Pattern Recognition #4 - Live Faster, Die Harder

Features Opinion

berryjon

13 October 2016

2270 views

Hello, and welcome back to Issue 4 of Pattern Recognition. Today, I'll be discussing something that came out of Kaladesh a couple weeks back that I took one look at and went 'huh. I've seen that card before. Many times.' And lo, a bright light opened up on me, and I saw that this would make an excellent article!

Bit of forewarning though - I'm writing this two weeks before Kaladesh's Pre-release and before my first article has been published. So while I had intended to wait for some feedback with my first couple articles, this one just kept gnawing at my mind. That, and I was bored.

So, on with the races! No, not Start Your Engines. I want to talk about Ovalchase Dragster. And to be more specific, I want to look at the pattern of X/1 Creatures with Trample and Haste.

My Gatherer search here tells me that there are 11 creatures (excluding the Dragster) that meet this criteria. Legion Loyalist doesn't count. Also, I didn't look for not creature cards that generate tokens that also meet the criteria I set out.

Well, for starters, a lot of these guys also have an additional condition - "At the beginning of the End Step, sacrifice this creature." There's something to work with! The general theme behind these creatures seems to be that they hit the table, swing in, trample over anything that gets in their way, then they die, one way or the other. Not surprisingly, this entire style of creature is predominately Red. There are two Green creatures that also work in this cycle - Yavimaya Ants and Groundbreaker, one hybrid in Giant Solifuge, and one more multi-coloured example in Spark Trooper.

Thinking over the nature of these cards, I keep coming back to how so many of them are self-sacrificing. How they show up, do damage, then leave. Sure, they might take a creature out with them, or just slam right into the face of the opponent, but in the end, they are pure damage dealers.

Waita minute... now I know where I'm going with this!

These cards are instant speed damage on a body. Well, maybe not as they don't have Flash, but the concept is the same. What's the difference between hitting the table and hitting the face first? Well, removal is one. MaRo's Making Magic has talked in the past about how Wizards it trying to make creatures more and more relevant to the game, and I can connect the two ideas here. By changing Red's predilection for direct damage, and putting it onto a creature like this, they get to keep the concept of 'burn to the face' and make creatures relevant in the process!

It's the Trample that makes it all work, as without it, all these creatures could be rendered irrelevant by any lousy chump blocker. So being able to deal damage over the blocker (that didn't have First/Double Strike) to the defending player kept them in contention for relevance. And if you took out a creature and harmed the player in the same move, all the better, right?

On the other hand, these cards are glass cannons in the purest sense of the concept. The simplest removal spell will put the kibosh on any of these guys, making them a waste of a card play. You need to choose your timing carefully.

Now, let's go down the list as it appears in Gatherer and see what variations show up.

Ball Lightning is the first of this archetype, and represents everything I have talked about, all wrapped up in a single, neat package. If you want to break it down further, this creature is actually three Shocks stacked on each other, and sent in as a creature. And six potential damage on turn 3, reduced by creature removal isn't something to scoff at.

Unless you've taken Issue 2 of this series to heart, and are running Circle of Protection: Red, in which case you're a monster.

Blistering Firecat not only increases the power by 1 for an additional in the Mana cost, but it also included the Morph mechanic. It's pretty easy to see where the design of this guy came from. Drop him as a Morph, swing, and then turn it face up when it gets blocked by something you want dead. And with 7 Power, there's not a whole lot it won't kill.

Giant Solifuge, the only hybrid on the list, is something of a tougher glass cannon. It doesn't have the traditional self-sacrifice effect, but does have Shroud instead. This was a powerful addition to the Zoo/Naya decks of the time if only for that. Traditional methods of removal don't work, which means that this guy can wing for 4 with impunity. Add in the hybrid mana cost, and this aggressively paced card is probably the best of the bunch. And can someone explain to me why this guy is nicknamed Cap't Tickles?

Next is Groundbreaker. Those of you who have started a "Pattern Recognition Drinking Game", do the "berryjon mentions Time Spiral" act please, as this guy is simply a color-shifted Ball Lightning. And yet, because of this, it's a vital component of the demonstration deck I'm going to include at the end of the article. And while having Trample in Green isn't a big deal, having Haste is something that's out of colour, meaning that your opponents are less likely to be prepared for it.

Please don't start a drinking game in my honour.

The Hellspark Elemental is the Alaran version of the archetype, though it sacrifices half the power of the Ball Lightning standard for a reduction in cost, and the self-recovery ability of Unearth. A little less mana efficient, but a constant threat, even into the later stages of the game as it can return for one last Incinerate.

