Pattern Recognition #88 - Custom Card Critique 2
Card Design Features Opinion Pattern Recognition
berryjon
25 October 2018
1355 views
25 October 2018
1355 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.
Welcome back to my second part of my Custom Card Critique, wherein I have a look at some of the cards you guys created, and give some completely unbiased and totally objective feedback regarding.
Why did my BS meter just explode? Eh, must be nothing. Well, on with the races!
Boza
Lozana, Archmaster of Vitu-Ghazi
Legendary Creature - Centaur
Vigilance
Other Centaurs you control have +1/+1 and vigilance.
When Lozana, Archmaster of Vitu-Ghazi enters the battlefield, choose another creature you control. That creature has Indestructible as long as Lozana, Archmaster of Vitu-Ghazi is on the battlefield.
3/4
So, Centaur what? Wizards likes to have their creatures have a Species (in this case, Centaur) and a Job whenever possible and as long as the type line allows it. My first response is that this guy would be a Centaur Shaman, given the Selesnya focus of this creature, but that's just me. Or perhaps a Druid. Either or, but it should still have a 'Job'.
Now, this guy is also a Centaur Lord, which is an interesting decision given that there are only 55 of them in the game at this point. While most of them are , they, as a tribe, also spread out into and thanks to the affiliations with the Selesnya and the Gruul on Ravnica. But there is also the exceptions of Accursed Centaur or Returned Centaur and Karador, Ghost Chieftain, both of whom are . Which is to say, we shouldn't consider as part of the general color identity of Centaurs.
With that in mind, if this guy were to be a Commander, I would seriously look into getting a into his casting cost, or as an Activated ability. But, alas, this is a guy that seems to have been designed to be printed in Guilds of Ravnica, so his Guild colours are of paramount importance.
Having Vigilance isn't an issue. Both White and Green have it, so it's natural that this creature has it. I mean, it's not like Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers is an example of the Keyword being so part of both colors it doesn't matter how it's paid for.
However, as a Lord, this creature handing out both that and the ever-reliable +1/+1 to all other Centaurs raises my first small flag. Now, I've established that Centaurs are not a big tribe in terms of numbers, but that really doesn't make a difference. There's enough in the game that you can build Centaur tribal and not worry too much. I mean, this card is actually pretty cheap for a Centaur - the Tribe really hits its swing with casting costs of 3, 4 and 5.
I don't mind giving out two abilities on a Lord like this. There's plenty of precedent. I'm just worried that when in combination with the last ability, this card is just a hair too cheap.
Speaking of, handing out Indestructible to another creature when he comes into play? You do know that this would be a Standard Legal combination with Shalai, Voice of Plenty, right? And at the same casting cost. Here, we have this Centaur making Shalai nigh-unkillable, while Shalai makes sure that Lozana can't be targeted to kill him. Yes, Exile and Bounce effects can still work to remove the angel, but that's not going to be in every deck, or an option at the time.
But outside of that, this is still a legitimate ability to have on a creature, as Dauntless Bodyguard can attest. I'm not going to question the existence of this ability on this creature.
Oh, and a 3/4 body. But that's an afterthought. Nothing spectacular there.
And that's just it. This creature is a bunch of unspectacular, but useful abilities all in one great package. It's almost too good for everything it does, and as I mentioned earlier, the simplest thing I would suggest to improve this card would be to bump up the casting cost from to . This would allow the player with this card to have another turn to put out one of the larger number of CMC Centaurs, as well as giving this creature a more midrange focus.
I like it. Just, you know, not spectacular. Just practical.
jamescm
Izzet Research Library
Land
: Add or
, , Discard a card: Draw two cards, then discard a card.
NO.
Lands that produce multiple colours of mana do not come into play untapped without some sort of drawback. This land needs to come into play tapped or with some other cost. Not life loss or damage as that's the realm of Steam Vents. Yes, I know Volcanic Island is a thing, but that was Beta/Unlimited/Revised, which can't be applied to modern Magic design.
This land needs to come into play tapped, end of story.
