Flying Drone

Loot effects usually charge a fixed toll, and that fixed cost is exactly what keeps them from becoming free card-selection engines: pay the mana, filter your draw, move on. This design bolts a discount onto a board-building condition, so the activation cost swings on whether another flier landed under your control that turn. Meet the clause and the whole cost falls away: the ability shrinks to nothing but the tap, turning a two-mana filter into a free one, repeatable every turn a new flying creature arrives. That structure ties the smoothing function to a deck's tempo rather than its mana reserves; the payoff scales with how many wings you deploy, and it rewards a build that flickers permanents, spits out tokens, or simply floods the air. The 1/2 body is unremarkable on its own, a small evasive blocker that can stay back on defense thanks to vigilance while still contributing in the air when the coast is clear. The interest sits entirely in the gate: it takes the most generic effect a blue permanent can carry and hands its efficiency to a specific flying-creature pattern, so the card matters less for what it does than for what deck it asks you to assemble around it. A filter that costs full price is a footnote; a filter that costs nothing under the right board is an engine, and the difference is one flier landing on schedule.