Pattern Recognition #54D - Dessert

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

25 January 2018

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Hello everyone! My name is berryjon, and I am TappedOut.net's resident Old Fogey and part time Smart Ass. I write this series, Pattern Recognition, as a means to entertain, educate and something else that starts with an E.

No more numbers today, though I suppose I might drop a couple in by accident. Today will be just me giving my opinions about the information I've been trawling through for the past few weeks. That, and if I stared at Gatherer for much longer, I'm pretty sure my eyes would melt.

But before I go too much further, I would like to point you all at this article, written by Mark Rosewater in 2017, in which he takes a more detailed look at all the abilities that each colour gets, how often they get them and why.

It's also pretty boring and dry, just like my leadup to this. Of course, it also has the advantage of some nice images to go with it, there is that.

So, what are my thoughts on all this?

Well, for starters, there is a lot of things that I already knew, or at least recognized as true. I knew before hand that Blue and White dominated Flying. I was just surprised that nearly a third of all creatures in the game had it in one way or another.

I knew that Green and Black held domination for Deathtouch, but seeing just how far Black has come, and the trajectory it has was something I I didn't know I wanted.

I knew Red lacked flying, but to see just how rare it was, and how limited it was when it showed up was certainly an eye opener, especially given how they lack reliable anti-flying on their creatures, unlike Green.

And again, in case you forgot from a month ago, any one of these could have been a full article. I'm just skimming off the top here.

In whole though, I tend to allocate these 15 abilities into two broad categories. And it's the second one that is more important.

The first consists of Flash, Haste, Hexproof and Indestructible. These are protective abilities for the most part, though Haste isn't really one as all it does is allow you to tap on the turn it comes into play. I got a lot of use out of Kamahl, Pit Fighter back in the day with his activated ability of "I cast Lightning Bolt". Flash is something of an iffy protective measure. And I'm not talking about Seht's Tiger, but rather there are plenty of options when you can cast a card that normally doesn't work at instant speed. I know TappedOut's own zandl gets a lot of use out of Torrential Gearhulk in his decks, and seeing a 5/6 arrive with a bonus effect at any time is something that needs to be respected.

The other two are abilities that simply protect the creature that has them in carious ways. One by preventing death by conventional means, and the other by preventing them from being removed through specific targeting. Huh, only three creatures in the game have that combination naturally. Angelic Overseer, Fleecemane Lion, and Insidious Mist  ^Flip, and all of them require a gimmick to work properly. Thank Urza for that.

The other 11 Evergreen Keywords, however, all have one very, very important thing in common.

The Comabat Step.

Let me back up for a moment and try to explain why this is. Back when the game started, there was only one real way to win the game - reduce your opponent's life total to 0 before they do the same to you. Yes, I've talked about winning and losing in the past, but that was for now, and this is for then.

So when the only reliable way to win was through doing damage, and the only reliable way to do that was through creatures, it only made sense that creatures had abilities that would make them better in combat. Yes, I know there were creatures without such abilities, like Grizzly Bears or Llanowar Elves, but those were the exception, not the norm.

And this has continued, albeit with a smaller measure of confirming victory, ever since.

Of these 11 combat keywords, 6 I class as Evasion Abilities. These being Flying, Menace, First/Double Strike, Trample and Deathtouch. Now, this isn't Evasion in the classical sense of "can't be blocked" - that would just be Flying and Menace - but rather as a concept that these are abilities that either do exactly that, or make the block less workable. Deathtouch, for example, is on a creature and the opponent may simply choose not to block it as even a single point of damage could kill the defending creature, thus allowing the creature through to their life total. Trample doesn't care, as you can't throw a 1/1 in the way of an 8/8 and expect to come out unscathed.

The other five are utility effects. Lifelink doesn't do anything extra, it's just a reward for dealing damage. Prowess is a reward for doing things that aren't casting creatures. Defender is a drawback that lets the creature get away with doing things that would drastically raise the cost of the card. Vigilance just allows the creature to get into combat more, not better.

In a way, that's it. That's the point behind these keywords. They're about making Combat more interesting. It's a sad fact of the game that as it has grown and in some ways matured over the years, that it has become more and more technical. This is a problem that Wizards has recognized, and worked to prevent with the cyclical nature of Standard (that they KEEP MESSING WITH and if I had access to an Angry emote here, I WOULD USE IT!) and by reminding themselves every day that each set is someone's first. You can't have complexity that will drive away new people, but at the same time you can't make things boring to make newbies give up.

What I suppose I'm trying to say is that these Evergreen Keywords form the core of that design space. They are simple enough to understand in the scope of the game, and

That's it. That's what these guys do. It's all about combat.

Combat is interesting because it's about interacting with your opponent directly in a way that they can come back at you with. Heck, if you look at the promo videos of the new MtG: Arena, they've done a lot to make Combat more visually appealing as part of this process.

And for the newbies, these abilities are simple and easy to understand. And they even have reminder texts to make things easier! Here's hoping that cards like Benalish Knight get reprinted in Dominaria or the new Core Sets to help the transition from "What's Magic?" to "Here's my Infinite Combo!"

These fifteen abilities are, in the grand scheme of things, a good choice for Wizards in this regard. They avoid the complexities of Regeneration or Protection, and provide enough variety in what they do and how they interact (I'm looking at you, Reach and Flying) to give each colour its own flavour and distinctiveness. They're solid, they're dependable, and I'll say it again like many times before, solid and dependable are more important to the game than any fancy, spectacular card that does so many things people lose track of what it can actually do. Looking at you, Immortal Sun.

But that's enough for today. I promised short, and that's what you got. Join me next week when I address one of the major shortcomings of the game, and why Wizards keeps trying to fix it when it ain't broke. Then the week after, when I look at the truth and the myth behind Fetchlands.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream, and you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!