Swooping Talon

Creature — Bird Soldier

Flying

(1): Swooping Talon loses flying until end of turn.

Provoke (When this attacks, you may have target creature defending player controls untap and block it if able.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (5)

legendofa on Help with a mono white …

2 years ago

Trap Runner doesn't actually force a creature to block. The attacking creature just becomes blocked by nothing in particular.

Deftblade Elite, Swooping Talon, and Lowland Tracker are the three white creatures with provoke, which allows them to force blockers.

Tzefick on Ability challenge

5 years ago

Response to Boza

response Show

Ignoring blocking restrictions is actually very thematic for the mechanic. If you hunt a target, it doesn't matter if that target is exhausted (tapped), a coward (can't block), or wouldn't normally be able to block an evasive attacker (like flying or unblockable - yes that is still the word in my book).

Take for instance the Provoke creature Swooping Talon. An evasive flier with provoke that you can pay mana for to make worse, just to make provoke function. All discussion about stats for CMC we push aside and merely focus on the mechanic that actively works against a normally positive characteristic of the creature. To fix it you can pay mana to remove this beneficial characteristic to make the mechanic function. That's either poor design or a very deliberate nonbo that makes the mechanic worse - and illogical.

Having provoke untap the targeted creature is a downside to the mechanic. I don't think Provoke was a very well received mechanic and it only appears on 9 creatures. MaRo stated that after Fight's introduction he rates Provoke a 7 on the Storm Scale (Unlikely to return in a Standard legal set, unless the setting is just right) and a couple of years later when Fight was declared evergreen, a 9 (basically it ain't gonna happen). But where Fight is usually an active or an ETB, Provoke (and now Hunt) is an easily triggered ability. Fight is more here and now as removal, while Hunt is a passive grind tool. One benefit of Hunt is that you can actually allow it on a large number of smaller creatures, without making it ridiculous nor bad. Fight is usually best in combination with a large creature.

Under my suggestion for hunt, that combination between evasion and Hunt serves to protect the hunter, against any other blocker who cannot block the evasive creature.

I don't see any reason why the mechanic cannot ignore restrictions on blocking from a rules perspective. And from a gameplay perspective, I figure this version is a lot more intuitive for a player who doesn't carry baggage from Provoke they try to cram down over this mechanic. In principle, instead of attacking a player, a hunter attacks a creature the defending player controls. The mechanic is self-contained within the combat phase and if the hunted creature leaves the battlefield, it doesn't carry over characteristics like being hunted - so you cannot get into situations where a creature ignores restrictions and suddenly blocks from the graveyard, exile or hand or whatever.

---

Just some rule discussion about the suggested revision Show

Your suggestion for a revised mechanic has a couple of holes in it as far as I can see.

(When ~ attacks, you may have it hunt target creature defending player controls. Hunted creatures untap and can block any number of Hunters this turn. You choose how hunted creatures block.)

"You choose how hunted creatures block", is usually pointless unless you can also choose which creatures DO block. Can be fixed by saying the hunted creature must block if able.

"Hunted creatures untap and can block any number of Hunters this turn." This would normally lead me to believe Hunters were a creature type and not a derivative term for a creature who has Hunt. Should be fixable by changing it to "can block any number of creatures with Hunt".

This is a triggered ability that targets and resolves individually. If you include an untap all clause in each trigger, it could lead to some weird interactions, where activated tap abilities could be utilized for some unintended scenarios. Imagine an opponent having Cryptolith Rite out. If you attack and hunt 5 of his creatures, the first creature in order can tap for 1 mana, but stays hunted. The next trigger will untap the first and the second... and so forth - I think you can see the problem.

I would think your revised version could be something like:

(When ~ attacks, you may have it hunt target creature defending player controls. Untap that creature, until end of combat it must block if able and it can block any number of creatures with Hunt. You choose how it blocks.)

Then again I don't actually want the same weaknesses that apply to Provoke, apply to Hunt as well.

Abzkaban on Bringing an Army to a Duel

6 years ago

Yeah and I love Deftblade Elite since I can prevent the damage if none of my options are favorable. I just wish any of the other green or white provoke creatures were worth the cost. Swooping Talon I might consider since the flying gets damage in regardless of Mirri and can make a non-flyer block for a mana. But the casting cost is just so high for that effect.

hkhssweiss on

6 years ago

Abzkaban

No problem, and I think an enchantment/equipment hybrid would be a great way to use and give Mirri a myriad of options to play with, also it's easy on budget as well!

Here are some possible enchantment cards I would consider using for Mirri:

• Aura of Silence
• Bear Umbra
• Hyena Umbra
• Spider Umbra
• Rancor
• Shield of the Oversoul
• Darksteel Mutation
• Utopia Sprawl
• Fertile Ground
• Wild Growth

Some cards I would consider taking out:

• Wing Shards
• Condemn
• Hunter's Prowess
• Nacatl War-Pride
• Launch the Fleet
• Chitinous Cloak
• Darksteel Plate
• Grappling Hook
• Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
• Swooping Talon
• Stalking Leonin

So far the cards mentioned above are too high on cost, there are better alternatives, or won't mesh too well. I think if you are going for hybrid, you might have to take out some combat tricks and use a lot more creatures and enchantments to do a tap stax effect. Like using a combination of Winter Orb and Bear Umbra to break parity while constantly tapping down the board with also Static Orb in play. Hmm what do you think in adding a mix of some tap stax artifacts into the mix?

Alkadron on Soraya's Flock

8 years ago

Some cards I think are pretty underpowered in your deck, in no particular order:

• Path of Bravery
• Gleam of Authority
• Ethereal Armor
• Demystify
• War Falcon
• Territorial Roc
• Suntail Hawk
• Aven Skirmisher
• Aven Squire

I put a few of the low cost, low-impact birds on the list, 'cause EDH is about long games. Suntail Hawk can be aggro early, but getting it early is not likely, and it's an extremely bad card late-game. A good rule in EDH is to make sure the vast majority of your cards are high-impact. To that end, some other decent creatures you may want to consider:

• Aven Liberator
• Duskrider Peregrine
• Major Teroh
• Swooping Talon
• Emeria Angel

Also look into some good draw engines to keep you going - it's easy to run out of gas with creature decks like this in long EDH games.

• Mind's Eye
• Illuminated Folio
• Jayemdae Tome

Finally, consider some mana rocks:

• Worn Powerstone
• Mind Stone
• Commander's Sphere

Good luck!