I was outside the tavern with my mead reading Singed Finger Tips: A History of Red Mages in Kaldheim when I saw the most curious thing: a pirate bolting down the road, a monkey on her shoulder, both carrying untold fortunes in jewels and gold. I cried out, "Miss Pirate, what are you and your monkey running from?"

The pirate paid me no attention, but the monkey screamed back "I'm not a monkey, I'm a goblin!" Following suit a few seconds after was a hardy dwarf lugging a chest overfilling with shiny trinkets who yelled to me:

"Look to the sky, mage, and flee if you've any sense!" I raised my head and beheld a dreadful sight: a crimson dragon flying straight towards us all, a sword wrapped in lightning in its claws...

Kaldheim brought us one of the best red cards we've seen in awhile: [[Goldspan Dragon]]. It is popular in standard and used in shells such as UR Tempo and RDW. I originally saw Goldspan and [[Magda, Brazen Outlaw]] and thought to myself "what if I can tutor out big dragons in Historic?". So I set out to brew. What I found while playing my janky dragon tutor deck was that I actually had a strong red aggro deck that was versatile post-sideboarding. Furthermore, it is a fun and unique style of aggro. I have hit Mythic with this deck:

Deck

4 Magda, Brazen Outlaw (KHM) 142

4 Captain Lannery Storm (XLN) 136

4 Wily Goblin (XLN) 174

4 Goldspan Dragon (KHM) 139

3 Glorybringer (AKR) 157

4 Showdown of the Skalds (KHM) 229

3 Forging the Tyrite Sword (KHM) 211

3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance (KLR) 117

4 Lightning Strike (M19) 152

2 Embercleave (ELD) 120

1 Banefire (M19) 130

4 Sacred Foundry (GRN) 254

4 Clifftop Retreat (DAR) 239

9 Mountain (JMP) 62

4 Needleverge Pathway (ZNR) 263

3 Crawling Barrens (ZNR) 262

Sideboard

2 The Akroan War (THB) 124

4 Light of Hope (IKO) 20

4 Cinderclasm (ZNR) 136

3 Grafdigger's Cage (M20) 227

2 Banefire (M19) 130

The Cards

[[Magda, Brazen Outlaw]]: I originally intended her to be the main engine of the deck to tutor out creatures like Drakuseth or Darigaaz. Unfortunately, she's probably the weakest creature in this deck. Creatures that do nothing the turn they come out are almost never worth playing in red, and is a prime target for removal. Often you use her to just get one treasure token on the board, swinging her sideways into chump blockers. However, in the late game dropping her to tutor out a dragon or Embercleave is a viable strategy.

[[Captain Lannery Storm]]: An absolute powerhouse. She is an incredible card that most opponents underestimate. She generates tokens and we can pump her up by saccing treasures. Best of all: she has haste. You never hate to see her.

[[Wily Goblin]]: Contrary to popular belief, not monke. Wily Goblin gives you a treasure and a body to chump block or swing with. That's it.

[[Goldspan Dragon]]: Lightning Bolt 1 and Ramp. Goldspan hits hard, produces treasures and enables us to play fun aggro cards WAY ahead of the curve. You can easily get her out on T4 given treasure generation, and if you swing with either Magda or Lannery, you can also enable Embercleave T4. Post-combat main phase we can play things like Showdown or Chandra due to the ramp provided by Goldspan.

[[Glorybringer]]: Glorybringer is a useful body to swing with and has the added bonus of being able to remove pesky blockers if need be.

[[Forging the Tyrite Sword]]: Ramp and gives us Embercleave. Not much else to say.

[[Showdown of the Skalds]]: Impulsive draw is my favorite red mechanic aside from dealing damage to any target. With the oodles of lands and treasure tokens, we can easily play cards that we exile and get a boatload of 1/ 1 counters from it.

[[Chandra, Torch of Defiance]]: There is a hole in the deck, which I had trouble filling. Chandra fit the bill. Basically I needed something that could help tide me over if I couldn't get a T4 win and couldn't hit Showdown. Chandra is good, though is one of the first cards to sideboard out. Helps us when we top deck and can get that last bit of going to face we need.

