Because a 5/5 First striker with 6 was just to powerful to go without a drawback.
TDL
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Remember, faisjdas, this was printed in the days before Bankslayer and such. Creatures used to be costed with the assumption that they wouldn't immediately be destroyed/exiled/sacrificed/etc., unlike now. Huh, I didn't know a s sumption was a dirty word.
Naanomi
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
The only white Djinn or Efreet... Army of Allah disapproves.
scumbling1
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
"Remember, faisjdas, this was printed in the days before Bankslayer and such. Creatures used to be costed with the assumption that they wouldn't immediately be destroyed/exiled/sacrificed/etc., unlike now."
However, this was printed after creatures such as Mahamoti Djinn, Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel -- all creatures above the baseline of one-mana-per-+1/+1 / keyword ability. They weren't above printing creatures that were aggressively-costed back then. My guess is that since this cycle is uncommon, giving the creatures a drawback was a way to keep Limited (where they are solid cards) safe from an abundance of 5/5 monsters.
reapersaurus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
uh - at what point in Magic history did the R&D team think that Djinn = teh suck?
Latronis
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
shame about the cycle being fairly bad all round. All have such nice art
NeoKoda
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's a pretty good card, in my opinion. It would be best as Green, or Blue, or...Red or Black. But still fine as White.
Gabriel422
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Would it have broken anything if this was costed 3W?
Comments (11)
Huh, I didn't know a s sumption was a dirty word.
However, this was printed after creatures such as Mahamoti Djinn, Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel -- all creatures above the baseline of one-mana-per-+1/+1 / keyword ability. They weren't above printing creatures that were aggressively-costed back then. My guess is that since this cycle is uncommon, giving the creatures a drawback was a way to keep Limited (where they are solid cards) safe from an abundance of 5/5 monsters.