Pattern Recognition #90 - Custom Card Critique 3
Card Design Features Opinion Pattern Recognition
berryjon
15 November 2018
1220 views
15 November 2018
1220 views
Hello everyone! My name is berryjon, and this is Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.net's resident Old Fogey of an article series. I am your writer for all of these things, in which I endeavor to spread the good word about the ups and downs of Magic, peeking under the hood in order to bring long lost history to light. Or I'm just blowing smoke, and I use the platform afforded to me to prattle on.
And so, we come to our third article where I examine cards submitted to me by my audience. Which is you guys. I hope. Anyway, if you're confused, just go back two and four articles to see what I have done, and what I'm going to do. So, let's get on with it, shall we?
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Bringer of Languor
Creature - Human Spellshaper
, , Discard a card: Counter target activated or triggered ability. (Mana abilities can't be targeted.)
, : Target player discards two cards at random.
, , Discard a Card: Target opponent reveals cards from the top of his or her library until four land cards are revealed. That player puts all cards revealed this way into his or her graveyard.
2/2
Two things jump out at me right away. Stifle, Hymn to Tourach, and Mind Funeral. Or the combat trigger on Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker. Sure, Stifle is an Instant, but the other two are Sorceries. Do you really want them to be fired off at Instant Speed? Do you really want to be able to Hymn a player right after they've drawn their card and before they can actually get to their first Main Phase?
Eh, you probably do. I mean, you made the card, right?
Second thing. The only Spellshaper with more than one ability is Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, her of the Inferno, and glorious lady of Fight with Fire. Only one true Pyromancer allowed, and it isn't some impostor!
A-hem. Sorry. I let my inner fanboy get away from me. Anyway, Jaya Ballard, Task Mage is a Legendary Legend who has been aprt of the mythology of the game for years, appearing in stories and flavor text across multiple sets before she finally made her debut in Time Spiral. And all of her cards have pieces of flavor text associate with them that helped keep the association in play. Pyroblast, Incinerate, and Inferno.
This creature of yours has nothing like that going for it.
Now that the Vorthos in me is satisfied, lets look at the selected cards. Stifle is not a card to be trifled with, as the ability to counter abilities, be they triggered or activated is something that Wizards has been very careful to moderate. I mean, the printing of Disallow was a high-tide mark in counterspells, and that was nearly triple the cost of Stifle to the added ability to target actual spells!
One of the things I like about Spellshapers in general, especially when I wrote my article about them back for Amonkhet, is in how they can turn dead draws, such as lands, into useful spells. Stifle isn't useful. It's powerful. And being able to cast it again and again because there's no reason to not have multiple copies of this creature in play because it's not Legendary.
Now, the second ability is even better. The ability to force a person to discard two cards, even though it's at random, at Instant speed, is something that Wizards is next-to-terrified to print. How terrified?
There are only six instants in the game that force your opponent to discard a card at Instant speed. Esper Charm, Funeral Charm (and its colorshifted Piracy Charm), Haunting Hymn, Kolaghan's Command, and Stop That.
So this? This is horribly, horribly overpowered. No two ways about it. It's a lock that ends games, right there. Discard at the end of your draw step, buddy! No chance to play a card unless it's an Instant!
So No. This ability alone needs to either have the "Play as Sorcery Speed" rider put on it, or it needs to go.
And lastly, Mind Funeral. Because having one card that can keep cards out of a player's hand, and counter efforts to take it out should also be able to mill an opponent's deck for at least four lands, right? Right?
This card is a Control Player's wet dream, and I can't abide it. The casting cost is stupidly cheap, the power and toughness are irrelevant when your opponent can't do anything. And you'll always have options for how to win with this guy in play.
What needs to happen is that two of these abilities need to go, and the remaining one should only be activatable at Sorcery speed in order for the opponent to get a chance to do something.
After that, we can do another balance pass. But for now? No. Not a chance.
Calliber
Astral Gate
Enchantment - Gate
At the beginning of your upkeep, target player exiles the top card of his or her library.
