by Johnny Cycles, Friday, September 4th, 2026

Hello and welcome to a much-anticipated and long-awaited Dragons in Modern! The Hobbit is finally out and with it, Smaug the Magnificent swoops upon Modern to protect his Treasure horde. I love both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but that’s not the main reason I’m excited to see Smaug in Magic.

No, first and foremost, I love that we have a 4-mana Dragon with haste along with a bunch of other text. Of course, 3 toughness is a shame, but I guess we can’t have it all.

The second reason I’m so happy to be playing the deck is that school has started and I can finally get back to my normal work schedule and actually play Magic again!

And, the final reason I can’t wait to try Smaug the Magnificent out is that I happen to have a Mono Red Dragon deck built around Treasure generation all ready to go from Spring of 2025. The deck was fun, powerful, and consistent then and I’m hoping it’ll be just as good with a hasty threat in the 4-drop spot.

Here’s the list:

Decklist – Mono Red Dragons with Magda, the Hoardmaster

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (22)

4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
3 Magda, the Hoardmaster
3 Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant
4 Magmatic Hellkite
4 Smaug the Magnificent
4 Glorybringer

Spells (8)

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Strike it Rich

Artifacts (3)

1 Lavaspur Boots
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Shadowspear

Enchantments (4)

4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

Lands (23)

1 Arena of Glory
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Field of Ruin
12 Mountain
4 Urza’s Saga

Sideboard (15)

2 Claim the Firstborn
1 Haywire Mite
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Price of Freedom
2 Pyroclasm
3 Blood Moon
3 Desolation of Smaug

Deck Tech

Primary Game Plan

We are looking to make Treasure tokens early to ramp us into our late-game Dragons, make Scorpion Dragon tokens, or burn our opponent out with Smaug’s attack trigger. Nearly all of our permanents can make Treasures, some with a little help. Magda, the Hoardmaster is that help, as she turns any of our many ways to target our opponent and their permanents into a Treasure.

For more about this deck’s strategy, click here. The TL;DR is that we can win via ramping into evasive beaters; turning Treasures into 4/4 Scorpion Dragons; and Urza’s Saga, which combos well with all of our Treasure tokens. Smaug the Magnificent gives us an additional way to chip in damage, answer threats, and have another use for Treasures in the late game.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty straightforward list with the exception of Desolation of Smaug in the sideboard. Honestly, I just want to try it out with the number of 4-drops we play and it’s a flavor win!

Full Game Play

Overall Record: 3-2

Not too shabby for a Dragon deck! Furthermore, the only match-up that went poorly was Jund. I do think they’re favored against us, but not by as much as it felt during the match. Meanwhile, our loss to Affinity was as much about luck as not. We have the tools to compete and win, as our victory in game 2 showed, but an unfortunate need to mulligan a 1-land hand that would’ve lined up perfectly with what our opponent ended up doing coupled with another near ideal set of cards from them led to a quick defeat in game 3.

Our wins came against Merfolk, Eldrazi Taxes, and Tron. I think we stole the Merfolk match, honestly. That deck has a ton of aggression and interaction. The various Big Mana decks are what we are designed to beat even before sideboard. It doesn’t always mean we will, but that’s one of our better match-ups.

Impressions of Smaug the Magnificent

Smaug was fine. Playable in our deck as a 4-drop hasty, evasive threat with some extra text. However, we’ve had options for this slot, even if they are non-Dragons. Its flying does make it more relevant than Rampaging Raptor‘s trample, though the Dinosaur brings its own benefits to the deck.

Opponents definitely did their best to answer the new mythic Dragon before we got to untap or attack with it whenever possible. Drawing out a kill spell is great as long as we have another threat to cast.

The Treasure production from Smaug was not unimpactful, but we only won one game thanks to the damage done with its attack trigger. Otherwise, we more often than not got a single Treasure before it died or we won. As a 4-drop that we have to untap with in order to get a Treasure, this is not unexpected.

Unfortunately, we never got to see the combo of Magda plus Smaug. Together, they can make a bunch of Treasure tokens. It’s possible we should tweak the deck to play four copies of both.

Better than Atsushi???

This question comes down to haste versus death trigger. The damage from Smaug’s attack trigger is not relevant enough to let it influence our decision. Why? We have too many uses for the Treasures we get along the way to accrue enough to make the damage significant. Between ramp, two spells a turn, and Magda, I don’t see Smaug’s Treasure generation being impactful unless it’s on a stalled board with both of us hellbent.

So, the verdict?

I’d go with Smaug the Magnificent, but it’s closer than you think. Obviously, certain situations will lend themselves to Atsushi and others to Smaug. However, with all the exile-based removal in the format, the death trigger of the former is no certainty, while the haste of the latter gives our deck flexibility and reach.

We’re not done, yet, though! I couldn’t NOT play the new mythic Dragon in my bread-and-butter Gruul shell for Dragons. Here’s the list I’m starting with:

Gruul Dragons with Smaug the Magnificent

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (23)

4 Arbor Elf
1 Delighted Halfling
4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
4 Magmatic Hellkite
3 Questing Beast
3 Smaug the Magnificent
4 Glorybringer

Planeswalkers (6)

3 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
3 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Spells (4)

4 Lightning Bolt

Enchantments (4)

4 Utopia Sprawl

Lands (23)

2 Boseiju, Who Endures
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Commercial District
3 Field of Ruin
5 Forest
3 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)

3 Tamiyo’s Safekeeping
2 Pyroclasm
3 Blood Moon
1 Brotherhood’s End
3 Endurance
3 Force of Vigor

For the full write-up of my Gruul Dragons deck, click here. The short version is that we are a dedicated ramp deck hoping to cast a turn 1, 1-mana ramp creature into a turn 2, 3-mana Planeswalker that further ramps us, into a turn 3 Dragon. Smaug the Magnificent gives us a hasty Dragon in the 4-drop spot.

Full Game Play

Overall Record: 3-3

Another decent performance. We had some super fun turns, including playing both a Questing Beast and a Smaug the Magnificent on turn 3. The Treasure generation of Smaug was not very relevant, as I expected.

Better than Stormbreath???

This one isn’t hard. The answer is a hard no. Without a reliable way to get to 4 mana on turn 2, we are often left playing Smaug the Magnificent on turn 3 or later, which happens to be the same time we could play Stormbreath Dragon. It doesn’t die to Lightning Bolt or Solitude.

Sure, there will be situations when we don’t ever make it to 5 mana to cast the Theros mythic, at which point Smaug is obviously the superior choice, but that kind of variance shouldn’t impact our choice of which Dragon to play. If we can’t reliably get to 5 mana production, then we need to run more lands or mana dorks.

Conclusion

Smaug the Magnificent is remarkable in a lot of ways, the first of which being it’s a 4-mana, flying, hasty Dragon with 4 power. This is only the second time Wizards has given us a Dragon with these stats. The first instance is Archwing Dragon, which comes with a rather severe drawback.

I’m thrilled Wizards printed Smaug, but I sincerely hope it’s not the last of its kind.

Smaug the Magnificent has a home in a deck looking to make a lot of Treasure tokens, whether that’s my Mono Red Dragons deck or another of your own making. I don’t think it’s good enough to make the cut in my Gruul Dragons build, as it’s in competition with 5-mana Dragons that are strictly better.

All that being said, the new mythic Dragon is a lot of fun to build around and to play! If you like Dragons, The Hobbit, Treasure tokens, or just hasty fliers, give Smaug a chance! Thanks for reading and watching!