Pattern Recognition #380 - Skulking Around

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

28 August 2025

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

Of all the potential Evergreen creature-based Keywords in the game, I find the case of Skulk to be at once both interesting and sad. Keyworded in Shadows over Innistrad, this ability reads simply "This creature cannot be blocked by creatures with greater power." Very simple, very limiting.

So, what do I mean by that?

Well, this requires a bit of unpacking first. You see, at the time, Wizards was looking at trying to make creature combat more viable and distinct for each color pairing. It is a chain of events that would eventually lead to Prowess being made effectively Evergreen for symbol:RU, while Menace became symbol:RB. However, the sticking point that persisted was the question of what exactly would go here?

The other colour pairings for these two were already simple enough. shared Lifelink with , Menace with , and Deathtouch with . shared Flying, Prowess (Eventually) and "We're Simic, we don't need tricks" with those same colours respectively. But what did the two of them share that would make sense?

Wizards was at a loss, and needing something to fill out the gap, they dug into their toolkit and produced Skulk. The reasoning behind this was awkward to say the least, and the execution was equally difficult in hindsight. You see, at the time, Wizards saw that those two colors were the ones least likely to have huge creatures swinging across the board like the other colours could do in a heartbeat, and so the notion of giving them something that would let their own small-power creatures through would be acceptable.

It certainly makes a small degree of sense, taken in a vacuum. That these colours would like something to help get their creatures through as everyone else gets bigger and meaner is reasonable. After all, these are the colours that don't really care about their creature's stat-lines for the most part, which means that they tend to be on the smaller side. So why not make them conditionally unblockable?

Well, herein lies the first problem. Blue and Black don't care. Swinging isn't something they do like the other three colours, and the creatures that had Skulk didn't really have much in the way of abilities that really mattered when it came to attacking and swinging for the hills. I mean, yes, sure, Vampire Cutthroat has Lifelink, and Wharf Infiltrator allows you to Loot, but honestly? There's not a lot of justification for attacking beyond that being what creatures should do?

Look, this is not the time or the place to discuss that particular rabbithole and the utter ridiculousness that spawned from that. But this was something that Wizards was trying to force into existence, and they tripped over their own feet at the starting line.

The first problem is one of scaling. Creatures that can't be blocked by creatures with higher power seems all well and good, but where does it end? Skulk on a creature with a power of 1 is just going to be blocked by another low-power/high toughness creature. Or a 1/1 Token.

OK, that's cute. Shadows over Innistrad is a set where doesn't get a Designated Blocker that's a 0/X creature. Instead, they did get some token generation. It's almost like Wizards was designing the set to make the most out of this new ability - but forgot that the game exists outside of Limited!

Just like they're forgetting how there are other formats outside of Commander today.

But I digress. Skulking creatures tended towards low power in general, which meant that blocking them actually became easier in many cases, as I mentioned above. This wasn't Trample, which required multiple blockers. Skulk meant that you tossed a cheap, minor creature in the way. It wasn't hard to deal with at all.

Actually, you want to know the best creature to block a Skulker with?

A creature that was a 1/1 Deathtouch. Which hilariously enough, in-set was Rancid Rats, but other options were available in Standard at the time.

Another problem was that Skulk didn't play well. It was ... how can I best describe this years after the fact? having a creature with Skulk didn't feel like it was a good option to have, that the ability was needlessly restrictive on the opponent and yourself at the same time.

I really wish I could explain that better. But it isn't coming. This entire article has been a pain to write.

I think Skulk has the problem of being a solution in search of a problem. And in doing so, it creates more problems than its worth. The strength of the colour combination has never been their creatures big or small. Not to say that there aren't good creatures in this combination, from Psychic Frog to Locke Cole to Basim Ibn Ishaq, but they're not the end-goal of this pairing. They're enablers and they're finishers.

Skulk just didn't do anything, and the best way to use it would be to break out of Skulk's colors.

Looking into the actual step-by-step process of the Combat Phase, Skulk kicks in during the Declare Blockers step, where all blocks are assigned and do not use the stack. Here, Skulking creatures are failed to be blocked, and therefore go on to deal damage to the defending player. Ho-hum.

But wait, what's this?

Giant Growth after blocks are declared and before damage is dealt? What's this madness? Or perhaps a Rush of Adrenaline (IN SET!) to Trample over the small blocker and keep your creature alive!

Skulk would have worked! If it was in the right colors and not the wrong ones! Skulk works best as an enabler for combat tricks! Tricks that doesn't relevantly have!

It was a waste of a Keyword!

But... it did lay down the foundations for what would actually work for these colour's combat trick. One that was utterly unintentional and when I last talked about it, I described as one of Magic's greatest wastes for how little was done with it and held it up as the pinnacle example of Wizards' efforts to chase the unicorn at the end of the rainbow.

Ninjitsu.

Both of these abilities approach the concept of blocking in different ways, and each exploit it differently. Actually, one exploits the hell out of it and the other just sort of stumbles in the general direction of the opponent's life total.

Skulk just avoids the block by dangerous things, while Ninjitsu checks against the block entirely, forcing the defending player into a series of bad choices. The things they block, they know they can deal with. But the unblocked creatures? What do they become?

That was a much better mechanic, even if it was a bit more complex. It did things, rather than just letting them sorta not-happen.

Ninjitsu is the combat trick, coming a decade later than intended, now Wizards just has to commit. And not Skulk around in the process.

Sorry for being short this week, things are busy in real life. Thank you all for watching and reading, and I'll see you all next week!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! 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!