Hmmm... trample. No, it's definitely not one of my Top 10; I'm not even sure if it's in my Top 20.
If I was only ranking the best keyword abilities that were originally printed as such in Limted Edition Alpha, trample would probably take 2nd, 3rd or 4th place, but that's only because the competition is weak. It's a useful ability that, unfortunately, is also needlessly confusing and unintuitive. I'll have more to say about trample in a future blog!
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Feb 12, 2010Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #1 and Wrap-UpPosted in: Improbable Things
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Jan 14, 2010Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #1 and Wrap-Up@Orim's Thunder: I didn't forget about kicker. For now I will just say that it wasn't really in the running for either the Top 10 or the 5 Worst. I have a very wordy opinion about it. At some point I'd like to discuss kicker in some detail. Maybe after Worldwake and multikicker settle into Standard a bit.Posted in: Improbable Things
To both of you - thanks for reading! I hope you'll check back in the upcoming weeks. -
Jan 14, 2010Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #2@metamind - I love imprint! I certainly didn't mean to slight it, but it was ineligible for the keyword ability countdown because it's an ability word rather than a keyword ability. I know the distinction seems trivial, but introducing ability words into the mix would have introduced a lot of problems into my evaluation scheme. Ability words, individually, don't behave as homogeneously as keyword abilities, so they're harder to evaluate. I just didn't want the headache.Posted in: Improbable Things
I think you are correct when you say that imprint made use of exile zone in a very unique way. But, I maintained at the time (Mirrodin block) that there were other ways to skin that cat. There still are, IMO, if WotC ever wanted to flesh out the idea of a local zone.
But that's really neither here nor there. The point I hoped to make was that suspend was the game-changer. Suspend ended the argument. Even if imprint could only be done with exile / RFG, as cool as it was (or at least could be) it could still be argued that it wasn't worth the clutter of this bizarre non-zone messing up the game's mojo. Then suspend came and nobody could say that anymore. -
Jan 14, 2010Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #2Heh. I guess I threw you for a loop, there, Icatia! I think a lot of people are going to be surprised by my #1 choice, but I will stand by it completely. It's a great keyword ability.Posted in: Improbable Things
But so is flying! And, ranking flying as the #2 keyword ability ever is no slight... it really deserves all the praise you can give it.
@Nis: there's bound to be a difference of opinion regarding my suggestions for flying here. You are right about green wanting to encourage creatures to fight each other - but green wants just about everything for creatures as long as it is a positive effect. So I think the color has room for both ground and air troops.
Thanks for reading, guys! -
Jan 8, 2010Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #4Awesome. I'm glad you've enjoyed it!Posted in: Improbable Things
I'll be very interested to see what people think about my Top 3. There's at least one fairly big surprise in there. -
Dec 21, 2009Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #5That's a good one!! Didn't mean to overlook it... maybe I'll edit and put it in there.Posted in: Improbable Things
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Dec 18, 2009Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #6Hey, Excise, glad you're enjoying the countdown! I'll have my Top 5 ready to go very soon.Posted in: Improbable Things
The reason that I "only" gave Changeling a B+ innovation grade was because the ability itself was almost exactly what was printed on Mistform Ultimus, so changeling as a keyword was really a victory of innovative implementation, and of R&D seeing a very elegant, pre-existing mechanic and giving it a more prominent role.
In contrast, I gave flashback higher marks for innovation because it took a hint of something good from Yawgmoth's Will and made something totally different and awesome out of it, which totally changed the status of an entire zone in Magic. And splice, my highest rated mechanic for innovation (so far - it might end up in a tie ;)) was really completely and totally new on every level.
But it should be said, anything on this Top 10 list is among the best of the best in all three categories! -
Dec 16, 2009Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #6Hi again, Alacar!Posted in: Improbable Things
I appreciate that you're following the countdown here. I addressed some of the issues you brought up in the #8 entry, so go check that out.
In a nutshell, going to a point system (like 8.5, 9.7, etc.) would just be deceptive - my grading system isn't that sophisticated, nor could it ever be. Not to pull rank here, but I actually have a graduate degree in this stuff - testing, scaling and measurement - and I can reasonably assure you that people opting for a decimal system (X.X) aren't fundamentally incorporating more information into their scores than I am. They just have the appearance of doing so. I like to be upfront about my limitations. -
Dec 10, 2009Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #8Nis, thanks for that tip! I will go back and edit my posts to make use of that trick.Posted in: Improbable Things
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Dec 8, 2009Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #9@Alacar Leoricar: remember that the comprehensive rules list 81 different keyword abilities, and I'm picking the best 10 out of those. So, I'm starting with the higher grades! You won't see anything that scores below a B in any category on this list. Now, when I get to my 5 worst keyword abilities list, you'll see some D's and F's there!Posted in: Improbable Things
Thanks for reading! I hope you'll come back for #7 - #1. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
End of the day, it is still ramp, in colors that want to ramp, in an archetype (Bard Class) that they're pushing, it answers what is likely going to be a major annoyance all next year, it has additional flexibility besides, and you can do it twice. Good card.
In other words, don't take this early unless you're committed to forcing B/R Vamps.
Gonna be last-picking a ton of these.
Non-evasive 2/3s are notoriously bad in Limited. This reads like an experiment to see how much stuff you can pack onto a 2/3 and have it still be bad. This is last pick material.
With Magic being played more online than ever before, functional errata makes more and more sense.
I'm sure WotC doesn't enjoy paying the salaries for an entire development team only to have that team be completely outsmarted by the player base before sets are even released, time and again, and subsequently have their hands tied, unable to fix the problems they missed.
How many more packs would they have sold if Oko had gotten errata instead of the hammer? Omnath? Quite a few, I'd bet.
And let's be honest, they HAVE been releasing functional errata. The companion nerf and the Phyrexian creature type update both change the functionality of printed cards. You can split hairs and say it's not, but I disagree.
I suppose if you're evaluating this based on its ability to enable a T2 Tormod's Crypt into Tibalt's Trickery, yeah, look elsewhere.
"Jerks!"
"Fine, we gimped it again. Pray we don't gimp it any further."
"..."