Locations
Welcome back!
If you happened to miss it, be sure to check out part one of our best Dragons list. Today we're continuing with eight more Dragons from Magic's history. These lists are a combination of cool, iconic, powerful, and competitive Dragons, so they could have come from anywhere on the Magic spectrum. There will be one more part after this, for a total of 24 awesome Dragons, so be sure and keep an eye out for it!
Let's get started!
Goldspan Dragon
Goldspan Dragon fills in another spot on a long list of 4/4 Dragons for five mana with haste and a powerful ability. Similar to Glorybringer, Goldspan also had a text box that caused it to see a ton of play. Not only did it make a Treasure token every time it attacked or your opponent tried to remove it. It also caused all your Treasures to make two mana when you sacrifice them. This could end up being a huge mana boost, and often allowed the Dragon's controller to keep up a counterspell the same turn it was cast!
Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient
There are so many expensive Dragons that ended up coming out of the D&D-based sets, like Forgotten Realms Commander. Take Klauth, for example. It's like a $40 card now!
It also feels very similar to cards like Ancient Copper Dragon in that it's giving you mana equivalent to what you're attacking for. Apparently that's a highly sought after ability in Commander. Who knew? I mean, if you attack with 15 power worth of creatures, Klauth is giving you 15 mana, and that's kind of wild. Even attacking with only Klauth nets you four mana just by turning it sideways. One theme I've noticed is that the Dragons that can net you an exorbitant amount of mana are typically pretty pricey.
Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Korvold appeared along with 19 other Brawl cards that were released alongside Throne of Eldraine. Chulane, Teller of Tales was one of my favorite cards from this batch, but Korvold was also very cool. It was great having Standard-playable cards that were great build-arounds, which Korvold most definitely was, being a centerpiece of Standard sacrifice decks. Now Korvold is relegated to Pioneer, where it's something of a mainstay.
Murktide Regent
This guy has been a powerhouse since the moment it appeared in Modern Horizons 2. Hovering around $10 a copy with numerous versions, Murktide has been an all-star in both Modern and Legacy since the day it was printed.
Big creatures with delve tend to always find a home somewhere - creatures such as Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Gurmag Angler, for example - but the fact that Murktide Regent has flying and can get larger when instants and sorceries leave your graveyard put it head and shoulders above many of the other available options. A potential 7/7 flier for two mana can close out a game pretty quickly.
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager is one of my favorite creatures, as well as one of my favorite versions of Nicol Bolas. I'm just kind of a sucker for four-mana creatures with good stats and great abilities. I was tempted to include the other versions of Nicol Bolas on the list, but the other creature version isn't very good, and the ones that aren't creatures are planeswalkers, so it kind of felt like cheating.
That being said, I love all three of the Nicol Bolas planeswalkers, and thankfully, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, along with being a creature that forces a discard from your opponent, is also a planeswalker! While The Ravager has never been a format-defining powerhouse in Constructed formats, he did see a good deal of fringe play in Grixis decks. I think the card's colors ended up making it fairly prohibitive, despite the strength of both of its sides.
The Niv-Mizzets
On the other hand, every version of Niv-Mizzet is a creature! And much to everyone's shock (or at least my own shock), there have actually been seven versions of Niv-Mizzet printed. Most of these have seen some amount of play, and I'm sure a ton of them have been really popular in Commander as well.
I think some of the best versions have been:
- Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, which created an infinite combo with cards like Curiosity
- Niv-Mizzet, Parun; Niv-Mizzet, Supreme; and Niv-Mizzet Reborn, which are all currently Pioneer staples
- Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, which saw a good deal of play in Standard when it was legal back in 2012.
So that's actually five out of the seven versions of Niv, with the only two that didn't see much play being the new Foundations version, Niv-Mizzet, Visionary, and the Murders at Karlov Manor version, Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact. That's a pretty solid track record.
Old Gnawbone
Remember what I said about the Dungeons & Dragons sets having these ridiculously OP Dragons in them? Old Gnawbone is straight out of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and if you hadn't noticed, it's basically what happens if Ancient Copper Dragon and Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient had a baby.
You can just slap this guy down, then attack for however much damage and make that many Treasures. If Lord of the Rings taught us anything, it's that Dragons love treasure, and boy, do the D&D sets love making huge, expensive Dragons that give 'em to us.
Rith, the Awakener
I'm pretty sure Rith, the Awakener was popularized by none other than Brian Kibler back in 2000. Wow, that was 25 years ago. At Pro Tour Chicago he made the Top 4 with a Naya deck, fittingly named Red Zone. It was a deck focused on beating down with aggressive Red and Green creatures, with a couple copies of Rith, the Awakener as the top end. While most decks chose to run Fires of Yavimaya to give their armies haste, Brian chose to eschew the popular enchantment.
While Rith has not really been seen since those days, she was included in several other successful aggressive decks of the time after appearing in Kibler's Red Zone.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
