For Challenge # 043.

As with most other entrants, this was supposed to be spikey, but I fear it ended up too overpowered, timmy, or johnny.

I felt a planeswalker was a good choice for a 7-cost spell, as planeswalkers inherently give you an effect up front, but then also swing the game in your favour next turn if your opponent can't deal with it.

And making an expensive planeswalker gives an opportunity to use some abilities that would usually be too strong.

I'm not sure if the abilities are too strong or not strong enough. 5CMC Garruk makes 3/3 beasts every turn; can 7CMC get a 5/5 dragon every turn? Dragonmaster outcast does.

The -5 is supposed to deal with most opposing creatures (or just win the game). It was originally -X, which was more spikey as it gave more choice, but I decided fixed numbers were better looking.

The -9 deliberately doesn't empty mana pools: for a 7-mana suspend 2 card, I think you can have the best "destroy everything" card. On a similar principle, I didn't except enchantments: I think it's more appropriate for red to mess with enchantments when they're turned into something else, not just gone, but I thought the elegance of "destroy all permanents" was worth it.

Unfortunately, Spike definitely plays red, but usually plays FAST red decks, I'm not sure how often spike wants to cast a 5RR spell. (Although I guess it could go in a r/green ramp deck.)

Very nice! I could definitely see this appearing in some tournament decks.

Thanks!

It's possible for Spike. I know it sounds weird to say, but a 5/5 dragon may not be enough immediate impact on the board at 7cc. But the ability to keep tossing dragons out there is pretty sweet. I don't remember anyone playing Dragon Roost in any serious manner, but they should have. I blame Akroma.

The only thing that bugs me about the card is that the ultimate destroys the planeswalker. Granted, I don't think you should have a dragon spawing machine after all other permanents are destroyed, but it still seems awkward. Maybe big on kamikazee. It's possible. I wonder if it would be more appropriate to return him to your hand as part of the ultimate, to point to the fact that he's not dead... just gone for a very long time. Probably too many words on a nice and simple ultimate, though...

­Dragon Roost did see occasional play in Onslaught block tournaments, I thought.

The ultimate would feel out of place on most planeswalkers for the suicide factor, but feels somehow fine for Sarkhan.

Wow. Dragon Roost + Nevinyrral's Disk + Armageddon.

Spike is the one that want's everything everywhere to explode, forever, whilst covered in gigantic dragons that eat worlds, right? I'm thinking Timmeh.

Re: "destroy everything". I don't think it's perfect, even on Sarkhan, but there's not a perfect flavour-metaphor for destroying a planeswalker permanent; I do think Sarkhan is much more likely than any other planeswalker to blow himself up :)

I considered alternatives, but even "destroy all other permanents" was a bit long (and a bit too explicitly "win the game").

Re: Dragon Roost, surely the problem with dragon roost is that you have to pay 13 to get your first dragon, which is usually too late to help in single-player constructed. I agree a 5/5 flying dragon may not always be enough, but I hope (with the promise of more next turn), it will OFTEN be enough, at least to stave off disaster for another turn. After all, even if you're just chumping, you're still getting ahead, and 5 damage will do the job in other cases. I wasn't sure it was enough, but conversely, I wasn't sure I wanted to make this planeswalker better :)

Re: Timmy. Yes, this is definitely Timmy too. I think a planeswalker that had more trade-offs would be more interesting to Spike, but I think anything tournament-playable costing 7+ is going to be splashy enough to usually be interesting to Timmy as well as Spike.

Timmy usually wants a sledgehammer, Spike usually wants a leatherman, and Johnny usually wants a complicated pen-knife that may not have a bottle-opener, but you can totally do this complicated thing with three other tools instead :) It could be more spikey. But it could also be more Timmy too, if it built to make 15 dragons, rather than suggesting that you may play reactively with the second ability, or close the game out with the ultimate.