changeling berserker is highly recommended. Oh, you'll wrath? Allow me to exile my general and bring him safely back into play when it's over.
two-headed seems subpar to me.
kilnmouth DEFINITELY does. Best case scenario it's like an 11/11 with pinging, which makes it worse than dragon tyrant or bogardan hellkite, whichever you choose to use it for, and that's only if you never cast the dragons in your hand.
rimescale is worthless. they can untap once it leaves play.
imo ryusei is unecessary with thunder dragon and scourge around. Up to you if you think you're using the extra 2 damage very often. Thunder dragon rocks because it doesn't kill zirilan.
you can't use imperial hellkite's ability, so it's sort of worthless.
fire dragon is ok, i think it's less good than bogardan, but you do run a lot of mountains, so it's sort of up to you.
biggest problem I see: you need more sac outlets. Without sac outlets you might have a hard time getting your engine going with reito lantern (i also suggest adding soldevi digger, it doesn't work for GY hate but it is cheaper and gives you more reliability). At the very least add high market, miren the moaning well, and probably keldon necropolis since they don't really hurt to have.
sac outlets are also really useful because one bant charm and your deck is SCREWED. If you've got mana open and zirilan untapped you can kill him with bogardan hellkite (or changeling berserker can temporarily exile him as mentioned) but having a guaranteed "out" against tuck is really, really helpful for mono red.
Feel free to peruse my decklist for zirilan, it's in my sig. So far I've found him to be really fun, powerful, and reliable for a red general.
I personally would rather sac the dragons and shuffle them later rather than immediately shuffle them in, but perhaps thats just me. I do think it needs removal in a couple non-dragon cards though, such as the one's I've listed. It may also be good to add in some land destruction in the form of strip mine/ghost quarter or non-land cards in order to deal with things like maze of ith or kor haven.
Should stay. People forget that a lot of the time you can hard cast dragons from your hand in addition to your general and you're running two doubling effects. I'd maybe consider running Urza's Incubator, I've always been happy with it. I'd also consider picking up Gamble. In addition I find its always good to have 1-2 infinite mana combo's just to speed the game up. I'd consider picking up Rings of Brighthearth for your general and other effects and it combos with Basalt Monolith which is a great mana ramp card. I'd also whack in a Mana Geyser it can easily drop in most games for 20+ mana which is never frowned upon and with a reiterate it gets stupid infinite
kilnmouth DEFINITELY does. Best case scenario it's like an 11/11 with pinging, which makes it worse than dragon tyrant or bogardan hellkite, whichever you choose to use it for, and that's only if you never cast the dragons in your hand.
I once farted during the final match for prizes at an FNM. It was a tense moment, everything was quiet, control vs control, I was about to mana leak, thought about it.. and farted. Then mana leaked.
If you're pulling him out, you're going to use him for 1 of 2 things: either to shoot something with his tap ability, or to attack.
If you're using him for shooting, bogardan hellkite is better. Firstly, it's guaranteed to do 5 damage and doesn't require you to keep dragons in your hand. 6 damage on kilnmouth is sort of a best-case scenario, and you have to keep dragons in your hand instead of playing them, which is annoying. Secondly, you can split the damage, which can definitely be useful. And third, and probably most importantly, hellkite can attack AS WELL as shoot something.
If you're going to attack with him, unless you have just a ton of dragons in your hand, dragon tyrant will be better.
Also, unlike tyrant, you can't use nifty exile tricks (like changeling berserker) to keep him around, unless you just want him as a 5/5 with no useful ability.
He might be better all-around than either, but zirilan means you can usually only use a dragon for 1 purpose at a time before you have to sac/exile it, and bogardan hellkite and dragon tyrant can do better as a one-use tool for either of his purposes.
1 Zirilan of the Claw
LAND
30 Snow Covered Mountain
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 High Market
DRAGONS
1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
1 Dragon Tyrant
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Thunder Dragon
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Mordant Dragon
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Rimescale Dragon
1 Moonveil Dragon
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Dragon Mage
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
1 Mana-Charged Dragon
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Imperial Hellkite
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Two-Headed Dragon
1 Kilnmouth Dragon
1 Changeling Berserker
1 Dragonspeaker Shaman
SORCERIES
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Past in Flames
1 All is Dust
1 Dragonstorm
1 Gamble
PLANESWALKERS
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Koth of the Hammer
ENCHANTMENTS
1 Sneak Attack
1 Aggravated Assault
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Stranglehold
INSTANTS
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Chaos Warp
ARTIFACTS
1 Gauntlet of Might
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Caged Sun
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Urza's Incubator
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Crystal Ball
1 Scroll Rack
1 Mind's Eye
1 Planar Portal
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Sundial of the Infinite
1 Puppet Strings
1 Tel-Jilad Stylus
1 Rishadan Pawnshop
1 Reito Lantern
1 Soldevi Digger
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Altar of Dementia
two-headed seems subpar to me.
