Hello everyone! Today we're revisiting an old favorite and seeing if Ravnica Allegiance did anything for it. You might've figured it out from the title, but I'm talking about Izzet Drakes. Some lists have been adopting Pteramanders, but that's the most innovation I've seen. The deck did not really gain much if we don't play a third color. So, I wanted to test out splashing Green in Izzet Drakes to make it Temur Drakes. Green gives us the powerful Growth Spiral which allows us to play Crackling Drake and even Niv-Mizzet, Parun a turn earlier. On top of Growth Spiral, it gives us another powerful flier in Hydroid Krasis. Obviously Hydroid Krasis is a powerful card, but it needs a significant amount of mana to get going. So, I've also increased the land count from 21-22 to 25. This should allow us to Growth Spiral and hit lands more consistently while also giving us big Hydroid Krasi in the late game.

This is the list I settled on.

Temur Drakes | Allegiance Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Creatures (9)
• 3 Hydroid Krasis
• 4 Crackling Drake
• 2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun

• Instants (18)
• 3 Dive Down
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 4 Growth Spiral
• 4 Opt
• 4 Shock

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Chart a Course
• 4 Lava Coil

• Lands (25)
• 1 Island
• 4 Mountain
• 2 Rootbound Crag
• 2 Stomping Ground
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 3 Fiery Cannonade
• 2 Crushing Canopy
• 2 Entrancing Melody
• 1 Star of Extinction
• 1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
• 1 Banefire
• 1 Negate
• 1 Search for Azcanta
• 1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy

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Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:01:47

Match 2 - 00:18:30

Match 3 - 00:42:10

Match 4 - 01:13:40

Not bad for our first run. Usually after a couple of matches I can pinpoint what the deck needs, but I couldn't really figure that out here. I'm not entirely sure that splashing Green in this deck is correct, even with powerful cards such as Growth Spiral and Hydroid Krasis. The consistency of just straight is very important. I'm not the best Drakes player so maybe someone else can take this shell and make it better. I do believe it is a very good starting point for Temur Drakes. It's possible that lowering the curve and playing Pteramanders or Enigma Drake is the way to go. Maybe Treasure Map and the fourth Krasis is the way to go; that would allow you to get faster Niv-Mizzets and Bigger Hydroid Krasi. It really depends on how the metagame I think. If Mono-White and Mono-Red are the biggest decks you run into than a White splash for Deafening Clarion would most likely be best.

That's it for me! Hope you enjoyed this little brew and the video. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and I'll see you next week!

As always, thanks for reading,

Ali Aintrazi

Follow me @AliEldrazi

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