Nine mana is quite a lot, and between the mana
cost, the Storm, and the fact that it alone does
nothing unless you've got Dragons in your deck,
this card needs a deck built around it. Built
properly, with plenty of Seething Songs and the
like, it is an absolute powerhouse. It can only
be as powerful as the Dragons it puts into play,
of course, but given how powerful most Dragons
are, that shouldn't be a problem.
I think most people's reaction when they saw
Dragonstorm for the first time in Scourge was
that it was a cute card without much potential
for serious tournament play. With its rebirth in
Time Spiral, this huge expensive timmy card has
become a tournament powerhouse. Who woulda thunk
it? Perhaps the quality of Dragonstorm has more
to do with powerful acceleration and effective
dragons than it does with the quality of the
card itself, but whatever the reason, it bears
watching out for. Any card that can generate a
turn 3 victory should be carefully examined
after all.
Wizards probably underestimated Dragonstorm. The
web site's card of the day for Enduring Renewal
admitted that they were quite worried about THAT
card getting out of hand. It was, in fact,
almost cut from development because of a three
card combo between Wild Cantor, Enduring
Renewal, and Grapeshot.
That isn't to say that Dragonstorm flew through
R&D unnoticed. They probably saw the interaction
between fast mana cards like Rite of Flame,
Lotus Bloom, and four copies of Bogardan
Hellkite. They probably saw that it conceivably
allowed a player to send a clean 20 damage to an
opponent's face on turn four, or even earlier,
if the player gets an especially good hand.
Probably.
For better or for worse, Dragonstorm has become
a dominant deck type by winning Worlds 2006. As
a result, a lot of people have spent a
considerable amount of time weighing its
strengths and weaknesses. Shadow of Doubt is
effective against it, as is Trickbind. Even so,
there are often enough ways for the Dragonstorm
player to stop incoming hate and win, if they
play carefully.
Constructed 4/5. Keep an eye out for this deck
if you play competitively. Dragonstorm has been
known to have explosive turns, even going off as
early as turn 1 with enough Rite of Flames,
although that, at least, is unlikely. Even so,
carry hate in the sideboard, and pray that they
don't have a Gigadrowse to keep you from hosing
them in games two and three.
Limited 1/5. Largely ineffective. Considering
the rarity level of this card, it's not possible
to draft Dragonstorm and enough dragons to make
it good. You build a deck around this card.
Casual 2/5. While casting out four big red
dragons is fun, Dragonstorm.dec is not a
multiplayer card. If you go off and nail
someone, everyone else is going to gang up to
take you out.
