Sloth

Changing Creature Types

Hi Mark! About creature types. You’ve said before R&D is skittish about errataing creature types, but there’s been a lot of doing that anyway lately. Apart from changing the types of animal-people like viashino and cephalid to better synergize with their non-anthropomorphic counterparts, sloth was added to a few cards with Fallout, and now dragons from Kaladesh received the cat type. Efreet was phased out in favor of djinn, but not retroactively like naga - all the efreet cards are still efreet, but there won’t be new ones anymore. And lastly, despite both types entering the game around the same time, sloth gets added, detective doesn’t. Arboreal Grazer went from beast to sloth beast, but Dogged Detective stays merely a human rogue. I’m fully in favor of the general direction that’s taken with creature types, and I also understand the risk of doing a lot of this in a game with paper cards. But the way it’s currently being handled feels extremely inconsistent, and the categorizer in me feels upset!
So, my question is: could you, or someone who is in charge of this, elaborate on the seemingly complex reasonings as to which creature type gets added, added but not errata’d, replaced, or phased out (perhaps in an article)? You’ve said before it’s not, but it really does seem scattershot, and I want to understand.Thank you!

Here’s the problem. It’s mostly done piecemeal which creates the inconsistency you’re talking about. Let me bring it up with the relevant people.

Appreciation Arboreal Grazer Beast Cat Cephalid Creatures Detective Djinns Dogged Detective Dragon Efreets Game Design Human Kaladesh Naga Rogue Scattershot Sloth Viashino

Creature Type Errata

"Are we likely to see an errata for creatures flavored as sleuths/investigators to being detective in their creature type? (...)There is not currently plans to do that."I understand there's a limit to how much errata you're willing to do, but why did Sloths get it but Detectives won't? It seems quite random. I assume there's some thought behind it, so I'm curious about the reasoning. Thanks!

It’s not random. It isn’t tied to how many typal rewards exist though which is what players, like yourself, seem to prefer.

Creatures Detective Errata Kindred / Typal Sloth

Creature Type Updates

Mark, I was wondering: Why did Relic Sloth (and a few others) get errata'd to being Sloths, but Dogged Detective didn't get to become a Detective?

We introduce new creature types frequently, and most often, don’t go back and change old cards. I’m honestly not sure what prompts us doing it when we do.

Creatures Detective Dogged Detective Relic Sloth Sloth

Panda Creature Possibility

You guys made a mole, a sloth and a capybara recently. There's any chance of making a panda?

There is always a chance.

Capybara Creatures Mole Sloth

Coloring the Deadly Sins

Assigning each of the 7 Deadly Sins to one color seems mostly straightforward: some are black (avarice, envy, pride), some are red (gluttony, lust, wrath), but what color would sloth be?

Probably green.

Black Colors Green Red Sloth

Colors of Sloth

What is/are the color/colors for not wanting to get out of bed in the morning?

Sloth can most easily be red or green.

Colors Green Red Sloth

Muraganda Sloth Chances

If we do ever get a Muraganda set, what are the chances of giant sloth creatures?

5.7%. : )

Creatures Giant Humor Sloth

Sloth Limb Facts

The ai (also a great Scrabble word) is a type of three-toed sloth. Because their digits are referred to as "toes", I would posit that sloths do in fact, have legs, although the foreward limbs are often referred to as arms. I think it would be pretty safe to say that sloths have two arms and two legs.

Come for the Magic design info, stay for the info on sloths. : )

Humor Sloth

Sloth Anatomy Insight

RE: sloth anatomy - as a big sloth fan i don't think sloths have four legs, if anything they have four arms. they use their limbs to climb and suspend their bodies, while legs are generally used to support the body and push against the terrain to provide locomotion. on the ground sloths kind of crawl awkwardly but their limbs don't support their body in that context.

Fair enough. My sloth knowledge is limited.

