Pattern Recognition #3 - Combat Tricks

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

9 October 2016

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Hello everyone!

I am Jon Berry, and welcome back to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut's potpourri article series where I throw out random subjects that are more than just one-offs. Anyone can talk about how awesome Tarmogoyf is, but I would also discuss all the other 'Goyfs and how they relate!

For today's subject, I'm going to move away from the cycles of cards that marked the previous two articles, and towards something a bit more mechanical in nature.

Magic has long struggled with the notion of the 'combat trick'. That is, being able to modify in some way the power and toughness of a creature during combat to swing an otherwise 100% predictable outcome to a different result. At its simplest, you can divide how these tricks work into three broad categories. The first is the external factor - some card that is played during combat that comes as a surprise. This goes all the way back to Alpha and cards like Giant Growth which could upset the balance of power and toughness during combat to that player's favour.

The second category is some factor on the card that changes how combat works. Cards that have combat abilities such as First Strike change the formula about how creatures deal damage, which can upset the whole play of the game.

Let me tell you a story from long ago to demonstrate this. Way back when Ravnica was Type II, I went to a tournament with a Boros Aggro deck. And my primary one-drop was Boros Recruit. Nice little guy who can hit the table regardless of what lands were in my hand. During one round, I was up against a WGR Zoo deck. This was before Alara, mind you, so we called the archetype 'Zoo', not Naya Aggro. (Well it's still called Zoo, so who am I to talk?) I lost the coin toss, and T1 he drops a Shock Land (I think it was the R/W one, not the W/G one), and casts Savannah Lions. This was a textbook tempo play. On my turn, I pop down a basic land and cast the Recruits. His turn two, he drops another shock land and casts Watchwolf, then swings with the Lions. He's tapped out, so I block with the Recruit. He says 'trade', which indicates that both creatures die in combat and the board would be clear for his 3/3, but I then point out that the Recruit has First Strike, and that only his Lions die. My opponent goes bonkers because that's not how the play is supposed to go! In his mind, that never should have happened because First Strike didn't exist!

In his head space, combat was predictable, and the idea of combat tricks like that screwed with his perfect plans and perfect deck. Combat /changed/ because of that ability, and he was caught off guard by it.

(For what it's worth, my T2 was to drop another basic land, Lightning Helix his Watchwolf and swing with the Recruit. He was down 5 life thanks to the Shock Lands, and I was up three. His day didn't get better, I assure you.)

And with story time over, let's move on to the third aspect of combat tricks. One that is a combination of the first two. These are abilities printed on the card that modify the power and toughness of the creature. The information is visible, like with First Strike, but don't change the nature of combat, only its scale, as Giant Growth and its ilk do.

Today's subject, after my long and rambling introduction, are the mechanics of Flanking, Rampage, Bushido and Prowess.

Let's start with Flanking, using, oh... Blazing Blade Askari as my example, and to get my obligatory Time Spiral reference out of the way. In the Comprehensive Rules, Flanking is defined thus:

702.24. Flanking
702.24a Flanking is a triggered ability that triggers during the declare blockers step. (See rule 509, “Declare Blockers Step.”) “Flanking” means “Whenever this creature becomes blocked by a creature without flanking, the blocking creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.”
702.24b If a creature has multiple instances of flanking, each triggers separately.

Dating back to the pre-Modern days of wacky card balance, Flanking originated in the sets of Mirage and Visions. Conceptually, it represented the open tactics of cavalry on the open plains, being able to strike from any direction. Hence why it is a White mechanic for the most part (with Red then Black getting it).

Flanking also only worked on the offence, a trait shared with the next mechanic I will look at. This encouraged more aggressive play, which I can hardly find fault with. And another point in its favour was its simplicity. Blockers got -1/-1 until the end of the turn.

However, as you may realize by the fact that it stopped showing up after those sets, Flanking does have problems. The first, and I think the most important is that it isn't a reward for combat, it's a punishment. You see, Flanking hurt the defender through the action of blocking it, and it hurt all the creatures assigned to block (assuming they weren't Flankers themselves). And any 1-toughness creature that blocked a flanker? It would die before it could deal combat damage! I'm also 50/50 certain that under the rules at the time, this also meant that the Flanker was no longer considered blocked, though that is no longer the case thankfully.

Flanking's existence as an aggro mechanic looked good on paper. It forced the defender to keep larger creatures in reserve to block the Flankers, rather than swinging with them, thus keeping the pace of the game slower.

But in the end, Flanking was a failure, and a justifiable one at that. As I mentioned before, it's a punishment, not a reward. And that is something that just isn't fun to play against. It also doesn't scale. -1/-1 is lethal to a lot of creatures, but is also barely an annoyance to to others. There is a certain sweet-spot, which I would say is 2/2 or 3/3 where Flanking is important but not a massive over-riding concern. Where it can work without being useless or irrelevant.

