Seems strong, probably a contender for one of the strongest cards in the game, especially since it's just an action event.

Hello Heldrake old chum. Sathariel can recur it as well..

The Smasha Gun Battery is probably its only nemesis.

Bare in mind that you're breaking even if you use this with a 5 cost unit out since you throw this card to play it as well as the 4 cards you then need to discard, ignoring the monetary cost. Factoring in the resources spent, I'd say 6+ is the "minimum" to start making this worthwhile, with 8+ being the optimal value. It's just silly when you have a Bloodthirster out

Bare in mind that you're breaking even if you use this with a 5 cost unit out since you throw this card to play it as well as the 4 cards you then need to discard, ignoring the monetary cost. Factoring in the resources spent, I'd say 6+ is the "minimum" to start making this worthwhile, with 8+ being the optimal value. It's just silly when you have a Bloodthirster out

It also allows you to filter your hand. With a 4 cost unit, it's basically a bigger version of Anrakyr's Slumbering Tomb, which is an amazing card (although admittedly, that card benefits from the synergy with Anrakyr's ability). Drawing cards first, and then choosing what to discard is pretty potent, even if you have to discard the same number of cards that you drew. It lets you swap cards you don't want for new ones, which almost certainly leaves you with a stronger hand.

But yeah, if you can trigger it with a Bloodthirster, that's obviously preferable.

I have a suspicion that this card is straight up broken. Not like Klaivex where playing it causes a massive change to the board state and crushes your opponent's hopes and dreams. Nor like Archon's Palace where it grinds your opponent out of agency in the most unfun way possible, but it does create impressive card advantage with very little complication. Even when the numbers are relatively small, the virtual card advantage from the filtering effect and draw consistently is still quite substantial (watch the Canadian Nats to see it do work triggering off Possessed). Card advantage wins games, especially when you can use cards to also build resources with G+P, SPA, PoG and STC.

What's worse is there really isn't much that can be done to interact with this card to stop it doing its thing and thanks to the Power trait, it can be recurred with Sathariel. I know the designers wanted to push Elites and there's nothing wrong with that in itself. I also understand that part of that equation is also making cards that allow resource/card generation outside the command phase, which would otherwise favour playing multiple cheap units. But what I fear is that much like Ancestral Recall in MtG, this card simply generates too much card advantage for its cost and that causes a substantial distortion to game balance both in meta (only a narrow subset of decks compete at top tables) and in the context of a single game (I get an Ominous Wind to go off before you do and win as a result).

Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope that I am. I've certainly been wrong in the past. But that said, this card is something to really watch out for. You may not feel like you've lost immediately when it goes off as there isn't any obvious change to the game state, but watch how the game progresses after it fires.

I see this more as chaos finally reaching the full potential that some of the other factions have hit. 

Most of chaos really is less effect per card or per resource than tau or space marine. However a card like this, like you said, can swing the game back in chaos favor. That fact that it feels random when that happens in the game, flavor wise makes sense. Its chaos, its random.

Is it annoying that it is yet another target for nullify in addition to the backlashes, sure. but it works with the weaknesses built into chaos. 

In the end, you are right, only statistics will tell whether this card is game breaking. But be careful of the statistics you follow. For me the most telling would be % of game wins with the card in the deck. Not the card played. Sure, when chaos is able to combo this and possessed, its pretty likely to win. but what % of play is that for the deck? 

Most of chaos really is less effect per card or per resource than tau or space marine.

Not entirely sure what you mean here. Chaos has the most efficient fatties in the game and the best fatty support card in the game.

Playing this with a Heldrake in play vastly exceeds the card yield from winning every single command struggle on a typical 5 planet flop which is something that would take far more cards and resources to perform than simply playing this card. Best case scenario, yes, but it's not complicated to set up and your opponent really has no way to disrupt it.

STC+Heldrake+Ominous Wind is OP.  Period.  Some may say it's a 3 card combo but in the current meta, a Heldrake sees play very frequently and once it's on the board, only Eldar can ever hoped to stop Wind from coming into play.  A 4 card draw for only 2 resources?  Yes please.  Plus its ability to filter out your more useless cards cannot be overstated.  I'd kill for a card like that for the Tyranids! 

Some comparable cards are Ammo Depot and Primal Howl. Ammo depot is good if you get it early and slowly builds the card advantage. Primal howl nets you 3 cards, which is pretty near to ominous wind (4 card net with Helldrake out). Yet, we see both Depot and Primal Howl at an appropriate power level. Primal Howl condition isn't hard to meet for a good pilot. The recursion of Ominous wind is what makes it bonkers though. Without Ominous wind, Chaos Elite will have a hard time getting cards and will be choked to death on that front. I think Ominous is much needed by Chaos elites. It is high time before they got this.

