Why he look like that...

This is the best artwork they could come up with? It looks like old 1960's novel cover artwork ... and not in a good way.

Yeah, it looks nice, but there was something about the 2014 art that looks more... natural. I don't know. There's something about the wyvern in this art that looks off.

The descriptive text speaks of "strafing attacks", but I see no special talent for that except - possibly - for the tail having a 10 ft reach. Since the text also mentions carrying off quarry to eat later, I think a claw attack should have been included. Possibly for damage, but certainly to grapple living enemies and fly off with them.

wh- why he look like that. I mean I don't hate it its just... odd.

10 ft reach is the special ability for strafing. That keeps it out of melee range for most weapons, so it can fly into its own 10 ft melee range, make a sting attack, then fly past without provoking opportunity attacks from targets that only have a 5 ft melee range. 

It also says the only reason it likes to land is to "finish off" a weakened creature. So, only when that extra 13 damage might finish off a creature so it can't fight back. 

Then it can carry off an unconscious (read:making death saves but not dead yet) creature to its lair for eating or safety later.

It's a different strategy than, say, a Griffon who wants to ambush and grab their target at the start of the fight and fly off *before* weakening it.

I don't like to harp on art styles that aren't my favorite, but I think I realized why this bothered me a little. The characters are still rendered fairly realistically, and most of the art of dragons in these books look very painted, that this just felt a little cartoon-y and out of place. Now, it's a perfectly fine piece of art. I think I'd like it outside of this context. In context, it feels too... Intelligent? To be a wyvern, which is basically an animal.

Anyway, art aside, I love wyverns. Super cool, some of my favorite, more fantastical mounts.