Ahn-Crop Crasher is pretty good. We could talk about it's exert cost, but even a 3/2 haste creature for [cost] feels comparable to a vanilla 3/3 for the same [cost].
Ahn-Crop Crasher costs 2R; in light of this I think we need to evaluate what colors get what as the "top" of their vanilla:
I think these are quite relevant. With these in mind, I could see a core set printing the following vanilla creatures:
Firecat HunterR
Creature - Elemental Cat (U)
2/1
Notes:
1. See Falkenrath Gorger for baseline; and no - please don't tell me it's rarity allows it to break vanilla->cost casting.
2. I want this to have a semi-relevant creature type; goblin is too good I think, and vampire would be functionally worse than an existing card. I settled for Elemental Cat here - iconic, fun, flavorful.
3. Iconic - With good art, this feels like it can be iconic. It's the sort of card that might see some play in constructed, and feels real good in the hands of new players.
Starstruck UnicornW
Creature - Unicorn (U)
2/2
Note:
1. Hound of Konda, oh how power creep has abused you. Dryad Militant obsoletes Elite Vanguard, so we're left with giving the 2nd to worst p/t ratio to mana cost color (red) the best weenie in the format, or printing Elite Vanguard a mirror of it in a color that is far better at creatures. Neither is to my liking, so I'm just going to obsolete here.
2. However, I don't want to make it a solider for fear it would be ridiculous(er) with soldier lords, of which I think a core set would have. Let someone have to make the same choice we did between Savannah Lion and a good soldier 1 drop w/o 2 power (Pre- Elite Vanguard) for their solider decks.
3. Iconic - Again, a 2/2 for 1 mana is going to feel somewhat iconic. I've gone with Unicron here, but if we want to make out iconic common unicorn a 2/2 Lifelinker for 1W (or something), we'd need to find another iconic creature type here; something we're not ashamed of when it shows up in high level play on occasion.
Fledgling TreefolkG
Creature - Treefolk (C)
1/3
Notes:
1. I think something has to stand in the face of 2/1s and 2/2s for 1, and this serves that role at a good rarity in green.
2. In limited, it's often not a good idea to run a 1 drop. However, this 1 drop is effectively comparable to a D 2 drop, and that might make it playable on it's own???
3. I don't know if this feels iconic, but it wouldn't hurt to give it some cute art. Tribal treefolk wouldn't mind a 2nd one drop all else being equal.
Note: I went there; Harsh Mentorreally makes vanilla 2/2s for 1R feel bad, but Goblin and Warrior are two iconic creature types that matter for the game. If anything can make a vanilla 2/2 for 1R worth your consideration, it' being a goblin... assuming your lord grants haste that is.
Magenta Ogre2R
Creature - Ogre Berserker (U)
3/3
Note:
1. I'm still not happy with 3/3s for 2R at common.
2. Giving it a rarely used creature types helps; it can be playable in some ogre tribal decks, and thus it's not complete garbage after a draft. This is why it's worth talking about vanillas - you want them in your game for draft and for teaching new players; but they're rarely going to have a chance in constructed. Small design changes like this can help.
3. Considered making this a minotaur, but I think that benchmark vanillas and french should be in core sets, and I think the core set needs a Hurloon Minotaur homage in the form of a red vampire nighthawk - some combination of First Strike, Menace, Haste, and Trample would work. Obviously I'd be for leaving off trample, but that feels efficient enough that we need to test it.
Mountain Giant3R
Creature - Giant Warrior (U)
4/4
Notes:
1. And here we get to the point where I'm sure lots of you will say I'm pushing it too far; to which I reply Emberhorn Minotaur. I'm sorry, but a 4/3 that can be a 5/4 evasive creature is pretty darned good (at least for limited).
2. Made it uncommon,
3. Now I'm not going to tell you that Mountain Giant will see constructed play... at least not without some muraganda petroglyphs-style support, or some odd tribal synergies. But in terms of showing people the benchmarks, I think this is where it's at.
With this set of red vanillas, we get 4 iconic fantasy creature types - Elemental, Goblin, Ogre, and Giant. The big problem is that I set 3 of them at uncommon. Given Red's fantastic creature commons in the way of speciality goblins, firebreathing lizards, and the like - I don't see this as a problem.
