Common Design: The One with Two Urza's Saga Cards

Time for another entry in my series on potentially powerful Pauper cards. Today I want to start with a card that has gotten a lot of press, in no small part because of one Gavin Verhey.

Over the past several years I have stumped for a three mana sweeper in Pauper on several occasions. When the format was dominated by Stompy and Delver the idea of a single card that could handle a large army of small creatures was incredibly attractive. This was before Palace Sentinels took its play as a pillar of the format. But let's try and return to early 2017.

The baseline size for an aggressive creature in Pauper is 2/2. Beatdown decks build their CVs on their ability to flood the board with these creatures and overwhelm the opponent. The release of Burning-Tree Emissary made it incredibly easy to end the second turn with between six and eight power. At the time the best sweepers were Electrickery and Evincar's Justice which put the aggressive decks at a significant advantage. 

The result of the offensive onslaught was that decks turned to cards like Moment's Peace and other damage prevention effects to survive the early game. Slower decks had a hard time packing the correct removal to take out larger threats while containing an early army. As a consequence, traditional aggressive decks almost completely vanished since they could not come out ahead of the Fog parade. The hope was that a card like Steam Blast would provide control decks with a way to stall Stompy and the like while not leaving them vulnerable to larger threats since they could run supplemental removal.

Now the pendulum is at the other end of its arc. Beatdown is barely a factor for multiple reasons. Prismatic Strands and Moment's Peace make it very difficult for attacking to work while Stonehorn Dignitary shuts down the combat phase entirely. Augur of Bolas, Kor Skyfisher, and Palace Sentinels are all fantastic blockers and eat 2/2s for breakfast. The thing is I still think a card like Steam Blast would be good for Pauper in the long run as a check on these strategies in the future.

That presents another problem. The format has moved past 2/2 creatures and now needs efficient three power creatures for beatdown decks to make a comeback. So if Modern Horizons brings Steam Blast, what else could it bring? My hope is for Albino Troll.

Albino Troll has a series constructed pedigree. As a 3/3 for 1G it is a solid threat that comes with an Echo cost. Is a turn two 3/3 good enough to eat up your third turn? Maybe. If you run Burning-Tree Emissary into Albino Troll? That's a lot more palatable. 

Both of these cards - Albino Troll and Steam Blast - are fairly simple and elegant. They could serve a vital role in Modern Horizons limited while also bolstering Modern. And both are perfectly reasonable to be printed at common in a Masters style set.

2019 is going to be a banner year for Pauper. I want to continue to be at the forefront of the format. If you like the work I do, please consider becoming a Patron. Thank you!

Common Design: Roar of the Wurm

We’re brushing off the dust and flashing it back. Let’s take a look at Roar of the Wurm and whether or not it could be a reasonable common in Modern Horizons.

You can check out this post to look at my guidelines. Needless to say, New World Order won’t matter much in a set built to impact Modern. 

Roar of the Wurm was a constructed caliber card back in its day. While a seven mana 6/6 is definitely on par for a common, a conditional four mana version is...well also on par for common these days. 

Ignoring Gurmag Angler for a moment - since that card costs one mana in reality - there are two cards we should look at when examining Roar of the Wurm: Walker of the Grove and Canker Abomination. Both of these touch on the different sides of Roar.

 Walker of the Grove can provide you two creatures, both of which are overpriced. The front half - 8 mana for a 7/7 - isn’t exciting. Similarly a 5 mana 4/4 is just average. Considering there are 4/4s four four mana available that do not see play, Walker is just not going to cut it. What it does showcase, however, is R&D’s willingness to print two-for-one creatures at common in Masters style sets. Walker is also a split card - it is either a 7/7 that leaves behind a 4/4 or it’s just a 4/4. Roar of the Wurm is similar in that you can try to cast the 7 mana version first, but then you have to invest more mana in the second half. The goal should be to get the cheaper version first.

This is where Canker Abomination becomes relevant. It is a conditional 4 mana 6/6. Sound

familiar? Roar of the Wurm fills the same role provided it has found its way into your graveyard. The difference here is that Canker Abomination could be smaller while the Wurm token will always be a 6/6. The point of this exercise was not to judge Roar of the Wurm against these existing commons - Roar is miles better - but rather to provide context as to whether Roar of the Wurm could be released as a lower rarity.

And I think the answer is a resounding “Yes!”. If you can get this card into the graveyard you can get a perfectly reasonable threat on turn four that just so happens to be incredibly vulnerable. Not only will the token die by conventional means, but it also falters in the face of the stiff breeze of Unsummon. Combine all of these factors with the supposedly higher level of Modern Horizons and I would be surprised if Roar of the Wurm wasn’t in the set.

2019 is going to be a banner year for Pauper. I want to continue to be at the forefront of the format. If you like the work I do, please consider becoming a Patron. Thank you!

Common Design: Baleful Strix

Years ago I started a series on this blog where I looked at various cards through the lens of design and ask: is this a common? My discussion centered on a few key elements about the card.

• Support casual play
• Support limited play
• Viable for high level constructed
• Color Identity
• Serve as an entry point into Magic
• Adheres to New World Order

With Modern Horizons on, well, the horizon, I wanted to revisit this series with an eye on potential downshifts. Modern Horizons will feature some entirely new cards as well as reprints of cards that are not currently legal in Modern. Similar to Masters sets, Modern Horizons will get to set aside the complexity limits that come with New World Order. That does not mean we are suddenly going to get Planeswalkers at Common, but it does mean we are going to get more Sparksmiths than Thermo Alchemists. Being an advanced product, I am also going to care less about serving as an entry point into the game.

Masters sets have also pushed against the normally acceptable power levels for a common. One only needs to look to the massive impact of cards from Modern Masters 2017 and Ultimate Masters to see commons that live well above the curve. Considering that commons have a large role in supporting limited environments it stands to follow that if the power level of the set is high then the commons will have to follow. Modern Horizons looks to be one such set. With that out of the way let’s get to the first card.

Hello gorgeous. Baleful Strix is what one Michael J. Flores would call a hell of a Magic: the Gathering card. Coming from the second Planechase, the card has become a staple in Legacy and one of my favorite cards to run in Commander. It isn’t that Strix does any one thing exceptionally well, but rather does quite a few things at an above average clip.

Baleful Strix is the kind of card I would love to include in a Cube because of how many archetypes it could enable. It has artifact synergy and the fact it replaces itself means it slots into sacrifice based strategies. Evasion means it can peck in for damage while deathtouch makes it a threat deterrent. Strix can also serve as a signpost for what Dimir is about in an environment. All in all, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Strix was part ant with all the heavy lifting it does.

So Baleful Strix can do work in Limited, does quite a bit for kitchen table constructed, and has a Legacy pedigree. It also makes perfect sense in its color combination. It is a small flyer (blue) with deathtouch (black) that has some card advantage stapled to an enter-the-battlefield trigger (both). It’s also simple enough that it could be a common in a set like Modern Horizons. However, given that it appeared as a rare in Eternal Masters and the online-only Vintage Masters, this probably will not be the case.

And that’s alright with me. As much as I like this card, giving blue-black another tool in Pauper is a real case of the rich getting richer. Dimir is already one of the more powerful color combinations in the format and giving it another solid two drop is only going to further stratify the competitive scene. On top of this, aggressive strategies are already struggling mightily and injecting a creature with deathtouch that replaces itself won’t help the issue.

So as much as I want the Strix to be in the mix...I hate myself so much for trying to figure out this rhyme I’m just going to end this post.

2019 is going to be a banner year for Pauper. I want to continue to be at the forefront of the format. If you like the work I do, please consider becoming a Patron. Thank you!