Tarkir: Dragonstorm was an awesome set for Dragon enthusiasts. In addition to bringing a bunch of bombs to the table, a multitude of thematic payoffs (like the Dragonstorm Enchantment cycle) helped these Dragons make an impact on Constructed.
Even still, one thing that was not on our bingo card was seeing these Dragons and Dragon payoffs make a splash in Legacy. Yet, yesterday, a sweet Esper Dragons brew made it all the way to the semifinals of a Magic Online Legacy Challenge. This deck successfully blends a lot of ideas from traditional Dimir tempo decklists with these new elements, which is cool to see.
Esper Dragons Package
In a format as powerful as Legacy, you can’t afford to play too many expensive cards in your deck. After all, Daze and Wasteland are format-defining cards that are built to constrict your mana and punish greedy strategies.
As such, the range of Dragons that you can utilize in your deck is very small. Fortunately, there are a couple Dragons that can be cast on the cheap.
The first one is a new addition from Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Clarion Conqueror doesn’t have the best stats out there, since you run the risk of getting your three-drop tagged by Lightning Bolt. However, there are a number of decks that are heavily affected by Clarion Conqueror’s text box.
Clarion Conqueror successfully shuts off The One Ring and any mana rocks out of Artifact-centric strategies. Meanwhile, Cephalid Breakfast decks won’t be able to activate Nomads en-Kor with Clarion Conqueror in play. The card is a bit mediocre versus other tempo decks, but even messing with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares can be a pain.
On top of Clarion Conqueror, this deck also gets to abuse the power of Murktide Regent. Murktide Regent has been a Legacy staple for quite some time. This enormous flier can be cast for as little as two mana, yet it’s immune to Fatal Push and outclasses damage-based removal spells.
The Dragon package is small here, but the presence of a couple copies of Clarion Conqueror, Murktide Regent, and one copy of Marang River Regent (which serves as a solid Reanimate target) is more than enough to help maximize Roiling Dragonstorm.
Roiling Dragonstorm is the main Dragon payoff here that can completely take over grindy games. At two mana, it’s easy to find a window to cast early on. From there, following up with any Dragon lets you bounce it back to your hand and get additional value.
Sometimes, you’ll simply discard a Dragon to Roiling Dragonstorm to set up Reanimate and get back one of your Dragons for just one mana. Roiling Dragonstorm is a great reward for playing just a few Dragons in your deck.
Esper Tempo Plan
While the Dragons package is a bit out of the ordinary, this deck is still built to use tempo to its advantage, just like the Dimir decks. Thoughtseize and Force of Will do a great job keeping opposing combo decks in check. Wasteland and Daze help further push your advantage once you’ve begun to develop your board.
To smooth out your draws, Brainstorm and Ponder are as good as they come. In conjunction with Fetchlands, Brainstorm even lets you shuffle away cards you don’t want. This only further reduces the opportunity cost of putting a narrow Dragon like Clarion Conqueror in your deck. You have plenty of ways to dig for it and drawing it in matchups where it isn’t at its best isn’t the end of the world.
Just like traditional Dimir decklists, both Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student and Orcish Bowmasters make an appearance here as well. Following up Tamiyo with Roiling Dragonstorm is a great way to transform it alongside your draw step.
Because you’re splashing white already for Clarion Conqueror, it makes sense to abuse the power of Swords to Plowshares, too. Swords answers everything Fatal Push does while also dealing with Murktide Regent, Marit Lage tokens, and beyond.
Metagame Decisions
The Esper Dragons package is certainly a really cool inclusion in this shell. The question is, is it worth it? At a baseline, it partly depends on the metagame you expect.
Versus classic Dimir tempo and Dimir Reanimator, adding a third color in the face of Wasteland is far from ideal. Roiling Dragonstorm is a great card but matches up poorly in the face of Orcish Bowmasters.
On top of that, resolving Clarion Conqueror versus Daze is easier said than done. Having Swords to Plowshares on your side does give you an edge in the Murktide Regent mirror, but you have to be very careful with how you Fetch so you don’t get stripped off of a color. You do have a better shot playing the long game with Roiling Dragonstorm. Ultimately, the matchup versus Dimir seems very close either way.
Where you get the edge is versus decks where the Dragon package shines. Roiling Dragonstorm is strong against grindy matchups like Up the Beanstalk control. Clarion Conqueror is a great disruptive piece versus Cephalid Breakfast, Painter’s Servant combo, and Mystic Forge combo, the last of which seems to have increased in popularity recently.
Where playing a third color and a less streamlined, clunkier tempo deck can come to bite you is when you’re facing down red Stompy. Red Stompy is built to punish greedy manabases with Blood Moon effects. Dimir Tempo can more reliably fetch basic Lands and apply early pressure with Nethergoyf.
So, your best bet when deciding whether Esper Dragons is worth playing is to think about what decks you expect to play against the most. Seeing Roiling Dragonstorm and friends make a splash in Legacy in any capacity is awesome, and we look forward to seeing if the deck can continue to put up results in the future.
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