Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #3, 9/29/10
I will start by saying up front that I have tried multiple times in the past couple of years to put one-mana 1/1 vanilla creatures into core sets (specifically Magic 2010 and Magic 2011) and failed. M11 had a 1/1 Vampire in it, but the goal of deep limited gameplay requires that most common creatures in a set do something useful. It is even more difficult getting a creature this underwhelming into blue these days, as blue gets the fewest creatures of any color, meaning each one has that much more work to do. That said, I will keep trying.
I love the idea of the vanilla 1/1 because I love that they matter sometimes to some segment of players. I believe it to be no coincidence that the two 1/1 vanilla commons in Richard Garfield’s Alpha set had corresponding “lords” at rare (Merfolk of the Pearl Trident : Lord of Atlantis :: Mons's Goblin Raiders : Goblin King). I think those lord cards were really important, as they took these worthless little 1/1’s and gave them a plausible reason to exist--heck, a reason to be played in large numbers! These guys weren’t bad for bad’s sake--they were simple for simple’s sake, but still had a very important role in the set. I can’t help but feel like we screwed up when we put Fugitive Wizard into the Eighth Edition set without some kind of Wizard-helping card to give it meaning. His job was just to be terrible.
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident was constantly in print for at least the first eight years of Magic. Everyone that played during that time was familiar with them, which made them a great candidate for some kind of throwback card in the Time Spiral set. Designer Devin Low submitted an Equipment card called “The Pearl Trident” that somehow combined the abilities of Lord of Atlantis and Opposition in a fun way; it’s a shame it didn’t make it through. I guess our nod to the old-school Merfolk was the time-shifted reprinting of their lord.
One last note… Merfolk of the Pearl Trident made it to the finals of the World Championships in 2001 in Alex Borteh’s Merfolk-Opposition deck. Even a little 1/1 do-nothing can be the right card to play sometimes!
A3Kitsune
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(7 votes)
@Aaron:
Perhaps for Magic 2012, instead of trying to get one-mana vanilla 1/1s into the set, you could try to get in a couple of token-generators that make token versions of the clas sic one-mana 1/1s. That would fit the new power leval better.
ChibiUnunnilium
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I'd say a tribal set would be the best place for a new vanilla 1/1, especially as a member of a new creature type that didn't already have something strictly better.
I remember being especially frustrated at Fugitive Wizard in 8th, because there was a vanilla 1/1 for U in Kamigawa block with a releavant creature type.
Cheza
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(5 votes)
QUOTE: Merfolk of the Pearl Trident made it to the finals of the World Championships in 2001 in Alex Borteh’s Merfolk-Opposition deck. Even a little 1/1 do-nothing can be the right card to play sometimes!
No, this creature wasn't the right card, it was the lack of alternatives that FORCED him to act this way. BTW: We used these cards as the first version of tokens, before WotC ever thought about it.
Flavor-wise, though, vanilla 1/1s have a use. They're supposed to get bigger with a lord. But these days, a vanilla 1/1 makes us think of kobolds too much.
Areps
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
fails to cancel
Hivis_of_the_Scale
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Yup, we needed this in M13
thevegetable
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
cards like this and the hurloon are what keep me from being a better magic player. every time i'm editing my merfolk deck, my hand hovers over these guys, while a number of 1-drop 1/1's that do anything at all run through my brain. i quickly flip to the next card, and let myself forget that they're still in the deck, 17 years strong...
Comments (9)
I will start by saying up front that I have tried multiple times in the past couple of years to put one-mana 1/1 vanilla creatures into core sets (specifically Magic 2010 and Magic 2011) and failed. M11 had a 1/1 Vampire in it, but the goal of deep limited gameplay requires that most common creatures in a set do something useful. It is even more difficult getting a creature this underwhelming into blue these days, as blue gets the fewest creatures of any color, meaning each one has that much more work to do. That said, I will keep trying.
I love the idea of the vanilla 1/1 because I love that they matter sometimes to some segment of players. I believe it to be no coincidence that the two 1/1 vanilla commons in Richard Garfield’s Alpha set had corresponding “lords” at rare (Merfolk of the Pearl Trident : Lord of Atlantis :: Mons's Goblin Raiders : Goblin King). I think those lord cards were really important, as they took these worthless little 1/1’s and gave them a plausible reason to exist--heck, a reason to be played in large numbers! These guys weren’t bad for bad’s sake--they were simple for simple’s sake, but still had a very important role in the set. I can’t help but feel like we screwed up when we put Fugitive Wizard into the Eighth Edition set without some kind of Wizard-helping card to give it meaning. His job was just to be terrible.
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident was constantly in print for at least the first eight years of Magic. Everyone that played during that time was familiar with them, which made them a great candidate for some kind of throwback card in the Time Spiral set. Designer Devin Low submitted an Equipment card called “The Pearl Trident” that somehow combined the abilities of Lord of Atlantis and Opposition in a fun way; it’s a shame it didn’t make it through. I guess our nod to the old-school Merfolk was the time-shifted reprinting of their lord.
One last note… Merfolk of the Pearl Trident made it to the finals of the World Championships in 2001 in Alex Borteh’s Merfolk-Opposition deck. Even a little 1/1 do-nothing can be the right card to play sometimes!
Perhaps for Magic 2012, instead of trying to get one-mana vanilla 1/1s into the set, you could try to get in a couple of token-generators that make token versions of the clas sic one-mana 1/1s. That would fit the new power leval better.
I remember being especially frustrated at Fugitive Wizard in 8th, because there was a vanilla 1/1 for U in Kamigawa block with a releavant creature type.
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident made it to the finals of the World Championships in 2001 in Alex Borteh’s Merfolk-Opposition deck. Even a little 1/1 do-nothing can be the right card to play sometimes!
No, this creature wasn't the right card, it was the lack of alternatives that FORCED him to act this way.
BTW: We used these cards as the first version of tokens, before WotC ever thought about it.
Flavor-wise, though, vanilla 1/1s have a use. They're supposed to get bigger with a lord. But these days, a vanilla 1/1 makes us think of kobolds too much.