One important component of making cards like this is ensuring they can get to the drafters who need them. If this was a 1/1, it would likely be a middling pick for anyone, since it would be decent ramp and a not entirely irrelevant body, with no color commitment and also fixing for any C cards. Instead, as a 0/1, it will be going around later in the draft, enabling the guy who's been picking all the colorless matters cards to scoop one of these up on the wheel or later.
But that's not the case here. It can't be 1-CMC, because only green can ramp at one mana. So the only variable is stats. Again, 2/1 is taken by Leaf Gilder(Mirrodin Myrs are the exception, but that's just because of the plane's mechanical identity), so it's either 0/1 or 1/1. At this point, you chuck it away after draft anyway.
Of course, that's not always the case - the common sphinx spoiled today could be definitely pushed further were it not for limited. But here the limited boogeyman has little to do with card's design.
We've already seen 0 casting 1/1's, asking for a 2 drop that makes 1 colorless and a 1/1 is within Colorless' color pie. And that's the issue with common design, is that in the current power setting is that it is wasteful. There are specific cards that with slight alterations and creature types added would find homes. This being a specific example. Construct tribal is possible as a "side cart" for a Cube using the Conspiracy Construct cycle for draft alterations. Draft enough Constructs, get this little guy add in some simple tribal support and you have something.
It's not even the major pushes that annoy me, it's the little nudges and tweaks here that add up to create construct gold. I'm talking really big picture ranging from all the formats including that one guy that makes Construct tribal for EDH. It's a balancing in that we can have both worlds. A good card for constructed and limited, but the priority on limited limits construct and replay value. It's something I expect higher on generating long term value. Not everything can be Gurmaug Angler or Terminate back in the day, but there's a trend in "designed for limited" therefore "sucks for constructed" like some of the allies that would've done fine with the addition of something like first strike for the one 2 drop red that attacks each turn. Not great, but would've fit well into a budget casual deck, Cube, or Commander deck.
I feel asking for greater replay value is asking for a minimum level of constructed replay value to increase the value of the product.
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But a 1/1 is balanced. This is the only set where creating is not worse than creating , but that doesn't mean it's better. Making this a Mana Myr is not overpowered.
How do you know that? Have youdrafted the set already?
I've looked at a hundred of the cards. And if you don't think that's enough to glean some understanding of the new set, why are you even in this forum?
But even if I had not yet seen a single card from the new set, I would still argue that colourless mana needed to be no stronger than coloured mana, and that it would be bad game design to do otherwise. After two decades of designing cards around the assumption that coloured mana is more valuable than colourless mana, to suddenly reverse that would be unbalancing.
It's funny how a strictly worse Manakin is actually sort of exciting. It's been a long time since we had 2-mana colorless ramp. Thought-Knot Seer on turn 3, anyone?
As some others have pointed out, this card would be far less useful if it were generally powerful. It's unplayable outside of the colorless archetype in Limited, but very good in that archetype, and that goes a long way towards not only making colorless a viable 'color' in draft, but creating a more dynamic and replayable format. As a 1/1 or even a 2/1, it would be a solid playable in any deck and a safe early pick, which is awful for the one or two players at the table trying to go deep on colorless. No, this isn't Constructed playable, and yes it would be very sad to see something of this power level as a Constructed plant at Rare, but this is obviously a key Draft common, and evaluating it otherwise misses the point. Limited formats with cards like this are way, way better than formats like Origins where most of the cards are generically useful and every deck is an unsynergistic pile of 2-drops and goodstuff.
But a 1/1 is balanced. This is the only set where creating is not worse than creating , but that doesn't mean it's better. Making this a Mana Myr is not overpowered.
How do you know that? Have youdrafted the set already?
I've looked at a hundred of the cards. And if you don't think that's enough to glean some understanding of the new set, why are you even in this forum?
But even if I had not yet seen a single card from the new set, I would still argue that colourless mana needed to be no stronger than coloured mana, and that it would be bad game design to do otherwise. After two decades of designing cards around the assumption that coloured mana is more valuable than colourless mana, to suddenly reverse that would be unbalancing.
