I like this a lot. 2RR for a 4/3 flying haste with no downside is an unprecedented statline, and making treasures and being a repeatable removal spell are two excellent upsides! 3 toughness means Smaug can die to a lot of removal, but the haste helps offset that by getting an attack in right away before your opponent untaps. Many cubes run other ways to make Treasures in red, such as Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Charming Scoundrel, and/or Currency Converter, so if you play Smaug after one of those you can get a removal spell on the first attack. If Smaug lives it snowballs - you choose whether to spend the treasures on casting spells, or flavorfully hoard your treasure mound to build up bigger and bigger chunks of repeated damage to your opponent's creatures/planeswalkers/face.
Definitely playable just based on stats / abilities alone. Probably not as strong as Headliner Scarlett since that "draws" cards and gives your team a free alpha strike. Probably one of the better Hellrider variants overall though with flying + the treasure triggers. Can make a strong argument for this over things like Hellrider / Rampaging Raptor.
I find this heuristic a little overblown for red creatures. You grabbing many of the bolts yourself and you usually are the aggressor with little creatures who are probably gonna eat an opponents bolt
Excited to put this into the Universes Beyond cube - Rakdos had a Treasures theme for a while. It has since been heavily diluted, but this is an excellent payoff for the subtheme that's still around, and is overall a strong card.
I don't see how this is any stronger than any of the 4 CMC haste variants.
It's the strongest solo threat with the most consistent form of evasion. On curve it outdamages a solo Hellrider / Headliner Scarlett, and Rampaging Raptor only out damages it by 1 with its pump ability. Hellrider / Headliner Scarlett have better alpha striking potential, but they do rely on having other creatures to maximize their triggers.
I'm not saying Smaug is better than any of these, but I think at first glance it's at least on par with Hellrider / Rampaging Raptor. Right now Headliner Scarlett is the only one of these that I like over Smaug.
I like this a lot. 2RR for a 4/3 flying haste with no downside is an unprecedented statline, and making treasures and being a repeatable removal spell are two excellent upsides! 3 toughness means Smaug can die to a lot of removal, but the haste helps offset that by getting an attack in right away before your opponent untaps. Many cubes run other ways to make Treasures in red, such as Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Charming Scoundrel, and/or Currency Converter, so if you play Smaug after one of those you can get a removal spell on the first attack. If Smaug lives it snowballs - you choose whether to spend the treasures on casting spells, or flavorfully hoard your treasure mound to build up bigger and bigger chunks of repeated damage to your opponent's creatures/planeswalkers/face.
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StaffIt's the strongest solo threat with the most consistent form of evasion. On curve it outdamages a solo Hellrider / Headliner Scarlett, and Rampaging Raptor only out damages it by 1 with its pump ability. Hellrider / Headliner Scarlett have better alpha striking potential, but they do rely on having other creatures to maximize their triggers.
I'm not saying Smaug is better than any of these, but I think at first glance it's at least on par with Hellrider / Rampaging Raptor. Right now Headliner Scarlett is the only one of these that I like over Smaug.
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