So... this isn't the newest mechanic as I brought it up in the U/B Keyword suggestion thread a while back. Even so, I wanted to create a thread discussing this mechanic as I feel that it has some serious potential as an evergreen mechanic.
Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
What type of mechanic is it: It's a U/B mechanic that is neither evasive nor mill-based. This ability functions as a semi-defensive ability. Unlike hexproof or indestructible, this ability doesn't stop your opponent from killing this card. Instead, it turns your opponent's kill spells into (relative) card disadvantage (a 1-2 instead of 1-1). Further, effects that get around hexproof and/or indestructible (Wrath of God, Toxic Deluge, etc.) don't get around this card disadvantage (though exile effects do).
Precedence: Black: Black is all about cards dying (and being sacrificed) and has a history of getting card advantage when creatures die (Midnight Reaper, Harvester of Souls, Grim Haruspex, Dark Prophecy, Infernal Scarring) Blue: While blue is rarely considered a "creatures in graveyard" color, this type of effect has appeared in blue a surprising number of times. To tag a few past examples, look at Aven Fisher, Darkslick Drake, Exultant Cultist, or Jeskai Sage. Other examples include Oculus, Kingfisher, Merfolk Seer, Messenger Drake, Palace Familiar, Purple-Crystal Crab, Runewing, Surveiling Sprite, Vexing Sphinx, Youthful Scholar, Private Research, Fate Foretold, and both blue Zuberas.
Flavor: Both blue and black include themes of ambition and callousness in their flavor wheelhouse. Using expendable minions to advance ones own agenda is a very Dimir approach to creatures.
A Few Tests of Applicability:
Test 1: What would it look like to reprint a card with this ability?
Oculus
Creature- Homunculus
Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
1/1
Infernal Scarring
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+0 and has Expendable.
Test 2: Would this work on new small creatures?
Shambling Bones
Creature- Skeleton
Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
Discard two cards: Return Shambling Bones from your graveyard to your hand.
1/1
Augur Apprentice
Creature- Human Wizard
Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
When Augur Apprentice enters the battlefield, scry 1.
1/1
Test 3: Does it work on big creatures?
Demonic Taskmaster
Creature- Demon
Expendable, Menace
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature and put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.
4/3
Aetherchain Serpent
Creature- Serpent
Expendable
At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card.
You cannot cast spells with a converted mana cost less than the number of cards in your hand.
6/6 Starved and chained, newly freed serpents carry brave crews to new sources of aether.
Test 4: Can the ability be given by combat tricks/auras/etc?
Master's Presence
Instant
Target creature gains +3/+0 and gains Expendable until end of turn.
Bind the Will
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature gains Expendable.
Celleck, Master Puppeteer
Legendary Creature- Human Wizard
All other creatures you control gain expendable (multiple instances of expendable trigger separately)
, Sacrifice a creature: Tap or untap target permanent.
4/4
Test 5: Is this ability applicable on multiple planes?
Tarkir:
Sulimgar's Elites
Creature- Zombie Warrior
Expendable
When Sulimgar's Elites enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices a creature.
3/3
Ravnica:
Secret Keeper
Creature- Human Rogue
Expendable
: Draw a card, then discard a card.
1/1 Three can keep a secret when two of them are dead.
Innistrad:
Skaab Inquisitor
Creature- Zombie
Expendable
Whenever a creature dies, scry 1.
2/4 It can learn from every death, including its own
Alara:
Aethersworn Servant
Artifact Creature- Homunculus
Expendable
Another target artifact creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
1/1
Kaladesh:
Consul's Enforcer
Creature- Human Artificer
Deathtouch, Expendable
Fabricate 2
2/1
Test 6: Can this card be used as a blue or black mechanic in multicolor cards that aren't dimir?
Preacher of Debts
Creature- Human Cleric
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a debt counter on target creature.
Creatures with one or more debt counters get -1/-1 and gain expendable.
1/4
Unstable Iteration
Creature- Ooze
Expendable, Trample
Whenever you draw a card, Untable Iteration gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
3/4
Riot Wreaker
Creature- Cyclops
Expendable, Trample
Whenever Riot Wreaker attacks or blocks, each player sacrifices a permanent.
