Cards and Ideas From the Un-Sets that Would Work in Legitimate Sets
General forum
Posted on Dec. 20, 2017, 10:20 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
The Un-sets are intended to be humorous and not taken seriously, but it would not surprise me if WotC uses them to test ideas that might work in "normal" sets; for example, Barren Glory is a functional reprint of The Cheese Stands Alone, an excellent idea, in my mind. Therefore, with Unstable being recently released, I am starting this thread to discuss cards or ideas from the Un-sets that would work in legitimate sets.
Organ Harvest, from Unglued, would work perfectly as normal card, as it is neither overpowered nor silly, so I am very surprised that it has not yet been reprinted.
Mise, from Unhinged, is also an excellent card, but it may be too powerful, so would need a higher mana cost to balance its effect.
Crow Storm, from Unstable, is also an awesome card, so I feel that it is worthy of being printed in a normal set (obviously not one that is standard legal, more likely a Commander set).
Timmy, Power Gamer, Johnny, Combo Player, and Spike, Tournament Grinder are all excellent cards that could be reprinted, with different names and, in Spike's case, a slight adjustment to their ability.
Host creatures and contraptions were interesting ideas, but likely to be too complicated for "normal" sets. Mox Lotus should have been a legitimate card, so I am very displeased that WotC wasted that name on a joke card. I also hope that there (finally) being a card of Urza in Unstable will lead to there being a card of Urza in a legitimate set.
What does everyone else say about this? What are some cards or ideas from the Un-sets that would work in normal sets?
I think Last Strike has some potential to create some interestingly-costed cards (i.e. relatively low mana, high power creatures, but with low toughness). It could also be an interesting ability to see alongside Enrage.
Triple Strike is too powerful for real play, but you could make a variation on Double Strike whereby the creature deals both normal and last strike damage.
December 21, 2017 11:19 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
Boza, how does Organ Harvest not fit into black's philosophy? It sacrifices resources (i.e., creatures) to gain a benefit, which is very much a black action. Also, the storm scale is only for standard, not for eternal formats, so there is nothing to prevent Crow Storm from being reprinted in a Commander or Conspiracy set.
cdkime, I really hope that last strike is not ever revisited, because it is completely a negative mechanic, and was clearly a parody of first strike. Also, it would be too confusing existing alongside first strike, akin to how WotC never has +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters in the same set and how horsemanship was essentially flying with a different name, but is not the same, so is much more powerful due to being much rarer.
December 21, 2017 9 p.m.
It being a completely negative mechanic is what makes it potentially interesting, as it could be put alongside otherwise powerful effects to make uniquely mana-costed creatures. As a recalcitrant Johnny, always enjoyed cards which are both powerful and terrible at the same time (there is a reason I built a Karona, False God EDH deck). Obviously last strike, without another ability, would not make for an interesting card, but with the right abilities? That's exactly the kind of card that begs for an interesting, unique constructed deck.
As for it being confusing, I disagree with your examples. Counters could theoretically be confusing, particularly during set design or prereleases, where people do not really know the cards--it is an additional number to keep track of, and the two cancel each other out. That said, unless someone is playing Ebon Praetor, which has weird counters that never cancel (they are not covered by Rule 121.3), I have never seen someone get overly confused by different +/- counters.
Horsemenship is not confusing, it was just an old mechanic before Wizards realized how big MTG would be. They were not planning for the future, and thinking one set at a time.
Boza says... #2
I think none of the cards mentioned are really worth it - organ harvest is just not something black does nowadays; mise is way too powerful and wizards have been very carefl with balancng them after the Treasure Cruise fiasco; crow storm is a 10 on the storm scale, so i would say no. Timmy is just an Elvish Piper, Johnny is simply a tutor and there a ton of those that work for less than 8 mana, Spike is unprintable with its current ability.
Speaking about Unstable:
Grisulda, hosts and augments show that Wizards clearly enjoyed the meld mechanic, so I expect more of it.
Animate Library is a cool card that could very well be black bordered.
Earl of Squirrel could very well be a signal for more -link abilities, like manalink.
December 21, 2017 3:29 a.m.