Dragon in the Master

DFGHDFG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 78

I was looking at the list of the dragon deck tha won the trial. For those fo you who havent seen it, here it is

1 Strip Mine
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Sliver Queen
1 Shivan Hellkite
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Worldgorger Dragon
2 Dance of the Dead
3 Animate Dead
2 Necromancy
3 Duress
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Life from the Loam
4 Intuition
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus

SB

3 Oxidize
2 Abeyance
2 Null Rod
3 Ray of Revelation
2 Darkblast
3 Energy Flux

First of all, theres 12 blue cards in the maindeck.
4 forces
1 queen
4 intuition
recall
walk
1 echoing truth

I'm wondering how the hell this deck can afford to play FoW.
Is it just me or does 10 maindeck cards in the deck besides recall/walk seem like enough for 4 forces? Keep in mind thats including forces.

As much as i love dragon i think this deck got lucky with its matches, and its draws.

Either way, nice job with the trial

ant900 · Joined: 11 Oct 2004 Posts: 2476 Location: somewhere

hehe dragon combo is my fav. T1 deck, anyways i used to use FOW in it until i realized the same thing, i actually hardcasted it more than i removed a card, so they got switch with xantid swarms

DFGHDFG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 78

I know.

In my opinion he should have done -4 force +2-3 xantids and maybe 1 deep analysis or 1 darkblast, or another utility card of personal prefrence. Maybe another kill condition like a caller, eternal witness, or laquatus.

3 duress combined with 2-3 xantids, not counting games 2-3 when you side in the other(s) xantid(s), should be enough to satisfy the decks need to not "get fucked" while going off

I would like to hear sabbaths opinions on the deck he played

GRAH · Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 599

Force of Will was the only reason that he beat me in g1 of the semis.

I lost g3, however, thanks to mis-sideboarding and Orchard.

DFGHDFG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 78

Yes but 9 cards to remove with a force that your playing. that leaves 4 intuition, 3 force of will, 1 echoing truth, and stifle.

Not a very good card choice

My variations would be -1 stifle +1 caller

-4 force +2 xantid, +1 darkblast +1 necrmancy

I'm still wondering why he plays sliver queen as a win cond. theres so many other better ones to choose from. Queen wins 1 turn after its reanimated and almost all the others win that turn. I know witness is risky but its better than queen in alot of occasions.

Anti-Christ · Joined: 13 Feb 2006 Posts: 46

True the Dragon list is not optimal.
The best win conditions for Dragon is Shivan Hellite and Eternal Witness. Hellkite can kill Platz and Eternal recurs everything for you and wins on the spot as well.
Xantid Swarms are probably better than Force of Will. Problem is, they activate Oath, can be Darkblasted and unlike Force, only prevent the opponent from stopping you.
Force serves its pupose just to stop a card against you, althought Xantid is overall the better choice.
I mean there isn't even Lim-Dul's Vault in the deck to help with stacking as well as being pitchable to FoW.

DFGHDFG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 78

yes lim-duls vault is very good. Its almost mandaroty to play some if you play forces

Binary_Star · Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 10

I'm glad some of you realize just how awful fow generally is. I've already explained this enough on mtgsalvation and themanadrain. Sliver Queen is also terrible. I'm still not entirely sure if I would rather run laquatus or witness as my second victory condition.

ant900 · Joined: 11 Oct 2004 Posts: 2476 Location: somewhere

how does eternal witness win the game?

Anti-Christ · Joined: 13 Feb 2006 Posts: 46

I would run Witness considering Laquatus mills and gaea's Blessing is in Oath. Plus you give them a turn in which they could possibly put something back into their library, also, Laquatus can be affected by Damping Matrix and Cursed Totem(I would have said Needle as well but nobody would name Laquatus against Dragon).

Eternal Witness works by looping, then targeting Witness instead of Dragon, returning the Animate Dead or w/e, then you play it targeted Dragon creating the loop then when Eternal Witness comes into play you return a card to your hand. You mainly loop to get Ancestral in the graveyard to recur Ancestral to deck your opponent or if you're really techy, use Ebony Charm instead.

WildCard · Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 735 Location: Japan

i havent seen this deck run alot latly. it is also one of my favorite decks too. kinda goes like this: 1st turn.. bazar mox jet mox whatever, animate dead I WIN. land,mox,mox, draw, draw, discard3, 3 cards left in hand. yep 1st turn. i usally had it 2nd or 3rd turn. once i had to wait til 10th turn. so what is the current optimal build?

DFGHDFG · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 78

I think the optimal build depends entirely on the meta.

In my home meta we have unlimited proxy T1 tourneis.

Yes unlimited proxy.

So i scouted the meta a bit and found that nobody was playing control, all stax decks and homebrews of bad decks. 1 guy was even playing niv-mizzet combo.

So designed a dragon deck for my meta, with no anti control cards. It raped everyone. I used Laquatis(there was no oath), Kumano (personal prefrence), and caller of the claw, just in case.

I found kumano to be my usual kill as it is very reliable.
My SB was like 3 sacred ground 4 shattering spree, so i had a good match vs uba. With that said i conclude that the dragon deck you design should just be to beat the decks in your meta