Bogardan Hellkite – Time Spiral
Date Reviewed: May 1, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed:
Casual:
Limited:
Multiplayer:
Commander [EDH]:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
If you were in Magic’s online community in the mid-2000s, you would have had to endure a lot of discussion about dragons, mostly ranging from snide to obnoxiously snide. Forums mostly had a severe competitive bias in those days, and for most of Magic’s history, dragons had been a class of card that was generally not good in competitive play. Sure, there were a couple of outliers like Rathi Dragon and Covetous Dragon, and an exceptional era around the time of Rorix Bladewing, but this was often a function of the cards around them rather than the dragons themselves. As such, dragons by and large were for the casual tables. There is nothing inherently wrong with this – you could say something similar about squirrels in Modern – but there becomes something wrong with it when people start looking down on anyone who likes dragons or bragging about obtaining the new ones to trick Timmy/Tammy players into trading for dual lands. It’s been twenty years and I have not stopped objecting to those behaviors, and I never want to see them again.
Then, in 2006, everyone at the top tables was forced to sit up and take notice of dragons, partly due to Bogardan Hellkite. As we discussed in a recent review, Dragonstorm and red rituals were probably the biggest factor, but the Hellkite was very unusual among its kind; in fact, at the time, it was arguably the best dragon card ever printed when considered on its own characteristics. The flash ability is actually a big part of that all by itself – at the time, one of the biggest weaknesses of almost every color other than blue was the fact that they had to play during their own turn and thus telegraph (almost) everything they did. While eight mana is an awful lot, it still gets you a huge flying threat, plus the damage to either your opponent or a significant number of creatures on their side of the table. That actually gave Dragonstorm decks a solid plan B if their namesake card got hit by discard effects coming from, say, a Rack deck: using your rituals to cast a Bogardan Hellkite was just as hard for small creature decks to beat as your usual path to victory.
Bogardan Hellkite didn’t translate so well into bigger tournament formats, which had more disruptive elements and/or fewer enablers – rituals have long been banned in Modern. But nobody would find it a questionable play at a casual table even now, and I think one of its biggest achievements is showing designers that it was okay to make dragons good (and other big creatures besides!).
Constructed: 3
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Sir Swoopington, Esq., first of his name, left a pretty decent mark on Standard back in Time Spiral-era play, thanks to Dragonstorm opening up a surprisingly elegant win condition. Three spells before Dragonstorm let you dig out four copies of Bogardan Hellkite to aim 20 points of damage at your opponent’s face, far more attainable than it might seem at first with the help of fast mana rituals to get you there
On its own merits, though, Bogardan Hellkite is resolutely fine. Splitting five damage on entry is a really good deal, even now, and flash gives the ability to throw an opponent off in impressive fashion. It may telegraph itself at eight mana, but it can be a pretty big blowout to knock out hordes of attackers and/or blockers in one go, leaving a 5/5 able to swoop with impunity both early and often. It’s not a star now, but it did have its time in the sun, and it definitely can surprise in short order if you’re not prepared for it to swoop.
Constructed: 3 (can’t quite soar, thanks to a dearth of fast mana that hasn’t gotten banned out of Modern and a high mana cost making it tricky to really leverage)
Casual: 5
Limited: 5 (a big body that can tear a board apart in short order is always good)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
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