Nope, literally somewhere between. In card form, "Destroy target planeswalker" would likely cost 1B, but that is because the game doesn't deal in fractional mana outside of silver border land. The 2 mana planeswalker removal spells we have seen have been spells that the ability to destroy a planeswalker tacked on. Vampire Hexmage was a solid 2/1 first striker for 2 (nothing exciting, but still a reasonable rate for a black weenie creature) that had the ability to off itself to destroy a planeswalker as well as having other utility with it's activated ability. Dreadbore was a "post can't regenerate world"'s terminate that traded instant speed and rarity for the ability to hit walkers. As another poster mentioned, Hero's Downfall is strictly better Murder that hits walkers for no additional mana cost, just moved to rare because it says planeswalker.
They're alternative effects, not added effects. "Destroy target planeswalker" would only cost exactly half of Hero's Downfall or Dreadbore if you got both effects. By your logic, "Destroy all non-dragon creatures" should cost 2.5 mana because of Crux of Fate or "Target player discards a card" should only cost 1/3 of a single mana because of Funeral Charm. The bump in rarity from Murder to Hero's Downfall (or the drop in speed from Terminate to Dreadbore) is the cost you pay for FLEXIBILITY, for having the option to choose, not the entire value of the effect.
For the effect of A and B, you pay A + B
For the effect of A or B, you pay the greater value of A or B (sometimes with a flexibility tax of up to 1 mana, but usually resulting in timing restrictions or more color-intensive costs)
Since this effect hasn't existed by itself before, all we can say is that destroying a planeswalker can cost 2 mana and should probably cost no more than 3, but since it's an incredibly powerful but incredibly narrow effect, evaluating it's cost by simple division is extremely unlikely to be accurate.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying your result is necessarily wrong. I think printing "Destroy target planeswalker" is probably safe at 1B. But you can't evaluate an effect by saying "I can pay X for A or B, so A is worth half of X." If I can choose to spend $7 on either a sub sandwich or a movie ticket, that doesn't mean I should be able to see Chappie for $3.50
Nope, literally somewhere between. In card form, "Destroy target planeswalker" would likely cost 1B, but that is because the game doesn't deal in fractional mana outside of silver border land. The 2 mana planeswalker removal spells we have seen have been spells that the ability to destroy a planeswalker tacked on. Vampire Hexmage was a solid 2/1 first striker for 2 (nothing exciting, but still a reasonable rate for a black weenie creature) that had the ability to off itself to destroy a planeswalker as well as having other utility with it's activated ability. Dreadbore was a "post can't regenerate world"'s terminate that traded instant speed and rarity for the ability to hit walkers. As another poster mentioned, Hero's Downfall is strictly better Murder that hits walkers for no additional mana cost, just moved to rare because it says planeswalker.
They're alternative effects, not added effects. "Destroy target planeswalker" would only cost exactly half of Hero's Downfall or Dreadbore if you got both effects. By your logic, "Destroy all non-dragon creatures" should cost 2.5 mana because of Crux of Fate or "Target player discards a card" should only cost 1/3 of a single mana because of Funeral Charm. The bump in rarity from Murder to Hero's Downfall (or the drop in speed from Terminate to Dreadbore) is the cost you pay for FLEXIBILITY, for having the option to choose, not the entire value of the effect.
For the effect of A and B, you pay A + B
For the effect of A or B, you pay the greater value of A or B (sometimes with a flexibility tax of up to 1 mana, but usually resulting in timing restrictions or more color-intensive costs)
Since this effect hasn't existed by itself before, all we can say is that destroying a planeswalker can cost 2 mana and should probably cost no more than 3, but since it's an incredibly powerful but incredibly narrow effect, evaluating it's cost by simple division is extremely unlikely to be accurate.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying your result is necessarily wrong. I think printing "Destroy target planeswalker" is probably safe at 1B. But you can't evaluate an effect by saying "I can pay X for A or B, so A is worth half of X." If I can choose to spend $7 on either a sub sandwich or a movie ticket, that doesn't mean I should be able to see Chappie for $3.50
Well lets start with the rarity bump-
Quote from from=Mark Rosewater »
aazadan asked: I've noticed a trend of cards that reference planeswalkers now being rare, Heroes Demise being the most recent. Does this mean that Despise would be rare if printed today?
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We don’t want cards referencing something that only happens at mythic rare to be too low in rarity. I don’t want that card being the very first card in the very first booster a new player opens.
As we've seen, flexibility can come at any rarity- Disenchant/Naturalize, Valorous Stance... They tend to keep more complex options at higher than common sure, but the reason for the bump on those two cards is the word planeswalker being on them.
Now, nowhere did I ever say that if a card has multiple possible modes that you just divide them up evenly and there you go, there's the cost. That is an egregious strawman. We actually seem to agree on methodolgy for the extrapolation of correct mana costs excepting that; for a combined effect of A and B, the single card mana cost is frequently greater than A+B (though there is some variation- sometimes it is less if they want to push things).
