Reflection of P/T in real life
General forum
Posted on June 5, 2015, 12:01 a.m. by FAMOUSWATERMELON
I've been thinking about this a lot, and I would just like to hear what you guys think about it.
Essentially, power/toughness is aimed to represent the actual strength/magic of a character as if he existed in real life, right? (More or less). So do wizards do a good job at this? Let's look at some of the examples in the game. Also, please keep in mind that I'm not rating them based on how good they are in the game.
Human token: 1/1. This seems normal to me. An unarmed human can fight, defend itself, but is unable to really hit anything else in the game.
Birds of Paradise: 0/1. Again, perfect from my point of view. It's beautiful, but it can't really fight, and the one toughness is the bare minimum that a creature can have.
Kitchen Finks: 3/2, with persist. This one doesn't seem like a likely reflection of a real life ouphe. That obviously doesn't exit, but it seems small, maybe with some teeth and claws, but pretty harmless. Judging by the art, I find it hard to imagine that this could take out something quite bigger AND come back.
Siege Rhino: 4/5. This guy seems to fit his p/t nicely, once again. Judging by real-life rhinos, it's big, solid on defense, can easily take out some big things, and can trample over stuff.
Craterhoof Behemoth: 5/5. It has always bothered me that this thing doesn't have trample. And that it's not bigger. Of course the effect is game-winning, and it doesn't need to be bigger (game-wise). But that thing's three times taller than a tree, and pretty gigantic. Can you really see a Goblin stopping that...? And also, how does this have the same toughness as Rhino? Behemoth eats rhinos for breakfast.
Hornet token: 1/1. Let's resume. A hornet (1/1) can destroy: a human (1/1), a rhino (4/5), a Behemoth (5/5, 6/6 on entry at least), and a giant ball of spaghetti we know as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (15/15)... I'll leave it at that.
So what else can you guys think of?
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #3
Squirrel tokens. Emrakul can be eaten by 15 squirrels, but planeswalkers struggle to defeat him.
Also, Kitchen Finks (note the s) could easily be a 3/2 with persist - you're being attacked by a mob of ouphes, and they just keep coming.
June 5, 2015 12:31 a.m. Edited.
In the future squirrels will have 100 power, hornets will have 10, humans will have anywhere from 300 (Children) to 1,000 (Grown professional fighters) and Emrakul will have over 16,700.
Also in the future Sword of Feast and Famine will give a human +500-600 attack but no defense bonus.
Deathtouch will be delegatged with a number after it. For example, Hornet Queen tokens will have "Deathtouch 1,000" while the queen herself will have 6,000. Ambush Viper will have 2K-4K depending on how good WotC wants this common to be.
We'll also play this game with a D-20 to see if damage is successful, and a D10 to see if defense of the creature is successful. If the attack is successfull and the defense is not the creature is either bypassed or run through depending on the agility of said defender, with a modifying tough roll.
Lastly if you get all the lands with a supertype of one of the regions of Dominaria you can planeswalk to Mirrodin, start building Blightsteel Colossus each turn, and then seven turns later unleash them on your foes whose only option for salvation is to use World Slayer which now has an effect of "Deals 99,999 damage to each creature, player and land". That's right, Land destruction like Stone Rain is gone but creatures can directly attack lands! (Lands have a varying degree of toughness and suffer 2x damage from a creature correlating to one of it's enemy colors)
In all seriousness though, to even get close to displaying accurate power levels we would need calculators. Which I am down for.
June 5, 2015 12:48 a.m.
That was one of the funniest things I've read in a while. Thanks.
June 5, 2015 2:18 a.m.
vampirelazarus says... #7
Keep in mind that a 1/1 human token isn't as buff as Llanowar Elves.
Plus, craterhoof "has" trample.
June 5, 2015 3:25 a.m.
2/2 soldiers lose in combat to 2/2 pug tokens.
Oh and obviously a god dies to 15 squirrels.
.....really?
June 5, 2015 3:50 a.m.
Storm Crow beats an Eager Cadet every day of the week.
The power/toughness translated to RL seldom bugs me. Though occurrences like flying mountain Emrakul vs. hornet match-ups are hilariously wonky.
I notice more often the size of the creature portrayed on the card relative to its P/T and the P/T of other creatures. As you alluded to, Craterhoof Behemoth is Godzilla sized, compared to kinda big-ish elephant sized Siege Rhino despite only being +1 stronger. (but hey, maybe Avacyn just has tiny little trees.. lol)
June 5, 2015 10:01 a.m.
You are correct, sir!
Orrr... those "trees" are actually Avacyn, Angel of Hope's leg hair, and Craterhoof Behemoth is actually tiny. You can't prove any different!
phhhew.. good save. almost looked like an idiot there.
June 5, 2015 11:46 a.m.
vampirelazarus says... #12
Stranger things have happened in the world of MTG...
Servo_Token says... #2
Hornet uses poison to kill, seems fine to be able to do what it does. Neurotoxins are some scary shit.
Brushstrider kind of bothers me on the RL scale. That little deer is way too adorable to kill three humans in one reckless charge.
June 5, 2015 12:13 a.m.