Why Are MTG's Babies So Strong?

Summary

Magic: The Gathering has a trend of introducing baby versions of iconic creatures, which often outshine their parents.
Scythecat Cub synergizes well with landfall decks, while Displacer Kitten and Owlbear Cub have powerful effects.
The trend of baby creatures in Magic serves as a way to refine and improve upon the original cards, creating new gameplay possibilities.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering is a game where you can command the biggest, meanest creatures of the multiverse. Maybe it’s an Impervious Greatwurm from Ravnica, or Arixmethes, the slumbering island of Theros. It could be a band of Goblins, or ওan Eldrazi from the blind eternities, and nothing will be able to stand in your way.

Or, it could be a wickle bab𝄹y kitty. It probably would be an ickle-wi🍸ckle kitty cat, because they’re terrors in the right hand. Magic’s got this weird trend of making some of its best creatures babies, and now that I’ve noticed it, I can’t think about anything else.

This year has been quite a baby-heavy year for Magic, with Bloomburrow introducing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the offspring mechanic to make smaller token copies of creatures you cast. They’re fine, and cards like ♕Iridescent Vinelasher ꦰare a big threat, but they’re not the babies I’m thinking about.

Territorial Scythecat’s Out Of Control Child, Scythecat Cub

Instead, we have to move from Bloomburrow over to Foundations Jumpstart, which introduced Scythecat Cub. Look at♉ this little cutie, with his fluffy face and big, goofy paws. Yes, his eyes are glowing and his arms have blades on them, but that’s fine when something is that darn huggable. That is, until you play two lands and double the number of +1/+1 counters on a cre♔ature.

In any deck that plays lots of lands, Scythecat Cub is a menace. It synergises really well with other recent cards like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bristly Bill and Innkeeper’s Talent, an𝕴d serves as a new feather in the particularly plumulous landfall player’s cap. It’s also the baby version of a fairly alright Zendikar Rising card, Territorial Scythecat.

Territorial Scythecat is fine. It’s serviceable. I remember playing it a lot during Zendikar Rising, and still run it in my Hamza, Guardian of Arashing Commander deck. It’s nothing to yell home about, and is a far cry from the best-in-set status of its child. Bu꧂t I suppose it is a parent’s duty to make sure their child is better off in life than they were.

Displacer Beast’s Sproglet Is A Fiend

A few years ago, we had two Dungeons 💜& Dragons-centric sets in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur’s Gate. ♓Each needed to capture the big names of D&D, with the latter featuring characters like Astarion, Shadowheart, Karlach, and Gale months before they rose to superstar status with Baldur’s Gate 3.

But it couldn’t feature many of the b🍷ig creatures of D&D, because Adventures in the Forgotten Realms did it first. Notably, the set included both Displacer Beast and Owlbear, two of D&D’s most popular monsters. The only꧟ problem was both cards kind of stunk for two of the most iconic D&D beasties in history.

Di☂splacer Beast lets you venture into the dungeon, and if you’ve got enough mana can help you loop through them for an infinite win combo, but aside from that, it isn’t much to write home about. Owlbear is even worse, costing five mana just to let you draw a card. Iconic, sure. Good? Not at all.

Wanting to avoid reprinting cards so soon, Baldur’s Gate opted for having infant versions of the monsters make an appearance instead. And, just as you’d expect, the cards quickly went on to be some of the best in the whole set, outshining their parents by a☂ country mile.

Move over Displacer Beast, because Displacer Kitten lets you flicker (exile, then ret💯urn to play) a permanent whenever you cast a noncreature spell. It’s since gone on to become a mainstay of blink decks, with how easy it is to trigger the effect multiple times a turn. It’s also got an uttewy adowable fuzzy liddle coat and paws and awwww who’s a good pussy cat.

Owlbear Cub is a banger in any stompy deck that likes to throw out big creatures. Getting it online by having an opponent 🌠with eight or more lands can be tough, but the reward is putting any creature from the top eight 𒈔cards of your deck into play for free. Make it unblockable or indestructible, and Owlbear Cub can spiral out of control in just a few turns.

Taking The Kid Gloves Off

Of course, there’s a sensible reason for this trend. Each cu♏b is effectively a sequel card, taking the original card and finetuning it while keeping a similar mechanical foundation,✱ so it makes sense that cards like Displacer Beast would be kind of pants while Displacer Kitten is raw value.

But it’s just weird that they’re babies. Compare it to series like Pokemon, where 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:baby Pokemon are invariably the weaker versions of their adult forms, and the trend Magic has of turning cute, fuzzy, baby critters into weapons of mass destruction seems slightly nonsensical. Maybe we could have had a Grizzled Displacer Beast at the top of its strength instead of a baby biting its owꦆn tail?

Not that I’m complaining. I love and play with all of these cards, and the idea of making a 𒁏baby-centric deck with them and Bloomburrow’s offspring becomes more and more appealing every day. With tens of thousands of cards, there’s going to be these odd little trends here and there. If a newborn cat can’t soꦓlo an interplanar threat like Emrakul, what is the point in Magic?