4/2
Reckless Innovator
Creature- Goblin Wizard
Expendable
Sacrifice Reckless Innovator: The next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn costs less to cast. All spells targeting that spell cost less to cast.
2/2
Shambling Compost
Creature- Zombie Plant
Expendable
When Shambling Compost enters the battlefield, you may return a land card from your graveyard to the top of your library.
1/1
Humble Squire
Creature- Human Knight
Exalted, Expendable
1/1 ”Ideals cannot be replaced. This is why we protect them.”
Test 7: Can this work on legends?
Kaalt, Impetuous Scribe
Legendary Creature- Human Wizard
Expendable
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, Scry 1.
1/3 ”I am the eyes and ears of my master, serving her like no other. Few will ever know the true depths of her favor as I do.”
-Kaalt, Impetuous Scribe
Zev, Doomed Necromancer
Legendary Creature- Human Cleric
Expendable
, , sacrifice Zev, Doomed Necromancer: Return up to X target creature cards from your graveyard to play.
2/2 In one final moment of clarity, Zev realized that he had been used.
Longform Discussion: Advantages and Disadvantages:
This is a mechanic that I like for a variety of reasons. To start, it’s a “defensive” ability that allows for interaction. Multiple good cards can be printed with Expendable without the format becoming too oppressive (unlike other defensive abilities) and it is far more reasonable for auras and static effects to make creatures expendable than it is to give your board permanent hexproof/indestructible. Given the loss of regeneration and protection, the rarity of permanent indestructability, and the dangers of putting hexproof at low CMC, Wizards would gain a lot from having a defensive ability with fewer mechanical constraints.
It may appears that Expendable “doesn’t scale well” at first glance, though I would personally argue the opposite. Pelakka Wurm jumps to mind as a big creature that offers this benefit. Nezahal, Primal Tide and Niv-Mizzet, Parun can also show the benefit of being able to replace a powerful card when it is targeted by (most forms of) kill. Ultimately, giving a card the ability to replace itself (and giving your opponent card disadvantage in the process) is an excellent deal at any CMC.
The final thing that I really like about this mechanic is the potential for flavor by mechanics. Giving a creature “Expendable” has more flavorful connotations (especially in the meta-context of the game) than something like First Strike. You can slap this ability on legendary creatures to create irony, show that they are being used by a higher power, or otherwise signal that they die within the story. Of course, this also creates the biggest downside to this mechanic.
While the mechanic itself scales up to high CMC nicely, the flavor of the mechanic doesn’t scale up well. It would almost never make sense to throw Expendable onto a high-CMC legend, for example. If you have a cycle of praetors/bringers/gearhulks in a set, giving the black or blue one “Expendable” would make it feel weaker (from a flavor standpoint) than the others. The obvious solution would be to change the name of this ability, though I can’t think of any name that would work. If anyone has an idea, feel free to let me know. While I feel that this would be a real downside for an evergreen mechanic, I don’t feel that it should be a dealbreaker when so many other things about the mechanic work.
Generating card advantage is already a major theme, and the primary area of overlap other than mill, between blue and black. It's what makes those two colors so good in many formats. I feel that a U/B keyword should feed off of that mechanical space rather than intensify it, especially since that space is shared with green, and the differences should be highlighted somehow.
I proposed this exact idea once. I might change the wording so that it says "When this creature is destroyed" rather than "dies" to make it slightly less abusable.
I personally think it would be worth a try, though it would need to be used carefully.
I proposed this exact idea once. I might change the wording so that it says "When this creature is destroyed" rather than "dies" to make it slightly less abusable.
I personally think it would be worth a try, though it would need to be used carefully.
Except making it a nonbo with sacrifice and Infest-style cards is a huge strike against the black half of this kind of mechanic, and it still doesn't address the card advantage generated. The main issue put forth is creatures trading up in combat.
This has been propose a bunch of times and I at some point I supported this idea... But after prowess I realise why this is not desirable as both shares the same problem.
Triggered abilities are terrible evergreen keywords. All triggered abilities have two parts: "When X happens, do Y". All the evergreen effect does is to fix X and Y and force it to repeat a certain amount of times. Which does nothing but remove design space for sets.