Whenever a player exiles a creature card, create a 1/1 black Nightmare creature token with flying.
Whenever a player exiles a noncreature, nonland card, Scry 2.
You may play lands exiled with Astral Gate
Why does your enchantment have a Land subtype on it? Are you thinking about fetching this with Maze's End?
I don't like this card. Maybe because I just lambasted another control card that just offends me by existing, but this one isn't much better. You Exile (not discard) your opponents deck just by existing, can stack multiple times because it's not legendary, and then you get a reward for it?
Seriously?
This card reminds me of those gimmick cards designed my guest designers. You know. Waste Not. Or Aggressive Mining? Those that just do things, and they never seem to stop? This is one of those. Because no matter what, this card just keeps going and going and going. They lose a creature, you get a creature. They lose a land? You get a land. They lose something else? Well, you get to arrange your library!
Once again, too much is being done here. Let's work with that. First of all, remove the Gate subtype. It's on the wrong card type, and it's going to give me headaches when dealing with cards that deal in Gates from Ravnica.
Second, the ability needs to be massively reworked. Something more like this might be respectable: "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may reveal the top card of target player's library. If it is a Land, that player puts that card into play tapped. If it is a creature, exile it, then that player creates a 1/1 black Imp token with Flying. If it a non-land, non-creature card, exile it, then that player may Scry 2."
Now, this card still lets you exile the top card of a player's library, but it is no longer a case of total punishment. They still get the land if it was there, they get a creature if they just lost one, and for everything else, they get to see what's coming next so they can play around this card affecting them next time.
Other than that, it's playable. A bit too much Dimir Control, one right after the other, but it's what I have to work with given the order in which they were submitted to me.
Now, attacking your player's deck should not be an automatic thing. And exiling the deck is a huge problem, as milling by itself still leaves options for a player to get cards out of their graveyard. No so from Exile. So the victim of this should be able to get something out of it for losing a card permanently, and keeping Lands in play makes it something of a gamble. Unless, of course, they've arranged for a land to be on top of their deck thanks to their own scrying efforts.
Last one for this week comes from LaShrew.
Darksteel Assimilator
Creature - Golem
Indestructible
If a creature dealt damage by Darksteel Assimilator this turn would die, exile it instead.
Darksteel Assimilator has all activated abilities of all creature cards exiled with it.
6/4
Simple. Brutal. Definitely a card I would put in the R1 or R2 slot on a print sheet. This is something right out of the next Mirrorden block, and I would totally believe it. It's also another card that's running right up against the 'Too powerful?' line that I keep seeing around here.
Here's the thing, this card is begging to be chump blocked. Throw 1/1 tokens into its path all day, and nothing ever comes of it. Or just do away with it entirely. You need something to encourage people to block with it if you're ever going to get anything out of the ability.
And that's even assuming it gets blocked in the first place. Which isn't a sure thing. Or it get blocked by something it can't kill.
Even then, this creature requires that the defend.... wait. It doesn't say combat damage. This could be any damage at all. Crap! Someone hide all the Fight cards out there! Don't let this thing take a Rabid Bite out of Kamahl, Pit Fighter! Then everything ever would die! Or worse yet, someone could be forced into attacking with their creatures, only to run straight into the welcoming arms of this creature!
At least this Assimilator doesn't do all that. It just punishes players for a bad choice in blockers. And if all ones choices are bad, well, I won't lay the blame on this creature at all.
It's good. It's powerful, but it also has a huge and glaring weakness that can be exploited without fear of repercussion. I could see this card being printed as-is, with perhaps a reduction in the casting cost to with no real issues.
So, congrats, LaShrew! You got a card that passes my smell test, and I wouldn't mind seeing it in a real set! I might not play with it, but it's not something I find offensive or bad. Powerful, but in the good way that doesn't make a mockery of everything before it. Good job!
Join me next week when I tackle a more serious subject. One of 's massive advantages that is, quite frankly, scary.
Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!