[[Embercleave]]: Can easily get this out of our deck with Forging, impulsive draw or Magda. Don't need to explain why it is good.

[[Lightning Strike]]: Sometimes you just need a little something-something to kill your opponent. Since we don't have Bolt, we have Strike. It goes to face (as everything should). Often it goes to face because of Goldspan dragon for a nice 7 damage to face.

[[Banefire]]: Can easily be cast for a ton of damage and is uncounterable. It goes to face (as everything should).

[[Crawling Barrens]]: An absolute fantastic card. If your opponent can remove your creatures or counter your spells, you can use your multitude of lands and treasures to beef this bad boy up. Often, you can get away with just swinging with this guy every turn if it is too risky to play your creatures.

[[Mountain]]: As a wise man once said, the best land in MTG. You specifically must play the Dargon themed Jumpstart Moutains or you won't ever top deck lethal.

Exclusions:

Terror of the peaks/other non-hasty big bois. If a card does nothing the turn it comes out it is worthless. Period. No Terror of the Peaks, no Bonecrusher Giant, no nothing. We go to face and we go to face in the air or by sea with Lannery and an Embercleave.

How to play the deck

The deck is rather straightforward: you ramp to Ugin to hasty dragons and lots of cards. The main strategy is to play Goldspan Dragon or Glorybringer on Turn 4 after generating treasures on turns 2 and 3. Often, you can eke out T4 wins by playing Captain Lannery Storm on T3, Goldspan on T4 and then playing Embercleave on Lannery. The real decision making comes on T2 and T3. Often you must decide between Wily Goblin or Magda on T2, and Lannery or Forging on T3. Otherwise, you go to face and never stop going to face. You are on a clock in historic and you must pressure your opponent.

All the other cards are there to support your goal of getting dragons onto the field. Furthermore, with the token generation, you can get lots of value from Showdown of the Skalds.

Matchups:

Now that Uro is gone, there is a lot of diversity. However, I will discuss some general matchups and favorability.

Elves and Gobbos: Highly favored. You will most likely lose the first round and will only win post sideboard. You are never the beatdown against Elves or Gobbos. You need to sideboard in Cinderclasm and Grafdiggers cage. You need to mulligan to get a Cinderclasm or believe in the heart of the cards. Gradigger's cage stops Muxus, CoCo and that Changeling people play in Elves. -3 Chandra, -1 Magda, -1 Banefire, -2 Embercleave, 4 Cinderclasm 3 Grafdigger's Cage.

Control: Slightly Favored. You are the beatdown. You often won't be able to resolve spells. Ergo, Embercleave is not useful (you don't need to go through chump blockers or anything anyway). If you resolve a creature, you don't need to go wide. Make control one-for-one their removal spells like Wrath or Doomskar and one of your creatures. Banefire for lethal. -2 Embercleave, 2 Banefire. If they are playing lots of enchantment based removal or Authority of the Consuls, 4 Light of Hope, -1 Chandra, -2 Magda, -1 Forging,

Angels: Unfavored. Angels is tough. I still don't know the right sideboarding for this, and often you will lose. If you are playing against CoCo angels, sideboard in Grafdigger's and out 2 Magda and 1 Wily Goblin.

RDW: Slightly Favored. So long as the deck doesn't go wide you can easily chump or use Strike for removal (though try to go face). -1 Chandra, -1 Magda 3 Cinderclasm (if going wide, otherwise no need to change).

Young Peezy/Rakdos Sac/Jund Food: Neutral. Bring in Grafdiggers and Cinderclasm, and hope for the best. -3 Chandra, -1 Banefire, -2 Embercleave, -1 Magda, 4 Cinderclasm 3 Grafdigger's Cage.

I would love to hear your feedback. I think that this is a fun and unique deck in a format that will coalesce around a few decks in a short time (I am sure) now that Uro is banned. FWIW, I went from Bronze to Diamond 4 with this deck (earlier iterations that weren't as good since I didn't have wildcards) all while playing Sultai Midrange.