Vodalian Soldiers

Pure set-filler from an era when even commons were defined by faction allegiance rather than mechanical hooks. The Vodalian merfolk were the aquatic empire of Fallen Empires, and this is their rank-and-file infantry: no ability, no keyword, just a 1/2 carrying the flavor of a standing army. The toughness over power signals the design intent. That extra point of toughness lets the body survive a clash with the one-power attackers that opened most early aggressive starts, and it shrugs off the single-point pings that passed for removal at the time. Defensive durability was about all blue creatures of the period offered, since the color's identity ran through bounce, counters, and card flow rather than bodies that held a board. It was printed to give the Vodalian faction enough commons to read as a population rather than a few named figures. There is nothing here to build around and nothing the design opens up, only a record of how narrow a two-cost blue creature could be before the game decided commons should pull their own weight.