Okay, so you magically know exactly how any one card will play in this draft format without even seeing the whole set, much less actually playing it? That's a special gift you have. I wish I could be as all-knowing as you one day
Back to the point, the fact that it taps for colorless aside, it is a cheap colorless creature. The fact that it can be played in any deck combined with the colorless tribal theme going around leads me to believe that, if anything, this card was debuffed because it was too powerful when it was 1/1.
Another reason would be to solidifying its role as a mana-dork. They don't want every creature, especially a particularly good enabler of the main theme of the set, to be super-versatile. That -1/-0 could just be their way of saying "If you wanna be super aggressive with this card, you gotta work for it."
Tl;dr, strictly worse cards are strictly worse for a reason. Odds are they tried this at 1/1 and didn't like the way it played.
plague myr was around and I don't think it broke limited. Same goes for manakin. I think wizards is just hating on mana dorks. Having a one drop in green was a problem. So oblivously mana dorks that can fight back are OP.
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To the people that say that a card needs to be a higher rarity because of Limited... I hate you guys so much. I present to you with this.
But that's not the case here. It can't be 1-CMC, because only green can ramp at one mana. So the only variable is stats. Again, 2/1 is taken by Leaf Gilder(Mirrodin Myrs are the exception, but that's just because of the plane's mechanical identity), so it's either 0/1 or 1/1. At this point, you chuck it away after draft anyway.
Of course, that's not always the case - the common sphinx spoiled today could be definitely pushed further were it not for limited. But here the limited boogeyman has little to do with card's design.
We've already seen 0 casting 1/1's, asking for a 2 drop that makes 1 colorless and a 1/1 is within Colorless' color pie. And that's the issue with common design, is that in the current power setting is that it is wasteful. There are specific cards that with slight alterations and creature types added would find homes. This being a specific example. Construct tribal is possible as a "side cart" for a Cube using the Conspiracy Construct cycle for draft alterations. Draft enough Constructs, get this little guy add in some simple tribal support and you have something.
It's not even the major pushes that annoy me, it's the little nudges and tweaks here that add up to create construct gold. I'm talking really big picture ranging from all the formats including that one guy that makes Construct tribal for EDH. It's a balancing in that we can have both worlds. A good card for constructed and limited, but the priority on limited limits construct and replay value. It's something I expect higher on generating long term value. Not everything can be Gurmaug Angler or Terminate back in the day, but there's a trend in "designed for limited" therefore "sucks for constructed" like some of the allies that would've done fine with the addition of something like first strike for the one 2 drop red that attacks each turn. Not great, but would've fit well into a budget casual deck, Cube, or Commander deck.
I feel asking for greater replay value is asking for a minimum level of constructed replay value to increase the value of the product.
I agree if this was a 1/1 every standard deck in the format would consider it immediately! I mean the functional reprint of Manakin I have longed for such a day personally.
In all seriousness with some of the crazy things colorless mana does in this format I think this card is fine, people will take them in draft because it looks like most decks in limited will have at least SOME minor use for colorless mana. I also think you are vastly overthinking about why this card is a 0/1 maybe in limited playtest they had to reduce its power to 0 for some reason. I really doubt this card is a part of Maro's master plan to make more cards than ever get thrown away.
I love how everyone's praising the flavor text, while I'm wondering why the Allies are still stopping and pointing how endearing the Crawler is when it's providing the exact type of mana the Eldrazi need to wreck more of their lives.
I love how everyone's praising the flavor text, while I'm wondering why the Allies are still stopping and pointing how endearing the Crawler is when it's providing the exact type of mana the Eldrazi need to wreck more of their lives.
Colorless it's also Ugin's thing, and the hedrons are also representative of the "good" side of colorless.
I love how everyone's praising the flavor text, while I'm wondering why the Allies are still stopping and pointing how endearing the Crawler is when it's providing the exact type of mana the Eldrazi need to wreck more of their lives.
Colorless it's also Ugin's thing, and the hedrons are also representative of the "good" side of colorless.
That's true (and I'm aware of the flavor of using the Allies/Ugin using Hedrons), but I find it brutally ironic since the set focuses on a lot of C costs on the Eldrazi and we've haven't seen the Allies and/or Ugin utilizing that specific mana to fight against the Eldrazi mechanically at all (considering the flavor-wise the Hedrons do contain that mana), so mechanically, this card fuels only the Eldrazi, while the flavor has it the other way round. It's one thing for gameplay and story segregation, but this is blatantly a direct opposite scenario.
