In 1996 I transferred colleges during a period in my Magic hobby where I was rare-hungry. Soon I met my friend Mike. Mike was a veteran player and had many of the older rares that I could never find. He even had a blue-white tournament deck that used three of the Power Nine (Mox Sapphire, Time Walk and Time Twister), and a play set of Wrath of Gods. I was so envious of Mike, and his cards, and his Magic playing skills. I could hardly ever beat him. I spent more money to attain rares, foolishly thinking they would help me become a better player. I even sold my Super Nintendo and several games to Mike for my first and only copy of Fork.

After only moderate successes at deck building, Mike let me in on a little secret. He told me about a deck that was composed of nothing but common cards, all easily available from local dime bins that could win a good majority of the games I would ever play with it. He had used this deck in tournaments and it had punished decks that, like his blue white control, used copies of the almighty Power Nine.

All black, no non-basic lands, small creatures of 2 or less casting cost that could either regenerate a point of Pestilence, or would feed the graveyard shenanigans of Songs of the Damned. 20 lands, 20 creatures, 20 spells; a staple of many of my future decks. You would push through with a few weenies like the bats, rats or Ebon Hand, defend if you had to with the eight skeletons, pump out a few points, or many points, of Pestilence to lower your opponent's life total and wipe out any elves or Birds your opponent had gotten out early, use the Hymns for hand disruption, or to draw out a Counterspell. By turn five or six you could conceivably whip out a 10 point Drain Life pumped by Rituals, Songs or both. If the Drain Life wasn't available, simply Pestilence for the kill, generally your opponent would have less life than you after taking one or more points on turn two.

It all seemed to fit together perfectly. Everything had a purpose. There was a plan of attack and 2 back up plans if things didn't go perfectly. This deck taught me two very important concepts. First, not all rares are good, and don't necessarily need to be in your deck simply because you want them or own them, and second, this deck taught me synergy of good cards....even commons.

My deck building and playing skills have improved every year since. I've learned to recognize good and bad cards more often, but I'm still surprised by the occasional tournament bomb. I still have my copy of Fork (and another gift from Mike-the Italian Rabid Wombat, Vombato Rabioso!), but I value the lesson he taught me most of all.

After I returned to Magic for like the 10th time, at the release of Ravnica I noticed this peculiar deck that no one was playing save one person. That person would be Chris Pikula and the deck would be Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Granted it had nothing to do with Standard, but it was cards from my era and cards from this new era I was exploring. All of a sudden things began to click. Why play stall or try to create a win condition - when I could just win?

I picked up Dark Confidant x4 almost immediately and could never find the deck to use them to my liking. Enter Time Spiral. With its release (and hey I did quit again during Guildpact ha-ha) came back the Thallids and with them came 1000 noobs not knowing how to play them. Notice the slick form of Thallid and Thelon. There were a couple other Thallids I could play, but I really only needed a few.

It was this perfect melting pot of my old favorite set - Fallen Empires and the new. Everything came together, and I showed those casual idiots how Thallid was meant to play. Devastating them with my little growers before they could get their huge combos into play. To put it in the immortal words of Vanilla Ice "I waxed a chump like a candle."

The original incarnation was a little more Fungusie, but more and more cheap, fast growers came and I couldn't help but to evolve the deck. Kudzu's befriend Tarmogoyfs, and when Ravnica left standard I brought in the some awesome fatties that ramped the power level. The heart of the deck is the unpredictability of it. Sometimes a single Thallid with 5 spore counters swings for 1, other times it becomes a 6/6 monstrosity with a Chord. Every card, from the weedy Kudzu to the delicious Baloth requires an answer and the fun starts on turn 1.

This deck signified my purging of Timmy and the birth of my Spike side. I hope my Johnny lives forever, and I can continue to innovate fun original decks like this. Granted I have to stop quitting for months at a time to do this!

-=-The Beginning-=-
I started constructing this deck a very long time ago - before Mirrodin came out - and have been building, testing, and improving it ever since. It was inspired by my love for Dragons and has grown infinitively in power ever since it's initial construction. Not was it initially Legacy-legal - utilizing both Lightning Bolts and pre-Xth Incinerates - but it also contained many non-dragon creatures such as Dragonspeaker Shaman and Dwarven Blastminer. I considered these creatures to be a parasite, latching itself onto the glory of my Dragons and eating away their strength. Now, it's become even more deadly since it is now Extended-legal.

-=-Deck Breakdown-=-
With an abundance of artificial mana (1/6 of the total deck), mana screw rarely happens. Not only does it help when it comes to casting my costly “pets” - as I like to call them - but it also allows me to conserve some mana after using a Wildfire.

Rarely do I ever throw a burn spell into my opponent’s face. Instead, I use the 11 total, cheap burn spells to make sure that early aggro-type creatures hit the graveyard before they have a chance to hit me. Mid-to-late game however, my Dragons usually have the area pretty well covered.

Chandra Nalaar is merely in there for the sake of flavor as well as potentially larger threats, such as creatures that won’t succumb to just one of my burn spells. Lastly, the lone Menacing Ogre is only in there because I think it’s a funny card and it usually gains some laughs when it hits the table. Besides, if it gets the boost, it survives Wildfire. If it doesn’t get the boost, then that means my opponent(s) lost some life - either way, I’m happy.

-=-How ‘DragonFire’ changed the way I play-=-
When I began playing Magic, I used to think that long and drawn out games were the best. To this day I still don’t know why I thought that, all I remember is that I did. Occasionally, I still like a good long game, but the satisfying move of wiping out the majority of my opponent’s creatures, crippling their mana base, and swinging with a slightly pumped Shivan Dragon is just more than I can take. “You’ve just become Dragon food.” is my favorite thing to say when I deal the final blow.