Why Does Xavier Sal Have a Restricton, but Cayth Does Not?
General forum
Posted on July 7, 2024, 6:10 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Xavier Sal, Infested Captain's abilities can be used only as sorceries, which bothers me, but I supposed that he has that restriction to prevent him from being too power, but Cayth, Famed Mechanist does not have that restriction upon her ability, so I wonder why that is; is it because her ability requires mana to activate? What does everyone else say about this matter? Why does Cayth not have the same restriction that Xavier Sal has?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
TheOfficialCreator, being able to sacrifice a creature in response to an action that an opponent takes is why most sacrifice outlets are so great; it is a tried-and-true strategy, so why would WotC want to hinder it?
July 7, 2024 9:27 p.m.
wallisface says... #4
DemonDragonJ because the game is based around a lot of safety valves. Wotc have to be careful with how they construct cards with respect to interactions that already exist, as well as ones they might print in the future. It is completely reasonable that Xavier needs sorcery speed activation.
July 7, 2024 9:40 p.m.
wallisface says... #5
Xavier has multiple upsides of giving you a sacrifice trigger, being 1-mana cheaper to cast, and not costing mana to activate. Cayth reads as a much worse card, imo.
July 7, 2024 9:42 p.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #6
DemonDragonJ because Xavier was built as a value engine and not an outlet, the difference being that the exchange between his two abilities is meant to be more equal than it would be at instant speed.
I imagine they probably made this shift after the printing of Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter and Zimone and Dina showed Wizards that their original notion of what this design space's gameplay would look like was off base. So they corrected it. (That's just my theory though)
July 7, 2024 11:12 p.m.
wallisface says... #7
It’s also worth mentioning that not all cards are created equally. Some are better than others and some are worse. That is the nature of the game, and inevitable given the massive cardpool and overall game-complexity.
Wotc has no inherent requirement to make cards equally viable.
July 8, 2024 5:26 p.m.
Crow_Umbra says... #8
Having recently played against a friend's new Xavier Sal Super Friends deck, I am absolutely fine with his activation speed being at Sorcery speed lol. Also as someone that used to play Zimone and Dina, I'm sure my friends would have appreciated that their second ability be sorcery speed for activation, especially given all those Landfall synergies (looking at you Scute Swarm lol).
July 8, 2024 5:46 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #9
I cannot speak for all players, but I like to know that, if an opponent plans to destroy one of my creatures, I can sacrifice that creature in response to their attempt and both receive a reward for doing so and also cause my opponent's spell or ability to fizzle.
July 9, 2024 10:06 p.m.
wallisface says... #10
DemonDragonJ everyone likes being able to do powerful things. It doesn't mean the game should just let everyone break it. Having effects printed in moderation helps keep the game feeling diverse and fresh, and not immediately solved.
July 10, 2024 2:35 a.m.
TheOfficialCreator says... #11
Yep! Also allows for subtly different playstyles between otherwise very similar commanders, such as Xavier and Cayth.
TheOfficialCreator says... #2
I would assume that it's because Xavier involves sacrificing. Putting the sorcery-speed restriction on Xavier stops decks running him from sacrificing their creatures in response to other things happening on the board.
It may also be as you said, because Cayth has an added mana cost and therefore is harder to go infinite with.
July 7, 2024 6:23 p.m.