I understand that it needed to be bad so people who wanted to play colorless in draft could do it, but can you tell me why it isn't at least 0/2? Right now it's absolutely useless as a creature. Not even chump block worthy with all the scions in this set.
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I understand that it needed to be bad so people who wanted to play colorless in draft could do it, but can you tell me why it isn't at least 0/2? Right now it's absolutely useless as a creature. Not even chump block worthy with all the scions in this set.
Only reason I can figure why it isn't an 0/2 is because it would block Scion tokens all day, or some such other nonsense like that. This definitely should have been a 1/1.
in my mind, this is what became of Hedron Crab when it got zapped with hedron magic. Hedronized Crab lol
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We've already seen 0 casting 1/1's, asking for a 2 drop that makes 1 colorless and a 1/1 is within Colorless' color pie. And that's the issue with common design, is that in the current power setting is that it is wasteful. There are specific cards that with slight alterations and creature types added would find homes. This being a specific example. Construct tribal is possible as a "side cart" for a Cube using the Conspiracy Construct cycle for draft alterations. Draft enough Constructs, get this little guy add in some simple tribal support and you have something.
It's not even the major pushes that annoy me, it's the little nudges and tweaks here that add up to create construct gold. I'm talking really big picture ranging from all the formats including that one guy that makes Construct tribal for EDH. It's a balancing in that we can have both worlds. A good card for constructed and limited, but the priority on limited limits construct and replay value. It's something I expect higher on generating long term value. Not everything can be Gurmaug Angler or Terminate back in the day, but there's a trend in "designed for limited" therefore "sucks for constructed" like some of the allies that would've done fine with the addition of something like first strike for the one 2 drop red that attacks each turn. Not great, but would've fit well into a budget casual deck, Cube, or Commander deck.
I feel asking for greater replay value is asking for a minimum level of constructed replay value to increase the value of the product.
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<a href="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-lists/588020-unpowered-themed-enchantment-an-enchanted-evening">An Enchanted Evening Cube </a>
I've looked at a hundred of the cards. And if you don't think that's enough to glean some understanding of the new set, why are you even in this forum?
But even if I had not yet seen a single card from the new set, I would still argue that colourless mana needed to be no stronger than coloured mana, and that it would be bad game design to do otherwise. After two decades of designing cards around the assumption that coloured mana is more valuable than colourless mana, to suddenly reverse that would be unbalancing.
Should have been a non-creature artifact...
Back to the point, the fact that it taps for colorless aside, it is a cheap colorless creature. The fact that it can be played in any deck combined with the colorless tribal theme going around leads me to believe that, if anything, this card was debuffed because it was too powerful when it was 1/1.
Another reason would be to solidifying its role as a mana-dork. They don't want every creature, especially a particularly good enabler of the main theme of the set, to be super-versatile. That -1/-0 could just be their way of saying "If you wanna be super aggressive with this card, you gotta work for it."
Tl;dr, strictly worse cards are strictly worse for a reason. Odds are they tried this at 1/1 and didn't like the way it played.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
In all seriousness with some of the crazy things colorless mana does in this format I think this card is fine, people will take them in draft because it looks like most decks in limited will have at least SOME minor use for colorless mana. I also think you are vastly overthinking about why this card is a 0/1 maybe in limited playtest they had to reduce its power to 0 for some reason. I really doubt this card is a part of Maro's master plan to make more cards than ever get thrown away.
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Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Colorless it's also Ugin's thing, and the hedrons are also representative of the "good" side of colorless.
That's true (and I'm aware of the flavor of using the Allies/Ugin using Hedrons), but I find it brutally ironic since the set focuses on a lot of C costs on the Eldrazi and we've haven't seen the Allies and/or Ugin utilizing that specific mana to fight against the Eldrazi mechanically at all (considering the flavor-wise the Hedrons do contain that mana), so mechanically, this card fuels only the Eldrazi, while the flavor has it the other way round. It's one thing for gameplay and story segregation, but this is blatantly a direct opposite scenario.
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Only reason I can figure why it isn't an 0/2 is because it would block Scion tokens all day, or some such other nonsense like that. This definitely should have been a 1/1.
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.