Not every card in the Multiverse needs to have good flavor, but it's always better when it does.
Today, we're going to salute a little bit of both. The gang and I have quite a few flavor points to talk about as we inch closer to the essence of flavor on this week's Stack.
Here goes nothing.
THIS IS THE STACK!
VENSER'S JOURNALIST'S PICK
While not the best in flavor, this Zenith I think has high marks for summing up the essence of Blue mana. It's an instant for one, which means it can be played in response to something (like foiling somebody's Mirror-Mad/Laboratory Manic combo). I like the words "Target player" because it gives this card more freedom than Mind Spring (a good blue card nonetheless). Drawing cards is always helpful in blue decks, something I know I've mentioned multiple times.
I really feel that this is such a great blue card though. It can be the basis for a combo (imagine a lot of mana and a Psychosis Crawler on your battlefield) or it can break a combo, in my experience, the aforementioned self-mill combo. The card is utilitarian. It is not a win-con by itself, yet can bring you just the right cards you need. Perhaps it is pricey, but Stormtide Leviathan (another well-flavored card) is definitely not cheap either. Blue is about being patient, planning ahead. What better way to plan a takeover than by sticking seven fresh cards in your hand?
Johnny Confidant- THUMBS DOWN
It's Funny, You like a card for what it does then upon review you find that in regards to flavor it's a swinging a huge miss. GG made a solid point about how a blue sun wouldn't rain down the cards, but if cards are to the library and the library is to your mind, then the Blue sun must radiate some kind of brainwave enhancer. As for the White and Green sun, you're on your own for that relation.
Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
I am going to swing it like this: Good flavor gets the thumbs up. Bad flavor will receive no such honor. This card has no flavor. When the blue sun of Mirrodin reaches its highest point in the sky...you get to draw cards? Oh, but then you forget about it and it gets filed back in your library with the other stuff you don't have time to think about right now. This is THE recipe for bad flavor. Take a flavor concept and force-fit it onto an established mechanical concept. Werewolves transform. Makes sense. Drawing cards was already a concept within the flavor AND mechanics of the game. Now, we are going to overwrite player expectations by dramatically altering what drawing cards means in the 'story' of the game. Unless I am meant to believe that staring at the sun gives me tons of great ideas, then this is a flavor fail. Also: kids, don't stare at the sun. It is really, really bad for your eyes...like, so bad.
Uncle Landdrops- FLAVOR THUMBS DOWN
I really like this card. I play it quite a bit because of the reasons VJ mentions. It works, I just agree with GG- it just doesn't have flavor. It's part of a cycle of cards from the Scars block that are just supposed to function as a representation of the power of each of Mirrodin's Suns. If Mirrodin were real, it's just hard for me to believe that one of its suns would be responsible for a spike in the 2/2 cat population and cards would be "falling from the sky." Now, Red Sun's Zenith... I could actually believe that a Red Sun would get super-hot at its highest point and kill something. If I knew very little about Magic though, and someone asked me what I thought Blue Sun's did, I'd have no idea.
GG's Unsubstantiated explanation of White Sun's Zenith: The Leonin prides have a communal festival that brings them all to Taj-Nar on the longest (with respect to the white sun) day of the year, giving you a few new litters of cats. Why this is an instant I don't know. It would obviously be on the calendar far in advance.
GRANDPA GROWTH'S PICK
Not a stellar card. It's actually a sub-marine card if you'll excuse the pun. I could do this all day. I could also talk about flavor and how generally awful it is all day. This is just fine flavor-wise. Wizards has been making progress towards a more top-down approach to card design that has resulted in cards with flavor that is easier to digest (I am a horrible person, I know this). My bone is with Islandwalk. Whales, not even big ones, can cross over islands. What makes this guy unblockable even to other see creatures? What happens when one of these swims by a Tidal Kraken or an Inkwell Leviathan? Does their collective water displacement not interfere at all? Final thought, this creature reminds me of a song...a story really.
Venser's Journalist- THUMBS (AND PERISCOPE) UP
This whale is pretty darn good if I do say so (and I do). Islandwalk is a good choice for flavor because, like UL mentioned below, it's more about the water surrounding the island less than the actual island. As far as other sea creatures not being able to block it, you'll have to bring that up with Wizards. Maybe in M15 they'll implement a rule that will make Islandwalk more like blue Fear.
