So I was trying to see if I could come up with a Dragons-based deck. Unfortunately dragons are pretty expensive items, but if you have enough cheap burn around you can keep the table pretty clear until you can get some dragons out and then sweep for large amounts of damage. I really like the interplay that Sarkhan's Unsealed gets here, it's won the game for me several times, especially when Sarkhan finishes his run and spawns a bunch of dragons.

TL;DR burn early creatures, spawn dragons, win game.

2x Mutiny
2x Warlord's Fury
4x Lava Coil
4x Lightning Strike
3x See Red
4x Sarkhan, Fireblood
4x Spit Flame
4x Dragon's Hoard
2x Sarkhan's Unsealing
3x Verix Bladewing
3x Demanding Dragon
1x Lathliss, Dragon Queen
24x Mountain

I think I can trim out 2 of the mountains and possibly add either more burn or maybe Fervent Strike? Not sure. I'm no master-crafter, looking for some experts here to weigh in and see if I cobbled something together or if I went off the deep end somewhere.

Cut Mutiny, Warlord's Fury, and See Red. They add nothing. Trim Sarkhan to a 3-of.

Add 4x Shock, 2x Fight with Fire and 2x Jaya Ballard and then you have some more play.

Awesome, I'll give that a shot!

I've encountered a very fun Dragon deck a few weeks ago that got to play t3 Nicol Bolas through Pillar of Origins and Unclaimed Territory and went on to play all the high cmc fun Dragons. Why do you want to go mono-red?

Budget, likely.

Just a thought:
How about Steam Kin for extra ramps?

Because mono seems to be the only way I can get enough mana to run the higher-cost creatures reliably.



Nah, budget's not an issue, I've got a ton of wildcards I could spend. It's mostly just wanting something that is late-game viable but man have I been getting smacked in the face today playing this, UB control decks are fierce.

If budget isn't an issue, I'd go Grixis and slam Nicol Bolas's all day.

Interesting, go to tri-color? What would that even look like? Looking through my cards now.

and for god sake, if you are not on a budget remove Mutiny!!

Here's what I came up with:

Land (24, seems a bit heavy to me)
7 Mountain
6 Island
2 Swamp
3 Dragonskull Summit
3 Drowned Catacomb
3 Sulfur Falls

Spells (20)
4 Spit Flame
4 Dragon's Hoard
2 Sarkhan's Unsealing
3 Curious Obsession
2 Dive Down
3 Opt
2 Crash Through

Creatures (16)
2 Lathliss, Dragon Queen
2 Verix Bladewing
4 Demanding Dragon
2 Sarkhan, Fireblood
4 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun

You need some cheap interaction early, Lightining strikes or the likes, Curious obsession seems off to me, but I like the rest

That doesn't look too mana-heavy?

I think I'll probably peel off one of the curious obsessions and one of the opts and sneak in a couple lightning strikes.

Mana heavy like too many lands... not at all I might just think of going 25

Yeah with 24 it seems to produce just the right amount of lands per game. I have a better-than-50% winrate with this as it sits, probably going to adjust a few things to see if I can bring that a little higher. I'm reliably getting Bolas out T4 though.

Why?

I never played Dragons tbh, I'd like to, but that's not high enough on my to-build-list.

However, I assume that once you start to play Dragongs every turn, you overpower your opponent so much that you don't need card draw or evasion. You only want card draw when you failed to draw a Dragon because you drew Opt

Try this:

4 x Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
3 x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
2 x Demanding Dragon

4 x Sarkhan, Fireblood

2 x Lava Coil
2 x Cast Down
4 x Ionize
1 x Dragon's Hoard
2 x Spit Flame
4 x Lightning Strike
2 x Chemister's Insight
2 x Ritual of Soot

2 x Search for Azcanta
1 x The Eldest Reborn

4 x Dragonskull Summit
4 x Steam Vents
4 x Sulfur Falls
4 x Watery Grave
4 x Drowned Catacomb
3 x Mountain
1 x Island
1 x Swamp



With sideboard:


3 x Negate
3 x Durress
2 x Fiery Cannonade
2 x Disdainful Stroke
2 x Fight with Fire
2 x Sorcerous Spyglass
2 x Moment of Craving
1 x Unmoored Ego

Arguel's bloodfast probably deserves a slot there, even if only on the sideboard, but with all the big creatures the post-flip life-gain may save your Life against mono-red.

Is it just me or does Sarkhan, Fireblood just get killed like the turn it comes out? I've played that card so. many. times. and never got to 7 with it. Seems pretty pointless. Lasts *maybe* a turn before everything swarms on it. Great for relieving pressure on me if that's all I can cast, but for the mana I'd rather cast a dragon.

Am I misunderstanding his purpose?

Also, 4 of Bolas tends to wind up with me holding 2 or even 3 Bolas cards in my hand which makes it about as useful as a flesh-flavored lollipop.

I assume you can't play a Dragon before you cast him, so is your board empty when you play him?

Many people rate Planeswalkers by how well they defend themselves and he obviously can't do that.

Regarding the legendary rule and 4-ofs, there are different theories. Some people swear by 4 because you always want that card on the board, always replace it as soon as it dies yadda yadda. And then there are those who play 2-3 copies and have to win games without that card. Depends on how much of a game changer said card is which I can't judge here. In my Merfolk deck, I run 3x Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca and I'm not even mad when I have all 3 copies in my hand at once.