Temur Dragons

One of two Temur decks I'm testing for DTK standard, going back and forth on which approach I like best. This is the "Dragons" strategy, I'll post a link to the "Midrange" strategy I'm comparing it to below. This deck is based mostly off of a Gerry Thompson article on StarCityGames website entitles Sarkhan (formerly)Unbroken. I, myself, think that Sarkhan is the most under utilized planeswalker and is the biggest reason to look towards Temur colors to begin with. Coupled with a high amount of Dragons to make use of Draconic Roar which is one of the best early removal spells in the game, this deck is all about Dragons and the Planeswalkers that support them.

Midrange: http://www.mtgvault.com/prophet-2/decks/temur-midrangemanifest/

The gameplan usually works best with a tapped land turn one, a mana dork turn two and a threat by turn 3. Either a Knuckleblade that can be hasted or with Stubborn Denial mana up or a Thundebreak Regent. Goblin Rabblemaster is also there as an early and aggressive threat. He's especially good on the play in games where we missed our turn 2 mana dork. This deck try's to either out body it's opponent or match them card for card hoping to produce more threats then they have removal. Rabblemaster can be out before a deck has removal mana available. Surrak, Knuckleblade and Stormbreath all can swing the turn they are played (though two of them need additional resources to enable their haste), and Thunderbreak can usually deal at least 3 damage even if they have a response to him. Both Sarkhan and Xenagos can produce a body the turn they come out so even if the opponent has removal we at least get value out of them and if we can get to a point where we can play a threat with Stubborn Denial available we can try to wear out there removal while we build our board presence. A timely Crater's Claws can often finish games where our creatures can't. Keranos might seem like an odd choice but we have so many cards that add 2 devotion to him that it's not unfeasible that we turn him on and even when he's off he either draws us cards or do three to the face every turn.

For sideboarding, against early aggro decks we bring in Hornet Nest and Anger of the Gods, likely taking out Keranos, and the Rattleclaw Mystics as the Mystics can't block and Keranos is better in games that go late where as in this match up if we're going late we've likely already won.

Against Midrage decks or usually Abzan in general we need the Roast's to deal with Siege Rhino and other threats that Draconic Roar can't match up against as well as Disdainful Stroke. We cut the Rabblemaster, the Xenagos and either Keranos (if they run Dromoka's Command) or Kiora (against the decks that go wide). Against creature heavy midrange decks (Like Gr Monsters) we can actually cut Stubborn Denial instead and add in Disdainful Stroke. Against Abzan or Bant we also probably want to lose one Sarkhan for the 4th Stormbreath Dragon too since it will dodge a lot of their removal.

Against Control, or Dragons mirrors we want the Disdainful Stroke. We also want Dragonlord's Prerogative against control as well and Rending Volley against any deck with Dragonlord Ojutai. We can probably take out Draconic Roar against this decks as there won't be much to hit though it's matchup's like this that make me wish we had more room for one more Dragonlord Atarka and two more Xenagos, the Reveler in the 75 but we do Ok without them. Keranos is great against control but Surrak usually isn't so we can cut him too.

Finally against Whip decks, Mastery decks or generally anything that has enchantment we bring in Destructive Revelry. This is also good against Heroic since that aura that makes creatures unblockable is a real pain.

This decks is much harder to pilot than the Midrange list and can take a bit of getting use to but I promise you the power is very real. The mana makes this deck have a few more awkward draws so sometimes you have to aggressively mulligan but be careful not to go lower than 5 if you don't absolutely have to. Haven of the Spirit Dragon is the same deck as Savage Knuckleblade is tricky and sometimes the draw just doesn't favor you but both cards are too good to omit. Some like Courser over Knuckleblade but for me right now I think this deck has mana fixing and just wants more threats. Plus Knucks turns on Stubborn Denial.

That's it so far. Input is always appreciated.

• Standard
• Competitive
• Dragon
• Temur