by Johnny Cycles, September 6th, 2024

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Dragons in Modern! For those new to the site, playing Dragons is my favorite thing to do in Magic, despite the middling results that usually accompany 5-mana fire-breathing, hasty fliers in a format increasingly defined by overpowered 1- and 2-drop creatures. I’ve never been one to do what’s easy…

Over the years, I’ve had the most fun and most success playing Gruul Dragons, featuring 1-drop mana dorks into 3-mana Planeswalkers, into 5-mana Dragons. Unfortunately, with the release of Modern Horizons 3, this strategy became even less likely to win matches, thanks to the combo potential of Nadu, Winged Wisdom and the addition of very powerful energy cards. Not to mention the Scam decks got some new toys. Dragons seemed doomed to sink even lower on the tier list.

But then…

Nadu, Winged Wisdom and Grief got the ban hammer! Everyone predicted Nadu would get the axe, while many also thought it was time for the second most busted Evoke Elemental to go. Will Dragons be able to compete now that two of the more oppressive cards are gone? Or will Storm, Necrodominance, Energy, and the menace that is Psychic Frog rule the format with iron fists?

Let’s find out!

A quick note about this month’s edition of Dragons in Modern. I’m testing out a handful of lists, beginning with what I consider my baseline Gruul Dragons deck (with a tweaked sideboard). I’ll post the list, deck tech, and game play for each in order of how I tested them. What this means is that Gruul Dragons is a work in progress. In reality, all decks in Magic are, but given my other job and my three children, I don’t have the time to truly refine decklists. Rather, I hope to provide you with some entertaining content that will help you figure out the direction you would like to take your Dragons deck.

Or am I the only one playing Dragons in Modern?

Gruul Dragons

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (21)

2 Arbor Elf
4 Delighted Halfling
3 Bonecrusher Giant
3 Questing Beast
4 Glorybringer
4 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Thundermaw Hellkite

Planeswalkers (8)

4 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Spells (4)

4 Lightning Bolt

Enchantments (4)

4 Utopia Sprawl

Lands (23)

1 Boseiju, Who Endures
4 Field of Ruin
6 Forest
3 Mountain
1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
4 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)

3 Veil of Summer
3 Brotherhood’s End
3 Endurance
3 Force of Vigor
3 Sunspine Lynx

Deck Tech – Gruul Dragons

This is what I consider my baseline Gruul Dragons list at this point. Of course, if you’ve been watching my videos from the beginning, then you know this isn’t what my first Gruul Dragons decklist looked like. For that, as well as a detailed discussion of our game plan, click here. I also include a brief history of Dragons in Magic there, so if you haven’t yet read that article and you love Dragons, be sure to check it out!

Comparing the two decklists the big differences are, first, Delighted Halfling was printed (along with Orcish Bowmasters), and Wrenn and Six, once a format staple, has become mostly unplayable outside of Indomitable Creativity decks.

Taking the Planeswalker’s place is Bonecrusher Giant, a card that took me a while to come around to, but has impressed me greatly. I think I’ve been so pleased with it because it gives us one more source of card advantage, something we are sorely lacking. My greatest regret (okay, maybe that’s a small exaggeration) is that I never tested Up the Beanstalk in this deck. I think it’s a perfect enabler for fair midrange strategies. Unfortunately, it got the axe over the cards that abused it.

Sigh.

Okay, back to this decklist. Having more spot removal plus a 3-mana threat that can draw us a card off of Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner makes Bonecrusher Giant an all-star.

At least, it did before Modern Horizons 3. Have the top tier decks gone too wide, too fast with too many pushed 1- and 2- drops for spot removal to be very effective? In a format where Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is no longer the best 1-drop creature (never thought I’d write those words), can our big flying beaters/burners keep up?

A quick note about our sideboard. I’ve been wanting to test Sunspine Lynx for a while now, so I figured now is as good a time as any. We can bring it in against all those greedy mana bases, not to mention it can stop the lifegain from those energy decks. Will it be good enough? Not so sure.

