Pattern Recognition #318 - Bragging to Victory

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

4 April 2024

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

Today's article is about a mechanic that has only seen one set, and while it didn't make a huge splash, it was that nice balance of reliable and effective, costing an opportunity that people would gladly pay as well as a mana cost that wasn't too onerous at the best of times.

Found in non- colours, Boast is an keyworded Activated ability that reads "Boast — [Cost]: [Effect] (Activate this ability only if this creature attacked this turn and only once each turn.)" It was designed to add an additional layer of restrictions to activated abilities, joining the "Activate only at Sorcery speed", and being added onto "activate only once each turn". These restrictions were experimental, and while it was popular in its own way, the two mechanics that it grew up out of - Inspire and were already poorly received, and on the whole, Boast was nothing to boast about in retrospective.

Mechanically, Boast is pretty simple to understand. You have a creature. You attack with the creature. You can then Boast with the creature until the end of the turn. Which includes the Second Main Phase. What's the problem? It's really just a timing restriction. Well, no, it's not that, and it's more than that.

To boast, you must first attack. Which means that outisde of 's Haste enablers, there are only two creatures with both Haste and Boast. Which means that your intent with regards to attacking and what you may or may not intend to do with your attacks are well known ahead of time. And in this game, where knowledge is power, you were playing your hand early. And unlike the Foretell Mechanic, which quickly became a guessing game of only a few cards that anyone reliably played, Boast was out in the open.

Seriously, I've only really seen Saw it Coming and Doomskar, with the occasional Alrund's Epiphany for spice.

Anyway, even assuming that you got your turn again, the next problem comes up. In order to activate your Boast, you have to attack. And depending on everything from the format to the board state, that might not be the best option. Combat is a tricky thing at the best of times - yes, even against an empty board - and so this requirement didn't sit well with some players. Not all of them mind you. But enough of them that their opinions were heard.

So now you've attacked, then what? Well, here is where something about Boast is actually in its favor, and I found far too many players failed to realize when the set and cards came out even though it was pretty explicitly spelled out. Boast abilities, even if it didn't say so on the card, and if the ability may have seemed Sorcery speed - worked at instant speed. And you can do it before blockers are declared. Which means that many of the combat tricks that these creatures have, from Fearless Pup to Goldmaw Champion could affect the calculus of blocking before or even after blocks were declared.

This is important because I saw far too many people not understand why you would do these things in the second main phase. And in this case, any number larger than zero is too many. Especially given the above point that the ability can be activated while in combat, and before blockers are declared. Or after. Or yes, even in the second main phase.

I'll come back to this in a little bit as I don't want to go too far down a rabbit hole of my own making. Let's talk flavor to wash my mouth out!

Boast is tied to quite a number of Berserkers and Warrior creature types, with a single Rogue, Cleric and Pirate in the mix. Which makes sense to me given that this is a mechanic in a Norse/Viking themed set. And one of the things that is emblematic of that sort of culture - as viewed through our modern cultural lens - is the stories they tell. How they boast about their accomplishments. In this way, Boast works on the Vorthos side of things because you can just see these creatures bragging and exaggerating the stories about their accomplishments in battle. And indeed, it is in battle that they make these accolades for themselves.

But because fame is a fleeting thing, (yes, pain heals, chicks dig scars, and glory lives forever), there is only so much time that you have to make good on your word. In the culture of Kaldheim, one great act is nice, but to really keep the train going, you need to keep delivering on your words.

This sort of continual encouragement to go out and do things turns back to Boast by putting a limit on when you can activate it. If you want to do it again later, you need to go out and do something amazing. Like throw yourself head first at a Goldspan Dragon and die gloriously.

Boast encouraged attacking, sometimes when it was effectively suicidal for the creature in question, and I do enjoy that sort of thing. Interaction and slamming ahead, heedless of the cost. And forcing the opponent into tough choices.

So let's move on and talk about some of the interesting cards with this mechanic.

First, I want to talk about the two cards that synergize with Boast, but don't have it themselves. Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip sees a decent amount of play in Spellslinger decks thanks to her first ability. Honestly, between her, Urabrask  ^Flip, and Runaway Steam-Kin, there's plenty of options to effectively spellsling for days. Sadly this means that her Boast modifier kinds gets forgotten in the face of that. But I mean, if you're running a Boast deck, being able to trigger it twice can actually work out for you. Assuming you can pay the costs mind you.

The other one is Frenzied Raider, a creature which gets bigger whenever you Boast. And given that you can trigger Boast from multiple sources in a turn, and you can do it before or after blockers are declared, this creature can be surprisingly powerful if utilized even semi-correctly. And he's uncommon too, so getting a playset shouldn't be that hard.

After that, there is only one R1 card with this ability. Eradicator Valkyrie is one of three creatures in the game that has some form of protection from Planeswalkers, Sparkhunter Masticore and Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer. Which is mostly the same thing, except for the cases where Planeswalkers have an untargetted Destroy effect, like The Eternal Wanderer, or if you turn your Planeswalker into a Flying Creature to block or be blocked with. Which is something that Gideon Blackblade or one of his other versions might be able to accomplish. However, when this creature Boasts, you can sacrifice a creature to cause everyone else to sacrifice a creature or a Planeswalker. Which can be irrelevant through to devastating depending on what your opponent has or doesn't have. Or if you have things like Dictate of Erebos to synergize off of your Aristocrats plan.

This is a seriously good card for what it can do.

Dragonkin Berserker is the third creature to interact with Boast, but in a curious turn, also Boasts himself. This creature makes a 5/5 Dragon token with Flying when it boasts, but at the same time, if can reduce the cost of all Boast abilities by for each Dragon you control. Sarkhan the Masterless players, REJOICE! Well, him and Sarkhan, Soul Aflame. It can get to the point where you only need to make a dragon token, but unless you have taken precautions, expect this creature to die very quickly to prevent even more Dragons from entering the battlefield.