That being said, why is this card casting Tormenting Voice? As a Spellshaper Land even! I mean, that's pretty funny when I think about it. And not quite that card. I mean, you're drawing, then discarding, rather than discarding then drawing. Actually, I'm wrong. You're more like casting Catalog or the aspect of Sultai Charm due to the order of operations on the card.
Still, this is a ridiculous ability to put onto a land. Card draw? Two of them at once? At Instant speed?
Wizards is leery of putting advanced power onto lands. Look at what happened with Ramunap Ruins. It was Banned in Standard because of the repeatable ability to deal damage and that it was based on a Land, which, once again, Wizards doesn't like to take out. Land Destruction is a separate article though, which I will have to go over.
Now, this card is completely workable. It's a good card, but it's just lacking some of the safeguards that prevent it from getting out of hand and to the point where people will put it into the deck regardless of other considerations. Like Smuggler's Copter.
My suggestions for this card start with it coming into play tapped. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Then, make it so that the card draw ability requires a sacrifice of the land, rather than discarding a card. This would put it on the same scale as cards like Izzet Locket.
Now, who's next?
Zurgo, Who Smiles at Ruin
Legendary Creature - Orc Warrior
First Strike, Haste, Menace
When Zurgo, Who Smiles at Ruin attacks, his controller may choose to tap up to three target lands, these do not untap on their owners next upkeep.
...
Ok. First? Alesha, Who Smiles at Death wants their name gimmick back, thank you.
That being said, Zurgo here suffers from several problems. The first is the "This creature has colors! This creature must have Evergreen Keywords from each color!" problem that even I fall into when card crafting. Now, while First Strike, Haste and Menace are all in the color pie sections of Zurgo, their combination alone would be devastating in an aggro deck. Especially with his ... power?
What's his Power and Toughness again?
Don't worry, this gets forgotten a lot over in the Card Creation Challenge thread. Don't forget it!
Anyway, my real concern with this card is the actual ability. He can tap up to three lands - not just of the defending player's, but any three lands. They also don't untap during the next upkeep.
COOL! It's useless then as Untap happens before the Upkeep.
Yes. I know what you meant to write there, but given what's written, I had to make that jibe. It's one of those things that gets fixed in pencil during play testing until the next iteration has the fix made permanent. But here's the real problem. The ability is a mono- one. It's Frost Titan, it's Grip of the Roil. It's Tamiyo, the Moon Sage.
I see now that gets into the game as well with cards like Matsu-Tribe Decoy, but that's heavily limited to the Kamigawa block, and is highly dependent on damaging the creatures being tapped in this manner.
Guess what Zurgo doesn't have? That's right! or ! His ability there is a massive color pie break that I can't reconcile.
So, what do do about this? Well, we can't add a color to Zurgo. He's Mardu through and through. But no fear! White can do the lock-down of creatures effect, with things like Gideon's Lawkeeper! So, we just have to rephrase this ability to target creatures instead!
If this ability to tap is changed to "When Zurgo, Who Smiles at Ruin attacks, you may tap target creature defending player controls. If you do, that creature does not untap during its controllers next untap step.", then we keep the ability to lock down the opponent some small measure, we keep it in the color pie, and it actually works well with the Menace effect because this means that Zurgo is effectively being blocked by three creatures instead of two!
I just hope this means that his power and toughness are high enough to deal with multiple blockers. Whatever they are. ;)
Join me next week when I don't look at cards - that will come in two weeks. Instead, I think I'll take another crack at one of the Ravnica Mechanics and work from there.
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!
I'm old school. Red's mana denial assets are Stone Rain and Manabarbs. ;)
October 25, 2018 3:03 p.m.
Hey Barry Jon first off thank you very much for the interesting dissection of the concept I had for the next appearance of Zurgo in the game, I really appreciate the work you put into try to find a workable angle and showing the pitfalls that card creators face when trying to craft a concept and advance it from drawing board to booster box.
