Let me be the first (and only) person to say that this card sucks.
Ophidian was so much better. It didn't require double-blue mana, so I could splash it into my blue/black deck. And it was common, so I had no trouble getting four copies.
Thicket Basilisk was cool because it said "blocks or becomes blocked." You could theoretically Lure it to kill 1000 creatures. This thing needs to deal damage to kill creatures. There's no way I'm wasting a deck slot on a Giant Growth effect just to putz around in combat.
Besides, who's not just going to block this dude with a Vhitu-Ghazi-produced saproling every turn? Or tap it down with Glare? Or Dark Banish it? Or Last Gasp it? Or trade it with a Centaur Safeguard or Sadistic Augermage? And that's only commons. Putrefy and Mortify will welcome a trade with it and a Rakdos Augermage will tear it a new one, if the Hellbent Gobhobbler Rats haven't gotten a chance to block it yet.
That doesn't mean it completely sucks. It has two things going for it. First, it's a Snow creature. That's totally awesome and I'm excited to see how he can get used in snow decks. Second, the art is freaking awesome. I already loved Kev Walker's art, but he hit this one out of the park. This may, in fact, be the coolest looking snake ever in Magic.
Seriously though, I know I'm wrong. It's a great card and I hope I can play with it. But it is sort of boring. The way you guys are reacting to it make you sound like the Magic alarmists over at MTGSalvation. I'll bet that this card won't break any formats or let anyone win on the first turn. The most it will achieve is being a 4x in some mono-green deck that maybe wins a tournament or two. The power level on cards isn't nearly what it used to be. Just because it's not as low as the level of Mercadian Masques doesn't mean Wizards is flagrantly pushing power just to sell cards. Making a "lost" set Standard-legal? Yes. But pushing power levels? No. Almost every Magic environment is as fun or more fun than it's ever been in history and I don't see Coldsnap (certainly not one creature in Coldsnap) changing that.
So don't buy the cards, if you don't want. Play the game. Enjoy the game. Sit back and relax, because it's just a game.