Alternative Deck Name: "Rawr, Dragons!"
So this is a project I wanted to engage in- To make a set of 10+ super-budget 60-card decks that are simple, relatively easy to play, relatively easy to understand, and bring across the fundamentals of how Magic Works.
The Idea being that you could easily build these deck for a low cost and use them as an easy introduction to how magic works, to teach a group of new players both how to play, and give them a sense of Why, a sense of what fun things they're getting into. These decks aren't gonna be particularly good, or even legal in any particular format if it stops me from including a card I think is good for the deck, but they should be fun and interesting without being too hard to get into.
This is the 3rd deck in the project, and by far the hardest so far to stay on budget- Ramp cards are super expensive, and dragons are even worse.
Maindeck Cost ~$9.50 at time of writing (using the blue, average values offered by the site), plus ~$4-ish in the sideboard, which is still under my $15 limit.
So mostly this section is going to be notes on why I think these are good cards to learn from, though I'll be honest: It was enough of a challenge just getting this deck vaguely workable on a budget that I didn't exactly get to put the lessons as first priority.
This is a deck that exists because dragons are sweet, and new players totally want to go and play huge dragons, and that's wonderful. The dragons I picked that were cheap enough to enable this on a budget were Shivan Dragon, a classic, and the only dragon I auto-included as soon as I started the deck, because of its mix of practicality, reasonable strength, and low pricepoint. Rorix Bladewing is a card I came back and added to this deck as soon as I learned it existed, because the thing is freaking sweet. A 6/5 haste Flier is a goddamned beating, and a hell of a way to teach new players that dragons are fun. Spawn of Thraxes, in the sideboard, serves as an extended top-end, and turns your mountain count into a weapon against your opponents, though it usually won't hit for that much.
As far as ramp options go, I went against 1-mana mana dorks, because WotC has stopped printing them, and they're a bit fast, so I went with Dragonlord's servant and Druid of the Cowl, those two specifically because of price and statline- Both of them can take some damage, including your own boardwipe.
Farseek, Rampant Growth, Font of Fertility and Nissa's Pilgrimage all put lands onto the battlefield (And are the only ramp spells cheap enough for me to run, I'm looking at you Explosive Vegetation), so from turn 2 onward, players should be accelerating exponentially. I left in 3 of each plus an additional copy of each in the sideboard so players can mix-and-match their ramp spells to figure out which ones they like, which ones they think are best in whatever matchup, etc, and generally gives the players a little agency to customize their decks with. Something I'm trying to add a little more of to these decks.
You also have Lightning Strike and Pyroclasm, as two classic red spells that can help you stay alive long enough to play your dragons.
Manabase is meant to be a touch lacking, but also super-budget. I'll be doing the same for all of them.
Sideboard is relatively simple options- Spawn of Thraxes adds to your number of threats against control decks that run more answers than you run dragons, and Fog keeps you alive, and I recently was able to discover some non-pyroclasm red boardclears that are in-budget, namely Slagstorm, which is a powerful, but will blow up your own mana dorks, so it's something you have to be careful about.