Pattern Recognition #355 - Land Punishment

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

6 February 2025

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

And welcome back everyone! This article is a little on the short side, so please forgive me!

I've covered in the past how likes to blow lands up, and how got in on the action too. However, simply destroying lands hasn't always been the primary way that they have punished greedy or excessive mana bases. I even talked at the same time about how Wizards had a very abrupt experiment with proto-Stun, but only affecting lands, and how they've accepted that some land destruction is needed, but that comes now with an understanding that you're just reducing Gaea's CradleGC to a basic Forest.

But has had some interesting punishers in the past, and today, I'm going to look at a few of them. Where just hates you, but isn't going so far as to Blood Moon your entire board.

Here, let me show you an example of what I'm talking about.

Power Surge

You see, had, for quite a long time, the ability to more actively punish players for tapping their mana. The reasoning behind this was... awkward at the best of times. The logic, such as it was, came from an ancient and frankly absurd interpretation of the colour, and how it Colour Hated on .

I need more evidence to go forward. Citadel of Pain, Collapsing Borders, Mana Barbs, Rivalry, Scald and Steam Vines to start with.

Each of these cards, in their own way, punishes players for tapping their lands. Not just playing them, as Ankh of Mishra or Zo-Zu the Punisher would do. But WHY? Why would do this?

Part of this comes to us from the theories of the Group Slug deck, an archtype that lays down as many global damage and punishment effects, and then hope that you simply outlast the opponents. It's called that because it's the opposite of Group Hug - a subject for another day - which makes everyone love you until you strangle them with your bounty. Group Slug just starts throwing punches and never lets up. And punishing players for using their lands is perfectly Group Slug.

So the logic behind this is that doesn't like it when people save up their mana. Because big spells means that the game is going on long, and this color doesn't like that when that happens. Gotta go fast, burn bright and end the game sooner rather than later! On the flipside, if your opponent is tapping their mana, that means that they are doing things. And being hurt for doing so, which is good for you because when there is only 20 life to go around, aside from lifegain, they're inching closer and closer to being to the point where you can just burn them out of the game.

And when the game is over, who cares about the crack-back of taking damage from the enemy or your own enchantments? You've won.

But I'm betting a lot of you see the problem. They players in this game? Well, they like their spells. They like their lands. Their precious pretty lands that do all sorts of things. And even if they aren't being blown up, being hit for tapping lands, or having them untapped?

Here, we run into one of the worst things that can happen in a game, bar none. A player will stop having fun. If they are being punished and being hurt for doing the single most basic action in the game - tapping lands for mana - what is the point? Even a perfect response will hurt! Some players may find this to be an intriguing challenge, but most? Most would just fold and scoop rather than go through with that degree of sour play.

Which is why these effects were phased out. Punishing people for playing the game is an example of bad game design, and this crossed that line. I've called out New Phyrexia as a Wizards-Approved example of punishing people for not playing the game the designers intended. And New Phyreixa is rightly the worst set in existence for that.

We don't want to make people hate the playing of the game. Hate interactions that don't go their way. Be jealous of the brilliant play someone made as they just barely etch out a victory. Be exultant at doing that same thing. We don't want to cause people grief for just doing what needs to be done, and we don't want to cause grief in general.

So don't play these cards, please.

Unless you're me, and you're feeling particularly vindictive for a week at FNM Commander and you roll out your personal and private Group Slug Deck of I Hate Everything. I'm allowed to be old and grumpy. You're not.

Thank you all for reading! I'll see you next week when I talk about my first two weeks of Slow Grow! Week 1 was ... something, and Week 2 is tomorrow.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! 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!