Usually haste adds one mana to a creature's
casting cost; since you're getting to attack one
turn early, it costs one more. It's tough to
imagine this without the haste being anything
but insanely overpowered at 2RR, so it seems
like you're getting a deal here. The Hellkite's
stats are definitely befitting that of a
Dragon-- a 5/5 flyer with haste for a mere five
makes for an incredible power play. The
enters-the-battlefield ability pushes it from
"efficient flying beater" to "backbreaking
play". Not only will it ping off any X/1's that
your opponents (opponents, plural, for those of
you you play multiplayer) have, it taps them to
guarantee that your opponent will have no
blockers to stop your 5/5's first assault.
(Well, okay, reach creatures or creatures with
flash still could.) This is clearly a card for
attacking with, and it'll have no trouble
putting a major dent in your opponent's army in
short order.
There's a story that Doug Beyer, the guy who led
the design of M13, asked the development people
to "make sure this card is good." Well, I think
they succeeded. As I think I've said before in
this space, haste is arguably the best ability
you can put on a dragon creature, and when you
can guarantee that it'll hit the first time,
that just makes it even better. I wouldn't be
surprised to see people making space in their
decks for Silklash Spider just to hold this guy
off. He even has combo potential of a sort -
he's not quite a Bogardan Hellkite, but blink
effects nonetheless have a new friend and
Lingering Souls is ruing the day.
And one last thing to get straight: the
old-school callback on this card is to
Thundermare, not Baneslayer Angel or whatever
else people may have been saying.
Today's card of the day is Thundermaw Hellkite
which is a five mana Red with Flying, Haste, and
deals one damage plus taps creatures with Flying
that your opponents control. Aside from
Reach or removal this is going to deal five
damage and possibly open up an aerial alpha
strike at the same time. The cost is very
efficient for what you get, an evasive 5/5 for
just one mana per power, and there really isn't
a drawback to using this as the high end of a
mana curve. It may not see a ton of play,
but decks will be using it and a Flying theme
built around it can be a surprise threat.
For Limited this is a fantastic bomb that can
control the game even without Flying support as,
barring Reach, it should be able to deal damage
fairly consistently. An absolute first
pick in Booster and the two Red in the cost
should allow any moderate Red pool in Sealed to
run this effectively. Evasion, Haste, and
a potentially stalemate or tide changing effect
at a fairly low cost make it one of the best
cards to have.
Welcome to the Pojo.com card of the day
section. We are closing out the week looking at
Thundermaw Hellkite from M13. Thundermaw
Hellkite is a mythic rare red creature dragon
that costs three generic and two red mana for a
5/5. Thundermaw Hellkite has flying and haste
and when it enters the battlefield, it deals 1
damage to each creature with flying your
opponents control. Tap those creatures.
Thundermaw Hellkite is the reason why
certain cards attain mythic status, because
Thundermaw Hellkite is certainly such. Flying
and haste from a 5/5 for only five mana was a
deal already, but then you add in the ability
that it can take out a lot of creatures upon
being dropped and it gets better. Then, you add
in that it taps most of what would be able to
block it, and it is certainly an amazing mythic.
Since it taps most of what it damaged, the only
thing that it could be blocked by is creatures
with reach. But other than that, it is scoring a
hit the turn it is dropped. And that is
certainly mythic to me.
Sure to become a red favorite since it
can do so much for its mana cost.
