Today’s unsolicited design is short and sweet, inspired by some observations by the amazing Magic Data Science @mtg_ds on Twitter: first, that “Rogue” and “Wall” have never shared a typeline, and second, that “defender” and “deathtouch” have never been static abilities of the same creature! (Gatecrash gives us Corpse Blockade, a defender which can gain deathtouch, but that’s not quite the same.) Although I know walls are out of fashion in MTG design, I thought I’d try my hand at a crossover that seems this rich with potential.
I intentionally kept this design very simple, something that I think wouldn’t be out of place at common. Black seems to get defenders with 4 toughness and some upside for around 3 mana, and while this is a little clunky in limited due to being slow and preventing attacks, I think it would be an important piece in slow decks to stabilize them against the aggro tactics that are controlling limited lately. It’s intended to work with both a RB treasure sacrifice theme and an UB rogue typal theme, while being a little less desirable in GB and WB but still a playable late pick. It clearly belongs in a draft environment with lots of treasure, but it might also find a home in Prosper or other treasure commander decks, or in rogue or wall typal strategies (although rogue typal strategies often require attacking). The flavor is meant to be useful on any plane, although the Shakespeare joke in the flavor text makes me think of Fiora with its medieval Machiavellian intrigues. All in all, I think this is an elegant bit of design that fills an unusual empty spot in Magic design.
A bit of blog organization–I don’t think Sprite Art Saturdays are working for me. I haven’t had inspiration to work on sprite art in ages. I’ll try to decide on a different series for Saturdays soon, but until then, I may just post if I’m in the mood to and not if I can’t think of anything to post. Thanks for being patient as I work out how I’d like to use this blog!