kilnmouth DEFINITELY does. Best case scenario it's like an 11/11 with pinging, which makes it worse than dragon tyrant or bogardan hellkite, whichever you choose to use it for, and that's only if you never cast the dragons in your hand.
rimescale is worthless. they can untap once it leaves play.
imo ryusei is unecessary with thunder dragon and scourge around. Up to you if you think you're using the extra 2 damage very often. Thunder dragon rocks because it doesn't kill zirilan.
you can't use imperial hellkite's ability, so it's sort of worthless.
fire dragon is ok, i think it's less good than bogardan, but you do run a lot of mountains, so it's sort of up to you.
biggest problem I see: you need more sac outlets. Without sac outlets you might have a hard time getting your engine going with reito lantern (i also suggest adding soldevi digger, it doesn't work for GY hate but it is cheaper and gives you more reliability). At the very least add high market, miren the moaning well, and probably keldon necropolis since they don't really hurt to have.
sac outlets are also really useful because one bant charm and your deck is SCREWED. If you've got mana open and zirilan untapped you can kill him with bogardan hellkite (or changeling berserker can temporarily exile him as mentioned) but having a guaranteed "out" against tuck is really, really helpful for mono red.
Feel free to peruse my decklist for zirilan, it's in my sig. So far I've found him to be really fun, powerful, and reliable for a red general.
WUB Merieke Ri Berit BUW
GWU Phelddagrif 1 2 3 4 UWG
BR Kaervek the Merciless RB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B
WUB Sen Triplets BUW
BG Sisters of Stone Death GB
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon GRBUW
GWU Angus Mackenzie UWG
R Kumano, Master Yamabushi R
WB Teysa BW
U Higure U
B Geth B
WUBRG Child of Alara 1 2GRBUW
R Zirilan R
U Arcum U
UR Nin RU
BRG Sek'Kuar GRB
U Teferi U
G Melira G
GU Edric UG
BG Glissa GB
Casual
GUB Knacksaw Clique BUG
RWU Sunforger UWR
I would add:
I personally would rather sac the dragons and shuffle them later rather than immediately shuffle them in, but perhaps thats just me. I do think it needs removal in a couple non-dragon cards though, such as the one's I've listed. It may also be good to add in some land destruction in the form of strip mine/ghost quarter or non-land cards in order to deal with things like maze of ith or kor haven.
Tolsimir Wolfblood G/W
Rimescale Dragon
Dragonspeaker Shaman
Should stay. People forget that a lot of the time you can hard cast dragons from your hand in addition to your general and you're running two doubling effects. I'd maybe consider running Urza's Incubator, I've always been happy with it. I'd also consider picking up Gamble. In addition I find its always good to have 1-2 infinite mana combo's just to speed the game up. I'd consider picking up Rings of Brighthearth for your general and other effects and it combos with Basalt Monolith which is a great mana ramp card. I'd also whack in a Mana Geyser it can easily drop in most games for 20+ mana which is never frowned upon and with a reiterate it gets stupid infinite
Greater Gargadon is another great sac outlet along with Helm of Possession and Shivan Harvest if you swing towards land destruction.
Ok, so a 11/11 flyer that can ping for 6 is bad?
I literally lol'd.
Then you aren't thinking very hard.
If you're pulling him out, you're going to use him for 1 of 2 things: either to shoot something with his tap ability, or to attack.
If you're using him for shooting, bogardan hellkite is better. Firstly, it's guaranteed to do 5 damage and doesn't require you to keep dragons in your hand. 6 damage on kilnmouth is sort of a best-case scenario, and you have to keep dragons in your hand instead of playing them, which is annoying. Secondly, you can split the damage, which can definitely be useful. And third, and probably most importantly, hellkite can attack AS WELL as shoot something.
If you're going to attack with him, unless you have just a ton of dragons in your hand, dragon tyrant will be better.
Also, unlike tyrant, you can't use nifty exile tricks (like changeling berserker) to keep him around, unless you just want him as a 5/5 with no useful ability.
He might be better all-around than either, but zirilan means you can usually only use a dragon for 1 purpose at a time before you have to sac/exile it, and bogardan hellkite and dragon tyrant can do better as a one-use tool for either of his purposes.
WUB Merieke Ri Berit BUW
GWU Phelddagrif 1 2 3 4 UWG
BR Kaervek the Merciless RB
B Chainer, Dementia Master B
WUB Sen Triplets BUW
BG Sisters of Stone Death GB
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon GRBUW
GWU Angus Mackenzie UWG
R Kumano, Master Yamabushi R
WB Teysa BW
U Higure U
B Geth B
WUBRG Child of Alara 1 2GRBUW
R Zirilan R
U Arcum U
UR Nin RU
BRG Sek'Kuar GRB
U Teferi U
G Melira G
GU Edric UG
BG Glissa GB
Casual
GUB Knacksaw Clique BUG
RWU Sunforger UWR
Sounds good indeed. This deck belongs to a mate of mine and I'll certainly suggest She test it