What would any fantasy game be without dragons? From Shivan Dragon to Spinerock Tyrant, they've been in pretty much every single Magic set and they have a solid competitive history to match.

Let's begin, because we have a lot to get through.

Best Dragons for Competition Play

There are nearly 400 dragon cards in Magic: The Gathering and they all come with a host of unique abilities, like Haste, which allows them to attack as soon as they enter the battlefield instead of entering tapped; or Vigilance, which allows them to attack without being tapped, so they're still available to Block instead of waiting for your next upkeep.

There are so many powerful dragons that I struggled to narrow it down this much. Now, let's take a walk down memory lane.

Shivan Dragon

The original and, once upon a time, the best. Even in the earliest days of Magic, Shivan Dragon wasn't the most efficient creature available, but it was good enough to see play at Worlds in both 1994 and 1995. It even won US Nationals in '95. Long since outclassed, it's nice to see that the original fire breather did, at one point, see serious tournament play.

Rith, The Awakener

This entire cycle was cool as hell back in the day, but only a couple of them saw competitive play and only Rith put up multiple tournament top-eights. Often good friends with Fires of Yavimaya, hitting for six hasty damage and creating multiple saprolings could put a game out of reach very quickly.

Furnace Dragon

A sideboard superstar. I couldn't find a single example of this being a main deck card, but in the era of origi-nal affinity, it was all over the sub's bench. That standard format was so inbred that affinity decks would side this in in the mirror as a reset button; a reset button that leaves you with a 5/5 flier. It even won Pro Tour Kobe and appeared in several other notable block constructed decks at that tournament.

Dragons of Tarkir Elder Dragons

While the five legends from Dragons of Tarkir didn't necessarily see equal amounts of play, all of them saw some play in various formats. Dragonlord Silumgar, and Dragonlord Ojutai were the most popular in Standard, but Dragonlord Dromoka and Dragonlord Artarka both saw success in Modern and skipped straight to Vintage where it was staple of dredge decks for several years.

Numot, the Devastator

Before he picked up a sillier title and became a streamer, Numot was devastating standard in 2007. It was a huge player at Nationals that year, winning in both France and Canada, with a second-place finish in the US. Unfortunately, Worlds that year was Legacy, so Numot's time in the limelight was short-lived, but it burned bright for a while.

Broodmate Dragon

Despite being a big part in a classic moment in Magic history, Broodmate Drag-on found most of its success in Standard after that year's rotation. It became a staple of Jund decks, winning both Pro Tour San Diego and GP Brussels. It had a slate of top-eight finishes to boot and Gabriel Nassif went on to win Pro Tour Kyoto - the tournament featured in the clip above.

Keiga, Kokusho, Yosei

The trio of Esper Dragons from Champions of Kamigawa were integral parts of standard during their time. Sadly, their Gruul Brethren were mostly left out in the cold, but this trifecta appeared in several top-tier decks of the era. Kokusho, the Evening Star and Yosei, the Morning Star were usually being brought back to life in Solar Flare decks while Keiga was more likely to be cast the old-fashioned way in a control or Tron deck.

Goldspan Dragon

This card was absolutely everywhere during its time in Standard. There are over 700 entries on mtgtop8.com and that's when you ignore the "Competitive" and "Regular" categories. From Gruul Aggro to Izzet Control, and with plenty of midrange in between, this might be the most played dragon of all time, at least in Standard. Not only that, but it had a ton of tournament success, with so many wins and top-eights that I can't list them all in this one article.

Murktide Regent

Despite only being legal in older formats, the regent beats out Goldspan Dragon in terms of being the most played dragon of all time. This card continues to be a tournament staple in both Modern and Legacy, and even shows up from time-to-time in Vintage. Even if we limit ourselves to only professional events, there are more Murktide decks than you can shake a stick at.

Bogardan Hellkite

Compared to some of the more recent cards above, Hellkite doesn't look as impressive on paper. But when you consider the fact that there were far, far fewer tournaments back in its time in Standard, you see why this card mattered a lot. It was played in Dragonstorm decks that won Worlds in 2006 and came 2ndin 2007. It was card "fairly" in the GP Kyoto winning Tron deck and showed up in some actual fair decks occasionally. If we had Arena in 2007, it would have been all over that ladder, too.

Ao, the Dawn Sky

By far the most widely played of the legendary dragons from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, Ao, the Dawn Sky showed up in a whole bunch of aggressive White decks when first released but really settled into a niche in the Esper Legends decks of the era. Like a lot of cards in that deck, Ao never made it to bigger formats, but it was a big player in Standard for most of its life.

Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Niv-Mizzet has been around the block, but typically, he hasn't achieved all that much in competitive play. But in 2018, he was, for a while, one of the most important creature in Standard. Firstly, in Jeskai Control, he was an un-counterable, hard-to-remove threat, helping Luis Salvatto win player of the year. He went on to appear in all kinds of decks, most notably in Temur Reclamation.

Terror of the Peaks

An appropriately named card. This is currently the combo finisher for a few Standard decks, just like it was during its initial Standard run. Putting this into play with more than enough power to kill your opponents in one turn is the typical use case, but there have been decks that play this as the top end of a fair deck, too.

Shiko, Paragon of the Way

This is an interesting one. Shiko shows up in a lot for a card that is relatively new, but it doesn't seem to win that many events. It has a few first-place finishes in lesser tournaments and a few top-eights here and there, but it's still yet to have a true breakout showing. Still, people keep trying.

Glorybringer

I was surprised to find that this card was actually played in Modern for a while, but this card is definitely best known for its domination of Standard. Glorybringer lived up to its name, earning Javier Dominguez a World title that led to the creation of Fervent Champion. But the five-drop was all over Standard, including multiple PT successes and multiple GP wins. Oh, and it won Worlds not just once but twice.

Stormbreath Dragon

Another five-drop dragon with tournament pedigree. This one was extremely difficult to deal with and was a control killer back in original Theros. Several GP wins attest to this card's power in that format, but did you know it also won a Modern GP? Dallas 2016, in a Skred Red deck with more than a little help from Blood Moon.

Korvold, Fae-Cursed King

Once synonymous with the food/sacrifice decks of a few years ago. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King is another dragon that made a bit of a dent in older formats. Granted, that format was Pioneer and he's since been left behind there, too, but Korvold was huge in Standard for the entire time he was legal.

Thundermaw Hellkite

Nice Lingering Souls, buddy. This beefy boy terrorized Standard upon his 2012 release. Killing important creatures and tokens, getting blockers out of the way, and immediately hitting an opponent for a quarter of their starting life total. Control players still have nightmares about this card today.

Conclusion

It was a bit of a longer list today, but that's because there are just so many good dragons in Magic's history.

There are definitely some that I left out that you think should be on here. Even though this article has been much longer than others in the series, I had to trim a few that could have easily made the cut. We're already at 18, and that's including a couple of cheater categories where I squished a cycle together!