Much Abrew About Nothing: Dragonstorm (Modern)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the new and improved Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week in our Instant Deck Tech voting, our Modern flashback deck Dragonstorm was by far the most popular, so this week, we are trying to figure out whether we can make the combo deck rise from the dead in Modern by tutoring some Bogardan Hellkites from our deck. It's worth mentioning that the list is fairly old, so I made a couple of changes, mostly to the sideboard, but don't worry—Archwing Dragon is still around and ready to rumble! In all honesty, I think the deck could use some more updates, but I try to take a light touch when it comes to updating Instant Deck Tech decks, so I didn't want to do too much. We'll discuss some more potential changes after the videos!
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Dragonstorm: Instant Deck Tech
Dragonstorm vs. Infect (Match 1)
Dragonstorm vs. Jeskai Nahiri (Match 2)
Dragonstorm vs. Titanshift (Match 3)
Dragonstorm vs. 8 Rack (Match 4)
Dragonstorm vs. Thing Ascension (Match 5)
Dragonstorm (Wrap Up)
Discussion
- First off, our record was horrible. In fact, this is the worst record we've ever posted on Much Abrew, going just 1-4 in matches.
- So, what was the problem with the deck? The right answer is probably everything. Dragonstorm was maddingly inconsistent, often drawing all ramp and no finishers or all finishers and no ramp. We would also occasionally draw mono-burn spell hands, but we aren't really a burn deck, so it was rare that we could actually draw enough burn to actually win the game.
- Archwing Dragon was amazingly bad. One of the appeals of the deck is being able to ritual out a big threat when we don't have a copy of Dragonstorm, but spending three cards to get a Turn 2 Archwing Dragon feels amazingly bad because it bounces back to our hand and we can't even recast it right away.
- As far as Thundermaw Hellkite, it's good, but it dies to a lot of things. While it closes out the game quickly if it happens to live, it's super risky to spend ritual effects to get it out early, since our opponent can Path to Exile or Dismember it for just one mana, and we end up three-for-oneing ourselves.
- Dragonstorm itself is really expensive and awkward. We often end up in a position where we have to choose between casting an early Thundermaw Hellkite with our rituals or holding our rituals in the hopes that we eventually get to resolve a Dragonstorm.
- The good news is that some powerful Dragons have been printed over the past couple years, and while these cards don't help solve the inherent problems of the deck (inconsistency and anti-synergies), they do make the Dragonstorm plan better. One good option package is Dragonlord Kolaghan and Atarka, World Render, which combine for the two-Dragon combo kill thanks to haste and trample, representing 24 damage from a single Dragonstorm. It's also possible that Thunderbreak Regent or Stormbreath Dragon should be in the Archwing Dragon slot. That said, the problem with Dragonstorm isn't that a resolved Dragonstorm isn't good enough, but that it's really, really hard to resolve a Dragonstorm.
- So, should you play Dragonstorm? Probably not—the deck just didn't feel anywhere near consistent enough to really compete. That said, if you want to play something similar, there are a couple of options. If your goal is to be a Blood Moon / Chalice of the Void deck, I would lean towards Free Win Red, which replaces the Dragons with Ensnaring Bridge and planeswalkers but otherwise plays a similar game. On the other hand, if you are looking to slam some Dragons, I'd start with the Boros Angel Moon deck we played a while ago and look to replace the Angels with Dragons, leaving us with something like this:
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos! As always, you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive @MTGGoldfish.com.
