We all know creature creep has happened. A lot. A lot a lot. Cards like Carnage Tyrant have been coming out for some time that just shatter precedent. I never like cards like that, but Edraine has a ton of it. Sometimes it's fine. For example, Order of Midnight is easily the most efficient version of that card ever printed (compare to Vampire Interloper), but it doesn't seem excessively creature creeped (at least to me). Other places, I'm just looking for the downside on the card, and it doesn't ever come.
Stonecoil Serpent: four times strictly better than Endless One if you count artifact as an upside. Endless One was already a solid card. Trample alone is a massive bonus on a card like this.
I don't hate Wildborn Preserver or Gingerbrute as much, but they certainly go farther than any card before them. Again, sometimes I think it's okay to break precedent.
Personally, I don't like this. In fact I hate it. I really hate it. Generally, they keep the same power level at common and uncommon, and allow rares to have ridiculous stats. I feel like just making creatures more and more efficient for their mana cost doesn't do anything to help the game at all, and just pushes creatures to be better without pushing the design. Nevertheless, that's just my opinion.
Does creature creep bother you, or are you just happy to see strong creatures?
Its a way they get people to buy new stes when previous sers are overpowered....look at Ixalan block 6 lands, 3 enchantments, 4 or 5 creature...thats allbrhat was played in standard ... Amonkhet was a powerful set do out shined it then Dominarua threw to spark again swung the oendulum really far into powerful Standard, ots time to power down, but the only way to set a lower powered set us to concentrate all the power in 10 to 15 cards which become must haves in standard.
I also think this in part, but to be doing it while it is known to be a potential game-killer shows some kind of rhyme to the reason. You could divide this into eras I suppose to give some kind of answer. The band of how good they are doesn't come out of nowhere and with no context. At first, the such thing as creatures so good you more or less don't play the others (by full population analysis) are Kird Ape, Serendib Efreet, Hypnotic Specter. Then ones like Tradewind Rider and Mother of Runes come. Then Dark Confidant comes. Then Snapcaster Mage and Stoneforge Mystic come. They are pretty much invalidatingly strong to more Limited tier creatures by the same initial analysis, and in the midst of all of this, planeswalkers have come to be. If the considerations of doing it anyway line up in such a way as they are considering format-breaker relevance in the tier of already existing super nutso ones (the type of ones mentioned), that job is fairly "artist eyeball" in its difficulty, and Standard rotates. But I see what you are saying, and I thought it too for the first large stretch of time they had been doing it. The question it entails is, do they do that giant as a 5/3? Skillful work would suggest they do NOT, ever, not at that color pip sensitivity.
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"Warning: Um, warning. This is going to be a game state violation. And a taking extra turns and drawing extra cards violation, pretty much, a whole bunch of violations. Look at me, I'm the DCI."
We have had a couple years of mostly weak sets recently, and Eldraine looks to be no exception. It has a couple of strong cards, but getting a creature that is strictly better than an actively bad creature is not creep. Power creep would mean that more cards than in an average set will see play after rotation. I am pretty generous in my guesses of what is say, Modern playable, and this set looks like it has far fewer cards than most. Amonkhet and Ixalan blocks were very weak if you look at the last decade instead of just the rotation or two before them. You don't need to worry about power creep to the game as a whole, if they dropped M11, which was a core set, into current Standard, it would take over like OG Mirrodin. People worry every time cards pass the vanilla test, but this is definitely a low power period.
Most of the stupidly ability flooded creatures are still kinda BAD in a format that has actual good spells.
standard is flooded with pretty bad spells, but creatures take that place.
They want to make commons and uncommons better, and with that rares and mythics have to be better too to make them still outshine the rest.
Almost all the adventure creatures are flat out powerful, as they are inherently a 2 for 1 spell+creature and its even easier to rebuy a creature and cast it for adventure again and again ; so chances are the mechanic is inherently broken.
