Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Mirrorwing Dragon: A Data-Driven Look at an Iconic Red Dragon
Magic: The Gathering is as much about the story told by numbers as it is about the story etched into myth. Mirrorwing Dragon, a mythic red dragon from Innistrad Remastered, invites a data-minded brewhouse to peek under the hood of card design 🧙♂️🔥. With a cost of 3RR and a sturdy 4/5 body that carries flying on a red frame, this creature embodies red’s tempo and spectacle. But the real data thrill comes from its ability—the kind of effect that turns a single spell into a mini-symposium on board state and choice. Let’s visualize what makes Mirrorwing tick, and how you might map its attributes in a dashboard that feels at home on a gaming table or a data-science desk 🎲.
At a glance: card attributes visual snapshot
- Name: Mirrorwing Dragon
- Mana cost: 3RR
- Converted mana cost (CMC): 5
- Type: Creature — Dragon
- Power/Toughness: 4/5
- Colors: Red (color identity: R)
- Rarity: Mythic
- Set: Innistrad Remastered (INR)
- Abilities: Flying; "Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell that targets only this creature, that player copies that spell for each other creature they control that the spell could target. Each copy targets a different one of those creatures."
- Legal formats: Commander, Modern legal, and a host of others; reprint status confirms it as a Masters-era relic with modern accessibility.
- Artwork: Min Yum
- Market snapshot: USD around 0.55; foil around 0.67; EUR around 0.50 (values approximate and variable by market)
From a data-visualization standpoint, the standout feature is the interaction between the spell-casting event and the mosaic of creatures on the battlefield. Mirrorwing Dragon acts as a catalyst in a copy engine: for every instant or sorcery that targets it, you generate copies equal to the number of other creatures you could legally target with that spell. The graph you’d build would look like a branching tree: the primary node is the original spell, the branches represent each legal target (your other creatures), and the leaf nodes are the final copies in play. The more creatures you control, the more dramatic the spike 🧭. This is a perfect case study in how a single card scales with board state, turning a straightforward cost into a multi-path decision tree that rewards aggressive planning and careful timing.
In practice, assume you control Mirrorwing Dragon plus a handful of creatures you can legally target with an instant or sorcery. If you cast a spell that targets only Mirrorwing, you’ll now generate copies that can each hit a different creature you control—potentially turning a single spell into a mini-swarm of effects. The visualization pulse you’d want to see is a bar that grows with each additional creature, a scatter plot of copies versus board size, and a timeline showing how early you deploy the ability versus how late you’re able to push multiple round extensions. Red mana loves big numbers on big turns, and Mirrorwing provides the data to back that up ⚔️.
The data narrative: cost, color, and cadence
In a standard glass-dell view, you’d map three axes: time (turn), mana investment (CMC), and impact (number of copies). Mirrorwing Dragon’s 5-cost profile sits squarely in the mid-to-late tempo window for red, but its true impact isn’t paid in raw damage alone. The flying body ensures it survives air-based removal, while the copy mechanic forces opponents to decide how to allocate removal or protect their own board state. A radar chart of attributes would highlight Flight, Red identity, and the ability’s strategic depth as the most impactful vertices. The artful data takeaway: the card’s value compounds when you operate a board full of legal targets, making it a natural candidate for “spikes” in an experimental deck designed around spell recursion and opt-in redundancy 🧙♂️🎨.
From a collector’s lens, Mirrorwing Dragon’s INR printing—part of a Masters-set approach—signals a certain premium in foil and non-foil variants. The dual-foil availability and the aura of nostalgia around Masters-era reprints contribute to a value curve that a data-minded collector would log alongside usage stats in EDH or casual leagues. While its price is accessibility-friendly, the true potential is in the synergy values—how many times and in how many ways can you leverage a single spell into multiple, meaningful outcomes? The answer often lies in the composition of your creature count and the opponent’s board state 💎.
Design, lore, and creative spark
Min Yum’s artwork frames a dragon that embodies chaos and cunning—an image that invites a narrative visualization: mirror-laden surfaces, mirrored strategies, and the echo of spells bouncing between players. The flavor of Innistrad Remastered conflicts with red’s reckless bravado in a way that makes data scientists grin: you’ll often see spikes in tempo when the dragon hits the board, followed by a cascade of decisions as opponents decide where to deploy or dodge the copies ⚔️🎲.
Games aren’t merely about what a card does; they’re about how often it changes the map. Mirrorwing Dragon is a reminder that data visualization isn’t just for dashboards—it's a lens into the rhythm of play. When you chart its interactions, you discover a story about choice, timing, and the thrill of power multiplied. And yes, that thrill translates into reading the board, calculating the line, and then shouting, with a grin, “Copy that!” as the copies resolve 🧙♂️💥.
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