MTG: Dragonstorm Decks

[Mew Master]

Wow, TCG has kinda... slipped in activity eh? Well With what's happened to me in the last... few days I've been on a heavy Magic Kick to help cope. Which can be a good thing, or bad thing. So, I've come up and re-vamped two of my favorite Decks. Both of them Dragons and both of them.. well... I'll explain them both below:

Deck 1: Dragon Stooooooooooorm!

Lands: 21

Islands x4
Mountains x4
Steam Vents x4
Cloudposts x4
Volcanic Islands x2
Teramorphic Expanse x2
Vesuva x1

Creatures: 18

Soulbright Flamekin x4
Dragonspeaker Shaman x2
Dragon Tyrant x1
Two-Headed Dragon x1
Shivan Dragon x1
Keiga, the Tide Star x1
Kilnmouth Dragon x1
Scourge of Kher Ridges x1
Dragon Mage x1
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind x1
Ryusei, the Falling Star x1
Ancient Hellkite x1
Rorix Bladewing x1
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund x1

Other Spells: 22

Crucible of Fire x1
Electrolyze x3
Through the Breach x2
High Tide x4
Desperate Ritual x4
Seething Song x4
Dragonstorm x3

This deck is my oldest one. Derived from a Red-Burn starter deck that my local cardshop (and friends that worked there) built for me and which I was highly aggressive with, and my fascination with blue control. As the deck evolved I've added stuff from Kamigawa that would give everything Haste and deal with my lack of keeping Dragons on the board for long (In the Web of War made the Deck a major threat). With this incarnation, I took lessons I've learned from building the next deck and applied them to Red Blue. When I was at Kawa Kon this last weekend, many of my opponents commented on the massive Mana Ramp in this deck, which I can easily get a crap tone of Mana by Turn 3 or 4 depending on my hand.

Play Style: Use your Mana Producers to huge effect. Dragonstorm is still your primary kill condition, however getting the mana and spells for it is a bit tricky. Seething Song, plus Dragonspeaker Shamans are your saving grace early game, being able to drop a 5/5 by turn 4 is almost as fast as Naya... almost. Cloudposts are your mana ramp which can get up to 5 Mana per land with Vesuva copied as a Cloudpost, however can also double for whatever you need at the time (or neat land your opponent has). After a certain point land isn't as important for your Mana as say a Seething Song or Desperate Ritual. With the Volcanic Islands and Steam Vents, using High-Tide to produce extra Blue Mana is helpful as well as Tapping the Lands for Red and getting extra Blue every time making these lands as important as your Cloudposts that turn. Sometimes Hard-casting for the dragon is the best way to get it. Electrolyze combos with Niv-Mizzet and also gives the deck a little bit of Draw plus Burn. Ryusei and Keiga's abilities are great when used with Through the Breach, and TtBing a Dragon Tyrant is usually a kill in and of itself (that Double Strike suuuucks). Soulbright Flamekins are awesome. Paying six mana on one card gives you 8 Red mana, and since the deck is primarily red you can ramp up to a Dragonstorm fairly fast. Add that you can use that mana to activate the ability on another Soulbright, and another, you can easily have 14 red mana with all four on the board. Or you can use your mana producers to activate two abilities separately and get 16 or even 32 Red mana. Scenario dependent actually...

The only issue is Karrthus, which has two colors the deck cannot produce. His primary purpose is to give your Dragons Haste, that's it. He is either the first or last thing you Dragonstorm for (depending on the size of the storm). If he's in your opening hand, you can consider him discard fodder and go through it the hard way, D-Storming for your bigger Dragons. Unless you have a Through the Breach, a lot of Mana, and might be able to throw up a Dragonstorm before or after a Through the Breach, then in that case keep em.

My friends have commented that this is my best deck. Mostly because the Mana Ramp in the deck doubled with the Storm Effect usually guarantees Dragons quickly. Not a win normally, I just have my Dragons on the battlefield glaring at their next meal.

Deck: Sarkhan Vol Storm

Lands: 18

Mountains x4
Swamps x2
Forest x2
Savage Lands x4
Dragonskull Summit x3
Terramorphic Expanse x3

Creatures: 16

Dragonspeaker Shaman x2
Bogardan Hellkite x2
Hellkite Overlord x2
Flameblast Dragon x2
Broodmate Dragon x2
Bladewing the Risen x1
Kilnmouth Dragon x1
Two-Headed Dragon x1
Darigaz, the Igniter x1
Dragon Tyrant x1
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund x1

Other Spells: 26

Psychotic Fury x3
Kodoma's Reach x4
Evolution Charm x2
Rite of Flame x4
Desperate Ritual x3
Seething Song x4
Dragonstorm x4
Sarkhan Vol x1
Sarkhan the Mad x1

This was designed to be a faster version than Red/Blue Dragons listed above. It was made on a whim to create a Dragonstorm deck using Jund Dragons (primarily), and deal out massive amounts of Damage. Since I was at Kawa Kon when I had the whim to make this (and rake in some Tournament Wins), I had to tear apart my Five Color Dragonstorm that had Elder Dragons (from Invasion and Planar Chaos), and my Jund Deck (that was highly aggressive but could never get the big hitters out fast enough) to make. I made it to try and consider what a Dragon Summoner like Vol would do, Originally I wanted to just put spells from Jund or those that had Sarkhan's image or quotes on them, but I scrapped that for a fast fun deck.

Play Style: Aggressive. The deck is simple enough to run, Land filters get the Mana out quickly, while Mana Producers get you what you need to drop Dragons. Dragonspeakers help out with this and Psychotic Rage gives you a bit of Draw. Karrthus is the main kill condition, and getting him out quickly turns the game on a dime. The fastest I've seen the deck drop is turn three, and theoretically can drop on Turn 1 with Just a Mountain, 1 Rite of Flame, a Desperate Ritual, three Seething Songs, and a Dragonstorm. One of my roomates who looked at it, prefers my Red/Blue to Red/Black/Green, mostly because of the three color type of the deck, while I prefer it and I think it can run fine with three colors because of the mana filters. Discarding dragons isn't an issue with Bladewing the Risen, bringing your Dragons back and using more RB to make your Dragons powerful is always a nice touch. Dragon Tyrant and Broodmates can help turn the tide as you fill the air with powerful hitters with a Karrthus already on the board. If you have a lot of dragons in Hand after casting, go for a Kilnmouth and get the Amplify affect. Both Sarkhans are fun to have in the deck. After you burn the first Vol out and drop the second one, you get a kill condition right there. Dragonspeakers are there to help Hard Cast your dragons. Two Dragonspeakers on two mana is one of the most scary things to consider, when there are some dragons that only need 2 Red to be cast after that.

Future Revisions: Since I don't have the cards or money to waste on cards atm, what I'm looking for the deck are two copies each of the Rakdos R/B land and the Gruul R/G land from Guildpack and Dissension to trade out the Savage Lands for. Though if one goes that route, you can theorettically get rid of Kodomas reach for another Green Land search that just searches for the land types instead of Basic lands, though you ramp up a bit slower.

Tips for both Decks: If you play against Lifegain, use your dragons abilities, burn, and Sarkhan's to disable their lifegain by getting rid of their creatures. Wither and Infect are going to be hard to stop, since early game is a bit slow depending on the draw. If you can't get through a Creature Deck for fear of being anniahilated, Sarkhan the Mad's more powerful ability can be a lifesaver by bypassing your opponent's defenses and send your dragon's damage straight to them. Both decks can theorettically drop on Turn 1-3, with enough dragons and haste that your opponent can't effectively defend against them. Even with Flyers, some Dragons have trample and firebreathing, which is great for that extra mana you can produce. Counterspell is your one problem. If the deck you are fighting against knows what to counterspell, then it's game. However, since there are only some Counterspells that work against the Storm Mechanic, your best bet is to Dragonstorm as fast as you can for as much as you can. There's only so many Counterspells they can throw at you to stop the Storm.

[papabopp]

WOAH! In the last...I dont know 2-3 months I've become addicted to magic! C~Dub is actually the person that got me into it lol. yeah I dont have all that large of a collection yet. my favorite colors are blue and black. I have 1 Blue deck, 1 Black deck, a blue green and a blue white and I'm working on another black deck but i dont have enough swamps. I'll prolly post the cards in them later.

[papabopp]

yeah i really dont think im gonna post any of my decks up here (I have 6 right now) cuz its too much time/effort unless anyones actually interested
I have a blue control/counter deck
a blue artifact deck
a blue/white level up deck
a blue/green landfall deck
a white life gain deck
and a black discard/madness deck
anyone else play?

[Darth CookieMonster]

any links to sites and whatnot? ill research it up.. and see what happens

[papabopp]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Summoner/

[Ultimate Charizard]

I just got into playing and have been attending the 2012 stuff lately. Only a few months into magic but ive played other TCG 's for a while.

Atm i play...

Red Burn/Monster deck (Mostly cos i got the new Chandra)
Green/Black Deathtouch/Spider deck
Blue/Black/White Infect Deck
White/Blue Flying deck.

Im still looking for a few cards ive spotted (dont buy them individual, always from boosters or trades) and i guess i could do with a Red mix deck .

Also Blue cos im sick of other people milling the fuck out of me and that new Jace is just wrong.