Thank you so much for reviewing my card, and I would like to say that the Bringer of Languor has indeed been errata-ed to only allow sorcery speed activation of the second two abilities. Who errata-ed it? Me. I did ;)
Thank you again for looking at my card, it means a lot to me.
November 15, 2018 9:45 p.m.
Necrogen and scroll are single-use though, which is really different from having Hymn to Tourach on a stick. Honestly, if that first card has those abilities, it is a good candidate for the very first 6 mana 1/1 creature.
November 16, 2018 8:04 a.m.
Snickles@EDH_only says... #4
there are also triggered abilites, such as Ashen-Skin Zubera or Mindslicer with a sac outlet. not that I would have ever run such a thing in standard
coughs unconvincingly
Thoughtpicker Witch + Mindslicer was redonkulous
November 16, 2018 8:46 a.m.
Snickles@EDH_only says... #5
so, as an odd submittal for your consideration, berryjon:
A series of tri-lands like so:
Recluded bayou
Land - Island Swamp Forest
~ comes into play tapped.
: add , , or to your mana pool
on the surface, on par with Opulent Palace. the added land subtypes is really what does it. obviously rare, possibly mythic rare. The question is - does this require another drawback for it to be a reasonable card (such as making them legendary, being a pain land, etc)?
November 16, 2018 8:53 a.m.
I have to say I don't agree that the effects on the Astral Gate is too much. The CMC is not right at 2 and should be more like 3-4, but do you think this will be competitive? Do you really find it that unfair to exile rather than mill? To a deck that have no recursion, milling and exiling is borderline the same; denied resources. We have Curse of the Bloody Tome as a 3 cost Blue, Aura - Curse that mills a player 2 cards at the beginning of their upkeep. This does half of that (but exiles) and is two colored, which historically can do more things than a monocolored card.
I agree that it is a gimmick card mainly aimed at doing some weird combos, and yes the Gate subtype needs to go. By itself the card is rather lackluster in most formats. It would be rather powerful in limited due to smaller deck size, less threats, less answers and could single-handedly take over a game. As such this card is likely not printed in a standard set or at least warrants a high rarity.
People will likely try to combo it with Leyline of the Void (and affiliates and associates - Rest in Peace, Relic of Progenitus, etc.), Necropotence, Immortal Coil with self-mill support or something alike.
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To keep the cost low and introduce some wacky interactions, aimed mainly at multiplayer formats (where I think this type of card belongs) it could be changed to a global effect:
Astral Gate 1UB
Enchantment.
"At the beginning of your upkeep, you may have each player exile the top card of their library.
Whenever a player exiles a creature card, create a 1/1 Black Nightmare creature token with flying under that player's control.
Whenever a player exiles a non-creature, non-land card, they may Scry 2.
Players can play land cards exiled with Astral Gate."
'
It changes it to a sort of group-hug type of card that denies resources for all but also grants benefits to all.
You can choose to build into it yourself with a few other cards like aforementioned or use mechanics like Flashback, Unearth, Flicker, Suspend, Embalm or what have you.
However it will also punish you for running graveyard hate but it could be used politically - again accounting this card will only ever see play in multiplayer formats.
I think that type of card could see print in a supplementary product.
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You could also just topple it over as a pure reward card on opponents and cost it accordingly:
"Astral Gate 2UUB
Enchantment
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep that player exiles the top card of his or hers library.
Whenever an opponent exiles a creature card, create a 1/1 Nightmare creature token with flying.
Whenever an opponent exiles a non-creature, non-land card, you Scry 2.
Whenever an opponent exiles a land card, you may untap target land you control."
A lot more costly but triggers often and only at your benefit. It can be assisted by other exile effects on your opponents' stuff. It can grant A LOT of benefits if played late in a multiplayer game and then exiling all players' graveyards.
November 16, 2018 9:01 a.m.
Snickles@EDH_only I think such a land would require a drawback as it is a strictly better Opulent Palace considering you can get it out with a fetch land, Farseek, Nature's Lore or similar.