They did it with Evoke to give creatures a spell like trigger , but adventure is flat out better than that.
A bunch of creatures are pushed for standard to fill a role and then pushed a little bit more to "guarantee" they matter in the metagame that WotC FORCED to happen.
In the past they printed simply good cards here and there, but they just barely forced a metagame. Right now they print preconstructed decks and put them in booster packs, so players can simply re-assemble that preconstructed decks ; its the most trivial form of deckbuilding and ensures they get the metagame of cards they want to.
I am not a fan of that, but it gives WotC a much easier form of control. But by pushing cards in such a way they also run into the danger that they go too far, and suddenly they printed a monster they need to get rid off (but not ban it right away, as they still need to sell the product that is currently in print).
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Spells are just flat out bad in standard right now, they focus on planeswalkers and creatures ; thats "ok" as we have plenty of good spells in older formats.
Standard simply is a creature-slug-fest and will be even more now that spells are also creatures due to adventure.
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To make the cut in modern and legacy a creature has to be "stupidly" pushed and provide value no matter what.
Bonecrusher Giant is probably good enough to see play in burn decks on its own.
Rebuying the card over and over as a creature could be the kind of value that even Jund decks are interested in.
Robber of the Rich is a pushed 2 drop to a level it could be worth playing when a single hit is value and any other just digs deeper.
While they are crazy pushed, they might still just barely make the cut, when they have to compare to other pushed cards and compete against them.
Any 2 drop in green has to compete with Tarmogoyf and for a time they just didnt print anything worth playing over it outside of tribal creatures, but now they might accept that as the new base-line of powerlevel and aim for green creatures to be a option.
Blue 2 drops that have to compete with Snapcaster Mage have a pretty hard time too, so if you want to print cards that compete with it, your powerlevel rises overall / which is a danger in itself to go too far and break a format ; which they just accept at this point and ban stuff (formerly they did not print a broken card if they could see a danger of breaking something, now they care less and just let it fly).
A ability flooded creature like Questing Beast reads kinda insane, but all its abilities either matter or they dont.
If it has to compete against Tarmogoyf and removal like Fatal Push, it loses a lot of appeal.
When its abilities matter however, it becomes a card that can be a complete blowout ; say kill a planeswalker, deal damage and prevent creatures from attacking your planeswalker and reap value each turn ; thats the kind of metagame this card wants and if it doesnt get that metagame, its simply not worth 4 mana if all the text just doesnt matter.
Stonecoil Serpent is also a pushed creature that "might" be relevant or simply not if all its abilities just dont matter.
In a format with lots of multicolor stuff it strives for glory, but if your removal is Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push and the other player has Tarmogoyf all the abilities dont make the cut anymore.
Endless One is not really a constructed level creature and the only reason it saw play at all was that Eldrazi had the tribal support to back it up (as a 2/2 eldrazi it filled a role for the Eldrazi deck to get some needed 2 drops, or even a 0 mana 2/2 with the Eye and such stupidity, but that all is due to its Eldrazi creature type, not because the X mana X/X would matter in itself).
Chances are Stonecoil Serpent will not matter at all or just be a "ok" creature, depends so much on how much its abilities actually matter in a given metagame ; if they dont, its not good enough.
Wildborn Preserver however is the kind of card i am "really" high on, as its a creature that packs so much power and relevant abilities that easily slot into existing decks.
Flash and reach can eat a creature, and it combos with all the flash creatures in standard, the existing blue/green flash deck just eats this up and becomes stupid powerful.
Even in older formats, you can play a lot of flash creatures and cheap creatures to get this out and pump it to a 4/4 and then grow it further.
If your 2 drop you flash in end of turn becomes a 6/6 or larger on its attack , you get a creature that can end the game in just 2-3 attacks on its own.
Being a elf is also a relevant creature type and it works well with Aether Vial and fetchlands to hit Dryad Arbor, it just works very very well and combos with almost anything, even a Tarmogoyf, Adventure creatures and absolutely anything.
