Blow 3.0

So can we jam for a second about how awesome it is that Blow is back in standard?

Esper Humans

4 Godless Shrine
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Mutavault
4 Plains
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Silence
3 Watery Grave

2 Ephara, God of the Polis
4 Imposing Sovereign
4 Lyev Skyknight
3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
3 Precinct Captain
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
3 Xathrid Necromancer

4 Detention Sphere
1 Far // Away
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Spear of Heliod
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Ultimate Price
2 Whip of Erebos

Sideboard:
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
1 Duress
2 Gainsay
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Hero's Downfall

So now you're probably thinking, what the fuck is Blow and what does it have to do with Esper Humans?

We'll work backward from the present. 

Blow 2.04 Rotlung Reanimator
4 Nova Cleric

2 Doomed Necromancer
3 Withered Wretch
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Foothill Guide
3 Astral Slide
4 Wrath of God
4 Renewed Faith
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Worship
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Barren Moor
9 Plains
5 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Sacred Ground
1 Oblivion Stone
4 Altar's Light
3 Karma

3 Holy Day

In 2003, I advocated briefly for this deck to be considered for players heading to the State Championships. The year before, during the 2002 version, a B/W Cleric deck called Blow won Iowa Champs piloted by Gabriel Stoffa. We'll get to the Iowa deck in a minute, but analyzing the list above, you'd be hard-pressed to say it's anything special. Still, testing confirmed that the deck stacked up well against Goblins, still the biggest threat at the time given that Affinity hadn't found Arcbound Ravager in a pile of darksteel yet. And Slide had little to no chance at defeating Blow 2.0, despite playing a deadly nuke against tokens in its namesake enchantment and Wind Shards backup against a Zombie horde. Nova Cleric was actually just that relevant, and you had 6 virtual copies with the Doomed Necromancers.

The list isn't perfect, but versions of it did end up performing reasonably well. A perfect example of the Blow deck took down Champs the year before I riffed on it in the article on StarCityGames.

3 City of Brass
11 Plains
1 Starlit Sanctum
2 Swamp

4 Beloved Bodyguard
4 Beloved Chaplain
4 Devoted Caretaker
4 Master Apothecary
4 Nova Cleric
4 Rotlung Reanimator
4 Weathered Wayfarer

3 Disenchant
4 Prismatic Strands
4 Shared Triump
4 Wrath of God

Sideboard:

3 Cabal Therapy
3 Oversold Cemetary
3 Ray of Revelation
4 Spurnmage Advocate
2 Worship

Holy Jesus, those were dark times for mana bases. Pray they never return. But Weathered Wayfarer made it work, eking out card advantage slower than a Jayemdae Tome, grinding the whole game to four mana, however long it took. 

Tribal decks are automatically fun to play, and this one has the added benefit of blowing up your own creatures for profit to go along with a cartload of synergy. 

Which brings us back to the new decklist and the current standard format. Esper Humans is, to be fair, not entirely in the full aggro lite-control mode that Blow was. But it provides a hell of a blueprint for building something that goes ham on the concept. Here's my take:

4 Godless Shrine

4 Hallowed Fountain

4 Watery Grave

4 Plains

3 Temple of Deceit

2 Temple of Enlightenment

2 Temple of Silence

2 Mutavault

25 Lands

That's right, another three-color deck that runs two colorless lands without a hitch. Praise based Ravnica.

Next we need our amped-up aggro package:

4 Imposing Sovereign

4 Lyev Skyknight

4 Deputy of Acquittals

1 Sin Collector

3 Precinct Captain

1 Obzedat, Ghost Council

4 Soldier of the Pantheon

4 Xanthrid Necromancer

2 Ephara, God of the Polis

27 Creatures

The game plan revolves around playing 187 creatures and running them headfirst into the opposition or wiping them away and replacing them with shambling mobs of undead. On the play, Imposing Sovereign is a virtual Time Walk, ensuring you'll always be a turn ahead even if they match you creature for creature. Skyknight, Obzedat and Sin Collector all offer extra value with Ephara in play, and Deputy of Acquittals can trigger the card-drawing celestial force during your own upkeep while guaranteeing you'll get another draw on your opponent's turn. You can tell from the creatures that this version always wants two untapped lands on turn two, which goes to explain the less-than-full-pack of Temples.

Your best start against most decks that flood the board with creatures is Soldier into Sovereign into Necromancer into Supreme Verdict. You'll have dealt eight and wiped the board, leaving you with 3 2/2s and a card to whatever they've managed to hold back defending against a perfect curve.

