by Johnny Cycles, May 15th, 2026

Secrets of Strixhaven gives us five new mythic Dragons to play with and I’m super excited for Lorehold, the Historian in particular. Why, you ask. No, it’s not because I love miracle as a mechanic, though I do. No, it’s because Lorehold, the Historian is our first 5/5 hasty Dragon for five mana since…

That’s right. Thundermaw Hellkite is the last 5-mana 5/5 Dragon to be…

Uh, let me amend that. Thundermaw Hellkite is the most recent PLAYABLE 5-mana 5/5 Dragon to be printed in nearly 13 years. And, if you want to count Lightning Shrieker, it’s still been more than 10 years since Wizards dared, DARED, to give a Dragon these stats for this mana cost.

Why has Wizards been so wary of a single point of power and toughness?

I have no idea. A 4/4 dies just the same to the 1-mana Unholy Heat as a 5/5 or 6/6. Yes, only with delirium, but they nearly always have delirium!

Thus, Lorehold, the Historian is worth celebrating solely for this fact alone.

And I AM celebrating it. I’m celebrating it with a color combination for Dragons that I’ve yet to try in Modern.

NAYA, baby!

Before I get to the decklist, though, let’s talk about the other thing that makes Lorehold, the Historian so remarkable. Much like its predecessor, the textbox below flying, haste is all upside. Card filtering alone is a powerful ability to add to a hasty beater and just what Dragons need to be more competitive.

But is there a way to actually gain full value out of the miracle clause?

My initial thought was extra turns. Who doesn’t want to take all the turns?

But then I thought, we can have more fun than that!

Of course, it wasn’t long after that I realized the unlikelihood of us ever getting to cast a big instant or sorcery off of Lorehold, the Historian in a format as fast as Modern. Doubly so if we happen to draw those big spells in the early turns while our opponent assembles a fast, efficient boardstate.

But what if we could have big spells in our deck without the drawback of them rotting in our hand?

Enter…

It was at this point that I pivoted from Jeskai to Naya. There are a couple of reasons I think Naya is better positioned to take advantage of Lorehold, the Historian.

First, Sea Gate Restoration is stupid expensive ($12) for how much it sees play, I imagine.

Second, I think we’ll have a better chance of untapping with Lorehold, the Historian if we play a typical Midrange Dragon deck with ramp and must-answer threats. Jeskai can still play those threats, of course, but without the ramp, we’re playing a more controlling deck. That’s fine and all; it can even be quite competitive. However, I’m just in the mood for my OG Gruul Dragons (splashing White).

Decklist – Gruul Rumble Dragons

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (18)

4 Delighted Halfling
3 Bonecrusher Giant
3 Questing Beast
4 Glorybringer
4 Lorehold, the Historian

Planeswalkers (9)

3 Wrenn and Six
3 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
3 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Spells (12)

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Emeria’s Call
4 Turntimber Symbiosis

Enchantments (4)

4 Utopia Sprawl

Lands (17) + 8 mdfcs

2 Commercial District
2 Elegant Parlor
3 Forest
1 Lush Portico
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)

3 Meltdown
3 Path to Exile
3 Dromoka’s Command
2 Price of Freedom
4 Rest in Peace

Deck Tech

Primary Game Plan

Much like the many iterations of my Gruul Dragons before this Naya version, we want to ramp into a turn 3 Dragon via a ramp spell on both turn 1 and 2. From there, we want to chain together must-answer threats in the form of more Dragons, Questing Beast, and, to a certain extent, Bonecrusher Giant.

And yes, I know that none of this actually takes advantage of Lorehold, the Historian‘s miracle-granting ability. This is on purpose. As stated above, building a gameplan dependent on untapping with a 5-mana Dragon in Modern is not the most reliable one. This is why it is so important that our Dragons have haste.

Sure, in the games we win, we do often get to untap with a beater, but if we want to win via Lorehold’s miracle ability, then we have to put powerful spells in our deck and ways to sculpt our draws to find them when we want them. I do have a Jeskai build still in mind that I want to try out, but I honestly think that by the time we fill our deck with big payoff spells and cantrips to manipulate the top of our library, we’ll be pretty short on threats. Which means our opponents will have plenty of answers for our key combo piece, aka, the Dragon himself.

