Hello all! This is a write up of a deck I've been working on for a couple of months. The deck is GR Dragons! Featuring some of my favorite dragons such as Thunderbreak Regent and Stormbreath Dragon.
The deck is straightforward. Ramp into big flying dragons and kill your opponent. It's kind of built on a GR Ponza shell with a similar ramp package and the Blood Moons. Turn 1 Arbor Elf into turn 2 Utopia Sprawl gives you 4 mana on turn 2. Use that mana to get Thunderbreak Regent on the field. Playing a turn 2 Blood Moon is also game against some decks, which is something this deck can do a lot, though it's not reliant on this plan. An early Courser of Kruphix can be amazing for hitting our land drops and knowing when to shuffle our library to get more threats. The lifegain is a nice addition.
I've done well with this deck at local modern tournaments at a pretty competitive store. Idk if I'd play this at a big tournament, but either way, if you like dragons and modern, this is the deck for you.
Let's get to the list.
Ramp
4x Arbor Elf, 4x Utopia Sprawl, 4x Birds of Paradise - A collection of 1 mana ramp to get out 3 or 4 mana spells on turn 2. We always want a turn 1 play with this deck, so it's important to run all of these. Arbor Elf is generally what you want to lead on, but if your hand is bad against a turn 1 removal spell and you have a 3 drop, play out your utopia sprawl first.
Dragons!
4x Thunderbreak Regent - One of my favorite cards of all time. A 4/4 flyer for 4 mana is a fine rate. Getting to bolt your opponent when they remove it or our other dragons is great. Getting to drop this on turn 2 puts a on a good amount of pressure.
4x Stormbreath Dragon - One of the best cards in the deck and is a great follow up to our turn 2/3 Thunderbreak Regent. Can't be pathed, pushed or chumped by souls and can easily win games on it's own.
1x Glorybringer - Testing this out. It's been fine and exerting it has been useful in some match ups, but I'm still not convinced it's worth it over the 4th Stormbreath.
2x Dragonlord Atarka - Has a huge body that wins games in an attack or two as well as an awesome ETB for clearing off a creature or 2 and even the occasional planeswalker. It can really slam the door in some games.
Interaction
4x Lightning Bolt - While bolt may be at it's all time low in modern, it's right at home in this deck. We can use it to knock off important creatures in the combo decks and use it for the last bit of reach against decks that can eventually deal with our dragon threats.
4x Draconic Roar - A great card in a deck full of dragons. Killing a creature and getting to keep up with pressuring the opponent's life is definitely something this deck wants to do.
Other Stuff
4x Courser of Kruphix - Helps us hit land drops and gives us a small form of life gain and card advantage. Works really well with the 8 fetchlands in the deck.
3x Blood Moon - Playing this on turn 2 gives us a free win against some decks which is nice to have. This should possibly be a 4 of, but I prefer not to draw multiple copies if possible, as well as having them against decks that do not care about Blood Moon.
2 Relic of Progenitus - Gives us some main deck game against dredge and other graveyard decks. Against decks that don't care about their yards, it draws us a card.
Lands
Pretty normal 2 color mana base with an emphasis on Forests. Putting Utopia Sprawl on a non-basic forest is borderline disastrous in a deck with Blood Moon. While it is the right play in certain circumstances, I would try my best to get Utopia Sprawl on a basic Forest.
22 Lands may be 1 too many, but this requires more testing. I wouldn't mind cutting a land for the 4th Courser or Stormbreath.
1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon, 1x Kessig Wolf Run - Solid utility lands that we don't mind losing to Blood Moon. Wolf Run has a sweet corner case against Ensnaring Bridge where we can pump all of our mana into a Birds of Pardise to kill our empty handed opponents.
Sideboard
3x Anger of the Gods - Has been very good for me. Makes the elves and spirits match ups way easier. Also apart of why Affinity is a good match up.
2x Ancient Grudge - Artifact hate is a must in modern and this is the best one in GR.
2x Crumble to Dust - Getting to cast this on turn 2 is a great play against tron variants. Unlike a lot of decks, we really use the time Blood Moon and Crumble to Dust give us to kill our tron opponents.
2x Destructive Revelry - Gotta have a way to interact with Worship as well as Phyrexian Unlife. Getting to shock them can be nice as well.
2x Feed the Clan - Since our deck is filled with 4 power dragons, we can usually gain 10 life with this which is obviously very good against burn. Just don't get Skullcracked and you should be fine. Kind of a narrow card, but with the lack of card draw we need to have at least 2 copies if we want to see it early enough to matter.
2x Obstinate Baloth - A solid turn 2 play against burn and the ability is nice against Grixis DS and other Thoughtsieze decks.
2x Relic of Progenitus A couple of more copies for the aforementioned graveyard based strategies.
Some of the Matchups
Affinity - Game one we have our 8 bolts to answer threats backed up by our big flyers. After sideboarding we get to add in a lot of great cards. Definitely one you should win most of the time.
Ad Nauseum - Not good. If we can apply enough pressure early on to force them to burn Angel's Grace we have a chance, but that's doubtful. Blood Moon is also solid against them, but not game wining. Honestly doesn't get much better after board but we can bring in some stuff to kill Unlife. I think this is just a bad match up and there isn't a whole lot to be done about it.
Grixis DS - A fun match up that feels pretty even from when I've played it. We can have a ton of burst damage in the form of our burn spells and haste dragons to kill them in one turn. Blood Moon is also a great card against them. We have hands where a couple of discard spells get us, so the Baloths are nice to bring in. The Relics really shine here.
Eldrazi Tron / Tron - Feels slightly unfavored unless we get to jam a turn 2 Blood Moon or Cumble to Dust. We have the ability to pressure them after playing Blood Moon which gives us a good chance of beating them, but in practice we have to keep suboptimal hands to keep them off of tron. The games have been pretty one sided either way in my experience.
Burn - Courser is really awesome in this match up. Blocks their creatures and doesn't trade 1 for 1 with their burn. The life gain really adds up. The dragons are pretty good too. Burn kind of relies on path out of the board to take out big creatures, which is a bad strategy against Stormbreath. Blood Moon isn't terrible and we get some solid stuff out of the board to help. I definitely feel good about the burn match up.
Storm - Alright for us. Kill off the guys and hold up Relic. They don't have all day to build up cards with our creatures getting in for damage. We get to add in the angers which work well against both the mana guys and goblins from Empty the Warrens. We can still get combo'd of course, but we won't let it be easy. The versions with apostle's blessing are much better against us. We have to lean on Relic a lot in that case.
Spirits - Stormbreath's prowhite looks great here. Our creatures are just a little bigger than theirs and we get to bring in anger of the gods to sweep up their boards. Atarka is pretty sweet here too. We can definitely lose to some good CoCo's and if they have some well timed spell quellers. Pretty even.
Abzan - Can definitely be rough for us, but if we can get a stormbreath down we have a good chance of winning. I've liked Glorybringer a lot here to shoot down Grim Flayers and small Goyfs (which we can make happen with Relic). They normally have Damnation out of the board, which is very good against us. I'd say unfavored but not unwinnable.
In general, decks with actual sweepers will be tough, though those are not very common in modern at the moment. If you want me to comment on any other match ups feel free to ask! These are the ones I've played several times that I can think of off the top of my head.
So that's the write up, I hope you enjoy the deck as much as I do! I am very open to suggestions!