2 Detention Sphere

4 Supreme Verdict

1 Whip of Erebos

1 Spear of Heliod

8 Spells

Nothing too exciting here. Spear can really push an aggressive start over the top, and the Whip helps you stabilize or counterattack, especially post-Verdict. The Spheres are catch-alls that also make the unlikely possibility of an Ephara attack enter the realm of this-could-actually-happen.

Sideboard:

1 Sin Collector

3 Bile Blight

1 Hero's Downfall

1 Ultimate Price

1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa

2 Obzedat, Ghost Council

2 Thoughtseize

2 Detention Sphere

The sideboarding plan revolves around situations where your first and second onslaughts are being repelled by a control deck that can't handle grinding card advantage with Obzedat and Ephara. There's a smattering of removal suitable against rats and tokens, plus options against more monstrous threats. Whatever your needs are after board, you'll be taking out the Deputies, one or two Verdicts, the Spear, possibly the Sovereigns.

The two basic substitutions are

Against tokens or Pack Rat-style aggression:

-3 Deputy of Acquittal

-1 Spear of Heliod

-2 Ephara, God of the Polis

-1 Sin Collector

-1 Soldier of the Pantheon (on the draw)

+3 Bile Blight

+1 Hero's Downfall

+1 Ultimate Price

+2 Detention Sphere

+1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa (on the draw)

Against control you need to grind away:

-2 Supreme Verdict

-4 Imposing Sovereign

+1 Sin Collector

+2 Thoughtseize

+1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa

+2 Obzedat, Ghost Council

If you liked this roundabout trip to a new decklist, let me know. If you didn't, well, hopefully there was still something in this for you (or I'm sorry you read all the way to the end of an article you hated). 

Clone Wars: A Standard Magic the Gathering Decklist

Who doesn't love playing with Relentless Rats?  Only the Spikiest of Spikes can deny the allure of enormous sized Grizzly Bears, made better with merely the presence of a critical mass of their similarly named friends.


In a tragic oversight, Wizards declined to add the "A deck may contain any number of ~these~" text to my new favorite two-drop, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun with what we do have.  Namely, lots and lots of clones.  


What are we cloning?  Wolves.  Of course.  Tony Stark would be proud.

There must always be a Stark...ah, this joke is getting old, eh?

Clone Wars:

4 Timberpack Wolf
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Cryptoplasm
2 Clone

17 Creatures

3 Cackling Counterpart
4 Mental Misstep
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
3 Revenge of the Hunted
1 Gut Shot

19 Spells

4 Hinterland Harbor
3 Evolving Wilds
2 Alchemist's Refuge
10 Island
5 Forest

Decklists, Decklists Everywhere

Potting Soil:

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Snapcaster Mage

12 Creatures

4 Gut Shot
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Ponder
4 Mental Misstep
4 Vapor Snag
4 Mana Leak
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Apostle's Blessing

26 Spells

4 Hinterland Harbor
3 Evolving Wilds
6 Island
3 Forest
2 Cavern of Souls

18 Lands

Sideboard:

3 Beast Within
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Island
1 Forest
4 Devastation Tide
3 Temporal Mastery


Casablanca:

4 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Thragtusk
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Phantasmal Image
2 Fiend Hunter
3 Cathedral Sanctifier

21 Creatures

4 Cloudshift
1 Ghostly Whispers
4 Ponder
2 Vapor Snag
3 Gut Shot
1 Beast Within

16 Spells

4 Cavern of Souls
3 Hinterland Harbor
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Forest
3 Island
2 Plains

23 Lands

Double-Faced Spells: Random MtG Designs

While my Photoshop skills hover between none at all and occasional clone-stamping, I've still decided to attempt sharing some of my Magic: the Gathering, card designs, including some that I submitted back in the "You Make the Card" days (this really needs to come back, for the record).

The format is Card Name//Casting Cost//Type//Text Box//P/T or Loyalty, if applicable.


Vessel of Drought//3//Artifact//Non-colorless mana cannot be used to pay the colorless costs of spells or abilities.


Carragon, the Wandering Sage//XG//Planeswalker-Carragon//~this~ enters the battlefield with X loyalty. -1: Search your library for a land and put it on the battlefield tapped. -3: Search your library for a creature, reveal it, then put it onto the battlefield tapped. -5: Exile the top half of your library rounded up. All permanents exiled this way enter the battlefield tapped.

