Commander's that aren't a creature.
Custom Cards forum
Posted on July 5, 2016, 2:03 a.m. by Postmortal_Pop
Blade of the Usurper
Legendary Artifact equipment
Blade of the Usurper can be your commander.
As long as Blade of the Usurper is equipped to a creature, that creature counts as your commander.
If the equipped creature deals damage to a creature, exile that creature.
If equipped creature deals damage to a player, that player sacrifices their commander. That player can't cast their commander for add long as Blade of the Usurper is equipped to a creature.
Equip:
What do you think? Anyone else have ideas?
Epochalyptik says... #3
In addition to the above:
Because commander damage is tracked across individual permanents rather than by controller, allowing a player to effectively "create" new commanders creates challenges when it comes to tracking that damage.
It also creates rules issues, such as whether "commanderness" remains associated with the equipped creature. What happens if the creature is bounced and replayed?
July 5, 2016 8:05 a.m. Edited.
Ohthenoises says... #4
TBH I feel like a Withengar Unbound Flip effect would be better if you wanted an equip able commander
July 5, 2016 9:22 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #5
I think the design is interesting, but let me tweak the grammar a bit, and tell me what you think:
Blade of the Usurper
Legendary Artifact - Equipment
~ can be your commander.
If the equipped creature would deal combat damage to a player, treat this damage as though it were combat damage from ~.
Whenever equipped creature deals damage to a creature, exile that creature.
Whenever equipped creature deals damage to an opponent, that opponent sacrifices all commanders he or she owns and controls and can't cast his or her commander until ~ becomes unequipped.
Equip
(This is the best wording I could think of for an effect that we have never seen before in magic.)
July 5, 2016 9:47 a.m. Edited.
Postmortal_Pop says... #6
I like MagicalHackers wording, it really catches the feeling I was aiming for and sounds more ruley
July 5, 2016 5:30 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #7
As a card, I like the new design space! I'd switch the Sword of Kaldra ability for another ability though. I would love another commander-related ability, but for evasion so that it can trigger/static the other two abilities. Maybe "Equipped creature can't be blocked by legendary creatures"? Is that commander-y enough?
July 5, 2016 6:49 p.m.
I honestly think you've already run out of card space at this point. You currently have 5 abilities on the card. One of the only other cards that I can think of that does this is Obelisk of Alara. First of all, look how crapmed the card is and look how short the ability text is.
You also have 5 abilities on your design. I hate to be a bit of a wet blanket, but you won't be able to fit all the abilities you want on the card. And with abilities like these, you can't make the assumption that poeple will just interpret the card how you want. You have to be very clear.
The other vibe I get from the card is that this should actually be black/white, not black/blue.
July 5, 2016 7:53 p.m.
Postmortal_Pop says... #9
enpc has a point, there is a ton of words on this, and the sword of kaldra effect isn't really necessary. As for adding evasion, I feel like that would make it too inclusive. My idea behind the card itself is kind an evil sword in the stone. It isn't the creature that makes the legend it's the blade, though it changes hands, stealing power of others is always the goal.
enpc says... #2
Other than the fact that it seems a bit broken, there are a few mechanics issues that I think need fixing up.
"As long as Blade of the Usurper is equipped to a creature, that creature counts as your commander."
This is by itself isn't hugely game warping, however let's look at what happens when we combine it with this:
"If equipped creature deals damage to a player, that player sacrifices their commander."
Now imaging your opponent is running the same card, or a card with a similiar mechanic.
First of all, its a triggered ability so it's a whenever, not if.
But more importantly, if your opponent has an equipped creature, then technically you run into a condition where your opponent has 2 commanders. And this gets even more broken when we include cards like Mirror Gallery and Phyrexian Metamorph. Now techincally I can have two copies of the blade in play. This means that I can have two different equipeped creatures that are both my commanders. Add in a Sculpting Steel and now I have 3.
You may be able to get around this by wording the ability as:
"Equipped creature deal comabt damage as if it were commander damage." That's probably the best fix, though it still seems mechanic warping.
Now onto shutting down commanders. In general, this is typically something that mechanically I think both WotC and the RC don't want to be a thing. Yes, Nevermore exists, but it's kind of unique in what it does (there might be one or two more cards that do it but I'm pretty sure that's all).
You also have to be aware of how much text a card has on it. While it's nice to pile on abilities, if you're not careful, you end up with a jumble. So you need to pick the few effects that your want to focus on the most and then go from there.
Honestly, I would tweak the last two abilities to be:
"Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to another creature, exile that creature."
and
"
: equipped creature becomes a copy of a creature exiled with Blade of the Usurper. Activate this ability only while equipped creature is attacking."
I would have to check the wording exactly for the ability but something along those lines. This makes the card feel much more blue/black.
So in total, you have:
Blade of the Usurper
Legendary Artifact - Equipment
Blade of the Usurper can be you commander.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to another creature, exile that creature.
Equip:
July 5, 2016 3:54 a.m.