We’re the exact kind of deck Psychic Frog players want to see. We have no clean answer to the psychedelic frog, which means there’s a good chance we’ll simply lose to a 2-drop…frog.

Double sigh.

Match 1 vs. Cascade

What a brutal match… Game 1 saw us miss a second land drop until turn 4, after our opponent already had 10 power on the battlefield. We had turn 1 Utopia Sprawl into turn 2 Kiora, into turn 3 Dragons for days…had we drawn a second land. Game 2, a hexproof, first strike, lifelink, etc., Scion of Draco on turn 2 ran away with the game with help from some free spells. Definitely feeling the effects of not playing Modern as much as I’d like. Leyline of the Guildpact is a fairly common inclusion in the Cascade decks that I didn’t see coming in game 2. Oh well.

Match 2 vs. Psychedelic Frog-Vine

The dreaded frog!!!

We managed to race the frog in game 1, as we executed our game plan, ramped into some big beaters, and stuck Glorybringer for the win. Ah, I love it when a plan comes together.

Game 2 saw us stick a very timely Endurance to send our opponent back to the Stone Age…at least on the battlefield. However, they managed to quickly rebuild with the four cards in hand and on the back of Psychic Frog and many Hollow Ones. Still, we only barely lost to a perfect set of cards from our opponent. Meanwhile, Sunspine Lynx rotted in our hand the entire game. Wrong match-up for it, I think.

Game 3… So far, we’ve split the wins with the frog. Can we get the tiebreaker?

Alas, a misplay on my part ensured our loss in a game that would’ve been hard for us to win. The silly frog doesn’t fly without help, which means our Pawpatch Formation is no good until it’s good enough. Sigh. I’m not sure we could’ve won that game with how it shook out, but it would’ve been better had I played my cards more optimally.

Two things I learned this game: first, Endurance is only so good. Had we had a Leyline of the Void from the start, things may have gone differently. Hollow One, though, doesn’t care about the yard, just the discard. Second, [/mtg_card]Pawpatch Formation is a suboptimal answer to the frog. It’s a great card, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve yet to find a clean answer in Gruul to the 1/2 menace that only flies when it wants to.

Match 3 vs. Golgari Food

Game 1 saw us once again execute our game plan to perfection. Early ramp, Domri, Anarch of Bolas allowing us to slow our opponent down while ramping us, and Dragons for the win. Chatterfang, Squirrel General‘s got nothing on Glorybringer…and this is how it should be.

Game 2, our opponent was able to assemble their engine and out-value us. On to game 3!

We cast a turn 3 Glorybringer against our opponent’s two lands and our opponent scooped. I’m noticing a trend in our matches already – playing against decks with less interaction (read, free spells, or nearly free, like Leyline Binding) and we are competitive.

Match 4 vs. Jeskai Delver

Game 1 was as close at it gets, but we got there with some questionable blocking and dodging almost the entire suite of cards in the late game that we usually lose to: Unholy Heat, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt, and Expressive Iteration. My suspicions are confirmed. No free spells = competitive games.

Game 2 saw an early scoop from our opponent against a fast start and a stacked hand from us. Oh well, it is the free zone after all, but I’ll take the win, even it comes thanks to breaking my opponent’s will to play Magic.

Overall Record: 2-2

I can’t remember if I played a fifth match or not, but I don’t have it saved anywhere, so I don’t think I did.  Overall, the deck played the way I remember it playing: it was both competitive and fun. Turn 3 Dragons can pressure a lot of decks and win matches. Game 1 against Cascade was the only match that we lost due to bad draws. The rest of our matches were competitive. Still, we didn’t play against Energy a single time. Nor against Storm or Mono Black.

But now I have something else in mind that I’d like to try against the current meta. Here it is!

That’s right! This unimposing Beast is going to give Dragons the edge over the current best decks. How? I’m glad you asked.

Decklist – Gruul Dragons with Aboreal Grazer

by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern

Creatures (16)

4 Arboreal Grazer
3 Questing Beast
4 Glorybringer
4 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Thundermaw Hellkite

Planeswalkers (4)

4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner

Spells (9)

4 Lightning Bolt
2 Pawpatch Formation
3 Anger of the Gods

Enchantments (8)

4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Fable of the Mirror Breaker

Lands (23)

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

Sideboard (15)

3 Vexing Bauble
2 Cursed Totem
3 Damping Sphere
3 Roiling Vortex
4 Leyline of the Void

Deck Tech – Gruul Dragons with Grazer

Spot removal feels woefully unimpactful against Energy, not to mention bad against Frog-Vine, though I’m unsure how much of the meta that deck is. I’m not cutting Lightning Bolt or anything, as that’s just crazy, but why should we wait until game 2 to bring in sweepers when they are so good against one of the best decks in the format?

I’ve long loved playing sideboard hate in my main deck. In fact, you can see a whole deck built to hate on the meta in action here. That deck is outdated at this point and I haven’t tuned an updated version yet, but sometimes playing maindeck hate can give you the edge you need.

Unfortunately, Anger of the Gods is a pretty big nonbo with our ramp plan. Enter the sloth…or whatever that creature is. A turn one Arboreal Grazer will get us to three mana on turn 2 as well as Arbor Elf or Delighted Halfling, assuming we have the third mana in hand. Of course, given how our deck plays out, even with 23 lands, this is a big assumption. Furthermore, not tapping for mana means we can keep a 3-land hand with Grazer and still not be able to cast our big threats on time (turn 3) without help. Those are the drawbacks I’m concerned about.

However, if we want to punish our go-wide opponents with Anger of the Gods, we can’t hurt ourselves just as much. Out with the mana dorks.

Playing a 3-mana sweeper in the main can, unfortunately, leave us with a dead card in certain match-ups.

So let’s play one of Modern’s best cards to give us a way to get value out of that dead card!

Without mana dorks and replacing Domri with Fable, we’re left with two slots. Let’s try Pawpatch Formation. It is a flexible card that fills out our curve nicely.

With Fable of the Mirror-Breaker as a discard outlet, I feel better about putting Leyline of the Void in the sideboard. Graveyard decks are very capable of rebuilding after Endurance, as we learned the hard way. Furthermore, I wasn’t very happy with the play pattern Endurance led me to. I played scared or had to pitch a card I didn’t want to (or, worse, had no second green card). Playing patiently is different than playing scared. Finally, free spells have warped Modern to the point of making it closer to Legacy and I hate that.

It’s nice not to be a hypocrite…

Will Anger of the Gods in the main steal us some otherwise unwinnable games? Will our sideboard hate against the tyrant that is the free spell in Modern help us against the format’s broken decks? Let’s find out!

Match 1 vs. Rakdos Graveyard

With main deck Anger of the Gods, it would seem that we’re favored in this match-up. But, alas, you have to draw the cards, not to mention lands, to use them. We didn’t hit 5 mana and our opponent flooded the board. Hey, but at least our opponent is playing some cool spice with Burning Inquiry plus Orcish Bowmasters!

Game 2…well, game 2 started so nicely but is an example of flooding out rather than missing land drops. We began the game with both Leyline and Anger, but then proceeded to draw a whole bunch of lands. Then we died. Some combination of our hands in games 1 and 2 for either game and we probably win.

Match 2 vs. Mardu Energy

Okay, okay, okay! Almost right off the bat, we get to see our new game plan in action against the deck that inspired it!

Game 1 saw everything we changed come to bear in what turned out to be a lopsided victory. Grazer ramped us and chump-blocked, preventing us from taking damage or killing a cat token and flipping our opponent’s Ajani. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker dug us into Anger of the Gods, which swept away both of our boards, minus our Stormbreath Dragon, which then swung in for the win. Pretty deec.

Game 2 saw us find our sideboard cards against lifegain and free spells, but no lands. We died quickly.

