Pattern Recognition #149 - Fight!

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

23 April 2020

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Hello everyone! Welcome back to Pattern Recognition! This is TappedOut.net's longest running article series. In it, I aim to bring to you each week a new article about some piece of Magic, be it a card, a mechanic, a deck, or something more fundamental or abstract. I am something of an Old Fogey and part-time Smart Ass, so I sometimes talk out my ass. Feel free to dissent or just plain old correct me! I also have a Patreon if you feel like helping out.

Fight. You know, this is a curious mechanic, one that I think is needed in some measure, but in a way is an answer to a question that didn't need to be asked in the first place. Yet the way that is solves this problem is perfectly in tune with the colours that get it.

But first, I need to establish some things, things that are as equally obvious as they are not. And mostly because even I'm not sure what the complete logic behind fighting is, and I even read up on it before starting this article!

Creatures are an integral part of the game, and is the colour that I would say is tied with in being the most pro-creature in the game. This is the colour that has, by far, the most resources in it that allow creatures to hit the Battlefield. From Carnage Tyrant to Gaea's Herald, is the one that looks its traditional foe - - and say "This creature is entering the Battlefield. No Counters" and have it stick.

But on the flip side, has very few anti-creature spells. Or rather, unlike having Lightning Bolt or Counterspell or Swords to Plowshares or Terror, 's solution to creatures was ... other creatures.

Part of this ties into how interacts with the battlefield, and in many ways how it is not like . You see, is big on having a board presence. And not just having bigger numbers on their creatures, but in also having more things on the board. More lands. More creatures. More Enchantments (really!).

This is to the point where doesn't get boardwipes. A deck cannot look at the boardstate and go "Yep, time to hit the reset button. BLOW UP EVERYTHING!". And when they do have direct removal, it tends to be more along the lines of Creeping Mold, cards that target the more... I want to say 'static' cards in the game. Think about the phrase "A rolling stone gathers no moss", and you can understand that creatures, being in motion, would not stick around long enough to be killed by growing moss of all things.

But as part of the New World Order, Wizards began to move towards a more creature-relevant metagame. They wanted, rightly I think, to create in the game a way of playing that saw creatures as more than a burden, as more than something that was skipped in favour of other card types that had more power in the moment and on the battlefield.

But with more creatures, that didn't really help . They were already pretty much the king of the hill when it came to big creatures. Not creatures with utility. You won't find a creature at Rare with the same amount of text on it that, say, or would - let along or . I mean, compare Carnage Tyrant to, say Rampaging Ferocidon or Goring Ceratops. Its simple, elegant and effective in what it does, compared to the more intricate and passively interactive equivalents from other creatures in any of the other colours.

Now, this is not to say that has bad creatures. For each Carnage Tyrant, there is an Gargos, Vicious Watcher. For each Grizzly Bears, there is a Corrosive Ooze.

Complexity is not wrong, but it's also not what does, and so when it comes down to how deals with the subject of problematic creatures that ones opponents control, they didn't have options.

Well, they did, but the problem was, they would have to steal it from in the process.

You see. had cards like Karplusan Minotaur, and Tangarth, Talruum Hero. Yes, I know about Tracker and its Time Spiral update Durkwood Tracker (and that one is more a case of "blocking the unblocked") as well as Gargantuan Gorilla.

But really, this was something that at the time, I thought more as being a mechanic than a one.

Now, for those of you who don't actually know what Fight is, allow me to quickly explain. Whenever a spell or ability instructs a creature - or two creatures - to Fight, each creature deals damage to the other one equal to that creature's power.

That's it. On the surface, and in execution, it is quite simple. You know how during combat, how a creature that attacks and is blocked, deals damage to the other creature and is dealt damage in return? Well, it's exactly like that, save for the fact that it isn't actual combat, so things like First Strike, or Flying or Trample don't have an effect.

But because it is still damage, things like Lifelink, Protection and Deathtouch still work.

Let me step back here and try to explain why Fight is a thing.

Before Fight became an actual dedicated mechanic in Innistrad with Blood Feud or Nightfall Predator  ^Flip, saw the only real way to interact with their opponent's creatures was on the battlefield and in the combat step. But this was an awkward and very poor method of interaction as on one hand, it would require that either the opponent of the player to use their valuable creatures as blockers - a losing proposition for the most part. Or for someone to swing into a ready defense. Which is also a weird thing as why would they? Swinging is something that does best, with everyone else having more tricks up their sleeve than Giant Growth.

Thus, Fight was created as a way by which combat damage was moved out of combat itself. It was a way for to have combat, to force their strengths in creatures onto the battlefield.

But what I really do like about Fight isn't just that it allows you to have Ghalta, Primal Hunger go all Jurassic Park on your opponent's creatures.

Fight is something that I have fun with because it's not always symmetric. Something that I did in Arena with my occasional decks, especially in limited formats, was on turn 1, cast Sedge Scorpion. This 1/1 with Deathtouch is a very useful creature on the offense and defense. Unless you run into a creature with First strike. But then on turn 2, follow up with a Rabid Bite on their fancy creature.

On the play? This is a nice way to clear my opponent's turn 1 creature for my Scorpion to deal with the enemy's blocker, saving the Scorpion for something else. On the Draw? That's a Turn 3 creature that I just took out, and kept a threat on the board.

Biting is a variant of Fighting in which the damage is assymetrical. Rather than having a sorta-combat exchange of damage, this is a way through which can mimic 's ability to deal direct damage, except through the lens of the creatures that has determining how much hurt you put out.

But why? I know I'm rambling a bit here, but why would be given anti-creature spells in a developing game that wanted to focus more on creatures?

Well, I think the answer is that in an increased creature-focused pseudo-meta, where combo-pieces moved more onto creatures than onto enchantments or artifacts - such as with Laboratory Maniac as what has since become one of 's preeminent win conditions - until replaced by Thassa's Oracle, which can't be fought to death before it triggers the win condition.

So with one of 's traditional enemies opening up a weakness, it was only natural for to exploit it just as already had ways to destroy creatures.

Fighting filled in a hole in that didn't really exist before the New World Order started to come into its own, and as a solution it's simple and effective. Something that I have more than once applauded as a design goal and schema.

Fight is a way for to remove creatures from the board without changing who they are or what they are capable of doing. It's solidly creature based, and has plenty of options to make this better at removal than simple pseudo-combat would entail.

And most importantly, it's fun to have Ghalta, Primal Hunger loom large and in charge over everything around them, knowing that they are only one card away from killing (almost) anything on the board.

And fun is the most important part of the game.

So, join me next week for the big 1-5-0? Will I do another look at the Alpha Boons? No, sorry. I don't think there's anything I can say at this point, and honestly what is a pattern too my writing if I can't buck it on occasion?

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!