NOTE: After writing this it was brought to my attention that Jeff Hoogland Top 16'd the SCG Invitational with a similar deck. While I like a number of things about my list more than his, but I definitely blanked on Dragonlord's Prerogative. I'm not a fan of his Icefall Regents, though they are quite strong. Crater's Claws was something I considered but am not in love with. I would make room for one or two Perogatives in the board, however. Probably over the Roast and one of the counterspells.

Very often in Magic we see new cards printed as "fixed" versions of older cards. While a card like Shock serves as a fixed Lightning Bolt while still being playable, more often we see things like Treasure Cruise as a "fixed" Ancestral Recall that's still totally busted.

WotC has made it clear that they don't want us to have Counterspell anymore, but they did just give us Silumgar's Scorn.

This card has some clear downside when compared to Counterspell. Force Spike is very easy to play around and every Standard-legal dragon puts some pressure on a deck's manacurve. Even still, we saw Silumgar's Scorn show up in control deck's at the Richmond Invitational this weekend, most notably in the hands of Shaheen Soorani.

Even with these drawbacks, the card looked quite good.

I think that Shaheen was only scratching the surface of the card's potential. When a card has considerably drawbacks, it tends to shine brightest in a deck that finds a way to negate these drawbacks. For Silumgar's Scorn, this means finding the deck that can kill fast enough to make Force Spike the most effective in addition to playing the most possible dragons.

For my money, that means pairing the card with this roster of heavy-hitters:

These cards all singularly put a lot of pressure on the opponent's life total, making Force Spike more relevant, with the two dragons offering the straight upgrade to Counterspell.

An argument can be made for just playing burn spells or Anger of the Gods maindeck in lieu of Rabblemaster, but I believe it's probably necessary to have the extra win condition. It does weaken the deck to Wild Slash, but, ultimately, Anger has a higher chance to be bad than Rabblemaster is.

With these four cards lined up, I'm inclined to steer this deck towards a "counter-burn" type strategy, rather than trying to fill the deck with aggressive creatures. I don't like the idea of mixing in any of the other aggressive creatures in the format, as just adding removal and Dissolves will enable the deck to compete with a wider range of decks in addition to not being forced into aggressive roles, while easily being able to transition into an aggressive position with only a single threat.

The other big card that makes this deck possible is Anticipate. It's kind of crazy how powerful this card is compared to how weak it looks. Years of Pondering and Brainstorming have spoiled me. Even still, it's clear that a deck with a focus on Silumgar's Scorn is going to want access to card selection, and Anticipate really helps smooth things out.

The other great thing about Anticipate is that it's another cheap card to fuel the delve on the much better card selection spell Dig Through Time. Dig is a staple of blue control decks, and it shouldn't be surprising to see it mentioned here.

The last thing to figure out with this deck is how to configure the burn suite. There are a lot of powerful options right now, and depending on what you're trying to accomplish, it's not clear which red cards are the strongest in Standard.

These cards are all excellent:

Stoke the Flames is quite possibly the strongest card of the lot, but it can be very clunky in a deck that doesn't feature many creatures. Without any two drops or Hordeling Outbursts, I'm not convinced that Stoke fits here.

I do believe that four Wild Slash is non-negotiable. It's just too efficient to pass up on and it kills a great deal of relevant creatures, not the least of which being opposing Goblin Rabblemasters.

Draconic Roar, Lightning Strike and Roast are tougher to figure out. Lightning Strike is the only one of the lot that matters against control decks, Draconic Roar is the preferred tool against red-based aggressive decks, and Roast is the hero we deserve against Siege Rhino.

Seeing as we're maindecking four Rabblemasters,we're already increasing our percentages against control decks at the expense of our aggro matchup, so I like playing some number of Roasts and Draconic Roars over Strikes, but I haven't gotten the numbers down to a science just yet.

This is the list that I'm looking at right now:

The random fetchlands are a little spice to help delve Dig Through Time. You might be able to squeeze one or two more fetches in, which is something I'll be experimenting with.

The Haven of the Spirit Dragon is pretty much a freeroll and is an awesome land to bring in against control decks. Playing it over a mountain does hurt the sideboard Anger of the Gods some, but the upside on this land is very high against control decks.

Financial Implications

I actually like Haven well enough as a spec, if you can get them in the sub $2 range, which is pretty doable as most of the people who I talk to don't see it as a card. It's not only very clearly awesome to casual players, but it is just a great 1-2 of in decks like this or Esper decks with Ojutais and Silumgars.

Dig Through Time is dipping pretty low now, and we're likely approaching the card's floor. Remember, Khans isn't drafted with Dragons, so fewer and fewer of these are entering the market. The card is going to be great in Standard for as long as it's legal, and it's also very good in Legacy, EDH and Cube. Being banned in Modern certainly hurts the card, but I could easily see it hitting $9-10 again while it's Standard legal. There's not a lot to be gained by paying the gold price, but it's a good trade target.

There are a lot of cards in this deck that you don't want your money tied to, though. Stormbreath Dragon, Goblin Rabblemaster and the Izzet Lands are all nearing their expiration date.

I do think the deck is awesome. Have any suggestions? Think that Rabblemaster should be the sideboard option? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan Overturf
@RyanOverdrive on Twitter