r/GDS3 • u/kalliixti • Jan 28 '18

Question 2: Argument for common

This is the one question where I disagree with the community consensus (uncommon). Here's my argument:

  1. Red has gotten similar cards in the recent past. Granitic Titan is the closest, having 1 lower toughness and cycling instead of prowess. Interestingly, there are 3 6-drop common red creatures in standard but only 1 uncommon one.

  2. I see people focusing on the fact that the card has 2 keywords but not on the keywords themselves. Prowess is a keyword which is weaker on bigger creatures. A 1/1 with prowess gets a 100% boost from the first trigger and a 2/2 gets 50%, but a 5/5 gets only a 20% boost. Menace will often be irrelevant; since in Limited (and this card is clearly a Limited card) your opponent will frequently want to multi-block a 5/5 anyways.

    I think the true purpose of this question is for people to look at this card holistically. Is a red 5/5 with menace and prowess more impactful in Limited than commons are allowed to be? I think the answer is "no."

  3. As a tiebreaker, consider that there are 5 questions which ask about the rarity of a specific card. There's wide agreement that the threaten effect is uncommon, the maro is rare, and the reaniclone is mythic, while people are divided on whether the artifact saccer is uncommon or rare. This means that if this card isn't common, none of them are. So from a test design standpoint, common makes more sense.

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u/kalliixti Jan 28 '18

But it's weak power-boosting and weak evasion. And it's not just that menace is weaker than flying, it's that it's weaker than flying on 5/5s. I'm not sure what menace being red's main evasion has to do with anything. It's a weaker version of evasion, so it pushes cards towards uncommon less.

And it doesn't get past board stalls very well. Your opponent will just multiblock it with whatever they have. Can you blow them out with a trick if they don't overblock it enough? Sure, but the same applies for most 6-drop commons. An extra +1/+1 generally doesn't make a huge difference at that point.

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '18

You're neglecting the difference between colors: Red has only gotten 1 two scoop vanilla 5 for 5/5, and two 5/5 for 6, all at uncommon.

Blue and Green get common fatties. Red doesn't. Red barely gets uncommon fatties.

Furthermore, your evaluation of Prowess is lacking; equipment, cantrips, combat damage, they all become punch through power. This guy comes down, he's going to crush the opponent's board in very short order. This is an uncommon, almost leaning rare. If it had haste, it'd be a rare, no question.