Sniffer Dragon

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If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 “Sniffer Dragon” from your Deck to your hand. You can only use this effect of “Sniffer Dragon” once per turn.
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Currently Found In: Circuit Break (CIBR-EN008), Star Pack VRAINS (SP18-EN026), 2018 Mega-Tin Mega Pack (MP18-EN108)

One particular searching effects among the many options available are those which only supports its own copies. This is quite the oddity given that in most cases you’ll need to run as many copies as possible to obtain the card’s best functions in the long run, yet has the risk of drawing such cards before they can be brought by each other. On the other hand, this allows any Deck to obtain an always available searcher no matter the Deck this card and its copies are shoved in, creating a particular engine where despite being limited to a single searching target it will be effective independently of the Deck itself. With the best candidates arround this mechanic often being more direct as they summon their remaining copies, this is a quite reliable ability despite some of its drawbacks.

“Sniffer Dragon” is a small monster with some potential arround its limited but nonetheless effective ability to work arround for consecutive turns. When summoned on the field, “Sniffer Dragon” will add a copy of itself from our Deck to our hand. This is quite simple as simply helps itself, but the low stats of “Sniffer Dragon” makes it a reasonable investment even after we gathered all its copies during a Duel.

Aside of “Sniffer Dragon” searching itself, this monster was a strong quantity of cards to keep a prominent pressence even after all available copies have been obtained. “Soldier Dragons” is another small monster we can easily obtain by other methods, and with the ability to bring out “Sniffer Dragon” from the Deck in response of opponent’s effects makes it an interesting card to punish any potential threats. “Omni Dragon Brotaur” on the other hand will answer against the destruction of our monsters with its arrival, following with a searching effect which can obtain “Sniffer Dragon” by simply targetting itself. Some cards like “Mimiclay” on the other hand can potentially skip some steps and even the monster’s effect clause, summoning any remaining copy of “Sniffer Dragon” to work along the already present monster. But when comes to Graveyard options “Sniffer Dragon” is when truly shines the most, as obtains a wide variety of strong options as well potentially activate its effect once again when Special Summoned. From generic options like “Monster Reborn” and “World Legacy Succession” summoning it back to the field as activates its searching effect if needed, to other monsters such as “Junk Synchron” and “Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon” reviving it to work along a variety of plays, “Sniffer Dragon” doesn’t even need to active its own effect to become a potentially prominent material from early to late game.

“Sniffer Dragon” might only assists itself, but that doesn’t imply that can become quite dependable for a wide variety of plays. As pointed out “Sniffer Dragon” has a respectable card pool of supporting cards to interact with, not only obtaining its other copies (if any) in the process but following with further plays under its pressence. From cheap Link and Tribute Summons to using its Level towards Xyz and Synchro Summons, “Sniffer Dragon” can play arround these setups and more as prepare its next copies for further plays on future turns. If we obtained the last copy of this monster we can speed up things further, bringing them by a wide variety of methods as its effect and clauses are no longer a compromise. On the other hand, with “Sniffer Dragon” keeping a steady hand for two or three turns, it can become a cost for discard activations if we have no more copies to search or we have a way to summon it out on the field afterwards to gain another “Sniffer Dragon”. Keep on mind that there’s no obligation to run three copies of “Sniffer Dragon”, so we can just run two of them to search one and leave the third slot for a more important card.

“Sniffer Dragon” might not be a groundbreaking monster, but is that kind of card which offers and obtains a lot of possibilities in its favor. It might be narrowed to only searching its own copies, but that alone can suffice to keep a steady hand as we gather two or three monsters with a solid variety of summoning methods arround them. While narrowing itself to searching itself doesn’t compromise most Decks that can get involved, the risk of drawing its copies before is/are summoned is a major risk this sort of particular searching effects has to deal with. If anything it might suffer competition of similar options with more liberties and/or direct results like “Reborn Tengu” and “Destiny HERO – Malicious”, but the low stats of “Sniffer Dragon” places it at an advantage to become useful even after its main task has been achieved.

Personal Rating: B

+When summoned adds a copy of itself to our hand
+Solid support arround it from early to late game

-Risk of drawing its copies before activating its effect
-Overshadowed by similar effects with more direct results