Chimzar - Designing Banding, Part 1

Banding is the most underutilized and misunderstood mechanic.  The people I play with either don’t really understand it or loath it.  However, in a game more increasingly utilizing combat, banding is the ultimate combat mechanic.  For those of you who don’t really understand banding, here are the official rules (look up 702.20) and the list of current banding creatures:

There are a lot of rules for this one keyword, but banding is much simpler than it seems.  Banding (not to be confused with bands with other, which will be talked about in a coming article) allows two or more creatures attack or block together, thus allowing their control to choose how he or she wants damage dealt to them.  Banding gives you a combat math advantage as you can choose which creatures (or more likely, a creature) will die.

From a design standpoint, banding is very flavorful.  It creates images of David and Goliath when a bunch of lowly 1/1s takes down a 7/7.  However, there are many problems with the original banding creatures.  For one, they are almost all over priced.  Once you get past 1/1s for one you get 2/2 for four or five.  Wizard’s gave some of these creatures other good abilities, like flying and first strike, but then made them 1/1s for five.  By themselves they are horrible creatures and because they cost so much you could never get many of them together on the battlefield.  The costs need to be adjusted or, as I would argue, they need to also be stand alone creature with some toughness to them.

Please note: Monarch is a creature type I will be discussing in a future article.

Another issue is that if one creature in a band can be blocked, they all can.  This inherently discourages bands.  In my designs, I try to find ways that bands can retain their blocking restrictions.

Lastly, banding was always considered a white keyword.  Of all the banding cards one is red (a promo), two are green (one needing a plains) and the rest are white or colorless.  In my designing, however, I have found banding to fit red just as much as white does.  White has soldier working together, where as red has mercenaries working together.  The feel of almost random creatures coming to work together is a red ideal.  Banding is still white, but red will have it in is own way.  (Green will have Bands with others, which can be a better Banding.)

Next time I will talk about ways to use banding and will show some more red banding creatures.