So I think the best way to build a Lorehold, the Historian deck is to let the miracle clause be the secondary plan. This is where the MDFCs really shine. They let us play our normal ramp-into-threats game early, since we can play them as lands untapped. Late, they give us something to do with our mana, or, if we can live the dream, a powerful sorcery to miracle into with Lorehold.

Sideboard

I’m pretty ecstatic about having a hard answer for Psychic Frog. We could play a more flexible, but slower, answer in a variety of other White spells, but I’m going with this for now. A case could be made for Erode being in this spot, but exiling a creature isn’t nothing. Erode is also super expensive right now.

Dromoka’s Command is probably the other strange inclusion, but that is too much value to pass up! At the very least, it should help against any deck playing the Overlords. Be wary, though. If you don’t have a target for at least two of the modes, you can’t cast it. Boo. It gives us another fight spell to help against creature strategies and can nerf a burn spell to buy us a turn, as well.

Price of Freedom is our only real interaction against the lands in Eldrazi, Scapeshift, Titan, and any other decks looking to go big.

Rest in Peace fights Reanimation, Storm, and Unholy Heat, should we want to go that route. Meltdown is slower than Force of Vigor and not often the blowout we want it to be against Affinity and Hammer Time, but I still think its upside is better.

Game Play

Overall Record: 2-3

Well, that went pretty okay! Actually, we were competitive in all of our matches except Reanimator, which is fine. We have the tools we need to beat it, but some unlucky draws meant we never stood in a chance. Accounting for variance, I think we’re in a good position to compete post board.

Our ramp package into Dragons and Questing Beast was as good as I remember it from the last time I played Gruul Dragons. Today’s meta can certainly race our deck and answer our threats, but we have the distinct ability to pressure our opponents in ways many tier 1 decks will struggle against without a very good draw.

Lorehold, the Historian played the way I expected him to. He was great as an early beater, while the rest of his textbox was gravy. We did get to miracle an Emeria’s Call for the win in one game and it was amazing! But even there, had we played it differently, we wouldn’t have needed it. The rummaging he gives us is a strong addition to our deck, as one of the weaknesses of any ramp deck is drawing your ramp pieces late when they are unimpactful.

However, given that we now have eight 7-mana sorceries, even drawing a Utopia Sprawl on turn 5 will likely not be a bad thing. And that was one of the things that surprised me the most about the deck: we hard-cast Emeria’s Call and Turntimber Symbiosis far more than I expected. Games frequently went past turn 7, not to mention we can easily have 7 mana by turn 5. Add that all up, and these big sorceries are some of our best late-game draws.

I was also impressed with both Wrenn and Six and Bonecrusher Giant. I’ve played both over the years in my Gruul Dragons deck, but have swapped them out for the new hotness or to test other cards. Wrenn and Six fell out of favor at some point around The Lord of the Rings or MH3, I’m not sure. And while there are more must-answer 1-drops with 2 toughness now than when it was first printed, the Planeswalker still has plenty of targets to pick off.

We are also a mana-hungry deck, so getting back a fetchland a couple of times can be the difference in winning and losing. Furthermore, Wrenn and Six can let us keep some otherwise unkeepable 2-land hands. Finally, it thins our deck some to help us find more action. All in all, I’m glad I put it back in, even if I was wrong that it could return an MDFC to our hand from the graveyard.

Meanwhile, Bonecrusher Giant answers some early threats, while posing as one itself. Two spells in one is obviously quite powerful, but for us I think it’s doubly so. The way our deck is structured, we want to see ramp early and finishers in the midgame. Bonecrusher Giant gives us something to do on turn 2 and again if and when we draw one too many lands or ramp spells or Dragons before we get to 5 mana.

Ditto that Emeria’s Call and Turntimber Symbiosis. It was a great feeling having one of these in our hand, knowing I could play it as a land if necessary, but also having it as a bomb to play towards.

Conclusion

All in all, this deck was a ton of fun to play! Lorehold, the Historian does exactly what we want and more! Having haste means we don’t have to sacrifice pressure for additional value, while all that additional value makes the game more interesting (it’s a miracle!), while also making the deck more consistent. As to the MDFCs…well, I’ve played them enough in Commander to know their power, but I definitely never thought the big-mana sorceries would be so good in Modern.

If you want a ramp deck that can grind with other creature decks, while having the chance to win as early as turn 5, give this build a chance! Or, if like me, you just want to miracle an Emeria’s Call! Thanks for reading and watching!