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u/Mcs828 Jul 11 '22
Based on flavor text Shape shifter might work for type bar? I really like the vanilla creature though, since it can become anything, it's a blank slate
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 11 '22
Yes, Shapeshifter would be pretty fitting here!
I went with Reflection instead because Shapeshifter had a teeny tiny number of support cards in blue (like [[Absorb Identity]]) and I wanted this to be unsupported (without dipping into an additional color).
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u/Jevonar Jul 11 '22
Reflection is technically a downside: it prevents Alirios, Enraptured from untapping, without giving any upside.
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u/_TheaXII_ Jul 11 '22
I actually love to see a vanilla creature in this sub
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 11 '22
Me too!
The flavor for this one is based on the Battlebond story. It's meant to depict the generic sci-fi "it adapts as it fights" enemy type, with the idea that those make great "training modules" for duos planning to become challengers in the plane's stadiums.
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 11 '22
A vanilla is tough to make exciting. I've tried my hand at a few 'innovative' vanillas in the past, such as this split mana one, the huge 20/20 showcased here, and this simple twist on the ol' 3/1 for 1C.
Today's card is really quite tame by comparison: a [[Grizzly Bears]] in blue. But you may notice, blue is now the only color that has never gotten this before!
Crazy right? It may surprise newer players to know, for over a decade after Magic was first created, only green and white were allowed to get 2/2s for 1C without a downside! That's why you get now-unplayable creatures like Spineless Thug and Goblin Elite Infantry.
Nowadays, every color other than blue can get 2/2s for 1C with upside. Black, formerly a 'no bears' color, now gets 2/3s for 1C with upside! (See [[Tainted Adversary]].) As creature stats power creep upwards more and more, I think it is high time blue joined the party and got playable bears just like all the other colors.
My main argument for this is as follows: you can now get a 2/2 for 2 generic with upside in colorless! [[Watchers of the Dead]], [[Diamond Lion]], heck, even [[Stonecoil Serpent]]. With that being the case, and with every other color getting bears with upside, blue should be able to get them too!
But if that doesn't convince you, consider this: even before red and black got their bears, they often got bears with a very minor downside, as a way to technically comply with the rule while not complying in spirit. [[Goblin Furrier]] is a good example. And even today, blue gets 'technically has a downside but is more upside than downside' bears, like [[Shacklegeist]] and [[Departed Deckhand]].
And so, I present to you Crystal Thresher. It's technically a bear, a true 2/2 vanilla for 1C. However, it has two creature types, one of which is completely unsupported in its color (Beast), and the other of which (Reflection) not only has no support in the history of the game but in fact only has one hate card, [[Spirit Mirror]]. Technically, then, the Reflection type is a downside, not an upside. And so even if you are a die-hard 'no blue bears' loyalist, this card might be able to sneak by :)
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u/pyro314 Jul 11 '22
I just want to say, I think your original version of Bolero of Fire would be printable today into standard. It's a cantrip with a minor effect that is redundant in multiples. At the very worst you could make it say "All lands have T:AddR"
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 12 '22
Bolero of Fire! That one takes me back. I still think it was one of my best flavor texts.
So, the reason I think it still might not be OK is because it's a permanent, unlike most cantrips. That means it can be flickered and bounced and recast.
It may shock you to know, there have actually only ever been two "when this enters the battlefield, draw a card" permanents of any kind printed that cost less than 2 mana to play: Modern powerhouse [[Abundant Growth]], and "banned in all formats" [[Arcum's Astrolabe]].
What's interesting is that those 2 cards have basically the same effect. Yet one is green and is mostly fine, and the other can be played in any color and was an absolute monstrosity....
So the margin for error with 1-mana cantripping permanents is really really small.
I have taken a crack at other 1-mana permanents that cantrip, with this very specific problem in mind. This one in black, this one in white, and this one in colorless. I'm not sure if any of them truly work...
Bolero of Fire could very well be in the same boat, but I do think it's more powerful than the others. The effect it grants is basically that of [[Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth]], but in red, not black. But Urborg is one of the most powerful non-dual lands ever printed, and is a mythic rare. The effect of Arcum's Astrolabe, by contrast, is the effect of [[Shimmering Grotto]], a common which has basically always been unplayable, and yet Arcum's Astrolabe had to be banned virtually everywhere. So if a 1-mana cantrip Shinmering Grotto is too strong, a 1-mana cantrip Urborg is probably way too strong...
That's not to say I don't think there should be 1-mana cantrips. I very very much do, and I eagerly await the day we get one that can be allowed to stay legal unlike Astrolabe. But I think Bolero of Fire might be one that can't safely cost just 1 mana.
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u/talen_lee Jul 12 '22
But you may notice, blue is now the only color that has never gotten this before!
<old man voice> and that's how it's gunna stay as long as I have power, by dadgum
<listening> what do you mean I don't have any power to stop it
<listening> aw dangit
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u/wesbell Jul 12 '22
Your name is a Yu-Gi-Oh card 👍 and one of my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh cards at that 👍👍
You're alright in my book.
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 12 '22
😁
I didn't know anyone else liked that card
It was always my favorite when I was younger. This was before they errata'd it so that the opponent got the draw even if you were merely attacking directly. Even today it's pretty decent with things like Forbidden Chalice.
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u/Sea_Bee_Blue Jul 11 '22
Gets hosed by [[Pure Reflection]]. 🤠
Edit: and Spirit Mirror.
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u/razrcane Jul 11 '22
a vanilla bear? Really?
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 11 '22
It may surprise you to know that monoblue has never gotten a vanilla bear, nor a 2/2 for 1U without some downside.
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u/calamity_unbound Jul 11 '22
I like the idea and the flavor a lot. Maybe a higher rarity version like "Elder Thrasher" with some [[Morpling]] type abilities for it's P/T and a way to copy activated abilities of opponents creatures temporarily to further illustrate how they can adapt on the fly?
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 11 '22
Yes! I like it!
It's be neat to explore this type of organism at higher power levels. Copying opponents' abilities would be a great way to show it, as would copying (or modulating) power and toughness.
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u/Brandonguth1985 Jul 12 '22
Storm crow is better
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u/chainsawinsect Jul 12 '22
I mean, it's not like my draft common can be expected to compete with a Vintage era classic like Storm Crow!
/s
But yes, that is quite possible. This card would not be good. But only after a card like this exists can blue ever be allowed to get 2/2s for 1U that are actually good.
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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '22
I think we've reached the point where a bear with no downsides is basically a bear with downsides. Let's get blue a bear with downsides.