Amdael, Dire Auramancer

Custom Cards forum

Posted on July 11, 2020, 3:33 p.m. by seshiro_of_the_orochi

A comment by TypicalTimmy in this thread got my mind turning with an interesting concept for an Abzan enchanter commander. Here is my idea:

Amdael, Dire Auramancer

Legendary Creature - Troll Shaman

Whenever you cast an aura spell, you may return target creature card with converted mana cost equal to that spell's converted mana cost from your graveyard to the battlefield. You may change the target of the aura spell to the returned creature.

3/5

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Please tell me your thoughts on this card. Does is work flavourwise? Do you think it's too powerful, too weak, or too boring? Are there any cheap combos I missed? Let me know.

seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #2

DeinoStinkus: Thank you for the feedback. As I see it, enchantress effects mostly are green and/or white, and Amdael has an enchantress trigger that reanimatrs creatures, which is a really black thing to do. There you have Abzan. I'm not exactly sure why this seems like an esper card. Could you elaborate?

July 12, 2020 1:03 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #3

seshiro_of_the_orochi, I like this idea, but I feel that the creature's ability should be "Whenever you cast an aura spell, you may return target creature card with converted mana cost equal to or less than that spell's converted mana cost from your graveyard to the battlefield. You may change the target of the aura spell to the returned creature." That way, it has greater versatility, because it is too restrictive as it currently is.

July 13, 2020 7:33 a.m.

seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #4

DemonDragonJ: Thank you for the feedback. I actually did this on purpose: It seemed too powerful to basically always be able to revive something.

With the ability as is, you get double your mana investment in value, but only exactly that. With the wording you suggested, the ability would indeed be a lot more versatile, but you could cheat on mana even more easily.

With the current wording, there is a much larger restraint on the deckbuilding, which is a thing many people enjoy. I could imagine that this nuance would slip by many player's attention, though. I'll re-consider that choice.

July 13, 2020 10:59 a.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #5

seshiro_of_the_orochi, that makes sense, but I know that most players like to have a great variety of options when playing this game.

Also, using Ajani's Chosen as a guideline, have you considered having the ability trigger when the aura enters the battlefield via any method, or would that make it too powerful?

July 13, 2020 12:23 p.m.

seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #6

DemonDragonJ: I guess "equal or less" is the favoured version. Regarding your other suggestion: I'm not exactly sure how I like the combination with Flickerform. But that is pretty busted.

July 13, 2020 1:05 p.m.

Tzefick says... #7

This seems really interesting, but also pretty narrow. You'd need a critical mass of matching CMC between auras and creatures you can get into the graveyard.

May I suggest a revised version that is more flexible?

revised Show

Amdael, Dire Auramancer

Legendary Creature - Troll Shaman

Aura cards you control have "As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may pay . If you do, as this spell resolves you may return target creature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to X plus the converted mana cost of this aura from your graveyard to the battlefield and attach this aura to that creature."

3/5

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An alternative wording of the ability:

Aura cards you control have "As you cast this spell you may pay the mana cost of target creature card in your graveyard reduced by the mana cost of this aura. If you do, as this spell resolves return that creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield and attach this aura to it."

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This was actually more difficult to create than what I intended. Initially I wanted it to basically become Animate Dead with an additional cost attached to it equal to the difference in CMC between the aura and the creature. However that idea was kinda screwy as is the text on Animate Dead.

It does provide some benefits over the OP's suggestion

• For one you can use a Holy Strength to resurrect Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite with a mana investment.
• Basically as long as you have an aura, you can play any creature from your graveyard. Yes, that makes Rancor or Flickering Ward extremely beneficial in this deck. However you're also playing an aura centric deck, that naturally sets you a bit behind.
• You don't require a very metrical combination of creatures and auras to make it function, so it opens you up to experiment more with auras. Auras in general is not favored in Magic, so I think we can afford them some flexibility here. I get that one of the OP's points was that restrictions makes people creative. I fear it makes the deck type too narrow to only include mid-costed auras and low costed creatures. My revisions are not hindering that tactic as the cost reduction is still the same, you just have a higher ceiling.
• It's one package - meaning one Counterspell takes care of the whole lot. It also means you can effectively reanimate creatures that cannot sustain themselves, say Force of Savagery, as there's no time in between the creature entering and the aura attaching, where state based actions are checked and would kill the Force.
• A flaw; there's no target when reanimating as it happens during resolution - so no interaction, no exiling the target in response. Can just be seen as an upside that you wont have paid the cost of the creature for nothing. The alternative wording I made fixes this flaw, but that also opens it up to so much vulnerability. Suddenly a Scavenging Ooze becomes an unlimited Essence Scatter for .
• A flaw; to simplify the design I made the additional cost which means you can bypass color requirements/intensity. The alternative wording I made should solve this problem - if you cast a Aura and intent to cast a creature, you still need to pay as the aura can only reduce the generic mana cost in this instance. The problem is that this wording makes it a LOT more complex to fully understand.

September 15, 2020 10:28 a.m.