Elemental Swarm
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 25, 2020, 1:16 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Elementals can appear in any color in this game, but they are most strongly associated with red, blue, and green, because those are the colors associated with storms and the fury of nature.
Therefore, I have created a card that I feel captures the idea of nature's fury, a storm of the elements, represented by a swarm of elementals being summoned the fight for nature, as seen, here:
Elemental Swarm Show
I know that the ability to create a variable number of tokens is powerful, so this card has a high mana cost. March of the Multitudes requires that X be paid only once, but this spell creates three different types of tokens, so X needs to be paid twice for this spell. I am not certain if this spell should be an instant or a sorcery, because it might be too powerful as an instant, but MotM is an instant, so perhaps this spell would not be too powerful as one, either.
What does everyone else say about this? What do you think of this card?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
Caerwyn, vigilance is primarily a white ability, and reach would be too similar to flying, but hexproof may work.
March 25, 2020 4:43 p.m.
I think this would be fine as an instant. Its 5 mana for 3 1/1s or 7 mana for 6 of them neither of which is too powerful and outside of edh you'll never get above 7 mana
March 25, 2020 6:02 p.m.
Why not just make them all traditional 3/1 elemental tokens?
March 25, 2020 9:36 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
shadow63, in that case, I have made the change, as seen, below:
Elemental Swarm Show
dbpunk, what cards generate 3/1 tokens?
March 25, 2020 9:49 p.m.
Satyr Nyx-Smith, Sparkspitter, Chandra, Flamecaller, Force of Rage and Hostility all generate 3/1 elemental tokens. However, they only get a turn to live, so I would say it is not the same.
Honestly, while a drastic change, I think Master of Waves is the correct way to go forward with this one.
Elemental Swarm
Creature - Elemental Wizard (Rare)
When ~ enters the battlefield, create X 1/0 green Elemental tokens with trample, X 1/0 red Elemental tokens with first strike and X 1/0 elemental tokens with flying.
Elemental tokens you control get +1/+1.
2/4
Getting 3 1/1s for 5 mana is not particularly powerful. The creature version adds 1 power to each token and gives you another 2/4, but makes the whole thing more vulnerable.
March 26, 2020 6:48 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #8
Boza, you idea is actually a very nice one, so I thank you for it.
March 26, 2020 8:46 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #9
Boza, upon further consideration, there are two aspects of your design that I dislike: first, if the spell is countered, the player shall have lost great amounts of mana; second, the creature cannot be cheated onto the battlefield with an effect such as Elvish Piper, Quicksilver Amulet, and so forth.
Therefore, I have decided to use the same formatting as Rise of the Hobgoblins, which I feel is a format that WotC should use more often in this game, as seen, below.
Elemental Swarm Show
With this formatting, the player will not lose mana if the spell is countered, and they can also summon the swarm in ways beyond hardcasting it, so now what does everyone think of it?
March 26, 2020 12:07 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
Actually, I have made one other minor change to the card, as seen, below:
Elemental Swarm Show
I added keywords to the swarm, because, if the tokens that it generates have keywords, why should it not have those keywords, as well?
March 26, 2020 12:11 p.m.
Deceptively powerful, but in a somewhat fair package. It has a major weakness that targeting the main body crumbles the entirety of the swarm.
For 5 mana you get a 3/3 main body and 3x 2/1 tokens with various keywords, trample being the least useful. A total of 9/6 P/T across 4 bodies.
For 7 mana you get a 3/3 main body and 6x 2/1 tokens with various keywords. A total of 15/9 P/T across 7 bodies.
It reminds me of Master of Waves as it very much has the same feel of deceptive power AND weakness. The Master just doesn't have to pay upfront for their tokens but gain them from whatever devotion to blue you have at the time with a minimum of it's own 1 devotion.
You do have the practical issue of keeping track of each type of elemental, as they all have different colors and keywords. If this appears in a limited format you cannot be sure to have the tokens available to represent them and may have memory issues. For a designed product or one that uses elemental tokens in general, it could work.
Caerwyn says... #2
My biggest problem with this card is the idea of 1/1s with trample. That's pretty much the same as a vanilla 1/1, even if it does get a bit better when you can pump the creature.
Maybe Hexproof, Vigilance, or Reach? They might not be as fundamentally Green as Trample, but all three are found on assorted Elementals and work a bit better on a 1/1.
March 25, 2020 1:46 p.m.