I used known information to extrapolate, and the cards we have that destroy planeswalkers cost a little as 1 mana. Lightning Bolt has been known to kill the best planeswalker ever printed. Spell Pierce has also stopped its share of planeswalkers as well. Various 1 mana targeted discard spells hit waklers as well, notably Thoughtseize, Despise and Duress. All of those are conditional though, so unrestricted destruction of a planeswalker likely has to cost more than that. The cheapest we have seen that effect is 2 mana via various counterspells (Negate for an example that exists in standard) Dreadbore which references destroying planeswalkers specifically, and Vampire Hexmage where it is an extra ability stapled to a 2 mana 2/1 first striker. A 2/1 first striker at uncommon is about right. They can push it more than that (and did here), or they can give a 2 mana 2 power black creature a drawback although that usually comes with an ability. So we know that destroy target planeswalker doesn't have to cost more than 2 mana.
And I never said flexibility always cost rarity. Something something strawman...
I apologize if I incorrectly attributed your reasoning. Without presenting your reasoning, I don't think it's unreasonable to imply from what you posted that you thought it should literally cost half of a card that presents it as an option. Your new argument is much more thorough. (Although I don't agree that Negate is unconditional. It requires a timing restriction and does nothing against a resolved walker if drawn after the fact.)
Ultimately, I think we're agreeing but quibbling over minutiae, so I'm going to give it a rest. If anything we've proven they probably have no need to ever print removal that only targets planewalkers, so this is a fool's errand.
Back on topic: Silumgar's Command is a fairly-costed card no matter how you parse out the effects.
They're alternative effects, not added effects. "Destroy target planeswalker" would only cost exactly half of Hero's Downfall or Dreadbore if you got both effects. By your logic, "Destroy all non-dragon creatures" should cost 2.5 mana because of Crux of Fate or "Target player discards a card" should only cost 1/3 of a single mana because of Funeral Charm. The bump in rarity from Murder to Hero's Downfall (or the drop in speed from Terminate to Dreadbore) is the cost you pay for FLEXIBILITY, for having the option to choose, not the entire value of the effect.
For the effect of A and B, you pay A + B
For the effect of A or B, you pay the greater value of A or B (sometimes with a flexibility tax of up to 1 mana, but usually resulting in timing restrictions or more color-intensive costs)
Since this effect hasn't existed by itself before, all we can say is that destroying a planeswalker can cost 2 mana and should probably cost no more than 3, but since it's an incredibly powerful but incredibly narrow effect, evaluating it's cost by simple division is extremely unlikely to be accurate.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying your result is necessarily wrong. I think printing "Destroy target planeswalker" is probably safe at 1B. But you can't evaluate an effect by saying "I can pay X for A or B, so A is worth half of X." If I can choose to spend $7 on either a sub sandwich or a movie ticket, that doesn't mean I should be able to see Chappie for $3.50
Well lets start with the rarity bump-
source: http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/60736573224/ive-noticed-a-trend-of-cards-that-reference
As we've seen, flexibility can come at any rarity- Disenchant/Naturalize, Valorous Stance... They tend to keep more complex options at higher than common sure, but the reason for the bump on those two cards is the word planeswalker being on them.
Now, nowhere did I ever say that if a card has multiple possible modes that you just divide them up evenly and there you go, there's the cost. That is an egregious strawman. We actually seem to agree on methodolgy for the extrapolation of correct mana costs excepting that; for a combined effect of A and B, the single card mana cost is frequently greater than A+B (though there is some variation- sometimes it is less if they want to push things).
I used known information to extrapolate, and the cards we have that destroy planeswalkers cost a little as 1 mana. Lightning Bolt has been known to kill the best planeswalker ever printed. Spell Pierce has also stopped its share of planeswalkers as well. Various 1 mana targeted discard spells hit waklers as well, notably Thoughtseize, Despise and Duress. All of those are conditional though, so unrestricted destruction of a planeswalker likely has to cost more than that. The cheapest we have seen that effect is 2 mana via various counterspells (Negate for an example that exists in standard) Dreadbore which references destroying planeswalkers specifically, and Vampire Hexmage where it is an extra ability stapled to a 2 mana 2/1 first striker. A 2/1 first striker at uncommon is about right. They can push it more than that (and did here), or they can give a 2 mana 2 power black creature a drawback although that usually comes with an ability. So we know that destroy target planeswalker doesn't have to cost more than 2 mana.
I apologize if I incorrectly attributed your reasoning. Without presenting your reasoning, I don't think it's unreasonable to imply from what you posted that you thought it should literally cost half of a card that presents it as an option. Your new argument is much more thorough. (Although I don't agree that Negate is unconditional. It requires a timing restriction and does nothing against a resolved walker if drawn after the fact.)
Ultimately, I think we're agreeing but quibbling over minutiae, so I'm going to give it a rest. If anything we've proven they probably have no need to ever print removal that only targets planewalkers, so this is a fool's errand.
Back on topic: Silumgar's Command is a fairly-costed card no matter how you parse out the effects.
Now all they need to do is reprint Force of Savagery in a Master of the Waves format.