IntroThis deck came together after playing around with the Tamiyo's Journal + Briarbridge Patrol combo that hateindigital posted in his "Tamyio's (Distortion) Bridge" deck.
For those that don't know: By tapping Tamiyo's Journal and saccing 3 clues, we are able to activate Briarbridge Patrol's second ability. Together, we can tutor our deck for a creature card and put it into play without paying it's mana cost.
This also gives our creatures quasi-flash. As we can tap, sac, tutor, and play during our opponent's second mainphase and endstep.
Why the Dragonlords? Well, ever since seeing them, I wanted a deck that could play all of them. That's been nigh impossible and improbable til now. Now we have the ability to grab whichever dragon we want for the situation at hand. With the addition of
Haven of the Spirit Dragon
, there's hardly an issue hardcasting the dragons if need be, except Kolaghan.
Dragonlord Atarka
is great against small creatures that go wide, and provides one helluva body.
Dragonlord Kolaghan gives our other creatures haste, and hurts the control matchup by denying them the ability to play certain spells.
Dragonlord Dromoka helps against the aggro, giving us life to stay out of range, a nice blocking body, and also helps against counter decks.
Dragonlord Silumgar is hilarious when they have a planeswalker on field. Double if it's about to ult. Can also grab a threatening creature.
Dragonlord Ojutai
speeds the process up with his filtering ability. He can also be hardcasted in this deck pretty easily if I can't get Briarbridge Patrol on the field.
Then there's Kozilek, the Great Distortion. (I'll give hateindigital credit for this guy) We aren't going to get his awesome cast ability. That's alright, it's the second ability that I like. with Kozi on the field, and 3 clue tokens (rarely an issue), we can use the Tamiyo's Journal to tutor for any cmc 1-7 card to counter basically anything we'll see in the standard format.
Clue Tech:
Erdwwal Illuminator - This little guy gives us an extra clue for most of the turn's he's out. He trigger's
Bygone Bishop
's investigate ability and also blocks some of the early 1-2 power aggro drops. I'd be careful with him unless you have another on the field.
Graf Mole
- This guy is the first Mole in MTG history. That's almost reason enough to play him already. He also has a nice 2/4 body, that allows us to stall out aggro a little bit more. But the sole reason to play him is the life gain. 3 life for every clue we sac is nice. That's 9 life every time we tap the journal. That allows us to stall the game out enough to get the combo going. I have 3 of him, but might end up running 4. Also triggers Bygone's ability.
Tireless Tracker - This is probably the best clue card in the game right now. It provides a clue every time we play a land, which is great. 2 if we have Erdwal Illuminator out too. He triggers Bygone's Ability, and can also be a major threat himself. +1/+1 for every clue we sac is great. That's +3/+3 when we tap the Journal. He get's pretty big, pretty fast and usually get targeted from Removal. Which is another removal spell that isn't targeting our Dragons. (Leaving the Journal untapped and 3 clues up allows us to pump this guy at instant speed. Giving us a +3/+3 combat trick)
Bygone Bishop
- This guy is great. He 2/3 with flying. That usually makes 3-4 clues per game, depending on how long he last. He can swing over Bant Humans for some early damage, and can block Ojutai or Angel of Tithes for a turn.
Ulvenwald Mysteries - This card gets pretty crazy when we are tapping the Journal for multiple turns. Three 1/1 Human Soldiers allows us to go wide if need be, and chump block for days. Which is great against aggro decks. It also gives us another clue if one our creatures die, allowing us to not have to worry so much about our other clue machines.
Ongoing Investigation - This card is much weaker than Ulvenwald Mysteries. There are a lot of time that we just don't want to swing that turn. As of now, I'm including it as a 2-of. It gives me a mana sink if I need more clues and have creatures in the side. And actually helps in the control matchup quite a bit. Might take it out or put more in after more testing.
Conclusion
With all the clue tech, by turn 5-6+ you should be producing 3+ tokens a turn. This allows us to hard sac 3 tokens for 6 mana and play a creature from hand with Briarbridge Patrol, without having to rely on a Tamiyo's Journal.
If you have Journal but no Patrol, then sac three tokens with Journal, fetch the Patrol, play him for 4, and still have the ability to play any creature from hand at that endstep.
Well, That's my deck. I know it's not the most competitive, and probably not even close to tier 1. But it has tons of surprises, and hopefully an answer for most situations.
Thanks for looking. Feel free to suggest anything and everything! And if you like it, give a +1.
Thanks!