Well, it comes down to this. Will we once again fold to the Cat Lord and Friends, or will Dragons prove the superior predator?

We got off to a great start in game 3. Turn one Utopia Sprawl into turn 2 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner and Lightning Bolt for their first threat. Turn 3 saw us with the choice of Questing Beast or Dragon.

Our opponent, however, did not go gentle into that good night. They made quite a comeback on the back of some of Modern’s all-stars. Amped Raptor into Orcish Bowmasters felt particularly bad, I’ll admit. But a timely Anger of the Gods left us with the familiar board state of Stormbreath Dragon standing alone and victorious!

Match 3 vs. Domain Cascade

Not much to see Game 1. We managed to Boseiju their Leyline of the Guildpact, only to have it ramp them into a turn 2 Crashing Footfalls…sigh. And just for insult on injury, opponent, who was nice otherwise, cast Subtlety on our Stormbreath.

Game 2 gives me hope. We kept a slow hand with no sideboard cards, but we did find a Roiling Vortex. Opponent had the Leyline Binding and two cascade spells (they almost always come in pairs), but we managed to race them with Dragons. No Subtlety and no second Leyline Binding (which almost always comes in pairs, too) and we actually have a chance, even against 4 4/4 Rhinos.

Shocking, I know.

Game 3 started the same as Game 1 for our opponent with a pregame Leyline of the Guildpact, but we were even slower. Then they stole our Stormbreath with their first cascade spell,  hitting us for 4 on turn 3. And, per usual, one cascade spell always has a friend. Next came the Rhinos and death for us.

Sigh.

Match 4 vs. Burn

Well, after sensing we’d be competitive against all but the most degenerate decks that abuse free(ish) spells, we’re matched against Burn, a deck that traditionally is simply too fast and too consistent for us to beat. Our very best draw gives us a turn 4 win, assuming our opponent does some of the work for us along the way. But turn 5 is good for us. Burn usually wins easily before then.

Game 1 we got extremely lucky on multiple fronts. First, our opponent had a double Goblin Guide hand that drew us numerous lands, while also getting chump blocked by Grazer. Second, they’re a Seal of Fire deck, which probably gives them an edge in some ways, but not against us. Questing Beast gained an additional line of text that says, “Gain 4 life.” We won the race by a miracle, going to 6 life with our opponent drawing a second card. Surely they’ll have double Bolt. They always have double Bolt.

Nope.

Hallelujah. Miracles happen.

On to game 2.

Opponent gets punished by their sideboard choices. At one point, they have 5 cards in hand and don’t cast a burn spell. What. Is. Going. On?

Ah, Path to Exile and Deflecting Palm.

You know who doesn’t care about Deflecting Palm?

 

Man, it feels good playing this card again.

Ironically, Stormbreath, with its protection from White, can be targeted with Deflecting Palm. Questing Beast don’t care, though. Damage can’t be prevented! Boo…yah!

Match 5 vs. Rakdos Death’s Shadow/Inti

Ah, another low-to-the ground graveyard strategy! Anger of the Gods should shine here.

Game 1, we had the exact kind of opening hand we want and were helped considerably by our opponent lowering their own life total. Yet, they managed to swing out for exactly 16 on turn 3 before we would’ve won on turn 4. We never saw Anger.

Game 2 saw us start with Leyline of the Void and draw into an Anger of the Gods. We dodged Thoughtseize and drew some timely Dragons for the win.

On to game 3.

Here was our opening 7:

Normally this is a snap keep, but what do you think? Do we have to mulligan for some graveyard hate to stand a chance?

I thought so.

Unfortunately, I had to go to 5 to find the Leyline. This is usually a recipe for disaster.

I had three lands, Leyline and Anger in my opening 5. This could actually work.

And, in fact, it did. We dodged Thoughtseize again, baited out some more creatures, and drew both Domri, which I put back in the deck for this match, and Glorybringer to kill the many, many threats our opponent kept top-decking. It was a slog, but we got there.

