Building Dragonstorm in 2010

Ok, I'll admit it up front; I love me some Storm decks. I love the ridiculous nature of playing a one-sided game of Magic that is entirely unfair for your opponent, whose sole interaction is to hope they get away with whatever they're trying to achieve before they die.

With Tendrils of Agony and Brain Freeze rotating out of Extended, Dragonstorm will be the immediate go-to card of Storm lovers. As such I think it's important to look at three Storm Decks of yore.

* Mihara’s Dragonstorm Deck of 2006
* Gabriel Nassif, Mark Herberholz, and Patrick Chapin's Mono-R Dragonstorm of 2007
* Luis Scott-Vargas's Grand Prix Los Angeles TEPS of 2009

And here they are (sideboards excluded):

Mihara’s Dragonstorm Deck of 2006

4 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Hunted Dragon
4 Dragonstorm
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song

4 Remand
4 Gigadrowse
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Telling Time

4 Lotus Bloom

1 Dreadship Reef
1 Calciform Pools
4 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents
8 Island
4 Mountain

Gabriel Nassif, Mark Herberholz, and Patrick Chapin's Mono-R Dragonstorm of 2007

4 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Dragonstorm
4 Rite of Flame
4 Shock
4 Rift Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Grapeshot
4 Pyromancer’s Swath

4 Lotus Bloom

4 Molten Slagheap
4 Fungal Reaches
4 Spinerock Knoll
12 Snow-covered Mountain

Luis Scott-Vargas's Grand Prix Los Angeles TEPS of 2009

4 Desperate Ritual
2 Electrolyze
4 Manamorphose
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Remand
4 Seething Song
4 Mind's Desire [no longer be in Extended post rotation]
4 Ponder
4 Rite of Flame
2 Sleight of Hand
2 Tendrils of Agony [no longer be in Extended post rotation]

4 Lotus Bloom

3 Cascade Bluffs
4 Dreadship Reef
3 Flooded Strand
2 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents

Using this information, I'm going to build the framework of a core Dragonstorm deck.

Firstly, there are only a handful of cards that all three decks have in common.

Lotus Bloom [12]
Rite of Flame [12]
Bogardan Hellkite [12]
Dragonstorm [12]

Considering that Dragonstorm is a nine-mana card I find it amazing that the 2007 Mono-R deck had no other mana acceleration. Here are the other mana accelerants the 2006 and 2009 decks played:

Seething Song [8]
Desperate Ritual [8]

Storage Lands

Dreadship Reef [6]
Molten Slagheap [4]
Fungal Reaches [4]
Calciform Pools [1]

Here are the various straight burn/removal spells the decks played

Shock [4]
Rift Bolt [4]
Incinerate [4]
Grapeshot [4]
Electrolyze [2]
Pyromancer’s Swath [4]

Tutors / Search

Sleight of Hand [6]
Telling Time [4]
Peer Through Depths [4]
Ponder [4]

Control Elements

Remand [8]
Gigadrowse [4]

Storm Count Enablers

Manamorphose [4]
Spinerock Knoll [4]

The main question when looking at Dragonstorm in 2009/10 is whether to go R/U, R/B or mono-R. After considering the benefits of going multi-coloured and mono-coloured, I believe mono-coloured has the slight edge in speed and flexibility. It also allows the deck to run a very sweet set of sideboard cards. Here's my suggested deck.

2010 DETERMINEDLY-RED EXTENDED DRAGONSTORM [DRED] by Neale Talbot

MAIN DECK

[6 Creatures]

4 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Knollspine Dragon

[16 Sorceries]

4 Dragonstorm
4 Grapeshot
4 Rift Bolt
4 Rite of Flame

[12 Instants]

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Shock
4 Seething Song

[4 Enchantments]

4 Pyromancer's Swath

[4 Artifacts]

4 Lotus Bloom

[18 Lands]

4 Fungal Reaches
4 Molten Slagheap
4 Spinerock Knoll
6 Snow-Covered Mountain

SIDEBOARD

4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Ancient Grudge
4 Blood Moon
3 Skred

The two biggest additions to the suite are Lightning Bolt and Knollspine Dragon.

* Lightning Bolt is a straight upgrade of Incinerate. Pyromancer's Swatch turns Lightning Bolt into a 1 mana instant Lava Axe. It is truly an unfair card.
* Knollspine Dragon is the tech you heard here first. It's the card drawing game finisher this type of deck is begging for. Hidden under a Spinerock Knoll, or brought in using the last of the Dragonstorm, Knollspine Dragon will bring in at least 5-7 cards. This can be critical if you can only storm for 3. Bringing in two Hellkites and a single Knollspine will net you a full hand, which is simply insane in this deck.

The current struggle I have is whether Shock, Incinerate or Desperate Ritual are better in that slot. Shock certainly works better with Pyromancer's Swath, building storm count and triggering the Spinerock Knoll, which is simply an unfair card in this deck with either a Dragonstorm or a Knollspine Dragon underneath it. However the 18 lands puts extra pressure on having the Desperate Rituals around.

The sideboard tech is simple.

* Ancient Grudge is a nod to Chalice of the Void and Affinity.
* Volcanic Fallout is to deal with those pesky elves, faeries and token decks.
* Blood Moon is an all-round star in making the day of almost any extended deck other than RDW miserable.
* Skred is for extra removal, and is probably the weakest sideboard card. Magus of the Moon might be the better card.

And there you have it, DRED, now with more Lightning Bolts and Knollspine Dragons. Let me know what you think either on Twitter or in the comments.