Flavor in Design

idgi

I like how this guy actually gives out a feeling of digging through information compared to a lot of other library manipulators.

Really though you could grab a lot of cards from Timespiral block and use them as good examples.

So he's basically that one pokemon from gen 7?

Yup, but squid!

Obligatory

Can this give token to different opponent than whose creature was taken? (in 3+ players game)

Sure can

Yeah, it says "target opponent", so the choice of who to give it to is yours.

everything is better with a bit of squid

Seriously someone please explain this to me

>2/1 is weak
Stronger than a bear.

>literally changes control
Knows he's on the wrong side and defects to forge his own path and join the clan he thinks is best for him.

>lets you draw 2 cards
The realization that his current path was incorrect is signified by drawing 2 cards. His mind has already expanded some, but he still has much to learn.

Sounds like you're bad at interpreting cards.

Its funny but not a trope or especially flavorful or anything afaik unless it is. Guy disappears mysteriously and a dinosaur comes and investigates it. Thats it.

Guy who posted it here.
I thought it was that one of minions mysteriously disappeared and when you investigate (i.e. remove the enchantment) it turns out he got eaten by dinosaur.
I guess how hard is getting it is also part of the joke.

Chained to the Rocks is a reference to the punishment of Prometheus for the crime of giving humanity the gift of fire. He was lashed to a cliff below a hawk’s nest with magic chains, and each day the hawk would tear open his abdomen and devour his liver, which regenerated from the magic during the night.

alternative interpretation is that the original creature got culturally enriched

Actually equally as strong as a bear and not as tough.

A dinosaur ate him.

It's as tough and twice as strong. Grizzly Bears, the quintessential bear card, has 2 bears on it. Each bear is a 1/1, but together the card is a 2/2. This guy is as strong as 2 bears together.

Its name is evocative of its mechanics, and it provides a unique twist on the old favorite of reanimation. You're right though, in that it should've been white as written.

My theory is that it actually wasn't a top down design, but started as a pretty standard sacrifice reanimator. Somewhere down the line it merged with a different blink design and they kept the more evocative name.

Oh fuck, I forgot that there are two bears on Grizzly Bears.

I like this better

Uh... no. Thats not what it shows. Like... clearly not. The name, the art, nothing evokes that and wouls have been easy enough to do so.

The name is sarcastic, the joke is that it isn't baffling at all.

yet you'll find more children at a yugioh tournament

Why the fuck, in a game that prides itself on clearly and flavorfully conveying concepts, would they intentionally misname a card? And how do you explain A) the dinosaur being depicted in the art not being a carnivorous one and B) the art in generally clearly not showing that someone was eaten? Is that supposed to be ironic too? I kinda thought the art was showing the dinosaur stepping on him and then coming back to see what it stepped on but the name also doesnt well convey that and I thought the flavor was explained in an article and it wasnt that.

You could say it's... baffling?

what a goddamn stretch

Also, what makes it truly baffling is that it left like a smoking crater. What the fuck does that mean? In a way the card is kind of a flavor hit because the flavor really is baffling.

>not being a carnivorous one
This is WotC we're talking about, user. They don't do that much research.

Im pretty sure they know we know the ones with the long necks dont tend to eat people.

Yes, MaRo is very smart.

...

It's a play on the "Baffling End" that the actual dinosaurs faced. As in, it's a role reversal of the extinction of the dinosaurs that happened millions of years ago.

So instead of:
>Dinosaurs exist
>Event kills all dinosaurs but leaves evidence that proves that they once existed
>Humans come to exist some time after dinosaurs go extinct
>Humans discover evidence that dinosaurs existed and baffled as to how they all could have died so suddenly

You get:
>Humans exist
>Event kills all humans but leaves evidence that proves that they once existed
>Dinosaurs come to exist some time after humans go extinct
>Dinosaurs discover evidence that humans existed and baffled as to how they all could have died so suddenly

The card simply acts this out on a 1 creature and 1 dinosaur basis.

Black does whatever it takes to get what it wants.
This includes things like 'loved ones'. Which Black is indeed allowed to have - it's a bit more of a selfish thing than the other colors, but it's not MUST BE DICKSTABBING 24/7 the color.

Goblin Guide I think is the definition of a scout since he performs actual reconnaissance (reveals the top card of the defending player's library).

