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!
-
- Guesswork
- Registered User
-
Member for 19 years, 3 months, and 21 days
Last active Sun, Nov, 26 2023 22:07:47
- 5 Followers
- 6,465 Total Posts
- 726 Thanks
-
Feb 12, 2010
Guesswork posted a message on The Top 10 Keyword Abilities Ever - #1 and Wrap-UpPosted in: Improbable Things -
Jan 14, 2010
Guesswork 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, 2010
Guesswork 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, 2010
Guesswork 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, 2010
Guesswork 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, 2009
Guesswork 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
-
Dec 18, 2009
Guesswork 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, 2009
Guesswork 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, 2009
Guesswork 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
-
Dec 8, 2009
Guesswork 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!Posted in: Improbable Things 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!
Thanks for reading! I hope you'll come back for #7 - #1. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I guess I'll be packing my bags for this new exodus.
Jacetice League... ahem...Magic Avengers... ahem... Gatewatch? Every. Last. One of them is New Coke.(Except Ajani.)
This is more like going to your local flea market and seeing cheap sneakers with an Adirdas logo. i.e., knock-offs.
Putting that broad criticism of the set as-yet-revealed aside, snow cards have been the slow-motion structural failure of Magic design for what... 24 years, now? I am really just flabbergasted that they still can't crack this mechanic. I get it if they want to save major innovation for a different set, but really. Really. Snow has been lame for so long. Why even do it again if you can't make it cool?
This card is terrible.
This card is also AWESOME.
I am never going to play this.
If you're looking to speculate about a new evergreen keyword, I think your best shot is trying to guess what prowess's replacement will be.
If they're ever going to keyword one of the classic, green pseudo-evasion abilities, I'd hope it was "overpower", but in my reckoning that's no closer to being a reality than the Stalking Tiger ability. Partially because they need to find a good second / third color for it, partially because it would have to take the place of one of the current evergreen keywords in order to keep complexity down, and partially because they'd probably like to keep it flexible (like, have it able to key off toughness or CMC) so as to avoid the problems with prowess where it just doesn't fit perfectly into every environment. The Stalking Tiger ability has similar issues.
I think the most jarring thing is seeing a PW that's so... simple.
I'm not saying that this is going to play badly. I'm just saying that it's an ugly design, a kitchen-sink design, and a derivative design. Like I said, I understand why these cards exist: sometimes WotC needs to push a certain package of effects in order to give an archetype a competitive chance. So, I imagine it's going to be a plenty popular card. I'm sure WotC playtested the hell out of Gruul and knows this is exactly what Gruul needs. But this card seems highly engineered in a set that's feeling fairly over-engineered.
Also, I mean, come on... cannibalizing Qasali Pridemage is the only way this could have been done? Seems lazy.