Also, I think Red's got a lot to think about for french vanillas; a 3/3 with menace or haste or even trample could make sense at common at 3R, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a 2/1 first strike, haste for 2R. Also, maybe Regathan Firecat or a few other asymmetrical p/t vanillas in the color. It's certainly the color for high P, low T vanillas, with blue being the opposite.
I suspect many of Green, white, and even blue's set of vanilla benchmarks would be at common, which should have the desired effect of making draft play .easier. Red's spells are also notoriously more straightforward than the other colors; what with smelt, lightning bolt, etc. running around.
Yes, I can see a Nessian Courser in red at uncommon just fine, in terms of power level. I'm not if it'd ever see print, though, as it doesn't really serve a strong purpose like haste does.
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When I look at this list, I'd love to move the 3/3 to common, maybe the Viashino Sandstalker-variant, Demolish-variant, and possiblylightning boltif testing allows it. I could see cutting Shiv's Embrace and Lightning Axe... especially the latter, as it's kind of clunky for a core set.
I feel that a red 3/3 for 2R at common will eventually happen (perhaps with a drawback if that hasn't happened already). Wizards continues to create sets that are heavily based on creatures and combat and we have seen fairly consistent creature creep for the past several years.
Problem with this: A) Square stats that UN-square an appropriately costed mana point are pretty boring, IF the continuum of choices, and the overall power levels of the cards make the UNsquare statted cards playable. That is HALF of the things it was before. Moving out of commonality, Centaur Courser is not a better card than Tireless Tracker. 3/3 Tireless Tracker? B) Doing so, as general power creep which clearly IS and CAN happen... creates the NEXT thing, because that thing, as a continually loaded-upon boringness... well... then, 4/3 for 2G? Out of control. More keywords infinitely better. C) The rarity is highly relevant. Savannah Lions is a rare in Alpha. And this should answer the question. Those things are totally fine, if they were rares. They would harm more or less nothing...* They would create a possible "just BARELY good enough" boringness that pushes out slightly more interesting cards from constructed contention. They would occupy a strange space of both possibly being "are you kidding me" AND "the stone cold nuts" for constructed. And they would not stay still. D) What's ALREADY done, as you surmise, can cause possible thinking cap re-evaluation of these things. They are reasonable suppositions. But they are madly out of color pie. 3/3 for 2R? With what drawback? As a rare? With what ABILITY, AND/OR, with what drawback.
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Problem with this: A) Square stats that UN-square an appropriately costed mana point are pretty boring, IF the continuum of choices, and the overall power levels of the cards make the UNsquare statted cards playable. That is HALF of the things it was before. Moving out of commonality, Centaur Courser is not a better card than Tireless Tracker. 3/3 Tireless Tracker? B) Doing so, as general power creep which clearly IS and CAN happen... creates the NEXT thing, because that thing, as a continually loaded-upon boringness... well... then, 4/3 for 2G? Out of control. More keywords infinitely better. C) The rarity is highly relevant. Savannah Lions is a rare in Alpha. And this should answer the question. Those things are totally fine, if they were rares. They would harm more or less nothing...* They would create a possible "just BARELY good enough" boringness that pushes out slightly more interesting cards from constructed contention. They would occupy a strange space of both possibly being "are you kidding me" AND "the stone cold nuts" for constructed. And they would not stay still. D) What's ALREADY done, as you surmise, can cause possible thinking cap re-evaluation of these things. They are reasonable suppositions. But they are madly out of color pie. 3/3 for 2R? With what drawback? As a rare? With what ABILITY, AND/OR, with what drawback.
Uh... I'm not sure what you're talking about. We're pretty much looking at vanillas here; not making a 3/3 tireless tracker, which is clearly better than Centaur Courser.
Now here's a question: Can green get a 4/4 vanilla for 1GG? I think so. However, I don't think it should.
That said, I think green could get quite a few solid vanillas in a good core set: G 1/3 (C) Treefolk GG 3/3 (U) Beast 3G 5/5 or 4/6 (C) ? or Treefolk? 3GG 9/9 (R) Wurm?
