Magic: The Gathering is a game of many, many mechanics. Since its original Alpha release the game has accrued new keywords at a steady rate, resulting in the complex web we have today. Naturally, some of these mechanics have had to be removed over time to adjust to the game’s changing needs. In a recent post, Mark Rosewater confirmed that this fate has befallen Fear and Intimidate, two of the oldest mechanics in MTG history.
While this is old news for some, the fact that it’s still popping up in Magic discourse highlights its importance for the player base. Diving into the topic also reveals a 22-year design journey with multiple iterative steps, which I feel shows Magic in the best possible light.
No More Fear And Intimidate In MTG?
The news came via a Blogatog post on December 28th, just two days ago. Frostedflakes9565 asked a question about the two mechanics, to which Rosewater gave the following answer.
“frostedflakes9565: So are Fear and Intimidate completely phased out, like we will almost certainly not see them again? If we do see them again, could they be in a cycle or even be a major mechanic of a set (whether it be a premier set or not) or would it be a one off? What do you see as the future of these mechanics?
Mark Rosewater: They have been retired. Save for a one-of throwback design in something like a Modern Horizons, I’m skeptical we’ll see them again.”
This is a pretty definitive answer. As mechanics, both Fear and Intimidate are ‘deprecated,’ or in Rosewater’s words retired, from the game. As his answer implies, this doesn’t mean we’ll never see them again, however.
Rosewater specifically mentions products like Modern Horizons as potential cameos for these two retired mechanics. Additionally, we’ve actually seen both of these mechanics fairly recently in Commander precons. Fear appeared on Wire Surgeons from The Brothers’ War Commander, while Intimidate showed up on Fallout’s Nuka-Nuke Launcher. There’s still room for Fear and Intimidate to exist, just not in mainline MTG products.
We’ll get into the reasoning behind this soon, but for now it’s worth mentioning that the two examples above are pretty big exceptions. Wire Surgeons was part of a set that was, essentially, one big retro throwback, specifically to the Antiquities expansion. At that point in Magic history, Fear was still alive and kicking as a mechanic in black. It makes sense for this card to have it, in other words.
The reasoning behind Nuka-Nuke Launcher granting Intimidate is a little ropier. Fallout is certainly a tech-and-artifact heavy set, however, so there’s a logic there. Flavor-wise, it’s hard to think of something more intimidating than having a nuke launcher pulled on you.
In other words, these two cards are outliers, and don’t represent the status quo at all. The last time we saw Intimidate in a mainline set was Magic 2015, so it’s safe to say that door has mostly closed.
Why Oh Why?
For newer players, the previous paragraph likely provided more questions than answers. With how long it’s been since Intimidate, and especially Fear, showed up in a set, the history behind these MTG mechanics has mostly faded from memory. That’s a crying shame, since it’s an interesting part of the game.
Fear originally appeared as an Aura way back in the game’s Alpha release. It prevented the attached creature from being blocked by non-black, non-artifact creatures. It became a full keyword in Onslaught, and appeared on a number of black cards across multiple sets.
Fear proved too limiting, since it could only be used on black creatures, and was replaced by Intimidate around the time of Magic 2010. The idea here was similar, but rather than being restricted to just black it prevented the creature in question from being blocked by creatures that didn’t match its color. This was a more flexible design, and it saw a fair bit of use.
It still wasn’t quite good enough, however. With Magic 2015, Intimidate saw its last two mainline cards released and it hasn’t shown up again since. Mark Rosewater discussed the problem with the mechanics back in 2017:
“It has too high a variance. Forestwalk is devastating against a green player and useless against a red one.”
Mark Rosewater
Rosewater isn’t referring to literal Forestwalk here, but moreso the concept of it. Intimidate works in a very similar way, where it heavily punishes certain decks and does nothing against others. Either way someone isn’t having fun, which isn’t a great place to be for an MTG mechanic.
As a result, Rosewater noted that he “doesn’t expect Intimidate to return,” and even placed the mechanic at a 10 on the Storm Scale. While few things are hard and fast in Magic, I think it’s safe to say we won’t be seeing this pair again, at least in a core set.
Pastures New
That’s doubly true thanks to another recent design development: the addition of Menace. This was formally added as a keyword in Magic Origins, though it had existed since Goblin War Drums in Fallen Empires. Menace was intended as the ‘third evolutionary stage’ in the Intimidate-Fear line; the one which would finally make the mechanic a success.
By all metrics, it appears to have done its job. Menace is a red/black mechanic, but it shows up regularly in Standard sets and beyond. The big advantage it has over Fear and Intimidate is its lack of any color restrictions. As long as your opponent is playing creatures, they have a chance of interacting with your Menace cards.
It also adds a lot of depth to combat. Fear and Intimidate worked better in the era where color-switching effects were available in Magic, but without them, they’re just non-interactive binary abilities. Menace, on the other hand, makes both players think about their boardstate carefully, and not over-commit when a big Menace threat is around. It also puts more stock in removal and tap effects, which is always a good thing.
Ultimately, Menace achieves what Fear and Intimidate were aiming for in a more interesting, simpler way. There’s even been some talk of expanding the role of the mechanic, and adding it to other colors. Mark Rosewater says as much in a 2017 article on the color pie. While other colors do have their own forms of evasion, Menace is more interesting than most of them, so this is a change I’d welcome with open arms.
Menace seems solid enough that I doubt we’ll need a fourth iteration of this ability at any point. It’s simple enough for new players, and adds plenty of depth for experienced ones.
