At worst, he is a 4/4 creature with vigilance for 4 mana, which is not poor, by any standards. At best, he can work excellently with any deck that uses +1/+1 counters, although he is not quite as powerful as is Ghave, Guru of Spores. The fact that the counters are being moved, rather than placed on a creature, means that he does not gain any bonus from doubling season, but the ability can still be very useful, since it can steal counters from an opponent's creature.
Why is he a warrior, rather than a soldier? I always thought that warriors were red, since they were wild and ferocious, while soldiers were white, because they are disciplined and organized.
Most creatures that could be soldiers in Tarkir are soldiers, which makes since flavor wise.
Why does Mark Rosewater not wish for dragons to be below a certain mana cost or power?
Cause they are the iconic creature type of red which should be a big splashy creature and all the other iconic (saved for hydras) tend to be around 4 power and cmc 5+ unless a set has a tribal theme (Shards of Alara, Avacyn Restored ect).
The quote that they were going to support all ten combinations equally was in regards to available mana fixing, not guaranteed 10-card 2-color cycles.
First, why is that the case? WotC has always favored the five ally combinations over the five enemy combinations, which I believe is very unfair. What reason is there to not have another cycle in the third set? Just as they make a deliberate effort to support all five colors equally in any set, I believe that they should make a deliberate effort to support all color combinations equally, as well.
I think its because ally combinations are just easier to make cards for, with the only commotion with issues is blue/black.
Honesty I'm in love with how the mechanics and flavor in this set have been woven in together.
From what they said about Kolaghan seems like we will see five different types of dragons on Tarkir as well as having a higher as-fan of dragon creature cards.
WotC admitted that they "cheated" in the Alara block by having a focus on five-colored cards in Conflux and having such cards as Jund hackblade or Grixis grimblade in Alara Reborn (i.e., cards whose mana cost contained one mana of a single color and one hybird mana). Therefore, why could they not "cheat" again in Dragons of Tarkir, such as by having more cards akin to the "blade" cycle from AR?
Two reasons, 1) that seems to be the space Fate Reforged "wedge" cards are playing in and 2) This set is Large-small-Large, which means Dragons of Tarkir gonna have a mechanic and theme reboot like Rise of the Eldrazi and Avacyn Restored did. Hopefully the block has a better flow then the last two sets had (which i believe since Avacyn Restored messed better then Rise did).
So, all of us I think want to return possibly to Innistrad, though it would be a little different that Angels are revived and such. What about a block that uses the classic Universal Horror monsters as a basis? Frankenstein, Swamp Thing, Invisible Man, Mummy, Frankenstein, Bride, Wolf Man, etc? I would be so elated to see Wizards' take on the classic cinema monsters.
Not gonna lie but Innistrad seems to have done a lot of monsters. I think MaRo did say it was their monster set. Although I am always up for another one! Still want a legendary Jeckyl and Hyde for mtg!
Olivia was the 'Dracula" card of the set, as well as Grimgrin, Invisible Stalker, Creepy Doll (which is creepy dolls in general) and Civilized Scholar being top down versions of those characters. The rest is a maybe.
But they're only going back 1000 years. That isn't even reaching as far back as the Ice Age.
That is one-thousand years in the timeline of Tarkir, not Dominaria, and it would be a severe strain on suspension of disbelief for time to flow at the same rate across all planes of the multiverse.
Well too bad for you then because thats how the time flow works in magic does. Creative says that it would create too many issues otherwise.
Like, I don't think they just will design space into being so much as desperately try to find usable tech in the spaces they've left between previous work.
If there's really so little design space left, then their act of stringing us along and pretending that all these new sets are the bees' knees and will add so much to our Magic experience is incredibly unethical.
This is about design space for three colors cards not all of magic design in general.
Avalanche Tusker isn't a good example of a 3-color card, because it can be done in mono-green. A good three-color design should do things that no single color or pair of colors in the three could do without the other colors. Lightning Helix, for example, couldn't work in mono-white or mono-red, but makes perfect sense as a red-white card.
