Pointed Discussion

what? a Coat of Arms, for only your fighting creatures, that doesn't care about type, on legs, for four mana... and you guys gave it a 3?!?!
I call shenanigans. This guy is amazing. Throw on a whispersilk and have at the murder.

This guy is awesome, but he needs a little personal help. Whispersilk is a primo choice.

1/1 is ridiculous for the cost. But Ice Age was notoriously excessively cautious about the price/power ratio. Now I bet this guy would be 3/3 for exactly the same price.

Banding would be nice on this guy.

All he needs is a little toughness boost, or Sigil of the Nayan Gods for maximum effectiveness.
Or just indestructibility. A kill spell handy for whatever your opponent decides to block him with.

Play with Elemental Mastery, perhaps?

The best 'Battlecry' creature out there! And the first too!

I mean "Whenever Márton Stromgald attacks, other attacking creatures get +1/+1 until end of turn for each attacking creature other than Márton Stromgald." is quite similar to 'Battelcry' :D

Márton Stromgald: "Ok Goblins hear me out. This is what I want you to do..."

He's a great fella. You people are too worried about his survival, but you don't see that when Marton attacks, the 1/1 is the least of the worries defender has to think about. It's the horde of fatties that comes with Marton. Also note that Marton is a great blocker. You might think that is not true since Marton will surely die during the blocking, but there is a simple solution for it: first striking blockers.

There's plenty of creative ways to beef up his defense, this guy owns people, old school combo was attacking with a horde of goons and Maze of Ith-ing him to keep him around.

I run an EDH deck with this guy. Threw in a bunch of equipment to make him indestructible/shroud/unblockable. The games are generally quite fun as there are some hilarious token generators out there.

hes great but needs some help he dies to easily

Wonderful EDH general. Weenie swarm, and it's ZERGRUSH!!!

Too bad, though, that you then can't play Overrun.

This guy is still in pretty much every goblin deck i make. With Fervor or some other hasty effect for him to attack on the same turn he's dropped he becomes an instant steamroll.

Yeah, for Ice Age, this creature is pretty darn effective. It allowed a massive creature alpha strike and aside from the piddly 1/1 body, is still competitive today.

"1/1 is ridiculous for the cost. But Ice Age was notoriously excessively cautious about the price/power ratio. Now I bet this guy would be 3/3 for exactly the same price."

Yeah, because he clearly isn't bonkers already? With Marton, the fact that he's only 1/1 almost serves as a kind of defense when attacking, because your opponent will often times tend to block your horde of fatties rather than a 1/1 creature. Of course, any burn spell kills him, but then again, I wouldn't think twice about running him in almost any aggro deck if he could survive burn and blockers. As it is I don't see why you'd need to make this card any stronger.

Sooooo GOOOD in Krenko deck :D

I hear people on Gatherer all the time say 'such and such would be a 6/6 for 6 and have trample nowadays' or 'so and so would have cost 7 mana back in the days and had a cumulative upkeep'.

well, ok, no not those specific remarks, but the sentiment we all know is there.

This guy though, he actually would be different stats for same mana, because he encourages attacking and blocking, but he dies whenever he does it. Wizards would be aware of his ability being fantastic these days, but Development is about 'making the game Fun' and Design is about 'making the cards do what you expect them to.' (if you believe what they say about themselves), and the way I read his ability, reads to me like a Dragon or a Titan.

He wants to attack. Give him Attacking numbers. Maybe, also, he'd become a 6 mana creature. for like a 4/5. Also, this ability in general feels more White than Red.

basically, it pretty much is Battlecry-- look at the Battlecry cards they actually made and compare them to Mr. Stromgald. He would not be a 1/1. But I could see a 2/2 Protection from Black, maybe?

He would be very different than what we see here if he were given a remake. Acually I think the Hellrider-like cards are what we get *instead* of trying to match this guy. They have better attack numbers, and the mana cost is aggressive, but then the ability is scaled back some.

We are constantly seeing new versions of this guy, we just don't recognize him anymore because he's tweaked to be more sensible and then tweaked again to be more fair.

If this guy was exactly as is but a 3/3, he'd be nuts. o.O

Attack With...
Frontline Medic gives all your guys indestructibility.
Deftblade Elite provokes and fogs.
Legion Loyalist will give first strike and trample.
Soltari Champion, Pianna, Nomad Captain and Jelenn Sphinx each give +1/+1 to attackers.
Firemane Avenger will Lightning Helix something.
Lord of Shatterskull Pass (level 6+) does 6 damage to each creature defender controls.
Preyseizer Dragon does damage to something equal to the +1/+1 counters on it.
Hellrider pings (opponents) 1 damage for each attacker.
Windbrisk Raptor will give lifelink.
Victory's Herald gives both flying and lifelink.
Geist of Saint Traft adds a flying attacker.
Hero of Bladehold has battle cry and gives enough guys to activate battalion or Odric.
Nobilis of War gives +2/+0 to all your guys.
Aurelia, the Warleader just makes combat happen again.
Odric, Master Tactician allows you to assign blockers, not defending player.
Sidar Jabari, Frost Titan, Niblis of the Urn, Seasoned Marshal or Master of Diversion taps a guy.
Merfolk Skyscout untaps something.
Skymark Roc unsummons a toughness 2- guy.
Archon of the Triumvirate detains 2 guys.
Herald of War adds a +1/+1 counter and makes humans/angels cost less for each.
Pyreheart Wolf makes each attacker require 2+ blockers.
Flameblast Dragon or Ancient Hellkite does fireball-like stuff.