Archive Dragon

The 4/6 profile is the load-bearing decision here. Four power in the air attacks on a clock that closes games, but the six-toughness back end walks past most red burn and every X/3 blocker, so the flier sticks to the table long after cheaper threats have traded off. Ward handles the rest of the defensive work, taxing the spot-removal answer just enough to make the exchange awkward without pretending the card is untouchable. The scry 2 on arrival is the concession to a six-mana cost: even a game where it dies the next turn still hands back a smoothed top of library, so the card is never a total blank. Everything is calibrated toward one job, which is to be a durable, self-justifying blue creature that a controlling deck can lean on as a finisher without hanging its plan on any single copy. There is no combo hook, no engine, no timing window to exploit. This is the value-blue midrange flier stripped to its most durable form: the appeal is that the wings keep swinging and the tax keeps taxing while it does the unglamorous, essential work of ending games two damage above where the removal wants to trade.