KrazyCaley & miinor_threat Present: The Top 10 Dragons

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KrazyCaley

5 July 2010

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KrazyCaley says- The very first article I wrote for TappedOut was a Top 10 list, and in all the hubbub of draft debates and deckbuilding competitions, I haven't found the time to return to the good old top 10 shenanigans. But today, my Magical friends, we're back to it with another top 10. Today, as Space Ghost once said, we're talkin' about dragons.

Anyway, let's get this business kicking. Let's start with some.....

Honorable Mentions

Nicol Bolas

KrazyCaley - "My master, I tried to get you onto this top 10. I really did. Believe me, I know as well as anyone that you are the most powerful dragon of them all, indeed, you are the lord of not only dragons, but the entire multiverse. But I was opposed at every turn by the nefarious Dave. I humbly beseech you to make him discard his brains into the graveyard."

miinor_threat - "No. no. no. no. NO. I will not drink the Blightning Kool-Aid. Nicol Bolas the dragon is not good enough for the top 10...he costs 8 and has an upkeep cost. He doesn't trample and by that time discarding your hand is just not that terrifying. You can't fool me, I remember back before he started working out and got cool new art in the 'From the Vault' set. I remember when he was just a nerd reading a book. Not impressed. NEXT."

KrazyCaley - "Yeah, well, he may not be as powerful in non-planeswalker form, but do you know what the title of that book was? How to Destroy Things While Gaining Three Loyalty Counters . He's coming for you, Dave. Moving on."

Flameblast Dragon

miinor_threat - "Flameblast Dragon is your favorite dragon's favorite dragon. This guy spews more napalm than the rest of this list combined. I always thought he was way underrated and underplayed. Being able to tap out for a huge hit of direct damage on attack makes this guy a solo threat that demands an answer."

KrazyCaley - "Flameblast is absolutely a real Dragon's Dragon. All the other Dragons write Chuck Norris jokes about Flameblast Dragon. He will just flat out roast the crap out of you, and that's what dragons do. Unfortunately, the poor guy's just not aggressively-costed enough to see much real play, but that does not detract from the fact that he is an awesome dragon."

Scion of the Ur-Dragon

miinor_threat - "This one is for all the EDH heads out there. Scion is Johnny-combo-player's dream. He is great for all kinds of weird tricks and sneaky reanimation. He also gives you access to all the WUBRG colors and thus EVERY dragon ever printed. In EDH, Scion of the Ur-Dragon is whatever you want it to be on any given turn. Slightly niche but mandatory as an honorable mention."

KrazyCaley - "I don’t know if you know this, but Scion is kind of a big deal, ok? I mean, yeah, there's EDH alone. But do you know who his dad was? You do not even know who his dad is, ok? The UR-DRAGON. The Dragon from which all other dragons derive. KIND of a big deal. And that’s why Scion wears a popped collar and has a massive trust fund."

And now, on to the top 10!

10 - Shivan Dragon

KrazyCaley - "Back in the day, you could not go bigger than Shivan Dragon. Shivan Dragon flat out killed people in the mid-90s when Magic was new. A lot of you youngsters out there who are under the age of 20 probably can't see what the big deal is here, but trust me, when I was 10 and just learning Magic, nothing inspired more fear than this guy. He just flat out won games. And for that, I feel he has earned his place in the top 10, even if other, newer dragons have passed him by in the power creep that’s occurred since I was 10 back in '94."

miinor_threat - "It's 1999. You just opened a pack with Shivan Dragon in it. You are extremely excited because you just won the draft. Shivan Dragon is like the Afrika Bambaataa of dragons, he started it all, back in the Shivan Projects tearing up the turntables and putting down some cardboard for some old school breakdancing. Shivan Dragon was eating Balduvians before it was cool. If you don't like Shivan Dragon, we hate you."

9 - Hellkite Overlord

KrazyCaley - "Look, it takes a LOT to stay alive in Jund for any amount of time. But this guy has what it takes to get by. He regenerates, he flies, he tramples, he has haste. Oh, and he comes with Firebreathing, like many awesome dragons do. And if you don’t have the preposterous amount of mana needed to summon him, well that's just too damn bad for you, isn't it? I guess Hellkite Overlord will be just over THERE instead, where instead of crushing your enemies, he'll be eating OTHER DRAGONS FOR BREAKFAST."

miinor_threat - "I agree that Hellkite Overlord is SO expensive mana-wise, but in this case you get what you pay for. He wouldn't be good if he didn't have haste, he would be a big expensive bomb just waiting to eat a kill spell or mass removal. But WITH haste, he can have potential as a smashing finisher. I also have to pay some respect to the fact he is a gangster-ass dragon, guys like this make people want to play Magic."

