Pattern Recognition #229 - A New Set - Red Commons

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

24 February 2022

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Hello everyone! This is Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series as written by myself, berryjon. I am something of an Old Fogey who has been around the block quite a few times where Magic is concerned, as as such, I use this series to talk about the various aspects of this game, be it deck design, card construction, mechanics chat, in-universe characters and history. Or whatever happens to cross my mind this week. Please, feel free to dissent in the comments below the article, add suggestions or just plain correct me! I am a Smart Ass, so I can take it.

And now, it is time to go back to work (hah!) and fill out many of the Red Commons that are in my personal set that I am developing and building. The last time I did this, I did , in Issue 214, which was a while ago really. Now, I'm not going to repeat the logic behind Commons in this issue, as I went over it last time. Instead, I'm going to jump right into a reminder about card distribution at this level, and where I'm going with this.

CR01 - Creature     CR12 - Enchantment
CR02 - Creature     CR13 - Instant
CR03 - Creature     CR14 - Instant
CR04 - Creature     CR15 - Instant
CR05 - Creature     CR16 - Instant
CR06 - Creature     CR17 - Instant
CR07 - Creature     CR18 - Sorcery
CR08 - Creature     CR19 - Sorcery
CR09 - Creature     CR20 - Sorcery
CR10 - Creature     CR21 - Sorcery
CR11 - Creature

Much like , is heavy on creatures. However, they have slightly more Instants and Sorceries at this rarity, thanks to their focus on the 'now' and not so much on permanents. But with 11 Creatures instead of 's 13, I have to accept that I will have only 3 French Vanilla Creatures at common, while keeping 4 set aside for the two mechanics in this colour, Spectacle and Enrage. Thankfully, these two play well with , so that won't be a problem. In addition, I have to keep in mind my two creature types - Warlocks and Shamans. Let's get to it.

Quickstab Duelist
Creature - Human Warrior
Haste
"Make the first cut count, or don't make it at all."
1/1

A 1/1 Haste in this color is very typical, and nothing unusual. That it's not a Goblin meant that I couldn't reprint Raging Goblin and be done with it. Nope, it's a Functional Reprint instead. And it's not going to break 5C Humans any time soon, or so I hope.

Frenzied Raptor
Creature - Dinosaur
"No, I am not riding one of those, and you can't make me!" - Saheeli Rai
4/2

This, on the other hand, is a straight vanilla reprint, nothing special here.

Longpike Striker
Creature - Human Warrior
First Strike
"Look, as long as they don't get close, I'll be fine!"
2/2

Do you have any idea how annoying it is to discover just how few Common creatures have just First Strike and nothing else? There's not that many, let me tell you. So I had to make some wiggle room here to put one in. But now, the four Enrage Creatures!

Firestab Shaman
Creature - Insect Shaman
Enrage - When this creature is dealt damage, this creature deals 1 damage to target creature you don't control.
"As long as you don't bother me, I won't bother you."
0/1

This is one of those cards that I made that I still have a definite ??? on it. Normally, dealing damage to a creature that blocked or is blocked by one of your creatures is a thing. It's usually written as "When this creature dies, deal 1 damage to any target." As such, this creature is a very defensive in a very aggressive color. I mean, this could have been ? Or Frilled Deathspitter. Maybe I should give it 1 Power to allow for actual attacks, and honestly, I probably will, so let's put a pin in that for now.

Bloodfire Invoker
Creature - Minotaur Shaman
Enrage - Whenever this creature is dealt damage, add to your mana pool. This mana does not empty as phases and steps end until the end of the turn.
"My blood burns with all the power of this new land! And soon, you shall feel it too."
3/2

Right, not sure if mana production is something that should be at this degree of rarity, but there it is. If he survives the hit, he gives you some extra mana. This is useful both on the offense and defense, and the thought of someone casting Singe on this guy to go up 1 mana is kinda hilarious to me. And it pairs nicely with Leyline Shaman.

Sleeping Ferocidon
Creature - Dinosaur
Trample, Defender
Enrage - Whenever this creature is dealt damage, it gains Haste until the end of the turn, and permanently loses Defender.
"No. Just. No. Don't. Stop. WHY?" - Hualti
5/4

Because I like the idea of putting down a nice, napping Dinosaur, that if you poke it, it wakes up and goes on a murderous rampage. And the image of Hualti trying to stop some idiot from doing just that and failing.

Walker in the Ash
Creature - Human Shaman
Enrage - Whenever this creature is dealt damage, you may tap target land.
"See this? This is still dead from whatever happened here. And if we're not careful, this could happen again."
2/2

This is an odd choice, but one that I hope can work. You see, Wizards experimented with an alternate means of denying lands to opponents that didn't involve destroying them, and forcing them to tap was that experiment. After something like three cards over the course of two years, they declared the experiment a failure. I want to try again, and this time something repeatable. But not without cost, as there still has to be damage dealt.

But now let's go for the Spectacle Creatures, a mechanic shared with and part of the Warlock creature type. Alternate casting costs are a go!

Embertosser
Creature - Human Warlock
Spectacle
When this creature enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to any target.
"Come close now! Don't be shy! Or is the risk too much?"
1/1

An Enrage enabler on the front, but also a case of a creature that can perform a follow-up coup de grace on a creature or player on the cheap. Nothing powerful, but with decent utility.

