Parasitic Assimilation / Mindbreacher
Custom Cards forum
Posted on April 27, 2021, 6:53 a.m. by zAzen7977
Here’s a little something spicy to boost Grixis control decks...
Front:
Back:
(Edited: Split up original Mindbreacher Parasite card into two cards which transform back and forth - incorporated Parasite counters as a way to get around enchantment creatures being unable to enchant players.)
Any comments or suggestions are welcome!
How do you feel about making it more into a Dark Depths kinda situation? Once the condition is met, the original card is sacrificed to get the creature (or it could be a DFC that flips into the creature).
There's a few mechanical problems with a creature that enchants a player, can fall off when turning into a creature (since creatures cannot be enchanting a permanent) and can then turn noncreature again afterwards.
There's a reason there's a buttload of text associated with bestow . You can get around it by just having the creature ETB and choose an opponent and then have the condition that it is only a creature when the condition is met.
May 2, 2021 5:59 p.m.
Thanks for your comment Tzefick! You bring up a really good point about creatures being unable to enchant permanents, I missed that. I’ll play around with it so it will work better mechanically.
May 2, 2021 6:21 p.m.
Hey Tzefick, check it out, I changed the card so that it is no longer enchanting a player. What do you think?
May 3, 2021 2:45 a.m.
I was thinking more simple like:
When X enters the battlefield, choose an opponent.
As long as you and/or the chosen player have cards in hand, X isn't a creature.
As long as X is a creature, it has indestructible, haste and "This creature can only attack the chosen player and it cannot be blocked."
This makes it less weird in multiplayer games, where you could put a counter on Opponent A, bounce the creature, replay it, put a counter on Opponent B, then have Opponent A discard all their cards and suddenly both Opponent A and B are vulnerable to the parasite. Furthermore it makes more thematic sense that it can only attack freely against the player with no cards in hand.
Personally, I am not much for the card's design. It basically reads like an Enchantment - Aura Curse that utilizes the combat step (for better or worse). It could just as well have been a Curse and read "At the beginning of your end step, if you and the enchanted player have no cards in hand, enchanted player loses 7 life."
There's some fringe cases where the creature side being indestructible makes it impossible for other players to use standard removal on it, or in green's cases it would suck to have no hand, have this hit you in the face, you draw a Caustic Caterpillar , cast it but cannot use its ability (as the Parasite turns invulnerable enchantment creature) until the Parasite's owner draws for turn, making it turn back into a vulnerable enchantment until they get rid of the card in hand.
There's ways to interact with the combat step, buff the creature with auras, equipment or whatever, but it seems so messy when turning back and forth between creature and enchantment.
I get the idea behind it but feel like an Aura Curse would have been a mechanically more clean version of it. That's why I initially suggested the Dark Depths approach if you wanted the creature in there. To have the Parasite start in a "larval" state until it can burst, a fully grown creature for good.
If you would humor me:
A different approach Show
May 3, 2021 9:56 a.m.
Tzefick, thanks for the thorough comment! You bring up excellent points and you helped me conceptualize this card better.
I considered your suggestions and made major changes to the card. I split it up so that its now an enchantment which transforms back and forth into a creature. I went with an Eldrazi theme since I think it fits the subject matter well, and I found a great looking dual-face card option on Mtg.design.
The effect I was going for with this card is different than something like Dark Depths , which is something that grows and grows until it finally reveals its true form and stays in play. Instead I was looking to depict a transient creature which manifests only when you and your target have no cards in hand. It appears temporarily, is terrifying, can attack and block only the target, and goes away if you and the target have cards in hand. Sure I could make it an aura which saps life if each player is no cards in hand, but this transforming creature approach allows for more interaction, plus it can be exiled or neutralized (making the damage easier to deal with for the target), and it’s more thematic.
I changed the transformation ability to check for the hand-state at the beginning of the end step, to allow time to stuff to happen during players’ turns and give the target fair warning. The first time the target “breaks”, it gets a parasite token, so I can use it as a reference when it’s time to flip the Mindbreacher back. And since the Parasitic Assimilation curse can only target a player with a parasite token when it flips back, I can’t redirect the Mindbreacher to another player unless I cast another copy of the curse on another player.
It’s complicated, but it was a challenge to see if I could make this sort of ability work.
Mtg_Mega_Nerds says... #2
Disgusting. I love it.
April 27, 2021 2:52 p.m.