Common - Reckless Pistolslinger

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0.2 EDIT, 12/22/12: Xenophobia updated. Flavor text removed.

Read em and weep, folks. The humans in this set are White, Black, and Red. The three fastest aggro colors combine to form what was my idea for xenophobia. Reckless Pistolslinger pushes the boundaries of what I feel a red common should push. Literally, the only thing keeping me from making his xenophobia cost more then one red is the fact that he has 2 power... and thus, there is actually vast incentive by a mid-range or late-game deck to allow him to deal his damage instead of gaining a xenophobia trigger.

Thinking on this card's xenophobia also helped lessen the headache the mechanic gave me when I first thought of it. The most important thing I learned about xenophobia is that is it actually an aggro-control ability. Unless I were to create a red trample human card, there is no chance that xenophobia will ever effect the direct damage a human deals to a player. This means xenophobia is meant to destroy blockers or attackers... and creature kill is the pinnacle of red and black aggro-control. And since white aggro is basically just a slow version of red or black aggro that has descent mid-game power, giving a white human a red-black styled aggro ability basically maximizes it's potential, possibly over the top, if not done properly.

With these things in mind, xenophobia is not as huge a problem anymore in my mind. It will continue to make me think, since a mini-max of aggro as powerful as white/red/black is naturally difficult to balance, of course, but now I am not squirming uncomfortably in my seat when I look at the mechanic.

A 2/1 for 1R is a base common in red. I believe I've also seen a common that was 2/1 with first strike for 1R. Either way, I ultimately feel this is perfectly balanced for it's common quality. Assault Strobe from Scars of Mirrodin showed us that double strike for a turn costs only one red. Even though Reckless Pistolslinger can pay for his xenophobia multiple times, I reason that it's still only worth one red at common quality because it's situational, avoidable, and does not increase damage against a player (unless the opponent is stupid).

Tell me what you think. Pleeeeeeeeeease?