How do you top punching a bear? How about punching a dragon?
For years, the 'most epic' card was generally though to be Savage Punch. As we noted previously, the card features Surrak Dragonclaw knocking out a bear. That came out with Khans of Tarkir. However, when the alternate timeline Dragons of Tarkir came around in 2015, developers wanted to one up it. So they went from a bear:
To, well ... a dragon:
That is Epic Confrontation, and yes, that is Surrak punching not a bear, but a freaking dragon. And yes, he hit it so hard that teeth are flying out.
Surprisingly though, it was only one of three ideas put forward by the dev team. There was Surrak punching dragon, dragon punching bear, and bear punching Surrak. And it took awhile to decide.
As Mark Rosewater put it: "Once you've punched a bear there's no going back. We knew that, in the alternative timeline, we had to find a cool twist on the bear punch. Interestingly, there was debate on just what that twist was supposed to be. There were three options:
1. A Dragon Punches a Bear
In the Khans of Tarkir timeline, Surrak punched a bear. Well, how do we communicate that the dragons have taken over and are now the leaders of the clans? Well, what if we had them do things we saw the khans do?
2. A Bear Punches Surrak
It's possible that the timeline turns events on their ear. Maybe this time, instead of Surrak punching the bear, the bear punches Surrak.
3. Surrak Punches a Dragon
Surrak doesn't put up with stuff in either timeline. Are the dragons in charge? Well, then have Surrak punch a dragon.
"Each of the above choices is satisfying in its own way. The problem with the second choice is there's no dragon. It's Dragons of Tarkir, "the Dragon set", filled with Dragonlords. There really had to be a dragon. The first choice left out Surrak and, really, if anyone gets to punch things, I think Surrak is the man to do it. That left us with our third choice and dragon punching it was."
Magic wanted to outdo an already legendary card, and they wound up doing it. While Savage Punch still gets the accolades today for most epic card, Epic Confrontation did try and one up it. And, in an odd way, made the legend of Surrak much more bigger than Magic had intended.
