As we get closer to seeing the entirety of Tarkir: Dragonstorm revealed, Magic: The Gathering players are itching to brew with the new cards. Every new set has the potential to shake up the metagame and generate spicy new decks, and Dragonstorm looks more powerful than most in that regard. Entirely new archetypes aside, the current top dogs look set to benefit nicely too. Sunpearl Kirin, for instance, is nearly guaranteed to slot into Esper Pixie decks in the current MTG Standard format.
Pixie has been dominant for a while now, owing to its unique bounce-based playstyle. Sunpearl Kirin offers a new bounce effect in the right colors, with the added potential for card draw on top. It’d be pretty surprising if the card didn’t earn a slot or two in post-Dragonstorm takes on the deck. Beyond that, it also has potential in other archetypes, including the lesser-seen Mono-White Token Control. Not bad at all for a humble uncommon.
Sunpearl Kirin MTG
- Mana Value: 1W
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Type: Creature – Kirin
- Stats: 2/1
- Card Text: Flash.
Flying.
When this creature enters, return up to one other target nonland permanent you control to its owner’s hand. If it was a token, draw a card.
Sunpearl Kirin isn’t exactly breaking the MTG mold with anything that it does. We’ve seen plenty of creatures that bounce permanents on entry over the years, including Pauper favorite Kor Skyfisher in original Zendikar. Kirin is a very efficient implementation of that idea, however, which gives it an edge in various lists.
First of all, it can bounce any nonland permanent with no restriction. This is important for Esper Pixie decks since they often rely on repeatable enchantments to win. It’s worth noting that this isn’t a may ability like that of Nurturing Pixie, so you can’t simply opt out. It does specify one other nonland permanent, mind you, so you can still run Kirin out on an empty board if need be.
To make up for this minor downside, Kirin comes with a vital keyword in Flash. The ability to bounce your permanents at instant speed is huge and opens up a ton of avenues for the card. You can use it in response to removal to keep your creature safe, like a pseudo-Counterspell. You can also hold it up alongside interaction to give yourself more options.
Last but certainly not least, Sunpearl Kirin lets you draw a card if you bounce a token with its ability. This is a pretty novel bit of text, and it’s one that makes up for a classic weakness of self-bounce cards like these. Generally, bouncing a token you control is a bad move since it ceases to exist when it leaves play, leaving you down a card. With this clause, you can throw away tokens without suffering in terms of card advantage. It’s a nice addition and one that makes Kirin an interesting proposition indeed.
Esper Pixie Just Got Even Better
“Esper bounce really needed some new tools, huh?”
MaybeNotBatman, via r/MagicTCG
Naturally, the first place most MTG players have Sunpearl Kirin pegged for is Esper Pixie decks in Standard. This is a deck all about bouncing and replaying cheap permanents to grind out an advantage, and Kirin offers a new way to do that at instant speed.
The deck could already do this with This Town Ain’t Big Enough, assuming you had two permanents to work with. That said, the extra redundancy Kirin offers is crucial here. With more instant-speed bounce, you can also run more instant-speed interaction like No More Lies. Most Pixie lists run the full complement of Nowhere to Run already, which is another great spell to hold up alongside Kirin.
On top of that, Kirin offers the deck some much-needed card advantage. Between Stormchaser’s Talent and Spiteful Hexmage, Esper Pixie often has tokens you can bounce for an extra draw. Any Map tokens you get via opposing Get Losts can be traded in this way, too.
Currently, Esper Pixie plays a lot of Fear of Isolation, which fills a similar role to Sunpearl Kirin. Players are currently debating whether to swap it in or not, and it’s a surprisingly nuanced decision. While the instant speed on Kirin is great, Fear’s three toughness makes it much better in the mirror.
It’s also worth noting that Fear’s bounce ability is an additional cost, while Kirin’s comes via an enters trigger. This means Kirin leaves a window for your opponent to remove your preferred bounce target, whereas Fear does not. This is an important point in close matches and will likely prevent Kirin from totally taking over from Fear in Pixie lists. Ultimately, I expect most lists to run full playsets of both between the main and the sideboard to account for different matchups.
Welcome To Token Town
Esper Pixie is almost certainly a safe home for Sunpearl Kirin, but it’s also an ideal fit for another popular MTG deck. While it hasn’t seen much use in Standard of late, Mono-White Token Control is still very much a viable strategy. Thanks to Kirin’s unique interaction with tokens, it may get a nice boost in power when Tarkir: Dragonstorm hits.
For those unfamiliar, Mono-White Token Control uses Caretaker’s Talent to fuel a kind of Midrange/Control hybrid playstyle. By slamming an early Talent or Enduring Innocence, the deck can draw a ton of cards when it drops stall pieces like Carrot Cake and Beza. Later on, it can clear the board with a Sunfall and leverage its still-full grip to turn the corner.
Naturally, having a way to turn tokens into cards is something this deck is interested in. Kirin offers just that, giving you a way to turn your 1/1 Rabbits and Beza Treasures into game-winning momentum. The fact that it can come down at instant speed makes it ideal to hold up alongside a Get Lost, too.
On top of the obvious, Mono-White Token Control is also a deck that can benefit from the bounce effect here. Returning a Beza or Carrot Cake to your hand in the mid to late game can generate huge amounts of value, and you can even pick up an Ossification to remove a more pressing target if need be. Alternatively, you can use it to pick up your key card draw enchantments to protect them from removal.
Whichever way you slice it, Sunpearl Kirin is a fine addition to Mono-White Token Control. It may not be enough to make the deck a meta contender again, but it’ll at least get people testing with it.