Benalish Hero

Creature — Human Soldier

Banding (Any creatures with banding, and up to one without, can attack in a band. Bands are blocked as a group. If any creatures with banding you control are blocking or being blocked by a creature, you divide that creature's combat damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it's being blocked by or is blocking.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (16)

cmsrDPM on Resolvespell

4 years ago

Caerwyn while I disagree with you on the need for reminder text. (I personally enjoy knowing how to explain Benalish Hero and Will-o'-the-Wisp )

What I can't disagree with is the quality of your writing. Your reminder text is now the standard.

Thank you for that.

Oof_Magic on

4 years ago

What’s that about Benalish Hero ? I’d like more Murderous Rider in here but I’ve already got a pair along with Path to Exile s, Foulmire Knight s, and Blacklance Paragon s. So lot of creature answer and I can put a couple extra copies in the sideboard when I get arround to constructing that. Thanks, mate!

Caerwyn on Kalyra, Caller of the Deep …

5 years ago

I did not think about card design, but, in retrospect, my proposal is probably far longer than card design will allow.

As a point of comparison, look at Etrata, the Silencer and Prime Speaker Vannifar , two recent cards with incredibly wordy abilities. Etrata weighs in at 53 words spread across two abilities; Vannifar has 45.

So, what has been drafted here is probably a bit too wordy. But, if you're making a custom card, you could get around this problem by using a smaller font size and an older card frame. In days past, some Magic cards had incredibly convoluted rules texts. As far as I am aware, the longest rules text of any non-Unset Magic card is Dance of the Dead . It's a wordy card in the original printing, but even more so when you look at its oracle text. Currently, Dance of the Dead clocks in at 100 words comprised of 612 characters (plus mana symbols).

Fun side fact: If reprinted today, Benalish Hero , with its one-word ability, would have more words than Etrata, the Silencer once you factored in reminder text--a total of 57 words.

Caerwyn on Modern Horizons Announced

5 years ago

Thinking over this some, I expect we are likely to see cards that are commensurate with Modern's current power level, but too powerful for standard. I suspect they will not want too much powercreep, and will aim for preserving the "Turn 4 Format" of Modern.

To that end, I would not be surprised if they printed powerful, interesting cards with unusual effects not currently represented in Modern, as opposed to cards that are a strict improvement on what we already have.

As an example of what I mean, I will apply this reasoning to SeekerofSecrets' theoretical reprints.

Counterspell would be a strict improvement on a whole range of commonly-used counterspells in Modern. A Modern-legal reprint would greatly disrupt the format. Wizards has, since Modern's inception, made it quite clear two mana only buys you a conditional/avoidable counter.

Daze might be a better option for a reprint. It's a conditional counter for two, with some added utility (with the downside that they only have to pay , as opposed to Mana Leak 's ). This would be a pretty scary card in Modern, since even a tappedouted player could be a threat, but I do not think it will be too disruptive.

Gush is one I could see being reprinted.

I can see a sanp reprint, particularly in light of the recent Unwind printing.

Force of Will would be devastating for Modern. It works in Legacy because Legacy has so many hyper-fast cards that you often need a Turn 0 answer to threats. Modern does not have that problem that needs fixing.

Now, for what I want to see reprinted in Modern: Benalish Hero , and all that would imply for the set. I suspect I am in a very small minority on this, and that none of that minority is in a position to make that dream come true. Sighs.

Caerwyn on Lt. Unicorn, Commander

5 years ago

I think there are only a handful of us!

To provide some deck feedback, Stuffy Doll is pretty fun. An opponent might think twice about blocking your Benalish Hero with their 2/2 if all the damage gets put on Stuffy Doll and reflected. Offensively, Breaker of Armies + Stuffy Doll + Banding-granting Aura/Spell is one of the most amusing combos in the game, though it’s a bit much to muster in mono-White.

Caerwyn on Lt. Unicorn, Commander

5 years ago

Inserting myself into the conversation because I'm a big fan of Banding. To answer your question Bokamoso, yes, you could assign all damage to the Thermal Glider, even though it has protection.

Let's take two examples using Ball Lightning.

Example 1: You block Ball Lightning with Thermal Glider and nothing else. Ball Lightning's controller assigns two damage to the Thermal Glider, and one damage to the defending player due to trample. Thermal Glider does not actually take damage.

Example 2: You block Ball Lightning with Thermal Glider and Benalish Hero. As the defending player controlling a creature with banding, you get to determine how damage is assigned. You can assign all three damage to Thermal Glider, not only protecting your creatures from harm, but completely negating trample.

That's a pretty important point that has not been mentioned yet--Banding provides a complete defence to enemy creatures with Trample.

Caerwyn on Trample vs Unbreathing Horde

5 years ago

You will take damage. Here's the rule, with the relevant emphasis added:

702.19b: The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any remaining damage is assigned as its controller chooses among those blocking creatures and the player or planeswalker the creature is attacking. When checking for assigned lethal damage, take into account damage already marked on the creature and damage from other creatures that’s being assigned during the same combat damage step, but not any abilities or effects that might change the amount of damage that’s actually dealt. The attacking creature’s controller need not assign lethal damage to all those blocking creatures but in that case can’t assign any damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.

I'm not sure what format you are in, but if you are in an eternal format and need a way to completely stop a creature with Trample, Banding provides a hard counter to trample. Since the defending player assign's the attacking creature's combat damage, they can assign all damage to the creature with Banding. So, a 7/7 with trample might assign 7 damage to a Benalish Hero, meaning there is no excess damage to spill over.

Caerwyn on Mechanics that never really worked

6 years ago

I mean, we should probably talk about that big ol' elephant in the room: Banding.

Banding is one of those abilities that should work. There are plenty of absurdly powerful combos you could assemble--I've always thought a combination of Breaker of Armies, Stuffy Doll, and Cooperation would be rather fun. On defense, a creature with banding can completely block a creature with trample, which is absurdly good, particularly given the numerous ways of giving creatures indestructible.

Now, it's pretty clear that I love the concept of banding, but there are several reasons why I do not think it worked.

1. Banding requires tremendous support to excel on offense, but is from an era of Magic where cards tended to be less complex. There really are not any creatures that both have banding and a way to abuse it.

2. Wizards had not quite figured out how to cost creatures with abilities when banding was released. 1/1s with banding (Benalish Hero and Timber Wolves) for 1 mana is quite reasonable--this is a card you want to throw in front of a trample user to buy you time. But it will not really help you much on offense. But once you start getting larger creatures like Benalish Infantry, the cost feels wrong--you're paying far too much for an ability that heavily requires other cards.

3. Often times, banding creatures together makes them worse in combat. There are some combos you can use, but none of those combos work well with the existing set of banding cards.

4. It's a wordy nightmare. I'm no stranger to complex legalese, and banding still gives me a bit of a headache.

5. While nothing else really compares to banding's blocking ability, there are far, far better pseudo banding options for offense such as Odric, Master Tactician.

6. The current selection of banding cards are far, far too slow for Legacy and Vintage, leaving only Commander. There are only two legendary creatures with banding. Ayesha Tanaka is just terrible, with a small body for 4 mana and an extremely situational ability. Soraya the Falconer has a wonderful ability to confer banding... but only to birds--a tribe which does not really have the support necessary to break banding.