Tracing M11’s Ancestry

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mattlohkamp

9 July 2010

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There are lots and lots and lots of cards in Magic's catalog - far too many to think of at once. But as you flip through them, you may start to notice patterns - for instance, how many variations of Grizzly Bears have we seen now? M11 reprints Runeclaw Bear, which is the latest iteration. I think it's fun recognizing 'new' card's ancestory and/or inspiration; It gives the game a sense of consistency, something that makes Magic magical. So with that in mind, let's take a look at a few new cards, and see if we can find their predecessors.

Call To Mind

This one is easy - the first (and variation Sage's Knowledge) simply returns a sorcery. Relearn performs the same function, for an adjusted casting cost. The new wall comes with a 0/4 wall effect for a couple extra mana - and finally m11 is a 'upgraded' version of the original Deja Vu.

Inspired Charge

The black and white creature pumps have been around since alpha, and have been reprinted all the way up into the current set - the holy one gives an extra point to toughness, while the unholy one gives an extra point to power. Interestingly enough, Inspired Charge actually passes out Unholy Strength to each of your creatures - the black effect, instead of the white effect.

Mass Polymorph

This one is pretty easy to understand - it's even polymorphier than polymorph, with a slight twist - it costs 2 more mana, exiles rather than destroys, and only works on your own creatures.

Nantuko Shade

I do think it's funny that one of the reasons given for reprinting the husk as a vampire was that core sets are supposed to be setting-agnostic, and no one knows what a 'nantuko' is - yet here's m11 with a nantuko shade. As long as we're talking about consistency, note the common attribute shared by every shade since alpha - black's version of Firebreathing, temporarily increasing power and toughness, most recently seen in Nirkana Revenant.

Reverberate & Deflect

Ah, the great circle of life - Fork turns to Twincast turns to Reverberate. Blue's 'mess with your spells' and 'copy' attributes get swapped out for red 'chaotic' attribute, which seems fair - I like the bouncing of this ability back and forth between the enemy colours. Also, it means that for a while both will be legal - 4 copies of each in a blue/red deck certainly sounds like it could have interesting implications...

Hornet Sting

Green just isn't good at direct damage these days - even Leaf Arrow is a Lightning Bolt that only works on flying creatures. Hornet Sting is worse than Shock - but it's a bigger bone than green usually gets thrown, these days, so that's interesting. Also, compare Bee Sting and Unyaro Bee Sting. Yeah, they did that.

Dark Tutelage

Dark Confidant was good. Magic 8-ball says that Dark Tutelage will be good as well.

Temple Bell

Howling Mine was cheaper, but more of a gamble - because unless your opponent has an instant, Temple Bell gives you an edge, in that it's your turn, so you can actually play any sorcery-speed cards that you draw. Also, and this is important: Henceforth, activating the Temple Bell's ability will be referred to as 'ringing the bell.' Remember, you heard it here first (I hope.)

Demon Of Death's Gate

M11's demon carries on in the alpha-old tradition of giant demons with heavy costs - but it's a little different, in that the "6 life, 3 creatures" cost is once-only, and really only a shortcut to casting him earlier. A shortcut worth taking, though - you could easily get the whole demon out on your second turn, especially in if green or white are involved. Saying, "your turn!" at 14 life with a flying trample 9/9 creature on the board at the end of your second turn is kind of like saying "game over," in a lot of situations. (although I'd love to see your white opponent smugly introduce your big demon to Pacifism.)

Pyretic Ritual

Oh hey.

Combust

Hmmm, what five-toughness white creatures do we know of?

Overwhelming Stampede

If it read "X is the least power" the benefit might be arguable versus Overrun, but this is pretty obviously a simple upgrade. If you thought an Overrun of elves accompanied by that subtype's myriad 'lord'-effects was bad before, it won't get any better after M11 (although Shard's elves will shortly be exiting stage left, to make way for new Mirrodin elves, no dobut.)

Time Reversal

I wonder if 'reversal' is a clandestine reference to the original alpha inspiration?

