Now that I've had some time to play the deck I've come to learn a couple of things - this deck is mana hungry as all hell and needs more ramp to speed things up. Because it's a bit of a slow moving beast, the deck also needs a couple more early game interaction options. One of my shortcomings as a deck brewer is that I tend to have tunnel vision on theme and gimmick. In this instance, I was hell bent on capitalizing on token generation and other thematic splashy stuff and when it came time to play the deck, there were some beefy casting cost cards that were great in theory but also too reliant on having Miirym in play to work.
I've had a lot of great comments/feedback from the community here so between those online suggestions, some conversation about the decks strengths/weaknesses with my playgroup and just through playing the deck, I've made some interesting swaps that I think will make things run just a bit more smoothly. Here's what I've added:
KILL 'EM ALL!! - Chucking in Blasphemous Act because sometimes the whole table just needs to die & as many have pointed out, this is a win condition with Wrathful Red Dragon on the table.
MORE CARDS, LET'S GET GREEDY!! - I kept swithering on Dragonborn Champion and I don't know why. This little lad provides a lot of draw potential in here.
MORE INTERACTION, NOW!! - Added Nature's Claim & in what is bound to be a controversial move, a couple of bounce spells: Blink of an Eye & Into the Roil. Because the early game seems to be this decks weakness, I'm experimenting with bounce rather than blink/flicker. These spells have the versatility of instant speed threat removal, saving 1 of my dragons in a pinch or even a late game dragon bounce to capitalize on additional Miirym tokens. Bold, I know!
MORE RAMP, I BEG!! - Swapping out all 3 Signets for the superior Talisman cycle, adding an additional 3 ramp options with Cultivate, Kodama's Reach & newcomer dragon dork Scaled Nurturer.
Rhythm of the Wild - I've been a bloody fool. I was so focused on ensuring my tokens had haste that I forgot about a key RotW ingredient - ensuring my creatures can't be countered. If I'm spending big mana to cast a scary dragon threat, I would prefer that they don't fizzle to a counterspell.
Bala Ged Recovery
Flip, Sea Gate Restoration
Flip & Valakut Awakening
Flip - Swapping out 3 basics to add some late game spell versatility with these flexible flips. I don't love the ETB tapped land factor, but I want to try these cards out.
So that's 15 cards to add. Oof. Because of my aforementioned deck theme blinders, I really struggled on cut decisions as I was attached to a lot of the card choices in here. After some discussion with friends (thank you KaptnK and Romer!), they gave a bunch of well thought out, rational suggestions on a few of the cuts:
All 3 Signets in favour of the superior 3 Talismans
Removed a basic of each colour to make way for the 3 spell lands
Fires of Yavimaya to make way for Rhythm of the Wild. See above for rationale.
An Offer You Can't Refuse - This is just an ok counterspell. I swapped this out for the 1 cast artifact/enchantment spot removal Nature's Claim instead.
Obsidian Charmaw - Nonbasic land removal is ok albeit douchey, but this guy doesn't really have much impact beyond that. Unless I'm removing a problem land I'm just pissing off my friends with uncalled for land kill.
Thundermaw Hellkite - Took some inspiration from the deck comments here and am cutting this dragon as the ETB ping/tap ability is pretty sub-par.
Keiga, the Tide Star - Keiga is a cool deterrent, but I've had a couple of situations where there was nothing spicy for Keiga's death trigger to yoink. At least the other death trigger dragons in here (Atsushi + Kura) have a bit more option flexibility.
Mystical Tutor - This is a bold cut, but I'm not running that many instant/sorceries that are integral to the cause. It's nice to have the option to snag Cyclonic Rift in a pinch, but that's really the only sacrifice here.
This is when things get tough...Sarkhan Unbroken. Thematic? Yes. Expensive to cast and win-more'y? Kind of. The odds of having Doubling Season out before casting Sarkhan for an 'oops all dragons' insta-ult/win are low and his first 2 options are just ok. I'm sacrificing Sarkhan for the cause, but my inner Timmy is sad at the loss of that once every 3 years Season enhanced ult event.
Adrix and Nev, Twincasters & Parallel Lives - I know. I KNOW. I can sense you shaking your head as you read this. I really struggled on these cuts but as a friend correctly pointed out, these token doublers all hinge on having Miirym out. Casting these prior to Miirym was expensive, uneventful and my opponents had enough time to nuke them before my obviously telegraphed token doubling plans came to fruition. I've still got some token doubling effects in here, I'm just removing these 2 pieces for now.
Right then! That's a lot of hot takes & stuff moving around, but I want to experiment with these changes to see how it goes. As it stands I think I've got the right mix of ramp, draw & interaction while still supporting a hefty dragon tribal theme. I'm trading some flavour and pet cards for more tools to aid the core strategy of the deck and worst case scenario, I swap some of the cut cards back in if the above plans are a flail. Regardless, I'm really enjoying the deck and the tinkering process is in full swing.