to look at mana cards next.  In particular, cards like Vivid Grove that I was overlooking before, but probably want to make space for.

[metroid composite]

So...some more thinking about mana.

Untapping karoos is good because they tap for 2 mana.  I own Kiora's Follower, but I think for mana fixing purposes I'd rather run stuff that's easier to cast, so...Voyaging Satyr.  Even then, this is only sometimes 2 mana, sometimes 1 mana if I'm colour fixing.  Somberwald Sage seems good with those dragons that have two of one colour in their casting cost.

So...anyway, for some reason the tri-lands from Alara are about $2, but the tri-lands from Tarkir are like 1/10 that, and Vivids are also cheap.

Swapping the vivids in for the Alara tri-lands we're still at 32 land.  Besides the 10 signets we definitely want...

Cultivate
Kodama's Reach
Sol Ring
Surveyor's Scope
Somberwald Sage

Hmm...is Amulet of Vigor actually good?  One thing I am worried about is the "if you play a karoo before you cast anything, then you will discard at end of turn" and Amulet does help with that being something that costs 1.  But another land would also help.  Eh, screw it, it sounds fun, I'll try it.

Amulet of Vigor

And I think just fill in the last two slots with Alara tri lands that hit red and green.

Savage Lands
Jungle Shrine