While simple and intuitive in theory, the execution of banding is quite confusing at the beginning... I used to learn properly how to use this ability and I assure you that it's so powerful, specially at the defense!
Back to the question, Mephilis: no and no. The band can be of every kind of creature, but every creature have to have banding, except for at most one. Then the opponet can block the band with every creature that can block every single creature of the band. So the creature in the band doesn't share any ability, but instead they keep their abilities.
Example:
you attack me with a band composed by:
Mesa Pegasus, Noble Elephant, Pikemen and Dimir Cutpurse.
If I don't block, you deals me 6 damages and I discard and you draw a card, for the cutpurse.
If i block with a x/1 creature, during the first damage step (I don't recall exactly how it's called...) your pikemen deals 1 damage to my creat... (see all)
Posted By:
leomistico
(5/22/2011 3:10:08 PM)
That kind of question is why they got rid of banding, Mephilis.
Posted By:
Lavrant
(3/24/2011 8:03:18 PM)
@Mephilis
It's actually a pretty intuitive answer (believe it or not.) If anything in the band can be blocked, the whole band can be blocked. In physical terms it would be like a Mesa Pegasus flying along with a group of soldiers. It's not going to be able to fly high above the enemies and still coordinate with the soldiers below. It's going to have to go to the ground.
I really don't think Banding was as hard as people make it out to be. The problem was when they started spinning it off into "bands with dragons" and other specialized ones that interacted in really confusing ways with vanilla banding.
Posted By:
bandswithgoats
(8/30/2011 9:13:59 AM)
True story: my brother had so many of these that he made a deck of nothing but it and land.
And it beat my decks, time and time again.
Posted By:
MasterOfBearLore
(10/2/2011 11:11:32 PM)
To those who are asking questions about banding, read the rules.
For those of you who are considering adding the Pegasus to your deck, here's why its a good card:
Alone, Mesa Pegasus is pretty worthless (compared to Giant Spider orFlying Men ), but in combination with other cards the Pegasus can be pretty solid.
For one thing, Mesa Pegasus can fly, so it can attack with a fair chance of being unblockable. This alone makes it a crap Flying Men. However, as it has both flying and banding, you can use it very effectively against attacking flyers. You can band this card with other non-flyers and block (hopefully kill) a big flyer.
Banding is an ability that I always underestimated until I made a banding deck. I went with White (banders & swords) and Red (burn and things like Blood Lust, and the deck worked surprisingly well. The opportunities are endless. Banding is easy to misunderestimat... (see all)
Posted By:
The_Erudite_Idiot
(1/26/2013 10:14:56 AM)
I do.
Posted By:
McThor
(4/29/2010 9:30:06 PM)
I miss banding because you could get around trample damage and all kinds of other bad stuff that happens when some creatures hit you for combat damage (e.g. Hypnotic Specter) but the implications of static abilities are a bit complex. Having taken up the game when banding was alive and well for those who knew how to use it, I could see how it would be offputting to newer players.
Posted By:
jfre81
(7/24/2011 2:52:51 PM)
@BonniePrinceCharlie: You're underestimating the advantage of directing all the damage to a 1/1 banding creature.
Consider this: If I band a Mesa Pegasus with a Serra Angel and attack with it, and you block with a Shivan Dragon (or vice-versa, if you attack and I block), no matter how much damage you pump into the dragon, I can dump it all onto the pegasus. That's the real advantage of banding: It lets you decide which of your creatures die, while putting them into bands big enough to force anyone who blocks or is blocked by them into an unfavorable trade-off (because anything that blocks or is blocked by the band is probably going to die itself.)
Posted By:
Aquillion
(4/6/2013 7:19:29 PM)
Rated so low... you morons don't appreciate banding, do you? >_>
Posted By:
Kryptnyt
(1/14/2010 7:55:59 AM)
Question: Since this creature has flying, do the creatures that it bands with get flying if they do not have flying? Or can it only band wiht flying monsters?
Posted By:
Mephilis
(9/27/2010 8:48:36 PM)