Pattern Recognition #45 - We can be Heroes

Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

21 September 2017

2152 views

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.net's most prolific article series, written by me, berryjon, your resident Old Fogey and Smart Ass. I write to entertain, educate and sometimes even horrify you all with my knowledge, experience and occasional screw up.

Today's article is being written in a short time frame because my original plan for this week could only be done once Ixland actually comes out as being fully spoiled. So I had to stop working on that one and set it aside for later.

That left me in a lurch, so I did what I do when I need an idea on short notice. I went over to Gatherer, and hit the all-powerful "Random Card" button. So, what does Wizards want me to talk about this week?

An Arena Athlete apparently arises as an alliterative alternative.

I can work with this! Let's talk about his keyword, Heroic, and some of the other things that have cropped up that do similar things.

Heroic was a mechanic found through all three sets of the Theros block, which triggered when the creature was targeted by a spell (but not an ability) that the creature's owner controls. This is flavoured as the heroic mortals of Theros being granted a boon by their gods, and exceeding even that. These are the heroes, as they demonstrate through their actions.

Now, on the surface, this seems like a pretty cut and dried mechanic. You cast a spell, and you get a bonus benefit! Well, that's not the case. There are a few points I want to observe about this mechanic that make it both a positive and a drawback for the player and the creature.

The first and most important aspect to this ability is that it can only trigger when the creature is targeted by a spell. This means that you have to cast an Enchantment, an Instant or a Sorcery. Now, recall that the Heroic ability triggers when the spell is cast, not when it resolves. Which means that you can get the benefit of the Heroic ability on the stack before anything else gets off it. And for some effects, this could mean the difference between life and death.

Now, here comes the negative. You have to cast an Enchantment, Instant or Sorcery on your creature in the first place. If you're putting an Aura onto a creature, you are walking into the eternal "two for one" issue of removal, especially in a block that printed Hero's Downfall. Or you're casting an Instant or Sorcery on one of your creatures. Now, in most cases I have seen - though this is not by any means exclusive - the only time this is done is during combat, performing combat tricks with things like Brute Force.

On the other hand, there is some pretty nice synergy with the Bestow mechanic I talked about a few weeks ago. You get the Heroic trigger, and if or when something happens to the creature underneath, then you still get to keep the Bestow card. But I'll talk about the best synergy in a few moments.

It is hard to judge the worthiness of this ability through that lens, as Sorceries can happen on your turn, and are discarded as part of the card type, while Instants can happen at any time, which makes this whole thing even more complicated in the calculation.

In a way, I can almost see Heroic as a combination of the creature being a Spellshaper, getting a spell-like effect from the card, and Madness, as you still get the benefits of the card itself. It's weird, but the idea works, as you are essentially getting two effects for the price of one card. Which is in itself a weird inversion of the 241 Problem, but I'm not going to complain about that at all.

On the other hand, it has to be you who casts these spells, which means that 999 times out of 1000, it will be a positive effect. And it also means that the opponent can cast something on it without fear of reprisal. This is something of a weak drawback, in my opinion, but it does enforce the flavour aspect of the ability.

From this, I hit upon the idea that Heroic was a mechanic, that despite being spread out across all colours, would represent an attempt to encourage the 'Aggro' line of action, rather than the 'Control' line. You benefit yourself more than harming an opponent with a spell cast, except when now you can do both, so why not roll aggro?

This is not to say that Control was being rejected. I mean, Thoughtseize was reprinted in the block for Urza's sake! It's just that this mechanic is more aggro themed and flavoured.

The next benefit to this ability, and it is a clear cut benefit, rather than something double-sided. You see, Heroic has a variable output. What that means is that unlike, say, Bushido, you can get different effects from the ability. The most common, though still in the minority, is the granting of a simple +1/+1 counter for the creature, though that is not the limit. Akroan Crusader generates Tokens, Chorus of the Tides lets you Scry, Tormented Hero causes a life-drain effect, that sort of thing.

This makes having Heroic in your deck building decisions more of an active choice, rather than having a passive bonus to having something already in your deck. And this makes Heroic more involved, rather than just blandly being there. And each colour gets Heroic triggers that are in theme with the colour, rather than risking being out of colour or so generic it might as well have no effect.

So you don't have to worry about a Heroic causing players to discard a card. Unless they are also drawing a card in the process.

But you know, all is not lost. Heroic has a very interesting synergy with another mechanic in the set, and I'm not talking about Bestow. I'm talking about Strive. Now, while not all of these cards can target creatures, there are those like Setessan Tactics or Launch the Fleet that synergize well with the mechanic because they're cheap, and they give their target creature(s) a decent enough benefit.

Strive works because it targets everything that you cast it on, unlike some other mechanics I will still name. And in addition, it's in-block with Heroic, meaning you can pull this off in Limited, let alone in constructed. It's almost enough to make me suspect that this was deliberate. ;)

But there are two other mechanics that I want to address in the here and now that relate to this. The first is what I think of as the successor mechanic - Prowess. This evergreen mechanic is a toned down and simplified version of Heroic, which is one of the reasons - if I'm right - that it has gone Evergreen.

Prowess triggers off the casting of any non-creature spell, which allows it to work off of artifacts, and more importantly, the spell doesn't have to target anything to trigger Prowess. This second part is far more vital in that you can invoke Prowess with other things, like casting a non-Aura Enchantment, or a targeted removal spell to clear the way.

On the other hand, Prowess has a fixed and very limited output. It gives the creature in question +1/+1 until the end of the turn. This is a drawback when compared to Heroic, but on the other hand, it makes it more predictable for everyone at the table, unlike Heroic. And while I can appreciate that, I find it lacking when compared to even the minute +1/+1 counter on many Heroic creatures.

Not to say that Prowess is bad when compared to Heroic. One has gone evergreen, while the other hasn't. It just lacks the versatility while being easier to activate. And for Wizards, that's an acceptable trade.

Heroic was an interesting mechanic. It worked with the flavour of the sets, but outside of that block it ran into larger problems where creatures don't matter as much. Or worse yet, could be taken out before the Heroic ability became relevant.

Alas, this, like so many others, has fallen into the dustbin of history. There was talk that it would come back in Hour of Devastation to show the mortals defending themselves and their gods from Nicol Bolas, but such was not to be. I'm not sad to see it gone, but neither am I going to be holding my breath for its return.

Thank you all for joining me this week, and I apologize again for the brevity of the article. Join me next week, when I hopefully have a deck built!

Until then, I'm selling out! Or is that tapping out? Visit my Patreon page, and see if you want to help me 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 where I talk and you respond.