Soo that is the Big Bad human of the story? looks like a old man that can't do much on a fight against a giant kaiju(good thematic abilities i may say, he is the inspiration for the other humans to even go kamikaze mode). The card looks good and with a very build around theme. Guess this old man is full of prejudice against monsters...
Yes, but he has not been killed yet so that is inherently inspiring.
Is this a full grown version of the monster that Proud Willbonder bonds with? Same tusks and horns concept but different porportions, both care about trample, share a colour. It should belong to the blue wedge but I guess not having any blue in it's color identity means it doesn't get to be an elemental.
Love it - replacing explosive vegetation in every instance. Does this fulfill the "strictly better" definition?
Until they print a card that specifically punishes other cards for having cycling it does. As far as I know no such card exists today but if there were "2UU, counter target spell. This spell costs 2 less if it targets a spell with cycling", then it stops being strictly better. (I'm not sure if that templating would work - does the spell have cycling while it's on the stack or is that only a trait of the card while it's in your hand?).
3 color wedge fixing looks better than shards (between those and the banners).
I have a Theory for what was the inspiration for ikoria, and as odd as it is i think they got the inspiration for ikoria from the "there are no trees" tale from flat earthers ("the trees from today earth are bushes and the giant trees of the past are in fact some cliffs are what is left from those ancient trees") https://qz.com/1627048/why-flat-earthers-dont-believe-in-trees/ .
It kinda matchs the time frame for the set as that nonsense came in 2016 (i remember cause i made a rpg campaing based on the idea ) and now we know there are massive Crystals over the land that is if i m not mistaken another part of the conspiracy theory xD, it was not the bad weed the inspiration for ikoria
I mean, who can say really, but going forwards I now know that flat earthers don't believe in trees and that has made my day infinitely richer. That being said, the idea of massive crystals is a recurring fantasy/sci-fi trope that has shown up in the fiction for many decades. I know I have used it in a (failed) project of my own and I was in part using it because it was a reference to other properties ("inside jokes" was a recurring theme in this project). Honestly, I suspect there's a whiteboard somewhere at Wizards HQ with a few dozen tropes on it waiting to be turned into planes.
I mean, part of the theory if i m not mistaken was that there was also giants made from quartz or something like that that feed of the "true trees" and then some "eletromagnetic apocalipse" happened and made the trees and the giants into stones (for them thats why there are rocks and mountains that looks like animals, giants, and dinosaurs, etc). The giants got extinct after all the trees died or something like that.
(*silicon life forms)
oh boy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PPA9OcpPTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVMS0J4Z6R8 (this one even says plane for earth and the "giant plane" in resume they come into earth to take resources and do other things, and this caused alot of destruction to earth, because of that ancient humans went agaisnt them. This is from 3-4 years ago)
I remember seeing a video that said a eletromagnetic event made the giants and the trees into rocks, with lots of images but did not found a similar one to post here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBhP9Rgxg7g (an animation from 3 y using this theme, just to show that "it got popular")
Okay, those are some extremely cool what if's but What If is not grounds for factual exploration of our world. Gotta respect the imagination, just wish it was funnelled in a healthier direction.
Yes, that's fair. For the body tacked onto the effect I will buy it. I was thinking more in terms of constructed, as a combo piece but I didn't specify. So, yeah... in limited a high pick common for sure.
High pick ? nah, its barely playable as it is, as you want to mutate on it all day long and then it cant give itself unblockable.
And you dont really want to attack with this in a giant monster of the opponent, this just dies.
You want it gum up the ground, or least block 3 power worth of damage each turn until you've got a good reason to swing with it. I wouldn't use it as a mutation base in of itself, but I've lost to blue strategies with 0/5s low on the curve enough to respect this thing. Then, when you are ready you don't really care if you are throwing it away to get those last 15 points of damage through.
Yes, that's fair. For the body tacked onto the effect I will buy it. I was thinking more in terms of constructed, as a combo piece but I didn't specify. So, yeah... in limited a high pick common for sure.
3 color wedge fixing looks better than shards (between those and the banners).
I have a Theory for what was the inspiration for ikoria, and as odd as it is i think they got the inspiration for ikoria from the "there are no trees" tale from flat earthers ("the trees from today earth are bushes and the giant trees of the past are in fact some cliffs are what is left from those ancient trees") https://qz.com/1627048/why-flat-earthers-dont-believe-in-trees/ .
It kinda matchs the time frame for the set as that nonsense came in 2016 (i remember cause i made a rpg campaing based on the idea ) and now we know there are massive Crystals over the land that is if i m not mistaken another part of the conspiracy theory xD, it was not the bad weed the inspiration for ikoria
I mean, who can say really, but going forwards I now know that flat earthers don't believe in trees and that has made my day infinitely richer. That being said, the idea of massive crystals is a recurring fantasy/sci-fi trope that has shown up in the fiction for many decades. I know I have used it in a (failed) project of my own and I was in part using it because it was a reference to other properties ("inside jokes" was a recurring theme in this project). Honestly, I suspect there's a whiteboard somewhere at Wizards HQ with a few dozen tropes on it waiting to be turned into planes.
Regarding the body - a 6/6 vanilla for 4Gis not really noteworthy. For the random element of the mutate effect. Expect it to be a land most times (that's what the stats say) and every now and then you get something more. This is green doing a thing it's done for a long time now and a fairly weak version of the effect (compare to Genesis Hydra, Genesis Wave, Vivian's Arkbow, Collected Company. The thing that makes this card unique in the history of the game is that it triggers on each mutation, but even that's not that weird, we could have seen "whenever this creature becomes enchanted" or constellation, and not even blinked. Good card is good, but it's something without precedent.
A not rare with that sizes is absolutely noteworthy.
5 mana 6/6 is what you would expect from a rare (and we get plenty of those in this set).
For an uncommon that has no form of drawback at all, this is above expectations and this kind of card could very well be Rare in lots of sets.
Not sure what I did wrong with my link to Scryfall, but it seems it was turned off at some point.
So, I went back and took another look at Green's creatures and I have to agree, once you take rarity into consideration. There've been 2 creatures that meet all three conditions (P/T, cmc and rarity) and one of them is an Innistrad werewolf so it doesn't *really* count and the other has Champion which is a fair drawback. So yes, this is indeed a new thing. I don't know how unbalanced it is in the current meta as "is big" isn't really relevant card text in a world where (as you said) pretty much everything has that text, but this is indeed new efficiency. Now, should it have happened? It seems that all of the other cards that have CMC >=5 and P/T >= 6/6 have some other form of wackiness (i.e. Gigantosaurus's 5 Green Pips or Nessian Boar's legendary status or weird combat impacts. So a vanilla 6/6 for 5 actually feels fine at uncommon, after all Green is the color of Timmy creatures. Should this be considered vanilla, probably not and, in the end, I'll concede it's probably not well balanced at uncommon. I'd be 100% fine with it at rare and will quite happily take it at uncommon even if I do only mutate it once into an extra land drop.
I think Mythic has a natural tension in it where we don't want the Mythics to actually be auto-includes (because $$$) but we do want them to be *special*. I feel like this, from a flavour and how that flavor is expressed fashion, is indeed special. And for the small percentage of players that care about him, they will care a lot and have access (wallet wise). Overall, I think that's fine. As long as there isn't some Jace, The Mind Sculptor situation where there's only one mythic that everyone needs to have.
The massive RNG of this effect already bothers me badly.
If you are "miss" you get a land , if you hit you get like a extra free spoiler.
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Its the kind of "coin-flip" that will decide the winner of a game, and having such randomness is the worst kind of gamble that can happen to a Spike player (its the most salty lose, and totally unnecessary to have that in the game).
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On further inspection, the set has a pretty unhealthy boost to power and thoughness of creatures.
5 mana just gets a 6/6 now , sure ...
Balancing kicked itself in the balls with this set.
Regarding the body - a 6/6 vanilla for 4Gis not really noteworthy. For the random element of the mutate effect. Expect it to be a land most times (that's what the stats say) and every now and then you get something more. This is green doing a thing it's done for a long time now and a fairly weak version of the effect (compare to Genesis Hydra, Genesis Wave, Vivian's Arkbow, Collected Company. The thing that makes this card unique in the history of the game is that it triggers on each mutation, but even that's not that weird, we could have seen "whenever this creature becomes enchanted" or constellation, and not even blinked. Good card is good, but it's something without precedent.
