Got a chance to play a couple games over the weekend and felt that a lot of cards were underperforming, so some culling is under way

For an infinite mana combo worldgorger dragon and animate dead which is already in your deck.

Not really a huge fan of the Worldgorger combo, at least in my playgroup. I typically face decks with a lotttt of instant-speed removal, so running the combo would basically be begging my opponents to respond to the exile trigger. Getting my own field permanently exiled by my own card isn’t something I’m interested in.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

worldgorger says when he leaves play return your boardstate so even if they remove him it still works its just not infinite you'll only get to untap once.

The problem is when someone removes Worldgorger in response to his ETB ability triggering. Then his "return all your exiled permanents" ability resolves before his "exile all permanents" ability (returning nothing) and then all of your stuff gets exiled forever.

I play against the same handful of people whenever I play, so after pulling off the combo once or twice I'd fully expect them to wise up to it and ruin my day every time.

I feel like this list could use more of the efficient 5-cost dragons like Thunderbreak Regent, Demanding Dragon, Glorybringer, Stormbreath Dragon, Thundermaw Hellkite.

Also, Lathliss, Dragon Queen gives you a flood of tokens when mass reanimating your dragons, Dragonlord Kolaghan is a haste outlet on a body that packs a punch, and Moltensteel Dragon can mess up combat math as well as give the occasional kill out of nowhere.

I actually just cut Dragonlord Kolaghan last night. I liked her on paper, but in practice she always felt kinda low-impact. I'll give her another shot next time I play, but idk where I'd fit her.

I agree, I need more 5 CMC dragons in here. I've been meaning to pick up Glorybringer, Stormbreath Dragon, and Thundermaw Hellkite for a while now. What do you think I should take out for them?

I tend to face a lot of token decks, so I don't think Demanding Dragon is gonna cut it. Lathliss is worth testing, but I worry she's a little winmore.

Honestly, I'd probably cut the following:

• Bladewing's Thrall
• Crucible of Fire
• Everlasting Torment
• Burnished Hart
• Apprentice Necromancer

I'd also cut most of your ramp with the exception of mana rocks(I'd keep around 8 mana rocks which cost 3 or below, preferably cmc 2). Personally I feel that the "landfall-triggering" ramp is too slow. Its not worth it just to enable Nesting Dragon. You can also consider using more targetted removal over mass removal as you are the one applying the beats.

I’ll try some of those changes. Burnished Hart and Crucible of Fire in particular have been super meh lately, easy swaps

Changeling Berserker combos with Bladewing and Warstorm Surge and Dragon Tempest (as long as you have two other dragons)

1. Cast Bladewing with Changeling Berserker in the graveyard or cast Changeling Berserker with Bladewing in play.
2. Put the Warstorm Surge/Dragon Tempest on the stack targeting Changeling Berserker.
3. Put the Berserker's champion ability on the stack.
4. Resolve the champion ability removing Bladewing from the game.
5. Resolve the Surge/Tempest ability killing the Berserker and returning Bladewing to play.
6. Repeat

I hope you're still working on this deck! I'd love to know if you've made any updates since October.

A few ideas:

• For mana ramp: Iron Myr, Leaden Myr, and Palladium Myr, or are they not auto-includes for early board and ramping? Would the burst mana of Priest of Gix be inconsistent here?

• Creature sac/ramp: Soldevi Adnate could work really well in this build with all the high CMC gold dragons, especially if they're re-animated and going to be binned at the end step.

• Re-animation: Did you ever consider Phyrexian Delver and Dread Return?

@iammute: Changeling Berserker is definitely a card I would include if I was looking to optimize the deck to near-cEDH levels, but I don't think it's what I'm going for here. As backward as it might sound, I don't actually want to go infinite more than I already do. In my playgroup, winning via infinite combo once every other night is fine, but people start getting a little too salty for my tastes if the combos happen more often than that.

@X-Factor11105: Oh don't worry, this deck is one of my forever decks. It's never getting taken apart, and I typically update it every time a new set comes out. I'm still in the middle of updating the description, but I should have an update with my new additions posted soon.

as for your suggestions:

• the myr are good, but my meta runs way too much removal for them to be reliable. I don't think Priest of Gix is going to do much for me, as I don't really have any good ways of recurring him that wouldn't be better spent on something like Solemn Simulacrum or a dragon.

• Soldevi Adnate is really cool, but suffers from the same weaknesses as the myr (people would kill it), and since most of the creatures in the deck are mono-red I don't think I'd be able to use it all that effectively.

• Dread Return is super awesome. I used to run it, but space is incredibly tight here and it ended up getting cut in favor of cheaper/more versatile reanimation.

Thanks for the suggestions both of you! I'm very picky about what makes the cut in this deck, but I'm always looking for new things to try out.

@Fuzzlewuzzle that's great! I'm excited to be putting something very similar together myself!

Thanks for the responses on the suggestions - what is your meta using to kill off your dorks quickly? Early board wipes? I'm going to start with the Myr suite for budget purposes.

Also: did you ever experiment with instant-speed recursion like Abnormal Endurance or Supernatural Stamina? The downside of these is the dragon needs to already be in play, but at their costs, getting to trigger something like Bladewing or Scourge of Valkas would be nice! This build isn't as ETB-focused as I've seen in others - was that the result of play-testing?