It's a vampire dying to sunlight and the Dino not getting it

He isn't a scout though, he's a guide. I do agree with you that the flavor is great though.

...

...

You gotta pay the soul toll
If you want to get into Erebos's hole
You gotta pay the soul toll to get in

Goblin Guide is a Creature - Goblin Scout.

Merfolk on Ixalan aren't fish, right?
It's funny because the card can still kill Leviathans, Crabs, and actual Fish.

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Find a more badass name.
What is considered the most "metal" card in Magic? There are probably more "metal" cards than It That Betrays or Rain of Gore, which is more metal than the former.

youtube.com/watch?v=jHYA0yVMjYw

My ears are ringing with a sound
Feel the vibrations – my hearts starts to pound, pound, pound

Give in to darkness, bodies melt
How do we play the cards we’ve been dealt, dealt, dealt

Beauty – it’s humanity’s greatest sin
Beauty – hiding the beast that lies within

I saw someone post Goblin Guide, I love him. I love Goblins in general, but some stand out more than others.

I think Goblin Razerunners is my all time favorite "total package" for flavor. The beautiful and chaotic Raymond Swanland art is worth obsessing over, but the rest of the card shouldn't be overlooked.

I played a lot during this time period (shards) and at this point in the story the shards are violently coming together to form one total Alara plane. The creatures are being introduced to the other shards and across all the cards this is illustrated with varying degrees of success. The Razerunners really exemplify Jund to me. Of COURSE they'd just start burning things. Of COURSE this is how they introduce themselves to a new world. The flavor text tells us this, but so does their ability. They literally destroy a land and deal damage because of it.

Love this card so much.

>when you've destroyed everyone else's lands so you eat your own and start pounding ass with Razerunner
Fucking love it.

omg you are fuckin dense. you're right about there being 2 bears on the card but a 2/2 is a bear. a 2/1 is a piker. a 1/2 is a squire, a 1/1 is a dork

The aquatic stuff dies on the plank itself. Sometimes it's a really fucking BIG plank, but it asphyxiates on the damn plank. Everything else dies from being pushed off.
Merfolk are fine on land and in the water, so they don't die.

One grizzly bear is a 1/1 and two are 2/2 what's so hard to understand. Don't bully that other dude.

His lil' cousin from EM: It That Rides As One
The names of these two cards make me think of metallica's the thing that should not be

you're dense too. no one calls a 1/1 a bear, no one calls a 2/2 two bears. you're fuckin wrong.
>don't bully
DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE

Well yeah, most solitary bears are 2/2's. However, those are things like Runeclaw Bears or Ashcoat Bears, bears who are big and strong. Grizzly Bears are weak enough that their art requires two bears to make up that 2/2 P/T.

Touch me to die.

I thought "bears" in Magic slang were 2-drop creatures, hence why the deck full of disruptive 2-drops (and some disruptive 1 and 3-drops) is called "hatebears".

Traditionally the slang "bears" are 2 drop 2/2s, but you are correct in that the origin of Hatebears is that they're cheap, disruptive creatures.

Everyone I know understands that one grizzly is a 1/1 and Grizzly Bears is a 2/2.
You're definitely the dense one here.

sort of, in mtg jargon (regardless of what other say in this thread) a "bear" is a single 2/2 creature. Cards like Thalia or Aven Mindcensor that don't fit the 2/2 for 2 description just get kind lumped into the title "hatebear" association. You could even go as far as to say a bear is a 2/2 and a hatebear is any small creature (cmc 3 or less) that disrupts your opponent. Fuck all the snowflakes in this thread trying to act like anybody EVER says "grizzly bearS".

They're talking very specifically about the card Grizzly Bears (which depicts multiple bears), not the term 'bear' that came from it.

A traditional "bear" in Magic is a 2/2 creature with no rules text that costs one coloured mana and one generic.

The card Grizzly Bears is indeed, a "bear", and is in fact the origin of the phrase.
However if you look at the art of Grizzly Bears, there are 2 bears in the image. Meaning that each Grizzly Bear is a 1/1. Just like how Chasm Skulker is +1/+1 for each of the squids it splits into shown by and

I prefer to call them "Sugar Free Haribos".

Do not trust this poster as he not only doesn't recognize an individual Grizzly Bear as a 1/1 but also has misinformed you that a bear is a 2/2 creature. A bear is a 2/2 creature for 1X where X is either B, U, G, R or W with no rules text. Flavour text, however, is mandatory on a bear.

