Buckle in for the Power Creep - Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest

Janosik

Gozmaster has spoiled us a new card, and it's.... well it's too good, isn't it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVBuoVS0uEg

There's an obvious point of comparison with Etali, Primal Storm, which originally had haste, and had to be nerfed

Both Dragonhawk and pre-nerf Etali give you a card full of mana every turn, including the turn they come into play. Then, on top of that, Dragonhawk is giving you a potential substantial cascade every turn by destroying 10 gems. And all this is just considering when you play fair with Dragonhawk, and just attack with it every turn... you can see the cogs in Gozmaster's Johnny Combo player brain starting to turn if you watch the video

Webcore are not shy about giving us powerful cards, but too much power creep can wreck a game. Even if cards that were too powerful are nerfed later to fix the problem, this can cause upset in players, especially if they spent a lot of resources getting hold of the cards... this happened with GTA. None of the looping cards from PM2 have been fixed yet, and people are gonna be annoyed when they are.

We've no shortage of cards in Standard that give us a free card every turn, like Kylox's Voltstrider, Silent-Blade Oni, One with the Multiverse, Portal to Phyrexia, The Key to the Vault, Loot the Key to Everything, Jeleva, Villainous Wealth... the list goes on. The difference with all these cards is that they don't trigger until the start of the turn after they come into play. Kroxa and Kunoros might, but almost certainly won't in the early game because of the graveyard requirement.

I think Dragonhawk generating this much value on the turn it comes into play, before the opponent has opportunity to respond, is dangerous. Or, to consider it from another perspective: maybe a card like this, that instantly generates value to keep the Johnny Combo players happy, shouldn't be able to create this high an amount of value on every subsequent turn. Appealing to both the Spike and Johnny player demographics with the same card is not a good idea.

Machine

I fully agree with you. When Villenous Wealth was spoiled, I already mentioned that the developers are working very hard on power creep. It feels the same as back in the Shadows over Innistrad days, were cards like Startled Awake and Deploy were the norm. The devs tried to fix the power creep by creating less powerful cards in subsequent sets. Players had to adjust massively to the new standard of power in those days. I can only hope that @Magic:PQ Support Team and the devs are VERY aware about what they are releasing here (and have been releasing the last couple of sets).

wraszowixuXuxi

Just in case to keep it on their radar, if this is in a Kalemne build, there will likely be both triggers the first turn that this comes down, if it is one's first creature and down also with one's A1/L1 emblem support. Kinda also in a lot of Red+Green or Red+Black builds in standard for another year with the Tyvar rare vanguard (please don't nerf that).

Granted, not sure what kinda nerf would really work for the dragon bird if in the long run this is WotC's preemptive answer to something coming in Duskmourn or later

Magic:PQ Support Team

Hey, folks!

What are your takes on this card and the collection as a whole now that Bloomburrow is out?

Janosik

Thanks for asking! I'm 80 cards into the set review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF6MgfN0-NQ

So far, Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest is completely broken, and everything else is drivel.