Pattern Recognition #20 - Hunted

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

9 March 2017

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Pattern Recognition. I found out that apparently I'm something that people from Channel Fireball actually watch, so hello to all of you guys who followed the link here and stuck around! I'm berryjon, resident Old Fogey and general all 'round nice guy. I'm here to entertain, educate and enlighten many of you with regards to Magic cards, history, design and whatnot. I even take suggestions from the audience!

There is also a small flu going around my place this week, so I'm completely spent on energy. This is going to be a shorter article because of that. Sorry. But, on with it!

After last week's epic coincidence of talking about Tarmogoyf on the same day that it was spoiled for Modern Masters 2017, I decided to pick another cycle of cards that I felt wouldn't be in the same boat.

Mostly because I was sorting through my cards, and came across an example of this, and thought it would be a nice thing to talk about. What? I have never said that I was particularly cunning when getting my inspiration.

So, let's get right to it then.

Have you ever heard of Hunted Wumpus? No? I'm not surprised as it was last printed in 10th Edition. It was a curious card that dated back to Mercadian Masques of all things, and was part of a cycle in of itself. Thanks to Boza, who pointed this out to me because even my memory has limits. Or I'm still a little sick. Could be that.

This initial cycle also consisted of Charmed Griffin, Enslaved Horror, Hired Giant and Indentured Djinn. As you can see, these were a series of cards that allowed you to put a cheaply costed creature into play for the low cost of allowing your opponent to put something into play for free themselves.

So, let's talk about these guys first, before we get to the cycle I actually wanted to talk about. Filler-ho!

With the exception of the Djinn, these cards are all costed at N. It's a curious thing, having all these set to activate on turn 4 at the earliest - Black and Green mana acceleration not withstanding. Nowadays, for four mana, you'd be trying to do a lot more than put out a single large-ish creature while at the same time helping out your opponent.

Yet each example of this cycle didn't necessary provide the boon you might expect. Alright, except for the Indentured Djinn, but I'll get to that in a moment. The Charmed Griffin focused on an Artifact or Enchantment. Neither of which was guaranteed to be in the opponent's deck! Unless, of course, your opponent was also playing . In which case, this could back fire horribly. Or not. Mercadian Masques is generally considered to be one of the weaker blocks.

The Enslaved Horror is a much more direct two-edged sword. Black is, was and always shall be known for killing creatures, so the possibility of your opponent pulling one out from their graveyard that you already cast Terror or something on was not always palpable.

As for the Hired Giant, lands are lands. And this one will backfire on you as your opponent is now a land ahead of you. Unless of course, your next action is to cast Stone Rain while there is a Dingus Egg or two in play.

And whomever thought that Indentured Djinn should be an Ancestral Recall should have had their head examined! Sure, the creature is a 4/4 Flyer for , but that doesn't' make up for the fact you just gave your opponent THREE FREE CARDS. If it was "Draw A Card" instead, I could see it. But THREE?

And you all wonder why people hate this block.

But the Hunted Wumpus itself is neat. Neat enough to get reprinted, that's for sure. It's the biggest of the cycle at 6/6, and lets your opponent put a creature into play in response. And yes, you can put a Hunted Wumpus into play in response to a Hunted Wumpus resolving, meaning that the initial caster gets to put a creature of their own into play. Of course, creatures being what they are, the Hunted Wumpus was the second most likely to backfire, after the Hired Giant.

Recall that this card was first printed in Mercadian Masques, and only reprinted in 8th, 9th and 10th editions. Blue was still in their "No Creatures!" phase for one. The other problem was that this could backfire horribly. I play Hunted Wumpus, and in response, you put something like Darksteel Colossus onto the battlefield.

It was a drawback in order to account for having a 6/6 for . The idea was neat, but the execution was lacking in a sense.

But it's not actually Hunted Wumpus I want to talk about. Rather, it was the precursor to the only other real attempt made at this sort of thing. We're going to go all the way back to Ravnica - the good one, not the one with Jace in it - and the Hunted Cycle.

