Yea, but as long as MaRo is in charge, cards like Chaos Warp will never see future printings... He was ranting pretty hard about it. I thought it was perfect in flavor.
3 manas for a 2/1 hexproof may be good but when you add a conditional kill strike its just value town ..
I think this can be good for even for(Edit and in draft this card rocks...) standard if we end up with snother RG stomp when RTR rotates.
Its nice that it can trade with soo muchgood cards in standard ( and sometimes even don't trade at all just doing 0-1)
3 points to Rob Pardo for creating this nice good flavorfull card
Actually this is the only pure black creature to ever have hexproof without help, the only other pure black creature to ever get any form of Hexproof was Horror of the Dim. Hexproof is basically split between white/blue and green, so this card was likely costed slightly higher because black is not a normal "hexproof color".
It costs more because it can have deathtouch and first strike, pretty much the most powerful combination of abilities. They don't make things cost more just because they break the color pie. Look at Harmonize, Brute Force, Psionic Blast, etc.
While I do agree with you that part of the reason that it's costed the way it is is because it can have deathtouch and first strike, the cards you use as an example for "not costing more because they break the color pie" are, respectively, two color shifted cards from Planar Chaos (which was a set that was built around the idea that the main aspects of each color had been transferred to a different color) and a card that, outside of Time Spiral, wasn't printed since Unlimited (remember, direct damage to any creature or player used to be a thing blue could do before Wizards decided that it was a uniquely red thing). Those types of cards are the EXCEPTION, not the rule.
If a keyword or other effect is rarely seen in a color, it will cost more in that color than in its primary, secondary, or even tertiary colors.
While I do agree with you that part of the reason that it's costed the way it is is because it can have deathtouch and first strike, the cards you use as an example for "not costing more because they break the color pie" are, respectively, two color shifted cards from Planar Chaos (which was a set that was built around the idea that the main aspects of each color had been transferred to a different color) and a card that, outside of Time Spiral, wasn't printed since Unlimited (remember, direct damage to any creature or player used to be a thing blue could do before Wizards decided that it was a uniquely red thing). Those types of cards are the EXCEPTION, not the rule.
If a keyword or other effect is rarely seen in a color, it will cost more in that color than in its primary, secondary, or even tertiary colors.
I'm fairly sure you'll find as many examples that prove the "rule" as you will exceptions to it.
Thinking more about this, it does a poor imitation of Phantom Warrior. It's not a card a control deck will be happy with unless a regular 2/1 can trade off with most of the 3- and 4- drops or your deck has a lot of instants and/or you can consistently dump your hand while staying alive so that you can start threatening to activate it. And it's kind of a huge tempo bomb when they force you to kill their 2-drop on turn 4 instead of developing your board and then get Shock'd or something.
It seems like you really need to optimize threat of activation to make this card consistently worth it.
It's definitely a useful way to spend mana in the later stages of the game, but until then it doesn't seem very good. That said, I am quite fond of mediocre cards.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
It costs more because it can have deathtouch and first strike, pretty much the most powerful combination of abilities. They don't make things cost more just because they break the color pie. Look at Harmonize, Brute Force, Psionic Blast, etc.
If a keyword or other effect is rarely seen in a color, it will cost more in that color than in its primary, secondary, or even tertiary colors.
Currently playing:
GCasual 8-post
R Casual Land Destruction
UBRWG Legacy Dredge
WGB Modern Melira Pod
RUG EDH
I'm fairly sure you'll find as many examples that prove the "rule" as you will exceptions to it.
It seems like you really need to optimize threat of activation to make this card consistently worth it.
It's definitely a useful way to spend mana in the later stages of the game, but until then it doesn't seem very good. That said, I am quite fond of mediocre cards.
I would rather draft a Giant Scorpion.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill