"The Intent is Clear"
What happens if you resolve Spry and Mighty while controlling only one creature?
This doesn't seem like it should be a complicated question. It's just one card from a recent set, and the interaction comes up all the time in the limited format, so Wizards would surely have been aware of it in advance.
Let's first consider what the Magic Comprehensive Rulebook says. The relevant rule is 107.2:
If anything needs to use a number that can't be determined, either as a result or in a calculation, it uses 0 instead.
Ok, that's simple enough. The one creature's power is known, let's say it's 2. We're trying to calculate the difference between 2 and the power of the other creature, which is undefined since there is no other creature. So, as per this rule, we use 0. Spry and Mighty ends up drawing you 2 cards and granting +2/+2 and trample.
Just to be sure, let's check the release notes:
Huh, why is X 0? That's not what the rules say, and no explanation is provided as to why it works that way. But I guess that result is a little more intuitive, so ok. Just to be sure, let's also check Gatherer:
Wait, what? Now we have a third answer, and this one makes the least sense of all. The trample portion of the effect doesn't have anything to do with the numerical calculation, so why wouldn't the creature at least gain the trample?
We need to get to the bottom of this. Let's see how it works on Arena:
And on MTGO:
This would seem to support the answer given in the release notes. But just to be sure, let's ask the Wizards rules team directly:
Nice, finally a clear explanation. The release notes came out first on January 9th 2026, then the rules team changed their mind and the Gatherer ruling was added later on November 17th 2025. Of course, editing an article is not something that's possible on the internet, so the release notes had to continue showing the wrong information forever.
Unfortunately, the rest of Matt's explanation makes a little less sense. He says that it works this way because the card instructs you to "choose two creatures", and since you only have one, you cannot perform that instruction at all.
This sounds sensible in a vacuum, but contradicts the Gatherer rulings on Clarion Ultimatum, Noggin Whack, and Sylvan Library, which all say that if there are fewer than X objects to choose in a "choose [X]" instruction, the player can still choose fewer than X. The Sylvan Library ruling in particular has been very relevant for nearing on two decades- entire archetypes have been built around this exact interaction with dredge, and Wizards of the Coast employees have confirmed it works this way many times.
It also defies common sense. Matt Tabak's ruling says that, if you cast Mind Warp with X=5 and your opponent plays an instant in response to get their hand down to 4 cards, they would have to discard none of them.
Luckily, when it comes to Spry and Mighty, we don't need to worry about things like "consistency" or "precedent" or "what your own rulebook says". Because, you see, "the intent is clear".
Not, of course, to Eric Levine, the member of the rules team who wrote the release notes. Nor, obviously, to the Arena or MTGO dev teams, who implemented different results. Nor, either, to the ~dozen L3+ judges at Spotlight Toronto, where the head judge's rulings on this question were differing across the two different tournaments that qualified players for the pro tour. And not to the players, who asked this question quite a few times that weekend.
But to everyone else, the intent is clear.
