Dragons are Fire Made Flesh, and Fire is Power.
So this is all about combo-ing to deal crazy damage, remove anything, and steal everything your opponents control.
So When I first saw Hellkite Tyrant, I knew right away it was a dope card. It was a dragon, which already made me love it, it had a built in win-con, and a control ability, which is pretty rare in Red. However when I began looking up decks with him, I found for lack of a better word, garbage. There were like forty or so cheap-o decks that ran a few copies of the Hellkite Tyrant, and then filled out the rest of their roster with 2-drop artifacts. I guess the hope was that you would somehow manage to drop 20 of them in a game, without any of them getting removed? Unlikely.
Nah, what makes the tyrant so strong is that when hits, not only does he hit hard, but he takes every-god-damn-artifact out there. Like What? That's dope. That's Bananas. That's exactly what we're gonna be exploiting.
To start off we'll go over a few of our big tools in this deck, that help us set up the combos that make it work.
The Dragons
Sarkhan's Triumph: I was a HUGE fan of the Tarkir Block, and it gave us a ton of super useful toys to play around with. This becomes a super useful tutor in this deck in that it lets us bring out our Tyrant whom we have built around, as well as any of the other lovely dragons we're keeping on hand. Need a beater? Search out Hellkite Igniter. Need a body on an artifact frame? Moltensteel Dragon. Combo not up and running? Grab that Hellkite Tyrant and get things going ASAP. Sarkhan's Triumph is a card that building this deck made me a big fan of, because it allows me to tutor for things I otherwise wouldn't be able to. Did I make a few compromises on what I was tutoring for? Yes. Is it okay because in the end I get Dragons? Also, Yes.
Moltensteel Dragon: Not the strongest in here, for sure. Getting your full value out of him requires careful play, because paying that phyrexian mana at an inopportune time is going to hurt, ALLOT. HOWEVER, he gives us a good body for 4 mana, has a built in pump effect which we can feasibly deliver some big damage with, comes equipped with flying, and even adds some fuel onto Hellkite Igniter. I'm on board.
Hellkite Igniter: So I was torn on this, I was between this guy and Hoard-Smelter Dragon and this guy won out by an inch. Basically, my thought was that since I was already running Smash to Smithereens I wouldn't need the removal from Hoard-Smelter nearly as much. Considering that, and the fact the the Igniter is waaaaaaaay more aggresive (seriously with Liquimetal Coating turning your stuff into artifacts, he can self pump for huge amountss), he won out purely on the basis of being meaner. So sue me.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind: He's legendary and situational, but I like the card advantage he offers, and on the off-chance we already have all our other dragons in hand, he's a nice target for Sarkhan's Triumph. Additionally he can give us some slow burn by dealing, at minimum 2 damage per turn, potentially more with the extra draw from Argent Mutation, or a combo-ing with Tezzeret the Seeker 's +1 and Liquimetal coating to deal that last little bit of damage. He can also Combo with Thought Scour to deal some solid supplementary damage.
Hellkite Tyrant: The big one. The Grand Mack Daddy of all our Draconic friends. The beating heart of this deck. Do we have other tools? Certainly. Are any as satisfying as he is? Not by a longshot. He is a recurring theft effect, offers an alternate win-con, has flying AND trample, and to top it off, has all this on a pretty sizeable 6/5 frame. While he won't be winning any speed or damage contest with Hellkite Igniter he offers us loads of potential. If we drop everything we have to turn our opponents permanents into artifacts, and then swing with him, not only are we potentially emptying their board, there's a chance we might actually just... kinda... win.
The Supporting Cast
Sure our Dragons are fun, everyone loves a big fat beatstick, but we need other plays. While some are going to be individual cards that serve specific purposes, the rest are fun combos that help us gain advantage and more!
The Dorks: We aren't really any Mana Dorks in here, but Izzet Signet provides bonus mana AND fuels Hellkite Ignite, which ain't nothing to turn our nose up at.
The Shifters: The "shifters" purpose in our combo is to morph our opponents stuff into artifacts so that we can interact with them. These are Liquimetal Coating, Argent Mutation, and Neurok Transmuter. While I'm talking about them(and I'll mention in it my "Maybes" section), Myr Landshaper has potential in here as well, as he offers the intriguing path of stealing their lands, something I haven't really seen before in a ton of decks, and can swing tempo in that it puts us a turn ahead, and our opponent a turn behind.
Interaction: So now that we've turned everything they have to stone, what do we do? Well I'll tell ya what we do:
Smash to Smithereens: can destroy whatever we want because anything can be an artifact. Not only that the extra burn off of it is a godsend. IF you have out Liquimetal Coating this offers you the option to take out normally hard/mana-expensive things, like Lands, enchantments, even Planeswalkers, for 2-MANA. That is some insanely powerful removal.
Master Thief: Go ahead, take whatever you want because anything can be an artifact (Fun Fact, Master Thief only checks if something is an artifact while its ability is resolving, so you get to keep stuff even after it stops being an artifact. One thing I would like clarification on, since it stops being an artifact, would I keep it even after the thief dies? Some almighty better player answer this!!!). This super cool though, because it lets you swipe you opponents, lands, planeswalkers, any permanent you want really, which is not to be underrated. The only downside is that you end up losing what you stole if the thief dies.
