Black mage loves black haste. I too consider "Shade" a French Vanilla ability, a very common thing that we all understand. Loved Mirri The Cursed in Standard, a definite game ending monster in my old Bad Moon aggro. Haste wins games.
Posted By:
The-D
(10/7/2010 12:28:12 PM)
Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #4, 9/30/10
This card felt weird to me when it came out in the Urza’s Saga set.
Prior to this little beater, haste on black creatures has been confined to dudes that repeatedly came back from the dead (Nether Shadow, Ashen Ghoul) and the intentionally overdone proto-Akroma, Spirit of the Night.
The along came this guy--uncommon, 2/2, flying, haste. Black. Weird.
I understand the desire to make flying creatures with haste, as the abilities go so well together. I also understand that it’s hard to make them--the “flying” colors do not have access to haste normally, and the “haste” color should only get flying at rare, specifically on very non-2/2-sized Dragons. So if one wanted to make a monocolored smallish hasty flier at a lower rarity, what color could it go in? Black’s the only reasonable choice.
For as much sense as it made in theory, Crazed Skirge hardly... (see all)
Posted By:
Aaron_Forsythe
(9/30/2010 9:17:42 AM)
Here's what's going on. Black needs haste for purposes of limited. Black is very restricted in creature keywords and to make sure there is diversity in commons and uncommon black creatures, black needs haste. Green needs haste for constructed. There are many things that development needs green creatures to do for constructed that haste helps. The compromise reached was to make haste a secondary ability in black allowing it to be more frequent and lower rarity. The ability is tertiary in green because it shows up on fewer cards and in higher rarities. Essentially, haste only shows up when a green card needs it for constructed purposes.
What this means is that haste shows up on more black cards in total but shows up on more relevant cards in green. Which is the number two color in haste? It's all a matter of what you care about. From a design standpoint, it's black as it's filling an important design role through volume. For development, it's green because in constructed play,... (see all)
Posted By:
MaRo
(9/30/2010 9:53:32 AM)
Fun Fact: This is the only card on Gatherer MaRo has commented on.
Posted By:
Test-Subject_217601
(11/24/2010 9:16:50 AM)
Haste in black is a remnant of the whole "attack with this guy from the graveyard this turn" you find on Corpse Dance, Shallow Grave, and guys that do it all the way back to Nether Shadow.
Posted By:
WotC_KennethNagle
(9/30/2010 10:00:33 AM)
Did the two developers forget about Boros Skynight?
Posted By:
blindthrall
(12/16/2010 11:43:07 PM)
Three WotC employees have posted here...haste in black is kind of a magnet, huh?
Fun fact: This card's Multiverse ID is 5555.
Posted By:
Axelle
(5/26/2011 11:40:25 AM)
looks pretty sane to me
Posted By:
ttian
(4/20/2009 3:58:25 PM)
HI MARO! HI! CAN I HAVE A JOB? PLEASE! I'VE GOT MYTHIC COMMENT STATUS!
Posted By:
Shadoflaam
(1/30/2012 11:18:03 AM)
@Aaron_Forsythe:
I would agree that green is still the second-most haste-attuned color. Gaea's Revenge, Vengevine, Putrefax, Thornling, as well as the red/green cards like Bloodbraid Elf and Boggart Ram-Gang all seem to indicate that. In Extended, most Black creatures that can have haste only get it through unearth. And this feels right, as green is much more primal and creature-oriented.
Posted By:
BuffJittePLZ
(4/19/2011 8:39:41 AM)