I’ve really been enjoying Dragon-y Tarkir (note: significantly more dragon-y than Dragons of Tarkir). Even though I’ve been doing *a lot* of losing, and my boys in Abzan are just getting mauled, there’s great gameplay and I’m just a sucker for the flavor/art. That said, I did stitch together a very *very* low to the ground, unique-feeling deck.

Boros aggression is one of the top decks in the format, feasting on the durdling 5-color decks and the slower value engines. But it does most of its work with Mobilize tokens, the Salt Road Packbeast and key uncommons. Not this.

Also, uh, where are the islands?

I’d like you to meet my personal best friend, Jeskai Devotee

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s an incredible mana fixer that can also attack as a 3/3 with relatively little work. But having five (5) of them allowed me to splash some good blue cards with confidence while not compromising my manabase. So I could throw in good blue cards, go heavy mountains and cut my lands down to 15 pretty confidently.

The deck’s modus operandi was “six turns or less”. Early Devotees had relatively fearless attacks against the 2/1s that infest this format. And there was some hilarious burst moments. One game I attacked with three Devotees. Oppo didn’t have good blocks, so didn’t. Two Rebellious Strikes took them from 15 to dead in one turn. Felt good!

The surprise MVP was Frostcliff Siege, Temur mode. It was very difficult for me not to choose “draw more cards”, but the +1/+0, haste & trample were shockingly relevant in pushing damage through. One game I cast that and Rally the Monastery in the same turn, triggering all the flurry and sending 4/3 Devotees and 2/1 monks into the red zone as well. All on turn five.