You see, Wizards like the Wumpus, enough to reprint it several times. But it was too random. And as I pointed out when I talked about Chandra Naalar, Wizards doesn't like random. So they experimented with having the free creatures be fixed to the card, rather than at the discretion of the opponent. After all, there are plenty of cards that let you put tokens into play on your own side, so why not Donate a Harmless Offering?

The Hunted Cycle consists of Hunted Lammasu, Hunted Phantasm, Hunted Horror, Hunted Dragon and Hunted Troll. Each of these five cards puts a powerful-for-the-cost creature into play on your side for the cost of putting token creatures into play for an opponent.

I want to make some general comments about the cycle here. First the art. With the exception of the Hunted Lammasu, the token creatures are also easily visible on the card. It's a neat touch, and I like that the artists were able to do that.

The second is that while at first glance, the two sides are equal, the truth is, they are not.

The Hunted Lammasu is larger and flies when compared to the Horror it creates. The Hunted Phantasm is literally unblockable, and even if it could be, the five 1/1 Goblins wouldn't be enough to put down a 4/6. The Hunted Horror is larger than the two Centaurs it makes, and can trample over them, even though they have protection from Black to save themselves. The Hunted Dragon could die to the three First Strike knights, but it flies over them, and has Haste to boot. The Hunted Troll, even if blocked by lethal damage from the fairies, could still regenerate.

The advantage was always on the side of the player with the Hunted creature. Which was something that could not be guaranteed with the Hunted Wumpus.

So, why did the idea stop there? Well, I would have to hazard guesswork at this point. It's been almost a decade since these cards were first printed. My first impression is that the rarity might have had something to do with it. Unlike the Wumpus, which was at Uncommon, the other others were all at Rare. And while I stand by my statement that rarity should not affect power levels, I have to conclude that perhaps Wizards was thinking that these cards were too good, and thus bu putting them at rare, they would see lesser play.

Which they did, for the most part. I never really used them in my decks (well, except for the Lammasu, which went into my Boros Aggro deck at the time), and I don't see them in deck lists all that often either.

Now I'm sure someone will correct me, because I don't have a deck brewed up for you guys to highlight the cards.

But were the cards really that good? Yes, there are certain synergies, such as with Soul Warden (which I think is why the Hunted Lammasu only creates one other creature instead of multiple), but that can't really be reason to drop the idea.

On the other hand, maybe it just wasn't well received by the player base. Tying in to the lack of play, this is the sort of card that just screams 'casual' in it. There's no real exploitable combo that comes from forcing a creature token on your opponent - at least when Ravnica was around. It wasn't a splashy rare like the Guild leaders were. And so they tended to get skipped over.

On the other other hand, there are cards like Torpor Orb or Hushwing Gryff that negate those drawbacks. Or even things like Illness in the Ranks or Virulent Plague to kill the tokens as they are made. Well, only for the Dragon or Troll.

But I think part of the problem is that there wasn't a format in which they would shine. But there is now. Two of them! You see, this sort of 'choose an opponent to benefit' style of card fits perfectly into Commander and Conspiracy! In fact, both the Hunted Dragon and the Hunted Troll were printed in Commander decks.

These creatures really shine when dealing with multiplayer politics, as it is your choice of opponent that will gain the boon, rather than Hunted Wumpus' all opponents. And those two formats are all about the give and take of holding off multiple opponents at once until you swoop in for the win!

Or, you know, that's the plan.

But Wizards didn't completely abandon the concept. Hold the Perimeter from Conspiracy: Take the Crown is an example of this sort of "Everyone wins, but I win more" concept, as is the Hugbox, or Bear Hug archetypes for commander. But it hasn't come back to the main sets. Something for which I wouldn't mind seeing again. Not as a serious thing at rare, but even at common or uncommon where one person gets a bear or something.

You know what? I think I'll put that on my list of "Things to do when I Design a Magic Set". Make a Hunted Cycle.

That's it for this week. Little short and light, I know. And for that I'm sorry. But hopefully this means that next week, everything will be OK! And I'll have something more interesting for you.

Until then, I'm selling out! Or is that tapping 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!

Oh, and Hunted Ghoul doesn't count. Ever.