If you look at it in a vacuum, Pine Ent is "cheaper" than the Cricket but consider that MF can ramp to a sustainable 2-3 domain the fastest. At a bare minimum you would need 18 flux to cast Ent (Grove+ Great Oak), while Cricket only needs 16 (Dwarven Hall+ Throne).

I did a quick count and I counted around 70% of the creatures can't even touch cricket, the other 30%, a good portion of it doesn't even see play, they are more expensive because of increased flux and or domain cost, and some of the ones that damage him he can trade with 1 for 1.

At least with Ent 3 1/1 creatures can trade with it 2 for 1 and they would be up 4 to 3 on the flux side of it. All early/midgame creatures can't even damage Cricket, so for the most part you MUST spend removal on it when it plops down midgame, with Ent you got more choices. Lets not forget also that MF has access to training, armor pretty much acts like a multiplier when it comes to + health.

So in summary I think Cricket is in a much better place than Pine Ent is when you take into context what it's domain can do, and how it has immunity versus a lot of the creature base.

Nerf Cricket!! ,

Guest, there are so many falsities in your post I can only assume it's meant as flame bait.

"MF can ramp to a sustainable 2-3 domain the fastest" is so ridiculous. Sure there's throne, which has 2 hp.. spawn a pine ent (or any ent) next to the throne, next turn it's gone. You also ignore treetop domain which would allow sylvan to ramp up to 2-3 domain the fastest of any race (and is very much underused, imo). And you ignore if you cast 2x great oak and pine ent you've gotten yourself 2 flux wells in addition to your pine ent (which also cuts the flux advantage to 1). Otherwise, looking at pine ent in your vacuum, great oak (for 5 forests), treetop, pine ent would be 14 flux vs cricket's 16. Never mind that that kind of comparison is highly suspect.

And if you're so concerned about crickets, pack some stone maulers or driftwood golems and quit whining. Not to mention the any of the 4 other sylvan 1-2 domain cards that can get rid of a cricket in one turn.

Just because the almighty weenie army can't effortlessly roll over everything doesn't mean something's not balanced.

I half-agree. In my experience, Sylvan has a tough time making it up to level 3 domain (which is entirely irrelevant to the Pine Ent question, but still...). But, a great oak comes out pretty early. You're each half right! And I'm 100% right!

Leave Pine Ent as it is.

_________________
-Minds

I've played MF heavily and complained about the cricket since the beginning, but I think the entire armour mechanic is broken, nit the cricket itself.

That said, I have no problem with the Pine Ent. They come up against quite often and I generally have ways around them. The circket is always an "oh shi-" card for me.

Oh shi--

ASCENT. Try again? Entangle. Kiss your flux and two turns goodbye.

Or sunburst... or lysis... or or...

I think it's fine. It's one of the few MF cards I reserve creature control cards for.

I agree with whoever guest happens to be.

Judging by my experience, cave cricket is mostly exchange for removal. It catches some kind of deadly thing (lysis, teleport in water, sunburst, volcano) in one-two turns after summoning, 90% of the time. And cricket costs more, than removal. In late game it ain't too effective either.
That pine ent is ok too, IMO. Surely, he's bit better than beastmaster, or medium. But it's rare, and rares tend to be of higher power level than commons. This creature ain't too hard to deal with, nor it does nothing extraordinary. And if we compare it with some other 2s 4f creatures, like Abrixian Sparker, Alearwyn Barque, Alpine Spirit, Ord Beast Goose Tamer and Tamed Frost Wyrm...

I was mostly joking about nerfing Cricket It's almost as silly as nerfing a less broken Pine Ent, so Grug made a good parallel and I just added to the conversation, or else I would've just made a nerf armor thread. I hate cards that ignore board interaction in a board game. Armor 2 does that for the most part.

I don't get the point being made about removal it does the same thing on a lot of creatures. Thing is with Pine Ent you can choose to use it, with Cricket you feel like you have to use removal. It just goes neeener neener neeener to the other creatures till you find a square toed shoe.

Doiron you might want to make your MF bias a little less obvious? Seriously Treetop Domain? Great +Great Oak gets you 2 flux wells how without a Grove? I don't get how Hall + Throne + Cricket equaling 16 Flux, exactly 3 turns, is suspect at all. Hall and Throne auto draw. The scenario you hallucinated doesn't even add up and if they did it's so situational it would hardly happen. Yea Entangle and Ascent doesn't work on Pine Ent in your world I guess

It's no secret that you can cap center and side flux with 2 2-vision buildings (can do first turn double cap with oak and watchtower). first one goes two off-flux and then the second goes where you think it would. with spawn in forest there's no need for groves to start (so oak would always autodraw).

I have no idea why sylvan players never use treetop; it's easily one of the best ways to up domain (especially to get to 3 domain). Sure it's map dependant and doesn't autodraw, but sylvan have ways to make forests and packing 2 or 3 for a good chance at early draw isn't unreasonable considering how incredibly cheap it is.

I readily admit cricket is one of the best 2-domain creatures; it's also at the top of the flux costs and in no way requires a removal card (as stated before) but that's usually the easiest way to deal with them. It just happens to be a great counter to sylvan weenies which are all the rage.

Sure I'm MF-biased; I don't think anyone doesn't know that. But I've also argued that a lot of MF cards are overpowered if you check back.