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I received an e-mail in response to my last post that nearly brought me to tears. It read in part:

My sister forwarded [your blog post] to me because she thought I would appreciate it. You two know each other actually, her name is XXXXX and she is an XXXXX at XXXXX.

Her and I talk all the...

Pit Fight: Goblin vs. Cyclops

We're in the thick of DGM spoiler season and with less than two weeks to the prerelease and just one guild champion to go, it looks like DGM is shaping up to be a doozy.

I wanted to cover something I think a lot of us experience, but can't really put our fingers on. Now, I'm not LSV or Conley Woods. I don't look at cards from a Spike's perspective. I play for fun (sometimes to win), but always with friends, and ideally with a beer or twenty present.

We often get gut reactions about a card, why it's good or bad, why we like it or don't, or any number of other things. We'll often just dismiss a card as "Oh, that thing sucks.". Maybe it does suck, maybe it doesn't. Maybe it asks a little more of you? All those things aside, you can be sure of one thing. As MaRo says (and I'm paraphrasing): If you don't like the card, it probably wasn't meant for you.

If you don't like the card, it probably wasn't meant for you.

Today I'd like to break down two somewhat similar cards and see if I can't figure out exactly why I don't like one and do like the other, what that might mean about me as a player, and why that information might be important.

Take a look at MaRo's preview card for DGM, Goblin Test Pilot. This little guy was very polarizing for a full 24 hour cycle. But why? I know that I personally didn't care much for the card. I'm an Izzet guy myself, but I still just couldn't bring myself to get excited about a chump in the air who will generally have a 1 in 5 chance (or better) that he'll hit himself. (not to mention I still miss Gelectrode) I knew I didn't like this card very much, but at the time, I'd only have been able to cite his lack of control as the reason why. Even as a non-Spike player, targeting is just too much to leave up to chance.

It took until this morning and a new spoiler for me to realize why I didn't care for him very much. Team Mana Deprived's DGM spoiler for today is a Big Daddy lookin' fella by the name of NIvix Cyclops. As soon as I read him, I loved him. But why? What is it about these two identically costed creatures that places me on opposite ends of the spectrum?

Keep in mind, I'm not talking about power level here. I'm not trying to look at the cards from a development perspective, but rather purely from a design standpoint. I bring up the casting cost because it's relevant for color pie constraints.

Here are my major issues with Goblin Test Pilot:

Random targeting

1UR casting cost just for flying, everything else about him is red

0/2 body means he'll kill himself often

I think flavor is just under a home run.

After Izzet Staticaster's high expectations and underwhelming performance, I don't think I was ready to love a 1UR uncommon yet :(

Here are the things I like about Goblin Test Pilot:

I mean, come on, he's a blindfolded Izzet goblin on a hoverboard for Avacyn's sake.

I think if Goblin Test Pilot felt a bit more Izzet than red to me, I'd have way less of an issue with him. I think RTR knocked the feel of Izzet out of the park. I think it was underpowered on average because the variance level was so high. It was tough to cobble the pieces of the machine together, and when you messed up, it exploded in your face. But oh man, when you get a Mercuial Chemister going or an Overloaded Teleportal, it has the potential to come together in the most spectacular fashion. I think that's what Goblin test Pilot is missing. Even at his best he's just a primarily red feeling card with Flying tacked on for blue.

I don't think changing his P/T, increasing damage dealt, or even removing the random targeting is the answer. I think all he needed to really feel like an Izzet League member is a death trigger. If he's dealing 2 damage with the little cannons on his head, the explosion from crashing his hoverboard should be a little more destructive, no? Maybe just an extra 1 damage (even random!) upon death would have been enough to make me say "Oh man, I'm going to play this sucker even if it bites me in the backside."

Let's move on to Nivix Cyclops. Here's what I don't like about him:

I'm equating him to a BIg Daddy in my head, so it's hard to imagine him not having trample, even though that's not a very blue or izzet keyword.

I wish he had a drill on one hand.

Here's what I love about Nivix Cyclops.

I love 1/4 Defenders, even without evasion. It usually means I'm going to get something cool.

I love Wee Dragonauts and even without evasion, this sucker gets beefy right quick.

Not hard to give him evasion

Big butt. 4 toughness is a lot.

Combos so well. I mean have you seen Armed??

Makes you work for it, but rewards you for doing so.

Nivix Cyclops is exactly the type of card that feels Izzet to me. It's asking something of you. "Build around me!" "Give me flying!" Adding +3/+0 to every instant or sorcery is pretty great even if it only targets the Cyclops, and it's certainly enough to get you to pay attention to it. This is the kind of simply designed card that screams Izzet to me and that's to say nothing of the fact that it'll probably see constructed play at least on my kitchen table anyway. Did you also notice it's a common? <faints>

So what does all this tell me about the kind of player I am? Well, I can see pretty clearly that I value the flavor very very highly. I really appreciate when a card feels right, regardless of power level or playability. I tend to lean very Johnny Vorthos in my psychographic and Instinct/Intellect, so this comes as no surprise. While I don't very much care for Goblin Test Pilot, I can certainly see that many players are ecstatic that he exists and are excited to play him. Conversely, I'm sure that there are many player who see the build-around-me nature of Nivix Cyclops off-putting and can't see the value of a 1/4 Defender who can attack conditionally.

How is that knowledge helpful, though? Well, the next time you come across a card you hate or think sucks, stop and ask yourself why? It's easy to forget that in any design process (not just games), one of the hardest parts is striking a balance for your end users (in this case, players). Personally, Goblin Test Pilot is not for me, but I'm also not forced to play him. Luckily Dragon's Maze has 155 other cards, many of which we've yet to see. There's bound to be a few more that will be right up my alley. :)

#dgm #dragon's maze #goblin test pilot #melek #big daddy #nivix #cyclops