Why Does WotC No Longer Use the Anti-Reanimator Clause?
General forum
Posted on Oct. 6, 2023, 10:49 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Several creatures, such as Serra Avatar, Darksteel Colossus, and Progenitus, have an ability that at first seems to be beneficial, but actually exists to prevent players from intentionally putting those creatures into their own graveyards and then reanimating them for far less mana than what it would cost to cast them, but WotC has not put that ability on any creatures in recent years, so I wonder why that is; did WotC decide that intentionally putting powerful creatures into one's own graveyard and then reanimating them was, in fact, a perfectly legitimate strategy? What does everyone else say about this?
One reason that I think they moved away from it and towards things like cast triggers (which can still be abused, it's just harder) is that there are some old instant speed reanimation effects that can technically reanimate a creature that is in the graveyard, so if a card is good enough to warrant the effort you can still cheat them out, so the idea didn't actually work in practice if the goal was to force people to actually cast the card.
The most extreme solution I can think of is adding a clause on the cast trigger, which already exists here and there iirc 'If you cast {card} using _____ mana', or 'if you cast from hand' type stuff, this type of clause makes it incredibly hard to cheese something, so the effect can be truly game breaking if it's enough mana. There are ways to cheat on casting from hand, but they tend to be more mana than a card like Shallow Grave, which can be played (with Entomb or Putrid Imp) turn 1 via Dark Ritual, it's harder to cheat Omniscience out turn 1 I'd argue, and technically you're better off with Shallow Grave if you can cheat something like a Blightsteel out and only need to hit your opponent once, so maybe WotC has recognized that that design space isn't as safe as they once thought?
legendofa says... #2
There are only fifteen cards with some variation of this text. One pops up every few years, with a cluster from 2009-2012 covering Progenitus, the Eldrazi Titans, and Worldspine Wurm. There was then a six-year gap to Nexus of Fate (which may or may not count for the question, since it's not a creature).
I'm not sure it's officially stopped being a mechanic. It's just used infrequently, and usually to denote a creature of apocalyptic power with an equally apocalyptic mana cost. If they have fully stepped away from this text, it's in favor of rewarding the card being cast, like the BFZ/OGW/EMN Eldrazi Titans, Apex Devastator, or The Tarrasque.
October 7, 2023 3:20 a.m.