Pattern Recognition #16 - Nothing to Fear

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

9 February 2017

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Hello! I am berryjon, and I am TappedOut's resident Old Fogey and article writer. I'm not all that interested in making a huge introduction, so I'm just going to go right to today's subject matter.

Today's article comes from one of my off-site readers (seriously guys, get an account here!) by the name of novusordomundi. He suggested to me:
Maybe about mechanics that have fallen by the wayside from yesteryear. Old ones like Banding, Fear, and Shroud.

Well, I am not about to inflict Banding on you. No one deserves that. Except me. I love it. And Shroud is something of a light topic. But Fear? You know, I can work with that. Especially as Fear has been replaced, and that replacement replaced as well!

So, what is Fear exactly? Well, it's actually Fear, one in a long line of key-worded abilities that started out as non-keyworded. It's one of those mechanics that is named for the creature enchantment that grants the ability - much like Vigilance and Lifelink. Yes. I know those two mechanics existed long before the relevant cards, but just work with me here! And just a quick reminder; any card with a in its casting cost - though not in its activated abilities - is considered to be Black, even if it has other colours in its cost.

Fear was unique in Alpha, in that it was the only source of this ability. It wasn't until Visions that it was put onto a creature with Suq'Ata Assassin. Before that, it wasn't native to a creature, and had to be added in.

Flavor wise, I've always seen Fear as a case of a creature so horrific that only another horror or something that felt nothing could dare stand in its way - black or artifact creatures. This was part of the way that Black was presented back then - as the dark and evil portion of the colour pie, modern descriptions not withstanding.

Actually, I want to express my opinion here that Black has been on the receiving end of a lot of bad press over the ages. It's the colour typically associated with the bad guys - Phyrexia, Nicol Bolas, Liliana Vess, etc... Their heroic characters are few and far between - Toshiro Umezawa and Yahenni, Undying Partisan are the only ones that come to mind. And Toshiro is most definitely an anti-hero, and in any other story would have been the villain.

And of course, because Black couldn't have something without White getting involved as well, the card Seeker was printed. At a largely inflated cost, naturally. Please don't forget - this was a time when multi-coloured decks were not the norm, but the exception to the deck process. And Seeker? Was pretty much a mistake. It was massively out of colour, and quietly forgotten about until the inevitable Time Spiral reference, when Amrou Seekers got printed.

But the Time Spiral printing did show off one thing - Fear was badly outdated. It's mono-coloured focus was obsolete in the face of advancing card design. And the printing of Dust Elemental was the final nail in the coffin for the mechanic. You see, I remember an article from Wizards back then where they lamented that putting Fear on the creature was in-flavor, but wrong from the perspective of the creature's colour What they needed was something new to account for this, to make the mechanic more viable and interesting.

The solution was proven as a concept with Skirk Shaman, a colour shifted version of Severed Legion. That, along with the aforementioned Amrou Seekers proved that the mechanic of Fear could be applied to any colour, and still work. As long as it wasn't abused.

Thus, the replacement mechanic was born. Intimidate. This key-worded mechanic came into being whole cloth to replace Fear, where it was phrased as "This creature may only be blocked by creatures that share a colour with it, and artifact creatures." This allowed, not only for printing the ability onto any creature, but also to account for multi-coloured creatures!

Which has only happened on Immerwolf, Korozda Guildmage and Vela the Night-Clad. Way to drop the ball there, Wizards.

I suspect, given what I've seen over the years, that Wizards knew that Fear as a mechanic had its days numbered, and Intimidate was simply a stop-gap measure to hold off the fatal moment for as long as possible while they look for yet another replacement mechanic.

Part of the problem is that Wizards wanted creatures to be more interactive, more able to affect the board state and the opponent. I've mentioned this before, but now we're approaching the subject form a different angle. But I need to talk about the last replacement mechanic before I can start to summarize things.

So, Intimidate was a bust. Yet it stuck around for a few years as the 'Like can fight like' mechanic. But Wizards was always on the lookout for something to replace it with.

The solution to this came from finally stepping away from the colour identity of the mechanic. Once Wizards stopped thinking about this ability in those terms, the solution became somewhat apparent - Goblin War Drums.

Well, not that apparent. You see, the thing about Fear and Intimidate is how they interact with combat and blocking. Yes, I know, stating the obvious here, but hold on a moment and let me ask you a question.

What do First Strike, Trample and Deathtouch all have in common?

Aside from being keyworded abilities, Smart Ass.

No, what they are are non-evasive evasion abilities.

Let me explain. Any ability that allows a creature to attack and avoid being blocked is considered an evasion ability. Flying, Shadow, Fear and Intimidate are all examples of this class of ability. They are all abilities that allow an attacking creature to escape being blocked, though with limitations. Those with Flying can be blocked by those with Flying or Reach; Shadow blocks Shadow, Fear can be countered with black or artifact creatures, while Intimidate only needs an artifact creature, or a matching colour on the creature.

Menace is more like First Strike, or Trample or Deathtouch. They are evasive abilities that do not actually prevent or limit any means of blocking the attacking creature. Rather, these are abilities that make the block less optimal. First Strike allows the attacker to destroy the blocker before they have the chance to reciprocate. Trample can allow the attacker to ignore a smaller defender. Deathtouch means that, unless the defender has a trick as well, that defending creature will die.

And Menace? Menace forces the defender to commit more to a creature than they otherwise would have to make the block. When each attacker measures as two defenders, the calculus of combat changes in favour of the attacker, even if the attacker dies in the process. And when combined with other abilities, Menace's effectiveness increases immeasurably.

It's probably why proto-Menace effects were part of the Rampage bundle. If you're confused as to what I'm talking about, I'm referring to my third article.

This is all part and parcel of Wizard's attempts to make creature combat more viable and more interesting. The idea of being able to simply evade defenders in combat is antithetical to the new paradigm, so abilities like Fear and Intimidate have to fade away. Although to be fair, Blue still gets creatures that are literally unblockable, from Invisible Stalker to Gudul Lurker, or Phantom Warrior. Although Blue now only gets those on small, low power creatures. The days when Tidal Kraken could be printed are long over.

There is another problem with Menace though. And it actually goes back to the same problem that hobbled Fear in the first place.

Menace is red.

Menace, as a mechanic, is affiliated with Red, and not Black. So when Wizards turned around and finally removed Intimidate to replace it, they also found that they had shored up Red while taking away from Black. And in doing so, they needed something to give to Black in exchange.

Black started to get Lifelink. They started to get creatures with more of what they already had. Flying and Deathtouch. Better synergy with their creatures. Yes, Black has started to pick up Menace, but it's not to the same degree to which they owned Fear or Intimidate. Noxious Gearhulk, Morkrut Necropod and the like are just a pale shadow are what was.

Wizards has, in a way, designed themselves into a corner here. They want to have something for Black to call their own in terms of mechanics, much as how Menace used to be exclusively Red, Blue got Prowess, Green has Trample, While gets Flying while Blue phases out of that. So what can Black get? For now...?

Nothing.

We have not yet reached the end of this particular tale, and I doubt the next iteration will occur for some years yet. Menace needs to settle down, and Wizards has other things they need to do than to keep fiddling with one small mechanic when they have a 'good enough' mechanic in place, rather than trying to create a 'perfect' one later.

I don't know what form this mechanic might take, but I just hope that it will live up to the expectations that Wizards has set for themselves. Until then, there is nothing to fear, but Fear itself:

Nothing to Fear

Modern berryjon

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