by Johnny Cycles, July 5th, 2024

Hello and welcome to another edition of Dragons in Modern! This month we’re testing out the two new Dragons from Modern Horizons 3. Can Furnace Hellkite and Herigast, Erupting Nullkite compete against the likes of Nadu, Winged Wisdom, Necrodominance, and Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury? Let’s find out!

Decklist – Izzet Affinity Hellkite

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (24)

4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
1 Haywire Mite
3 Kappa Cannoneer
4 Furnace Hellkite
4 Thought Monitor
4 Herigast, Erupting Nullkite

Artifacts (12)

4 Mishra’s Bauble
1 Lavaspur Boots
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Shadowspear
4 Springleaf Drum

Spells (4)

4 Galvanic Blast

Lands (20)

4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Island
2 Mountain
4 Silverbluff Bridge
2 Steam Vents
2 Tanglepool Bridge
4 Urza’s Saga

Sideboard (15)

1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Haywire Mite
1 Pithing Needle
4 Rending Volley
2 Damping Sphere
2 Force of Negation
4 Metallic Rebuke

Primary Game Plan

We are looking to use an Affinity shell to play Furnace Hellkite or Thought Monitor as early as turn 2. Starting on turn 3, we can cast Herigast, Erupting Nullkite for its emerge cost using one of the two aforementioned 7 drops. Of course, Furnace Hellkite is a big beater all by itself, so we really want to use Thought Monitor to resolve Herigast in the early turns.

Otherwise, we play Urza’s Saga in a deck full of artifacts. If our Dragon plan isn’t on line, we can make Construct tokens and beat down that way while hopefully making our land drops and finding our other pieces.

Weaknesses

I won’t lie, I have some major reservations about this strategy. Described above, it sounds quite explosive and fun. However, what happens when we have an opening 7 of all finishers? Or only mana artifacts? What happens if we have our Affinity set up but an Herigast, Erupting Nullkite in our hand instead one of our big artifact creatures?

We are technically a hybrid strategy looking to do three things in a very specific order. First, we want to flood the battlefield with cheap artifacts. Second, we want to cast our big-mana creatures that have affinity for artifacts. And third, we want to use those creatures to cast Herigast, Erupting Nullkite for cheap to refill our hand.

If we are unable to execute our game plan in this order, we will probably be left doing a whole lot of nothing until we die.

Finally, I have one other big reservation, beyond just whether or not we’ll be able to do the thing. And that is, will the thing be good enough to win some games? Will jumping through these hoops to get some cards and some big Dragons even be competitive in today’s Modern? Modern Horizons 3 has drastically shaken up/reinvigorated the meta, while also introducing some seriously powerful new archetypes. Whether its energy or Necrodominance, Nadu or Storm, Modern isn’t what it used to be. Can a janky take on Affinity, a deck that didn’t get many new toys and wasn’t tier 1 before MH3, compete? Well, I’m including this section for a reason…

On to the games!

Practice Match 1 vs. Rakdos Necro

Practice Match 2 vs. Rakdos Affinity

Practice Match 3 vs. Ad Nauseam

Practice Match 4 vs. Dimir Psychic Frog

Practice Match 5 vs. Gruul Prowess

Practice Match 6 vs. Boros Energy

Overall Record: 2-4

Conclusion

We only won two matches, both of which were against pre-MH3 decks. Each of the new archetypes MH3 brought to Modern (Gruul Prowess got a big boost, but did exist before) handled what we were doing pretty easily. We won some games against those decks, but the matches didn’t feel very close.

What I feared came to pass pretty regularly. We very often had a fast Affinity start with an Herigast in hand that we couldn’t cast for its emerge because we didn’t have one of our affinity-for-artifacts creatures. Or, we had our finishers without the cheap artifact support. Some of this is variance, of course, but some of it is a direct result of our hybrid strategy.

Furthermore, even when we did our thing, it often wasn’t good enough. And, perhaps most damning of all, it just wasn’t that much fun. Fast, explosive starts are great, but they come at the cost of playing a bunch of durdling, unimpressive artifacts. Meanwhile, our opponents were playing things like the new Ajani and Sorin. Modern Horizons 3 has brought so many fun new cards and powerful archetypes that taking an old, established strategy and sticking two of the set’s least impressive cards in it just wasn’t that much fun.

But hey, when you have a website built around Dragons in Magic, the burden falls to you to test out new Dragons as they get printed. Unfortunately, albeit predictably, MH3 didn’t give our favorite archetype any new finishers. But hey, we like other decks! I’m excited to give some other new cards a try so be on the look out for Keeping Modern Janky! And, there are still some support pieces that may give our bread-and-butter Gruul Dragons deck a shot in the 60. Thanks for reading and watching!