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Moxonomy

Hoverguard Observer

Creature — Drone2 generic manaBlue manaBlue mana

The defensive trade here runs backward: most blue evasion creatures keep their flying as upside on both ends, free to swing or to hold the air, but this one surrenders ground defense entirely. A 3/3 body for 2 generic manaBlue manaBlue mana sits at a clean, unremarkable rate, and the "can block only flyers" clause subtracts from it without handing back any compensation. That is the whole bargain, and it is a bad one: the creature costs the same as cleaner fliers while patrolling only half the sky. The flavor is coherent, a sky-drone that physically cannot come down to engage infantry, but coherence does not pay for itself in card terms. The Drone type ties it to Mirrodin's artifact ecology, yet the creature carries no metalcraft hook, no affinity discount, no thread into that mechanical spine: it is a vanilla flier with a stapled liability. The design question worth lingering on is whether crippling a creature's blocking can ever be priced as a real drawback worth a discount, and the rate answers plainly here by offering no discount at all. Limiting defense is a lever that only justifies itself when the body is undercosted to compensate, and this one is not, which leaves it an aggressive-only attacker whose restriction is felt the moment the game turns and never offset when it doesn't.

Hoverguard Observer (dst)
DST · #22uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.13
Foil: $0.25
Oracle Text

Rules text

Flying This creature can block only creatures with flying.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
N/A
Historic
N/A
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
Legal
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
N/A
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