A 4 card draw for only 2 resources?  Yes please.

I'd argue it's actually an 8 card draw with the Heldrake on the table. Sure you then have to fulfil the 'then' part, but having your free picks of four cards among eight 'fresh' cards is surely immensely powerful.

Ominous indeed

Some comparable cards are Ammo Depot and Primal Howl. Ammo depot is good if you get it early and slowly builds the card advantage. Primal howl nets you 3 cards, which is pretty near to ominous wind (4 card net with Helldrake out). 

Instantaneous cards are waaaay better than a slow streams (time value of money and all that) and I'd argue draw 6 discard 4 works out better than a flat draw 3. If there are one or two key cards in your deck that give you a substantial advantage given the game state, being able to dig deep for those cards is worth a lot more than the raw card advantage.

Yet, we see both Depot and Primal Howl at an appropriate power level. Primal Howl condition isn't hard to meet for a good pilot.

Personally, I also think Depot is a little too good for what it does, but there is a crucial difference between Howl and Depot and Ominous Wind in that these two cards have counter-play. Even if you completely lack support destruction, you can still play to constrain your opponent on resources and reduce the value gained from an Ammo Depot. Primal Howl is not as one dimensional as what you're presenting as the opposing player does have a choice on how to commit and can play with it in mind.

Only Eldar have counter-play to Ominous Wind.

Without Ominous wind, Chaos Elite will have a hard time getting cards and will be choked to death on that front. I think Ominous is much needed by Chaos elites. It is high time before they got this.

Chaos was already seeing success before this card, but I don't think it's bad conceptually (though counter-play would be nice). What I'm saying is that Ominous Wind, much like TT, looks to be very OP in terms of efficiency (i.e. the card draw for cost is far too good).

Personally, I also think Depot is a little too good for what it does, but there is a crucial difference between Howl and Depot and Ominous Wind in that these two cards have counter-play. Even if you completely lack support destruction, you can still play to constrain your opponent on resources and reduce the value gained from an Ammo Depot. Primal Howl is not as one dimensional as what you're presenting as the opposing player does have a choice on how to commit and can play with it in mind.

 

Only Eldar have counter-play to Ominous Wind.

 

Uh, isn't the counterplay 'Don't let them drop giant Elites and have money sitting around for Ominous Wind plus whatever they want to draw into'? If you're counting 'choke them on resources' as a valid counter play to Ammo Depot, isn't 'choke them on resources' equally as valid a counterplay to Ominous Wind?

You also compare Primal Howl to Ominous Wind, and say that Ominous Wind's filter+draw is probably better. Sure. How much does Primal Howl cost? You seem to be glossing over the fact that Chaos already need to have made a significant investment in terms of an Elite+two resources before they get any kind of benefit. Comparing it to Troop Transport is silly, because Troop Transport's big issue is that there's a 1C0R investment for a huge pay out. OW is looking at a 2C7R investment to draw 1 card (or more cards and fewer resources, depending on reducers).

The card draw for cost is far too good... in the one style of deck which has traditionally been intensely underpowered until very recently, if you get it as part of a multi-card combo requiring you to have the money to play it, the opportunity to play it, and the expensive elite unit out to play it, who isn't countered or killed.

Realistically speaking, you're playing one mega-elite and probably another card or creature, then relying on your 4 money draw plus whatever you win in command (in a game where you, as the elite player, will probably be outcommanded or even command sniped), then paying 2 money to for your card draw.

Yeah, you can get lots of cards in your hand, but early on? You're so very far from guaranteed to empty out your 8-10 recently drawn cards that everybody crows about.

As an endgame card, it's easier to see it being strong and dragging out lots of cards, but playing elites naturally means you're opening yourself up to being outcommanded and can have lots of cards (and money) in your opponent's hand to keep them going.

If you can pick your perfect card order? Yeah, you can get insane efficiency. But there'll be plenty of times where you draw it and you're thinking, "Great, 1 shield."

Well, at least we can all be happy that the mangy Broderick can't ally with Chaos and get both the Wind and the win that easy

No but seriously, another major benefit for the Wind player is that it reduces the risk of dead cards. I usually opt to include very few copies of cards that can come into conflict with one another, i.e. unique units like Sathariel or Maxos (only Syren would get a staple 3x), relics like STC and limited cards in general, but Ominous Wind pretty much eliminates the risk of having multiple copies of these cards in one's setup.

In the end, the Warp will consume all things. 

Uh, isn't the counterplay 'Don't let them drop giant Elites and have money sitting around for Ominous Wind plus whatever they want to draw into'? If you're counting 'choke them on resources' as a valid counter play to Ammo Depot, isn't 'choke them on resources' equally as valid a counterplay to Ominous Wind?

