by Johnny Cycles, April 21, 2024

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Dragons in Modern! Today we’re play testing a new brew built around two cards from the latest set, Outlaws of Thunder Junction. I’m also returning to my roots with a Gruul deck built around a familiar ramp shell. After the beatdown I withstood with Dimir Dragons, it’s a relief to be back in the familiar territory of turn-3 hasty Dragons!

But let’s get to the spicy new additions!

I’ve long been working on an Izzet deck looking to abuse Treasure tokens with Goldspan Dragon. In fact, I was thinking of playing that deck for last week’s Dragons in Modern article. Then I saw Magda, the Hoardmaster and realized the Dwarf Berserker was exactly what that deck needed to take it to the next level. I’ll post an article with videos of that deck in the near future, but I just couldn’t bring myself to play an Izzet Dragons deck when I hadn’t yet tried out Goldvein Hydra! Who wants to play Blue for Preordain and Silumgar’s Scorn when there’s a splashy new Green mythic bomb that synergizes with Magda, the Hoardmaster even more beautifully!

Here’s my first draft of Gruul Treasures!

Decklist – Gruul Treasures with Magda, the Hoardmaster

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (17)

4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
4 Goldvein Hydra
3 Magda, the Hoardmaster
2 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Glorybringer

Planeswalkers (8)

4 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Spells (8)

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Strike it Rich

Enchantments (4)

4 Utopia Sprawl

Lands (23)

1 Boseiju, Who Endures
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Field of Ruin
4 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)

3 Alpine Moon
3 Veil of Summer
3 Roiling Vortex
3 Brotherhood’s End
3 Endurance

Primary Game Plan

At heart, we’re still hoping to cast a turn-1 mana dork into a turn 2, 3-mana Planeswalker, into a finisher like Glorybringer. This is our fastest and, often, best start. The addition of Magda, the Hoardmaster and Goldvein Hydra doesn’t really change this aspect of our Gruul Dragons deck that I’ve been playing for so long.

Secondary Game Plan

What Magda, the Hoardmaster does do is change our ramp plan significantly, while altering our choice of finisher. Since we want to stockpile Treasure tokens in order to make 4/4 Scorpion Dragon tokens, we’ve chosen Strike it Rich over Delighted Halfling and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer over Arbor Elf (and two copies of Stormbreath Dragon).

Goldvein Hydra replaces Questing Beast and another copy of Stormbreath. The new mythic is super pushed and super powerful. Vigilance, trample, and haste put it in competition with Questing Beast for most busted Green mythic with at least three keywords. That its power scales up as the game goes long and it gives us value when it dies make it a true competitor with Questing Beast for best Green Mythic creature ever printed.

The main plan with Goldvein Hydra is to kill our opponent with it. Ha. The second plan is to use the Treasure tokens we get when it dies to make a bunch of 4/4 Scorpion Dragons with Magda, the Hoardmaster and kill our opponent with them instead.

One of these removal spells matters less to us now…

The drawback of our Goldvein Hydra plan is that Modern’s best decks are full of exile effects. This doesn’t necessary stop us from winning via Hydra beats, but it does stop us from getting all those Treasure tokens upon death. And while Stormbreath Dragon is excellent at battling through Leyline Binding and Solitude, it dies very easily to Unholy Heat. Goldvein Dragon, meanwhile, can easily be big enough to scoff at Unholy Heat. At the very least, it gives us something in return for dying to Modern’s best 1-mana removal spell not named Leyline Binding…

Our changes to our early game have some (un)expected benefits. First, we’re less likely to lose our first-turn ramp to a kill spell. Utopia Sprawl and a Treasure token can both be answered with commonly played removal spells, but they will often trade up in mana in the process. Otherwise, they don’t care about Lightning Bolt or Orcish Bowmasters. And while the Treasure is a one-time use, we often only need that extra mana early once. As the game goes long, that mana is less important…unless we’re making Scorpion Dragons with those tokens.

