Want suggestions to make Dragons competitive

[doc8466]

Anyone who's read my posts here and there has noticed I'm a fan of Warlord.
Rage Rage and more Rage works for me!

I love my mono Rage Dragon/Quarters deck (aka Node Eater) but want to experiment with those other 4 trades since was so kind to make them!

So in order to keep the basis of the deck, dragons with Dragon's Quarters, where I run:

4 Quarters
4 Flaming Barduse
4 Deadly Striker
3 Rabid Sarume
3 Thundering Nilpha
4 Torrential Bleeder
2 Really Big Barduse
4 Wyrmfang DEATH-SKULL

and where I really like my

4 Tactician Vacation
4 Shriever Attack

making 36 of 75 cards where 2 are 6 thresh, 4 are 4 and 3 are 3, what would you use to make it worth trying to win a set of Ultra Rares at GenCon?

My idea would be to either run 1 other trade starting 2 and only going to 2 thresh, or 2 trades starting 1 of each going to 1 thresh in each, but I'm open to other ideas too.

Thanks!

Doc

[Fishman]

Preface: I haven't been playing much lately, won't be making it to GenCon and no one plays here, so I don't have any testing to back up my thoughts. All theoretical. I also really like Warlord and am looking for a viable deck. Anyway, some ideas:

Since you're trying to reach a threshold of 4-6 in Rage, Starting 1 of resource type X and 1 Rage might also be good. Look for things to compliment the dragons, acceleration, removal, and disruption.

Potential 1 thresh additions in various trades:

Arcanist
Air Travel - evasion, card draw
Lugubrious Finger Trap - removal
Napiform Protuberance - removal
Quotidian Assassination - bounce as removal or disruption, replying your barduses
Servile Centipede - search (does this count as accel?)
Deceptive Muddler - evasion, disruption
Obsessive Compulsion - draw, accel
Q. Disappearance - bounce
Unnatural Alteration - acceleration, get your wrymfangs, deadly striker into deadly striker
Voidal Interference - disruption

Banker
Limited Liability - save your butt
Pettifogger - save your butt
Postmortem Deb. - fight another day
Keen Stratagem - find the rage you need
Smear Campaign
Snooty Doorman - disruption, a golden boy

Gearsmith
1337! - acceleration
Basic Node - everyone else is doing it
Jacque's Trap - removal, protection
L. Prototype - search out what you need

Rogue
Ambuscade - removal, destroy your own strikers
Catastrophic Betrayal - theft is always nice
Incriminating Photograph - a versatile answer
Impeccable Timing - removal
Poisoned Blade - combos with Bleeder

Arcanist provides the most options at one threshold. Arcanist/Warlord used to be a popular archetype before Part 2. Leading up to the last Invitational, I saw something I liked, a controlling build using Arcanist tricks to slow things down and Deadly Strikers to seal the deal (deck was piloted by Brad, I don't know how serious it was). At the invitational I played R/W, starting two Deception for the ever popular Heist Planner and Rapine. I had Deadly Strikers, Flaming Barduses, Tact. Vacs, and Shriever Attacks. I don't know how compatible that would be with a dragon heavy build, and my deck scrubbed out anyway (not that the blame wasn't largely on my playing).

Reading reports and looking at deck lists, some assumptions can be made about the current metagame (step in if these are way off base, please). Shit is fast. Cards get discarded and characters get bounced. You have to be able to kill Schproings and 633fy 31v35.

Bounce isn't wonderful against Barduses, as they deal damage when they enter play. However, keeping a Wrymfang on the board seems a mighty tall order. I'd consider also running Sadistic Colonel, as most ways of dealing with the Colonel will cost your opponent 2 life. Also, Purple Haze and Free Ride seem to be tactic heavy, you might get them for more than 2.

Starting 2 Greed, you could run the full suite of Banker removal, Keen stratagem to search out more Rage, and maybe even Free Trade Agreement to power out your big stuff faster. 2 Obsession and you could run even more disruption to try and stall to the mid-late game.

Random obvious statement:
Dragon's seem to have a weakness to early aggression and life gain.

And... that's all for now. Not much help, I know, but I'd like a deck along the same lines, and am trying to brainstorm.

[Fishman]

Another Idea.

Starting 2 Elitism. You can hit the 1337!->Senior Research Assistant->633fy opening. And Senior Research Assistants would really help playing dragons. Turn 3 Wyrmfang?

[doc8466]

Starting 2 Greed for FTA alone seemed worthwhile to me too, plus Banker removal, LL so I can over extend, Sum Judgment, Postmortem...all good stuff.
Banker was my first choice.
Arcs were second choice since they seem to fill holes in any "used to be mono Warlord" deck.

So here's the rub....
The goal of the deck is to hold its own, make weenies in general unplayable, have bigger guys than they have, and hand arses to their owners.
All this in a solid workable deck that has a chance.

(BTW, I'm ok with the answer "Doc....dude...pipe dream...")

[doc8466]

Another Idea.

Starting 2 Elitism. You can hit the 1337!->Senior Research Assistant->633fy opening. And Senior Research Assistants would really help playing dragons. Turn 3 Wyrmfang?

I agree. So in an effort to still maximize Quarters I might have to cut back some dragons to get to them quicker....
hmmmmmmmmmm

[Fishman]

Hmm. I wasn't paying attention to wrymfang's threshold, turn 3 just isn't happening starting 2 elitism. Oops.

Edit: Unless turn 2 is spent playing an additional resource. With that resource and Senior, you could even draw an extra card, going second for a nine card hand you could play a flaming barduse off of those 3 resources. Off course, people tend to be holding removal by turn 3. The point is, better plays probably exist.

[J_Naughty]

What up Doc?

FTA for FTW!!

i had a pretty good dragon deck that had two starting greed. it was really good with all around good match ups.

here is a quick break down...

ertoics=early rush/good blocker stall w/ ministry
bookkeepers=early rush /good blocker stall w/ ministry
ministry of smaller= stall
clandestine resort= more dragons =sexy quarters
post mortem. =more strikers

used greed to keep the dragons alive and dragon rage really jsut hoses the weiny rush so i used the greed removal to handle the fatties that gave my dragons trouble.

shriever /torential bleeder/ shriever/ rabid sarume/ and barduse/ really big barduse=murdaaaaaaaaaas the little guys

ministry =slows down fatties
bribe+opulence=no fatties.

i also ran assimilation center so i could run more types of dragons/cards and less copies. IE.. like one mangod just in case.

hope that helps a little i know this post isnt very well written but i am at work and it is 1am.

[LucienofShadow]

Scott, didn't I already fix this up for you

But then again, I plan on being in that event too... hmm...

[La_Sin_Grail]

Um. This could be paired with 2-thresh rogue as well, allowing martial artist + lots of removal. Martial artist becomes rediculous with a shriever attack or bleeder. Rogue with artist/sarcophyles can hold off any offensive long enough to let you get dragons out, then provides a means of getting the dragons in to deal damage to the face while not losing anything to shriever attack. Also, speed variance with wormfang is crazy, even when you don't have bleeder/shriever.

Good luck building!

[cravix]

Doc is it me, or does your love of warlord stem from the fact the burn decks are popular in MTG.