Pattern Recognition #282 - One Ping Only

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

18 May 2023

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Good day everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut's longest running article series. I am something of an Old Fogey and a definite Smart Ass, and I have been around the block quite a few times. My experience is quite broad and deep, and so I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. Be it deck design, card construction, mechanics or in-universe characters and the history of the game. Or whatever happens to catch my attention each week. Which happens far more often than I care to admit. Please, feel free to talk about my subject matter in the comments at the bottom of the page, add suggestions or just plain correct me.

You know, I haven't done an inline video before, so I suppose I should let Sean Connery give you an idea of what I'm about to talk about today. Sir Connery, if you please?

Thank you Sir Connery. May you rest in peace. And a link to the video if it doesn't load because YouTube is being silly. Watch it! And the whole movie! And read the book!

But back to the subject at hand. I don't know when the phrase 'Ping' first entered Magic's lexicon. I used it back in the 90's, so the phrase is older than some of you reading this right now. But regardless of the origin, to 'Ping' something is to tap a permanent have that permanent deal 1 damage to any target.

Here, let me show you Tim to show you what I mean.

The Prodigal Sorcerer, coming to you live from Alpha, was named Tim because, look, we were all Monty Python nerds at the time, and The Holy Grail was the pinnacle of culture. Don't blame us! Anyway, Tim here was the first. All he did was in order to deal one single point of damage to any target. And I would like to take a moment to say that after nearly 30 years, we're right back where we started with that wording.

That is all that Pinging is and does. Tap a permanent, deal one damage. That's it. That's all. So what's so important about it that I get to write so many words about it, and educate you all?

Well, Pinging started, as most things did, in , and stayed that way for a very, very long time. Way too long, if you ask me. Psionic Gift was an Aura that granted a Ping ability to the enchanted creature, but the last real hail-pass for this ability in this colour was in Time Spiral, where Fledgling Mawcor was created, and Mawcor got a Time-shifted reprint.

Thankfully, however, saw what was going on over there and in a perfectly timed beating, stole Pinging from , where it has effectively stayed ever since. In fact, it was in Time Spiral where the official changeover happened, where Prodigal Sorcerer got one last nod, and was replaced with one of the lead cards to show off colour-shifting in Planar Chaos (after Wrath of God became Damnation) with the printing of Prodigal Pyromancer.

You see, for those of you who are just new to the game, is the colour of direct damage. That being spells or abilities that deal straight damage to a target without needing things like combat or creatures to bite or fight. They cast Lightning Bolt, they cast Fireball, they just look you in the eye, and punch you in the face.

However, one weakness to this was that it was highly dependent on cards in hand. Every time threw something at their enemy's face, it was one less card in hand to do a thing. And as I've mentioned before, the more cards in hand you have, the more resources you have and the more you can do.

This core tenant of Red Deck Wins was that you ran out of cards just as your opponent ran out of life. But what happens when that doesn't work out? When Sligh just isn't good enough, and you need to push through the last couple points of damage, but you can't?

Well, that's where the Pingers come in. You see, while throwing creatures into combat to deal that last point or two of damage is a time honored tradition since the invention of Trample, the RDW archetype typically eschews creatures on the battlefield in favor of spells on the stack, but in the end, having something on the board to try and close out the game becomes the last ditch effort when both players are running on fumes.

Unless, of course, your opponent has spent their time making creatures. And they have more and better than you. What do you do then? Aside from lose, that is.

This is where the Pinger steps in. Pingers are a repeatable, but limited resource on creatures that deal direct damage to any target. Even though these only deal 1 damage at a time (yes, I know about the others, bear with me here), their purpose is to tap to end the game before the opponent can end the game in their favor. They are, to put it simply, a Burn deck's last line of defense.

Now, many moons ago, I talked a little bit about Ranged Strike and how this mechanic was depreciated from the game for making combat too complicated, and other things. I suggest you take a gander, despite being 4.5 years old. Anyways, all the comments I made about that mechanic back then still apply to Pingers, except that now that complication is always on. You don't have to wait for combat to Ping Jace, the Mind Sculptor out of the game, you can do it in response to him activating his loyalty ability!

So the first problem with Pinging is that it makes the game of action and reaction far more lethal on the table. There is always the risk of activating a Planeswalker's ability to leave them with only 1 loyalty - only for it to die in the process. Creatures that might survive a damage or -x/-x based boardwipe now won't. In multiplayer games, this becomes even worse as the player with Pingers can reach out across the board and interfere with the best and worst paid plans. Each Pinger can deal damage in combat equal to its power plus the damage it can ping for - plus multipliers.

Yes, Multipliers. The problem with pinging is that it is 1 point of damage at a time, and when you're down to that, any additional damage will help. From Furnace of Rath to Obosh, the Preypiercer, Pingers run right back into the fact that they are part and parcel of the Red Deck Wins paradigm, so the things that make that deck work, work just as well with Pingers.

However, because Pingers are creatures, they do dilute the purity of an RDW deck, which is all about Spellslinging. They slow down a deck a little bit as when you cast a creature, it (typically) can't do anything for that turn, except block. An Anaba Shaman comes down and that's a spell and mana that isn't spent pushing for a win.

Oh, and as creature is the card type that is most easily removed, you have to be worried that someone might Murder your Blood Cultist, and you're even farther back than if you had just cast a Lightning Axe instead. Of course, not all is lost. On rare occasions, Wizards will print a card like Gelectrode, where the card untaps as you sling spells, allowing you to ping for more. Or Urabrask  ^Flip, that converts spell slinging into pinging directly.

There are plenty of creatures that synergize well with what you're doing, which is why, thanks to the New World Order, these cards only now show up at Uncommon or Rare, not Common. They add complexity to the game that Wizards doesn't like, but can't get rid of as they did with 's Ranged Strike. Direct damage is too much a part of the game now. Of course, it's unlikely to make a major reappearance anytime soon, as it would slow Arena matches to a crawl as it is something that could be activated at any time.

But it's fun, and interactive. Pingers are a way for the RDW player to have a presence on the board, rather than just interjecting like a player who plays their turn as "Draw, Go." And the best part is?

They're repeatable. Pingers have a board presence, and they can just keep pinging away at their chosen target each turn of the table. They may not have a splashy effect on the game, but they can, and do, add up over time. Don't diss them.

In fact, I have tomorrow off. I think I'm going to crash-build a Tor Wauki the Younger as a Commander deck, for tomorrow night and put all the Pingers I have into it and just go all ham on "And you get shot! And you get shot! And you get pincushioned!" like a guy with nothing left to lose but his life total.

Join me next time when I talk about something. What, I don't know yet. I'm always open to suggestions, and no, I haven't forgotten about Solie yet.

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!