Pointed Discussion

Awesome art.

Zombie goblins. Always got to have one in a set.

This would be a pretty good card if it was a 3/1 or 2/2, or if its cost was 2B. Other that the concept, creature type and artwork, this card sucks.

The cost is irrelevant, it could get battelfield at 3rd turn thanks to Warren Instigator.

Great Artwork, ty for the haste ;)

It's not the same at all, but it's an interesting coincidence that the original zombie goblin - Festering Goblin - expressed its "fetid, disease-ridden" nature mechanically by granting something -1/-1!

Clearly, Phyrexia is better at spreading disease than the Cabal ever was (although the Cabal offered it at rock-bottom CMCs!).

Poison counters? Zombie type? Sure his mana cost is high, but he's great! I agree with Diachronos, Contagious Nim is better, though.

This guy is great! I used him in the pre release this morning! He's a tad expensive and his toughness is lousy, but you guys are forgetting that this little dude has haste, so he can help you out straight away. I like it 4/5 for me

Started with 2 in my sealed deck. Over the course of 4 matches, I slowly removed them until there were none left. I wasn't impressed. Too expensive to race with, to fragile to threaten with.

Expensive, sure... But he's great for punishing an opponent that leaves themselves tapped out. Have won a few games like that with my new infect deck so far.

at this price, get hand of the praetors instead. +1/+1 for it and each other infectious creature you control and a poison counter whenever you cast an infectious creature spell is worth more than haste.

Aside from surprise factor, that goblins sucks big black *****. But don't underestimate surprise factor, it may prove fatal.

I agree with Chremon, this guy is gonna be bad in my goblin deck! just drop a Goblin Recruiter or Goblin Matron, and line 'em up how you need 'em if you don't have the Instigator in your hand.

Should cost 3 at most, imo. Boggart Ram-Gang is better than this in almost every way possible, unless you realllly want infect.

I don#t like black haste.

Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #7, 10/5/10

I’ve been working at Wizards for, oh, almost nine years now. At least 5,000 new cards have been designed since the day I walked in the door.

It has taken me seven days of random comments to come upon one such card. I’ve had a long career here (by game industry standards), but the stuff I’ve been involved in is just a fraction of Magic’s total lifespan. Pretty humbling.

And to add some irony to the whole thing, the first card that I get to talk about that I was involved in creating is one that I already discussed in a previous post! (See: Crazed Skirge) Curse you, “Random Card” button!

Okay… Blackcleave Goblin. Yes. Black haste.

Haste is a great complement to infect; that keyword pair lent itself to a couple impressive higher-rarity cards in Scars of Mirrodin—green’s Putrefax and black’s Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. But getting the numbers right on a lower-rarity guy was tough.

Blackcleave Goblin began life as an uncommon 2/2 haste with poisonous 2, back before we adopted the infect keyword, as Mark Rosewater initially believed the “poisonous” implementation from Future Sight was going to work in the set. Later the card became a 2/1 haste creature with poisonous 3, which illustrates the awkwardness of that version of the poison mechanic. Creatures’ powers and their poisonous numbers were independent variables that didn’t ever stack, and pump spells and damage prevention didn’t interact with the poisonous number well. Thankfully, we switched to infect.

From there it became a 3/1 haste infect for a whopping . While that cost might seem absurd, remember that infect creatures hit players as if they were double-striking Stigma Lashers, and six mana for a six-power haste creature—at uncommon—is not unreasonable, especially given how often the board is empty in a midgame of Scars limited. I say all that, but the truth was that the six-mana 3/1 felt unimpressive to us as well, and we ended up making him smaller— 2/2—and moving him to common. Then the numbers dance began in earnest.

I am a very big believer that each card should be "as unique as it can afford to be" within the set it lives in (and often within the block if at all possible). What that means is that the card can be described—uniquely—by listing a few of its qualities as possible. Face it, many players can never wrap their heads around or remember the names of all the cards we make, so they discuss them using descrìptors. When someone says “the green common 4/4,” or “the legendary Sphinx,” or “the burn spell from the second set,” I want those all to be able to mean only one thing within the context of the set or block they’re discussing. Not only does it make conversations easier, but gameplay as well. If each card occupies a very specific corner or your mindspace, there’s a lesser chance you’ll ever get multiple cards confused. Imagine if a set had three common 2/1 creatures; it’s likely you’d make a play error at some point due to misremembering which was which. (Note that cards having wildly different art helps with gameplay as well, although not so much with conversation.) On top of that, I just feel that cards being “different enough” from one another just makes the set feel better as a whole, like the cards have more to offer. My adherence to this belief can sometimes annoy my fellow developers, as I’ll ask them to make a change based on something they don’t deem important, but in the end they’re often willing to play along.