Feral Devourer//B//Creature-Horror//If ~this~ would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, it enters the battlefield instead.  When ~this~ enters the battlefield, if you did not play it from your hand, you lose the game.//7/7

Double-faced spells are formatted the same, the "night" side of the card follows //////


Fizzle//UU//Instant//When you play ~this~, if it is the first spell you've played this turn, transform it.  Counter target spell.//////
Frazzle//~//Instant//Counter target spell unless it's controller pays 2.

Burn//R//Instant//When you play ~this~, if it is the first spell you've played this turn, transform it.  ~this~ deals 4 damage to target creature or player.//////
Blister//~//Instant//~this~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player.

Banish//BB//Instant//When you play ~this~, if it is the first spell you've played this turn, transform it.  Exile target planeswalker, creature, or land.//////
Bury//~//Instant//Destroy target non-black creature.

Restore//2G//Instant//When you play ~this~, if it is the first spell you've played this turn, transform it. Return target card from your graveyard to your hand. Exile ~this~.//////
Renew//~//Instant//Untap all permanents you control. Exile ~this~.

Pacify//W//Instant//When you play ~this~, if it is the first spell you've played this turn, transform it.  Target creature cannot attack or block. (The creature remains pacified until it leaves the battlefield or the game ends)./////
Pardon//Instant//Untap target attacking creature and remove it from combat.

And some unrealistic designs that seem mildly entertaining.

 Impenetrable Battlements//3WW//Creature-Wall//Defender. 0: ~this~ gets +0/+1 until end of turn. Miracle: WW.//0/4

Fissure Behemoth//4RR//Creature-Beast//Haste. Trample. When ~this~ enters the battlefield, destroy target land. Miracle: RRR//5/1

Slumbering Wurm//5GG//Creature-Wurm//Trample.  3GG: Regenerate ~this~. ~this~ gets +6/+6 until end of turn. Miracle: GGGGG.//8/8

Banworthy Sprite//2U//Creature--Fairie//Flash. Flying. Miracle: U.//3/2

Gravetender Revenant//1BB//Creature--Spirit//Flying. When ~this~ enters the battlefield, if it was played with it's Miracle cost, target player sacrifices a creature and you may return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield.  Miracle: 4BB.//3/2

StarCityGames Interview Series Going Strong

For the three people who read this site without also reading SCG, be aware that my profiles of different Magic figures can be found over there even as we speak.

Each week I interview someone from within the Magic community in a candid, open format profile.  Unlike traditional Magic interviews, these are composed, narrative articles instead of Q&As.  So far I've showcased Chris Kluwe, the Minnesota Vikings' punter who is also an avid gamer; Tom Martell, considered by many to be the best Legacy player in the world right now; and Christine Sprankle, a cosplayer whose take on Elspeth Tirel was the talk of the last World Championships.

Coming up next is Craig Jones, the fan favorite from across the pond who shared his honest opinion on where Magic is, and where he thinks it may have gotten sidetracked.

These profiles are meant to be informative, entertaining pieces that highlight players, organizers, content producers, and community figures in a way that they haven't been focused on before.

If you would like to recommend someone as a future interview, send me an e-mail at wherethemeatcomesfrom@gmail.com.  Keep in mind, I cannot guarantee that any particular subject is going to be willing to be interviewed.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

_ben

Tip of the Day #7: Nuts and Bolts

I'm a tinkerer, by nature, especially when it comes to building my own constructed lists or refining decks I dredge up from the corners of the internet.  In general, many competitive Magic players are constantly adding and removing cards from builds they find through coverage of professional tournaments.

The thing is, though, this is rarely the best course of action.  I never fully appreciated how well-tuned most winning decklists are until I finally gave up messing with what was working.

The truth is that a deck that takes down a Pro Tour is a honed machine, comprised of dozens of parts, assembled in such a way that it can repeat the task it was designed to do as many times as necessary.  If you imagine a deck like an engine, you'll understand that unscrewing one nut could lead to one hell of a Michael Bay style explosion.

When you are tempted to add just one Grave Titan because it should theoretically be good in the metagame you are expecting, you need to remember that you are taking something else out that had a purpose in the first place.

It can be even more problematic if you were not part of the team that originally built the list, and you swap in Rune Snags for Mana Leaks because of "the late game."  Sure, you might get away with it, and sometimes, your change may even end up being for the better, but more often than not, you just messed up the deck's basic plan.

The tip of the day is to be careful when you are re-wiring the security system of Bill Gates' house, you don't know which wires control the pirate-ninja robot butlers.