With Zurgo I know he's a bad muther****er but I was hoping I was costing him high enough to make that non format warping, he should be more mid-rangey maybe even 5WBR. He was intended to be a 7/7 I do not know why I didn't have that on there, I remember looking up the power of his Helmsmasher card and upgraded the body to match allowing for removing the indestructible he had as Helmsmasher. Even though I wanted to have a keyword from each colour represented I knew having indestructible was going to be too much.
The ability to swallow some mana from an opponent to was an idea to keep some control instants stymied, I wanted removing him to be harder than the average bear. Although reading your response it dawned on me that this really should be an enter the battlefield effect that before he moves to attack any instants around the table laying in wait for him will have been played by that point already. I totally understand what you are saying about the colour pie but tapping the lands thematically fits so well with the scorched earth emphasis I was picturing for the clan with Zurgo's main motivation moving away from killing Sarkhan to killing the false world Sarkhan is responsible for. Maybe some sort of "Ruin" counter placed on a land that prevents it from being used and comes off after a full turn would do the job and preserve the colour integrity. I also liked the idea that in a multi-player game you could move the mana pinching around instead of it just being focused on the player being attacked. Maybe adding; if Zurgo attacked this turn his controller may place him back in his hand would work nicely to add value to the etb and it has a very raid/dash vibe to it that works for Mardu.
As for Alesha I was hoping the name would be more of an homage then a blatant rip off, as a previous Khan of the Mardu she is technically one of Zurgo's forebears, although writing meticulously recorded history text books doesn't seem like a particularly Mardu thing to do ;)
I also pictured Kolaghan remaining relevant to the story reborn as a Dragon Tempest Elemental who becomes mother of all the dragons on Tarkir much the same way Ugin is father to the dragons of the plain. She would remain more untamed natural phenomenon then anything but Ugin could experience a unrequited sense of love for the new Kolaghan Reincarnate.
October 25, 2018 3:09 p.m.
Why not have Zurgo Stone Rain when he attacks. at 6-8 mana I don't think he would be that bad. You could maybe have him destroy non basics only when he attacks.
October 25, 2018 11:30 p.m.
On second thought, after reading all this, I think it is great critiques and I have made v2 of Lozana:
Lozana, Archmaster of Vitu-Ghazi v2
Legendary Creature - Centaur Soldier
Vigilance, Convoke
Other Centaurs you control have +1/+1 and vigilance.
Centaur spells you cast gain convoke.
: Target creature gains haste until end of turn.
4/4
In a monumental effort for cooperation between the guilds, Lozana trained for months with the Boros Legion.
Added some flavor now that we see in GRN there is some form of cooperation between the guilds.
Improvements:
- Raised cost
- Added convoke for it to make a 6 CMC lord work.
- Replaced the OP ability of indestructible with convoke for other centaurs.
- Added a red ability to make it viable as a commander.
- Added adequate flavor to justify the red activated ability.
October 26, 2018 5:33 a.m. Edited.
That would make sense Pervavita as there is a precedent for it obviously but I was thinking removing lands from the game permanently is really harsh. I thought I read somewhere that Magic tried to avoid land destruction as much as possible because of that, in a Maro 'Making Magic' article or maybe even here on Pattern Recognition.
October 26, 2018 6:22 a.m.
Chasmolinker says... #7
I don't think they mind as much since Assassin's Trophy is here to stay. Jund Land destruction is now a fringe deck. If you can ramp into 3 mana consistently.
October 26, 2018 8:54 a.m. Edited.
RazortoothMtg says... #8
Assassin's Trophy isn't land destruction. It can technically hit lands, but its more of an instant speed Song of the Dryads. Hitting a land doesn't put them behind on mana.
October 26, 2018 12:40 p.m.
vortical42 says... #9
Ontario, It seems like there are separate things you want out out of the land freezing, the flavor of a 'ruiner' and mechanical effect of 'temporarily hard to remove'. A single ability that does both is firmly blue, but what about if you split them? For the flavor effect, make him cheaper to cast, but with an 'overload' style effect like we saw in Amonkhet. Some (or all) of the lands you tap to cast him would not untap during your next untap step. It conveys the idea of 'ruin in his wake' while being a good match for red and black.
