Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review - Dragonlord's Prerogative from Dragons of Tarkir

by  ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Always wanted an Opportunity that can't be countered? With Dragonlord's Prerogative, you may have just that! If you have a Dragon in hand as you cast it or have one already in play, you're in luck. Enjoy your four cards! Then again, I highly doubt that Opportunity has been countered much in the past. Still, six mana is a huge investment and essentially eats up your turn. So, if it gets countered, that's a big waste of resources.

In control and tempo builds, you can play Dragonlord's Prerogative on an opponent’s end step.  This is much like the role Jace’s Ingenuity has played in the past. That card offers drawing three cards for five mana and no protection against being countered. So, the potential added protection against counter-magic is useful. But, is it just flavorful icing?

Opportunity is pretty good in Limited and usable in Commander. But, it's hardly ever been a Standard playable card. Jace's Ingenuity, on the other hand, has been, due to being a more palatable five mana. So, how does Dragonlord's Prerogative stack up? It's a strictly better version of an older effect and drawing 4 cards at instant speed is awesome. This is a cute draw card with a seemingly very narrow additional effect.

However, Esper Dragons and Blue/Black Control ended up playing it on a regular basis with a fair amount of success. It turns out that 6 mana for 4 cards is always pretty much worth it, especially with no chance of being countered. With Dragonlord Ojutai and other Dragons seeing plenty of Standard play during the Standard heydey of Dragons of Tarkir, Dragonlord's Prerogative pretty much never could be countered.

As for Commander, Talrand, Sky Summoner was one of the first Legendary Creatures to adopt Dragonlord's Prerogative for his deck, loving the functional reprint of Opportunity. It's not often uncounterable, but that doesn't really matter for Talrand's purposes. Niv-Mizzet the Firemind Commander players wanted it, too, plus many other Dragon Commanders such as Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Dragonlord Ojutai, Intet, the Dreamer, and more. It's very good in the EDH format, especially whenever you can make it uncounterable.

Dragonlord's Prerogative has relatively narrow playability since it needs Dragons in your hand to be used to full effect. While I've argued in the past that this easily could have been an uncommon, that doesn't matter now that no one is drafting the set. The card does exactly what it was designed to do, give Dragon decks a fair, but powerful way to draw cards. It is indeed a Dragonlord's Prerogative to draw 4 cards and there's nothing you can do about it!

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