Tip of the Day #6: Play More Lands

I've had a bit of a break-through lately when it comes to DII drafts.  For whatever reason, I had gotten into the bad habit of playing fewer and fewer lands as I tried to lower my decks' curve enough that I was making enough plays to keep up with the ridiculously fast Limited environment.

On a lark, I played an aggressive U/W Skies deck and jammed the eighteenth land instead of the Moment of Heroism I really wanted to play.  I went 6-0 in games and swept the draft.  I noticed that I was making every land drop when it counted, and playing a stream of threats that I could never have managed with only three or four lands in play.

So, for this tip, I turn to Gavin Verhey:

Tip of the Day #5: "Why Delver is a Banana Deck"

For those of you living under a muggle rock these days, there is a bit of a debate growing about deck classification.  If you are trying to improve your game, knowing your plan is ridiculously important, for those of you who question why deck classification even matters.

Over the whole argument, one thing that stands out to me is that everyone seems to be ignoring one of Adrian Sullivan's most important points.  In their haste to mark their own stamp on Magic theory, several writers are forgetting the point of theory in the first place.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find Adrian's tweet to quote directly, but he said, approximately, "What you are doing when you choose to classify Delver as Aggro is not theory, it's empiricism."  In the writer's mind, Delver is Aggro, because what he calls Aggro, is actually something else entirely.  That's empirical thought, and the danger is that empiricism cannot be taught.  Theory succeeds only because it is codified terms with defined parameters that can be passed on.

When you have a public platform such as a webpage or article series, it is crucial that you do not fall into the trap of attempting to communicate your empirical thoughts.  While your strategy may be sound, it will fail for someone who does not properly integrate your "theory" with existing theory.  And they have practically no way of knowing whether or not they need to do so.

Magic continues to evolve, and there is a need to update the fundamental theories we use to operate our strategies.  But that update needs to come in terms of logical interpretations that expand or extend the current model, not reconfigure it completely.  

That is the tip of the day.

Tip of the Day #4: "Playing Around 'It'"

Players serious about developing their game eventually become obsessed with "Jedi mind tricks", bluffs, and representation on both their side of the table and their opponent's.  What I want to address is the minor fact that for every Mike Long combo-ing off without a win condition, or Zach Hall foiling Mike Flores' dastardly plans with a well-timed "#showme", there are hundreds of thousands of examples of completely ineffective angle shots.

Being able to rationally determine the likelihood of a specific card in your opponent's hand is a valuable tool.  But I prefer the golf bag analogy.  When it comes to our game, you have many different skills and abilities that you need to develop.  Understanding card advantage, proper role identification, card evaluation, and careful attention are all clubs in your golf bag.  The point of the game of golf, though, is not to use every club on every hole.  You want to get there in as few strokes as possible, which isn't going to happen if you spend time trying to convince yourself a flop shot over a towering pine tree with your new lob wedge is the right play.

In Magic, you will encounter many situations where your opponent could ostensibly have something in their hand which will affect your board position or plays.  In fact, those situations come about literally every turn.  


I used to enormously enjoy the old Magic Academy and The Play's the Thing series and other articles that focused on the same sorts of things.  When someone whose opinion I respect very highly is explaining that playing a Razorverge Thicket instead of a Forest before casting Llanowar Elves is just like taking a baby cat outside and kicking it against an electric fence because you want them to believe you do not have access to white, I try very hard to pay attention, but, ultimately, not every play on every turn is as crucial as you want to believe it is.

To summarize my occasionally incoherent thoughts on this subject, I'll say that I very rarely play around Rebuke in DII drafts.  If my opponent has it, it isn't going any where.  Whether I attack this turn or six turns from now, I'm going to lose a guy to it.  If it's early in the game, I can be fairly certain that whatever I'm attacking with is going to be worth less than the better cards I'll have access to later.

In conclusion, the pro tip of the day that I'm referring to is "In the early game, play as though they don't have it, and in the late game, play as though they do."  I'm merely adding that in most actual situations, it doesn't matter either way.

Tip of the Day #3

Quick note: For fans disappointed in the lack of longer form content, I hear you, and I have a few things in the works that I think you will really enjoy.  In the meantime, I will be posting another edition of The Road this week, and a writing article should appear on Sunday or Monday.


In the last TotD, I focused on your gameplan when it comes to selecting a deck and executing that plan when it comes time to game at a major tournament (or even FNM, for that matter).  One step I mostly left out was practice, and it's critical that you don't do the same.  Practice is important the way that having air to breathe is important.

