Pattern Recognition #54B - Keyword Salad

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

11 January 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. I write this series, Pattern Recognition, as a means to entertain, educate and something else that starts with an E.

Welcome back, I might as well jump into it this day with my second part of my examination of the Evergreen Keywords in Magic. Today, we'll be covering the middle ground of Keywords, Flying through Lifelink.

Flying is one of those keywords that has existed since Alpha, AND ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????

1951 examples as of this writing. 445 , 527 , 300 , 179 , 134 , 97 , and 268 Multi-coloured cards.

It's not surprising that this is the primary domain of White and Blue, with Black coming in a solid third with Red and Green being also-rans. And the multi-coloured examples are dominated by White and Blue to the point where a good 1/5 of them (51 in total) are just those two colours combined! And the rest tend to be dominated by having one or both of and in their cost.

This should not be surprising, as White is the colour associated with the open sky and Blue with islands. And the only way you are getting between the two of them, aside from the occasional Pirate Ship or Nimbus Swimmer is to fly. Of course, I need to find a card with 'Swim' in it's name that doesn't have Flying for my example to work now, shouldn't I? And because of this association, these two dominate the scene. That is not to say, however, that the other colours don't have their own examples and counterpoints.

Black comes in third, again as no surprise to me. In fact, while they have random cards like Will-o'-the-Wisp and Battlefield Percher, the real core of their flying creatures comes from those creatures of the night - Vampires and Demons at 51 and 50 examples respectively. It's something of a shame, really, when these two types of creatures have this ability added, not as an afterthought to the design process, but because they're the most recognizable and reliable source of it? Bats, like Dakmor Bat, are a small source of Flying, but none of them have a base power or toughness over 2. And Spirits do offer some middle ground, there is no real unity to their design to elevate them to be a major contender in Black.

Red's flyers tend more towards the Dragons that they have. The iconic Shivan Dragon through Dragon Whelp and even more. In fact, of those 179, 76 of them have the Dragon creature type.

But there's a problem with this. Dragons are meant to, in the minds of Wizards, be big. Like, starting at 4/4 big. Which was one of the problems behind Tarkir, in my opinion. No real 'small' Dragons to help flesh out a set named for the things!

Anyway, after Dragons, the only other creature type that jumps out at me as being relevant, and not a gimmick like the occasional Goblin flyer and the ubiquitous Humans is the Phoenix creature type, with a measly 15 examples. After that? Just a smattering here and there.

Moving on to Green, our examples here are overwhelmed by Reach, simply because Gatherer likes to include reminder text when you search through the text on a card. But seriously, Green hates Flying, and with a passion, and because of this, you will find more creatures like Scattershot Archer than Birds of Paradise. I'll talk more about this dichotomy later.

Now, Haste. Oh man, Haste. If you thought Flying was one-sided in where it was on the colour pie, you have seen nothing yet. 461 examples.

White has 9. [b]SIX[/b] have Suspend, meaning that they have the option of coming into play with Haste because of their alternate casting cost. Akroma, Angel of Wrath has Keyworld Salad, Odric, Lunarch Marshal just shares abilities around, and Wall of Resurgence gives Haste as part of the Land Animation effect. So, effectively, no Haste creatures at all!

Blue, with 17 instances, is in the same boat. 6 with Suspend, 4 with Unearth, and all but one with various gimmicks, or as part or their ability to interact with other creatures. In fact, the only honest example of Blue with Haste is Bonded Fetch! And that has Defender, meaning that it's only really useful for Looting on the turn it comes into play or other gimmick plays.

Black gives us 47 examples. Aside from the usual examples of Unearth and Suspend, that still leaves Black with a very minor selection of Haste cards. Some of them are from reanimation effects, like Balduvian Dead, while others just plain have it, like Crypt Ripper.

And then there are 248 creatures that have or grant Haste. You read that right. Over half of all creatures with this mechanic are Red. If that doesn't tell you just how basic to a colour a mechanic is, I don't know what to tell you.

Green has more than Blue and White put together, at 31 total instances. With the usual mechanics out of the way, that still leaves a small selection of creatures that have Haste, and aren't dependent on Red, like Serpentine Kavu. Which is something I find surprising, as you would think that the colour of creatures would have more options to get those guys out and swinging faster, with their heavy beaters.