Absolutely buy a lot of these for just 1€ its a pretty solid gamble if they get relevant and hit 10+ you make a lot of money.
As a player exclusively of the Eternal formats, I've never had a problem with creature creep because I feel like Wizards is trying to rectify the facts that creatures have always been easy to sweep away and strategies that don't involve attacking have always been most of the meta due to being faster. Standard is in its own little two-year bubble of course, so power creep isn't too much of a bother there, but I'm not really going to worry until something better than Stifle/Dreadnought or reanimation comes up.
As a player exclusively of the Eternal formats, I've never had a problem with creature creep because I feel like Wizards is trying to rectify the facts that creatures have always been easy to sweep away and strategies that don't involve attacking have always been most of the meta due to being faster. Standard is in its own little two-year bubble of course, so power creep isn't too much of a bother there, but I'm not really My CFA Visit going to worry until something better than Stifle/Dreadnought or reanimation comes up.
Then Dark Confidant comes. Then Snapcaster Mage and Stoneforge Mystic come. They are pretty much invalidatingly strong to more Limited tier creatures by the same initial analysis, and in the midst of all of this, planeswalkers have come to be. If the considerations of doing it anyway line up in such a way as they are considering format-breaker relevance in the tier of already existing super nutso ones (the type of ones mentioned), that job is fairly "artist eyeball" in its difficulty, and Standard rotates. But I see what you are saying, and I thought it too for the first large stretch of time they had been doing it. The question it entails is, do they do that giant as a 5/3? Skillful work would suggest they do NOT, ever, not at that color pip sensitivity.
Stonecoil Serpent: four times strictly better than Endless One if you count artifact as an upside. Endless One was already a solid card. Trample alone is a massive bonus on a card like this.
Bonecrusher Giant: 4/3 for 2R with multiple highly relevant upsides. Geez louise, remember Centaur Courser?
Robber of the Rich: 2/2 haste for 1R with multiple upsides.
Questing Beast: All the upsides make my head spin.
I don't hate Wildborn Preserver or Gingerbrute as much, but they certainly go farther than any card before them. Again, sometimes I think it's okay to break precedent.
Personally, I don't like this. In fact I hate it. I really hate it. Generally, they keep the same power level at common and uncommon, and allow rares to have ridiculous stats. I feel like just making creatures more and more efficient for their mana cost doesn't do anything to help the game at all, and just pushes creatures to be better without pushing the design. Nevertheless, that's just my opinion.
Does creature creep bother you, or are you just happy to see strong creatures?
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Also possible they want to print cards that could entice Modern players to buy packs.
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Ixalan was.
The problem is, if they do one set of lower power level, y'all will come back here and complain how they don't make good cards anymore lmao
standard is flooded with pretty bad spells, but creatures take that place.
They want to make commons and uncommons better, and with that rares and mythics have to be better too to make them still outshine the rest.
Almost all the adventure creatures are flat out powerful, as they are inherently a 2 for 1 spell+creature and its even easier to rebuy a creature and cast it for adventure again and again ; so chances are the mechanic is inherently broken.
They did it with Evoke to give creatures a spell like trigger , but adventure is flat out better than that.
A bunch of creatures are pushed for standard to fill a role and then pushed a little bit more to "guarantee" they matter in the metagame that WotC FORCED to happen.
In the past they printed simply good cards here and there, but they just barely forced a metagame. Right now they print preconstructed decks and put them in booster packs, so players can simply re-assemble that preconstructed decks ; its the most trivial form of deckbuilding and ensures they get the metagame of cards they want to.
I am not a fan of that, but it gives WotC a much easier form of control. But by pushing cards in such a way they also run into the danger that they go too far, and suddenly they printed a monster they need to get rid off (but not ban it right away, as they still need to sell the product that is currently in print).
----
Spells are just flat out bad in standard right now, they focus on planeswalkers and creatures ; thats "ok" as we have plenty of good spells in older formats.