Creatures can have much stronger abilities or better P/T for their cost if, within standard, they support weak or under-represented archetypes. Harsh Mentor, for example, has a solid P/T-to-cost ratio and also a fairly strong ability because the designers want failsafes against overpowered Kaladesh cards, which tend to be heavy on activated abilities. These are the sort of creatures (not the mentor specifically, I don't think?) that find their way into Modern on account of being substantially above the curve when a larger group of sets is considered, because they had to be when only Standard was considered. No set is an island, as it were.
If we're ignoring Standard for being very mutable and inconsistent as to what is and is not okay for a creature to do, then the next rung down is Modern. Cards like Hooting Mandrills, Delver of Secrets, Scavenging Ooze, and, of course, The Goyf are the top of the power curve when it comes to creature efficiency in modern, but most of these are ultimately recognized as bad card design in some way or another (Delve is OP mechanic, Delver is a bit too easy to activate in hindsight, Goyf is Goyf). Which is to say, if you aren't considering standard then the top of the curve is to be an overpowered mistake card.
The next best you can do is to consider limited, i.e. basically balance creature against other creatures in your set. Do zombies have a lot of tribal support in this set? Well, probably don't print any pushed zombies in common or uncommon since they'll be too much for limited. Pushed goblins are fine though because this set doesn't have goblin support. Standard is basically extending this logic to multiple sets, except rarity doesn't actually matter much beyond what people are willing to pay.
Re: Harsh Mentor - I don't see any excuse for this card other than "Oh, we don't think conventional power curves apply to cards meant to market the set. This is Baneslayer Angel philosophy and is bad design. And trying to justify it as a "check" on Kaladesh is laughable. First, look at all of the ridiculous artifact hate at common and uncommon; second Harsh Mentor isn't a particularly good counter for [i]anything[/i] in the format. It's real use is a a fetchland hate card in modern, and even then only in mono red cards that would rather use a 2/2 for RR with a slightly different burn ability. The sad fact is that printing something above curve doesn't mean it'll see play; it only means so many other cards won't have a chance at seeing play.
Re: List of "Modern Design Mistakes": Tarmogoyf should have been GG, and arguably a 1/1 for memory issues. Scavenging Ooze is quite good; a green Withered Wretch, but in a better creature color with associated upsides. Delver of Secrets clear mistake. Hooting Mandrills - I'm not so sure this is a mistake. This isn't affinity for graveyard; if I dump 4 cards in my yard by turn 2, I should be able to play this for 1G. Not a problem. Good thing there's 1-2CMC removal spells for this in the format, right? Wizards hates on Graveyard stuff unduly; they print super efficient graveyard hate cards available to all colors and often with 2ndary effects; see ooze. So use them.
Final thoughts: I don't think we should talk about "pushed" cards; I think we can sensibly talk about [i]signature[/i] cards that wizards [i]expects[/i] will see play and designs them as such. Above average art; recognizable; memorable. However, Vanillas will [i]rarely[/i[ be in this position... save maybe the 9/9 for 3GG. French Vanillas have a better shot.
But in terms of "cards that help teach players the game"; vanillas perform an important function. And it sucks when you realize you got a useless "limited only" card; vanillas more than most others have to overcome this somehow. Tribal works in a few, odd cases. But really? All you can do is print the best possible vanilla, don't print a functionally better card in the same set, and design the set well. Available removal. Flexible draft strategies. And enough colorless cards and special lands to help pad 2 color decks that got squeezed out of their 2nd color.
Ahn-Crop Crasher costs 2R; in light of this I think we need to evaluate what colors get what as the "top" of their vanilla:
R 2/1 (with slight? upside)
1R 2/2 (with slight upside)
2R 3/3
3R 4/4?h4R 5/5
I think these are quite relevant. With these in mind, I could see a core set printing the following vanilla creatures:
Firecat Hunter R
Creature - Elemental Cat (U)
2/1
Notes:
1. See Falkenrath Gorger for baseline; and no - please don't tell me it's rarity allows it to break vanilla->cost casting.
2. I want this to have a semi-relevant creature type; goblin is too good I think, and vampire would be functionally worse than an existing card. I settled for Elemental Cat here - iconic, fun, flavorful.