Impetuous Devils is the second most recent version, with the Ovalchase Dragster being more recent and the impetus for this particular article. Yeah, I know. Bad pun. Moving on! The Devils solves a problem that didn't really exist by forcing itself to be blocked by a creature of the attackers choice. I cannot overstate just how powerful this is given that you're effectively getting creature removal and damage to the face for one card. This sort of efficiency can be quite disconcerting for the defender, especially if they're keeping a creature out of combat for whatever reason.

Coldsnap's Lightning Serpent is a Fireball or similar card, where you go for broke on one single giant damage dealing creature to try to end the match. And even if you don't spend any additional mana on (X), it is still a 2/1 for , which is a Shock. Also, play Green (because you're already playing Giant Solifuge, right?) and add in Doubling Season for additional hilarity.

Ovalchase Dragster once again isn't in Gatherer at the time of this writing, but I'm putting it here because this is where it would go once it is on the list. Anyway, this Crewed Vehicle is very... well... how to do put it..? Kinetic maybe? Like all vehicles, it protects its crew from combat damage, but is itself sharing the same vulnerabilities of the archetype - easy to remove. And with a cost of , the Dragster isn't as effective as Ball Lightning or cards like that. Although on the other hand, being an artifact means it can slot into any deck, giving any creature a chance for high-damage glory.

Next, Spark Elemental is the Lightning Bolt creature, and while it is highly unlikely you'll take out a blocking creature on turn 1 or 2, it is a constant threat even into the mid to late game - just like Lightning Bolt. And I've already talked about the Bolt in my first article, so please read that one for an understanding of how good it is.

Spark Trooper is a Ball Lightning with a Spirit Link / Lifelink attached for a slight improvement in mana efficiency. I can't say with any reasonable certainty just how viable this is in Boros colors, but the ability to shift the life total counts in your favor by 12 on turn 4 should not be underestimated. It's just too bad that this archetype is more Red/Green than Red/White, or else I could see this guy in play more often. Or at all. When I played Boros back in Rav, this guy didn't make the cut. There were better uses for my four-drop.

Lastly, Yavimaya Ants is the only native Green creature to be in this archetype. Once again, Groundbreaker is color shifted out of the Time Spiral block, and I don't count it. And you shouldn't count it for the drinking game either! This card comes from the bad old days of cumulative upkeep, and paying GG past the first turn could prove to be very problematic. Still, it was five damage on turn 4, though Ball Lightning was still faster and more efficient in dealing damage. I'd say it was a nice try, but very half-effort.

Before I move into my ending thoughts and deck concept (is this going to be a thing? Only when I feel like it!), I want to point out that the pattern doesn't end here.

In the Zendikar block, there were three cards that also generated tokens that matched this archetype I'm talking about Akoum Stonewaker, Elemental Appeal and Zektar Shrine Expedition. These cards are only a cycle in the loosest sense of the term, but they all generate elementals that fit. The Stonewalker is a repeatable, though cost-inefficient means of generating tokens, more suitable to Limited than Standard or Modern. Elemental Appeal could just as easily be a creature straight up, and why it's a sorcery, I have no clue, except, perhaps, to avoid Flash? A 14/1 Trample Haster for 9 is certainly something to swing for the win with. And the Shrine Expedition is typical of the Expeditions, slow burn for a limited effect, though it does have the advantage of being able to trigger on your opponents turn, surprising them with a 7 power blocker.

With that out of the way, time for my final thoughts.

This archetype, which is an archetype only because I insist on calling it that, represents a narrow band of creatures that attempt to mimic non-creature spells. And while I could go on a tangent about the Spellshaper creature type, I don't think that's relevant to this line of thought.

Rather, I would group these creatures in as the red equivalent to things like Mystic Snake, where it is an instant or a sorcery's effects attached to a creature's body. And in this case, as I have mentioned previously, it's all about the burn and the bashing of the face and the pain and the agony of your opponents, to hear the lamentation of their creatures as you trample over them. That is what is best in life. Man, that's a really bad Conan reference. I'm not sorry one bit. ;)

It's a nice little niche that these creatures occupy, and I'm glad that Wizards keeps remembering it. It's not something that you would think about as the cards that invoke it only show up every once in a while, and are often overshadowed by more flashy and powerful cards. They show up, hit hard, and go away, and that's alright.

Besides, it's a nice way to toss a creature into the graveyard for Delirium.

And here is the deck I promised! "Live Faster, Die Harder":

Live Faster, Die Harder

Modern berryjon

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