Thundermaw Hellkite

Thundermaw Hellkite Trivia

Hi Mark! First time doing a birthday ask - I was hoping I could get some trivia on the card that won me my first ever Magic tournament: Thundermaw Hellkite. Or, failing that, trivia on M13 in general would be great! Hope you're having an excellent weekend~

I believe Thundermaw Helllite was a top-down design to capture a cool dragon.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Dragon Thundermaw Hellkite Top Down

Creature Cycle Query

Are Baneslayer Angel, Kanolian Hydra, and Thundermaw Hellkite part of a cycle or are they simply coincidence?

There are not part of a planned cycle.

Angel Baneslayer Angel Cycles Hydra Thundermaw Hellkite

Red Mechanics Usage

Two slices of Red's pie that I don't think have been used very often are Panic effects (usually feeling like a once each block thing), but also the "slow down" effects of Thundermaw Hellkite and Urabrask, although they may just be too new.

Panic-like effects show up in common red in the majority of sets. The other are on rare cards so it’s something we do for flavor but isn’t a major red thing.

Flavor Rares Red Thundermaw Hellkite

Sharing Awesomeness

Last night I was playing a M13 sealed on MtGO. In one game I was attacking my opponent with a 11/11 Slumbering Dragon and a Thundermaw Hellkite at the same time. I don't have a question, I just wanted to share the awesomeness ;)

No answer, I just wanted to post this.

Attacking Dragon Humor Limited Magic Online Slumbering Dragon Thundermaw Hellkite

Dragon Card Revelation

A little while back when people were complaining about you printing 'bad dragons' simply because they needed to be included to keep people happy, you mentioned that there was a dragon being printed soon that you thought would see tournament play. Was the dragon that you were referring to Thundermaw Hellkite or are we still waiting to see it? (i'm pretty sure that Archwing Dragon had already been printed at the time that you said it but i could be wrong.

Thundermaw Hellkite was the dragon I was referring to in my AMA chat.

Archwing Dragon Card Printing Dragon Thundermaw Hellkite

Thundermaw Hellkite Ability

On the subject of Thundermaw Hellkite, I had thought his second ability was the way it was so that creatures with protection from Red would be unaffected (As well as having the nice fringe benefit of slaying little birds and spirits). Was that the intent being written as it was, instead of just saying 'tap all creatures with flying' or 'creatures with flying can't block until eot'?

The card was trying to create the feel of blast of thunder as the hellkite appears.

Bird Creatures Flying Protection Red Spirit Tap / Untap Thundermaw Hellkite

Design Rationalization

Devil's advocate time. Re: Thundermaw Hellkite stretching to use tap to "capture the flavor of thunder". Imagine a card that said "Choose target creature or player. Put a 1/1 unblockable Hornet token with haste on the battlefield. That token fights the targeted creature or must attack the targeted player your next combat phase if able." Can green not do this (perhaps with a different evasion)? Is as-printed Hornet Sting not a shortcut for this?

Can we rationalize doing things we shouldn’t do? Yes, we can. Part of doing good design is resisting that urge.

Card Printing Creatures Devil Evasion Flavor Green Haste Hornet Hornet Sting Tap / Untap Thundermaw Hellkite Tokens

Color Bleed Justification

So, if Thundermaw Hellkite can tap things at sorcery speed a functional "can't block" could that be used as an overlap for U/R at common?

Just because we’re willing to bleed something on a high profile rare card for flavor doesn’t mean it’s part of the color’s mechanical identity.

Colors Flavor Izzet (U/R) Rares Sorceries Tap / Untap Thundermaw Hellkite

Thundermaw Hellkite Logic

Why does Thundermaw Hellkite tap things? Wouldn't making them unable to block accomplish the same thing but in a redder way?

The card is trying to capture the flavor of thunder. Being that red could have just said “creatures can’t block”, I’m fine stretching a little for the flavor as it’s not fundamentally allowing red to do something it can’t.

Creatures Flavor Red Tap / Untap Thundermaw Hellkite

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