Aaron’s Random Card Comment of the Day #68, 3/30/11
The Onslaught and Legions teams took an interesting tack with regards to cards with tribal interactions--they only had a small number of them at common, but they tended to make them really good. There weren’t many common in that block that told you to draft a deck of all one creature type, but the ones that did—Sparksmith, Daru Stinger, Timberwatch Elf—hoo boy.
In fact, there isn’t another green common in Legions that even mentioned “Elf” or “Elves” in its text box (Lorwyn had three for comparison). If you didn’t open or draft a Timberwatch Elf in limited, chances are you weren’t that interested in making an Elf deck.
Cards like this need to exist for constructed play--both competitive and casual. Mánaless activations help creature decks keep up pressure, and the scaling nature of the card can make for brutally fast starts that can be impossible for some decks to recover from. We’re typically happy when Elf decks are good in constructed—Elves are beloved by many, many players, and they tend to have a pretty straightforward plan of attack that people of any skill level can appreciate—so I think Timberwatch Elf is a good card to exist.
I just don’t like it at common. All the reasons that make it viable as a constructed card make it oppressive as a limited card. Creatures that repeatedly can pump attackers or blockers can completely paralyze the opponent’s forces. You can’t profitable block anything and can rarely attack on the ground any time a Timberwatch is active on the other side of the board. On top of that, less skilled players walk into the on-board tricks these cards present all the time, making them feel dumb in the short term and making them gunshy about ever attacking with anything on complicated boards. We’ve really shield away from making common cards that do this at all recently—no more Kabuto Moths or Nantuko Disciples in the past few years—let alone ones that scale.
I hold that Timberwatch Elf at common was a format-defining mistake, one we’ve been careful to not come close to repeating.
cl0ysterd
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(4 votes)
I hate elves, and I hate this card. It's too obviously and powerfully linear, and like Forsythe said it's an incredible beating at common in Limited.
JFM2796
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Elves...
Arachobia
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I love him in chaos games in comparison to Immaculate Magistrate because he pumps temporarily and you can use him to finish off one opponent by temporarily pumping another's creature. I won a Piranha match that way once...
Cheza
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@ Aaron:
First of all, I like Elves, but I liked them at the time of Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. I didn't like Priest of Titania and this continued to this creature as well and ended up with Immaculate Magistrate. So the main problem seems to be the scaling factor.
I don't like cards like this, because they print a "work together" flavor on just one card, rather than really using a "work together" effect. If the TImberwatch Elf would have: "Tap an untapped Elf you control: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn", this would have really got my love (like Field Surgeon vs. Battlefield Medic).
@Cheza: I'm not sure if you are aware, but Magic is a game, not just 'try to see how you can most flavourfully represent things given a certain set of mechanics'. The effect you provided that would have got your love would have been almost completely useless, so in the end you just have a flavourful card that doesn't do anything.
Comments (9)
I love when I can boost a 1/1 elf token to a 100/100 or so just to then Sacriface it for Mercy Killing. :)
The Onslaught and Legions teams took an interesting tack with regards to cards with tribal interactions--they only had a small number of them at common, but they tended to make them really good. There weren’t many common in that block that told you to draft a deck of all one creature type, but the ones that did—Sparksmith, Daru Stinger, Timberwatch Elf—hoo boy.
In fact, there isn’t another green common in Legions that even mentioned “Elf” or “Elves” in its text box (Lorwyn had three for comparison). If you didn’t open or draft a Timberwatch Elf in limited, chances are you weren’t that interested in making an Elf deck.
Cards like this need to exist for constructed play--both competitive and casual. Mánaless activations help creature decks keep up pressure, and the scaling nature of the card can make for brutally fast starts that can be impossible for some decks to recover from. We’re typically happy when Elf decks are good in constructed—Elves are beloved by many, many players, and they tend to have a pretty straightforward plan of attack that people of any skill level can appreciate—so I think Timberwatch Elf is a good card to exist.
I just don’t like it at common. All the reasons that make it viable as a constructed card make it oppressive as a limited card. Creatures that repeatedly can pump attackers or blockers can completely paralyze the opponent’s forces. You can’t profitable block anything and can rarely attack on the ground any time a Timberwatch is active on the other side of the board. On top of that, less skilled players walk into the on-board tricks these cards present all the time, making them feel dumb in the short term and making them gunshy about ever attacking with anything on complicated boards. We’ve really shield away from making common cards that do this at all recently—no more Kabuto Moths or Nantuko Disciples in the past few years—let alone ones that scale.
I hold that Timberwatch Elf at common was a format-defining mistake, one we’ve been careful to not come close to repeating.
First of all, I like Elves, but I liked them at the time of Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. I didn't like Priest of Titania and this continued to this creature as well and ended up with Immaculate Magistrate. So the main problem seems to be the scaling factor.
I don't like cards like this, because they print a "work together" flavor on just one card, rather than really using a "work together" effect. If the TImberwatch Elf would have: "Tap an untapped Elf you control: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn", this would have really got my love (like Field Surgeon vs. Battlefield Medic).
And at your comment about the common Moth & Nantuko, please note Infantry Veteran, Kithkin Daggerdare and co.