Dexter’s Dragon Riders is here. I thought I’d look at the set and pick out the highlights and overall impressions of the set.

First up, the card balance:
The Drakes palette contains:
5 Drakes: 1 copy of the rare Drake, Haskus; 2 copies each of the heroic Drakes, Thisp and Slythen.
4 DragonRiders: 2 copies each of the heroic DragonRiders Raspa and Quin.
4 objects, 4 locations, 13 actions.

The Dragons palette contains:
6 Dragons: 2 copies each of the heroic Dragons Snark, Fromp, and Glynther.
4 DragonRiders: 2 copies each of the heroic DragonRiders Senna and Moscow.
4 objects, 5 locations (including the rare Dexter’s Dwelling), 11 actions.

I was, honestly, fairly surprised how few characters are included in these sets, especially since every character (Dragon Rider and Dragon/Drake) is unique. At absolute best, you can have 5 characters on your canvas, a far cry from the 17 possible in the original Draco Defenders palette.

The fewest characters ever seen in precon decks previously was 10, and the Drake and Dragon palettes have 9 and 10 respectively. Yes, both palettes contain a card to FIND a character (Young Draco Scale and Dragon Rider Saddle). But those cards are both objects so can only be played on a character. In approximately 50% of games, one of the two players will not be able to mount a Rider on a Dragon/Drake until their third turn, and that’s assuming neither player trades.

The weakness of the character suite means these decks will not play well into other precon decks. I’m not even going to try; given their most powerful character has a rather paltry 3 health, and the decks have essentially zero control cards against characters with more than 2 health, I’m confident they would get dominated. But this doesn’t matter. They seem well balanced between each other, with the edge going to the Drakes thanks to the incredibly powerful Thisp who can erase all but Fromp on deploy thanks to his killer Action.

I’ve reviewed several of the cards already in previous articles here and here, but unspoiled cards of note for constructed play are:

Scout: this is a lovely little effect for 1 shard. You definitely want to be playing this before your initial draw/trade step so you can re-order the first 3 cards and then draw the first. However, it must be said that in constructed play you may be better off with the 2 shard Restless Research which allows you to draw any of those 3 cards immediately (for an additional 1 shard per card).
Altari Drift: this location could provide you with a very generous draw for the cost. If you’re playing a deck that burns through cards quickly, this could easily see you drawing 2-4 additional cards on play, which is very nice for the effective 2 shard cost. Draco Planum already has a lot of draw mechanics, but this seems to be a well priced one, especially in multi-player where it will be less situational. Turn 1 you can trade, deploy, deploy, then deploy this to draw 4.
Moscow and Raspa: mirrors of each other, for 2 shards you get a -1/+1, but you also draw a card. This makes both characters better value than the long popular Lone Survivor and ever so slightly less good value than Imps. I could see myself slotting these characters in a lot of decks.
Feeding Time: more draw! In either a drake or dragon tribal deck this could represent a very large draw indeed. Cards in hand are worth a lot, and for 2 shards this card is a bargain.

Overall, I’m pleased with the balance of these sets, and I’m seeing a number of cards that will make it in to constructed play. Of all the cards in the set, I think Thisp is the strongest in a vacuum, but I think that both drake and dragon tribal decks, are, unsurprisingly, the big winners with this increased card pool.

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