Because obviously, white needs help from green to do banding, especially at rare level...
Mode
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
on top of that, it's a double-white 2/2 three-drop. seriously, were they afraid that a vanilla 2/2 two-drop with banding would have been overpowered? ;)
themicronaut
★★☆☆☆ (2.3/5.0)(6 votes)
BANDING!!! 5/5!!! Ok, the reminder text on banding is almost 5 lines, what a stupid ability.
mrredhatter
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Maybe this card is super weak, but banding itself can be used with so much cheese they had to stop reusing it.
faisjdas
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
Human beast soldiers?
And that second guy in the art is giving me the creeps. He looks like a pedophile hunting for a playground.
Aaron_Forsythe
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(30 votes)
Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #16, 10/18/10
How to put this… This card is a dumpster fire.
Recently someone asked me on Twitter what I planned to do when I encountered a basic land when I clicked the “Random Card” button. I wasn’t sure. Well, when generating the card for today’s writing, the randomizer recommended a Plains, the Fred Fields on from Starter 2000. I stared at it for a long moment, wondering if I could keep some kind of running dialogue going across the multiple instances of Plains that would inevitably come up as I continued this exercise. I eventually decided, “Nah,” vowed to skip over basic lands going forward, and was promptly rewarded with this jewel.
Didn’t I already talk about a Homelands card? Can I get some cards from awesome sets, please?
For starters, Beast Walkers is a white creature that you have to spend green mana on in order to give it a white ability. There is only a single mono-green card with natural banding, Timber Wolves, a rare color-shifted Benalish Hero. Banding is, and was, white. The green mana on the card makes no design sense.
Does it make flavor sense? Who knows? I doubt it. The art, type line, and flavor text attempt to tell a story of heroes that dress up as bears and perform good deeds. I get that the green activation is meant to signify the donning of costume, but again, the banding payoff is neither green nor beast-like. Trample would make more sense.
Activated banding? Really? If there’s anything that can make banding more of a headache than it is normally, that would be granting it to creatures mid-combat. There’s no benefit to not having it, so the decision isn’t even an interesting one. (Read the Oracle reminder text if you need a refresher on how the mechanic works.)
Lastly, this card is a rare. White had 2/2 banders prior to this set at common (War Elephant in Arabian Nights), so that’s not new. Maybe the weirdness of the activation made the card so hard for designers and developers to process that they made it a rare.
To make it all worse than it already seems, the better-executed version of this card appeared in the set prior: Ice Age’s Dire Wolves. The Wolves are green and have banding (a white ability) as long as you control a Plains (the white land). That makes sense. There is no activation—it’s either on or it’s off. They are three mana (only a single green, making them easier to cast in a green-white deck), are 2/2, and are common. Hooray for Dire Wolves!
Guest1973919068
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(11 votes)
I have always thought that if every creature (excluding Changelings and Mistform ultimus) in magic were in play at the same time and there was a Coat of Arms out this creature would recieve the largest pump. Human Beast Soldier has to to have the most matches. I have always wanted to know the answer to this.
gos
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(11 votes)
@Guest1973919068:
You're close. Beast Walkers share a creature type with 1650 creatures (today), but is slightly edged out by the Human Soldier Warriors, who share a creature type with 1652 other creatures (including the other Human Soldier Warriors).
As much as I love me some Lycanthropes, especially werebears, this one is trash. Werebear makes it all better. Wizards is forgiven for its past sins. Anyway, even in a Were-themed deck, I don't want to splash white. Black has more to offer.
bay_falconer
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Unlike most, I totally grok banding. (In the Microprose game, you had this added rule that you had to list the creature without banding first.)
1ww for a 2/2 with g: Banding until the end of the turn? And why green? That does not make sense. And it adds more rules stupidity. Almost as bad as bands with other.
Radagast
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Just terrible. It is basically a more expensive Pearled Unicorn that requires you to run white and green in order to pay green mana to give your white creature a confusing ability. Horrible!