Back To Nature

Enchantments aren't generally as big of a deal nowadays, especially in bulk (though I may get some disagreement there,) which is probably why this was printed at a 1-mana discount.

War Priest Of Thune

Hey look, it's a white Grizzly Bears (AKA Fresh Volunteers) that comes with a free Demystify!

Scroll Thief

If the shadowmage took off his Mask of Riddles, he'd probably look like the thief. Which makes sense - fear is a black ability, so you turn that black mana in the cost to colourless, and nix the 'hard to block' attribute. Vedalken Heretic just wasn't that scary, apparently.

Ajani's Mantra

Ajani Goldmane is pretty good at white magic, apparently, as evidenced by the face that his version of Convalescence is a straight upgrade.

Condemn

This one has a pretty proud lineage - even Path to Exile's status as a 'fixed' Swords to Plowshares is questionable, but this latest handful of white single-mana methods for dealing with pesky creatures shows that Wizards is still trying.

Jace's Ingenuity

I really really really hope that when Wizards was sitting around throwing out ideas for each of the planeswalker's two 'signature' m11 cards, they came to Jace, and someone stood up and said, "I have a Brilliant Plan..." (the plan being to print a pricier Ancestral Recall)

Liliana's Caress

Liliana Vess has managed to come up with an improved version of Megrim, apparently - though note that this causes loss-of-life, not damage. Which is kind of like the square-is-a-rectangle thing, right?

Reassembling Skeleton

It kind of regenerates. Kind of. I like this new variation, because unlike real regeneration, Reassembling Skeleton comes into play again, and all that that implies.

Arc Runner

An easier to cast (though non-trampling) variation on a classic card.

Ember Hauler

I like that the archetype of the goblin that blows itself up to do damage (maybe he's got a mini-Goblin Grenade in his pocket) has been established.

Fire Servant

A bit easier to cast, comes attached to a nice medium creature, only effects your own spells, though easier to get rid of (vulnerable, ironically, to a Lightning Bolt.)

Fling

Another card that takes a cue from a concept established in alpha: giants tossing creatures around. Note to self: when drafting m11, try to Fling an Arc Runner after it's done attacking.

Shiv's Embrace

Again, it's interesting that in m10 Counsel of the Soratami became Divination because no one knew what a 'soratami' was - and yet m11 namedrops 'shiv' without explanation. Also, it's worth noting that this card was part of a five-colour cycle in Urza's Saga - each other Embrace also bestowed +2/+2 and flying, plus a third colour-appropriate ability (Gaea's Embrace was the exception]].) Do note that Shivan Dragon is pretty much a staple, and you one can extrapolate that 'shiv' has something to do with fire, lava, volcanoes, dragons, and other typically red things, so maybe that's why Shiv's Embrace gets to keep its name.

Cultivate

...And yet they rename this one, and I'm guessing it's because no one knows who 'kodami' is. (To be fair, they couldn't exactly keep the 'arcane' sub-type.)

Greater Basilisk

The same price for an arguably better value!

Plummet

Leaf Arrow is to Lightning Bolt as Plummet is to Terminate (sans the anti-regeneration clause) - green can pretend to be other colours if it means screwing with flying creatures. Also, again, Baneslayer Angel - just sayin'.

Sylvan Ranger

1 less for 1/1 less - seems like a fair deal, considering you can drop it one turn earlier, and ensure that your Leatherback Baloth drops in the next round (Although if you'd have added lanowar elves or Birds of Paradise first-turn, you could have cast the baloth on your second turn, but whatever.)

Wall Of Vines

It's like Wall of Wood finally grew tall enough that it can block fliers - although if they're concerned about card flavour, trees are going to get taller than vines (otherwise, what are the vines climbing on? MAGIC? oh. well, okay.)

So it looks like M11 has some interesting stuff - sorry if I switched from research to sarcasm mode a few times. Enjoy the pre-release, release, and subsequent games, TappedOut!