Forgive me if you've seen this kind of idea before, as I have not. The idea is for a creature that has his spark ignite, which transforms him into a planeswalker. Here's what I've come up with....
Heramien, Spark Obsessed
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
~ enters the battlefield tapped with two loyalty counter on it.
~'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of loyalty counters on it.
As long as ~ is tapped, it has hexproof.
You may choose not to untap ~ during you untap phase. If you do, put a loyalty counter on ~. If it has three or more, you may transform it.
*/*
"Father, Heramien rarely comes out of his study these days. What do you suppose he's doing?" -Princess Feramien
---
Heramien, Ignited (UG)
Planeswalker - Heramien
+1 - Return target creature to its owner's hand, its controller puts a 1/1 blue and green mutant creature token onto the battlefield.
-1 - Look at the top card of your library, if it's a land, put it onto the battlefield, if it's not put it into your hand.
-3 - You get an Emblem, "Whenever a creature named Heramien, Spark Obsessed enters the battlefield under you control, you may transform it.
X
So the story behind this guy is...Heramien is the first born son of King Theramien, and the heir to the throne. Unfortunately, Heramien has always been a bit of an oddball. Instead of studying the sword and shield, as is proper, Heramien instead focused on the art of Wizardry. At some point, he meets up with some planeswalker I haven't thought of yet and becomes obsessed with the idea of becoming a planeswalker.
The card...I'm not sure if I've done a good enough job of making the creature side of the card good enough to want to use outside of just getting it to planeswalker mode, as that was my original intention. But, I don't want to add too much text to either side of the card and end up with it super-cluttered. I see the planeswalker side as basically a 5 drop. It comes down turn 2, then takes 3 turns to flip. I've purposely made the counters loyalty counters, instead of +1/+1 counters so it would be harder to cheat counters onto him. I'm having a hard time balancing the planeswalker side, I want it to be somewhat strong since it's a "5 drop", but I can't make it too strong, since it's a 2 drop planeswalker after that (think EDH). I feel like this is fairly balanced due to the fact that his ultimate really doesn't do anything. The starting loyalty counter idea is still kinda up in the air, and I've been thinking about making the planeswalker side U/B, but I'm pretty cool with most everything else. What do people think?
Edit: One more thing...I kinda think I need to add some clause about not being able to play Heramien, Spark Obsessed while controlling Heramien, Ignited. What would be the easiest way to do this with out cluttering up the card even more?
Edit2: Changed spark counters to loyalty counter's per maximumbuttitude's suggestion.
Edit3: I changed the cards base P/T to */*, and made it enter the battlefield with P/T = the number of loyalty counters on it.
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
Some parts of the card are overly complicated right now. Instead of spark counters you should use loyalty counters, and then you don't even need the "starting loyalty" line on the reverse, because it's already set up for you. There's probably not a good clean way to do the "can't play" clause you mentioned. My quickly thought out is gonna be, on the creature side, "You can't cast ~ or have it enter the battlefield if you control a planeswalker of type Heramien." That's magnificently ugly, but doing better is really hard.
His first two PW abilities seem fine, I'd avoid using that ult, it strikes me as being rather hard to actually play in a fun way, no offense. Since it takes a lot of time to get him up to a PW, you can beef that up significantly.
OH uh the creature side right. Well... having him be able to stick around with hexproof and do nothing for a few turns is terribly non-interactive and simply wouldn't be printed. Otherwise, he's fine.
Thanks a lot for the input Max Butt. It's greatly appreciated. The loyalty counter idea is a great one, I should have thought of it. I would love if you would elaborate on what you mean by the ultimate being unfun. I think it's one of the most fun parts of the card. I understand it's not a very ultimate, ultimate, but that's why the cost is low, theoretically, you could ultimate him as soon as he flips so you don't have to go through the work again, 'cause now you a have a decent two drop planeswalker for the rest of the game. In EDH and, reanimator it may actually be OP. Sorry if that's what you mean by unfun, that's why I am hoping for elaboration. As far as the creature side being unprintable, Wizards made that stupid sleeping dragon card that didn't really do too much either, so I'm not sure that's right. This guy can potentially untap at any upkeep and be a creature with P/T = to its "mana-cost", that has hexproof while attacking. I'll admit, it's not the best, but it doesn't have to do nothing. The idea is that he is locked away studying, trying to figure out how to magically ignite the spark. I do have another version of this idea where the creature side is a worthy mythic, that relies on another planeswalker dying to ignite its spark. I could post it, but it would need to be cleaned up a bit first. Again, thanks for the feedback, I'm perfectly open to hearing my idea is bad, if that's what people think.
Edit: I changed the card in the OP to loyalty counters. Thanks Max Butt.
Edit2: To solve the problem of controlling both the creature version and the planeswalker version, could I just use the rules already in place for planeswalkers? I could change the card type line to - Planeswalker Creature, and have the name be the same on both sides? Is that crazy? Would it even work?
You can't control two planeswalkers of the same name right?
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
Edit2: To solve the problem of controlling both the creature version and the planeswalker version, could I just use the rules already in place for planeswalkers? I could change the card type line to - Planeswalker Creature, and have the name be the same on both sides? Is that crazy? Would it even work?
You can't control two planeswalkers of the same name right?
You can't have two planeswalkers with the same planeswalker type. If you made him a planeswalker creature, his type line would be (Legendary?) Planeswalker Creature - Heramien Human Wizard or something like that (I don't know what order they'd go in).
However, being a Planeswalker Creature has weird side effects. It can still be attacked directly like a planeswalker, but it can also block creatures attacking itself. Damage dealt to planeswalker creature both marks that much damage on the permanent, AND removes that much loyalty (This is why Gideons prevent damge). In this case, it you were to deal 1 damage to it while it had 2 counters, it'd take one damage and lose one loyalty. It's P/T would then be 1/1 because it has 1 loyalty counter on it. Since it's a 1/1 with 1 damage marked on it, it would die.
There have been other nonplaneswalker-to-planeswalker transformation ideas before. I think Budoka Pupil and his ilk show an interesting way to build up counters that can be used here. I think a good way to go would be nonlegendary creature on the front side that accumulates loyalty counters and can optionally transform after a certain threshold, and planeswalker on the backside that has only zero and minus abilities like Sarkhan the Mad.
Thanks for the input Shadowfate. I don't want to make the card more complicated. Would making both sides legendary, then giving each side the same name work? You can't control 2 or more legendary permanents of the same name right? I would just have to make the planeswalker side read - Legendary Planeswalker - ~. Right? Again, does this work? Or, again, am I crazy?
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
(22 Total) - October 2014; December 2014; January 2015; April 2015; June 2015; August 2015; September 2015; November 2015; December 2015(T); January 2016; March 2016(T); April 2016; June 2016; October 2016; December 2016(T); February 2017; April 2017; December 2017; November 2018(T); January 2019; April 2019; June 2019
(8 Total) - May 2015; May 2016; June 2016; August 2016; October 2016; December 2016; October 2017; May 2019
(7 Total) - September 2015; October 2015; January 2016; March 2016; April 2016; July 2016(T); March 2019(T)
I think just don't worry about the problem with the legend rule and build it into the flavor.
Simple FarmhandW Creature - Human (M)
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage, put a loyalty counter on it. Then if there are two or more loyalty counters on it, you may transform it.
1/1
====== Kinvor Reincarnate (white) Planeswalker - Kinvor
[0]: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the field.
[-1]: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
[-4]: Something epic.
Heramien, Spark Obsessed
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
~ enters the battlefield tapped with two loyalty counter on it.
~'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of loyalty counters on it.
As long as ~ is tapped, it has hexproof.
You may choose not to untap ~ during you untap phase. If you do, put a loyalty counter on ~. If it has three or more, you may transform it.
*/*
"Father, Heramien rarely comes out of his study these days. What do you suppose he's doing?" -Princess Feramien
---
Heramien, Ignited (UG)
Planeswalker - Heramien
+1 - Return target creature to its owner's hand, its controller puts a 1/1 blue and green mutant creature token onto the battlefield.
-1 - Look at the top card of your library, if it's a land, put it onto the battlefield, if it's not put it into your hand.
-3 - You get an Emblem, "Whenever a creature named Heramien, Spark Obsessed enters the battlefield under you control, you may transform it.
X
So the story behind this guy is...Heramien is the first born son of King Theramien, and the heir to the throne. Unfortunately, Heramien has always been a bit of an oddball. Instead of studying the sword and shield, as is proper, Heramien instead focused on the art of Wizardry. At some point, he meets up with some planeswalker I haven't thought of yet and becomes obsessed with the idea of becoming a planeswalker.
The card...I'm not sure if I've done a good enough job of making the creature side of the card good enough to want to use outside of just getting it to planeswalker mode, as that was my original intention. But, I don't want to add too much text to either side of the card and end up with it super-cluttered. I see the planeswalker side as basically a 5 drop. It comes down turn 2, then takes 3 turns to flip. I've purposely made the counters loyalty counters, instead of +1/+1 counters so it would be harder to cheat counters onto him. I'm having a hard time balancing the planeswalker side, I want it to be somewhat strong since it's a "5 drop", but I can't make it too strong, since it's a 2 drop planeswalker after that (think EDH). I feel like this is fairly balanced due to the fact that his ultimate really doesn't do anything. The starting loyalty counter idea is still kinda up in the air, and I've been thinking about making the planeswalker side U/B, but I'm pretty cool with most everything else. What do people think?
Edit: One more thing...I kinda think I need to add some clause about not being able to play Heramien, Spark Obsessed while controlling Heramien, Ignited. What would be the easiest way to do this with out cluttering up the card even more?
Edit2: Changed spark counters to loyalty counter's per maximumbuttitude's suggestion.
Edit3: I changed the cards base P/T to */*, and made it enter the battlefield with P/T = the number of loyalty counters on it.
His first two PW abilities seem fine, I'd avoid using that ult, it strikes me as being rather hard to actually play in a fun way, no offense. Since it takes a lot of time to get him up to a PW, you can beef that up significantly.
OH uh the creature side right. Well... having him be able to stick around with hexproof and do nothing for a few turns is terribly non-interactive and simply wouldn't be printed. Otherwise, he's fine.
Edit: I changed the card in the OP to loyalty counters. Thanks Max Butt.
Edit2: To solve the problem of controlling both the creature version and the planeswalker version, could I just use the rules already in place for planeswalkers? I could change the card type line to - Planeswalker Creature, and have the name be the same on both sides? Is that crazy? Would it even work?
You can't control two planeswalkers of the same name right?
However, being a Planeswalker Creature has weird side effects. It can still be attacked directly like a planeswalker, but it can also block creatures attacking itself. Damage dealt to planeswalker creature both marks that much damage on the permanent, AND removes that much loyalty (This is why Gideons prevent damge). In this case, it you were to deal 1 damage to it while it had 2 counters, it'd take one damage and lose one loyalty. It's P/T would then be 1/1 because it has 1 loyalty counter on it. Since it's a 1/1 with 1 damage marked on it, it would die.
Simple Farmhand W
Creature - Human (M)
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage, put a loyalty counter on it. Then if there are two or more loyalty counters on it, you may transform it.
1/1
======
Kinvor Reincarnate
(white) Planeswalker - Kinvor
[0]: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the field.
[-1]: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
[-4]: Something epic.