What really matters about the Colossal is that it eats things! Look out Pinocchio and Geppetto!
Johnny Confidant- not available for comment
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I love this card. Everyone knows how much I love it. As far as Islandwalk goes, I tend to think less and less that Wizards uses the word Island as an actual Island. More and more it has become about being the Ocean, and if that's the case, there is no flavor problem.
JOHNNY CONFIDANT'S PICK
Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP
My Pauper Gruul loves this little guy. For two he ramps and pings which is the main theme of my deck. Zur-Taa Druid is an excellent flavor mix of both Red and Green without the Haste I'd like, but then he'd probably be an uncommon.
Flavor aside this guy has very niche placement in deckbuilding. Edh would rather run Birds of paradise than a "poke per mana" dork. Although I'll say that Budget 60, pauper, and Peasant do enjoy this little guy.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS DOWN
This is a cool card, but I don't see how this has flavor. Not every druid is supposed to make mana. Also, Gruul cards are more concerned with combat damage.
Grandpa Growth - THUMBS DOWN
I have a hard time believing that any creature would really be able to damage a planeswalker. I dig the card and the design style of stapling two sweet cards like Fireslinger and Llanowar Elves, but we are talking about immortal, multidimensional, all-powerful wizards here. It would make more sense in a game like Hearthstone, where the heroes are still mortal beings occupying a single world; able to attack and interact with creatures directly. Even when planeswalkers fight each other they don't really die all that often.
Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
So he's a druid that taps for mana. Makes sense. He's also of the Gruul Clan, so he deals damage whenever he taps for mana. Also makes sense. His flavor is mechanically great;
the flavor text, not so much.
UNCLE LANDDROPS' PICK
This card really has your simple Giant Spider-level of flavor for a Magic card, of which I'm a big fan. KISS isn't just four Jewish guys from the Bronx who like to put on face paint, play rock music, and sell every kind of product they can with their name on it to make money. Though they've stolen the ultimate business acronym and life credo, "Keep It Simple, Stupid," it fortunately doesn't make the phrase any less true.
Thoughtseize is and has been a pretty big card along competitive decks ever since its first printing in Lorwyn and it's not just because it does exactly what it says it does. It's because what it says it does is GREAT. Thank the sweet gods we got a reprint too- because we're going to need it to combat the amalgam of other strange multi-card-type nonsense in this new set. I can't wait to get myself a copy.
Johnny Confidant- THUMBS UP (For Flavor)
Turn one Swamp -> Thoughtseize is a strong strategy to both see what your opponent's got planned and shut down their current game plan. While this is strong in Modern, 40-50 dollars is too much for a Duress or Despise without limitations and for someone who plays Multiplayer Edh, I'd rather buy 40 copies of Syphon Mind or Unnerve, but that's just my preference.
If I pull one from my Theros Fat Pack though, I'll try it out.
Grandpa Growth - THUMBS UP
I am like 70% on board with the flavor of this card. The fey come in the night to steal your dreams. Dreams have been used as a flavor concept for drawing cards on several previous occasions and nightmares have been used to represent discarding them so I am willing to allow the stretching of this definition to Inception/Extraction processes. The only part I don't understand is the life payment. Does the Clique charge a fee of blood for this kind of work? Does Oona have a tax on the dream trade?
Venser's Journalist- THUMBS UP
Power at all costs, say the Black-mana players. Fortunately, 2 life isn't too high a price to pay. "It's cheap, but it's not free," Donald Fagen of Steely Dan once said, but I think he was referring to something that wasn't Magic. Anyway, this is a solid flavor card; but, functional as both a turn one slap to the face or a late game win-con remover. Many cards like this exist, but this one stands above Duress or Despise in my books.
Hope you guys are keeping up with the Theros Spoilers. Now that a big amount of the first set has been spoiled, look for us to start sharing our thoughts over the next week or so.
Until then, do all that you can to keep the gods happy. The last thing you'd want is for Liam Neeson to release another Kraken. Or call you on the phone with a death threat.
-UL and the TGZ Staff
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