Should instant spells be tied to creatures - Throne Standard

[nifty129]

For those who were playing magic when rivals of ixalan released you'll remember a little card called ravenous chupacabra.

It was seen as this game breaking thing on pre - release, a murder on a 2/2 grizzly body that's broken.

It wasn't however, it was sorcery speed, the card was 4 mana, and it didn't hit walkers, it was strong but not too strong.

Fast forward to throne and we have a full set filled with cards that have strong creature bodies, and have very useful instants spells tied to them.

Brazen Borrower has blink of an eye, murderous rider has bedevil, bonecrusher giant has shock, lovestruck beast is a steeleaf with a free 1/1 and a easier mana cost.

White doesn't get one of these cards of the same power level, and is therefore the weakest color.

Now I've never been a fan of mandatory inclusions in deck building, but these cards are just pure card advantage, there's no reason not to use them.

This is a direct quote from wizards; 'For the period starting in Battle for Zendikar and going through Core Set 2019, we—what was then called R&D—made a conscious effort to gradually power down our marquee sets and, by extension, the Standard format. Our primary goal with that direction was to open up design space, mostly in higher-cost cards and in effects typically not impactful enough for competitive play.'

They continue on by saying that they have intentionally power creeped sets since then, guilds of ravnica forward. But the issue there in lies that every time a new set releases you have to drop everything and spend in order to stay even mildly competitive.

When Theros 2.0 drops there will essentially be a new Oko or something equally broken because wizards is intentionally pushing sets to make more money.

But I'm interested in hearing what you guys think let me know down below.

[Red_Wyrm]

Nifty is back. Still don't get why you delete accounts, but whatever. Do you.

I see this as no different from the aftermath cards in terms of card advantage and flashback is very similar in the same regard. The problem isn't that you have the card advantage, the problem (according to you, I don't play standard) is that white doesn't have one that is the same power level. But this always happens. Out of the 7 5 praetors, the red one is clearly the weakest. Same thing with the titan cycle. Primeval Titan and Grave Titan are the best, and sun titan is fairly decent, with the other two being garbage. You can look at the pact cycle. 0 mana counterspell, sign me up, Pact of the Titan, waste of money.

[nifty129]

It becomes a little more problematic when you duplicate the effects with a lucky clover the new 2 mana artifact. It feels like the opponent is storming out in a format without any good artifact removal. What I wouldn't give to have abrade back, it would instantly fix this problem. Still not good enough for modern though, which means there are far better sets to spend your money on.

[MonteTribal]

I'm waiting for the power reset to come about. Every few sets like this, Wizards raises then drops the power of cards, and so the cycle goes on. This is a very powerful set. Adventure cards have a unique brand of card advantage, but I see them as slightly better Aftermath or Flashback style effects. They are just Spells that become Creatures, instead of the other way around. What makes them better is you can cast both halves, then return one card from the graveyard, then cast both halves again. Whereas the other variants usually end up in exile instead of the graveyard.

I think having instants on creatures is fine. It's (usually) a common or uncommon level effect on a common or uncommon body. The only one I have a problem with is Brazen Borrower because it is TWO instants. The Disperse is not the problem, it is the free body that you can play at the end of your opponents turn while holding up a counterspell or other removal, then start smashing face.

Murderous Rider - great card, but totally fair. You cannot play it when you are low on life because it can kill you, and you cannot return it from the grave to your hand.
Bonecrusher Giant - also great. Removal, a large body, strong effect on creature, and gets around protection effects. Still gets chump blocked and killed by so many cards
Adventuring Beast - totally fine. I think it might be a little weak even, because if you kill or even pump the 1/1 token the Beast cannot attack.
Giant Killer - not great, but fine. 1 mana 1/2 with a 2 mana tap ability is a little slow, and no one really plays Smite the Monstrous anyway. This is the 'missing' white card you are talking about.

As for Lucky Clover, I love the card. A 2 mana do nothing card, that allows you to gain advantage over a few turns is great. Two shocks is really good, but not game breaking. 2 Bedevil is fine, but you lose 4 life which can be a lot. 2 1/1 tokens is laughably mediocre, but allows the Beast to attack more consistently. 2 Smite the Monstrous is... okay I guess, but if there are 2 large creatures you might be in trouble anyway.
Even bouncing two things isn't that groundbreaking, but the 3/1 flash flier is what will kill you the fastest, and bouncing your threats keeps you off of your game plan long enough for it to end you faster.

[DelverMage]

I understand the point being made, but personally I am enjoying the Adventure cards.  They are quite powerful, in both being a spell and a creature, some more so than others.

What is different than the past, is that some of the best ones are NOT Rare.  These are playable commons and uncommons, and the two enablers, Edgewall Innkeeper and Lucky Clover generate quite an engine for Adventure cards.  These didn't really play into Oko strategies, and only became slightly less reliable without Once Upon a Time.

My first deck was G/W and it won quite a bit on Arena, until the format started tightening up and getting faster.  Now I have switched to a B/G version that is also very fast.  The only good rare Adventure card in the deck is 3 Murderous Riders and some Pain lands and Temples. 

It is very strong synergy baked right into the design of Adventure cards.  Outside of Standard, I am not sure this holds too much water though.  Just like energy doesn't really.  They define a strong portion of the format certainly, but not format breaking like Oko......

[DelverMage]

Ways in current standard to destroy artifacts for 3 mana or less:
Bedevil
Cindervines
Deface
Disenchant
Embereth Shieldbreaker // Battle Display
Expose to Daylight
Knight of Autumn
Natural End
Reckless Air Strike
Return to Nature
Sprouting Renewal

There are plenty of reasonably costed artifact removal in the environment today.

[DMuehlhausen]

Yes it's fine and good design. 

What was terrible was the original days of Magic where all creature were do nothing ETB or abilities just a 2/2 bears for 4/4 bears essentially.  The game got better when creatures started having triggers a do stuff things on them