If you're still alive then you appreciate what I'm saying.  One thing, I consider practice to be different from playesting.  You do practice while you playtest, but playtesting should also incorporate metagame considerations and developing strategies against specific decks.  When I practice, I'm generating sample hands and figuring out how the starting seven fits into my gameplan.  I even like to think out games in my head, visualizing the action and simulating cards drawn.  If you are thinking about how stupid that sounds, think about how you would imagine a game playing out with your deck.  You'd probably draw a pretty good hand, right?  And more than likely you'd be mise-ing like Budde in his prime, true?

Well, the reason this wish-fulfillment is useful is that it helps you recognize what the best hands for your deck are, which should lead to better mulligan decisions, and help you identify the optimal lines of play for your particular 75.

Speaking of mulligans...

Tip of the Day #2

One mistake that a lot of players make when they start transitioning to the semi-pro and pro-level is to give in to the fish-out-of-water feeling that accompanies sitting down at a Grand Prix for the first time.  Whether Round Four comes along and you find yourself matched up against a future Hall of Famer, or whether the first hand you draw for the tournament is six lands and a five-drop, whatever the situation, you have to clear your mind and, calm down, and focus on what you need to do.

Execute your gameplan.  Of course, that means you have to have a gameplan, so if you don't, well, chalk that up to mistake number two.  It is absolutely amazing how few people can articulate what it is that their deck is supposed to do.  As an example, let's look at what happens when someone picks up Red Deck Wins for a PTQ.

They might have a short answer to the question about their gameplan, something like, "My goal is to deal 20 damage as fast as possible with creatures and burn spells."  Even that limited plan is better than nothing, but if you really want to be playing the deck as well as it can be played, you should be able to explain to your friends and teammates that your plan is to

                  1) Apply early pressure with a combination of one and two drop creatures.
                  2) Control the board using direct damage and by economically trading for value in combat.
                  3) Use more powerful cards to craft an end-game involving a flurry of direct damage, or a massive  
                      swing with powered up creatures.

If it sounds like common sense, it is, and this tip isn't meant for you, but you would be surprised by how often this minor detail gets overlooked.  Mike Flores has written several articles about pre-visualization and the importance of your gameplan, and it never hurts to review the foundations that the rest of your game is built on.

Tip of the Day #1

Reid Duke's win at Grand Prix: Nashville was a wild ride for everyone but the eventual victor.  The new draft format has proven to be a tough nut to crack.  Wizards has been pushing card quality since Shards of Alara, and the new reality is that your drafts are going to play more and more like Constructed matches.  To that end, our first tip comes from Reid's interview with Rich Hagon.

Adjust for real life play by becoming more aware of your draft.  


Reid discussed the transition from online grinding to success at major tournaments, noting especially that the fact that MTGO tracks your picks and can even display your curve can make for awkward situations in live drafting.

Understanding the role that different options can play in your deck can be the difference between a 3-0 or 2-1 and a 1-2 performance.  Practice making the right decision in the moment, but don't fall into the trap of missing out on a curve-filling choice because you are attracted to the shiny rare or uncommon.

Silverchase Fox is probably worse than Smite the Monstrous, but if you've already filled your four-drop slot with Inquisitors, Mausoleum Guards, and Sentries, you might need the body.  Similarly, if your deck is comprised mostly of token generators, having the Fox might get you out of a sticky situation when you face down a surprise Curse of Death's Hold.

To re-iterate, Reid Duke credited his ability to adjust to memorizing the relevant cards in a given draft as one of the most important steps he took in becoming a more complete player.  You can do the same.

In My Day

Quick, how much did you spend on Magic when you first started playing?  Did you buy tons of packs, or singles?  How old were you when you learned how to draft?  How old when you stopped casting Craw Wurm?*

The most terrifying thing about Craw Wurm is that I once traded a Bird of Paradise for one.

Nostalgia in Magic is powerful.  I still get the same shiver cracking packs of the newest set as I did when my cousin first took me down into my grandparents' basement because he had something to show me.  Recently, I was at a tournament when I found myself sprawled headfirst on the sentimental plane where everyone listens to late Beatles music, owns a piece of power, and people trade Savannah Lions for Tundra Wolves because of first strike.

Huh.

Dropping the Banhammer, Part One: Under Hot Lights

There has been a trickle-down effect since the announcement that #twoexplores is no longer a valid excuse for rampant cheating.  The most noticeable is the intensity of the community's vigilance when it comes to policing high level play on camera. 