Second, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer can win games all on his own if he goes unanswered long enough. He is a must-answer threat early and late that our mana dorks aren’t. Finally, Strike it Rich gives us something to do in the mid-to-late game with any extra mana that furthers our overall game plan.

Before I get to the videos, let me just say that, as usual, I played my first test games in the free section on MTGO. And, as usual, many opponents only played a single game before scooping, regardless of whether they won or lost the first one. I’m posting the videos anyway, as it will give you some idea of the power, angle of attack, strategies, and limitations of the deck. I’ll continue adding videos as I get more reps in.

Practice Match 1 vs. Slivers

Note: a great first game that really shows the power and synergy of Utopia Sprawl, Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, and Glorybringer against creature-based strategies. Opponent wanted no part of a game two after scooping to the second Glorybringer…I can’t blame them, though Slivers can have very fast starts themselves.

Practice Match 2 vs. Grixis Control

Another early scoop, this one after Opponent wins game 1. As great as our strategy lined up against Slivers, we get to see how a Control strategy can give us issues if we don’t hit what we need early enough. Still, Magda, the Hoardmaster on that board at the end would’ve been preeeettttyy good!

Practice Match 3 vs. Hammer Time

Another short video, but we actually played the whole match. Game 1 saw Opponent scoop to an early and large Goldvein Hydra, while game 2 saw Opponent scoop after we killed their first two threats and they were left with a handful of support pieces and no creature to attach them to.

Practice Match 4 vs. 5-Color Omnath

A win against one of the most oppressive decks in the format! Oh, the Magic Gods were on my side this early Sunday morning as I finally got a win with my midrange Dragons deck against 5-Color Omnath and all of its answers. It’s true Stormbreath Dragon is very good against them, but I’m not sure I’ve beaten the deck even with the pro-White Dragon. The real all-star in this match was Roiling Vortex!

Practice Match 5 vs. U/W Affinity

Another early scoop by our Opponent after winning game 1. Affinity is a tough match-up, but one that I’m very familiar with. We have Brotherhood’s End in our sideboard as our main hate, as well as Alpine Moon for Urza’s Saga. We need to keep the board as clean as possible and race. U/W Affinity can flood the board quickly and with a lot of fliers that chump block well. I think Goldvein Hydra with its trample is a great threat, assuming they don’t have massive Constructs, like they did in game 1. My opponent, Master of Knowledge, messaged me after they had to leave, but I didn’t see it. If you’re reading this, feel free to email me at johnnycycles16@gmail.com!

Record: 3-2 (sort of)

Impressions from Practice Matches

We won two matches fair and square, both against solid tier 1-2 decks (Hammer Time and Omnath). Our Slivers opponent scooped the match after losing game 1, while Grixis Control and Affinity both got game 1 before scooping. It would’ve been nice to finish those matches, but the game I did record against each does show our deck’s strengths and weaknesses against them. We have sideboard help for both, so who knows what would’ve happened.

Overall, I loved playing the deck and can’t wait to get more games in with it. We didn’t make a single Scorpion Dragon, but that’s okay. Magda’s time will come! And, she drew out a Leyline Binding that helped win us the game as Opponent didn’t have an answer for our next threat.

A note on Magda, the Hoardmaster. I really think she’s best on turns 5 and later, not on curve. We want to have the Treasure tokens available to use her the turn we cast her. There will be situations where this isn’t the case, but I think, more often than not, she should be looked at as one of our finishers, rather than an early threat.

Next up!

I’m going to keep playing this deck, of course, buy I’ll be testing out a Mono Red Magda, the Hoardmaster deck with Urza’s Saga to give our Treasure tokens another way to be abused. I have the Izzet deck I mentioned at the beginning of the article, as well. Besides Magda decks, I’ll also be trying out a Rakdos Tinybones deck, a Gruul Dragons deck with Stingerback Terror, and a Gruul Hydra deck with Goldvein Hydra, Shivan Devastator, and Mistcutter Hydra. I also have plans to test Colossal Rattlewurm in a Green shell with Deserts.

Thanks for reading and watching! If you have a preference for one of the above decks, let me know in the comments!