Although, perhaps that's the point. Green creatures are already larger/most cost efficient than all the other colours, save early Red and White, and they just scale better the longer the game goes on. Not having them swing for the face right out the gate can only be a good thing as it gives the opponent time to marshal a response.

Unless of course, you're tossing Groundbreaker into the mix, but that's a colour-shifted card and should not count because of it.

And of the 90 multi-coloured creatures, Dreg Mangler, Etherium Abomination (Unearth), Ith, High Arcanist (Suspend), Kheru Lich Lord (Reanimation effect), Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper (Land Animation), Obzedat, Ghost Council (Gimmick), and Skullbriar, the Walking Grave are the only ones that don't have in the casting cost. It's just that prevalent.

So yeah, Red and Haste go hand in hand like nothing else. It's kinda scary when you think about it, and also a possible problem in that this one colour so dominates an Evergreen mechanic with no one else even coming close. I may have to revisit my 'Problems with Red' article in the future, and include this as a subject worth further consideration.

Hexproof, as the second most recent Keyword to be Evergreen'd, has a corresponding lower number of total examples. Of the 74 creatures, 5 are , 20 are , 3 , 29 , 15 Multi-coloured, and 1 colourless.

Wait. Only one colourless? Oh, yeah, Drownyard Behemoth, which only has Hexproof on the turn it comes into play. You know, I'm kinda surprised there are no artifact creatures with it, In fact, the closest thing we have is Simic Keyrune. Which is itself .

Speaking of, this mechanic is dominated by those two colours, and the reasoning is very simple, and goes all the way back to the beginning of the game. Doe starters, Blue is the colour of magic in the first place, so it is only natural that they would deploy creatures that can resist or negate the hostile magics of others. That this is a nice way to protect their creatures from Red's heavy use of direct damage spells and abilities is something I'm sure no Blue player has been thankful for, ever.

On Green's side, the established flavour for this is that Green's raw, more primal force has no time, patience or purchase left for hostile spells. They simply ignore such paltry things, and can only be challenged by other creatures. Do you honestly think that a Carnage Tyrant has time for anything less?

That this means that these Green creatures can ignore the offensive spells of their colour's mortal foe in Blue is something that no Green player ever has found useful, right?

I do find it interesting that there is a creature with a converted casting cost of 1 for whom an entire deck archetype is named, simply because it has Hexproof. Slippery Bogle exists at the hybrid junction of Green and Blue, and benefits from all the Auras and temporary protections those colours offer, plus all the Equipment you can put on it!

Weirdly enough, it's that misses out completely. This seems odd given the relation between Red and Green as friends, and the antagonistic relation between Red and Blue.

Well, that's not quite true. Uril, the Miststalker and Narset, Enlightened Master both have Red in their casting costs, and have Hexproof, but both of them have a primary Hexproof colour - Green and Blue respectively.

Anyway, it seems to me that the reason that Red skips out on Hexproof is that they simply don't care. They would rather trade blows, cast spell for spell, and simply come on out ahead in the attrition game in terms of spells cast and creatures still in play. If they need to protect their creatures, then you're playing Red wrong. Protection is for and .

Speaking of survivability, let's talk about Indestructible. My first major memory of this mechanic comes from Darksteel Colossus, that huge, imposing creature that was just one in the long line of Leviathan-like creatures whose power and toughness was frankly ridiculous.

But of course, that's not the be-all, end all of this ability. 22 , 3 , 12 , 5 , 12 , 12 multicoloured and 13 .

Let's get the obvious out of the way. Or at least, obvious to me. Yes, Indestructible is the mechanical replacement for Regenerate, and that colours (pun intended) which colours get this ability.

And naturally, White gets the most of it. The colour of survivability and protection would naturally get the most out of an ability that says, effectively, "I don't die". And the most cards that grant that ability. Like Indestructible Aura for the name (which doesn't even grant the ability in practice, nor is it an Aura for extra hilarity), and Indestructibility for the turning of the word into a adjective. Just as Haste is built into Red at a basic level, I like to think that this mechanic is something that White has, simply because it's, well, right.