The 'no rules text' isn't part of it, though.
Just that it's a 2/2 for 2. Wild Mongrel is a bear.

By the terminology of the slang, it is.

That said, I personally would expand it to include a single keyword as well. I think the key to Bears is their nature as 2/2's for 2, and anything else can be flavoring.

this
2/2 for 2 is Bear
2/2 for 3 is Ogre
textless is Vanilla
single keyword is French Vanilla

I want to play some kind of green draw-go now where I flash a 2/2 on your end step. I'd probably need blue, but at least then I can run Mystic Snake.

>By the terminology of the slang, it is.
But that's fucking wrong.

...

can you read?

>calling people snowflakes changes a card name
k

Yeah but now we're talking about legacy when it was already a sketchy idea for modern.

please keep up
I'm saying no one refers to a 1/1 creatures as a grizzly bear. Next time I cast sun's champion I will say "plus elspeth, makes 3 grizzly bears." Then I'll come back and tell you how they all told me that elspeth makes 1/1s not 2/2s.

I'm talking about bears as animals in Magic. That guy, on his own, is stronger than a single grizzly bear. The flavor fits the card.

> bear the size of a fucking mountain
> 2/2

This card just explodes any sort of consistency in anyone's argument in this thread

No one said that either. People are saying that canonically in the setting a Grizzly Bear is a 1/1, making a 2/1 human stronger than a bear.

>two regular grizzlies 2/2
>one rune enchanted bear 2/2
>one quick magic eating bear Flash 2/2
>one big ol' bear 2/2
I don't get how this messes with our logic?

Anyway I cast Hunting Triad and make three single Grizzly Bear then pass my turn.

Trivia: there is a lot of Bears hidden on card art. Try figure them out!

But what if a creature has flying? Can't it just, I dunno, fly away from the plank?

It's bound

What would be the best bear lord legendary?

>Ursaloff, Mauler of the Multiverse - 3GG
>Legendary Creature - Bear Warrior God
>2/2
>every other non-bear creature on the battlefield, in all hands, graveyards and libraries is a 2/2 green Bear with a 2 CMC
>Bears you control get +1/+1, double strike and can block an extra bear each combat
>"We prayed for bears, and after much tribute were blessed each with a Grizzly, rejoice!" - Boejorn Boerson, Druid of the Grizzly Hills

>every other non-bear creature on the battlefield, in all hands, graveyards and libraries is a green Bear Creature, with base P/T 2/2 and CMC 2

What if it has Shadow?

Ixalan's dinosaurs have solar powers, so...

Shadowropes

There are some good White flash cards.
The best flash deck is Spirit tribal thanks to Rattlechains and some flash Spirits. Faeries also have a lot of flash creatures.
I'm looking up some U/G flash stuff right now.

>1-drops
Savage Summoning (cast this before you cast your next creature)
Aether Vial (enables instant creature play without casting)
Zealous Guardian

>2-drops
Snapcaster Mage
Skylasher
Ambush Viper
Eel Umbra
Plaxmanta
Shambleshark

>3-drops
Vendilion Clique
Boon Satyr (also a 5-drop aura)
Wolfir Avenger
Bounding Krasis
Nimble Obstructionist
Deciever Exarch
Pestermite
Vile Redeemer (costs a colorless if you want to create scions)
Void Grafter

>4-drops
Collected Company
Mystic Snake
Cloudthresher (non-evoke is 6)
Briarhorn (can be evoked for 2)
Crafty Cutpurse
Horizon Chimera
Pack Guardian
Venser, Shaper Savant

Honestly you are better off going Bant to get access to some good white flash cards, or choosing either UB Faeries or UWx Spirits.

Thanks lad

What if it Phases Out of the plank?

I already play UW Spirits, but a second flash deck never hurt anyone. Are there any good green instants or flash creatures with ETB? I want to hold up mana and threaten responses as mono-green to make people uncomfortable.

Can't give them +1/+1 because they wouldn't be bears, and double strike doesn't make sense, but first strike is good.

Then it hits the water, duh
>First strike
>In mono green
Give'em trample

>trample
>what every creature is 2/2

>Bears you control gain Banding with other Bears.

>Creatures are 2/2 bears
>Bears YOU control get +1/+1
You absolute madlad

Like I said, you can't give them +1/+1 because then they aren't bears.