Velukan Dragon – Mystery Booster 2
Date Reviewed: August 15, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Mystery Booster 2 is really putting the gathering in Magic: the Gathering – test cards from the future of design, underappreciated frame designs from the past, and even a couple of cards that have never existed in physical form before. Velukan Dragon is one of those, and while it won’t be breaking any Legacy tournaments, it fits in shockingly well in modern Magic’s design. Dice rolling has become a mainline mechanic thanks to the various Dungeons and Dragons sets, so there are a lot of things for it to do at the fun tables, not least the things that modify rolls or look for numbers. Even in the crazy world of Mystery Booster chaos draft, it stands out: when your cards come from everywhere and may not go together, a big, flying, firebreathing creature is often all you need. Honestly, that kind of just applies to casual Magic too!
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
Back in the “dark ages” of the early 2000s, there was a Japan-exclusive Magic: The Gathering game released on the Sega Dreamcast, and the game featured 10 mechanically unique cards with “random” effects that could realistically only be done in such a setting. That said, dice rolls can be a fun way to simulate “chance”, and Arden Angel made its print debut last year in a Secret Lair product. Velukan Dragon is the second of those 10 Dreamcast exclusives to be translated to the tabletop, showing up in the “futureshifted” card slot of the new Mystery Booster 2 product, and it’s a fun little relic of a long-forgotten time.
As far as actual cards go, it’s nothing too special. It’s one mana more than a Shivan Dragon swapping the surety of its firebreathing for a random chance to get the benefits. It does get the benefit on attack or block, which means this can leer menacingly before it’s time to swoop, and it gets the buff on each attack. On paper, one extra battle phase means Velukan Dragon can represent lethal damage through it alone if you get the 1/36 shot of rolling 6 twice.
Honestly, though, this dragon is more “cool” than functional. It’s not abjectly terrible, and it can do damage, but it’s a slightly tweaked Shivan Dragon at day’s end, and Shivan Dragon’s days have long since passed. Of course, it can certainly help underscore the ways in which swooping is bad if you are so inclined, and it being a Dragon opens up a world of fun type-based shenanigans Dragons sometimes peddle in.
Constructed: 1.5 (don’t play this in Legacy)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5 (it’s a top-end finisher that can kill in two lucky swings)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3.5 (you can definitely do worse…but, to be fair, you probably can also do a lot better)
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