And it was tied to a creature concept. Flanking was all about the knights. Of all the creatures with it, only three don't have the 'Knight' creature type. One's a Centaur Archer, one's a Human Scout, and the third is a Sliver.

Oh yeah. Slivers can have Flanking. Because why not?

But, as we shall see later on, this sort of tribalism isn't really healthy for a mechanic, or for a tribe. Flanking is certainly a member of the former and not the latter as Knights as a Tribe have long survived the mechanic. Even so, Flanking Knights have a Lord for them! Telim'Tor, a red creature for some reason, is the Lord for this very narrow tribe. And for some reason it only triggers when he and other creatures with Flanking attack, rather than as a static bonus like Goblin King.

And for these reasons, Flanking never caught on. It wasn't made Evergreen, nor was it expanded to include non-Knights to those creatures that could conceptually outmanoeuvre their enemies, such as those with Flying. It was narrowly designed, and it suffered for it, leaving it as just another historical oddity.

I don't have a problem with that.

Our next mechanic is another offensive one, and I can say that of the four I'll be covering, this one is the worst of them all. No, not in a manner that Black Lotus is the worst card to face against, but in the mechanic was a failure from start to finish. I'm talking Rampage.

702.22. Rampage
702.22a Rampage is a triggered ability. “Rampage N” means “Whenever this creature becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N until end of turn for each creature blocking it beyond the first.” (See rule 509, “Declare Blockers Step.”) 702.22b The rampage bonus is calculated only once per combat, when the triggered ability resolves. Adding or removing blockers later in combat won't change the bonus.
702.22c If a creature has multiple instances of rampage, each triggers separately.

Rampage, Rampage, Rampage. You're a bad mechanic and you should be ashamed of yourself. Showing up on a mere 13 creature cards (I'm not counting the two in the UnSets here), mostly in Green and Red, and only in Legends/Chronicles/Alliances (and Time Spiral...), Rampage was quietly introduced, and just as quietly forgotten.

So, why was it in the first place? Well, that was so long ago, even I barely remember. But I can hazard a guess or three. First, Rampage is designed to work against multiple blockers. Remember that Rampage triggers for every creature after the first. So all you have to do to neuter the ability is throw only a single creature in the way, even if it's just a chump block.

Therefore, Rampage's first problem: It can be made irrelevant by a simple choice by your opponent.

Because of that, there needed to be a way to encourage the defender to block with multiple creatures. And Wizard went about it in two ways. Then put both onto Gorilla Berserkers. By including a Menace effect, they force a player to trigger Rampage twice or more, making the 2/3 a 6/7 or higher!

Or you know, it's a 2/3 for . Why don't you just let it by and block other, more dangerous creatures at the same casting cost?

The other thing was to include Trample with Rampage, thus negating the advantage of chump blocking. Sure, you could toss a 1/1 in the way, but you're still taking harm! Want to block it all, you'll have to throw more and more creatures into the grinder.

And this leads to the second fatal problem with Rampage. It requires additional abilities to actually work. And even if you do include Trample, what's the point? Why not let the creature through in the first place? And requiring multiple blockers? Same problem! I mean, the only way you can force it would be through Menace, or menace-like effects, or do what we did in that day and age, and dropped Lure onto the creature in question.

About the only good thing to Rampage was that it was scalable - that Rampage itself was a variable that could be customized to the creature, rather than being a value fixed to the mechanic.

Honestly, the mechanic was bad, the cards were bad, and I'm just going to move on to better things.

Like Bushido!

From the love-it-or-hate-it Kamigawa block, Bushido represents a huge step forward in time from the previous two mechanics. And in terms of playability. Let's see what it is in the Rules first, shall we?

702.44. Bushido
702.44a Bushido is a triggered ability. “Bushido N” means “Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +N/+N until end of turn.” (See rule 509, “Declare Blockers Step.”)
702.44b If a creature has multiple instances of Bushido, each triggers separately.

Of the four mechanics I talk about today, I honestly like this one the best. Even so, I still have to be honest with myself and you all regarding its strengths and weaknesses.

Bushido is another combat trick in that, like Flanking, it triggers during combat when blockers are declared. But unlike Flanking, it only affects the creature with Bushido and as written, just raises said creature's power and toughness. Like Rampage, it is a variable - we can see instances of Bushido being scaled from 1 to 5, and even to X!

Because this is all printed on the card, it's not considered hidden information, like a card in hand. Everyone at the table can see for themselves how big the creature can get and plan accordingly.

But unlike Flanking, it's not a punishment for the person without Bushido. It's a bonus for the person using it. Because it triggers when the block is declared, I would argue that Bushido is a better defensive mechanic than an offensive one. To make your creatures bigger while in combat is something that White already does through cards such as Righteousness. Therefore, I don't see it as a problem that the mechanic earned itself a Keyword.

