The Dragon Special is a T-spin build designed for early S/Z starts. It is an Air T-spin Double much like the Albatross Special or Pelican. While those builds were created by Japanese players, the Dragon Special was instantiated as an Opener by the western player ZHL.

The Dragon is designed as an efficient T-Spin build for certain piece orders incapable of creating many other T-spin builds, such as TSZIO. No soft Dropping is required for the first bag, unlike the Dodo, making it a viable Anti-Perfect Clear setup.

The first T-Spin Double is usually followed by a STSD, normally resulting in 2 further T-Spin Doubles. The first shown STSD continuation requires a S spin where the J piece must be placed first.