A review of Alara Reborn rare, Blitz Hellion.
Aesthetics:
This is the part where I make superficial comparisons to other card(s)… This time I will randomly pick three-odd characteristics of Blitz Hellion for cross reference:
- Mana Cost: I choose 3RG
- Size: I choose 7/7
- Abilities: I choose Trample
What do you get?
That’s right!
A Shivan Wurm!
Shivan Wurm was lauded as one of the best creatures ever when it first hit print, and was a decent sideboard card in Fires of Yavimaya decks.
It is kind of difficult to compare these two cards — Blitz Hellion and Shivan Wurm — head-to-head; they are just so different. Shivan Wurm was a slow warrior built to win brawls. Blitz Hellion is a much different kind of card, almost like a burn spell.
As far as burn spells go… The “blitz” in Blitz Hellion makes it fairly similar to a Beacon of Destruction. Instead of five direct damage you can do up to seven… But you don’t get to pick. If you are just going to the face (and the opponent doesn’t have anything) you can win; otherwise the opponent can move to absorb much of your attack (even if it doesn’t score a victory… You are “losing” the Hellion anyway); plus, you can’t really aim a Hellion at your opponent’s Dragon.
On the other hand, Blitz Hellion gets in like a Blistering Firecat; and we know from the old Red Deck Wins testing that you usually win whenever you can stick a Blistering Firecat [in a deck with sufficient burn to exploit basically three-and-a-half cards worth of damage].
Where can I see this fitting in?
A high end burn deck is the most logical place to try Blitz Hellion; that, or a deck with a heavily aggressive burn and haste theme… Maybe he will be friends with Jund Hackblade?
Snap Judgment Rating: Role Player
LOVE
MIKE
All Alara Reborn
3 comments ↓
I’m totally pumped for this guy!! It’ll go great in my jund-esque Hell’s Thunder deck.
One thing to notice is that this, unlike a Firecat, has 7 toughness, meaning it will actually live through a blocker.
We’ve got a lot of pseudo-Skizziks in Standard now, don’t we? If only Wall of Relevance weren’t around to spoil the fun…
i could see running 1x in rdw…if blightening becomes R/b/g (aka jund deck wins), this would fit in nicely. maybe only block though?
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