To be fair, we had to use all the luck we usually see our opponents having to get that win, but we got it.

Overall Record: 3-2

Let’s talk about the changes we made and our overall impressions of them.

Grazer or Halfling?

Is Grazer better than a mana dork? As with many simple questions, the answer is far more complex. We saw the good and the bad of this card, but overall I think my experiment was a success. Given that we want to cast a 3-mana sweeper, getting value on the front end of this mana ramp Beast is crucial.

The drawback, though, was real, when we had 2-land hands with Grazer, or never made it past four lands after ramping with it. This could happen with Delighted Halfling, of course, but the key difference is that Grazer incentivizes us to want it in a land heavy hand, leaving us to hope to draw action.

Case in point: a 2-land hand with Delighted Halfling, Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, and a Dragon is exactly what we want to see to stay on schedule for a turn 3 threat. A 2-land hand with Arboreal Grazer instead is a riskier keep.

Another bonus of the Beast is its stats. Yes, I know, they’ve been largely mocked. However, not dying in combat against all the 2-power creatures ruling the format is a real benefit. I’m not sure we win our game against Burn if Delighted Halfling had been on the battlefield instead of Arboreal Grazer. And even its weak power was relevant against Energy by allowing us to block without killing a cat and flipping Ajani. Finally, with Grazer, gone are the days of deciding between taking a Ragavan hit or trading our mana dork for it.

Final Assessment: With main-deck Anger of the Gods, I like Arboreal Grazer over Arbor Elf and Delighted Halfling. I’m curious, though, to try two copies of the Halfling over Pawpatch Formation. This increases our chances of ramping on time, while not leaving it all up to Grazer and Utopia Sprawl to do the heavy lifting.

Anger or Stomp?

Is Anger of the Gods better than Bonecrusher Giant? This simple question has a much simpler answer. Yes.

In today’s meta of go-wide strategies, coupled with a variety of decks looking to gain value out of their graveyard, this 3-mana sweeper is an all-star. It literally won our match against Mardu Energy. It was almost never a dead card. We frequently were hoping to draw it to stabilize.

Final Assessment: Sweepers are a necessary evil/good for fair Midrange strategies like ours to succeed. Anyone who gets salty (no one did) about Anger in the main hasn’t played in this meta much…and certainly hasn’t tried to win with 5-drops.

Fable or Domri?

Is Fable of the Mirror-Breaker better than Domri, Anarch of Bolas?

This is a hard no. I never should’ve betrayed you, Domri. You are the superior card…in this deck.

Fable, while super powerful, is not at its best in our deck. It has a very narrow application for us and, even then, is a bit slow. In the late game, when both players are top-decking, Fable is a far better draw than Domri. That was the dream I envisioned living when I rued the high cost of this Saga for my first Dragons in Modern article.

The reality, though, is that Domri is far better early and nearly always better late. Yes, if the board is empty, Domri is worse than Fable. But, as we saw in our final match, drawing a Domri with a Dragon out allowed us to continue sniping our opponent’s creatures, preventing them from rebuilding. And let’s not forget about the +1/+0 it grants our creatures (though I still do, despite my many reps with the deck). This extra damage is almost never irrelevant. But it’s really that it ramps us and keeps us on schedule that makes Domri the better choice. Fable is a slow-deck’s game. Domri is gas.

For the record, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is best in two types of decks in Modern: combo decks needing to dig for pieces and highly interactive decks full of cheap threats and answers. We are neither.

Final Assessment: Domri, Anarch of Bolas is back in the 60!

Pawpatch Formation or ???

Do we cut Pawpatch Formation in favor of two copies of Bonecrusher Giant instead? Two copies of Delighted Halfling? Two copies of a card that answers Psychic Frog but which doesn’t exist? Let me know in the comments what you think the best answer to the frog is in Gruul please. I’m pretty much at a loss.

We could replace Commercial District with this MDFC to give us enough damage with a Dragon and Bolt to kill the frog…probably.