Oh, Simic Flash just got counters 5 - 7. Sure, it's a little pricy but a 5/4 flash is probably good enough without the baked in counter spell and a hard counter for 2 relevant spell types is not nothing. It's a little flavor fail to have a Shark without Islandhome (which I guess is true of all sea life but seems more of a break here) but in this environment, an allowable break.
Yes, but he has not been killed yet so that is inherently inspiring.
Until they print a card that specifically punishes other cards for having cycling it does. As far as I know no such card exists today but if there were "2UU, counter target spell. This spell costs 2 less if it targets a spell with cycling", then it stops being strictly better. (I'm not sure if that templating would work - does the spell have cycling while it's on the stack or is that only a trait of the card while it's in your hand?).
The Card
Okay, those are some extremely cool what if's but What If is not grounds for factual exploration of our world. Gotta respect the imagination, just wish it was funnelled in a healthier direction.
Edit: The final animation is really quite sweet.
You want it gum up the ground, or least block 3 power worth of damage each turn until you've got a good reason to swing with it. I wouldn't use it as a mutation base in of itself, but I've lost to blue strategies with 0/5s low on the curve enough to respect this thing. Then, when you are ready you don't really care if you are throwing it away to get those last 15 points of damage through.
Helix Rhino 1W
Creature - Elemental Horse
Whenever this creature attacks, another target attacking creature gains menace.
Flavor Text: Well, it's a mammal right?
2/4
Seriously - 2U may be slightly high for this effect but I kind of love it all the same.
I mean, who can say really, but going forwards I now know that flat earthers don't believe in trees and that has made my day infinitely richer. That being said, the idea of massive crystals is a recurring fantasy/sci-fi trope that has shown up in the fiction for many decades. I know I have used it in a (failed) project of my own and I was in part using it because it was a reference to other properties ("inside jokes" was a recurring theme in this project). Honestly, I suspect there's a whiteboard somewhere at Wizards HQ with a few dozen tropes on it waiting to be turned into planes.
Not sure what I did wrong with my link to Scryfall, but it seems it was turned off at some point.
So, I went back and took another look at Green's creatures and I have to agree, once you take rarity into consideration. There've been 2 creatures that meet all three conditions (P/T, cmc and rarity) and one of them is an Innistrad werewolf so it doesn't *really* count and the other has Champion which is a fair drawback. So yes, this is indeed a new thing. I don't know how unbalanced it is in the current meta as "is big" isn't really relevant card text in a world where (as you said) pretty much everything has that text, but this is indeed new efficiency. Now, should it have happened? It seems that all of the other cards that have CMC >=5 and P/T >= 6/6 have some other form of wackiness (i.e. Gigantosaurus's 5 Green Pips or Nessian Boar's legendary status or weird combat impacts. So a vanilla 6/6 for 5 actually feels fine at uncommon, after all Green is the color of Timmy creatures. Should this be considered vanilla, probably not and, in the end, I'll concede it's probably not well balanced at uncommon. I'd be 100% fine with it at rare and will quite happily take it at uncommon even if I do only mutate it once into an extra land drop.
I think Mythic has a natural tension in it where we don't want the Mythics to actually be auto-includes (because $$$) but we do want them to be *special*. I feel like this, from a flavour and how that flavor is expressed fashion, is indeed special. And for the small percentage of players that care about him, they will care a lot and have access (wallet wise). Overall, I think that's fine. As long as there isn't some Jace, The Mind Sculptor situation where there's only one mythic that everyone needs to have.
Regarding the body - a 6/6 vanilla for 4G is not really noteworthy. For the random element of the mutate effect. Expect it to be a land most times (that's what the stats say) and every now and then you get something more. This is green doing a thing it's done for a long time now and a fairly weak version of the effect (compare to Genesis Hydra, Genesis Wave, Vivian's Arkbow, Collected Company. The thing that makes this card unique in the history of the game is that it triggers on each mutation, but even that's not that weird, we could have seen "whenever this creature becomes enchanted" or constellation, and not even blinked. Good card is good, but it's something without precedent.