strykerzero

Mono-red has challenges with card draw. Most of their effects require discarding (resulting in the number of cards in hand not actually growing) I did discover a niche little combo for my dragon edh deck purely using red.

Replace "Dragon Tempest" with "Anger" (its a creature) and "Dragon Breath" (enchantment). Put in 8 copies of "looting" mechanic cards (faithless looting, wild guess, tormenting voice)

Discard "Anger" and/or "Dragon breath" (which you would want to do in a deck of 6+ cmc creatures) and draw cards. Not only do you get card advantage, you ensure haste on your 4th turn (mana ramped) dragon.

As an example:
12 Mana Ramp (Geo surge, Dragon Speaker Shaman, Seething Song)
8 "loot" (faithless Looting, Tormenting Voice)
8 "haste" (Dragon Breath, Anger)
8 6-7 CMC dragons
24 Lands
= 60 cards

I would think that 8-12 High cost/Value dragons would be all that the deck needs to win. You should be able to draw into one of the 8 by turn 4. The rest of the deck can be fully dedicated to removal and increasing available mana.

26 Lands should be enough to ensure the 4th land drop on the fourth turn.

If "Geo Surge" is played on Turn-4, that allows the immediate cast of a 7 mana dragon. The dragon shamans (and potentially, "Sarkhan, The Fireblood",) can allow the casting a a 6-mana one. Summoning sickness will prevent you from attacking that turn so, you swing your pick threat turn 5 (hitting the benchmark goal i mentioned earlier) The sweet spot here seems to be 6-7 mana dragons.

TTLDR:

26 Lands, 8-12 Dragons that cost 6-7 mana. Everything else (22-26 cards) : Mana ramp, Interaction/Removal, and something granting haste.

steel hellkite is a 6 mana (artifact) dragon that is a great mutipurpose board removal tool. People often miss it when building decks because its colorless.

I get the desire for a turn one play. However the statistics involved make it unrealistic. to manage.
https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx

For example (using the above calculator). If you want an 80%+ chance of having a turn 1 play in a 60 card deck, you need at least 12 cards to play on that first turn. that represents almost 33% of your decks non-land cards.

Aggro decks are not the same thing as combo decks. An aggro deck will still need 2-3 turns to win (the 1 turn win decks are all combo decks reliant on lucky starting hands). You are better off having a sideboard to provide the cards needed to reset the aggro player on Turn 2-3. The longer games go, the harder it is for aggro to win. Just stalling for 1-2 turns is often enough.

I like how the deck above is positioned currently against aggro. The deck above has "mainboard" 12 two mana creatures. He/she can suicide block with them as needed against aggro. Once a CMC 4+ dragon hits the field, an aggro opponent is basically done.

The challenge here is against Mid range and control. A single counter-spell or board wipe will effectively prevent the 6-8 Mana creatures from ever being cast. There are not enough lands to realistically ever cast them without ramp effects

Looking a the mana curve: If you include the ruby medallions into thr land count, you only have a 67% chance of being of to cast 3 mana spells on your third turn. The dragon shamans will help carry that average into 4 mana on turn 4, but the odds for going higher than that plummet.

This deck NEEDS a massive threat on the field no later than turn 5. A focused aggro deck can win by this point, and a control deck will have acquired the resources it needs to stop you.

The Modern format tends to revolve around turn 4-5 being the "game winning state" as the benchmark for high level performance. Casual decks don't need to adhere to this (and i wouldnt want them to) , but its a useful way to evaluate them.

Also "sarkhan's triumph" is a 3 mana mono-red instant that will fetch any dragon you want from your library into your hand..

Nesting Dragon is an option for a lower CMC dragon that can get pretty dangerous later when combo'ed with Crucible of Fire.

When examining your deck, you might want to narrow in your dragons at being either the top or the bottom of you curve (ie mana cost).

If you want to stick to the cheaper dragons, you can replace much of your mana ramp with tribal enchantments like Dragon Tempest and Crucible Of fire.

If you want higher mana cost dragons but avoid the graveyard shenanigans of splashing black (and therefore stay mono-red) I think you could use some better ramp choices. Why wait til next turn for your mana artifacts when you can get that mana .. now! Look at "seething song", "Desperate ritual" and "Pyretic Ritual". Any of the Sarkhan planewalkers (especially sarkhan, fireblood)will also fit nicely into this deck.

