This card is fine, and could see play in standard if there is a blue control deck that needs early interaction.
If your opponent plays around it, the card did its job. Just pay one mana and cycle EOT. Now your opponent is holding a card they could have played on curve, and you conveniently traded your deterrent for an extra draw.
Those of you calling this unplayable are just bad – although it may not see play. Those of you who are upset every time a counterspell that isn't good enough for Modern gets printed should probably lower your expectations.
I'm experiencing a mobile bug on the front page. Using Chrome on a Nexus 6 phone (stock Android 7.0 aka Nougat).
The bug is that I can't scroll through the most recent Amonkhet spoilers. I only see the two most recent cards if I hold my phone vertically – three cards if I switch to landscape. There are no arrow buttons to move on to previous spoilers, and horizontal swiping doesn't do anything.
Is anyone else experiencing this? How is it supposed to work?
The existence of this card is a result of not only power creep but also a shifting color pie. Blue has been overhauled more than any other color as Magic has become a more combat-centric game, and giving blue's low end creatures more efficient stats is recompense for the weakening of permission. This sets a new standard for evasive blue weenies.
Burnished Hart had a much higher ceiling than the scarecrow will ever have, because when your opponent had a slow start ramping for two lands is amazing, but against proper Limited decks with a 2-drop into 3-drop having a body on the field and an activation cost of 1 less really offsets the impact of ramping for 2, as you often could do very little with the last max 1 mana available on turn 4. Also comparing bodies, the 2/2 body was always awkward in the long game decks that wanted the effect.
I think we're saying the same thing, but just to clarify (for those not checking the spoiler), the actual activation cost of Wild-Field Scarecrow is 2.
Speaking of EDH, I like how Wizards threw Reaper King players a couple of new toys. Did the Burnished Hart scarecrow really have to be a worse Burnished hart though?
It may be worse in edh, but I think Wild-Field Scarecrow is generally better in limited.
If your deck wants that many lands, it's probably defensive. And since damage doesn't stack, Burnished Hart's power didn't matter on defense unless you were willing to pass up the ramp in order to let it trade. So here's something cheaper to activate that can actually survive a block, allowing you to do other things and still mitigate some damage. With Burnished Hart, it often felt like you'd wasted your third turn unless you kept 3 open so you could block and sac on turn four.
And if you wait until you run out of lands to crack Wild-Field Scarecrow, which will often be the case, the activation cost can be practically 1 since the land you drop will be untapped.
I consider Sin prodder better. No setup required. No mana to invest and it's a threat right now. This doesn't have menace to deal good damage by itself even if nothing goes right. Even late game, this guy provides less value unless youy already have a bunch of clues in play
I think people will be surprised by how adequate Tireless Tracker is on the offensive. Don't underestimate the threat of activation.
Suppose you cast her on turn three and subsequently hit your fourth land drop. Your opponent has to block as if she were a 4/3, even if you have better things to do than crack the Clue.
Tireless Tracker also fills in for a four drop in your curve rather nicely. Just follow up with a land, and then drop another land on turn five before you attack. Now she's an implied 5/4.
As you can see, this card doesn't require any further investment to attack well. Having clues is enough to make blocking difficult. This threat of activation dynamic also makes her better in multiples, since you can potentially hold off on cracking Clues until your second copy hits the board. And let's take a moment to admire how well this card works in multiples.
This is not to say that Tireless Tracker is an aggressive card. As others have rightly theorized, she seems most at home in midrange. But as always, whether you play aggressively or defensively depends on the matchup. Against an aggressive opponent, Tireless Tracker allows you to sit back and try to win through card advantage - assuming you can stabilize. When you're the beatdown, she hits rather hard for a three drop - especially one that also functions as a strictly superior Seer's Sundial, a card that only control decks fear. In fact, if this card somehow survives against a control deck, you and your opponent might not know who the beatdown is anymore. Against combo though, she'd better solve that mystery in a hurry.
I like Sin Prodder, but it belongs on the aggressive side of the spectrum because it works best when your opponent is under pressure. A more subtle reason that these cards won't be competing for the same slot in midrange is that Tireless Tracker plays better against removal. If you drop a land after casting Tireless Tracker, you're ahead. If your devil gets dealt with, it's parity.
