Min/Max Boards
Gaming Discussion => Other Games => Topic started by: Amechra on June 26, 2013, 04:47:46 PM
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I was looking through a bunch of cards with a friend, and I noticed an interesting fact that looked like it held true for a bunch of creatures:
Creatures will have, at a base, Power and Toughness equal to their mana cost.
Their 'effective' Power and Toughness is modified by the special abilities that they have. For example, Flying is considered to be +1/+1 for the purposes of this "balancing."
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It's more complex than that. There are a number of other factors at play. Multicolored cards are stronger than single-colored cards. Certain creature types (angel, dragon, etc.) tend to get more powerful creatures for the same cost. Different colors get different strengths of creatures for the same cost (White has strong low-mana creatures, Red gets creatures with high power but low toughness more efficiently, Green just gets big creatures in general). It's also not a 1:1 relationship between mana and P/T; 4+ mana creatures scale up much faster than +1/+1 per mana. Also, recent sets have been moving to still more powerful creatures, so old balancing guidelines don't apply with the new power creep.
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This is known information. WotC admitted to it being a common formula for designing filler cards, but that they deviate from it a lot more often these days than they used to. There was actually an article about it.
Each color, however, has a different formula. White and Blue both have a 1/1 Flyer for 1 at common-level, but Red, Black, and Green don't (in Modern anyway).
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Rarity also plays a factor, since Wotc stoped pretending some years ago that rares weren't made to be strictly better than commons and uncommons. Savannah lion is a 2/1 rare, Eager Cadet is a 1/1 common, both cost 1 mana and have no other abilities.
Altough yes, there's been a clear power creep when it comes to creatures, in particular more expensive ones.
This is known information. WotC admitted to it being a common formula for designing filler cards, but that they deviate from it a lot more often these days than they used to. There was actually an article about it.
Each color, however, has a different formula. White and Blue both have a 1/1 Flyer for 1 at common-level, but Red, Black, and Green don't (in Modern anyway).
That would be because flying is a white/blue ability. How many flying creatures do red and green have again?
Also, the blue 1/1 flier for 1 mana whitout penalties only arrived years after the white 1/1 flier for 1 mana whitout penalties.
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That would be because flying is a white/blue ability. How many flying creatures do red and green have again?
Oh, Red has loads of them. They're just dragons, that's all (Black has a similar issue in that most of it's fliers are the same type).
Green gets shorted on fliers though.
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Creatures have been getting more powerful in recent sets. I don't know that I'd call it power creep, since it is a deliberate and considered move by R&D.
They decided that creatures were the most interesting part of the game, particularly for newer players, so they set out to make them better.
Rarity also plays a factor, since Wotc stoped pretending some years ago that rares weren't made to be strictly better than commons and uncommons. Savannah lion is a 2/1 rare, Eager Cadet is a 1/1 common, both cost 1 mana and have no other abilities.
While I would agree that WotC changed its stance on rares not being strictly more powerful than non rares (and this is worse for mythics), you can't blame them for Savanah Lions. It came out in Alpha, so Richard Garfield is on the hook for that one.
Also, the blue 1/1 flier for 1 mana whitout penalties only arrived years after the white 1/1 flier for 1 mana whitout penalties.
Flying Men (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107291) would like a word.
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Power creep is most of the times a deliberate and considered move.
Control cards on the other hand keep geting kicked in the nuts. I heard the new "core" wrath of god doesn't even stop regeneration now.
That would be because flying is a white/blue ability. How many flying creatures do red and green have again?
Oh, Red has loads of them. They're just dragons, that's all (Black has a similar issue in that most of it's fliers are the same type).
Green gets shorted on fliers though.
Black has actually a solid variety on fliers, between wraiths/vampires/ghosts/demons/giant bugs/vultures.
However dragons make a relatively small percentage of red's total creature count. At the end of the day, it's still the second color with less fliers on the game.
Red on the other hand does get 1/1 for 1 mana with haste. Other colors don't.
Green gets 1/1 for 1 mana that produces colored mana. Other colors don't.
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Creatures have been getting more powerful in recent sets. I don't know that I'd call it power creep, since it is a deliberate and considered move by R&D.
They decided that creatures were the most interesting part of the game, particularly for newer players, so they set out to make them better.
Rarity also plays a factor, since Wotc stoped pretending some years ago that rares weren't made to be strictly better than commons and uncommons. Savannah lion is a 2/1 rare, Eager Cadet is a 1/1 common, both cost 1 mana and have no other abilities.
While I would agree that WotC changed its stance on rares not being strictly more powerful than non rares (and this is worse for mythics), you can't blame them for Savanah Lions. It came out in Alpha, so Richard Garfield is on the hook for that one.
Also, the blue 1/1 flier for 1 mana whitout penalties only arrived years after the white 1/1 flier for 1 mana whitout penalties.
Flying Men (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107291) would like a word.
Also, Scryb Sprites (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201404)