As for the tough to remove part, why not give him either hexproof or indestructible that goes away at the end of your turn? It fits with an 'all or nothing' flavor and helps ensure that you are getting at least one attack in.
October 26, 2018 1:58 p.m.
Pheardemons says... #10
Hey, berryjon. I don't remember if you've written an article about powerful 1 drop creatures, but if you haven't would that be a viable subject? We have powerhouse one drops that effected most formats (excluding EDH to my knowledge) and wizards seems to be continuing to print them. Goblin Guide, Delver of Secrets
Flip, Deathrite Shaman, and Monastery Swiftspear are all that come to mind (please excuse the exclusion of older cards, I do not have near as much knowledge of those cards as I am mainly a modern player). I was wondering what your thoughts were on these types of format changing creatures and why wizards is continuing to print these types of cheap, powerful creatures.
October 26, 2018 2:37 p.m.
Vortical42, I meant for the land freezing to happen to a selected opponent, what you are describing sounds more like it would effect the caster? A temporary indestructible would do the trick however it is very close to what Zurgo Helmsmasher had going for it which was 'indestructible while attacking'. I was hoping to make the card more distinguishable from its predecessor then simply using that again and having a permanent indestructible seemed a little too omnipotent, (although it may be that the simpler solution of simply swapping out indestructible for First-strike ends up being the best option).
October 26, 2018 3:17 p.m.
vortical42 says... #12
It would affect the caster, but in a way I think that actually fits the flavor even better. Denying resources to your enemy is one thing, but to be so focused on your goals that you would destroy ANYTHING, even your own lands to get them? That is textbook black/red.
From the mechanical side of things, it lets the card actually be castable for a reasonable cost in return for having a major downside on your next turn. There is no way this thing would ever see the light of day for 6 or even 7 mana, especially if you intend it to be a 7/7. That combination of keywords would incur such a huge power budget that the card would either have to have it's stats neutered or have an absurd casting cost (10+). By adding an overload effect, it becomes possible to keep the card castable without it being completely broken.
October 26, 2018 3:38 p.m.
TypicalTimmy, that new zurgo has 0 white in him. He can just as easily be mono-black - the exile effect from any hand exile like Never Happened; haste, deathtouch and menace are secondary or primary keywords in black; losing life for not doing something is quite black as well painful quandry. Additionally, where do you exile that card from? The graveyard, hand, battlefield or library?
Lets compare to the OG Zurgo Helmsmasher:
- haste and must attack are quite red.
- indestructible is almost exclusively white.
- "Gain a counter when something dealt damage by ~ dies" has been in black for the past 20 years of Magic in Sengir Vampire.
It is a good example how you can be a 3 color and avoid the "keyword soup" issue. In light of all that, here is another new Zurgo:
Zurgo, Dragon General
Legendary Creature - Orc Warrior
Haste, Menace
When ~ attacks, you may tap up to X target permanents, where X is ~'s power.
When ~ attacks, create X 1/1 black Warrior tokens tapped and attacking, where X is the number of tapped permanents target defending player controls.
3/2
Now, this version takes advantage of Zurgo's hasty nature and keeps the denial strategy of the Ontario's version. Additionally, the flavor of "the next incarnation of Zurgo" is there - last we saw him he was a lowly Zurgo Bellstriker, so having him grow too much in stats seems counterintuitive. He has instead specialized in leading an army, charging first, but utilizing tactics over brute strenght.
October 29, 2018 5:59 a.m.
killroy726 says... #14
I made a thing a while back and wanted berry's opinions on it.
The Great Mirror
Cost: X
Legendary Artifact Creature Shapeshifter
Imprint- When The Great Mirror enters the battlefield, you may exile a legendary creature card from your hand or library with converted mana cost X where X is the cost of The Great Mirror.
For the rest of the game The Great Mirror is always a copy of the imprinted card, and has Partner.
Partner
P/T 0/0
In short this card can lets you use any legendary creature in addition to the other partner commanders.
RazortoothMtg says... #1
Actually, tapping lands is purely in , thanks to Stensia Innkeeper, but neither or can freeze lands.
October 25, 2018 1:55 p.m.