~A true friend will never leave your side, through hardship, pain, or even death.~
After a HUGE break from Magic, my friends got me back into the game with the Khans block in standard. Dragons are awesome, what can I say? A few (plus a few) packs later, and some trades, this is what I have to show for it: A control based deck focusing heavily on Dragons and Planeswalkers as win-cons. My budget isn't too terribly high right now (note the lack of Dragonlord Ojutai), but any suggestions and other forms of feedback are definitely appreciated.
Creatures
Dragonlord Dromoka: Aside from being the only Dragonlord I own, this card is hell against opposing control matchups. It shuts down so many strategies due to its anti-control effects, and is a solid survival tool that is a great blocker and finisher.
Icefall Regent
: It's an ice dragon. SO GOOD. Really though, its effect is awesome. A permanent walking
Sleep
that protects itself is pretty good in my book. It's also an ice dragon.
Satyr Wayfinder: Digs through my deck for stuff I want. Also, it helps delve on my Treasure Cruise.
~~~
Other Spells
Anticipate: Seeing as I don't have Ojutai (I really need to get some, don't I?), this appeals as my next option. Digs through my deck, and lets me essentially scry 3 and draw.
Dissolve
: This card's going out of standard soon. Might as well make use of it while we have it, right? Scry is never a bad thing.
Last Breath
: Hello, aggro. Goodbye, aggro.
Devouring Light: Helpful in nearly all matchups. If I have Elspeth, Sun's Champion on the board, her +1 effectively makes this a free spell.
Ojutai's Command
: Counterspells on crack. This has so much potential, with the choices you can make using this card. Great choice for the deck.
Treasure Cruise: It's no Dig Through Time, but with the amount of stuff we cast in control, this will be a pretty cheap draw spell when we need it.
End Hostilities
: I miss the days of Day of Judgment. Oh well, this will be absolutely fine, and helpful for getting rid of those annoying Bestow cards as well as any helpful auras that may pop up for some reason.
Banishing Light: In every control deck I've ever played, as a mainly control player, Oblivion Ring has been, like, my favorite spell of all time. Yes please.
~~~
Planeswalkers
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: I will be really sad when this lovely lady leaves standard. But let's not look to the future just yet. Elspeth is a great win-con. Her +1 gives me more creatures to attack and defend with, along with utility in the aforementioned Devouring Light. She has an incredible board wipe, which is prevalent against every deck that isn't RDW or a real aggro deck. Gets rid of Siege Rhinos, every Dragonlord, and every Regent. Without targetting, might I add. Her ultimate is great when we get there, all those tokens from earlier are suddenly all on top of your opponent with their really long swords standing tall. Oh, and so are our dragons. Yikes.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave
: Elspeth isn't the only great walker about to leave. Kiora basically just protects herself, again, against everything that isn't aggro. Draw power is helpful at basically every portion of the game, and if we get to use her ultimate, it becomes extremely difficult to lose. A free 9/9 Kraken isn't exactly a bad thing. In fact, I'd venture to say that it's pretty good.
~~~
Other Options
Silumgar Sorcerer
: A pretty good counterspell in its own right. It's a creature, sure, but its flash dodges Negate and other "Counter target non-creature spell" counters. You don't have to exploit the sorcerer necessarily, if you have a Satyr Wayfinder on the field, it's likely just sitting there as another 1/1 creature. Play this, Exploit the Satyr, and you counter whatever spell you wanted and you're left with a 2/1 flyer in place of your grounded 1/1 green pseudo-token. Sounds pretty good to me!
Dragonlord Ojutai: If you have the budget for this, replace every instance of Anticipate for this card. Ojutai is literally Anticipate on a dragon-shaped stick with hexproof.
Silumgar's Scorn: We don't run too many dragons at the moment, so this would generally be a worse version of Mana Leak. However, it can counter every spell for cheaper than our current
Dissolve
, and if you can add in the Dragonlord Ojutais, then this spell is easily worth the spot, as it would easily be played as a Counterspell most of the time.
Dig Through Time: If you have them, use them. They're strictly better than Treasure Cruise, as they give you effectively a 7-card Scry with a 2-card draw.
Dragonlord's Prerogative
: Same case with Silumgar's Scorn. I'm not sure I would run it either way, due to its expensive mana cost for only a single card more than Treasure Cruise, which has delve to effectively lower its cost to as low as 1 CMC.
narset transcendant
: Narset is probably one of the coolest planeswalkers in the format right now. Unfortunately, she's also super expensive. However, if you can shell out the money (or luck), this card is totally worth it, as she provides an almost complete lockdown for the opponent while providing you with some much needed advantage. Narset can easily win you games if you use her correctly, or at all.
Dromoka's Command: This card fits better in an Abzan deck. However, the option is there, serving as a removal option, anti-burn utility, and making your dragons stronger. Keep in mind that this card can be redundant at times, so if you run it I wouldn't recommend more than 2 copies.
~~~
Player Suggestions
Embodiment of Spring
: Suggested by SkyBane; would replace Satyr Wayfinder. This creature comes in as a 1-drop, something this deck lacks, and would definitely help against the common aggro decks at FNM. Also, for the same price as the Wayfinder, it sacs itself to place a land of my choice onto the field as opposed to my hand. However, Wayfinder does have merits over this as it still feeds my Treasure Cruises, and can kill some of aggro's weaker creatures, which can serve as a much longer-term survival call. It also gets me my taplands. I'd say this slot favors the Embodiment overall, as it does complement
Ojutai's Command
much better, and serves as decent protection against aggro. I'll have to test this slot out to see if it works well enough to use.
I plan to take this deck to this week's FNM with my friends. We'll see how it does, and post the results here. Until then, all help is appreciated. Sideboard is currently in construction, but I do have a prototype right now.