I just wish that it wasn't tied to the Samurai Tribe. It is perhaps the single most hard-coded tribal mechanic I've ever seen, and this includes Lorwyn as the tribal block, and even when compared to the Eldrazi and Devoid! The word itself is the problem. Kamigawa is a very binary set - where it does good, it exceeds beyond expectation, but where it falls, it falls hard. And in this case, the mechanic's flavor falls. Samurai have Bushido, and Bushido could only appear on Samurai. Even Flanking, for which I decried as being fixed to Knights stepped out for a couple exceptions, and the creature type doesn't always have the mechanic. Bushido and Samurai don't have that distinction.

Because of this, it is really difficult for MaRo or Wizards to pull the mechanic into the present. There's good design space here, to have abilities triggered in combat. In fact, one such test case came out in Magic Origins with Acolyte of the Inferno. Now, in this case, the ability only triggers when the Acolyte is blocked and not when it blocks, but the concept is there.

Yet it is still a strong mechanic. It's not a hidden thing - you know what you're getting into when combat is declared, but it's not some insurmountable thing like how Flanking makes 1 toughness blockers useless. Deathtouch still works, First and Double Strike can make the added power and toughness irrelevant, it can absorb Trample damage...

But it only triggers in combat. A creature with Bushido only has its default power and toughness before combat, and even during and after if it's unblocked. That means there are alternate ways to remove them through damage that don't run into the problem of using your own creatures to do so. A Shock works perfectly fine on Fumiko the Lowblood if her Bushido hasn't triggered yet. Direct removal also works, so Doomblade is an option. Bushido is strong, but not broken.

And I think if the flavor problems could be overcome, the design space involved would be a wonderful thing to explore - making combat more involved than a simple X vs Y. However, care should be taken to avoid making the mechanic too complex, lest it confuse players as to how it works. Like, say, Banding.

Finally we move to Prowess, an even larger jump in time from Bushido. Introduced as the Jeskai mechanic from Khans of Tarkir, and made Evergreen in Magic Origins, Prowess is the latest, and most stable combat trick in this pattern. Lets see how long that lasts, shall we?

For the record, here's Prowess' rule:

702.107. Prowess
702.107a Prowess is a triggered ability. “Prowess” means “Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.”
702.107b If a creature has multiple instances of prowess, each triggers separately.

Now, that's not all. There are cards such as Mistfire Adept or Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest or Elusive Spellfist that also have a pseudo-Prowess trigger. You can attach, in theory, any ability to that trigger, and it will still be feasible in one manner or another.

Anyway, Prowess is a Blue-dominated mechanic, with Red getting it on occasion as a nod to its Jeskai roots. Reading through old blogs by MaRo, it seems to me that Prowess was hit upon as Blue's answer to every other colour getting some form of creature boost for combat, and tying the activation to non-creature spells is in recognition that historically speaking, Blue decks tend to not have as many creatures as non-blue decks do. Not so say they don't exist, but that it is a trend.

And so, with the acceptance that Blue gets fewer creatures, and more of the non-creatures, the idea that Prowess exists to make them more efficient as a side effect of what you're actually doing with your spells makes a certain amount of sense and synergy.

I want to say that Prowess works in that regard. It's visible on the creature so it's not an inherent surprise. It's a repeatable trigger so as long as you can keep casting spells, you can pump your creatures higher. And it doesn't have to be just blue spells either! You can trigger Prowess off any spell you cast.

(Note to self: Check how Prowess interacts with Storm.)
(Second Note to Self: Couldn't find answer in Master Rules. Where to ask next?)
(Third Note to Self: It doesn't. Storm puts copies of the spell onto the stack, it doesn't cast them. So only the initial casting triggers Prowess. Thanks spencer1519!)

Another aspect to Prowess that makes it better than Bushido is that it can trigger outside of combat, meaning that if your creature was about to be the target of Shock or Contested Cliffs, you can add Prowess triggers to the stack to boost your creature up to the level where it could survive.

It's because of this open-ended design that I think Prowess will actually stay around. Yes, I called Rampage out on needed additional cards or abilities to be worthwhile, but it also has such a narrow trigger and application that I can't make the same claim against Prowess. Not only does the mechanical space it occupies make it justifiably Evergreen, but its ability to be formatted for additional effects gives it lasting power.

Well, that's it for this issue. Flanking - bad. Rampage - Worse. Bushido - too tied up in the block. Prowess - basic enough to work.

I'll be taking suggestions for further patterns, but at the time of this writing, I've been inspired by one of the recent Kaladesh spoilers, a certain Vehicle that has a very long line of creatures that are very similar behind it. What am I talking about? Well, assuming someone doesn't guess correctly, you'll find out next time.