Look at the rest of the set and try to find cards that feel like they do only one thing, and that that thing has to be three colours.
I'm trying to think of cards in this category and am yet to come up with one. Butcher of the Horde comes closest, but black gets enough haste that it could have been WB (or in my personal view of the colour pie RB, as I have no issue with red vigilance because vigilance is an 'I'm better at attacking' effect; leave that aside as Maro doesn't agree).
Crackling Doom also comes close, but feels (to me at least) like it's a white card (hitting the strong) and a black card (sacrifice) that has this random 2 damage stapled on to force it to be red.
What else is there that has just one effect and is clearly tricoloured in the set?
Lightning Helix seems like a black effect as well though, doesn't it?
I wish Maro would be more liberal with hybrid mana. I would love a 1(W/B)(B/R) Lightning Helix. Or maybe a black one that flashes back for something like 4RW
Yes I know the effect is mono-green mostly (which was in my OP but I missed a few spelling mistakes I made that might have thrown people off). My point is Avalanche Tusker has a "single" effect that does feel all three colors. Is it mostly green? Yes but as I said blue and red have had similar effects in the past which help feel all three colors. Plus it falls into the "hybrid" type gold cards that have over lapping abilities (such as Spike Jester) just get it for cheaper.
Look at the rest of the set and try to find cards that feel like they do only one thing, and that that thing has to be three colours.
I'm trying to think of cards in this category and am yet to come up with one. Butcher of the Horde comes closest, but black gets enough haste that it could have been WB (or in my personal view of the colour pie RB, as I have no issue with red vigilance because vigilance is an 'I'm better at attacking' effect; leave that aside as Maro doesn't agree).
Crackling Doom also comes close, but feels (to me at least) like it's a white card (hitting the strong) and a black card (sacrifice) that has this random 2 damage stapled on to force it to be red.
What else is there that has just one effect and is clearly tricoloured in the set?
M14 had a very minor dragon tribal theme with Scourge of Valkas.
Now having seen all the broods, I really like the five different types of dragons and the influences the dragons have with the clans.
Most creatures that could be soldiers in Tarkir are soldiers, which makes since flavor wise.
Cause they are the iconic creature type of red which should be a big splashy creature and all the other iconic (saved for hydras) tend to be around 4 power and cmc 5+ unless a set has a tribal theme (Shards of Alara, Avacyn Restored ect).
I think its because ally combinations are just easier to make cards for, with the only commotion with issues is blue/black.
From what they said about Kolaghan seems like we will see five different types of dragons on Tarkir as well as having a higher as-fan of dragon creature cards.
Two reasons, 1) that seems to be the space Fate Reforged "wedge" cards are playing in and 2) This set is Large-small-Large, which means Dragons of Tarkir gonna have a mechanic and theme reboot like Rise of the Eldrazi and Avacyn Restored did. Hopefully the block has a better flow then the last two sets had (which i believe since Avacyn Restored messed better then Rise did).
Olivia was the 'Dracula" card of the set, as well as Grimgrin, Invisible Stalker, Creepy Doll (which is creepy dolls in general) and Civilized Scholar being top down versions of those characters. The rest is a maybe.
Well too bad for you then because thats how the time flow works in magic does. Creative says that it would create too many issues otherwise.
Well Sarkhans magic is about dragons which could include healing them and he also has green in him from his lst card and healing magic is white/green.
This is about design space for three colors cards not all of magic design in general.
Yes I know the effect is mono-green mostly (which was in my OP but I missed a few spelling mistakes I made that might have thrown people off). My point is Avalanche Tusker has a "single" effect that does feel all three colors. Is it mostly green? Yes but as I said blue and red have had similar effects in the past which help feel all three colors. Plus it falls into the "hybrid" type gold cards that have over lapping abilities (such as Spike Jester) just get it for cheaper.
Avalanche Tusker is a good example of a URG card. Yes the effect is mainly green but both blue and red have dipped their toes into those effects with cards like Courtly Provocateur, Vortex Elemental, Mark for Death and Master Warcraft.