With Dragons of Tarkir, we saw the introduction of powerful cards like Dragonlord Ojutai and Silumgar's Scorn into Standard, and ever since we’ve seen Blue-based Dragons decks using Silumgar's Scorn and efficient removal to control the early game before you can start jamming Dragons to take over. Those decks have largely been very controlling Esper builds, featuring Dragonlord Silumgar and sweepers. But that’s not the only shell capable of taking advantage of the Dragon engine. Take a look at this Jeskai variant on the strategy from JLED:

Jeskai Dragons ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | JLED, 5-0 Standard League

• Creatures (17)
• 2 Reflector Mage
• 3 Dragonlord Ojutai
• 4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• 4 Sin Prodder
• 4 Thunderbreak Regent

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Flamecaller

• Spells (16)
• 1 Lightning Axe
• 2 Fiery Impulse
• 4 Draconic Roar
• 4 Fiery Temper
• 4 Silumgar's Scorn
• 1 Declaration in Stone

• Lands (26)
• 1 Plains
• 3 Island
• 3 Mountain
• 1 Needle Spires
• 3 Battlefield Forge
• 3 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Prairie Stream
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Wandering Fumarole

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Dispel
• 4 Fevered Visions
• 2 Negate
• 3 Radiant Flames
• 2 Rending Volley
• 2 Roast
• 1 Tears of Valakut

Buy This Deck

This is a much more aggressive slant on the archetype than the Esper variants focused on controlling the early game and then tempoing opponents out. A huge part of the power of this deck is its ability to represent both removal and Silumgar's Scorn as early as turn 2, which puts your opponent into an uncomfortable position where they have to decide which effect they want to play into. It’s easy to stay ahead in the early game by utilizing combinations like Lightning Axe plus Fiery Temper or Draconic Roar plus Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. These combinations let you keep the board clear and get some chip damage in the early game before you start casting Dragons to apply pressure.

Cards like Reflector Mage and Sin Prodder help to generate incremental advantage in the middle turns of the game. Reflector Mage is great on both defense and offense, while Sin Prodder is a great attacker which also threatens to hit your opponent for a couple points of damage every couple of turns while you draw cards.

Then there’s the headliners of the deck: Thunderbreak Regent and Dragonlord Ojutai. Thunderbreak Regent is another powerful tempo play capable of either killing your opponent in a hurry or getting you a little further ahead if they use their removal spells. On the other end of the spectrum, Dragonlord Ojutai comes down as an incredible blocker which also threatens to get in for huge chunks of damage and generate value.

If Bant Company continues to be a big player in the metagame, this deck is a fantastic choice. The combination of efficient interaction and powerful fliers is enormously difficult for Bant Company to overcome. You have the ability to kill all of their creatures early, have main deck counter magic for Collected Company, and have powerful fliers to chip away at the opponent’s life total. If things shift further toward decks like Seasons Past or Esper Dragons, this becomes a less exciting call for the metagame. But, until that shift happens this deck seems absolutely awesome.