Pointed Discussion

Rime of Ancient Mariner flavor text = 5 stars.

Black's Gray Ogre, notable mostly for its awesome flavor text...

They made it through ten core sets with that flavor text intact... no small feat. Then got kicked out of M10. Poor Scatheys.

The 8th edition one was my first zombie card ever. This one has the better artwork though which really fits the flavor text.

I always liked this art the best, it is creepy and has an old decaying feel to it. It's just plain good art.

Horrible card from the viewpoint of actually playing it, and often printed with flat-out superior cards available as commons at the same time.

I suppose the Zombies get a pass since, like Zombies, they hung around forever, and they do have cool flavor text.

Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #64, 2/14/10

I've played this card a few times way back in the day (I think four of these plus a few Zombie Masters filled out the Meekstone deck I mentioned a while back), but I didn't really fall in love with it until I started working here.

For many years, I had it firmly planted in my head that Scathe Zombies was going to be the card that appeared in the most consecutive Core Sets—after all, if we're willing to keep printing a vanilla 2/2, then we're maintaining a pretty consistent power level. Plus, I really love the real-world flavor text from Coleridge. (People seem to think we've discontinued real-world flavor text, but there has been some amount of it in every Core Set. Chances are that you've just stopped paying attention.)

Scathe Zombies didn’t make it into M10—I really loved the idea of a redone Nantuko Husk (Vampire Aristocrat) at common and we don't really want to do strictly-better cards at the same rarity—and now its down to either Giant Spider or Giant Growth as the only card to appear in every Core Set (tune into M12 for the winner!). Warpath Ghoul and its twin Barony Vampire have become the new black vanilla creatures of choice.

Truthfully, 2/2 is too weak to be on-curve—it hampers all the two- and three-mana creatures you can make in that color. Scathe Zombies just wasn't holding up well, as we printed Bog Raiders, Blood Vassal, Quagmire Druid, and tons of other commons that are better than him while he was in print. And it's hard to call Warpath Ghoul "power creep" with a straight face, as all we did was take a card you'd never really consider playing in constructed and turn it into a slightly better card that you'll still never really consider playing in constructed, even ten years ago—they both essentially rate as "0."

Then again, Scathe Zombies is quite a bit better than Mindless Null. Power creep indeed!

I disagree with Aaron's assertion that Warpath Ghoul wouldn't have been playable in Constructed ten years ago. Trained Armodon saw Constructed play and Warpath Ghoul is only slightly worse in a colour that isn't as good at creatures. It'd never have been a superstar, but I could imagine it being at the very least looked at for Constructed play.

@Aaron_Forsythe: I am a casual player, and I actually think that, within that setting, Scathe Zombies is the quint-essential zombie card. It has been with M:TG since its very start, and in addition to that, it has its wonderful flavour text. That, and the fact that it is a simple and unassuming vanilla, turns into, dare I say, the most iconic zombie card ever. I would gladly put it into each and every zombie deck I were to make.

Art + Flavor Text = 5 for me

@ Nyktos:
Well, the toughness 3 of Trained Armodon really matters. Since if you look at the M12 statistics, 44 cards have a power of 2, whereas only 13 have a power of 3. That really makes the Armodon quite a powerful card. The second green mana however was removed for multicolor-limited reasons, leaving enough room to also make the black version a bit more powerful.

@ Aaron:
Although I never really liked the power curve of magic (since power 1 means 20 hits and power 2 means half that much), I never felt happy with 2/2 for 3. In a usual game, the cmc3 slot is what I call the "pants down" slot, where you usually recognize how the game is gonna be. There are cards like Tempered Steel makes it obvious that no-fattie will see play. Seismic Assault proves that it's some sort of fast combo kill, whereas an Pyrexian Arena symbolizes an attrition deck.

But also non-enchantment cards fulfill this criteria. F.e. all the lords cost 3 mana to cast.

Seeing an underwhelming Zombie (even the 3/2 version) in this slot, makes me shiver and I would have rather see a 2/2 Zombie for . Not only would this card still have the same P/T rating as any zombie token, it would also show that there is no need to give black weaker creatures than white or green. Neither black destruction spells nor reanimation are powerful enough to force a drawback on creatures. In addition, this zombie would really symbolize a mindless minion and would have MUCH more flavor than any Glory Seeker or Runeclaw Bear.

Spealing of these two cards, green should have the cmc3 vanilla creature to use the "pants down" slot for a vanilla creature to show the creature focus of this color.

Warpath Ghoul had to compete with Hypnotic Spectre in m10. Draw your own conclusions.

And it's finally officially obsolete with the printing of Walking Corpse, being vanilla of the same type, rarity, and body at a cheaper cost.

Vile Rebirth. Seriously, everyone should read Rime of The Ancient Mariner, it's an epic poem of a seaman and an albatross.

BROKEN with Umezawa's Jitte. This makes this card similar to (insert creature here).

Was actually used when a filler zom-bag was required. Almost like Merfolk of the Pearl Trident or Mons's Goblin Raiders.

The Scathe zombies were known for their love of eating brains and their surprisingly good cultural arts scene. Their local theater production of "Hello Dolly" drew rave reviews from the Scathe Daily News.

Just a good group of guys, looking for some fun.

I just random'ed here from Will-o'-the-Wisp, which also had an exerpt from Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Magic: The Gathering: Enlightening youngsters to great literature since 1994.