I'm surprised to see so little chatter, and what little discussion there is seems to be preoccupied with the Clue mechanic. By all means, enjoy your theme decks, but stockpiling clues by pairing this with even slower, less impactful cards would emphasize this card's weaknesses rather than compensate for them. If Tamiyo's Journal sees any constructed play, it will be in control sideboards. Speaking of control vs control sideboarding, Seer's Sundial saw some fringe play way back when, and I think that bodes well for Tireless Tracker.
The strengths of Tireless Tracker are many. It's self-contained, so you don't need to build around it. Just run efficiently costed, impactful stuff. As a source of card advantage it could not be more flexible. You can harvest at your convenience, as an instant - even after it's dead. If your opponent is holding an answer, you still come out way ahead just by following up with a land, which cannot be disrupted. And it starts out with a significant body before growing into a potential finisher.
This is a very strong card, and I'll be disappointed if Standard is too fast for it to see maindeck play. At the very least, it will be an attractive sideboard option.
There's a lotta people saying it won't see play outside limited who seem to forget that there's a solid 1 drop instant or sorcery in every color but white basically.
Those people are wrong. This isn't playable in limited either.
Let's take a closer look at the chances that this is online for turn three. If your constructed deck contains 4 one mana spells that go straight to the graveyard, the odds of getting one in your opening hand are 40%. If you're running 8, the odds are 65%. This assumes you should always cast it on your first turn, which is not true for most one mana spells.
Now you have a Coldsteel Heart that does not help you ramp to four 60% (or 35%) of the time. And that's in a deck running at least one set of enabler spells.
This is much worse than some of you are thinking, and it will see no play, including limited.
1. It doesn't ramp consistently in the early game, when mana rocks are most useful.
2. The color fixing is redundant, unless you discarded or milled something you couldn't cast.
Imagine the perfect deck for this - one that pretty much always meets the condition straight away and has heavy color requirements. Coldsteel Heart is much, much better in that deck. Coldsteel Heart fixes your mana however you need it to in the early game, and it works every time. Keep in mind that this is the payoff, the best case, and it's still not even close to the alternatives of the recent past. Corrupted Tombstone will not find a home.
I understand that playable 2-mana rocks are history, for now. They're slowing down green ramp, and colorless ramp has to be weaker than green. But it's not just the power level.
The real problem is that they didn't tack on some other effect. No one would be complaining if this card had an ability that self-milled, or looted, or something more interesting than that. It could've had Madness 1, or a Delirium effect. It clearly needed SOMETHING. Not even a sacrifice effect so you can put this rare mana rock into the graveyard for Delirium synergy?
Is this style of vampire face design with the slanted brows strictly a Buffy thing, or has it been in other stuff?
Edit: Just noticed that Rakish Heir was also drawn by Winona Nelson. Looked her up. She's done a few vampire pieces, such as Blood Feud, Heirs of Stromkirk, and Mark of the Vampire, but I'm not seeing the brow thing in her previous work. See attachments.
I love your looter. Under current design contraints, cheap looters require mana to activate at lower rarities. Putting your new cards on layaway is a fair alternative. This is an interesting looter variant in its own right, but with Madness it takes on a life of its own. Because the ability takes up no mana, it allows players to cast cards like Incorrigible Youths on curve. Because the draw itself isn't free, it's printable at uncommon. You've managed to find the harmony between two seemingly unrelated mechanics.
Frantic ResearcherR
Creature - Human Wizard T, Discard a card: Investigate. (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")
1/1
Expose Evil doesn't show us much, but here are some examples for how Clue tokens could be flavorful.
Bounty ClerkW
Creature - Human Advisor X, T: Tap target creature with power X or less.
When Bounty Clerk dies, investigate. (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.") "Have you seen this man?"
1/1
The art could be a bureaucrat posting a wanted flyer, featuring a recognizable man in the background who is displeased. The tap ability is meant to feel like he's offering a bounty, since the activation cost scales with the hazard of the target, and that target needs to lay low for a while. If Bounty Clerk gets taken out, you've got some prime suspects.
---
Furtive Cryptologist2U
Creature - Human Wizard
Skulk
Whenever Furtive Cryptologist deals combat damage to a player, investigate. (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.") "You think I'm mad? If only! With every piece that fits, my envy for the lunatic grows."
