I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Mr. Babycakes will be appearing in the set codenamed "Jack," the last set in the Onslaught block.

Mr. Babycakes and his new art.

The bad news is that the Jack development team has decided that Mr. Babycakes, in its current form (, 0/3), is too good to print.

Before I go further, let me explain.

It’s the development team’s responsibility to evaluate and test each card individually. If and when we determine that a card’s too good, naturally, we have to make a change. This happens all the time and cards rarely get printed exactly as they’ve been designed. We knew there was a chance of such a change being necessary for Mr. Babycakes when we first gave you the size and cost options, but Mark did warn everyone, so hopefully this isn't too much of a surprise. Keeping that in mind, I’ll explain the problem with Mr. Babycakes as a , 0/3 creature.

First turn: Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves.
Second turn: Mr. Babycakes.

That may not seem like a good explanation at first (and, I suppose, it isn’t), but it turns out that if the 0/3 Mr. Babycakes hits that table by the second turn, most decks simply cannot handle him. He gets too big too fast, and consequentially, outgrows much of the available removal in our future environment. I can’t tell you how many times an early 11/14 Mr. Babycakes has throttled me (in part, that’s because he’s usually moved his +1/+1 counters onto the Birds of Paradise, but still.).

So the development team will now propose three new options for you to choose from:

Mr. Babycakes #1: , 0/1.

We consider this an interesting option because while Mr. Babycakes #1 may come into play as quickly as the original, it’s quite a bit easier to handle. This version is far more vulnerable in the early game than its predecessor. That said, after the first few turns Mr. Babycakes #1’s growth will be just as dramatic and just as quick as the original’s.

Mr. Babycakes #2: , 0/3.

On one hand, option #2 seems to be “just a more expensive version of the original card.” On the other hand, this card is much easier to play in decks that aren’t running a lot of green-mana-producing lands. You can splash Mr. Babycakes #2 in any deck and you won’t be forced to play predominantly green. A big plus... And, like the original, it’ll live through many of the environment’s available removal spells.

Mr. Babycakes #3: , 0/4.

Option #1 is the little Babycakes. Option #2 is the mid-sized Babycakes. Option #3 is clearly the BIG Babycakes. While you’re moving your counters from Mr. Babycakes to another creature, “Big” Babycakes is easily the most difficult of the three to remove from play. That said, you pay for this with the in its mana cost, making it difficult to splash in multicolored decks.

The development team believes these three options to be both fun, and safe to print. We eagerly await your decision.

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