Power Creep Part 3 November 4, 2008
Posted by James in : all, fake cards , trackbackIf you haven’t read the first Power Creep article, you should go here.
Transcending Blacker Lotus
James Gray
Tuesday, October 3, 2058
Today’s three Transcendence previews show just how much potential creatures, control, and basic lands will continue to have.
The first preview card emphasizes the potential of creatures… and Kobolds:
Goblin Sociopath is the largest creature to date with only one mana cost, but it generally requires a lot of creatures to be useful. Ornithoptors and Kobolds are one option.
The second card previewed today shows the potential of control. In particular, creature removal.
Over 50 years ago Patrician’s Scorn was unfairly powerful against enchantments. Why should it be so much easier to destroy enchantments than creatures? Back then it was important for creature removal to be less powerful because we wanted more people to play creatures. Now that creatures are finally as powerful as they should be we no longer need to encourage players to play creature decks, and creature removal can finally be as powerful as it should be.
The final card previewed today is based on everyone’s favorite card:
Plucked lotus is the most powerful “Black Lotus” card to date and can produce even more mana than “Blacker Lotus.” Not only does Plucked Lotus give players one more good reason to play basic lands, but it explains a plot hole: How does a single Lotus Petal give you one mana? An entire Lotus can only give you three mana! In real life a Lotus has 20-50 petals. Now you can enjoy the full power of a Black Lotus by getting one mana for all 50 of its petals.
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My next article will be posted on Tuesday 11-4-2008.
The image of Goblin Sociopath is an altered version of the Hannibal movie poster.
Comments»
[…] Power Creep Part 3 […]
So, in all the 50 years of magic they never made that 6th color? I am dashed! Dashed I say!
Since I can’t edit…the way it is worded you can use the Plucked Lotus with fewer than 5 cards in hand. Is this intentional?
Yes it is intentional. The card is really great when you are hellbent! …or not. If you only have 2 cards in hand and both are basic lands, what will you cast with them? It’s not exactly a situation that helps.
I never said a 6th color was never made. It might have lasted for 40 years, but 50 years from now the 6th color will not be a permanent part of the game. Remember that Planar Chaos was going to have a 6th color, but not the whole Timespiral block.
[…] Power Creep Part 3 […]
Goblin Sociopath has to take a back seat to Phyrexian Dreadnought, which is a 12/12 creature for one mana.
Greg, interesting point. I decided to try to consider how powerful magic cards will get in the future and Goblin Sociopath is about as good as I can imagine. However, there could be some other creature that works better with Illusionary Mask.
[…] The tricks used by Wizards of the Coast are not seriously immoral, but it would be a mistake to dismiss the behavior as mere impoliteness. It is more serious than impoliteness because it has real life consequences. This is a different moral category that doesn’t really have a name. It is certainly permissible in the moral sense, but it’s not a good idea to do it, like pinching your brother or yelling loudly in someone’s ear. […]