Removal like "spit fire" and "chandra's ignition" is useful in a dragon deck.




Here is a link to my Black/Red Dragon EDH deck. Might get some ideas from there.
https://www.mtgvault.com/strykerzero/decks/kologhan-the-storms-fury/

Rhox Pikemaster, and Field Marshall are "soldier" lords that will give all your soldiers First Strike.
Ballyrush Banneret and Preeminent Captain will make your other soldiers cheaper to play and/or cheese out Captain of the Watch on Turn 4

There are enchantments (and planewalkers) that can continually pump out tokens more efficiently than your current instant spells can (do a text search for soldiers under the enchantment card type)

Soldier tokens are not inherently large (and you don't have any major enter the battlefield effects) I would suggest replacing growing ranks with more copies of Cathars crusade (or moving into green for their bigger finishing spells such as overrun.

Soldier tokens wont trigger Champion of the Parish, i dont know if you have enough humans to make it worthwhile.

If you want to run a more unique build, text search for "soldiers" under red/white and green/white multicolored cards. Almost every soldier deck Ive seen has been mono-white, going two colors gives you new options.

Veteran's Armaments + Odric ?

Have you considers martial coup as a board wipe?

whats the purpose of the non-basic lands? you don't have any plains or islands in the deck.... deck thinning?

Leonin Warleader is another Cat token generator.

Not sure what Sundial of the infinite is doing for you. If you remove that and replace the Savanahs and Windswept Heaths: You drop from a $1800 deck to and $85 (budget?) deck.

Replace Spidersilk with Collective Blessing.
Intangible Virtue is a White enchantment that gives all your tokens +1/+1 and Vigilance.

Also, you have no way of controlling a creature of power 4 (or greater). what is the thinking/purpose behind whisperer of the wilds?

take a look at "kor spirit dancer" (as copies 5-8 of Eidolon of Blossoms) and "aura gnarlid" from the Rise of the Eldrazi expansion. Also take a look at enchantments with the "bestow" keyword.

I am curious what you envision as the win condition here. what 2-3 card combination are you counting on the achieve lethal combat damage (and overcome the opponents creatures)? I am seeing plenty of fetch and card draw but nothing that would seem dangerous in terms of power (ie what would the blue player feel compelled to counterspell?)

Snake umbra has an identical effect to "curious obsession." put that in as your 5th - 8th copies. 8 copies pretty much ensures it gets played.

I advise dropping 2 lands and he languish. Due to "Smallpox" and "Ravens Crime" you will have an very hard time getting more than 3 swamps on the battlefield. the four for Languish, that's just not going to happen.... Perhaps fill that slot with "funeral charm (adds about $3.00 total to deck cost)?

Waste Not represents 33% of the decks financial cost. Is there a cheaper option to make this even more budget?

I have been tweaking an Ula’s temple deck for a long time now (I actually played it during standard). Here are some of the things I have discovered in the process.
1) The enchantment is very vulnerable to removal. People will happily let it sit on the field until it gets it third counter then immediately naturalize it right before the end step.
2) 10-12 big “fish” is all you really need. Stormtide Leviathan can sometime win the game all by himself.
3) You absolutely need a backup plan. Winning with the enchantment pretty much requires it as a turn 1 play. Mulliganing down to one card in order to get it, just for the opponent to thoughtseize it away… just… blows…
4) Strongly consider adding in “scry” and “proliferate” mechanics, they will allow you to drop the creature counts down while gaining control/defense. Putting the creature “thrummingbird” on the battlefield could let you play Stormtide Leviathan on turn 3.
5) You also might need a defense for your creatures once they are on the field.

Backup plan ideas:
Serum Powder (better mulligans)
Reason // Believe (dependent on scry)
Nissa, Steward of Elements (dependent on scry)
Polymorph (dependent on scry)
Shrine of Nykoths (mono blue deck)

Here Is a link to one of my versions (currently 20-24 creatures and less than $30)
https://www.mtgvault.com/strykerzero/decks/quest-for-ulas-temple-scry-2/

pump the creature first , then equip the artifact. Protects them from removal. Also makes aura enchantments more viable.

What about the sorcery lifecrafter's gift?

Edit: also, river herald's boon and new horizons?

Since your creatures are all rogues, add the "cloak and dagger" artifact. Equips for free, increases damage and grants them all shroud.