I'd agree with you if the starting resources weren't sufficient to drop Elites and support cards turn one. As it stands with PoG, SPA, STC, G+P there really isn't a whole lot you can do aside from destroy STCs as they begin to feed into each other. It only takes a 3R gain to be able to play Ominous Wind and an Elite on any given turn after the first. That's pretty easy to accomplish off any combination of Command, Tarrus, or any of the aforementioned resource generating cards.

By contrast, Ammo Depot requires resource generation to meet the average cost of cards drawn.  Now there are deck-building decisions that can be made to have an Ammo Depot deck fuel itself (e.g. old school Zarathur, or playing Muster), but generally, such decks are a lot less self-contained than Chaos decks working off Ominous Wind appear to be. It's far easier to block Ammo Depot decks as the additional resource demands are much greater than those of Ominous Wind decks (especially for multiple Depots).

Furthermore, I'd like to point out that deny resources was given as counter-play when you have no direct answer. Ammo Depot still has far more direct answers than Ominous Wind does.

You also compare Primal Howl to Ominous Wind, and say that Ominous Wind's filter+draw is probably better. Sure. How much does Primal Howl cost? You seem to be glossing over the fact that Chaos already need to have made a significant investment in terms of an Elite+two resources before they get any kind of benefit. Comparing it to Troop Transport is silly, because Troop Transport's big issue is that there's a 1C0R investment for a huge pay out. OW is looking at a 2C7R investment to draw 1 card (or more cards and fewer resources, depending on reducers).

I don't agree with your accounting here. 2C7R would imply that the Elite is sacrificed as part of the cost of playing Wind which is obviously not the case. It's still there influencing the board and ready to fuel the next Wind that's played too. Now you could argue that the Elite is not worth the sticker price which has historically been in the case, but that appears to have already changed as of Legions of Death.

To elaborate on my comparison to TT, if Ominous Wind were constrained to just 6 cards, I'd concede that it's merely a very good card and not necessarily OP. But because it's uncapped and can reach 8 cards without too much difficult, while being recurred with Sathariel, puts it into TT-land. 

after searching database, other combo breakers besides the direct eldar nullify include. 

Consumption (tyranid)- Not a great card in general, but decent against elite decks

Exterminatus (SM) - Expensive, but gets the job done before wind has a chance

Smasha Gun (Orc) - Not a direct counter, but it does punish the opponent for going for a larger hand count. And since they are not likely to have a lot of other units out, it translates to either commander damage or to the offending elite. 

I'm a little surprised you didn't mention Visions of Agony, which can more reliably stop a Ominous Wind than any of the other cards you mention (albeit very inefficiently).

Consumption (tyranid)- Not a great card in general, but decent against elite decks

Really only playable Swarmlord due to the symmetry and how it also destroys decks that try to farm off command struggles. Not so much Ominous Wind counter-play as an attempt at hosing Elite decks out of a single archetype.

Exterminatus (SM) - Expensive, but gets the job done before wind has a chance

Assuming your opponent stacks all their Elites on a single planet which is a little hopeful.

Smasha Gun (Orc) - Not a direct counter, but it does punish the opponent for going for a larger hand count. And since they are not likely to have a lot of other units out, it translates to either commander damage or to the offending elite. 

Smasha is far more a build-around card than something that you can splash to counter a specific deck (players are certainly not going to stop chasing cards). I also question the wisdom of Smasha when Ku'Gath can quite happily stack damage on the Warlord.

Contrast this cards like Missile Pod, Imperial Fist Devastators, Squig Bombin', Subdual, Death Korps Engineers or even Calculated Strike. These cards are very easy to splash in any deck (though efficacy varies quite wildly), they directly take out a threatening support and some cards can exploit timing windows and become very disruptive.

Visions of agony is a good card that I missed, because of the criteria I had for a "combo breaker". Also visions becomes a trade if using urien because of the torture trait. 

I was looking for cards that could be used during deployment, (so no "actions" like visions) that you could play to take out the Helldrake (honestly, exterminatus for just a single helldrake is probably good enough) before the opponent could get to their own action window and use the ominous wind. 

Yes draw 5 discard 4 is really good card selection, but not game breaking. Soul grinder is a draw 6 discard 4 and if you don't kill it in deploy, it will likely get its own ability off.  after that I don't have enough experience to tell if the Non-discountable nurgle 7 drop is worth playing with ominous wind, and then you are at helldrake. Helldrake is where ominous wind becomes an issue. So I looked for things that could be used during the deployment phase to prevent a chaos player from going through all of their acceleration into a drake, and then restocking with a wind. 

All of the various HQ targeting or support targeting to hinder the accelleration is probably where the meta will eventually go if Ominous is really that reliable, but these are some other options.