Pattern Recognition #64 - Dominaria Spiral

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berryjon

12 April 2018

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Hello everyone! My name is berryjon, and I am TappedOut.Net's resident Old Fogey and part-time Smart Ass. And welcome to another edition of Pattern Recognition, a series in which I talk about any subject I want, or which is suggested to me by you, my adoring fans.

Today's article came about due to a mistake on the part of Wizard's Chinese website, in which they accidentally published the release notes for Dominaria over a month in advance of the actual release date. This caused the text of over 140 cards to be spoiled long before Wizards was ready for it. To their credit, Wizards didn't try to quash it, or throw a fit. Oh, I'm sure someone got fired, but they simply accepted it and moved on.

I seriously considered not reading it, but eventually I chose to. And what I saw helped me commit to this being a good set. And why is that?

Because I can see a lot of these cards as being leftovers from the pinnacle of Time Spiral! And today's article will look at those cards which I think came from the leftovers from the development of that block, polished up and given new life.

So let's start with the one card that actually made this connection click. Drudge Sentinel. This creature caught my eye because it fit one of the minor themes of Time Spiral - the combination of two previous cards into a new one.

The first and most obvious source is Drudge Skeletons, this classic creature that was printed in every core set from Alpha to M10. Hey, I wonder if it will come back in the next Core Set? Nah. You see, Drudge Skeletons has the now unsupported mechanic called "Regenerate". Instead, Drudge Sentinel provides a very similar effect from a Mechanical perspective. Tap the creature and make it (effectively) unkillable for the rest of the turn.

Now, while Regenerate was seen as a needlessly complicated mechanic, the replacement as defined on Drudge Sentinels is fairly elegant in that regard. It includes the somewhat confusing of the creature that Regenerate includes, but makes it clearly part of the effect of the ability. Of course, the reason why this card appeared on the release notes was to make it clear that a creature that is tapped can still be tapped by the ability, even if those additional tappings have no effect.

So naturally, I made a mistake. You see, I saw the 'Sentinels' part of the name, and part of me jumped to the knowledge that there was an artifact creature that regenerated that had that as part of the name. Except I was thinking of Yotian Soldier, which doesn't fit at all. Nope! It turns out I was thinking of Clay Statue which brings the higher power than toughness to the creature, and the colourless Regeneration cost. Except then wouldn't that meant that the Drudge Sentinel would actually be Drudge Statues?

Eh, you know what? I made a mistake. But it's a mistake that made me do research, so it's a win in my book. Moving on!

The next ones I looked at, or rather saw, was Wizard's Lightning and Wizard's Retort. Now, let's be honest with ourselves here. We know Wizards was. These two spells are a Tribal Lightning Bolt and a Tribal Counterspell with Wizards at the Tribe.

You know, looking at the whole set so far, there's a pretty serious Wizard tribal theme going on in Dominaria, along with Angels. Adeliz, the Cinder Wind makes me Foresee a small resurgence in Wizards in Commander, that's for sure.

So, why do this? Well, we know that Counterspell itself is too powerful for Modern, and Lightning Bolt? Well, that's a stupidly powerful removal spell which I have talked about at length in the past. Bringing them back, with riders to reduce the cost of the spells from and to and helps bridge the gap between "Strictly Worse" and "Functional Reprint".

I like them. Despite the pandering to Wizards, they help remind new players just how good some of the cards back in the bad old days really were. And they keep to the theme of the set, one of history and truth.

Blackblade Reforged is a card that didn't come from the development of Time Spiral. Rather, it is a different way to look at Dakkon Blackblade's ability, and put it onto a piece of equipment. Counting off your lands is an interesting way to provide a bonus, especially when you consider the differing Equip costs.

And now that I look as Dakkon Blackblade's flavor text, why does he talk about the Mountains when his casting cost has no , but instead? I mean, having him in two of the three most last-destroying colours would be pretty funny from a meta stance.

Next up, Fight with Fire. Ever heard of Urza's Rage? Well, this is an interesting take on that old Invasion burn spell. Urza's Rage was designed to pick out one creature or player, and absolutely make sure they got burned out. And if you managed to scrounge up , you could deal 10 damage to one target that couldn't be countered or prevented. However, Fight with Fire loses that inevitability and instead allows you, once kicked, to spread the damage around, going horizontally across the boardstate rather that vertically into one toughness/loyalty/life total.

As for Gift of Growth? Uh... why? All it does over Giant Growth is allow you to untap the target creature, and is more expensive to boot. Besides, untapping is a thing, not a thing. Sure, Green can untap lands in a limited fashion, but not creatures. So, why? Yeah, not much to say here, except that it fits what I'm pointing out in a loose manner.

Moving on! Who here remembers Goblin Grenade? Yes? Excellent! Well, Magic has had a long and enjoyable history of Goblins blowing themselves up for our entertainment and for our victory and Goblin Barrage joins them with a certain aplomb. Sure, for four damage is kinda lackluster, but when you feed the spell an extra Goblin, you give it that nice kick that lets you spell-trample in a way for four extra damage to a Planeswalker or player. Which is pretty nice. Hitting two targets like that is always a good deal.

And you can never go wrong with blowing up your own Goblins. Ever!

On the other hand, Healing Grace looks like it could come from Time Spiral and not look out of place at all. When I talked about the Alpha Boons in issues 1 and 50, I argued the point that Healing Salve was a product of its time, and its colourshifted counterpart, Healing Leaves was probably worse due to how Green handles creatures and life. On the other hand, the new card agrees with this sentiment and drops the "or" from the card. You prevent three damage, and you gain three life. It's ... it might actually be comparable to Lightning Helix now, though without the damage dealing. Goodbye Healing Salve, you did your job, but now you've been replaced in the all of ... two non-Pauper decks that used you.

Of course, Howling Golem is one heck of a take on Howling Mine that fixes the sad fact that your opponents benefit from the Mine more than you do. By triggering on the attack, the Golem can reduce the removal it draws as players balance the desire for more cards and the damage they will take in the process. In more multiplayer games, this would definitely be a very political card.

Speaking of Artifacts that became creatures, I was surprised when Voltaic Key put on some power and toughness to become Voltaic Servant

The Knight of Malice and Knight of Grace hearken back to even before Time Spiral with a long, long, long series of paired White and Black Knight creatures that mirror each other. White Knight vs Black Knight, Knight of Dawn vs Knight of Dusk, Knight of Infamy vs Knight of Glory, Northern Paladin vs Western Paladin.

You should know the drill by now, I think.

On Serra's Wings is a different take on Serra's Embrace. I don't get why it hands out Legendary to the target, unless you put a copy onto two different creatures with the same name to trigger the Legendary Rule, but that's a pretty poor removal method. To be honest, I'll take the additional +1/+1 over the Lifelink, and the ability to use the card multiple times.

Rat Colony .... Uh, Relentless Rats Version 2.0? Get your Thrumming Stone's ready for action!

There's more, but there were just the ones in the release notes.

Now, all these mechanical references are neither a good nor a bad thing. Wizards knows that there is a grand measure of nostalgia for the setting of Dominaria, so making all these references and new twists on old iconic cards will bring in the older players while enticing the newer ones as well to see what the fuss is all about.

In this way, we can help see and build upon the design threads from the past to the future. Not everything is going to be as blatantly obvious as those cards I saw just on a casual reading. And I for one am glad for the things I missed, as it will simply give me more to enjoy when I get my boxes in a couple weeks.

Join me next time when I talk about other things, the subject which I don't quite know yet. Maybe more Dominaria? Maybe not. We'll see!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream, and you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!