Standard simply is a creature-slug-fest and will be even more now that spells are also creatures due to adventure.
----
To make the cut in modern and legacy a creature has to be "stupidly" pushed and provide value no matter what.
Bonecrusher Giant is probably good enough to see play in burn decks on its own.
Rebuying the card over and over as a creature could be the kind of value that even Jund decks are interested in.
Robber of the Rich is a pushed 2 drop to a level it could be worth playing when a single hit is value and any other just digs deeper.
While they are crazy pushed, they might still just barely make the cut, when they have to compare to other pushed cards and compete against them.
Any 2 drop in green has to compete with Tarmogoyf and for a time they just didnt print anything worth playing over it outside of tribal creatures, but now they might accept that as the new base-line of powerlevel and aim for green creatures to be a option.
Blue 2 drops that have to compete with Snapcaster Mage have a pretty hard time too, so if you want to print cards that compete with it, your powerlevel rises overall / which is a danger in itself to go too far and break a format ; which they just accept at this point and ban stuff (formerly they did not print a broken card if they could see a danger of breaking something, now they care less and just let it fly).
A ability flooded creature like Questing Beast reads kinda insane, but all its abilities either matter or they dont.
If it has to compete against Tarmogoyf and removal like Fatal Push, it loses a lot of appeal.
When its abilities matter however, it becomes a card that can be a complete blowout ; say kill a planeswalker, deal damage and prevent creatures from attacking your planeswalker and reap value each turn ; thats the kind of metagame this card wants and if it doesnt get that metagame, its simply not worth 4 mana if all the text just doesnt matter.
Stonecoil Serpent is also a pushed creature that "might" be relevant or simply not if all its abilities just dont matter.
In a format with lots of multicolor stuff it strives for glory, but if your removal is Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push and the other player has Tarmogoyf all the abilities dont make the cut anymore.
Endless One is not really a constructed level creature and the only reason it saw play at all was that Eldrazi had the tribal support to back it up (as a 2/2 eldrazi it filled a role for the Eldrazi deck to get some needed 2 drops, or even a 0 mana 2/2 with the Eye and such stupidity, but that all is due to its Eldrazi creature type, not because the X mana X/X would matter in itself).
Chances are Stonecoil Serpent will not matter at all or just be a "ok" creature, depends so much on how much its abilities actually matter in a given metagame ; if they dont, its not good enough.
Wildborn Preserver however is the kind of card i am "really" high on, as its a creature that packs so much power and relevant abilities that easily slot into existing decks.
Flash and reach can eat a creature, and it combos with all the flash creatures in standard, the existing blue/green flash deck just eats this up and becomes stupid powerful.
Even in older formats, you can play a lot of flash creatures and cheap creatures to get this out and pump it to a 4/4 and then grow it further.
If your 2 drop you flash in end of turn becomes a 6/6 or larger on its attack , you get a creature that can end the game in just 2-3 attacks on its own.
Being a elf is also a relevant creature type and it works well with Aether Vial and fetchlands to hit Dryad Arbor, it just works very very well and combos with almost anything, even a Tarmogoyf, Adventure creatures and absolutely anything.
Absolutely buy a lot of these for just 1€ its a pretty solid gamble if they get relevant and hit 10+ you make a lot of money.
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Then Dark Confidant comes. Then Snapcaster Mage and Stoneforge Mystic come. They are pretty much invalidatingly strong to more Limited tier creatures by the same initial analysis, and in the midst of all of this, planeswalkers have come to be. If the considerations of doing it anyway line up in such a way as they are considering format-breaker relevance in the tier of already existing super nutso ones (the type of ones mentioned), that job is fairly "artist eyeball" in its difficulty, and Standard rotates. But I see what you are saying, and I thought it too for the first large stretch of time they had been doing it. The question it entails is, do they do that giant as a 5/3? Skillful work would suggest they do NOT, ever, not at that color pip sensitivity.