Pattern Recognition #37 - Figure of Destiny and Level Up

Features Opinion

berryjon

20 July 2017

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Hello everybody! My name is berryjon, and I am TappedOut.net's resident Old Fogey and part-time Smart Ass. And even I run out of ideas once in a while. So today's article comes from the glorious "Random Card" option on Gatherer. You should click it some time, see for yourself just what has been printed without context or expectation.

So when I clicked on it while pondering this article, it naturally gives me Figure of Destiny. And I looked at it, and I had a brilliant idea for today's article! Well, I think it's brilliant. Your opinions may vary, and thus, do not count. ;)

So, Figure of Destiny. I'm going to start with this card, move on to a whole Mechanic that had its roots here, then into the larger problem that affects the game, one that there is no real answer for.

As part of the multi-coloured theme of the set, the Figure of Destiny was one of the ways in which the boundaries of the colour pie were muddled and mixed together. But more importantly, it gives a glimpse into the scaling of creatures and their casting costs. I've talked about Bears before, and why they are important, but I want to take a step back and break down how Figure of Destiny works.

For the basic cost, you have a vanilla 1/1 for . Yes, I know it's not technically vanilla, but the only creature that jumps to mind as an ability-less creature for the same cost and stats is Fugitive Wizard. In Blue. Also known as the colour that doesn't care about efficient creatures.

But with the activation of the first ability, it becomes a 2/2 for . At this point, you should recognize the power, toughness and converted casting cost of a proper Bear that isn't in Green. But we're still behind the curve.

And here we get the first objection to my scaling description. Time. You don't have to fire these abilities off on the turn that the creature comes into play. You can wait. For example, I could, on turn 1, play Figure of Destiny, then on turn 2, drop a second land, attack, an turn the Figure into a 2/2 which is swinging on the second turn. And you still have another land available with which to do stuff.

It may be hard to convey in words, but that's efficient. You're attacking with a 2/2 on turn 2, and the only other creature that can do that, off the top of my head, is Isamaru, Hound of Konda. Who has, in this case, the disadvantage of being Legendary. And mono- when compared to Figure of Destiny's , and non-Legendary status. It's a very good thing, doing this with only one mana.

The next step is to pay , and it now becomes a vanilla 4/4.

So, a 4/4 for a total of five? Well, we have Serra Angel at that point, which is a vastly better creature. We also have Fomori Nomad (Time Spiral!), and a lot of other creatures that meet the same numbers. They are all better with the exception of a couple of vanilla red creatures and one artifact creature.

So ... what's the point at this point?

Well, there's not much of one, save that it's more information. For a one turn activation, you are still getting a creature that's behind the curve.

But what about turn 3?

Cast the Figure on turn 1. Attack and activate the first ability on turn 2 (and cast, say, Brute Force for good measure). Then, on turn 3, pay and now you're attacking with a 4/4. And the list of creatures that match that is a very short one.

You see now where this is going? Figure of Destiny isn't a one-turn creature. It's a multi-turn one. Even it's final ability, pushing it into an 8/8 Flyer with First Strike for an additional only looks bad when you look at it as a whole with all the previous abilities. But dropping this on turn five or six with the right acceleration? Figure of Destiny an under appreciated aggro card in any deck. Hell, I don't play with it enough. Though if I ever get my Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran Commander deck off the ground, I know what's getting in.

Oh, it's also been pointed out to me that Warden of the First Tree is this theme given a fresh polish and printed again as a one-off.

So, what's this mechanic I was mentioning earlier? Well, the set Rise of the Eldrazi, contained an interesting mechanic that came from the idea that Zendikar was being built as a potential module / setting for Dungeons and Dragons.

And so we got the Level Up mechanic.

Level Up was an attempt to mimic how D&D characters would increase in power as they gained experience (a different mechanic entirely), and gain fancy abilities as they advance. I like Guul Draz Assassin and Lighthouse Chronologist the most of these ones. Just personal preference.

Now, unlike Figure of Destiny, Level Up (not the web comic) could only be activated as a sorcery. And given the powers some of these creatures display, I am completely fine with this balance decision. And because it also deals with counters, cards like Doubling Season are effective in supporting them.

