Anthropologists have long wondered at the
fact that most ancient cultures worldwide
have, independently, concepted myths and
legends about dragons.
Granted,
the Eastern snake-like spiritual dragons are
a different animal than the fire-breathing
behemoths of Western myths or the draconic
god-beasts of ancient Mesoamerica, but the
core idea remains the same: a reptilian
creature of great and terrible power that is
beyond the ken of any animal found in
nature.
So why does each culture ultimately dream up
a dragon as the archetype for a fearsome
beast? Some believe that these myths were
influenced by the discovery of dinosaur
remains, but others think that the dragon is
a representative of some primal memory of
human history. As though at some point in
the primordial development of humankind, we
encountered some lizard-like creature that
so impressed itself in our ancestor's
nightmares that we've told tales of it ever
since.
What kind of creature could threaten mankind
so completely that it inspired fear and awe
for generations to follow? And how could you
blame a Magic player for wanting to harness
that kind of power? But it's easier said
than done.
I've been playing Magic for only a little
while now. I currently have a red dragon
deck that isn't working so well. Budget is
an issue for me. If the card costs more than
three dollars, no can do. If I need 3 and
they cost more than 3 dollars together,
can't do it either. But I still encourage
you give me suggestions no matter what they
are, then give a second suggestion, and then
the cheapest suggestion to replace the
original suggestion with. Here's the deck.
Lands:
Mountain x22
Keldon Megaliths
Creatures:
Flameblast Dragon
Furnace Whelp x2
Dragonspeaker Shaman x2
Volcanic Dragon
Ancient Hellkite
Knollspine Dragon
Rakdos Pit Dragon x2
Two-Headed Dragon x2
Dragon Mage
Hoarding Dragon
Kilnmouth Dragon
Hellkite Charger
Mordant Dragon
Imperial Hellkite
Ryusei, the Falling Star
Predator Dragon
Shivan Dragon
Voracious Dragon
Hunted Dragon
Clockwork Dragon
Everything else (Sorceries, Instants, etc.):
Rage Reflection
Mana Echoes x2
Seething Song x2
Dragonstorm x3
Insurrection
Relentless Assault
Door of Destinies
Dragon Roost
Dragon Fodder x3
Crucible of Fire x3
Desperate Ritual
As you can see, the deck is not very fast.
Could you please make it faster and still
keep the huge beatdown element with it.
Thanks.
Chris Pulliam
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I have to admire someone whose deck is 50%
Dragons, Chris, but of course most Dragons
cost at least five mana. Much like the Giant
deck from Lorwyn block, actually getting
them on the table before the other guy has
you dead to rights is going to be a
challenge.
But of course, Chris, you already know that.
After all,
you've included a few Seething Songs and a
Desperate Ritual, which incidentally go
lovely with Dragonstorm. You mentioned that
you're on a bit of a budget? Seething Song
and Desperate Ritual are cheap, and
Dragonstorm is cheap enough that you can get
one more copy to complete your playset.
Enough fast mana spells with a Dragonstorm
can get you a horde of the Dragons of your
choice as early as turn three or four. And
you can ease your budget by making room for
the extra mana accelerants by removing some
superfluous rares.
Insurrection is a cute trick, but wholly
unnecessary-- the creatures on the board
most worth stealing are bound to be your
own. Rage Reflection is similarly
unnecessary. By the time you have enough
creatures for it to matter, well, you've got
DRAGONS. And Mana Echoes won't do much for
you, unless you expect to have three or four
Dragons out and then start chaining multiple
Dragons a turn. At that point you're not
winning, you're showing off. Door of
Destinies isn't really earning its keep
either, for a similar reason. First you have
to play it, and then you have to cast a
Dragon for it to get a bonus. And you really
need to cast multiple Dragons to optimize
the door. Crucible of Fire, by contrast,
gives +3/+3 to Dragons you already cast
before the Crucible hit the table for the
same cost as the Door, while the Door has to
see three Dragons get played to give the
same benefit.
And then you've got Dragonspeaker Shaman,
who reduces
the mana cost of your Dragons. He's one way
to make sure your opponent doesn't get a
chance to swarm you before your Dragons make
their appearance. A few Shamans, a few Iron
Myr for red mana, and you'd be all set for
casting Dragons. One hitch though: if your
opponent manages to kill the Myrs and
Shamans that you were relying on to cast
that monster in your hand, you may suddenly
find yourself helpless to do anything,
watching your opponents' 2/2's and 3/3's
introduce themselves to your life total.
The other option, is not to speed your own
development but slow down theirs. A few
Pyroclasm, a few Flamebreak, and the small
attackers your opponent was going to kill
you with will be wiped out, leaving you
plenty of time to cast your Dragons. And
after you cast some Dragons, Pyroclasm and
Flamebreak will still wipe out any smaller
creatures while not being enough damage to
kill your Dragons. They'll also handily wipe
out those 2/2 Knights you gave your opponent
when you played Hunted Dragon. Now,
Flamebreak seems to be going for $1.50 each,
which means according to your budget, you
can get two of them. Pyroclasm, however, can
be had for a quarter a piece, so you should
definitely have a playset of them.
I also noticed that you have a single
Hoarding Dragon, who can cheat an artifact
into play. You're a bit light on artifacts,
however. I already put Door of
Destinies on the cut list. Clockwork Dragon
is neat, but newcomer Steel Hellkite is
stronger. Iron Myr is a bit suboptimal if
you intend to run Pyroclasm, but Everflowing
Chalice, Mind Stone, or Ur-Golem's Eye will
give you the mana you need without being
open to creature kill. And of course,
there's nothing worse than getting your
favorite Dragon on the board just to have it
eat a Doom Blade, so a singleton Darksteel
Axe wouldn't be a bad idea.
And finally, of course, there's the lands.
Nothing to complain about here, but if you
have a few spare Terramorphic Expanse you
could thin your deck and improve your draws.
Your deck won't suffer too much from the
land coming into play tapped, since most of
your spells are top-heavy and you won't have
much to do in the early turns.
And remember to practice your best dinosaur
roar for when your Dragons swing for the
kill!
Good luck!
~BMoor