Ikoria Spoilers: The Little Dragon that Could

Hello, internet, my name is Blue, and today I want to cover a card that I’ve been super excited for since it was spoiled not that long ago. Of course, the entire set isn’t out yet so there may be something else down the line I’ll be more excited for later, but as of right now, this is what has me the most interested as far as older formats are concerned. Before we start, I want to say that this isn’t necessarily the card I’m most excited for overall from the set, just the card I’ve had the most interest in for competitive play in modern or pioneer. Let’s get into it then, shall we?

The Card

So we can’t get too far without you knowing what has me so excited, now can we? It’s Sprite Dragon, the adorable little 1/1 flyer with Haste and pseudo-Prowess. For context as to why I’m so excited about this card, look at the article I did a few weeks ago on the Prowess archetype in Pioneer. A problem the deck can have is that it mulligans too aggressively for a creature, similarly to bogles or infect, except Prowess doesn’t tend to play protection spells like those decks. Instead, it plans to stick a creature out and hope it doesn’t die. This plan is really difficult to pull off with so few viable options but the cute little dragon faerie gives us another hasty 2-drop to join Stormchaser Mage for a higher percentage of cards to pose a legitimate threat. Additionally, you could replace Stormchaser with it since it retains its counters, unlike the other creatures in the deck, and can become a much more prominent threat later in the game if it survives.

The Prowess Archetype

So obviously it’s a powerful card for the archetype, but let’s talk about some ways to add it to the preexisting decks. First, you can slot it into Izzet Prowess in Modern or Pioneer as an additional creature in place of one of the worst cards in the deck just as an extra threat or you can play it instead of Stormchaser as an arguably better threat throughout the late game. If you want to get a little spicy though, I think the Dragon gives us a very good reason to add green for protection spells, since it’s a card we don’t mind spending a Blossoming Defense on during our opponent’s turn due to it keeping the counters on it. You could just stay in Izzet if you wanted and play Dive Down and similar cards if you want to add the protection, but I think the value-added from green is too great to ignore, and definitely worth adding the third color in my opinion.

If you’re playing the deck in Pioneer, Defense is one of the best cards to be added, but there are other cards like Ranger’s Guile for protection or things like Domri’s Ambush as solid removal options. In Modern, on the other hand, you get access to Veil of Summer, which is still legal for some reason. Another noteworthy card is Mutagenic Growth. Yes, you can still play it in the Izzet version, but at least in Temur you can pay for it with mana instead of pressuring your own life total in matches against Burn or Death’s Shadow.

The Tempo Archetype

There’s one last thing I want to mention here though, and that’s tempo. I mentioned a few weeks ago in an article about cards in Pioneer that I want to be reprinted into the format to make different decks viable, and tempo was a deck on that list. I didn’t get the card I asked for, Delver of Secrets, but since Sprite Dragon retains its counters, it makes for a solid threat in a tempo deck. Play it on turn 2, then protect it with countermagic as the game goes long and it’ll quickly take over the game. Combined with other powerful cards for the archetype like Pteramander and your opponent will oftentimes find themselves stretched on removal and unable to keep up.

Conclusion

Anyway, that’s it from me today. What card from Ikoria are you most excited about? Do you think Sprite Dragon is as good as I think it is? Is there something I missed that you think I should’ve covered? Let me know in the comments or on twitter @TheRealBlueMTG! That’s it from me, so this is Blue, Signing out!