Heavyweight Dragon is a pretty vicious looking card.  The artwork is stupendous… then again it’s what we’ve all come to know and love from our favorite game.  Fortunately the designers never cut corners when it came to enjoyment and style.  Let’s see what this bad boy can do.

 

Heavyweight Dragon

 

Cost: 7

Race: Armored Draggon

Civilization: Fire

Type: Creature

Rules Text:

·         Double breaker (This creature breaks 2 shields.)

·         Instead of having this creature attack, you may tap it to use its tap ability.

 

Tap:  Choose up to 2 of your opponent's tapped creatures in the battle zone. If they have total power less than this creature's power, destroy them.

 

Power: 9000

 

Wow, this creature is pretty straightforward.  We basically have a Boltail Dragon with a little flavor.  Seven mana for 9000 power can be considered fairly standard for cards with just a double breaker ability so it’s basically another beatstick.  Fortunately it appears to have a useful ability.  When you tap Heavyweight Dragon you get to choose two of your opponent’s creatures and destroy them.  Looks pretty cool…  The only problem is that they have to be tapped.

 

At least the nice thing is that while this creature is in the battle zone your opponent will be forced to stop attacking.  This is because after attacking they will lose their tapped creatures if you decide to tap Heavyweight Dragon.  Unfortunately this will make for a very long match because first you have to summon Heavyweight and if you want to use its ability you have to somehow tap your opponent’s creatures.

 

Fortunately nobody does this better than the light civilization.  With cards like Holy Awe and Kolon, the Oracle you’ll be sure to remove several annoying creatures.  Techno totems would also be very helpful and you’ll get plenty of advantages from building a L/F/N deck.  It’ll also be fun to slam weenies into your opponent’s blockers and laugh it up when they lose their tapped blockers to your dragon.

 

The only issue I have with this creature is the fact that it’s very inefficient.  First you have to get to seven mana.  On the next turn, if it hasn’t been destroyed, you get to tap it to use its effect (provided there are tapped creatures).  It is somewhat bothersome.   I do not hate the card, but Apocalypse Vise is so much more efficient.

 

The Good:  It’s a beatstick with a potential for extra destruction.

 

The Bad:  It’s slow and requires an inefficient combo in order to use its ability.

 

The Ugly:  For such a beautiful card it’s just a waste having to leave it in the binder.  I’m confident that in future sets this creature will fulfill a greater purpose.

 

Constructed Rating: 3/5 – Heavyweight Dragon still deserves a decent rating because of its high power and its somewhat effective ability.  Perhaps there’s something that I’m not seeing here.  Please let me know.

 

Limited Rating: 3.5/5 – Once you get Heavyweight Dragon into the battle zone it’ll be hard to stop.

 

Please feel free to post your comments, questions, and/or objections on the Message Board and I’ll be more than happy to respond.  Happy dueling!