And gets the shaft here. Their examples are Thassa, God of the Sea, Kefnet the Mindful and the Myojin of Seeing Winds. All are divinities, and they get Indestructible as part of their nature. It's not part of Blue's colour identity.

Black, well, Black's presence in this mechanic is part legacy from Regeneration, and part for the flavour. While there is no real over-riding theme behind which creatures get it, doesn't it kinda make sense that the colour of horror get creatures that Just. Won't. Die. I kinda like it, but wish that Wizards would do something more with it because Indestructible doesn't cover sacrifice effects, meaning that one of Black's traditional 'outs' for their creatures is still applicable.

Red is in the same boat as Blue for the most part. Gods, and the Myojin. However, they also have two additions. A Goblin that can make an Artifact Indestructible, and a creature that has Green as the activation cost. So, to summarize, a non-entity.

Green, however, is more interesting. For Green, the idea of the Indestructible isn't so much that something has protections from mere death or the like, like White and Black have with their forces above and below. Rather, Green's style comes from one simple fact of life for the colour of life: They ain't got time to die. And Green will always find a way to make sure they stay alive.

I don't normally cover artifacts, but in this case there is such a preponderance of them in relation to everything else that I had to give it a quick address. And that address is thanks to the existence of Darksteel, a substance from Argentum/Mirrodin/New Phyrexia that is functionally ... wait for it ... Indestructible! It also provides for 6 of the 13 colourless Indestructible creatures. And if we ever go back to that plane, we can expect to see more.

One other thing, before I move on. Of the 86 total creatures here, FOURTY are Legendary. And of those, 25 are Gods. Which means 15 examples and I just lot my train of thought here. Give me a break, I'm, like, 10,000 words into this already! I'm going to forget something eventually.

Might as well finish this off then. Time for Lifelink! With 131 total creatures with this ability-turned Keyword, we start off with 56 creatures. Huh. That's a lot. Anyway, 3 , 29 , no , 7 , and 5 multi-coloured cards.

Lifelink's domination by White is another one of those obvious things. White likes life, and protecting it, so naturally the best solution is to have more of it! White is also the largest source of non-creature based lifegain, from Spirit Link to Lifelink. Hey... waitaminute...

Yeah, this isn't the only time that White gets a card to name a mechanic.

There's no real rhyme or reason or consistency to how White presents its creatures with Lifelink. But I can say that it is showing up in every set one way or the other, and if you want to know just how powerful a mechanic it can be, just ask zandl about how powerful Sacred Cat really is. ;)

As for blue, well, their three cards all require White or Black to have Lifelink, so there's really not much to say here. But man, I kinda wish Arctic Aven got printed in Coldsnap. the name works even!

With Black, despite having a smaller selection of cards to represent themselves here, is just as important. Flavour-wise, Lifelink represents Black's "Zero Sum Game" philosophy, that everything has a cost, or needs to come from somewhere else. Whereas White has no problem generating life ex nihil, Black takes it. They want to Drain Life, and things like that.

So naturally, 12 of these creatures also happen to be Vampires. Now that's an interesting overlap. Flying Lifelink creatures in black, like Vampire Nighthawk. Hrm....

Oh, Red doesn't get Lifelink. Not even in the multi-coloured cards. They don't care about their life total just as long as their opponent's total hits 0 first.

Green joins Blue here. Every last example of their Lifelink requires or . They don't get it naturally.

Weird. No Artifact creatures. I wonder why? Eh, that's a subject for later.

And for multi-coloured? With the exception of Drogskol Reaver, they're all .

So, why is this? Well, White and Black are the only two colours that really care about their life totals as something more than a loss condition. White excels at protecting and increasing it, while Black sees it as another resource to consume. And if their enemy provides some of that same resource? Well, why not share the love?

Two sides of the same coin, life from your opponent and their creatures.

Well, I think that's it for me this week, join me next week when I cover the last mechanics, Menace, Prowess, Reach, Trample and Vigilance and perhaps include my summation notes either in that article, or in a bonus one. Then after that, I will answer a question from the audience whose initial response to, I can only describe as maniacal laughter.

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!