Axelle
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
The current count as of 7/18/2012:
1892 creatures in existence are either Humans, Beasts, and/or Soldiers. 1895 creatures in existence are either Humans, Warriors, and/or Soldiers.
The count is still surprisingly close.
SkyknightXi
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
For the record, there WAS a definite boon as compared to the more normal banders with this card. Namely, it amplified Aysen Crusader, along with Benalish Hero. Those were the ONLY cards that could do that during the time of Homelands. This was before the Great Creature Type Update, remember.
tavaritz
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Count on 3/5/2014:
2050 creatures that are human, soldier or beast. 2066 creatures that are human, soldier or warrior.
Comments (15)
seriously, were they afraid that a vanilla 2/2 two-drop with banding would have been overpowered? ;)
And that second guy in the art is giving me the creeps. He looks like a pedophile hunting for a playground.
How to put this… This card is a dumpster fire.
Recently someone asked me on Twitter what I planned to do when I encountered a basic land when I clicked the “Random Card” button. I wasn’t sure. Well, when generating the card for today’s writing, the randomizer recommended a Plains, the Fred Fields on from Starter 2000. I stared at it for a long moment, wondering if I could keep some kind of running dialogue going across the multiple instances of Plains that would inevitably come up as I continued this exercise. I eventually decided, “Nah,” vowed to skip over basic lands going forward, and was promptly rewarded with this jewel.
Didn’t I already talk about a Homelands card? Can I get some cards from awesome sets, please?
For starters, Beast Walkers is a white creature that you have to spend green mana on in order to give it a white ability. There is only a single mono-green card with natural banding, Timber Wolves, a rare color-shifted Benalish Hero. Banding is, and was, white. The green mana on the card makes no design sense.
Does it make flavor sense? Who knows? I doubt it. The art, type line, and flavor text attempt to tell a story of heroes that dress up as bears and perform good deeds. I get that the green activation is meant to signify the donning of costume, but again, the banding payoff is neither green nor beast-like. Trample would make more sense.
Activated banding? Really? If there’s anything that can make banding more of a headache than it is normally, that would be granting it to creatures mid-combat. There’s no benefit to not having it, so the decision isn’t even an interesting one. (Read the Oracle reminder text if you need a refresher on how the mechanic works.)
Lastly, this card is a rare. White had 2/2 banders prior to this set at common (War Elephant in Arabian Nights), so that’s not new. Maybe the weirdness of the activation made the card so hard for designers and developers to process that they made it a rare.
To make it all worse than it already seems, the better-executed version of this card appeared in the set prior: Ice Age’s Dire Wolves. The Wolves are green and have banding (a white ability) as long as you control a Plains (the white land). That makes sense. There is no activation—it’s either on or it’s off. They are three mana (only a single green, making them easier to cast in a green-white deck), are 2/2, and are common. Hooray for Dire Wolves!
You're close. Beast Walkers share a creature type with 1650 creatures (today), but is slightly edged out by the Human Soldier Warriors, who share a creature type with 1652 other creatures (including the other Human Soldier Warriors).
They are the Portal Three Kingdoms legends Cao Ren, Guan Yu, Lady Zhurong, Lu Bu, Ma Chao, Zhang Fei, Zhao Zilong, all featuring horsemanship, and Sandstone Warrior.
Cheers.
Werebear makes it all better. Wizards is forgiven for its past sins.
Anyway, even in a Were-themed deck, I don't want to splash white. Black has more to offer.
1ww for a 2/2 with g: Banding until the end of the turn? And why green? That does not make sense. And it adds more rules stupidity. Almost as bad as bands with other.
1892 creatures in existence are either Humans, Beasts, and/or Soldiers.
1895 creatures in existence are either Humans, Warriors, and/or Soldiers.
The count is still surprisingly close.
2050 creatures that are human, soldier or beast.
2066 creatures that are human, soldier or warrior.