@X-Factor11105 my meta is... a little weird. There's a lot of big, stompy decks like Mayael, Kozilek, Zacama, and Hogaak, but everyone (rightfully) runs a lot of interaction, so boardwipes, spot removal, and artifact hate run rampant. It doesn't even have to be in the early game - even if it's turn 8, that Wrath of God is going to suck when it wrecks your myr, but it'll hurt a lot less if you've been using noncreature ramp like Rakdos Signet or Talisman of Indulgence.

Abnormal Endurance and Supernatural Stamina are both really good. I just don't have space for them. It may not look it, but space in this deck is extremely tight.

As for not being as ETB-focused as other builds, this is true. It's very much a result of playtesting, where I found that focusing too much on ETB effects actually kind of gets in the way of really winning the game. I mean, I want my dragons to get those sweet, sweet Dragon Tempest/Warstorm Surge triggers, but after that I want them to actually close out the game. They get bonus points if they are capable of interacting with my opponents' boards while they do so. So I've grown to favor dragons like Tyrant's Familiar, Balefire Dragon, Drakuseth, Maw of Flames, etc. - dragons that can present a fast clock, and can also kill stuff while they're at it. I don't want my dragons to be just big dumb beaters - I want them to all be removal-on-a-stick. Since most of the best removal-based dragons trigger on attacking or dealing combat damage, that has naturally led the deck to focus more and more on the combat step, as opposed to just abusing ETBs.

Fuzzlewuzzle thanks for the responses!

In looking back through your changes, Warstorm Surge eventually came back into the build. Did you feel like you needed it in order to get a faster win-con or more spot removal? At a 6 CMC that's a turn you wouldn't get to play any dragons.

What's kept Grave Upheaval in this build? High CMC, single target feels counter to a lot of what you've talked about wanting to do in the primer. Have you had instances where the haste was needed? For that total 6 CMC you could cast Patriarch's Bidding or Twilight's Call to be more impactful. Along that line, was Hammer of Purphoros ever a consideration?

Have you ever thought about Olivia, Mobilized for War as a tech in here?

• 3 CMC means it hits the board reasonably quickly
• Haste enabler when your dragons come into play, if they don't already have it
• Can help fill the yard with dragons in hand if you don't have a discard outlet
• Assuming you could resolve its ability before Surge and Tempest, it upticks the damage that either enchantment would do

I assume Wurmcoil and Everlasting Torment are local meta counters, but I might look to swap in for one of those.

X-Factor11105: Regarding Warstorm Surge, basically yeah. I did cut it a long time ago because I felt at 6 CMC it was too slow and I'd rather be casting dragons, but after playing without it for a while I really missed it. Wish it was 1-2 mana cheaper, but oh well.

Grave Upheaval is in the build solely due to the basic landcycling ability. In the early game I can pitch it for a land, while in the late game I can bring back a hasty threat. The card is never really dead, which is a level of versatility a deck like this very much appreciates.

Not really a fan of Olivia tbh. I know I want my dragons in the graveyard, but I don't like throwing away my cards without getting another card in return.

Wurmcoil is a new include that I am almost certainly going to swap out for something soon, I just don't know what. Everlasting Torment is here because 1. lifegain is an annoyingly prevalent part of my meta for some reason, and 2. giving wither to dragons like Drakuseth and Balefire goes a long way towards keeping them relevant when my opponents have big creatures on the board.

That being said, I did just pick up a Reanimate, so I'm trying that out in place of Grave Upheaval. I may end up hating the life loss, but being 1 CMC is too sweet not to try out.

Fuzzlewuzzle: Reanimate is nasty at every stage of the game, enjoy!

Did you ever playtest Deathbringer Regent? I've seen it in a few other builds and just acquired it myself, but it feels SUPER situational in this build. For the same mana we could run Necromantic Selection or Kindred Dominance, both of which are more impactful for the board state, except they don't have a 4/5 flying body attached.

Also: has Flameshadow Conjuring pulled its weight? With ~30-40% of the creature base Legendary I could see it being inconsistent, though massively impactful when it hits the right target like Utvara Hellkite, Scourge of Valkas, Balefire Dragon, or Hellkite Tyrant - Meteor Golem would be the honorable mention for sure.

I tried out Deathbringer Regent a long, long time ago and really wasn't impressed. If he was an ETB trigger instead of a cast trigger I'd like him a lot more, but as it is there's much better things the deck could be doing for 7 mana. Like you said, Necromantic Selection is a way more useful choice (I used to run that too, but ended up cutting it because IMO 7 mana is just too much mana for a boardwipe. I don't like paying more than 5 for that kind of effect.)

Flameshadow Conjuring is awesome. Doubling your ramp with sad robot feels great, doubling Scourge of Valkas, Dragon Tyrant, or Utvara Hellkite can lead to a lot of damage, and doubling Meteor Golem is fantastic spot removal, especially when you're using chainer or sheoldred to recur the golem each turn. And if nobody removes it, you can just go infinite with bladewing and kill the table outright. Admittedly, if I am tapping out to cast something, missing out on being able to pay the cost to activate Flameshadow kinda sucks, but I don't think I could ever run the deck without it.

Molten Echoes could be really great here. You lose the utility of copying everything but it saves you mana on doubling your dragons.

That's actually a really neat find. I'll definitely swap it and see how it feels

iammute: Did some testing, Molten Echoes is amazing. Thanks for the suggestion!

Fuzzlewuzzle glad it worked out! I’m thinking of building Bladewing once I can play paper again. Will probably include Flameshadow Conjuring and Molten Echoes to really go in on the combo.

Have you considered Blade of Selves or Helm of the Host for more Bladewing triggers?