Limited Sloth Suspend

Creature Classification

There was an un-debate; for Scavenger Hunt, one of the items you can wind up searching for is a "four-legged creature". My opponent went searching, and grabbed Complaints Clerk. I objected on the grounds this was clearly a humanoid sloth using what appeared to me to be distinctly functioning as arms and legs, ergo not four legged. My opponent countered that it was a sloth, sloths are four-legged, therefore this was a four-legged creature. The store owner felt yes, judge felt no. Who was closest?

Humanoid animals have two arms and two legs, not four legs. A normal sloth would have four legs.

Complaints Clerk Creatures Scavenger Hunt Sloth

Fossil Record as Card Source

Well, the fossil record has an endless bevy of wonderful oddities that would look cool on a Magic card! Here's a few non-dinosaurs. The largest pterosaurs, the azhdarchids, were predatory giraffes with 40-foot wingspans. South America's fossil record is really weird, with car-sized armadillos, elephant-sized sloths, who dug enormous tunnels with their claws, and the giant flightless 'terror birds'. And y'all have yet to put a plesiosaur or a mosasaur on a card, except for poor pelagosaur!

Interesting suggestions.

Armadillo Giant Sloth

Menace in Hybrid vs Gold

Red has menace, white doesn't, but a red-white creature can have menace (Sky Terror, Relic Sloth, etc.). Why isn't it true for red-white ward creatures?

We were talking hybrid cards not gold cards. Gold cards can have all the ward they want provided one of the colors can have that version of ward.

Colors Creatures Hybrid Menace Red Relic Sloth Sky Terror Sloth Ward White

Sloth Characteristic

I would imagine sloth is green because sloths are animals, and most animals are green, right?

I think sloth is primarily green, but not because there’s an animal called a sloth. One could view green as the color that least embraces change, to exist as is.

Colors Green Sloth

Blue and Sin of Sloth

What makes the sin of Sloth a blue thing? Since it is a disinclination to exert oneself that seems not very blue to me. I wouldn’t expect blue to lounge around and let others get ahead.

Blue’s major flaw, philosophically, is inactivity in that it can get so into figuring out the right path that it never actually does anything.

Blue Exert Sloth

Seven Sins Color Cycle

I don't want to nitpick(nah, yes I do) the question was "While we're discussing the Seven Sins as they relate to the color pie, do White and Green have any of the seven sins in their portfolio? Pride? Envy? Sloth?" the asker didn't specify if they needed to be in a single color.

I was referring to the original question that started this all which was talking about trying to create a cycle of deadly sins which got us taking about monocolor interpretations.

Color Pie Colors Cycles Green Monocolor Question Marks Sloth White

Blue and Sloth

How is Blue slothful? I always figured there was an industrious side to Blue that it shares with White.

Blue is the color of inaction. You could make an argument that sloth is complete inaction. Sloth is probably more green, but I can see the argument for blue.

Blue Colors Green Sloth White

Sins Within Colors

While we're discussing the Seven Sins as they relate to the color pie, do White and Green have any of the seven sins in their portfolio? Pride? Envy? Sloth?

Here’s my best take in the seven deadly sins:Greed - BlackGluttony - RedLust - Red or GreenSloth - Blue or GreenWrath - Red or WhiteEnvy - BlackPride - Blue or Black

Black Blue Color Pie Colors Green Red Sloth White

Seven Sins Card Concept

I did a quick gatherer search after thinking about which of the 7 sins had their own cards (one word), and greed was the only one. Seems like a good “cycle” concept, maybe just in black or something

A lot of them (Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth) are pretty red.

Black Red Search Sloth

RG Hasty Sloth?

Could we get an RG hasty sloth?

In the Oxymoron set along with the Giant Shrimp, Deafening Silence & Open Secret. : )

Deafening Silence Giant Gruul (R/G) Sloth

Sloth Creature Color

If Sloth gets to be a supported creature type in magic, what color would sloths be in?

Probably green.

Colors Creatures Green Sloth