Hero of Leina Tower from Born of the Gods - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

by  ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

When Hero of Leina Tower was first spoiled, it was believed that of all the Heroic cards in the set, she would see the most play. People were super excited about her best case scenario. Being able to pay X any time that the Hero is targeted to add +1/+1 counters may not sound incredible at first, but this Hero could get super big in a hurry. The problem was that the Heroic decks that emerged never wanted to use the mana to dump into her.

The Hero was a very solid first pick in Theros block Limited, as she was a one-drop that could easily become a 3/3 or greater quickly. But in Constructed, she proved to just be too slow for a deck that needed to rely on speed and mana efficiency. She was simply was too inefficient for Constructed Heroic purposes.

As it would turn out, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer from Journey into Nyx would prove to be a better one-drop creature as a 0/4 with Heroic for Constructed purposes. Also G/X Heroic proved to not be terribly competitive as U/W (blue/white) Heroic would. The best card G/X Heroic had to offer was Aspect of Hydra, which was played in Mono-Green and R/G Devotion instead (and still sees some play in Modern). Had there been more efficient Heroic creatures in Green, then this Hero could have had a good day.

Clearly, the designers of Theros block decided that Green Heroic creatures would start out inefficient, but gain multiple +1/+1 counters as they were targeted. This was fine in Limited, and this was even fun and very playable. (Setessan Oathsworn, for example, could become threatening in a hurry at common.) But in Constructed, creatures like Centaur Battlemaster and Staunch-Hearted Warrior were just too darned slow to be worth playing.

Hero of Leina Tower is a victim of not having the proper support, part of a case study in design creating an archetype that works well in Limited, but not in Constructed. The warrior was part of a feasible draft strategy that simply never functioned outside of draft and sealed play. When it came to building competitive Heroic decks, there were simply better options than the poor Hero.

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