Ryusei, the Falling Star
The dragon that punishes you for killing it. Most fatties of this era asked you to keep them alive; this one turns its own death into a one-sided board sweep, since the 5 damage skips everything that flies. The catch is that the controller's own ground creatures eat the damage too, which sends the payoff to decks built to dodge it: other fliers, a board of one-toughness aggressors you're happy to rebuy, or a creatureless control shell using it purely as a removal-stapled blocker. The cleanest abuse is a sacrifice outlet, which converts the death trigger from a defensive deterrent into an on-demand wrath you can fire when the table is overcommitted. That tension (the body wants to attack and block, but the ability rewards you for getting rid of it) is what gives the card more strategic weight than a vanilla 5/5 flier ever had. Its design lineage runs through the death-as-removal idea later refined by cards like Bogardan Hellkite and Wurmcoil Engine, but Ryusei's version is purer: no upside while it lives, no choice in what dies, just a fixed retaliation that every attacker and every removal spell has to price in before deciding to trade.
