Pattern Recognition #70 - Removal

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

7 June 2018

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Hello everyone! I am berryjon, your resident Old Fogey. Welcome back to Pattern Recognition, Tappedout.net's most regular article series - barring the occasional week off for work or just because I'm out of energy. I endeavor to provide insightful, thought provoking and educational material for you all. Or at least a convenient target for all of you to aim your Sunlances at.

Toady's article is in response to a comment a couple of weeks ago, in which TrueTribal said:

Here’s an article topic suggestion: Explain the power shift in limited removal over the years, and give your opinion on why it happened. Ex. Lightning Bolt to Open Fire, Murder to Impale, stuff like that.

Cool idea!

Except I already know the answer perfectly well, so now I have to sift through all the boring background and history of it.

When the game was first crafted, it was meant to be a fast game, taking place between the rounds of larger boardgaming tournaments. And as such, things tended to happen fast. Creatures swung for damage, spells were flung at instant speed or faster still, and the idea of two control decks stalling each other out was an impossible dream as there wasn't enough control in the game. I mean, sure, there was Counterspell, but that was it!

So as part of this quick tempo of play, creatures started running into problems. The first was a lack of Haste. In fact, this was before Haste was even a thing and the only cards that had it were Instill Energy and Nether Shadow, which should give you all a quick pause when you realize that , the home and core of Haste, didn't have it at the start of the game.

So, here's the first problem. Creatures took time to become effective, in a style of game that encouraged fast play and quick action, creatures were barely worth it. Why use was a Craw Wurm (LEA when, sure, it was one of the larger creatures in the game (at the time), when a card like Terror could wipe it out for a third of the cost before it gets to be used?

Look, here's the thing. For the first, oh, ten years of the game, Creatures were bad. And it's not because of the creatures themselves for the most part, though there are some real stinkers in there. No, it's because that creatures were vulnerable to removal.

You know that phrase "But it dies to removal"? Well, that came from this era, where it was pointed out that you didn't play creatures because they were creatures (unless you were or sometimes symbol::R). Rather you played them, and expected them to die. So why?

Well, two things. The first are "When this creature enters the battlefield" as it would be put in the modern formatting. These ETB effects effectively staple a Sorcery speed effect onto a creature, and the creature itself was an after-thought. I know I've talked about this recently, but when you look at Abyssal Horror and compared it to Hymn to Tourach, which would you rather cast? Or Manic Vandal with Shatter?

Yeah, I love the Hymn too.

Or you could have creatures that were Enchantments with a power and toughness. Benalish Marshall looks pretty good for Glorious Anthem doesn't he?

So the first solution to Removal being too good wasn't actually to downgrade removal, but rather to improve creatures, making them more attractive to removal. Wait. Is that how it's supposed to go? No, that doesn't seem right. Let me try to untangle this logic again.

When removal becomes too good, creatures go away. And when creatures go away, removal does as well because why have dead cards in your deck? And so, without removal, creatures come back, bringing removal with them. How all very meta-gamey. The balance that Wizard has tried to strike is to make creatures valuable enough to include in a deck, but no so valuable that removal from Wrath of God through Bontu's Last Reckoning will become main stays in people's decks, rather than conditional sideboard cards.

On the other side of this is what TrueTribal was getting at. Murder was first printed in Magic Core 2013, while Impale was first printed in Rivals of Ixalan. Impale, despite being the more recent card, costs more and is a Sorcery rather than an Instant. Yet they both do the same thing. They both Destroy a target creature. Yet how they do so, and in how effective they are, that is where the difference in how Wizards is trying to balance creature removal lay.

I mean, they can't all be Terror, right?

So here is the other half of the equation. Knowing that creatures are weak in general, and that players tend to play them more for their abilities rather than for their power and toughness (except when such things matter to the abilities of the creature or another effect), making the ability to simply remove them from the battlefield so easily something that needs to be addressed.

Usually by making the spells more expensive to cast. Or just less effective, like say comparing Lightning Bolt to Shock or Lightning Strike.

And that's the crux of it really, removal is being downgraded as part of Wizard's New World Order in order to make creatures more viable. It's a long, slow process as Wizards tries to ease the game into a new balance. And as such there will be more and changes to how spot removal, or removal in general is seen. Not just by putting creatures into the graveyard, but also in not getting cards like Boomerang any more as it can affect lands.

But what about Limited? I mean, that's what TrueTribal wanted me to talk about in the first place, right? Well, my editor, Boza, pointed out that indeed, the pace of Limited is in part derived from how effective Removal is.

When you draft Rivals and Ixalan, you wind up with a very fast format. There are quite a few aggressive two-drops, such as Deeproot Warrior and Kitesail Corsair, both of which encourage active attacking in their respective colours. On the other hand, when your unconditional (i.e., not Walk the Plank's inability to target Merfolk) creature removal is Impale and Contract Killing, costing four and five respectively, you start to wonder if they're worth using on some piddly two-drop. Spending so much mana to kill something so much more cheaper is almost never worth it (Flametongue Kavu excepted), but it becomes necessary when all these cheap cards are so forward and aggressive. The disparity between the costs of removal and what is being removed skews the limited format toward being creature-aggressive.

On the other hand, Dominaria is a much slower format. Our more aggressive two drops are cards like Benalish Honor Guard, or Bloodstone Goblin or Relic Runner. Now, mind you, this is in Limited, where the focus is on the commons and uncommons. But while they are aggressive, they are not necessarily better. Rather, some of those are more along the lines of Ghitu Chronicler or Caligo Skin-Witch, since they can block all the other non-flying two drops, quite a few three drops, and can have utility in the late game thanks to their kicker costs. These are quite anti-aggro in nature, and when you add in the fact that we have efficient, easily splashable removal like Shivan Fire or Eviscerate - both of which are at common - which can negate early aggression.

So removal in Limited is also a factor in card design. Cheap and effective creature removal hurts aggro decks, while more costly effects can give a format intended for creatures to dominate a chance to do just that.

But on the whole, it seems that removal is slowly becoming more expensive to cast, stabilizing at around a total cost of four for unconditional removal of a single creature. The days of Wrath of God are long gone, sadly. And all to make creatures more viable in the game.

Sorry for the short article. But that just means I'll have more words for you next time, when I talk about adding fuel to the fire! Or that's the plan unless something amazing shows up and demands my attention instead.

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!