I try to add something to the discussions that take place away from the tech and video media centers of the Magic universe online.  With that in mind, here are five things that you will do on camera at some point if you attend enough events, along with what might happen when you do.

History Lesson #2: Where is Magic Going? (Bonus Post-Script Rant)

Starting this off, here is a list of the double-faced cards in Innistrad as if they were cards with no transform capability. (This list is in alphabetical order)

Bloodline Keeper, 2BB, Flying, T: Put a 2/2 Vampire into play with Flying, 3/3

Civilized Scholar, 2U, T: Draw a card, then discard a card, 0/1.

Cloistered Youth, 1W, 1/1

Daybreak Ranger, 2G, T: ~this~ deals 2 damage to target creature with flying, 2/2

Delver of Secrets, U, 1/1

Gatstaf Shepherd, 1G, 2/2

Grizzled Outcasts, 4G, 4/4

Hanweir Watchkeep, 2R, Defender, 1/5

Instigator Gang, 3R, Attacking creatures you control get +1/+0, 2/3

Kruin Outlaw, 1RR, First Strike, 2/2

Ludevic’s Test Subject, 1U, Defender, 0/3

Mayor of Avabruck, 1G, Other Human creatures you control get +1/+1.  1/1

Reckless Waif, R, 1/1

Screeching Bat, 2B, Flying, 2/2

Thraben Sentry, 3W, Vigilance, 2/2

Tormented Pariah, 3R, 3/2

Ulvenwald Mystics, 2GG, 3/3

Village Ironsmith, 1R, First Strike, 1/1

Villagers of Estwald, 2G, 2/3

I didn’t include Garruk since for the purposes of this article we don’t need to talk about Planeswalkers.  You can probably guess where I am going with this, but if you didn’t, here is another sort of list:

Krovikan Vampire, 3BB, At the beginning of each end step, if a creature dealt damage by ~this~ this turn died, put that card into play under your control, Sacrifice it when you lose control of Krovikan Vampire, 3/3

Krovikan Sorcer, 2U, T, Discard a nonblack card: Draw a card, T, Discard a black card: Draw two cards then discard one of them, 1/1.

Hipparion, 1W, ~this~ can’t block creatures with power 3 or greater unless you pay 1.

Pale Bears, 2G, Islandwalk, 2/2

Balduvian Shaman, U, T: Change the text of target white enchantment you control that doesn’t have cumulative upkeep by replacing all instances of one color word with another, that enchantment gains Cumulative Upkeep 1, 1/1

Balduvian Bears, 1G, 2/2

Folk of the Pines, 4G, 1G: ~this~ gets +1/+0 until end of turn, 2/5

Barbarian Guides, 2R, 2R, T: Choose a land type, Target creature you control gains snow landwalk of the chosen type until end of turn.  Return that creature to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step.

Goblin Snowman, 3R, Whenever ~this~ blocks, prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by it this turn, T: ~this~ deals 1 damage to target creature it’s blocking, 1/1

Balduvian Barbarians, 1RR, 3/2

Balduvian Conjurer, 1U, T: Target snow land becomes a 2/2 creature until end of turn.  It’s still a land, 0/2

Freyalise Supplicant, 1G, T, sacrifice a red or white creature: ~this~ deals damage to target creature or play equal to half the sacrificed creature’s power, rounded down.

Mountain Goat, R, Mountainwalk, 1/1

Flow of Maggots, 2B, Cumulative upkeep 1, Flow of Maggots can’t be blocked by non-Wall creatures, 2/2

Mercenaries, 3W, 3: The next time ~this~ would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage.  Any player may activate this ability, 3/3

Tor Giant, 3R, 3/3

Lhurgoyf, 2GG, ~this~ power is equal to the number of creature cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1, */*+1

Orcish Librarian, 1R, R, T: Look at the top eight cards of your library, exile four of them at random, then put the rest on top of your library in any order, 1/1

Dire Wolves, 2G, Dire Wolves has banding as long as you control a Plains, 2/2

Again, if you couldn’t tell, the second list is from Ice Age, arranged to correspond with the first list by rarity and/or at least casting cost.  What is humorous, and the goal of this juxtaposition, is to demonstrate that by and large you would probably rather play most of the creatures on the first list, despite the fact that they have been effectively neutered in terms of the modern game by having their transform sides taken away.

The history lesson for today is that even crappy, untransformed versions of creatures from 2011 are leaps-and-bounds better than the creatures of 1995.  So what does this mean?  Well, in this article, we will be discussing how much the game has changed, not only in the power creep attached to creature design, but the actual play of the game itself.