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In earlier Magic, big creatures always had a big mantainance cost (ex. al aq ia).

Some years ago, this ceased to be. When did that happen?

Also, was there some official statement about that (bonus if it's by Rosewater), or it "just happened"?

edit (I really thought this was crystal clear...): I didn't mean there aren't new creatures with upkeep, I meant there are some without it. Before that, AFAIK all of them had it.

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Performing a gatherer search for all creatures with power >= 7 I discovered a great number of creatures that fit with your premise. I also found a lot of counterexamples covering a wide time frame. I've voted to close as not constructive since I think this is a perception, not an actual design decision and will probably devolve into a debate. – Stephen Jan 17 '12 at 14:05
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Big creatures didn't always have a maintenance cost... Off the top of my head in Alpha, Shivan Dragon, Mahamoti Djinn? Depends what you mean by "big creature" I guess. Maybe you could define that more precisely? – thesunneversets Jan 17 '12 at 14:41
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First you should define what a big creature is to you. Then you should present some rudimentary research and numbers to support your premise. Then and only then can you begin to ask what the reason is. Demonstrate that you have done some work where you can. – Hackworth Jan 17 '12 at 14:45
I'm astonished. I hardly can believe it. I'll rephrase the question. – Lohoris Jan 17 '12 at 18:42
Even after the edit, you are still just plain wrong. theunneversets game some good examples. – AndSoYouCode Jan 20 '12 at 12:06

2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote

It isn't true that big creatures always had maintenance costs.

From the top of my head, Craw Wurm is a big creature from Alpha with no upkeep cost or even a real disadvantage (if you exclude the high casting cost).

In fact, looking at all the Alpha creatures with stats bigger that 3/3, only Demonic Hordes, Force of Nature and Lord of the Pit (three of them) have such maintenance costs!

This being said, it is true that big demons in magic are known to have certain characteristics: big black creatures with upkeep costs. In fact I think Mark Rosewater mentioned in an article that they acknowledge that fact when designing demons (I can't find the article, mostly because WotC is doing server maintenance right now. If you're interested I can google for it later and edit the answer).

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up vote 1 down vote

I would say that your premise is flawed. From the upcoming Dark Ascension set

Archdemon of Greed

This is a big creature with a big upkeep.

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I didn't mean there aren't new creatures with upkeep, I meant there are some without it. Before that, AFAIK all of them had it. – Lohoris Jan 17 '12 at 13:44

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