Let me give a example. Suppose in a given set you want 3 common critters that generates CA (ex: Generous Stray, Burglar Rat, Muse Drake in Guilds). If this ability would be keyworded then we would need to force 1-2 of those cards to hold it. If the ability is not keyworded we may either use this ability twice or not use it at all and make a bunch of critters that generates CA in different ways. Keywording this ability does nothing but restrict our choices of what to put in the set.
Evergreen keywords cannot dispute design space with other common and desirable non-evergreen abilities. This is very important !
The UB keyword is now Flash, which is fine way to promote draw-go controlish behavior in these colors. I think we are back to search for a UR evergreen.
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Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
What type of mechanic is it: It's a U/B mechanic that is neither evasive nor mill-based. This ability functions as a semi-defensive ability. Unlike hexproof or indestructible, this ability doesn't stop your opponent from killing this card. Instead, it turns your opponent's kill spells into (relative) card disadvantage (a 1-2 instead of 1-1). Further, effects that get around hexproof and/or indestructible (Wrath of God, Toxic Deluge, etc.) don't get around this card disadvantage (though exile effects do).
Precedence:
Black: Black is all about cards dying (and being sacrificed) and has a history of getting card advantage when creatures die (Midnight Reaper, Harvester of Souls, Grim Haruspex, Dark Prophecy, Infernal Scarring)
Blue: While blue is rarely considered a "creatures in graveyard" color, this type of effect has appeared in blue a surprising number of times. To tag a few past examples, look at Aven Fisher, Darkslick Drake, Exultant Cultist, or Jeskai Sage. Other examples include Oculus, Kingfisher, Merfolk Seer, Messenger Drake, Palace Familiar, Purple-Crystal Crab, Runewing, Surveiling Sprite, Vexing Sphinx, Youthful Scholar, Private Research, Fate Foretold, and both blue Zuberas.
Flavor: Both blue and black include themes of ambition and callousness in their flavor wheelhouse. Using expendable minions to advance ones own agenda is a very Dimir approach to creatures.
A Few Tests of Applicability:
Test 1: What would it look like to reprint a card with this ability?
Oculus
Creature- Homunculus
Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
1/1
Infernal Scarring
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+0 and has Expendable.
Test 2: Would this work on new small creatures?
Creature- Skeleton
Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
Discard two cards: Return Shambling Bones from your graveyard to your hand.
1/1
Augur Apprentice
Creature- Human Wizard
Expendable (When this creature dies, draw a card)
When Augur Apprentice enters the battlefield, scry 1.
1/1
Test 3: Does it work on big creatures?
Creature- Demon
Expendable, Menace
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature and put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.
4/3
Aetherchain Serpent
Creature- Serpent
Expendable
At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card.
You cannot cast spells with a converted mana cost less than the number of cards in your hand.
6/6
Starved and chained, newly freed serpents carry brave crews to new sources of aether.
Test 4: Can the ability be given by combat tricks/auras/etc?
Instant
Target creature gains +3/+0 and gains Expendable until end of turn.
Bind the Will
Enchantment- Aura
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature gains Expendable.
Celleck, Master Puppeteer
Legendary Creature- Human Wizard
All other creatures you control gain expendable (multiple instances of expendable trigger separately)
, Sacrifice a creature: Tap or untap target permanent.
4/4
Test 5: Is this ability applicable on multiple planes?
Sulimgar's Elites
Creature- Zombie Warrior
Expendable
When Sulimgar's Elites enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices a creature.
3/3
Ravnica:
Secret Keeper
Creature- Human Rogue
Expendable
: Draw a card, then discard a card.
1/1
Three can keep a secret when two of them are dead.
Innistrad:
Skaab Inquisitor
Creature- Zombie
Expendable
Whenever a creature dies, scry 1.
2/4
It can learn from every death, including its own
Alara:
Aethersworn Servant
Artifact Creature- Homunculus
Expendable
Another target artifact creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
1/1
Kaladesh:
Consul's Enforcer
Creature- Human Artificer
Deathtouch, Expendable
Fabricate 2
2/1
Test 6: Can this card be used as a blue or black mechanic in multicolor cards that aren't dimir?
Creature- Human Cleric
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a debt counter on target creature.
Creatures with one or more debt counters get -1/-1 and gain expendable.