8 - Numot, the Devastator

miinor_threat - "U-S-A! U-S-A! Numot is clearly, unequivocally, the baddest of the 'negashard dragons.' If he connects, he blows up 2 LANDS! Not only does he blow them up, he blows them up for America. He is all around solid. He sees play in any legacy deck that can support those colors and has made an impact as an EDH general. I want to see Barack Obama ride Numot into battle and BEAT THE S--T out of every remaining terrorist in Iraq and Afghanistan."

KrazyCaley - "Do you know what Dragons do for a living? They devastate things. Thus, do you know how good at devastating you have to be to be a dragon that's called “THE DEVASTATOR?” I mean, you'd think that would be redundant, because all dragons devastate things, that's just how they roll. But with Numot, just the fact that he's a dragon isn’t enough to tell you how MUCH he devastates. With this name, they REALLY needed to get across to you just how devastating he really is. And the answer is a lot. Numot the Devastator is a lot of devastating. DEVASTATION."

7 - Keiga, the Tide Star

KrazyCaley - "Here is a quick Magic protip for you. It's actually a well-guarded Wizards secret, so don’t go telling everyone. You know those symbols that you see in the upper-right hand corner of cards? There's like the fireball and the sun and the skull and stuff? Well these symbols are actually Wizards' secret way of telling you which cards are better than other cards. What you want to look for is the one that looks like a drop of water. That one means that the card is better than other cards. FAR better. So, fore-armed with this information, let’s look at Keiga. You can see that the only one of those symbols HE has is the drop of water. So he's better. I mean, other dragons around here have that symbol too, but they also have the other, lesser symbols. So they're not as good. Only Keiga has JUST that special water drop symbol, so really I have no idea why he's not #1. It's just logic.”

miinor_threat - “Keiga is on this list DESPITE the fact that he is blue. I'm gonna let that slide. Cards that have death or leave-play effects are ANNOYING. Ever wanted to kill Reveillark but had to think twice? How about Archon of Justice? Making your opponent choose between bad options is an effective tactic. Keiga represents card advantage, which is one of the hallmarks of strong play, you get a big dragon, and THEN you get something of theirs. He's not bad, for a blue card...”

KrazyCaley - "This from the man who runs decks with Force of Will in them. You know, he tells me that his use of Blue is like how Mace Windu uses Vaapad, channeling just enough of the Dark Side to defeat it, but I'm not buying that for a second. Give in to your desire to counter spells, Dave."

6 - Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

miinor_threat - "If Karrthus allowed voting in Jund (which he doesn't, because he's a tyrant) he would be voted #1 King-Badass-Dragon of the decade and given a crown made out of carbonized goblins. He is like Vito Corleone, loyalty trumps muscle. Like the Hellkite Overlord, he is pricey, but especially in a dragon tribal deck he can really put the hurt on the opposition. Karrthus makes it this high up on the list mostly for style points over playability, he is the TYRANT of JUND after all."

KrazyCaley - "Karrthus didn’t get to be Tyrant of Jund through shrewd diplomacy and being popular, I'll tell you that much. He got there by burning things. But Dave's right, Karrthus is here because he's the Man, not because he's a particularly good dragon. But he's a great Johnny Combo dragon. I mean, just as an example of how everything is better with Blue, let me just say the names of a couple cards- Standardize. Amoeboid Changeling. Oh, and also, let me complain about this other thing- Karrthus almost ate Ajani once. It's true. But he was stopped by Sarkhan Vol, who took him as a pet. And Sarkhan Vol is the servant of Nicol Bolas. Therefore, transitively, Nicol Bolas is better than Karrthus. Plus it's not like Nicol Bolas would ever be defeated by Ajani or anything."

5 - Two-Headed Dragon

miinor_threat - "Two-Headed Dragon is just a straight up, old fashioned good card. He is a flying 4/4 for 6 that can be run in a split color deck, he has a nasty pump ability that split color decks can easily manage, and he's REALLY REALLY HARD TO BLOCK. Being hard to block is always extremely useful for mid-power beats like this guy. Good luck finding 2 fliers to throw under this bus. 2-head has been stomping since Mercadian Masques, we had to show respect and give this guy a top spot."

KrazyCaley - "Two-Headed Dragon is 2 Legit 2 Quit, as Hammer might say. This guy is massively evasive, he's a brutal blocker, and if you've got a bit of mana open, he can take down just about anything. Just a really solid versatile card that does not see nearly enough play, in my opinion."

4- Eternal Dragon

miinor_threat - "The key to MTG is card advantage. How do you do that? By making every single one of your cards cost your opponent more than one of his. Eternal Dragon is what I call a 'forever card,' a card that can come out of the graveyard over and over and continue to be useful. I personally thought this dragon should have taken the 1 or 2 spot. In my mind there is no bad time to draw Eternal Dragon, early game you plainscycle him, late game you play him. Whether you are mana screwed or mana flooded you want him. Dope dragon. One of my favorite."

KrazyCaley - "The sad truth about this card is that Dave and I have a buddy- JimmyDuvet. He runs an Astral Slide deck and Dave has been so bitter at Eternal Dragon when playing against this deck that I'm afraid it's rather traumatized the poor lad. I mean, Dave wants to talk crap about Keiga for being a blue dragon, this guy is a WHITE dragon. I mean, at least Blue is a devious color. White is the color of peace and love. Hey, maybe while Eternal Dragon is sitting in the graveyard after getting you a plains so that you can cast Squire, he can sit around the campfire with the other peaceful, honorable white creatures and sing Kumbaya."

miinor_threat - "....I hate you."

3- Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

KrazyCaley - "Niv-Mizzet is so incredibly awesome in so many ways. For every card you draw, put a damage somewhere. Ouch. AND he taps to draw you a card. And while he's sitting there tapped and at a 90-degree angle, try giving that flavor text another read. Did I mention he's aggressively-costed at 6? And that he has a legendary land all his own, Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind? And that you can invoke him? You know, with Invoke the Firemind? AND THAT HE RUNS HIS OWN RAVNICA GUILD? Niv-Mizzet is a pimp. I mean, all the other guilds, what's on their crests? You've got trees and suns and other stupid SYMBOLIC stuff. You know what’s on the Izzet crest? Niv-Mizzet. Check it out: Izzet Signet That’s all they need to tell you. That their leader is Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. And you do not want to mess with someone whose nickname is “the firemind.” Because he will set you on FIRE with his MIND."

miinor_threat - "Ah Niv. I love this guy. He is the perfect fusion of red and blue: drawing and damage. There are a lot of great combos with Niv-Mizzet. Putting Curiosity on him is undeniably effective (I think infinite combos are lame shenanigans, but strong is strong). I have a RU deck ( Legacy Dominus ) that uses Niv to turn Arcanis the Omnipotent into Arcanis the Incinerator. I love that."

2- Broodmate Dragon

KrazyCaley - "Broodmate Dragon is different than the other dragons on this list because it is two dragons. All the other dragons are only one dragon. Two-Headed Dragon does have two heads, but it is still just the one dragon WITH two heads. Two dragons are basically better than one dragon. And in all seriousness, this is the dragon that’s killing people nowadays. A not-insigificant number of Jund decks use it as a finisher (not that they needed one), and it really is pretty rough to deal with two flying 4/4s coming out of one card cast by your opponent."

miinor_threat - "Card. Advantage. For once, I totally agree with Cales, two dragons is better than one. If they don't have a wrath, this card will demand 2 answers from your opponent. Even Maelstrom Pulse won't cut it, you get 2 different dragons from one spell. There is a reason Jund is so broken, actually there are like 6 reasons, but this bad boy is definitely one of them."

1 - Kokusho, the Evening Star

miinor_threat - "Do you have any idea how broken you have to be to get BANNED IN EDH? Not banned as a general, straight up banned. Sol Ring is legal in EDH, so is Strip Mine. Kokusho isn't. Why not. BECAUSE HE'S TOO GNARLY. Kokusho represents a 5/5 flier that turns into AT LEAST a 10 life swing. Throw in any graveyard or reanimation sneakiness and Kokusho is the gift that keeps on giving you 5 of your opponent's life. Kokusho is in the number one spot because he is crazy powerful, stylish, versatile, aggressively costed, and has great art. Well done Kokusho, you beat out some serious contenders to be #1!"

KrazyCaley - "Kokusho is OBVIOUSLY stupid in multiplayer, and OBVIOUSLY stupid in EDH, as a general or otherwise. And in other formats, he's STILL a nasty killer that you do not want to see. In my view, he is perhaps not the most flavorful dragon, being Black and from Kamigawa; he doesn’t roast the hell out of stuff like some of the other dragons on this list (and off of it) do. However, if you were to ask yourself "Which Dragon has caused the greatest number of people to scoop," then Kokusho is your man. He's a nasty Dragon on his own and you get a free Drain Life for at least 5 out of him. It’s hard to argue with that kind of power."

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And that's all for now, folks. Join us next time when KrazyCaley and miinor_threat bring you....

The Top 10 Champions of Flavor Text