With Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest, leading the charge, dragons don't just breathe fire — they bring the storm!

Introduction

This is a dragon-themed Rakdos midrange deck that utilizes Rivaz of the Claw as a mana creature to cast Bonehoard Dracosaur and Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest on turn 4. Additionally, it packs lots of early removal to survive to that point.

Deck Design

Spot Removal

Bitter Triumph can be used to discard a dragon card and then cast it from the graveyard with Rivaz of the Claw. The black spot removal spells in the deck are all instants, because you can find them whenever Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest attacks and you can then cast them during the combat.

Board Wipe

The Elder Dragon War is used as a sweeper, as it kills only your own Deep-Cavern Bats in the deck and can be read ahead, if that's not desirable. Solphim, Mayhem Dominus can increase the damage of The Elder Dragon war to 4, and the increase affects only your opponent's creatures (not yours) and the direct damage to the opponent.

Blast Zone can be used to get rid off enchantments, which are usually hard to deal with in Rakdos colors.

Card Draw

Card Selection

Direct Damage

Direct damage can be doubled by Solphim, Mayhem Dominus.

Hand Hate

Life Gain

Man-Lands

Counterspell Protection

Format

• The deck is for the Standard format with Bloomburrow being the last legal set.
• The deck is probably Tier 1.5 or Tier 2 caliber.
• The deck can be played in both Bo1 and Bo3.

Source

This is my own brew.

Strategy

Invasion of Tarkir

Most big creatures in the deck have 5 power, which means that they can flip Invasion of Tarkir in a single hit. 4/4 dragons from The Elder Dragon War need a hit from Deep-Cavern Bat to help them. Rivaz of the Claw can flip the invasion in two hits, or he can get help from Restless Vents to do it one turn. Both of them have menace, which is pretty great.

Mana Base

Design

The deck's primary color is red. The mana base supports cards with 2 red mana symbols in their mana cost from mana value 4 and onwards.

The deck's secondary color is black. The mana base supports cards with 1 black mana symbol in their mana cost. However, the mana base has enough black mana production to support casting 2 black spells with 1 black mana symbol in their mana cost in the same turn in the late game (it'a pretty likely from turn 5–6 onwards).

Overview

• Total of 26 lands

Mana Color Produced

• 15 lands produce red mana
• 12 lands produce black mana
• 3 lands can be used to fetch a basic land
• 4 cards produce colorless mana but may produce colored mana
• 2 lands produce only colorless mana

Land Types

• 4 dual-color fast lands
• 4 dual-color pain lands
• 2 dual-color tapped man-lands
• 3 fetch lands
• 6 special lands
• 7 basic lands

Starting Hand Probabilities

Land Count

Bo3 = No Hand Smoothing

• At least two lands: 89.6 %
• At least three lands: 66.1 %
• At least four lands: 34.9 %

Color Count

Bo3 = No Hand Smoothing

• At least one red mana: 88.2 %
• At least one black mana: 80.9 %
• At least one fetch land: 31.5 %

Probabilities on Later Turns

Probabilities are on the play / on the draw.

Land Count

With Any Starting Hand

• At least 3 lands on turn 3: 84.6 % / 90.2 %
• At least 4 lands on turn 4: 71.6 % / 80.2 %
• At least 5 lands on turn 5: 56.7 % / 67.2 %
• At least 6 lands on turn 6: 42.0 % / 53.0 %

Color Count

With Any Starting Hand

• At least two red mana on turn 4: 78.1 % / 83.1 %
• At least two red mana on turn 5: 83.1 % / 87.1 %
• At least two black mana on turn 4: 64.6 % / 70.5 %
• At least one fetch land on turn 4: 42.7 % / 46.2 %
• At least one fetch land on turn 5: 46.2 % / 49.5 %

Sideboard

Mana Base Considerations

You need to pay attention to the following probabilities:

• At least 2 red mana on turn 3, counting fetch lands as red: 82.6 % / 87.4 %
• At least 2 black mana on turn 5, counting fetch lands as black: 83.1 % / 87.1 %

So, it's possible to play with cards like Brotherhood's End and Gix's Command, even though the chance is not high as it would be desirable. Normally, as noted above, it would be good to limit cards to 2 red mana at mana value 4 and 1 black mana. 

Current Sideboard

I've gathered some cards to the sideboard, which might be good. You can use it as a starting point for your sideboard, which depends on the metagame.

Abrade

Against aggro decks that need instant removal and decks which have dangerous artifacts, such as Urabrask's Forge.

Binding Negotiation

Against ramp decks with powerful high-mana spells.

Brotherhood's End

Against go-wide decks and artifact decks.

Duress

Against control and combo decks.

Into the Fire

Against go-wide decks.

Sheoldred's Edict

Against planeswalkers.

Soul-Guide Lantern

Against graveyard recursion decks.

Torch the Tower

Against fast aggro decks that have creatures with death triggers.