Being a Commander player I would very much like to see these cards, mainly because a flexible manabase is quite expensive in Magic and that makes many multicolored decks run into a lot of problems. Granted, playing multiplayer needs a drawback but the tapped portion of most multicolored lands make enough of a drawback in my eyes.
I think an appropriate drawback to the land you suggest would be to pay 2 life as it enters. It's a flat cost that makes them worse in 20-life formats. Making them a pain-land makes them worse than Shocklands in most cases and over the course of a multiplayer game they can add up to some serious payments. If they had a tap for colorless at no further cost I think it would be acceptable that colored mana comes at a slight cost and that they enter tapped.
However in the case of painlands I would rather it was something like
Card Show
November 16, 2018 9:26 a.m.
Snickles@EDH_only says... #8
ooh, good call. comparable to Murmuring Bosk, but more landtypes, less tribal, and lacking the not tapped feature. I like it.
November 16, 2018 10:04 a.m.
You could print these just in the commander precons or they could come in a standard release but then I think you will need to trim back the land type to be just the core type.
Not sure the impact it would have being all three land types but it could be in Modern. In standard the fact that it taps for all 3 colors will be good I would think regardless of the land type or entering tapped.
November 19, 2018 12:01 p.m.
The problem is giving a land basic land types automatically gives that land the ability to tap for the correct color unconditionally which is why bosk is only a forest and not the other types
November 19, 2018 9:17 p.m.
I would just like to point out that making a card mythic rare is not a valid fix for something that is broken. Because yes, that would make it harder to come by blah blah blah but every format other than sealed doesn't give a crap about rarity. They just run as many copies as the format allows.
The other thing to remeber is that giving a land more than two basic types has NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. There is no good way of balancing that card. None. Paying life is irrelevant. If it fixes mana properly in one card then it will see play. Becuase life is a resource that players are happy to pay if it means they can win the game. Hell, I see EDH decks running Tarnished Citadel. Why? because it fixes mana.
The key to making balanced cards is not to make something broken good and then try to bandaid fix it back to balanced. It's to make something that works from the ground up.
November 20, 2018 6:50 a.m.
Snickles@EDH_only says... #12
@enpc - paying life is still viable. EDH decks may run Tarnished Citadel, but largely due to the initial staring life of 40. Would you pay 6 life for the same effect in EDH?
The problem really does sound silly when said out loud - after all, any new format would suffer from this "problem". But consider cards that specificy an absolute life total, rather than a % difference or total change in life total; the difference between "if you have 30 or more life" and "if your life total is 10 or more than your starting life total" may not sound like much, but just look at the cash price of Serra Ascendant or Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant. the better solotion would be to have a blanket statement for EDH that alters how life total dependant cards work. be it "less than half of their starting life", or "with at least 10 life lower than their starting life", the zendikar vampires would suddently be playable, while Sorin Markov would stop being an overwhelming powerhouse.
just my 2 cents, though
November 20, 2018 10:59 a.m.
Snickles@EDH_only says... #13
@yobkay, adding an additional basic land type might not be as huge a thing as you think: consider the following:
Calcified Cannopy
Land - Forest Wastes
~ comes into play tapped unless you control 2 or more basic lands.
: add or to your mana pool.
this card would be an uncommon at best, a $1 rare at worst, and likely never see play outside of the domain mechanic. heck, even sunburst doesnt account for colorless mana now being type of mana with its own basic land.
being a dual land doesn't mean that the effect is broken - being an unrestricted, tutorable mana filter is broken.
the point of the tri lands concept was to allow multi-colored decks a bit more leeway without having to either be behind the curve or outright reliant on fetchlands. technically, with the land types, they would ultimatly have to read "when this land taps for (mana type 1 or mana type 2), it deals 1 damage to you", but thats a minor nitpick
legendofa says... #1
In the world of instant-speed discard, I think it's necessary to mention the activated abilities of Scroll of Griselbrand and Necrogen Spellbomb. Both single-card, opponent's choice cards, but they're out there.
November 15, 2018 1:36 p.m.