Weekend Art Challenge 042514 Review—AndyParkArt

Weekend Art Challenge Review
Here's the challenge we're reviewing today.

It's true of every Design review, but worth stating explictly before we go too far: The exact balance of a card is something Development figures out through lots of playtesting and iteration. While I will make notes about things that seem too strong or too weak, they all come with the understanding that none of us can possibly know with real certainty. Indeed, there's not even a "correct" choice in Development because a point of mana, power or toughness here or there matters more or less very contextually, and a single over- or under-costed common will never break a format, just shape it one direction or another.

Bloodcrazed Minotaur looks to be a cheap Minotaur and reinforce the BR color-split of the tribe. Creative wants Minotaurs to be 5+ P/T, but this guy can grow to 2/3 or larger each turn with a mana investment. It's not my favorite solution, but it's an interesting card mechanically. It's strange seeing the Shade ability on a non-shade, but it's neat that it can go on such a cheap creature because you're guaranteed not to be mono-black or even close.

Bloodfrenzy Minotaur also fills the cheap slot. Here, we get a Hurloon Minotaur for {R} which is exciting, but it's effectively just a 2/1 since it damages itself whenever you use it. That's far above curve for a red common. Between that and the drawback with an implict X, I'd much rather see this at uncommon.

Bloodpact Minotaur is a Hurloon Minotaur for {B} but this one's fragile in a very different way: It offers a free 2:1 to your opponents (which you can mitigate by not playing other creatures they can kill). High risk, high reward; this could easily prove too good for Limited at common, but the ability to chump it with a 0/1 and still 'trade' mitigates that a lot.

Bloodthirsty Brute is a Triton Shorethief that upgrades to a Goblin Roughrider if you ever block it. Given how hard it is to force blocks in Theros, and how quickly a bad Minotaur can become good in the right deck, I like this solution to the cheap minotaur problem.

Bull-Eye Butcher offers conditional, tribal, card selection. The way it fills your graveyard feels a bit Mulch-y or Grave Defiler-esque, but mechanically this works well in black. Card selection is definitely something the tribe lacks and would enjoy.

Bullgore is just a big, efficient Minotaur, which is something we might have seen a lot more of, but didn't. Maybe R&D was so focused on fulfilling the minimum size that they forgot to make some big Minotaurs. Intimidate seems over-the-top on a 4/4 for 4, but given that it's two-color, I really think this is just right.

Celebrant of Ruin is Ruinous Minotaur's smaller cousin. In addition to being smaller and cheaper, this version triggers off of damage dealt to creature as well as players, which will make this play much differently. This doesn't compare well to Scythe Tiger or Rogue Elephant (which is fair because green gets more efficient creatures), but those cards saw very little play and I think this needs either a bigger upside, or a more conditional downside.

Deathbellow Bloodreader will scare new players away instantly with its life loss and card disadvantage, but Spikes will enjoy the ability to trade three weak cards for two potentially relevant cards. I like that this is free with Ragemonger and I'm surprised nothing like that made it into the block.

Fellhide Deathstalker shows us what a Minotaur devoted to black might look like. This might be a bit overpowered since its Bushido in the worst case and Godsend in the best. Kind of shocking Theros block didn't include any -X/-X equal to devotion cards.

Grudgeholder Minotaur is doing two big things: It's an undercosted Minotaur that can't attack unless you can get some Minotaurs killed, growing unbounded when you do; and it's also a Minotaur lord that grows your entire team as members die. I like both ideas, but the combination is too much for a single card, particularly at {R}.

Kragma Blooddrinker is our other black-devoted Minotaur, this one mirroring Mogis's Marauder (which is a human wearing a minotaur skull), but doesn't grant haste (so it never gets to benefit itself) and grants lifelink instead of intimidate (which is an odd choice for a brutal tribe of warlike beastmen).

Kragma Coward takes a page from Jackal Familiar and Mogg Flunkies. It's more efficient than either and might be too good for a common. It could be {1}{R} and just "can't attack alone" which would be fair.

Kragma Goremaster is also free via Ragemonger, but much more focused on blind aggression than Bloodreader. Even so, this might also appeal less to new players since it damages you, but it doesn't take much experience to know that everyone losing equal life is good when you're attacking with 3/2s for two.

Kragma Grunt fills the high-end gap for Minotaurs, punishing your opponent for saving cards, drawing extras, or just being mana-screwed. I'd want to test this for sure, it's clearly swingy but it might be just the right kind of swingy.

Kragma Horn-Tosser is a bigger Minotaur, also looking to give you a bit of reach in the late game. A free fling sounds perfectly bullmanish to me.

Minotaur Carnophage will please a lot of players because it's an efficient minotaur one-drop, references Carnophage, and Unholy Strength, and gets to 5+ P/T via the block mechanic Inspired. Works for me!

Reckless Minotaur is a reverse Serra Avenger. You only want to cast this in one of your first three turns. After that (whether in hand or play), it's useless. That's a huge limitation, but it's likely to deal 9 damage when you play it on turn 1. I think this wants to be a rare just for splashiness.

Slaughter Caller looks to offer you conditional, tribal card advantage at the cost of life. Given the efficient cost, I would be happy to run this in a Minotaur deck, Limited or Standard.

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I was really glad I didn't tell you all to make cheap Minotaurs, because the other holes you filled revealed further limitations to the tribe, and all the cards are interesting or exciting. Very well done.

BTW, there has never been a 3/2 vanilla Minotaur. Seems like a big missed opportunity for the Pensive Minotaur slot given Kragma Butcher.