What does it mean if a creature has fear?
Asked by tappedout29 14 years ago
I'm building a legacy deck and i came accross a common old ability which did not explain what it did and which i didn't know what it did
means black and artifact creatures are the only thing tht can block it.
November 13, 2010 2:29 p.m.
It was originally a black-only ability, but WotC decided to make it multicolored and replaced with intimidate.
November 13, 2010 2:42 p.m.
xeratheenigma says... #4
the reminder text for fear is (this creature can only be blocked by black and/or artifact creatures.)
and as posted above WotC has replaced fear with intimidate which is a color sensitive version of fear
intimidates reminder text is (this creature can only be blocked by creatures that share a color with it and/or artifact creatures.)
November 13, 2010 3:23 p.m.
Well, it hasn't exactly replaced it. Fear still exists as a mechanic, and they're not going to errata it off of old cards that have it. Intimidate is kind of cool although it's biting on Black's style overall. The last set to actually use fear was Alara Reborn with Lightning Reaver and Mask of Riddles .
So far only Bladetusk Boar and Bellowing Tanglewurm are non-black creatures with Intimidate, but it seems that they'll try to make it an Evergreen mechanic like Lifelink or Deathtouch that can work in any set, so I do expect to see it as the new standard in the future. Hopefully Black gets something in return for getting punked.
November 13, 2010 3:36 p.m.
xeratheenigma says... #6
I was under the impression that cards were no longer going to print fear on cards and intimidate was supposed to replace fear in the core sets as well as exspansions
though i wish they just would have kept printing fear i prefer as a black only mechanic
November 13, 2010 3:48 p.m.
I think the flavor of fear was nice. After all, it is tough to instill fear into demons, undead and constructs after all.
Intimidate, on the other hand, isn't very flavorful. If something is intimidating, nothing but artifacts and bigger creatures should be able to block it, not creatures that share a color.
Fear should stay as a black only mechanic, and they should rework intimidate.
November 13, 2010 8:53 p.m.
hamburgers says... #8
Fear is a dead mechanic. It makes a creature unblockable by any non black, non artifact creature. It has essentially been replaced by Intimidate, which is similar, but is unblockable by creatures which do not share a color or are artifacts. Technically Fear could still have been a useful keyword because it COULD be given to nonblack creatures and swung against players that could block those creatures if they were Fear instead of Intimidate, but Wizards has said they will not be printing any more Fear cards.
November 13, 2010 9:14 p.m.
The thing I always liked about fear was Dust Elemental and Shadowmage Infiltrator ...creatures with fear that weren't monoblack. Now with intimidate instead you lose this.
tappedout29 says... #1
what does it mean if a creature has "fear"?
November 13, 2010 2:27 p.m.