Chaser of the Final Sunrise
Creature - Minotaur Warlock
Haste, Menace
Spectacle
"Running ever forward, not knowing what lay on that last horizon. Should I feel pity? Or Pride?"
5/3

Still not fully confident on the casting cost of this, but if you can poke a player in the first main phase, well, that cost is cheap for a 5/3 Haste to swing in on combat. Or wait until after and sure you get a still-cheap creature, but the Haste becomes a little wasted.

Wide-Frilled Ceradon
Creature - Dinosaur
Spectacle
When this creature enters the battlefield, if its Spectacle cost was paid, it gets +1/+1 until the end of the turn, and then it fights target creature you don't control.
"It's a challenge, that's what it is." - Hualti
4/2

I like Flametongue Kavu. It's too good for a lot of things though, so I'm going to borrow from here and including a Fight creature here as a dip, not a bend and definitely not a break.

Knuckletosser
Creature - Minotaur Warlock
Spectacle
When this creature enters the battlefield, Scry 1. If the Spectacle cost was paid, then draw a card then discard a card.
"Want me to toss the old bones, do you? You sure?"
2/3

On second thought, this would have been an amazing fight card for the pun, and I may change the abilities around at some point. Got to love having second/third thoughts at this point, don't you? I know I am! Also, I don't see a lot of Scry in as in other colours, so a little bit here isn't going to break the bank. Though Scrying, then Looting on one card opens up possibilities.

And that's it for the creatures. Next is the single Enchantment in this set at Common, and looking at historical options... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Immolation? That's it? That's the only Red Common Enchantment in Standard right now?

Oh. Wait. I know why. That's because the trend has been for these cards to be Auras, and that slot has been taken over by Equipment now. So, the question is, do I want an Enchantment, or an Artifact here? I mean, I haven't touch Artifacts yet in general, and so why not do it?

Nah. I have Uncommons and Artifacts for Equipment. Let's do this.

Dragon Mantle
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
When Dragon Mantle enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Enchanted creature has ": This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Upon thy head, a crown of might.

Look, it was either this, or Crown of Flames and I went with the more recent version as it included cad draw and not self-bouncing. Firebreathing is a classic effect in the game, and I'm glad to see it coming back on occasion. So why not dip into the allowable reprints and do that?

Which now moves us into what and share, Instants and Sorceries. Much like with , I will be flexible here, but honestly, a lot of options are pretty much set in stone at this rarity.

Shock
Instant
Shock deals 2 damage to any target.
"I told you not to stand there."

Look, this card is pretty much a classic staple for a reason, and reprinting it won't hurt anything.

Expedite
Instant
Target creature gains haste until end of turn.
Draw a Card.
"Ohnonononononono....! RUN!" - Saheeli Rai

And sometimes you just have to run really fast to get away from something that's exploding. Also an in-colour source of haste for the creatures that don't already have it. Why not?

Smash to Smithereens
Instant
Destroy target artifact. Smash to Smithereens deals 3 damage to that artifact's controller.
"BOOM! HAHAHAHAH!"

I was going to get fancy with this, involving a higher cost and sacrificing an artifact you controlled to do something along the lines of a Viashino Heretic's activated ability, but I thought differently after double-checking my work and honestly, I keep being a proponent of simpler being better. So let's keep it simple. But enough with the reprints!

First Punch
Instant
Spectacle
Target creature gets +2/+0 and First Strike until the end of the turn.
If the Spectacle cost was paid, that creature gets +1/0 and Double Strike instead.
"Look at you! You didn't even see that coming. Weak!"

OK, so does have combat tricks, and while adding First Strike to something is old hat, I'm not sure about the Spectacle cost of adding Double Strike either. But then again, as this is a combat trick, you would need to have dealt damage before the First Strike step of combat, so there are hidden costs involved. Another one that I'm not attached to any sort of fixed mana cost at this time.

Act of Treason
Sorcery
Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn.
"What did you expect? I was in this for me." - Davriel Cane

Another staple, Act of Treason is another solid choice for any set. Borrowing a creature, swinging, then hitting a home run with it is always nice. Oddly, in Standard, we're due for a reprint soon, and I think it'll come with the Summer/Core set this year.

Ride the Herd
Sorcery
Chose 1:
Create a 3/3 Dinosaur creature token
Create 3 1/1 Dinosaur creature tokens.
"This is a good find, they can carry our supplies further."

Playing around with token generation can be a finicky business at the best of times. I didn't want a straight up token maker as that's more , so I gave the player the option to either make one larger Dino, or three smaller ones instead. Not sure how this will play, but I can't not put it in.

Found Cache

Spectacle
As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card.
Scry 1. Draw two cards.
"Good, good. This will last for weeks!"
"With your appetite? Try days."

Not much to say here, as leans heavily on impulse draw, and rather than do yet another reprint of Cathartic Reunion or Tormenting Voice, I added the Spectacle rider, and Scry.

Cliff Fall
Sorcery
Cliff Fall deals 5 damage to target creature without Flying. If that creature would be destroyed this way, exile it instead.
"Don't hit your head! Heh, what a joker."

Another removal spell, this time as Sorcery speed and a lot larger than a mere Shock. However, there is a scale of diminishing returns in terms of direct damage like this, as while cards like Skewer the Critics exist, as you want to do more damage to a target, you'll have to spend more and more mana to do it, until you're paying to +. It's sort of formula, where the limit of X as X approaches infinity is X+1.

But that's 21 cards. And here is where we currently stand in terms of progress;

What are your thoughts on all this? I would love to hear them below.

Join me next week when I talk about weeks two and three of my Slow Grow Tournament. That's what you're all in here for, isn't it?

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!