Sphere of Supreme Sorcery
Custom Cards forum
Posted on June 23, 2019, 4:29 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Having one's spells countered is never fun, and there are some spells that cannot be countered, but those spells are few and far between.
Therefore, I have decided to make a card that makes all spells uncounterable; obviously, such a card will be very powerful, so I shall need to design it with caution.
Sphere of Supreme Sorcery Show
I know that making all spells uncounterable is very powerful, so I gave the artifact a double drawback; first, it must be untapped, and, second, the player must spend additional mana. To ensure that a player would want to tap it, I gave it an ability that combines those of Crystal Ball and Arcane Encyclopedia .
What does everyone else say about this card? How well did I do in designing it?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
aholder7, I do appreciate your feedback, so do you think that I could decrease the initial cost of the sphere, or perhaps reduce the cost of its first ability?
June 23, 2019 5:11 p.m.
If you want the sphere as written I most certainly would reduce the cost of sphere.
Also the last ability doesn’t really encourage people to tap the sphere. They’ll simply wait until the opponents end step to use the ability then have it I tap right after. So I’d suggest changing it to an ability that either is only usable at sorcery speed or that is highly incentivized to be used on your turn.
One thing I want to ask though. What is your vision for this cards use? Is it meant to be a card just meant to oppose control magic? Is it a card to capture the idea of a high level mage having unstoppable power? Or something else?
June 23, 2019 6:02 p.m.
Why not just make it so that it just makes all spells uncounterable, all the time, not just yours. Then it can be relatively cheap to play. Something along the lines of:
Sphere of Supremacy
Legendary Artifact
Whenever a player casts a spell, that spell is uncounterable.
: Scry 1.
June 24, 2019 2:46 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
aholder7, yes, the sphere is definitely intended to convey the idea of a spellcaster so powerful that their spells cannot be countered. What would you recommend as an ability that would actually make a player want to tap the sphere?
enpc, that would be too powerful, in my mind.
June 24, 2019 9:38 p.m.
Perhaps another ability also associated with highly powerful casters. The ability to cast more spells. So something like “: spells you cast cost less to cast.” So either the spells are protected or cost less. Both great options but now a choice to the player.
June 25, 2019 8:13 a.m.
TheQueue841 says... #8
By the way, I understand what you were going for, but with how this is currently worded, it doesn't really work. The templating makes it a triggered ability that goes on the stack when you cast the spell, which your opponents can respond to. At that time, before you get a chance you pay for the ability, they'll have an opportunity to counter it. I would go for something more along the lines of: "As long as ~ is untapped, you may pay an additional for each of your spells. If you do, that spell can't be countered."
But maybe another idea to balance this out is to make the effect mandatory? I'm thinking something like:
Sphere of Supremacy
Spells you cast cost more to cast and cannot be countered.
I still think that it conveys the idea of a powerful spellcaster - they put more mana into their spells, which causes them to be uncounterable. At this rate, I dropped the mana cost to 2, since the +2 tax on all of your spells seems very prohibitive to me. But I think we can go down to on the tax (and up the mana cost), and it wouldn't be too powerful.
aholder7 says... #2
I’d actually say you overcosted it by a fair amount.
I’d start by comparing it to a few cards that already exist.
The closest approximation to your card I know of is Vexing Shusher . It can’t be countered and at 1 mana a piece it protects your other spells. Your version is an artifact instead of a creature making it slightly harder to remove though artifacts are probably the second easiest permanent to deal with. But your sphere is capable of being countered. Yours is also a legendary which further hinders it. There’s also the issue of it entering tapped which means that it won’t be useful for another turn at best. You were nice enough to give it another ability but not one that seems to justify the extra cost.
Other cards to compare to.
Prowling Serpopard is a bit more restricted in what it protects but cannot be countered itself which is a huge upside. It also doesn’t make the spell cost any extra. It being on an above curve body is also quite nice.
Sphinx of the Final Word in the same mana cost range as your spell but the Sphinx can’t be countered and has hexproof on top of being a 5/5 flyer. Only draw back is that the counter protection only protects instants and sorcerers but that’s not the worst draw back for the deck that might want something like this card.
Teferi, Time Raveler : It’s a 3 drop that prevents counterspells and more. It’s also a planeswalker which has plenty more upsides to it. It’s not the best planeswalker but it certainly does the job you’re looking to do.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir : Prevents counterspells. Has flash. Your other creatures have flash. Overall great card and it does all of that for 4 mana.
I would say that the effect your are trying to have seems to be far cheaper than you’d think. Also almost every version has the counter protection for free with the exception of vexing shusher which only has to pay after the opponent tries to counter your spell. If I had to put a cost to the artifact you have as written I’d say it’s more in line with a great 2 drop or a meh 3 drop.
June 23, 2019 5:02 p.m.