Welcome to our No Rares Needed series where we take some common archetypes and make them work with no rares. So save those wild cards and join us for Episode 4 as we take a look at one of Standard's most powerful uncommon creatures, Sprite Dragon! Before we get started feel free to check out the gameplay in the video above and make sure to follow us on Twitch so you can see the games live. As always you can find a decklist for you to import straight into Arena at the bottom of the article.
The first step to getting the opponent dead starts with these two threats. Sprite Dragon has always reminded me of a tiny Mantis Rider with a busted prowess ability. The Prowess Blitz archetype has been using Sprite Dragon across all formats, most notably in Modern. Despite Standard having an abundance of removal, if the opponent can't answer the dragon they will die very quickly.
Riddleform always sees play in these kinds of prowess aggro decks when it gets reprinted into Standard and for good reason. Having it animate into a 3/3 flier for a turn gives it the ability to dodge sorcery speed removal and board wipes. The activated ability can also bail you out in situations where you're top decking and you just need any noncreature spell to turn on your Riddleforms to swing for lethal.
To make sure we keep the gas flowing and stay explosive with our threats, the rest of our deck is cantrips and support cards.
Opt and Frantic Inventory offer the deck redundancy to help us keep moving through our deck to grow our Sprite Dragons and to turn on Riddleform. Crash Through also makes the deck super redundant and lets us hit a critical mass of one mana cantrips which means we can run fewer lands.
Expressive Iteration is so much more than a simple cantrip. Playing this on turn four or later means we can use this to draw a card and cast the spell we exile which is almost as good as drawing two cards. We can also use this to make land drops but since our deck is so mana efficient we can very easily exile an Opt or Shock and then immediately cast them.
Cantrips are super necessary for our strategy but so are our aggressive elements and you can't get more aggressive than straight-up burn spells. Shock is still fantastic for direct damage and we have Spikefield Hazard for additional burn in our mana base.
One-shotting the opponent is also pretty aggressive and that is what the pair of Unleash Fury is for. I'm a fan of this card in any aggressive Sprite Dragon deck as it is an easy out when your opponent is looking to close out the game in a way you can't stop. Since we're a budget deck we inherently operate slower than desired because we play tapped lands. An easy way to even out the slow curve-out is to just soft combo kill the opponent with Sprite Dragon + Unleash Fury.
Since we're playing with no rares this means we lose access to super staples like Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower which are the backup threats for this archetype, so we better be prepared with ways to protect our threats. Shell Shield and Negate are how we go about this. Shell Shield at its floor gives us +0/+3 which can save Sprite Dragon from getting Stomped, and you can kick it to give it Hexproof outright to save it from an Eliminate. Negate can also be used to protect us from targeted removal, board wipes, but most importantly it gives us answer for Emergent Ultimatum. No one likes instantly scooping to a resolved Ultimatum so come prepared, bring protection.
Alternatives
These suggestions could be used to tweak your list for best-of-one games or you can implement these for a sideboard. Essence Scatter could be a nice one-of in the main deck to help prevent problematic creatures such as Goldspan Dragon from resolving. If you're thinking of adding more counter spells then a pair of Mystical Disputes in the main could be justified given the never-ending presents of Sultai control in the meta. Improbable Alliance is an interesting choice to add to our threat count. We have plenty of cantrips to help make Faerie tokens and going wide is a powerful game plan against certain decks. What I really like is the loot ability which we can take advantage of if we happen to get flooded. I can see the deck wanting Improbable Alliance in match ups with lots of targeted removal which would be oppressive to our Riddle Forms. If I were to add it to the list I would try to sneak just a couple of copies into the main deck, but you could easily stick those in the sideboard for the decks you would want it against. If we're adding Improbable Alliance and you're willing to add a few rares then you could also consider a pair of Irencrag Pyromancer to help clean up creatures. If Mono-White Aggro and Mono-Red are at a peak in popularity then this could be a good meta call. Frost Bite could also be considered in this scenario as an efficient way to pick off creatures and we have the snow lands to support it. That is going to do it for No Rares Needed episode 4. Sprite Dragon is one of my favorite cards in recent years and this powerful uncommon can help carry you through Platinum ranks on a budget. For more MTG articles such as the other episodes of No Rares Needed look through the archives on the site, and check out our homepage to links for our Discord, YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram. Thanks so much for reading and joining the Fellowship. I hope you reach your goals for this season and I'll see you in the next post. Have a great day!
Deck
4 Opt (STA) 19
4 Volatile Fjord (KHM) 273
2 Shell Shield (ZNR) 79
4 Shock (STA) 44
1 Swiftwater Cliffs (M21) 251
2 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166
2 Fire Prophecy (IKO) 116
4 Frantic Inventory (M21) 50
2 Negate (STA) 18
2 Soul Sear (M21) 160
4 Expressive Iteration (STX) 186
4 Sprite Dragon (IKO) 211
6 Snow-Covered Mountain (KHM) 283
7 Snow-Covered Island (KHM) 278
2 Unleash Fury (M21) 170
4 Riddleform (M21) 64
4 Crash Through (M19) 133
2 Into the Roil (ZNR) 62
Comments