3. Iconic - With good art, this feels like it can be iconic. It's the sort of card that might see some play in constructed, and feels real good in the hands of new players.
Starstruck Unicorn W
Creature - Unicorn (U)
2/2
Note:
1. Hound of Konda, oh how power creep has abused you. Dryad Militant obsoletes Elite Vanguard, so we're left with giving the 2nd to worst p/t ratio to mana cost color (red) the best weenie in the format, or printing Elite Vanguard a mirror of it in a color that is far better at creatures. Neither is to my liking, so I'm just going to obsolete here.
2. However, I don't want to make it a solider for fear it would be ridiculous(er) with soldier lords, of which I think a core set would have. Let someone have to make the same choice we did between Savannah Lion and a good soldier 1 drop w/o 2 power (Pre- Elite Vanguard) for their solider decks.
3. Iconic - Again, a 2/2 for 1 mana is going to feel somewhat iconic. I've gone with Unicron here, but if we want to make out iconic common unicorn a 2/2 Lifelinker for 1W (or something), we'd need to find another iconic creature type here; something we're not ashamed of when it shows up in high level play on occasion.
Fledgling Treefolk G
Creature - Treefolk (C)
1/3
Notes:
1. I think something has to stand in the face of 2/1s and 2/2s for 1, and this serves that role at a good rarity in green.
2. In limited, it's often not a good idea to run a 1 drop. However, this 1 drop is effectively comparable to a D 2 drop, and that might make it playable on it's own???
3. I don't know if this feels iconic, but it wouldn't hurt to give it some cute art. Tribal treefolk wouldn't mind a 2nd one drop all else being equal.
Goblin Standard 1R
Creature - Goblin Warrior (C)
2/2
Note: I went there; Harsh Mentor really makes vanilla 2/2s for 1R feel bad, but Goblin and Warrior are two iconic creature types that matter for the game. If anything can make a vanilla 2/2 for 1R worth your consideration, it' being a goblin... assuming your lord grants haste that is.
Magenta Ogre 2R
Creature - Ogre Berserker (U)
3/3
Note:
1. I'm still not happy with 3/3s for 2R at common.
2. Giving it a rarely used creature types helps; it can be playable in some ogre tribal decks, and thus it's not complete garbage after a draft. This is why it's worth talking about vanillas - you want them in your game for draft and for teaching new players; but they're rarely going to have a chance in constructed. Small design changes like this can help.
3. Considered making this a minotaur, but I think that benchmark vanillas and french should be in core sets, and I think the core set needs a Hurloon Minotaur homage in the form of a red vampire nighthawk - some combination of First Strike, Menace, Haste, and Trample would work. Obviously I'd be for leaving off trample, but that feels efficient enough that we need to test it.
Mountain Giant 3R
Creature - Giant Warrior (U)
4/4
Notes:
1. And here we get to the point where I'm sure lots of you will say I'm pushing it too far; to which I reply Emberhorn Minotaur. I'm sorry, but a 4/3 that can be a 5/4 evasive creature is pretty darned good (at least for limited).
2. Made it uncommon,
3. Now I'm not going to tell you that Mountain Giant will see constructed play... at least not without some muraganda petroglyphs-style support, or some odd tribal synergies. But in terms of showing people the benchmarks, I think this is where it's at.
With this set of red vanillas, we get 4 iconic fantasy creature types - Elemental, Goblin, Ogre, and Giant. The big problem is that I set 3 of them at uncommon. Given Red's fantastic creature commons in the way of speciality goblins, firebreathing lizards, and the like - I don't see this as a problem.
Also, I think Red's got a lot to think about for french vanillas; a 3/3 with menace or haste or even trample could make sense at common at 3R, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a 2/1 first strike, haste for 2R. Also, maybe Regathan Firecat or a few other asymmetrical p/t vanillas in the color. It's certainly the color for high P, low T vanillas, with blue being the opposite.
I suspect many of Green, white, and even blue's set of vanilla benchmarks would be at common, which should have the desired effect of making draft play .easier. Red's spells are also notoriously more straightforward than the other colors; what with smelt, lightning bolt, etc. running around.
