So what's my beef with this card? There's obviously nothing wrong with it from a mechanical standpoint. White typically gets a vanilla 2/2 in at least one set of every block, usually the big set like Theros. It's a hole that needs to be filled for Limited play, so the only real thing Wizards has to do is make the flavor fit and just call a Grizzly Bear something else. But filling in a mechanical hole only to leave a flavor chasm is not acceptable.
That's my beef with this card: how am I supposed to accept that a Human Advisor in soft robes who calls herself a "philosopher" acts exactly the same way from a mechanical standpoint as a hulking, angry mass of fur? I mean, even the flavor text points out that this lady doesn't win her battles through brute force but through words, just as a philosopher should. So why the lack of any white-styled ability to show this mechanically?
Travelling Philosopher should have been a card more in line with the every other Advisor ever printed. There are tap-down abilities white has access to that fit in perfectly with the story told on the card. There are life gain and card drawing and pump effects that could represent the effect that hearing a Traveling Philosopher might have on other creatures. But to try to pass off a card as a philosopher when it's clearly just a plain-old white-washed bear!?
Yeah, that's not gonna work with somebody who actually knows a little something about philosophy. Good thing white has plenty more options in Standard Pauper so I do not have to even consider adding this piece of flavor fail to our decks. We'll have good luck and have fun and good games without it. Thanks for reading! Peace,
- C
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