CCDD 031115—Hungry Wyrm (Feed)

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/11/2015 - Every time they reprint Dragon Fodder, I want to make a mechanic like devour, but better. It's entirely debatable whether feed is better, but let's take a look anyhow.

Like devour, feed asks you to sacrifice creatures, but it's a cost-reduction mechanic instead of a size boost. That's not inherently better: The benefit is that you risk less because you've spent less if your opponent kills it; The downside is that cost reduction mechanics are dangerous and cards with them have to be costed in a less appealing way.

At a small hit to simplicity, feed does offer a nice twist that delve did not—It matters how big the creatures you sacrificed were. Hungry Wyrm is as satisfied by a Runeclaw Bear as it is by Dragon Fodder's pair of tokens. That doesn't do any favors to the card that inspired the mechanic, but makes for a more flexible and attractive mechanic overall. Frostburn Weird and Disowned Ancestor make for tasty dragon treats.