Yes, I can see a Nessian Courser in red at uncommon just fine, in terms of power level. I'm not if it'd ever see print, though, as it doesn't really serve a strong purpose like haste does.
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I wonder if a red 3/3 for 2R could be printed at common; I think my theoretical red uncommon slot is filling up quite quickly. M2015 has 14 red uncommons; M2014 has 9. I'm going to assume we want about 10, which means:
1. Lighting Bolt
2. Red Savannah Lions
3. Red vampire nighthawk counterpart minotaur
4. 3/3 for 2R
5. Vulshock Sorcerer
6. Shiv's Embrace maybe?
7. Demolish-variant?
8. Pyroclasm?
9. Anarchist
10. Sudden Impact-variant?
11. Viashino Sandstalker-variant?
12. Lightning Axe?
13. 4/4 for 3R?
14. Some efficient haste creature?
When I look at this list, I'd love to move the 3/3 to common, maybe the Viashino Sandstalker-variant, Demolish-variant, and possibly lightning bolt if testing allows it. I could see cutting Shiv's Embrace and Lightning Axe... especially the latter, as it's kind of clunky for a core set.
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
And we've had red (and black) 3/3s for 2C with drawbacks for a while.
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Uh... I'm not sure what you're talking about. We're pretty much looking at vanillas here; not making a 3/3 tireless tracker, which is clearly better than Centaur Courser.
Now here's a question: Can green get a 4/4 vanilla for 1GG? I think so. However, I don't think it should.
That said, I think green could get quite a few solid vanillas in a good core set:
G 1/3 (C) Treefolk
GG 3/3 (U) Beast
3G 5/5 or 4/6 (C) ? or Treefolk?
3GG 9/9 (R) Wurm?
If we're ignoring Standard for being very mutable and inconsistent as to what is and is not okay for a creature to do, then the next rung down is Modern. Cards like Hooting Mandrills, Delver of Secrets, Scavenging Ooze, and, of course, The Goyf are the top of the power curve when it comes to creature efficiency in modern, but most of these are ultimately recognized as bad card design in some way or another (Delve is OP mechanic, Delver is a bit too easy to activate in hindsight, Goyf is Goyf). Which is to say, if you aren't considering standard then the top of the curve is to be an overpowered mistake card.
The next best you can do is to consider limited, i.e. basically balance creature against other creatures in your set. Do zombies have a lot of tribal support in this set? Well, probably don't print any pushed zombies in common or uncommon since they'll be too much for limited. Pushed goblins are fine though because this set doesn't have goblin support. Standard is basically extending this logic to multiple sets, except rarity doesn't actually matter much beyond what people are willing to pay.
- Rabid Wombat
Re: List of "Modern Design Mistakes":
Tarmogoyf should have been GG, and arguably a 1/1 for memory issues.
Scavenging Ooze is quite good; a green Withered Wretch, but in a better creature color with associated upsides.
Delver of Secrets clear mistake.
Hooting Mandrills - I'm not so sure this is a mistake. This isn't affinity for graveyard; if I dump 4 cards in my yard by turn 2, I should be able to play this for 1G. Not a problem. Good thing there's 1-2CMC removal spells for this in the format, right? Wizards hates on Graveyard stuff unduly; they print super efficient graveyard hate cards available to all colors and often with 2ndary effects; see ooze. So use them.
Final thoughts: I don't think we should talk about "pushed" cards; I think we can sensibly talk about [i]signature[/i] cards that wizards [i]expects[/i] will see play and designs them as such. Above average art; recognizable; memorable. However, Vanillas will [i]rarely[/i[ be in this position... save maybe the 9/9 for 3GG. French Vanillas have a better shot.
But in terms of "cards that help teach players the game"; vanillas perform an important function. And it sucks when you realize you got a useless "limited only" card; vanillas more than most others have to overcome this somehow. Tribal works in a few, odd cases. But really? All you can do is print the best possible vanilla, don't print a functionally better card in the same set, and design the set well. Available removal. Flexible draft strategies. And enough colorless cards and special lands to help pad 2 color decks that got squeezed out of their 2nd color.