1/3
I'm picturing an older man who is meticulously arranging yellowed, torn-out pages on the floor of his wizardy hovel, while burning the stolen tomes those pages came from for light and warmth. I love skulk.
---
Crime of PassionB
Instant
Destroy target creature. Its controller puts a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card." "I've never known a vampire to spill so much blood..."
The art could be us looking in through a window that's been soiled by a bloody handprint, as nightwatchmen scour the scene inside by candlelight. The name is meant to be a clever description for a random vampire killing, in which he or she got carried away and left a trail for investigators, who may very well call in the local slayer. I think giving your opponent a clue token is a significant enough drawback to make this printable. Might need testing, but I think it's generally worse than Vendetta or Ulcerate.
To call it a hate bear is a misnomer, since it hates everything with fetches. It will warp formats by dominating otherwise viable archetypes.
If your opponent plays around it, the card did its job. Just pay one mana and cycle EOT. Now your opponent is holding a card they could have played on curve, and you conveniently traded your deterrent for an extra draw.
Those of you calling this unplayable are just bad – although it may not see play. Those of you who are upset every time a counterspell that isn't good enough for Modern gets printed should probably lower your expectations.
The bug is that I can't scroll through the most recent Amonkhet spoilers. I only see the two most recent cards if I hold my phone vertically – three cards if I switch to landscape. There are no arrow buttons to move on to previous spoilers, and horizontal swiping doesn't do anything.
Is anyone else experiencing this? How is it supposed to work?
Until now, blue only had Welkin Tern. Black has Vampire Interloper. And Mistral Charger has been the gold standard since Dissension was released in 2006. Kor Skyfisher isn't a 2-drop, strictly speaking.
The existence of this card is a result of not only power creep but also a shifting color pie. Blue has been overhauled more than any other color as Magic has become a more combat-centric game, and giving blue's low end creatures more efficient stats is recompense for the weakening of permission. This sets a new standard for evasive blue weenies.
Mistral Charger, ten years is a long time. Keep flying.
If your deck wants that many lands, it's probably defensive. And since damage doesn't stack, Burnished Hart's power didn't matter on defense unless you were willing to pass up the ramp in order to let it trade. So here's something cheaper to activate that can actually survive a block, allowing you to do other things and still mitigate some damage. With Burnished Hart, it often felt like you'd wasted your third turn unless you kept 3 open so you could block and sac on turn four.
And if you wait until you run out of lands to crack Wild-Field Scarecrow, which will often be the case, the activation cost can be practically 1 since the land you drop will be untapped.
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice is a huge upside for a common black bear. It's pretty much unprecedented in modern design.
Beautiful set. The art, the flavor. They worked hard on this one.
Suppose you cast her on turn three and subsequently hit your fourth land drop. Your opponent has to block as if she were a 4/3, even if you have better things to do than crack the Clue.
Tireless Tracker also fills in for a four drop in your curve rather nicely. Just follow up with a land, and then drop another land on turn five before you attack. Now she's an implied 5/4.
As you can see, this card doesn't require any further investment to attack well. Having clues is enough to make blocking difficult. This threat of activation dynamic also makes her better in multiples, since you can potentially hold off on cracking Clues until your second copy hits the board. And let's take a moment to admire how well this card works in multiples.
This is not to say that Tireless Tracker is an aggressive card. As others have rightly theorized, she seems most at home in midrange. But as always, whether you play aggressively or defensively depends on the matchup. Against an aggressive opponent, Tireless Tracker allows you to sit back and try to win through card advantage - assuming you can stabilize. When you're the beatdown, she hits rather hard for a three drop - especially one that also functions as a strictly superior Seer's Sundial, a card that only control decks fear. In fact, if this card somehow survives against a control deck, you and your opponent might not know who the beatdown is anymore. Against combo though, she'd better solve that mystery in a hurry.
I like Sin Prodder, but it belongs on the aggressive side of the spectrum because it works best when your opponent is under pressure. A more subtle reason that these cards won't be competing for the same slot in midrange is that Tireless Tracker plays better against removal. If you drop a land after casting Tireless Tracker, you're ahead. If your devil gets dealt with, it's parity.
