Batching Snakes and Nagas for fun and profit (Ophidian)

[Krishnath]

Let's be honest here, Naga's are cool, unfortunately they would really have liked to be snakes in MTG to provide synergy with existing snake tribal. Well, unfortunately that is not going to happen any time soon. However, we are quite fortunate that WotC provided us with a tool in Dominaria that will allow us to combine multiple different things in under one keyword. I am of course talking about the Batching tool introduced with the Historic mechanic.

Batching allows us to combine multiple things under one word mechanically in an easy to grok way, if we can find a word that describes said things in a way that makes it easy to understand. Fortunately there exists a unique word with no prior mechanical baggage that can be used to describe both snakes and naga (and serpents! But I'll get to that): ophidian.

An ophidian creature is one that is of serpentine (or snakelike if you will) nature, which makes it perfect to use to refer to both Snakes and Naga, as they are both very serpentine. It feels a little bad only using the word for two creatures, but looking over the various creatures of MTG, there is another creature type, for which ophidian can be used as a descriptor, the almighty Serpent. That gives us a batch of three creatures: Naga, Serpent and Snake.

Which leaves us with the rules text when something refers to something ophidian: (Naga, Serpents, and Snakes are ophidian.)
Simple, and to the point.

Onwards to the examples!

Rana, Serpent's Kiss
2BBGG
Legendary Creature - Naga Assassin (Mythic)
Deathtouch, Vigilance, Menace
At the end of each turn, if a creature was put into an opponents graveyard that turn from the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each ophidian creature you control. (Naga, Serpents, and Snakes are ophidian.)
3/3

The Ophidian commander.

Darkhollow Shaman
BB
Creature - Naga Shaman (Uncommon)
Menace
Other Ophidian creatures you control have menace. (Naga, Serpents, and Snakes are ophidian.)
2/1

An uncommon Ophidian lord.

Immobilizing Venom
1U
Enchantment - Aura (Common)
Enchant creature
When Immobilizing Venom enters the battlefield, tap the enchanted creature.
As long as you control an ophidian creature, the enchanted creature does untap during its controller's untap step. (Naga, Serpents, and Snakes are ophidian.)

SPOILER

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Reduced casting cost from 2U to 1U after solid reasoning from SecretInfiltrator.

An example of it being used on a non-creature.

Shadowscale Regent
2GG
Creature - Naga Warrior (Rare)
Hexproof
Other ophidian creatures you control get +2/+1. (Naga, Serpents, and Snakes are ophidian.)
2/3

A Rare example of an ophidian Lord.

Anyway, you get the general idea.

As always comments, critiques, and constructive criticism is always welcome, as are additions.

Edit: Fixed capitalization issue.

[NUMBERS]

Oh wow, I somehow I hadn't realized batching was so useful!

The designs seem solid to me as well; a menace lord does seem really, really strong and in theme.

[void_nothing]

Fun BGU theme. Perfectly reasonable imho.

[Krishnath]

Fun BGU theme. Perfectly reasonable imho.

Three most common colors for snakes and naga.

[SecretInfiltrator]

The term "ophidian" should not be capitalized to make it easier to distinguish it from an obscure creature type. Magic has a veryy helpful system of capitalization.

[folding_music]

Neat designs, but I'm puzzled, where do we find this historic batching tool?

me:
Confused Surrakar, 3UU
Creature - Surrakar Scout, R
0: Is Ophidian
0: Isn't Ophidian
3UU: Phases out
What am iiiiiiiiii?
4/4

[Krishnath]

Neat designs, but I'm puzzled, where do we find this historic batching tool?

The Historic mechanic in Dominaria is the first use of the batching tool, bundling Legendary permanents, Sagas, and Artifacts together under the historic banner, and giving us multiple cards that reference them as a whole, such as Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain.

Batching allows for some interesting tribal designs, for example:

Sultai Brood Chamber
UGB
Enchantment (Uncommon)
Whenever a nontoken ophidian creature enters the battlefield under your control, create a 1/1 green and black snake creature token with deathtouch. (Naga, Serpents, and Snakes are ophidian.)

Edit: Fixed a capitalization issue.

[folding_music]

Ah! Thanks!
Like in the old Magic: The Gathering win95 game, before creature types were standardized, Elephant Graveyard could regenerate Elephants or Mammoths and read in-game ": Regenerate target Pachyderm"!

[Krishnath]

The term "ophidian" should not be capitalized to make it easier to distinguish it from an obscure creature type. Magic has a veryy helpful system of capitalization.

Thanks, I'll edit it to change the capitalization as soon as possible.

Ah! Thanks!
Like in the old Magic: The Gathering win95 game, before creature types were standardized, Elephant Graveyard could regenerate Elephants or Mammoths and read in-game ": Regenerate target Pachyderm"!

Something like that, yes.

[SecretInfiltrator]

This is certainly a valid way of batching, though I personally prefer batching to be more than just a grouping of subtypes. historic itself is an impressive example, grouping supertype, card type and subtype. On the other hand there is nothing wrong with it. I looked up an article today where Ken Nagle makes light of the idea to use batching technology as suggest by design all the way back in Morningtide. I wonder how the game would change if they had introduced batching back then.

The individual card designs are fine. I especially like Immobilizing Venom as a concept. It could probably be cheaper.

[Krishnath]

This is certainly a valid way of batching, though I personally prefer batching to be more than just a grouping of subtypes. historic itself is an impressive example, grouping supertype, card type and subtype. On the other hand there is nothing wrong with it. I looked up an article today where Ken Nagle makes light of the idea to use batching technology as suggest by design all the way back in Morningtide. I wonder how the game would change if they had introduced batching back then.

The individual card designs are fine. I especially like Immobilizing Venom as a concept. It could probably be cheaper.

The thing is, batching is an extremely versatile tool in the card creation toolbox. This is one example, where it is used to combine three different creature types through flavor. Historic is another example, where it connects things that affect the history of a plane, legends, artifacts, and sagas (stories). The possibilities are endless, well, nearly anyway.

As for Immobilizing Venom, I was actually afraid that I'd under costed it for its rarity.

[SecretInfiltrator]

As for Immobilizing Venom, I was actually afraid that I'd under costed it for its rarity.

It's extremely similar to Winter's Rest. The unrestricted version is Claustrophobia. It's on the higher power end of the curve if you reduce the cost.

[Krishnath]

As for Immobilizing Venom, I was actually afraid that I'd under costed it for its rarity.

It's extremely similar to Winter's Rest. The unrestricted version is Claustrophobia. It's on the higher power end of the curve if you reduce the cost.

Good point, I'll edit the post to reflect this.