So Blackcleave Goblin was a 2/2 haste, which was too similar to Contagious Nim, a 2/2. Lead developer Mike Turian tried 1B 1/2 haste, which, while amusing, was too similar to Plague Stinger, a 1/1 flying. (I distinctly remember people getting those two confused in playtesting.) After a brief return to 2/2 haste, the next try was a 1/1 haste—it fit the uniqueness bill, but was horribly lame. Finally we settled on 2/1 haste, which it what it ended up printed as.

Is it weird that a Zombie has haste? Aren’t they supposed to be slow? Some people in house found it weird, but modern pop-culture zombie storytelling has opened the door to non-plodding zombies, some of which are terrifyingly quick!

Weird... when you do the math, 20 life to 10 poison, the goblin hits the player for the equivalent of 4 dmg
That's kinda like a 4/4 with haste for 4
not bad, but the fact it acts as a 2/2 for all other purposes makes it balanced

Now for the weird part, goblin tunneler can make this guy unblockable cause he technically has 2 power, but in essence he will hit for 4
Assault strobe also makes this interaction very interesting, as plague stinger fits the bill as well
Yeah, probably useless information... but still a nifty little interaction, I would love to hear if someone makes use of that

He's good, but I prefer Contagious Nim, personally. A little cheaper and more durable, at the cost of not being able to swing with it the turn you play it.

No. It would be good for three mana. But four? It just sucks.

Hasty infect is incredibly frightening; turn-2 Plague Stinger plus Giant Growth plus Assault Strobe plus this guy equals a turn-4 kill, even if the Stinger dies after that first whack. This is one of those cards that alters how you play just by existing; just as you always have to consider Counterspell in Legacy when the opponent has two Islands untapped, forcing you to play around it even if they don't have it in their deck, so this card means you can never sit at 8 poison counters and tap out without saving a blocker or a removal instant, regardless of the board state - as long as the opponent has 3 mana now, he could drop a Swamp and a Blackcleave and that would be game. That means that regardless of this card's practical value in any given situation, its theoretical value to the game as a whole is huge.

Would a power of 3 have been too much to ask for?

The flavour interaction between goblin, zombie, haste and infect is great here. Having a goblin with haste in black doesn't seem out of place at all when it is of the undead, infectious variety.

Any reason you guys prefer Contagious Nim over Ichor Rats?

Not the best card in the world, but he won my first match at the Scars prerelease as a complete surprise to both me and my opponent, swooping in for the final 2 poison counters after my opponent had forced me to chump block with the rest of my creatures just to survive at 3 life.

There's just something about looking at a desperate situation, not knowing what to do, and topdecking a card you didn't even remember putting in your deck and winning the game with him.

The haste is somewhat negated by the extra mana cost, which means your opponent could have a 4/4 out by now. Avoid this card unless you plan on using it as a suicide attacker to get some counters on something.

Hes Cute : )

This card strikes me as weird. Considering Lost Leonin is a 2/1 with haste for 2 less in white, and infect is more a black/green mechanic.

Aaron's explanation about why this dude lost 1 toughness in the process of design would seem to make sense to me in general. BUT. How could you possibly mistake a black hasty Zombie Golbin with anything else?
At least i wouldn't have a problem deciding whether i want to have 2/2 infect body that costs or one that has haste and costs more.

Zombie Goblin? Reminds me of my first deck, my "Zoblin" deck. Good times, good times.

Ah, zombie goblins. Like the toy in a cereal box, there's always one in every set!

I think this needs to be 2/2

The problem with haste is that you can't justify adding it by adding to the cost, because then you have to play it a turn later and the tempo increase haste gets completely negated. Case in point? Contagious Nim. They can both attack on the same turn, but Nim can block and has one extra toughness. And costs less.

Sample comment - please ignore.
Update - please ignore.
Please ignore - for testing puPlease ignore - for testing purposes.rposes.

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