I'm surprised to see so little chatter, and what little discussion there is seems to be preoccupied with the Clue mechanic. By all means, enjoy your theme decks, but stockpiling clues by pairing this with even slower, less impactful cards would emphasize this card's weaknesses rather than compensate for them. If Tamiyo's Journal sees any constructed play, it will be in control sideboards. Speaking of control vs control sideboarding, Seer's Sundial saw some fringe play way back when, and I think that bodes well for Tireless Tracker.
The strengths of Tireless Tracker are many. It's self-contained, so you don't need to build around it. Just run efficiently costed, impactful stuff. As a source of card advantage it could not be more flexible. You can harvest at your convenience, as an instant - even after it's dead. If your opponent is holding an answer, you still come out way ahead just by following up with a land, which cannot be disrupted. And it starts out with a significant body before growing into a potential finisher.
This is a very strong card, and I'll be disappointed if Standard is too fast for it to see maindeck play. At the very least, it will be an attractive sideboard option.
Let's take a closer look at the chances that this is online for turn three. If your constructed deck contains 4 one mana spells that go straight to the graveyard, the odds of getting one in your opening hand are 40%. If you're running 8, the odds are 65%. This assumes you should always cast it on your first turn, which is not true for most one mana spells.
Now you have a Coldsteel Heart that does not help you ramp to four 60% (or 35%) of the time. And that's in a deck running at least one set of enabler spells.
1. It doesn't ramp consistently in the early game, when mana rocks are most useful.
2. The color fixing is redundant, unless you discarded or milled something you couldn't cast.
Imagine the perfect deck for this - one that pretty much always meets the condition straight away and has heavy color requirements. Coldsteel Heart is much, much better in that deck. Coldsteel Heart fixes your mana however you need it to in the early game, and it works every time. Keep in mind that this is the payoff, the best case, and it's still not even close to the alternatives of the recent past. Corrupted Tombstone will not find a home.
I understand that playable 2-mana rocks are history, for now. They're slowing down green ramp, and colorless ramp has to be weaker than green. But it's not just the power level.
The real problem is that they didn't tack on some other effect. No one would be complaining if this card had an ability that self-milled, or looted, or something more interesting than that. It could've had Madness 1, or a Delirium effect. It clearly needed SOMETHING. Not even a sacrifice effect so you can put this rare mana rock into the graveyard for Delirium synergy?
It's insulting.
Mine was Clot Sliver, I think. It's all a blur.
I'm not finding other Innistrad vampires that get all furrowed when they feed. Havengul Vampire, Rakish Heir, Markov Warlord
Is this style of vampire face design with the slanted brows strictly a Buffy thing, or has it been in other stuff?
Edit: Just noticed that Rakish Heir was also drawn by Winona Nelson. Looked her up. She's done a few vampire pieces, such as Blood Feud, Heirs of Stromkirk, and Mark of the Vampire, but I'm not seeing the brow thing in her previous work. See attachments.
Frantic Researcher R
Creature - Human Wizard
T, Discard a card: Investigate. (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")
1/1
Bounty Clerk W
Creature - Human Advisor
X, T: Tap target creature with power X or less.
When Bounty Clerk dies, investigate. (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")
"Have you seen this man?"
1/1
The art could be a bureaucrat posting a wanted flyer, featuring a recognizable man in the background who is displeased. The tap ability is meant to feel like he's offering a bounty, since the activation cost scales with the hazard of the target, and that target needs to lay low for a while. If Bounty Clerk gets taken out, you've got some prime suspects.
---
Furtive Cryptologist 2U
Creature - Human Wizard
Skulk
Whenever Furtive Cryptologist deals combat damage to a player, investigate. (Put a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.")
"You think I'm mad? If only! With every piece that fits, my envy for the lunatic grows."
1/3
I'm picturing an older man who is meticulously arranging yellowed, torn-out pages on the floor of his wizardy hovel, while burning the stolen tomes those pages came from for light and warmth. I love skulk.
---
Crime of Passion B
Instant
Destroy target creature. Its controller puts a colorless Clue artifact token onto the battlefield with "2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card."
"I've never known a vampire to spill so much blood..."
The art could be us looking in through a window that's been soiled by a bloody handprint, as nightwatchmen scour the scene inside by candlelight. The name is meant to be a clever description for a random vampire killing, in which he or she got carried away and left a trail for investigators, who may very well call in the local slayer. I think giving your opponent a clue token is a significant enough drawback to make this printable. Might need testing, but I think it's generally worse than Vendetta or Ulcerate.