Rarity in Magic: The Gathering isn’t just an indicator of potential value. Each rarity has its own set of design limitations, tightly controlled, which help to balance the game in subtle ways across formats. Commons and uncommons tend to be much less complex than rares and mythics, for example, to free up headspace during Limited. Common MTG creatures also, outside of a few rare exceptions, don’t tend to be legendary.
Until now, that is. As many players online have noted, the early batch of Spider-Man spoilers we’ve seen includes a good number of common legendaries. In a Blogatog post yesterday, Mark Rosewater acknowledged this change, and indicated that we’ll be seeing much more of this yet. While it sounds innocent enough, more legendary creatures at common actually has big implications. Pauper and Limited players, in particular, are going to want to take note.
More Common Legendary Creatures In MTG?
This discussion was kickstarted by Vibrantoucan, who asked a question on Blogatog about the huge increase in common legendary creatures in the MTG Spider-Man set. Prior to this set, only three common legendary creatures existed. In the spoilers we’ve seen so far alone, there are nine. That’s a 300% increase, and we’ve only seen about a quarter of the set so far.
Vibrantoucan asked if this is something we can expect regularly in the future, to which Rosewater replied “It’s something we’re experimenting with.” This isn’t a definitive answer, by any means, but it could well mean we’ll be seeing many more common legends going forward.
In the era of Universes Beyond, this makes perfect sense. The majority of characters in a given IP will need legendary creature representation, and there are only so many slots at uncommon and above. Expanding things this way seems like a sensible step to take given the circumstances.
That said, this has been a contentious topic in the past. The last common legend we saw before this was Skoa, Embermage in Modern Horizons 3, and it was met with a bit of mixed reception. Some players noted they were “extremely disappointed” by the card, and that they hoped the “mistake is never made again.”
Even Rosewater himself has been against the idea in the past. In a 2023 Blogatog post, he noted that “We don’t make common legendary creatures because it feels wrong in-game, not in-world.” This is in reference to the aesthetics of common legends, and how there’s a fundamental clash there. A legendary character, by its very nature, is one-of-a-kind in-universe. Having such a card show up at common, naturally, feels a bit wrong.
The Pauper In The Room
The implications of introducing more common legendary creatures to MTG go far beyond aesthetics, mind you. Perhaps the area this change will impact the most is the game’s Pauper format. Until now, there have only been three legends playable in this format, all of which are red, and all of which never really saw significant use.
All three of these, Chandler, Joven, and even Skoa, are simply too undertuned to have made any impact on the format one way or another. Looking at the new additions in Spider-Man, however, things look very different. Spider-Man, Web-Slinger seems more than viable in aggressive white lists, and Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionary is an interesting ramp piece.
There’s a very real chance people start running common legends in Pauper after this. This is a big change for a number of reasons. First of all, it messes with one of the format’s best removal spells, Cast Down. Since no common legends saw real play before, this was a reliable black catch-all for years. According to MTG Goldfish data, it actually sees play in 18% of all Pauper decks to this day. If this shift has enough impact, the card may be confined to sideboards from now on.
The other change to Pauper with more common legends is more one of feel than of mechanical impact. As Duckily noted during this discussion last year, a lack of legendary creatures is part of Pauper’s identity as a format. It’s something that separates it from the rest of Magic, where pushed new legendary creatures see regular play everywhere. Removing that aspect could have an unfortunate homogenizing effect.
An Experiment For Limited
Pauper isn’t the only MTG format that’s going to feel the effects of more legendary creatures at common. Limited, perhaps the only place where rarity matters more, will too. In the comments on Rosewater’s post yesterday, Araglar noted that they “have some concerns about how it will play in Limited.” Given how big a change this will be for Draft and Sealed, I wouldn’t be surprised if other players aren’t feeling the same way right now.
One of the innate downsides of legendary creatures is that they don’t play well in multiples. This is fine in constructed, where you have full control over your deck and 60 cards to limit the chances of drawing multiples. In Limited, however, this has the potential to create very clunky situations. In Draft particularly, you may well be forced into situations where you need to play multiple copies of the same legend. This, in turn, could create board states limited by the legend rule, which aren’t fun for anyone involved.
Ultimately, it’s too early to tell just how impactful this new change will be just yet. For those invested in Pauper or Limited, however, the road ahead may well be a rocky one.
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