Yeah, Doubling Season is such a great card. Synergizes with so many things.

Now, Level Up also scales much farther. Some creatures need to get eight or twelve activations to get their final version. So there is a much larger cost, especially over time. But there are only a couple of 'peeks', where something actually changes. The rest are .... filler. Time wasters to prevent you from accelerating to the same speed that Figure of Destiny could.

And here we have a unique instance, then an attempt to make a full mechanic out of it. The inherent ability of a card - specifically a creature - to improve itself over time. And not through use of something like Firebreathing on Shivan Dragon. An actual permanent increase in the effectiveness of the creature as the game advances.

So, the problem.

It is one of scale. Early creatures are cheap and have smaller effects (mostly), and later creatures cost more yet they have commiserate abilities and effects.

So what happens when you're in the middle or late game, and draw a card that would have been useful three or seven turns ago? Well, this is often what is called a "Dead Draw". A card that can do nothing, and won't be able to affect the board state even if you do play it. Or, on the converse, you draw a card that is amazing and powerful - on turn 1, where you won't be able to use it for several turns, taking up space in your hand that could be filled with an actually useful card!

Too much or too little? That's the question. That's the problem.

You could develop a game where power is flat across the board, where everything is useful from the first turn to the last.

Magic isn't that game. And there's no way to change it into that now.

So instead, Wizards puts out cards that can make creatures relevant, even if for just one turn. Instants or Sorceries that start from Giant Growth and onward. But very rarely, even by experimentation, have they tried to make this sort of thing a permanent fixture.

Why?

Well, complexity for one. Improvements like this run directly afoul of the New World Order because they can change the state of the card, and not in intuitive ways. There's also the issue of space on the card. Look at how much space Level Up takes, and realize just how little room there is for what higher power plateaus can do. You can't really have more gradation in what goes on.

Figure of Destiny has the same problem, with the additional realization that due to the way the abilities are worded, you can go down and up its scale as long as you had the mana to do so. And it's not interesting as all you're doing is making a creature bigger! Why not just use an Enchantment or an Equipment to do so instead?

I think that the Monstrosity mechanic from the Theros block was a move in the right direction. The improvement was one way, and could only be done once, which simplifies the matter.

But, on the other hand, the ability is formatted to give out a certain number of +1/+1 counters, with additional rules that state "If this creature is Monstrous...", which means you need two lines on the card instead of one to describe the effects. And this can just take up too much space again.

I think the idea is sound. But the execution needs work. Something simple and binary works, but perhaps formatted like Figure of Destiny. Nothing overly complex like Level Up.

One of my editors, Boza, argues that the new mechanics from Amonkhet and Hour of Devestation - namely Embalm and Eternalize - are successors to Monstrosity. While I can see his point, in that you spend more mana to get a new creature after it has been killed or otherwise hit the graveyard, I have to disagree. I see these mechanics as a variation on Flashback.

I've been talking about being able to make or create larger creatures as time goes on, while Embalm is more of a recurrance mechanic and Eternalize is the same, but allowing for what are essentially +1/+1 counters on a creature if it is cast from the graveyard.

That reminds me! Kicker is another escalation or scale mechanic. Or it can me. With cards like Kavu Titan, you have the option of paying the cost of the creature like it is a Bear (2/2 for ) or scaling up to for a 5/5 with Trample.

The ability or option to simply pay more at the time of casting is different from the incremental approach that I have looked at, but in the same vein. A higher cost for a more powerful effect. I like it, and Kicker is most definitely on my "I wish that was Evergreen" list of mechanics.

Of course, we'll just have to wait and see what comes next. Wizards has spent a lot of time between attempts to invoke this mechanic, so I doubt we'll know when it comes back and in what form.

Join me again next week, when I talk about an old creature type that keeps showing up, but without being that type.

Until then, I'm selling out! Or is that tapping out? Visit my Patreon page, and see if you want to help me out. Basic donors get a preview copy of the final article, while advanced donors get that as well as the opportunity to join me in a podcast version of the series where I talk and you respond.