Unpopular Opinion: The keyword reach should be upgraded.
General forum
Posted on Jan. 3, 2020, 9:12 a.m. by StopShot
I don't play green. I don't think green needs more/less support against flying creatures. I'm making this objectively on the fact that Flying is just cooler than Reach. There's no reason why you'd ever pick Tree Monkey over Scryb Sprites , (unless you really like monkeys or you're running Hurricane - you're going to pick the Sprites.)
My point is Reach should just do something a little more so that it's not a strictly worse ability than Flying. Like imagine if Wizards introduced the new keyword "Lifeblock" that works just like Lifelink, but only gains life when blocking, or "Focus" that works just like Prowess but the creature only gets +1/+1 when sorceries are cast.
I get Reach serves an important role to green and helps with balance purposes, and I don't think Green should have Flying either. I'm just arguing that Reach is boring. Lifeblock and Focus could also be used for balance purposes where Lifelink and Prowess might be game warping, but no one would want these abilities even if they would improve the MTG gameplay experience.
Reach should do something more to distinguish itself as desirable compared to Flying without either keyword being objectively better than the other. Like Reach could be: "This creature can block creatures with flying and can block an additional creature." or "This creature can block creatures with flying and can't be blocked by creatures with flying." or "This creature can block creatures with flying and deals damage to creatures equal to its toughness." It doesn't have to be these examples either just make it more flashy.
Reach should have a creative upgrade even if the improvement does little to change gameplay. It's like as they say with the color green; reach is not a creative keyword~ ♪ ♫
You would think that because reach is reactive, while the other is proactive, reach is somehow worse.
Reach is a toolbox ability - it is an ability you may not always need, but it is useful when you need it and not so much otherwise. Compare it to different screwdriver heads - you only need the one that fits that screw. Just because the others are not used for that particular job, does not mean they are worthless suddenly.
In reality, reach creatures have generally big toughness and low power, making them effective at blocking multiple fliers.
Reach is not creative, but entirely utilitarian.
January 3, 2020 9:52 a.m.
I think the above did a good job explaining why Reach was fine in its relatively unexciting state. However, I wanted to take a brief moment to look at your proposed errata and discuss why each would be awful if they were placed on such a common keyword.
"This creature can block creatures with flying and can block an additional creature."
This is terrifying, particularly given the fairly high toughness many Reach creatures have. A handful of "big butts" Reach creatures would be able to lock down a board twice their size, surviving turn-after-turn of attacks until the game ground to a halt.
This would be particularly awful in limited, where a huge part of the game is trying to get a creature number advantage over the other player so you can hack them down through attacks (combo and other non-combat win conditions are not quite as viable in limited). A creature that can block two creatures is pretty good in limited; an evergreen ability that can block two creatures and stop fliers would be devastating.
"This creature can block creatures with flying and can't be blocked by creatures with flying."
From a Color Pie perspective, this does not make much sense. Green already has an "evasion" ability--"evading" blockers by overwhelming them through Trample. Making Reach an evasion ability would be problematic for a large number of decks that rely on small fliers, especially given Green's general high power and mechanisms for boosting power.
"This creature can block creatures with flying and deals damage to creatures equal to its toughness."
This causes issues for all manner of creatures already printed with Reach, with many creatures receiving large boosts to their effective power.
Plus, this is just kind of messy--you have to calculate the creature's damage differently for players and creatures. Heaven forbid you have Reach and Trample on the same creature--it would be a rules nightmare to determine how much damage you are dealing to creatures and how much trample's over.
January 3, 2020 12:24 p.m.
Daveslab2022 says... #5
Static abilities like lifelink, reach, flying, menace, etc. have never been format warping. There’s never been a dominant Menace deck, or a tier 1 list that just wants to gain a bunch of life. There are 2 instance of a “u/w spirits” which showcases flying creatures, but NOT because they fly- it’s because they have amazing synergy.
T1 Mausoleum Wanderer into T2 Supreme Phantom is insane even without the flying keyword.
My point is that static keywords like this are usually used for limited environments. Green gets reach because if it didn’t, blue and white (the colors with the most flyers) would just be objectively better in every way, because they have things that green could never touch.
I hope this makes sense.
January 3, 2020 12:26 p.m. Edited.
xtechnetia says... #6
It's worth noting that part of reach's flavor is "anti-flying" (e.g. many creatures with reach are archers, depicted as being able to shoot flying creatures out of the sky), which is very much a green thing ( Plummet ).
January 3, 2020 12:45 p.m.
ClockworkSwordfish says... #7
Do you also think first strike needs a boost because it's directly worse than double strike?
January 3, 2020 4:15 p.m.
juanasimit says... #8
100% agree. By itself, reach dont mean anything to the creature. Is the only keyword in the game with that exist only for balance against another keyword
January 3, 2020 8:34 p.m.
Reach is definitely a super boring mechanic. They would never make such a narrow and boring keyword as Reach anymore. Not sure it is worth changing all the old cards in existence with it on them, but making a new keyword that has essentially Reach plus more could be an interesting direction for new card designs.
January 3, 2020 8:37 p.m.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #11
As ClockworkSwordfish succinctly pointed out imo, keywords are not created equally. Your example of Tree Monkey vs Scryb Sprites isn't indicative of Reach needing a buff, it's indicative of Tree Monkey needing a buff. Double strike is better than First strike, Hexproof is (generally) better than Shroud, Indestructible is better than Regenerate, etc etc. Keywords aren't, don't need to be, and honestly shouldn't be, all equal. They are various tools to be used in card design and balance. Cards like Ezuri's Archers or Wall of Vines are far more comparable to Scryb Sprites than Tree Monkey is.
Bad cards exist, for sure, but that doesn't mean that the abilities on them are inherently bad.
January 4, 2020 10:49 p.m.
triproberts12 says... #12
Yeah, I'm on the "Reach is fine" train. Also, funnily enough, I'm putting Webweaver Changeling and Signal Pest in my Gallia of the Endless Dance satyr tribal deck currently under construction. With Hurricane and Squall Line , imagine that.
January 5, 2020 11:12 a.m.
triproberts12 says... #13
Oh, also, from an actual mechanical perspective, improving reach or making it more aggressive would mess up the color pie. Maro mentioned in his Drive to Work podcast that Wizards likes to have a slow and fast strategy for each color pair. Since WU bends hard towards control on the slow end, they rely on cheap fliers as their generic fast strategy for WU. If you make Reach better, you're mainly powering up green, which has been eating into other colors' share of the pie in recent years to the point where it's become a problem. I much prefer what Wizards has done in recent years in expanding Reach into red. It was easy to forget a couple years ago that it was even a red thing, since Dragons and Phoenixes were more common than red Reach creatures, but I think keeping the power of that dynamic in WU is a good thing.
sergiodelrio says... #2
Reach is perfectly fine imho. Green doesn't get that kind of evasion for attacking because it gets the hardest hitters instead.
January 3, 2020 9:38 a.m.