Innkeeper’s Talent is a card that’s gotten a lot of play in Standard. As a 2-mana enchantment that can immediately impact the battlefield, it’s an intriguing option for our deck. It’s aggressively costed to function as a legitimate tool against decks playing a lot of spot removal, as reaching level 2 costs only a single . I’m not sure it’s at its best in our deck, but the dream is to grow our Grazers early and our Dragons late, granting them enough protection to slow our opponents down and get us the win. However, if we do try this card out, I’d give Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer another hard look for the 60, alongside Ignoble Hierarch.

Roiling Vortex or Pick Your Poison?

Our sideboard felt pretty good. Cursed Totem wasn’t necessary, but we never played Yawgmoth. I can see making room for Pick Your Poison in the 15 given how many times we saw Domain Cascade. Having a clean answer to Leyline of the Guildpact that doesn’t ramp them into a turn 2 Crashing Footfalls is awesome. Having an answer for Scion of Draco, which we can’t target with Glorybringer is equally awesome. Roiling Vortex and Vexing Bauble might be one hate piece too many for the free spells, particularly now that Grief is gone.

Finally, Chalice of the Void deserves consideration again. It’s great against Cascade, but it can also do a number on all those Energy decks looking to overwhelm us with 1- and 2-drops. I’ve played Chalice in the board before and have had success with it against both Izzet Murktide and Burn. Not many people see it coming in a deck looking to ramp with 1-drops. However, on the play, we can turn 1 play land and Utopia Sprawl, turn 2 Grazer and Chalice on 1 and be set up nicely. Sure, it makes Lightning Bolt a dead draw and we’ll almost certainly cast at least one of our own spells into it, but that’s a risk worth taking, particularly if we get it down on an empty board. Having Anger of the Gods to wipe away any 2-drops makes this plan even more appealing.

Bonus Games

I switched out Fable for Domri, made room for two copies of Stump Stomp, and added back in Bonecrusher Giant in place of Pawpatch Formation. In the sideboard I cut Roiling Vortex and Cursed Totem for Chalice of the Void and Pick Your Poison. Will the changes make a big difference? Let’s find out!

Match 1 vs. Mono Black Midrange

Match 2 vs. Boros Energy

Conclusion

Man, that was a lot of fun! I miss playing Dragons! I have a variety of archetypes (Lukka Surprise, Hydra Tribal, Amulet Dinos, to name a few) I cycle through for this site, as well as an ever-growing list of cards I want to build around, so I don’t play them as much as I used to. But every time I do, I remember what I love about playing Magic! It’s the combination of brewing/creating something uniquely your own, casting awesome creatures, and watching your plan come together for victory.

I don’t mind losing. I even expect to with most of the decks I play, but I want to be competitive. This means matches are close and I win some of the time. When a deck doesn’t hit this bar, it can get pretty frustrating and disheartening.

But I must also say that reps count in Magic, as they do anywhere. This game is one of high skill and each deck requires many games played to achieve success, much less mastery. The phrase, you don’t know what you don’t know, applies here. Experience with a new deck is essential to winning. I have much more respect for all those content creators who pick up new decks, play them on stream or for their site with little practice, and still win.

My point with this is, of all the archetypes I play, I have played Gruul Dragons the most and it shows in both our final 75 and our record. A deck like Hydra Tribal plays similarly, though there are still individual interactions between new cards that can be tricky. Amulet Dinos and Psychedelic Frog-Vine, meanwhile, were both totally new archetypes for me. Thus, returning to Dragons feels like going home. I love everything about the deck and truly enjoy playing it. I can’t say the same for some of the other decks I’ve played.

Enough of that! If you love Dragons and are looking for a competitive brew to play, give this deck a shot! My final decklist includes Domri, Anarch of Bolas over Fable of the Mirror-Breaker in the 60 and some number of Pick Your Poison in the sideboard. As to those final two slots that Pawpatch Formation occupies? Let me know what you think they should be.

As always, thanks for reading and watching! I’ll catch y’all on the next one!