Preface
This new deck has several new cards from Dragons of Tarkir mixed with some goodies from the past. The idea for the deck came from the exciting prospect of casting Thunderbreak Regent into Crux of Fate. I also drew inspiration from Jeff Hoogland's sweet UR Dragons deck and his comments on it.
Manabase
Firstly, I'm playing 26 lands. It sounds like a lot, but I have a lot of four and five drops as well as ways to use the mana (exiled cards from Chandra/Siege + Dragon Whisperers/Stormbreaths).
The deck leans heavily on hitting RR, so I've adjusted the land count to make that possible. We also have 6 double black cards, but luckily they are cards that we don't always have to play on curve. I'm playing 1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon to recur my dragons. Personally in testing I've never felt like I wanted more than one copy, so I haven't adjusted it.
Creatures
4 Dragon Whisperer: While this girl does turn on the opponent's Bile Blights and Lightning Strikes, she also is similar to Rakshasha Deathdealer and Fleecemane Lion in that she's a big threat all by himself. What I discovered in testing is that I really wanted a two drop against a lot of decks that don't do anything until turn 3 and I also wanted a firebrand for removal, so that my Dragons stick around. Also, her nickname is totally "Daenerys".
4 Thunderbreak Regent: He can't block Rhinos, but he can eat or trade with most other creatures. Four power is also a quick clock. Obviously his ability is very strong as well and he has strong synergy with Crux of Fate.
4 Stormbreath Dragon: This guy likes to go fast.
Spot Removal
4 Hero's Downfall: Best removal spell in Standard.
3 Kolaghan's Command: This card may not seem impressive, but it pulls its weight. It turns out that by itself you would rarely played Raise Dead, but when it's just one of four modes Raise Dead is a great option. Most often this is Raise Dead, they discard, but it also removes small creatures, whips, vaults, and can even finish off a Planeswalker or player.
2 Lightning Strike: I'm playing Strikes instead of Draconic Roars mostly because the fewer completely dead cards I have against Control Decks the happier I am. My deck isn't aggressive enough for the burn to the face to be super relevant anyway.
2 Roast: Rhino is an excellent magic card and the fewer Rhinos I die to the happier I'll be. This card also kills most of the other threats of Abzan Aggro.
1 Murderous Cut: I used to run two copies, but have decided on 1 as I really want to be able to play a removal spell and a dragon on the same turn. The second copy made that less likely.
Sweepers
2 Crux of Fate: This is a great insurance card and synergizes well with my dragons. Unfortunately it doesn't play particularly well when an opponent plays 1-2 creatures or lots of dragons. It's also five mana which feels like a lot in this format. (I miss four mana sweepers.) That said it's a very powerful card that can totally swing a game you would otherwise lose.
Card Draw
2 Outpost Siege: This card helps me get ahead and stay there.
2 Chandra, Pyromaster: A hedge against Enchantment hate. Her ultimate is also a threat.
Discard
4 Thoughtseize: I can finally play this card that has been the bane of all my other deck's existences.
Sideboard
4 Anger of the Gods: An awesome sweeper against Mono Red, some aggro decks, tokens, and G/x Devotion.
4 Flamewake Phoenix: A recurrable threat against removal heavy decks.
4 Duress: Awesome against tokens and any Control deck.
1 Virulent Plague: Another hedge against tokens.
1 Ultimate Price: In some matches, like Heroic, it's helpful to have another cheap destroy spell.
1 Crux of Fate: This can be the mirror breaker in match-ups like Abzan.
Impressions from Testing
The deck is great game 1 in match-ups where 1 for 1 removal lines up well. I can easily handle the early creatures of Abzan Aggro, G/x Devotion, RG Aggro, and some Mono-Red decks and then get ahead with a Siege or Dragon.
Tokens is the worst match-up by far. Whether Jeskai, U/W, or R/G all of the one-for-one removal is pretty awful and you sort of rely of getting lucky and slowing them down with Thoughtseize and maybe drawing your Crux of Fate. The games aren't impossible to win, but it's much harder than other decks.
Creature-lite control decks like UB, UW, etc. aren't as bad as they look on paper. We only have 5 dead removal spells (Roast, Cut, and Crux) with Hero's Downfall, Kolaghan's Command, and Lightning Strike having some utility in those match-ups.
I think that the SB helps shore up those bad match-ups to bring most of them to parity and the control decks to favorable.
Overall, I think the advantage that this deck has over other control decks is its access to Anger which I consider the best sweeper in the format and Crux which keeps me ahead when I have a dragon on the board. While other control decks give the other player several turns to pull themselves back into the game, the 8 dragons Put Away the game efficiently.
P.S. Why Not Mardu
Mardu can't play all these double red and double black spells in the same deck. Cards worth splashing like Mardu Charm and Crackling Doom are great, but I think Kolaghan's Command and Hero's Downfall fit fine in the three drop slot. It also feels good to have consistent mana without having to play so many tapped and pain lands.
