REPRINT: Duskdale Wurm

Uncommon due to trample anyway, so also getting an appropriately sized reprint.

Trample has been criticized often as being too complex for evergreen. We do remember its original reminder text, right? The current one is kind of ambiguous. WotC has been considering with going with "can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less" as well as a mechanic - in part to be a replacement for trample. Why do we want trample to exist - regardless or rarity? If it can't be used at common here, then it certainly doesn't need to be an evergreen. Flash, double strike, and indestructible are all mechanics that make sense as uncommon evergreen (so deciduous?) as they have specific uses. Trample is just bad evasion.

I was under the impression that Great Sandwurm was pretty much the replacement for the traditional trample fattie for these exact reasons.

Fun fact: I thought about branching a side thread off of this over in Conversation brainstorming 10 evergreen abilities for the color pairs that are NNWO compliant.

If you want to change trample's status from just "redflagged" to "no longer evergreen", that should probably go into the highlighted comment on the front page.

How many keyword mechanics ever were removed from the list of evergreen keywords, but then brought back? I recall one: trample. I personally credit this to a fact that trample actually is not an evasion ability. It's closer to deathtouch than to flying/daunt since it doesn't prevent blocking/interaction, but makes you reconsider whether you want it.

To me personally it's not a big issue to turn this into a Thorn Elemental reprint if trample is deemed a keyword non gratia.

Tbh, I didn't really even think of trample until I saw it here as I've never cared about it that much. I notice now that neither my Silmarillion or "Zion" set has any cards that mention trample... Maybe I had already mentally blocked it out of my mind. So even outside the context of NNWO I see the keyword as inadequate.

I mean, trample makes the creature harder to block. It definitely compares better to menace than to deathtouch or whatever. Afflict is quite similar as well. I get that one might twist it around so that they aren't 'technically' evasion but the end result is just that they are more likely to deal damage to the defending player when they attack.

­Thorn Elemental's ability did occur to mind, but IMO it's about as baffling or even more so than trample. I recall as a kid that our playgroup had trouble getting what that card was trying to tell us and it was misunderstood on many occasions.