Tezzeret the Seeker : The only "non-budget" item in this deck, I threw him in because I had a copy laying around and it adds insane value. Want to steal more stuff when you swing in with Hellkite Tyrant? Use his +1 to untap you Liquimetal Coatings. Need more mana for Hellkite Igniter Finish? Use his -X to search up an Izzet Signet, OR bring out a Liquimetal Coating coating to get more combos online faster. The only piece of him this deck doesn't really take advantage of fully is his final -5 ability, and I'm okay with that. That's not to say it doesn't offer a good alternate finish if we need it, but A) I doubt Tezzeret will ever live long enough to use it and B) it might put some key-combo pieces at risk.
Maybes
Hijack: If this deck were to be run as a mono-red variant, which it very much could, I would say absolutely take this.
Furnace Dragon: I'm torn on this guy. With the signets and Liquimetal Coating that we're running he easily becomes an inexpensive option, and with Neurok Transmuter, we can use the mana that Affinity is saving us to either provide our opponents with more targets for us to exile, OR save our own artifacts from his fiery wrath. At the end of the day though, I felt he caused too much collateral damage, and decided to replace him with Hellkite igniter who can offer us damage over removal. Thoughts?
Hoard-Smelter Dragon: Another one I'm torn on. Much like Furnace Dragon we can search for him with Sarkhan's Triumph, and much like furnace dragon he provides excellent on the spot removal. However, his removal is expensive, in that I have to spend the mana it costs to convert something my opponents control into and artifact, and then destroy it with his ability, which as a combo can cost upwards of 7-8 mana. I found Ingot Chewer is a cheaper option for creature-based removal, albeit one I can't tutor for.
Myr Landshaper: If I was to run this little guy, I would likely be doing it in place of the Neurok Transmuter, and I think that's why I didn't include him; the transmuter is a solid card here that offers more utility. That being said, The landshaper allows us to cheaply steal and/or destroy our opponents lands, which is undeniably powerful, and could potentially shut down aggro decks that want us dead early, or control decks that want to bleed us out. Since he's so cheap I might pick up a few copies anyways just to test him out.
Thunderbreak Regent: I'm scratching my head here, because in this deck he provides allot of value, in that he discourages targeting our dragons, who are after all what makes this deck really threatening. He also has the edge of rounding out our curve by putting something else in the 4-drop slot. He is however, a bit more expensive per copy than I would have liked (around 3$ or so?), which was discouraging. A very good choice though, and he could easily take Moltensteel Dragon's spot in a heartbeat.
Ingot Chewer: I was considering this for quite awhile, but at the end of the day there is simply better removal we could run in this deck.
Shrapnel Blast: Some of the better removal we could run in this deck. I would say if this is the card you wanted in here, I would replace Master Thief with a few copies of Hijack, then throw this spell in here. Its certainly mana intensive, but it offers the whole "I'm gonna take your toys then beat you with them" angle which is always fun.
Galvanic Blast: Depending on how aggressive you want to be, this could be a super strong choice over something like Thought Scour if you wanted damage over draw.
Silver Myr & Iron Myr: Their solid Mana dorks, and if you like you mana to have a body, take'em over the Izzet Signet. I had'em in there for awhile, but ultimately decided against them for the sake of running a few more utility cards.
Icefall Regent: I considered him for a good long while as a budget option over something like Thunderbreak Regent, I really did, but when it came down too it, he felt expensive from a mana perspective, and didn't offer that much else besides some minor control. I went with Moltensteel Dragon just because I can play it turn 4 after tutoring for it turn 3, not only rounding out my curve, but also giving my Hellkite Igniter a little more boom in its tank.
Serum Visions: This is just one example, but if I wasn't trying to be so aggressively budgeted I could have run tons of better card draw spells over Thought Scour. Serum Visions, Gitaxian Probe, and many others are out there to try out with. I really think Twitch could have quite a bit of potential in this deck as well, the added benefit of untapping a Liquimetal Coating being really potent. The deck had no one drops though, so Thought Scour won out by a hair.
The Not-So-Budget-Wishlist
Because of my Budgetary constraints(I wanted to keep the deck under 20$, before you mention my 1 copy of Tezzeret the Seeker , I already had him on hand), I didn't include allot of cards that would make this go from good to shit-your-pants-great. These include:
Mycosynth Lattice: Pretty Obvious, this does just about everything most of the cards in this deck are doing, but in one convenient package. This is Liquimetal Coating on whatever steroids are making Dwayne Johnson as big as he is. Its a Power Play in this deck for sure. BUT, one copy is like 30$, so it is unfortunately on my no fly-list.
Memnarch: He's Liquimetal coating and our Hellkite Tyrant rolled into one, and while he absolutely goes to work in this deck, one copy of him is like... 7$, and I like/need consistency in a deck, so for budgetary reasons, I had to oust him.
Braid of Fire: This is a super cool card I've always wanted to play around with, and in this deck I would take it over Izzet Signet 9 times out of ten. It just provides SO MUCH MANA which can help late-game plays like a fully-stoked Hellkite Igniter really hit hard.
Saheeli Rai: Saheeli, and most other planeswalkers is a bomb (looking at you Dack Fayden, why couldn't you just be modern legal!?) and would have obviously made this deck work like a well-oiled machine. unfortunately they cost dollars, and dollars aren't something I have allot of.
