2WU
Legendary Enchantment (M)
Indestructible
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you had another creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card.
If you strip off the "sometimes a creature" aspect of the gods, is what remains generally considered about as powerful as the original? Am I right to believe that the above card, a stripped-down version of Ephara, God of the Polis, is either roughly the same power level, or slightly lower?
This isn't a trick question or anything. And sorry if it's already been discussed, my search didn't yield anything on this. Please link me if you know of a discussion on this topic. To me, without the creature aspect, the card is probably slightly less powerful overall. Being a creature is sometimes a bad thing, of course, but when the card is indestructible that drawback is mostly negated. And all the god cards are indestructible.
Part 2 of this post assumes that I'm right, and the above "card" is less powerful than Ephara is.
In that case, is this tweaked version probably okay?
2WU
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you had another creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card.
(It's no longer legendary nor indestructible.)
Thanks
Legendary and indestructible kinda feel weird when they are no longer creatures. The question in part 2 seems pretty reasonable though. The abilities of about half of the Gods are redundant in multiples anyway. And of the remaining half, there are not any that look like they would be incredibly busted in multiples.
Yeah, legendary and indestructible don't make sense on the card much without the creature side, true. I`m mainly trying to figure out if you strip out the creature from the god, do you generally get an enchantment that could be printed? Like you mentioned, some might be abuseable in multiples, but I think most of the gods were legendary for flavour reasons, not because they'd be broken if somebody got 2 in play at once.
There's something else to take into account though - some of the gods were designed with the creature side being really potent and the enchantment side being pretty tame, and vice versa. Some of them are 4 power and some are 7 power. Ephara is a 6, so somewhere in the middle, so maybe that means the enchantment side is balanced on its own. And maybe the gods with 7 power have enchantment sides that aren't as good, and the gods with 4 power have better enchantment sides. I hope that makes some sense, heh.
here are my versions of all the gods as only enchantments. I treated them all as -1 for lack of indestructible and creatureness. . . then a +1 for ever power below 5 and -1 for every power above 5, and simple see how they looked.
BW
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you own dies, return it to your hand unless target opponent pays 3 life.
WU
Enchantment
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you had a creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card.
2B
Enchantment
Your opponents can't gain life. 1B, Pay 2 life: Draw a card.
2W
Enchantment
Other creatures you control have vigilance. 2WW: Put a 2/1 white Cleric enchantment creature token onto the battlefield.
RW
Enchantment
Creatures you control can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to attacking creatures you control.
1GW
Enchantment
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may search your library for a Forest or Plains card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
1RU
Enchantment
Reveal the first card you draw on each of your turns. Whenever you reveal a land card this way, draw a card. Whenever you reveal a nonland card this way, ~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
3UG
Enchantment
You have no maximum hand size.
If unused mana would empty from your mana pool, that mana becomes colorless instead.
BR
Enchantment
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, ~ deals 2 damage to that player unless he or she sacrifices a creature.
1G
Enchanment
Other creatures you control have trample. 3G: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
BG
Enchantment BG: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Its owner puts a 1/1 black and green Snake enchantment creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
3UB
Enchantment
Creatures you control have "T: Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is this creature's toughness."
1R
Enchantment
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, ~ deals 2 damage to each opponent. 2R: Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
1U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1. 1U: Target creature you control can't be blocked this turn.
1RG
Enchantment
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gains haste and gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that creature's power.
Let's see how they turned out? I think the mono-red one is too strong, as well as BR, RU, RW ones. The UG and UB ones turned out weak In my opinion.
I think "being ok" is a bad metric. Gods are high profile cards, and you want your high profile cards to see play in multiple formats (even if some are casual.) So stripping away legendary is actually a bigger deal than you make it to be.
Anyways, if by "being ok" you just mean "not broken" I agree, but I don't think that's a good indicator for printability because we've already seen how the abilities play.
It's like when they used to say something like "Dragons have the implied ability of being 1 cheaper." Sure, if you change "Dragon" to "Wyvern" and make it "Stormbreath Wyvern", you're not making it broken (and you're actually making it worse) but you're still making an unprintable card. I think the same applies to Gods, they have the ability "We're willing to push this a lot more than your random card."
Legendary Enchantment (M)
Indestructible
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you had another creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card.
If you strip off the "sometimes a creature" aspect of the gods, is what remains generally considered about as powerful as the original? Am I right to believe that the above card, a stripped-down version of Ephara, God of the Polis, is either roughly the same power level, or slightly lower?
This isn't a trick question or anything. And sorry if it's already been discussed, my search didn't yield anything on this. Please link me if you know of a discussion on this topic. To me, without the creature aspect, the card is probably slightly less powerful overall. Being a creature is sometimes a bad thing, of course, but when the card is indestructible that drawback is mostly negated. And all the god cards are indestructible.
Part 2 of this post assumes that I'm right, and the above "card" is less powerful than Ephara is.
In that case, is this tweaked version probably okay?
2WU
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you had another creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card.
(It's no longer legendary nor indestructible.)
Thanks
.
There's something else to take into account though - some of the gods were designed with the creature side being really potent and the enchantment side being pretty tame, and vice versa. Some of them are 4 power and some are 7 power. Ephara is a 6, so somewhere in the middle, so maybe that means the enchantment side is balanced on its own. And maybe the gods with 7 power have enchantment sides that aren't as good, and the gods with 4 power have better enchantment sides. I hope that makes some sense, heh.
.
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you own dies, return it to your hand unless target opponent pays 3 life.
WU
Enchantment
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you had a creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card.
2B
Enchantment
Your opponents can't gain life.
1B, Pay 2 life: Draw a card.
2W
Enchantment
Other creatures you control have vigilance.
2WW: Put a 2/1 white Cleric enchantment creature token onto the battlefield.
RW
Enchantment
Creatures you control can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to attacking creatures you control.
1GW
Enchantment
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may search your library for a Forest or Plains card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
1RU
Enchantment
Reveal the first card you draw on each of your turns. Whenever you reveal a land card this way, draw a card. Whenever you reveal a nonland card this way, ~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
3UG
Enchantment
You have no maximum hand size.
If unused mana would empty from your mana pool, that mana becomes colorless instead.
BR
Enchantment
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, ~ deals 2 damage to that player unless he or she sacrifices a creature.
1G
Enchanment
Other creatures you control have trample.
3G: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
BG
Enchantment
BG: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Its owner puts a 1/1 black and green Snake enchantment creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.
3UB
Enchantment
Creatures you control have "T: Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is this creature's toughness."
1R
Enchantment
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, ~ deals 2 damage to each opponent.
2R: Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
1U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
1U: Target creature you control can't be blocked this turn.
1RG
Enchantment
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gains haste and gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that creature's power.
Let's see how they turned out? I think the mono-red one is too strong, as well as BR, RU, RW ones. The UG and UB ones turned out weak In my opinion.
Anyways, if by "being ok" you just mean "not broken" I agree, but I don't think that's a good indicator for printability because we've already seen how the abilities play.
It's like when they used to say something like "Dragons have the implied ability of being 1 cheaper." Sure, if you change "Dragon" to "Wyvern" and make it "Stormbreath Wyvern", you're not making it broken (and you're actually making it worse) but you're still making an unprintable card. I think the same applies to Gods, they have the ability "We're willing to push this a lot more than your random card."
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries