Kills a lot of other flyers in this set and lives. I still thought that Snapping Drake was better in general....
n00bmag1
★☆☆☆☆ (1.3/5.0)(6 votes)
Bland crap.
I'll concede its not too crappy for limited, but I'm a firm believer blue shouldn't have vanilla creatures at all. It's hosed on the P/T to Cmc and everyone has accepted that, why not stick with things like Merfolk Spy, Augury Owl, Aether Adept, Scroll Thief etc? None of these are Garruk's Companion by a long shot, but they feel very blue.
Enchantment_Removal
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Actually, Blue is probably the BEST color for winning the game with vanilla creatures. Blue's true power lies in it's Noncreature spells. After a deck has successfully utilized Blue's magic, all it needs is an attacking creature with more than 0 power.
....though this is probably not the case in Standard..... oh well... pretend I said this 4 years later.
Vinifera7
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Though White has stolen Snapping Drake in the form of As.sault Griffin, this is still quite a good flier in limited. It doesn't get the beats in as well, but it doesn't die to Lightning Bolt either. It even wins in a fight with As.sault Griffin. I like it.
Kryptnyt
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Well, better than Giant Spider till the Green Winds kick up at least.
Anggul
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Or I could... y'know... voyager drake?
Wait no, I just realised, Conundrum Sphinx. Why the hell did they bother printing this when there's Conundrum Sphinx?
UltimaCenturion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Limited, this is actually pretty good, since all the fliers did really good in draft, and this kills quite a few of them, besides being one of them itself. Other than that, noobmag is right. This is trash. I much prefer all the other blue creatures with their scrying, spying, and otherwise nifty combat tricks (unblockability!) to some horrible underpowered vanilla critter.
While I prefer the Legends version artwork, I accept that it makes the drake look FAR too powerful.
JaxsonBateman
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
Not too bad at all for limited. It's no bomb by any means, but it's an evasive creature at the common level, which is very handy in limited. It's rear end is nice too, being able to defend against a variety of other fliers, often killing them in the process.
I think the main thing to remember is that it's COMMON. It's not supposed to come out on top against a a similarly costed uncommon or rare flier like Conundrum Sphinx or Howling Banshee. The fact that it can defend against the banshee shows it's pretty decent (in limited) for a common. Sure, Augury Owl may do almost as much damage and come with Scry, but it dies to a myriad of creatures and weak removal, whereas Azure Drake needs something more significant.
achilleselbow
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I think I prefer Phantom Monster. This is okay, but I think that in general, unimpressive vanilla creatures should be left to the starter sets.
Comments (25)
I'll concede its not too crappy for limited, but I'm a firm believer blue shouldn't have vanilla creatures at all. It's hosed on the P/T to Cmc and everyone has accepted that, why not stick with things like Merfolk Spy, Augury Owl, Aether Adept, Scroll Thief etc? None of these are Garruk's Companion by a long shot, but they feel very blue.
....though this is probably not the case in Standard..... oh well... pretend I said this 4 years later.
Wait no, I just realised, Conundrum Sphinx. Why the hell did they bother printing this when there's Conundrum Sphinx?
Other than that, noobmag is right. This is trash. I much prefer all the other blue creatures with their scrying, spying, and otherwise nifty combat tricks (unblockability!) to some horrible underpowered vanilla critter.
I think the main thing to remember is that it's COMMON. It's not supposed to come out on top against a a similarly costed uncommon or rare flier like Conundrum Sphinx or Howling Banshee. The fact that it can defend against the banshee shows it's pretty decent (in limited) for a common. Sure, Augury Owl may do almost as much damage and come with Scry, but it dies to a myriad of creatures and weak removal, whereas Azure Drake needs something more significant.
Best Regards, Abdul.
It's not that bad either way, though.
I mean... cause nobody wants drakes ;)