1/4
Unstable Iteration
Creature- Ooze
Expendable, Trample
Whenever you draw a card, Untable Iteration gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
3/4
Riot Wreaker
Creature- Cyclops
Expendable, Trample
Whenever Riot Wreaker attacks or blocks, each player sacrifices a permanent.
4/2
Reckless Innovator
Creature- Goblin Wizard
Expendable
Sacrifice Reckless Innovator: The next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn costs less to cast. All spells targeting that spell cost less to cast.
2/2
Shambling Compost
Creature- Zombie Plant
Expendable
When Shambling Compost enters the battlefield, you may return a land card from your graveyard to the top of your library.
1/1
Humble Squire
Creature- Human Knight
Exalted, Expendable
1/1
”Ideals cannot be replaced. This is why we protect them.”
Test 7: Can this work on legends?
Legendary Creature- Human Wizard
Expendable
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, Scry 1.
1/3
”I am the eyes and ears of my master, serving her like no other. Few will ever know the true depths of her favor as I do.”
-Kaalt, Impetuous Scribe
Zev, Doomed Necromancer
Legendary Creature- Human Cleric
Expendable
, , sacrifice Zev, Doomed Necromancer: Return up to X target creature cards from your graveyard to play.
2/2
In one final moment of clarity, Zev realized that he had been used.
Longform Discussion: Advantages and Disadvantages:
This is a mechanic that I like for a variety of reasons. To start, it’s a “defensive” ability that allows for interaction. Multiple good cards can be printed with Expendable without the format becoming too oppressive (unlike other defensive abilities) and it is far more reasonable for auras and static effects to make creatures expendable than it is to give your board permanent hexproof/indestructible. Given the loss of regeneration and protection, the rarity of permanent indestructability, and the dangers of putting hexproof at low CMC, Wizards would gain a lot from having a defensive ability with fewer mechanical constraints.
It may appears that Expendable “doesn’t scale well” at first glance, though I would personally argue the opposite. Pelakka Wurm jumps to mind as a big creature that offers this benefit. Nezahal, Primal Tide and Niv-Mizzet, Parun can also show the benefit of being able to replace a powerful card when it is targeted by (most forms of) kill. Ultimately, giving a card the ability to replace itself (and giving your opponent card disadvantage in the process) is an excellent deal at any CMC.
The final thing that I really like about this mechanic is the potential for flavor by mechanics. Giving a creature “Expendable” has more flavorful connotations (especially in the meta-context of the game) than something like First Strike. You can slap this ability on legendary creatures to create irony, show that they are being used by a higher power, or otherwise signal that they die within the story. Of course, this also creates the biggest downside to this mechanic.
While the mechanic itself scales up to high CMC nicely, the flavor of the mechanic doesn’t scale up well. It would almost never make sense to throw Expendable onto a high-CMC legend, for example. If you have a cycle of praetors/bringers/gearhulks in a set, giving the black or blue one “Expendable” would make it feel weaker (from a flavor standpoint) than the others. The obvious solution would be to change the name of this ability, though I can’t think of any name that would work. If anyone has an idea, feel free to let me know. While I feel that this would be a real downside for an evergreen mechanic, I don’t feel that it should be a dealbreaker when so many other things about the mechanic work.
I personally think it would be worth a try, though it would need to be used carefully.
Except making it a nonbo with sacrifice and Infest-style cards is a huge strike against the black half of this kind of mechanic, and it still doesn't address the card advantage generated. The main issue put forth is creatures trading up in combat.
Triggered abilities are terrible evergreen keywords. All triggered abilities have two parts: "When X happens, do Y". All the evergreen effect does is to fix X and Y and force it to repeat a certain amount of times. Which does nothing but remove design space for sets.
Let me give a example. Suppose in a given set you want 3 common critters that generates CA (ex: Generous Stray, Burglar Rat, Muse Drake in Guilds). If this ability would be keyworded then we would need to force 1-2 of those cards to hold it. If the ability is not keyworded we may either use this ability twice or not use it at all and make a bunch of critters that generates CA in different ways. Keywording this ability does nothing but restrict our choices of what to put in the set.
Evergreen keywords cannot dispute design space with other common and desirable non-evergreen abilities. This is very important !
The UB keyword is now Flash, which is fine way to promote draw-go controlish behavior in these colors. I think we are back to search for a UR evergreen.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras