Kami of Ebb Tides2U
Creature — Spirit [C]
Ki bleed (This enters the battlefield with a ki counter on it. Remove the counter as a cost for it to attack or block.) T: Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your graveyard.
[2/4]
Ashfall Kami3R
Creature — Spirit [C]
Ki bleed (This enters the battlefield with a ki counter on it. Remove the counter as a cost for it to attack or block.) T: Ashfall Kami deals 1 damage to each opponent.
[4/3]
Driftwood Kami1G
Creature — Spirit [C]
Ki bleed (This enters the battlefield with a ki counter on it. Remove the counter as a cost for it to attack or block.) T: Add G to your mana pool.
[3/2]
Souls' Eclipse1B
Instant [U]
Remove a ki counter from each permanent your opponents control.
Draw a card.
Mistress of InsanityBB
Creature — Human Ninja [R]
Ninjutsu B(B, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Whenever Mistress of Insanity deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, that player reveals his or her hand and you choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card.
[2/2]
EDIT: Changed the ki bleed reminder text. Was "It can't attack or block unless you remove a ki counter."
I misread this at first to think you needed some external effect to remove the ki counter. It still looks like the worst kind of mechanic: parasitic + drawback.
Mistress of Insanity is a sweet counter to other Ninjutsu decks.
I misread this at first to think you needed some external effect to remove the ki counter. It still looks like the worst kind of mechanic: parasitic + drawback.
Drawback, yes. But what is parasitic about it?
I have not costed these expecting you to add more counters to them. I'm not sure it will even be possible in Block. One and done.
The counters share a name with counters that have appeared in Magic before. Therefore, if this is at all supposed to be an interesting mechanic worth building around (and a 3/2 mana dork is plenty exciting!), people will try.
And if this isn't, I expect a lot of analysis paralysis attacking into a board full of ki'd up Spirits, since it's hardly worth it to attack with these unless you have a lethal alpha strike.
Ki bleed is a potentially interesting downside mechanic, but I worry that the design space is fairly limited (as with all downside mechanics). Will some Ki bleed creatures have ways to regenerate Ki, or enter the battlefield with more than one counter? Otherwise you're kind of just designing a bunch of Ceremonial Guards, with or without activated abilities like we see above. Of the 3, I think Kami of Ebb Tides is the most interesting, since deciding when to attack or block with it is trickiest and the activated ability is interesting.
Did you design Soul's Eclipse to intentionally be parasitic? If you expanded it to any kind of counter if seems like there would be niche uses.
Did you design Soul's Eclipse to intentionally be parasitic? If you expanded it to any kind of counter if seems like there would be niche uses.
Sort of, yes. And I acknowledge that it could be better if it allowed the removal of any counter.
There is another ki mechanic in the block. And then there are ki mechanics back in Kamigawa 1. So it isn't that this card is just designed to hose ki bleed.
I misread this the same way Jenesis did, and I maintain that the "these creatures are pacified as long as they have a ki counter" reading is much more reasonable than the "removing a ki counter is a cost to attack or block" reading with the current reminder text.
I'm not usually a fan of "Keyword N," but I feel like the gameplay to complexity trade off is pretty favorable for ki bleed N.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
OK, I updated the reminder text wording. Hopefully it is more clear now.
I feel like with N > 1, the ability loses an awful lot of meaning. How many combats does the average creature survive, anyways? I feel like 1 creature = 1 combat makes a lot of intuitive sense.
I don't really intend for this ability to be exported outside of this set. I think it can be fully explored here, more or less. I think that there's another potential variation on it — which uses +1/+1 counters instead of ki counters — that plays differently, and has leggier uses for values of N > 1.
How many combats does the average creature survive, anyways?
Plenty, if the creature in question isn't being blocked! I've had games where I dealt 10+ points of damage with a single Wind Drake in draft.
This is basically why cards like Brackwater Elemental and Arc Runner are low-value, because the majority of the time trading a card for damage is terrible, and trading a card for an opponent's small body (when you can manage it) only slightly better. This is why I anticipate most ki bleeders will be stuck on defense most of the time, because it offers the best chance to trade a card for an equally-sized card. The "enchantment" it leaves behind is not nothing, but giving up the ability to block in exchange for doing some amount of damage is not something I'd be willing to do without a compelling reason.
I also figured that these would be stronger on the block. "Deterrent + alpha strike potential + activated ability" seems like an OK package to me.
Most Samurai still beat or trade with these on-curve, so I'm not super concerned about board stalls, since that might be the next question. And removal gets them just like anything else.
Why bother keywording a drawback mechanic? Does your set really need this keyword that much?
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Why bother keywording a drawback mechanic? Does your set really need this keyword that much?
I dunno. I was trying to take another swing at fading / vanishing, but without the downside (if that's even possible). I stumbled on this, I figured it was less of a downside mechanic than either fading or vanishing, I liked some of the possible interactions, so I went with it.
As I've said elsewhere, I don't generally like downside keywords, because the player expectation is that keywords are "cool things that your creature can do". But I dunno, unleash is easily my favorite keyword of the last five years, and it has a notable downside streak (even if you can opt out of it... but why would you, right?) So I guess my worldview allows for downside keywords if they really serve a purpose.
There's a flavor purpose for this, in this set, which is why I pursued it. But after flipping through a bunch of different versions, I think that this version has a clear mechanical purpose, too (i.e., to connect creatures with random activated abilities to a block that extraordinarily combat-focused, by design.) So I've justified it in my own mind. The mechanic isn't a hard lock, so if people just despise it, I could cut it. But I think I'm going to play around with it a bit and see how deep the design pool really is.
Why bother keywording a drawback mechanic? Does your set really need this keyword that much?
I dunno. I was trying to take another swing at fading / vanishing, but without the downside (if that's even possible). I stumbled on this, I figured it was less of a downside mechanic than either fading or vanishing, I liked some of the possible interactions, so I went with it.
As I've said elsewhere, I don't generally like downside keywords, because the player expectation is that keywords are "cool things that your creature can do". But then, unleash is easily my favorite keyword of the last five years, and it has a notable downside streak (even if you can opt out of it... but why would you, right?) So I guess my worldview allows for downside keywords if they really serve a purpose.
There's a flavor purpose for this, in this set, which is why I pursued it. But after flipping through a bunch of different versions, I think that this version has a clear mechanical purpose, too (i.e., to connect creatures with random activated abilities to a block that extraordinarily combat-focused, by design.) So I've justified it in my own mind. The mechanic isn't a hard lock, so if people just despise it, I could cut it. But I think I'm going to play around with it a bit and see how deep the design pool really is.
I agree these cards serve a purpose. I just don't understand why they need to be keyworded.
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The vein we opened will bleed.
Creature — Spirit [C]
Ki bleed (This enters the battlefield with a ki counter on it. Remove the counter as a cost for it to attack or block.)
T: Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your graveyard.
[2/4]
Ashfall Kami 3R
Creature — Spirit [C]
Ki bleed (This enters the battlefield with a ki counter on it. Remove the counter as a cost for it to attack or block.)
T: Ashfall Kami deals 1 damage to each opponent.
[4/3]
Driftwood Kami 1G
Creature — Spirit [C]
Ki bleed (This enters the battlefield with a ki counter on it. Remove the counter as a cost for it to attack or block.)
T: Add G to your mana pool.
[3/2]
Souls' Eclipse 1B
Instant [U]
Remove a ki counter from each permanent your opponents control.
Draw a card.
Mistress of Insanity BB
Creature — Human Ninja [R]
Ninjutsu B (B, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Whenever Mistress of Insanity deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. If you do, that player reveals his or her hand and you choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card.
[2/2]
EDIT: Changed the ki bleed reminder text. Was "It can't attack or block unless you remove a ki counter."
Mistress of Insanity is a sweet counter to other Ninjutsu decks.
Avatar by Numotflame96 of Maelstrom Graphics
Sig banner thanks to DarkNightCavalier of Heroes of the Plane Studios!
I have not costed these expecting you to add more counters to them. I'm not sure it will even be possible in Block. One and done.
And if this isn't, I expect a lot of analysis paralysis attacking into a board full of ki'd up Spirits, since it's hardly worth it to attack with these unless you have a lethal alpha strike.
Avatar by Numotflame96 of Maelstrom Graphics
Sig banner thanks to DarkNightCavalier of Heroes of the Plane Studios!
Did you design Soul's Eclipse to intentionally be parasitic? If you expanded it to any kind of counter if seems like there would be niche uses.
Mistress of Insanity is lovely.
There is another ki mechanic in the block. And then there are ki mechanics back in Kamigawa 1. So it isn't that this card is just designed to hose ki bleed.
I'm not usually a fan of "Keyword N," but I feel like the gameplay to complexity trade off is pretty favorable for ki bleed N.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
I feel like with N > 1, the ability loses an awful lot of meaning. How many combats does the average creature survive, anyways? I feel like 1 creature = 1 combat makes a lot of intuitive sense.
I don't really intend for this ability to be exported outside of this set. I think it can be fully explored here, more or less. I think that there's another potential variation on it — which uses +1/+1 counters instead of ki counters — that plays differently, and has leggier uses for values of N > 1.
Plenty, if the creature in question isn't being blocked! I've had games where I dealt 10+ points of damage with a single Wind Drake in draft.
This is basically why cards like Brackwater Elemental and Arc Runner are low-value, because the majority of the time trading a card for damage is terrible, and trading a card for an opponent's small body (when you can manage it) only slightly better. This is why I anticipate most ki bleeders will be stuck on defense most of the time, because it offers the best chance to trade a card for an equally-sized card. The "enchantment" it leaves behind is not nothing, but giving up the ability to block in exchange for doing some amount of damage is not something I'd be willing to do without a compelling reason.
Avatar by Numotflame96 of Maelstrom Graphics
Sig banner thanks to DarkNightCavalier of Heroes of the Plane Studios!
Most Samurai still beat or trade with these on-curve, so I'm not super concerned about board stalls, since that might be the next question. And removal gets them just like anything else.
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
As I've said elsewhere, I don't generally like downside keywords, because the player expectation is that keywords are "cool things that your creature can do". But I dunno, unleash is easily my favorite keyword of the last five years, and it has a notable downside streak (even if you can opt out of it... but why would you, right?) So I guess my worldview allows for downside keywords if they really serve a purpose.
There's a flavor purpose for this, in this set, which is why I pursued it. But after flipping through a bunch of different versions, I think that this version has a clear mechanical purpose, too (i.e., to connect creatures with random activated abilities to a block that extraordinarily combat-focused, by design.) So I've justified it in my own mind. The mechanic isn't a hard lock, so if people just despise it, I could cut it. But I think I'm going to play around with it a bit and see how deep the design pool really is.
As I've said elsewhere, I don't generally like downside keywords, because the player expectation is that keywords are "cool things that your creature can do". But then, unleash is easily my favorite keyword of the last five years, and it has a notable downside streak (even if you can opt out of it... but why would you, right?) So I guess my worldview allows for downside keywords if they really serve a purpose.
There's a flavor purpose for this, in this set, which is why I pursued it. But after flipping through a bunch of different versions, I think that this version has a clear mechanical purpose, too (i.e., to connect creatures with random activated abilities to a block that extraordinarily combat-focused, by design.) So I've justified it in my own mind. The mechanic isn't a hard lock, so if people just despise it, I could cut it. But I think I'm going to play around with it a bit and see how deep the design pool really is.
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!