So my problem starts with Liliana of the Dark Realms and how bad / mixed-up she is. Mono black Swampy deserved a better card. And the Recent addition of Ashiok, Nightmare weaver, Nahiri, the Harbinger, which looks very meh but is actually very good. What made both of these walkers deceptively good was that their uptick is +2 and not +1. but an uptick of +2 needs to be put on a low powered ability. and which low power ability is the walkerbunch? LotD's swamp search. I decided it deserves +2.
Now I had to find a 2nd ability, which works with takes advantage of that "terrible" +2. What I thought of was a double-edged sacrifice a permanent (where you sacrifice the lands from the first ability).
And an ult that represents black.
Vraska of the Dark Realms 2BB
Planeswalker - Vraska [M]
+2 Search your library for a swamp card and add it to your hand. Shuffle your Library.
+0 Each player sacrifices a permanent.
-5 Name a non-land card. Each opponent reveals their hand, library and graveyard, and Exiles all cards with the same name.
/5/
Vraska fits the SwampSearch ability more than Liliana IMO. As she is partially green (but no this card). And the ability is green bled to black. (it is still pretty black). She is also flavored to be pretty manipulative Night's Whisper and I could easily imagine her in Stain the Mind. This caters toward's Vraska's slow and careful assassination flavor, where she plans and plans and devices a delicious way to assassinate someone.
Liliana (specially LotD) seems to flavored around zombies, graveyards and discard
Ob Nixilis has that Demon gig and Sign in blood Gig. Black needs Payment like Altar's Reap and pay life and sac creatures for benefits
Vraska IMO gets all that slow kill gig. She Needs that I woll murder your brains and all you hold dear before i "maybe" murder you.
Her +2 seems harmless but as Ashiok and Nahiri proves a +2 loyalty per turn is actually a "good" protection on its own. It also Symbolizes Mono Black Controls's aspect of small incremental advantages.
Her +0 works well with her +2. It Symbolizes Mono Black Control's love of "War of Attrition".
Her -5 Works as a Stain the Mind. Her ultimate is different from other "I WIN" (unreliable) ultimates and is more like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar's Ultimate. Sometimes she kills herself to pull of a crucial extraction, or slowly wins the game, killing someone very, very, deliciously slowly. Also could be comparable to other lobotomizes. Some have uncounterable, some have convoke, some allows you to steal the extractedcards, and some are meant to be stapled on to planeswalkers.
She creates no blockers, draws no cards, no "spot" removal, has no emblems, . Her only form of defense is above average loyalty gain and base. Her only form of offense is a mini Smallpox and Lobotomize. She is a subtle walker whose vlaue banks on her ability to thin your deck of lands and thin your opponents decks of threats.
> +2 works well with Mutilate, Corrupt, Nightmare
> +2 works as her only defense. Supplement with B' plentiful of removals.
> +2 Raven's Crime to parodize Liliana Vess' discard gig.
> +2 (somewhat) Speeds you up via pseudo-ramp. +0 sets opponent back via sacrifice.
> +2 is ammo for Pack Rat, Collective Brutality,
> +0 allows sacrifice outlets. Proshh, Ehem
> +0 if they dont sac a land pseudo-removal. if they dont sac a perm, pseudo LD.
> -5 Thins our opponent's deck of threats. Turning someone into vegetable is a very green way to assassinate.
> -5 can be coupled with hand reveals like Thoughtseize and Duress net hand advantage
Maybe she could be 2BG which allows her to search for a basic land instead. (reinforcing Vraska's BG identity)
Maybe if she is too powerful we could make her only search basic swamps (reinforcing her Mono Black)
+2 She is part green, and basic land searches primarily green and secondary black(i think). Also A Gorgon I imagine would be comfortable at a swamp ( not Liliana who wears a long Gown that is sure to get dirty)
+0 I think A Gorgon would cannot control who gazes at her. Creatures both allied and opponent will get petrified at the sight of Gorgon. Would she kill/stonize a friendly creature? she probably will. She does collect statues. Also as a creature of the Murk and Bogs, Maybe she as the Gorgonwalker could represent disease ala SmallpoxDeathcloud.
-5 Sometimes blatant Knives and reckless Stoninate does not do the job. As seen in her duel with Jace, sometimes she needs to assassinate someone's character. Assassins also may need to deface instead of dismember. Kill someone's body they become a martyr, kill someone's character now thats delicious (she tried tis with Jace).
Also her tough loyalty and loyalty gain reminisce Vraska 1.0. Vraska 1.0 was like "come at me bro, i have deathtouch" and Vraska 2.0 is like "come at me bro, I'm as tough as Ashiok on roids"
I also spoilered why I thinks she Fits the sampy gig
Liliana = Discard, Zombies and Gravyard Shenanigans
Ob Nixlis = Fat Demons, Black needs payment gig (such as life and creatures)
Vraska = Slow slow kill, Swamp Ramp and Assassins
Private Mod Note
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MtG is where you can hate white players or black players, and still not be racist.
Alright. Could you explain why you chose the Gorgon Vraska, who kills anything on sight for the tutor, for the sacrifice your own stuff and for the exile from library?
Liliana = Discard, Zombies and Gravyard Shenanigans
Ob Nixlis = Fat Demons, Black needs payment gig (such as life and creatures)
Vraska = Slow slow kill, Swamp Ramp and Assassins
Except you are making stuff up for Vraska that has notbeen there before because you "imagine a Gorgon would feel comfortable in a Swamp" (paraphrased). Liliana feels comfortable in a Swamp, too, if my memories of Uncharted Realms aren't betraying me right now. And is that not in general more or less true for most characters in black cards?
Rather than "Vraska = Slow slow kill, Swamp Ramp and Assassins" you can sum up Vraska as we've seen it easily in two aspects (which are intertwined):
Creatures that come to close to Vraska die because they just looked at a Gorgon and Gorgons have "deathtouch"
Vraska can get out of her way to expand energy (loyalty) to destroy even more than creatures - a planeswalker Gorgon has "deathtouch for planeswalkers" as well
Vraska has minions that realize her even having "deathtouch for players"
You can sum up Vraska's set of abilities by describing what creatures she would have if she were a creature: Gorgon Assassin.
The card you propose does not feel like a Gorgon Assassin since in the end it is less a killer, maybe a thief/Rogue if I look at the ultimate or a swamp-dwelling Shaman that worships destruction? You are forcing your theme onto an existing character and you fail to surprise since these abilities do not fit any character we currently have. But there is a simple solution for you: Make up a new name and free yourself of the established expectations people will have of an existing character.
That said this planeswalker doesn't even feel like a cohesive whole formed around a single theme. This is not the better card "mono-black Swampy" deserves. This is a card with three unconnected abilities of which one happens to involve Swamps. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a hard time coming up with a new character that brings those ideas together either without being "some generic black dude".
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
Now I had to find a 2nd ability, which works with takes advantage of that "terrible" +2. What I thought of was a double-edged sacrifice a permanent (where you sacrifice the lands from the first ability).
And an ult that represents black.
Vraska fits the SwampSearch ability more than Liliana IMO. As she is partially green (but no this card). And the ability is green bled to black. (it is still pretty black). She is also flavored to be pretty manipulative Night's Whisper and I could easily imagine her in Stain the Mind. This caters toward's Vraska's slow and careful assassination flavor, where she plans and plans and devices a delicious way to assassinate someone.
Liliana (specially LotD) seems to flavored around zombies, graveyards and discard
Ob Nixilis has that Demon gig and Sign in blood Gig. Black needs Payment like Altar's Reap and pay life and sac creatures for benefits
Vraska IMO gets all that slow kill gig. She Needs that I woll murder your brains and all you hold dear before i "maybe" murder you.
Her +2 seems harmless but as Ashiok and Nahiri proves a +2 loyalty per turn is actually a "good" protection on its own. It also Symbolizes Mono Black Controls's aspect of small incremental advantages.
Her +0 works well with her +2. It Symbolizes Mono Black Control's love of "War of Attrition".
Her -5 Works as a Stain the Mind. Her ultimate is different from other "I WIN" (unreliable) ultimates and is more like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar's Ultimate. Sometimes she kills herself to pull of a crucial extraction, or slowly wins the game, killing someone very, very, deliciously slowly. Also could be comparable to other lobotomizes. Some have uncounterable, some have convoke, some allows you to steal the extractedcards, and some are meant to be stapled on to planeswalkers.
She creates no blockers, draws no cards, no "spot" removal, has no emblems, . Her only form of defense is above average loyalty gain and base. Her only form of offense is a mini Smallpox and Lobotomize. She is a subtle walker whose vlaue banks on her ability to thin your deck of lands and thin your opponents decks of threats.
> +2 works well with Mutilate, Corrupt, Nightmare
> +2 works as her only defense. Supplement with B' plentiful of removals.
> +2 Raven's Crime to parodize Liliana Vess' discard gig.
> +2 (somewhat) Speeds you up via pseudo-ramp. +0 sets opponent back via sacrifice.
> +2 is ammo for Pack Rat, Collective Brutality,
> +0 allows sacrifice outlets. Proshh, Ehem
> +0 if they dont sac a land pseudo-removal. if they dont sac a perm, pseudo LD.
> -5 Thins our opponent's deck of threats. Turning someone into vegetable is a very green way to assassinate.
> -5 can be coupled with hand reveals like Thoughtseize and Duress net hand advantage
Maybe she could be 2BG which allows her to search for a basic land instead. (reinforcing Vraska's BG identity)
Maybe if she is too powerful we could make her only search basic swamps (reinforcing her Mono Black)
+0 I think A Gorgon would cannot control who gazes at her. Creatures both allied and opponent will get petrified at the sight of Gorgon. Would she kill/stonize a friendly creature? she probably will. She does collect statues. Also as a creature of the Murk and Bogs, Maybe she as the Gorgonwalker could represent disease ala Smallpox Deathcloud.
-5 Sometimes blatant Knives and reckless Stoninate does not do the job. As seen in her duel with Jace, sometimes she needs to assassinate someone's character. Assassins also may need to deface instead of dismember. Kill someone's body they become a martyr, kill someone's character now thats delicious (she tried tis with Jace).
Also her tough loyalty and loyalty gain reminisce Vraska 1.0. Vraska 1.0 was like "come at me bro, i have deathtouch" and Vraska 2.0 is like "come at me bro, I'm as tough as Ashiok on roids"
I also spoilered why I thinks she Fits the sampy gig
Liliana = Discard, Zombies and Gravyard Shenanigans
Ob Nixlis = Fat Demons, Black needs payment gig (such as life and creatures)
Vraska = Slow slow kill, Swamp Ramp and Assassins
This would have been my first question, too.
Except you are making stuff up for Vraska that has notbeen there before because you "imagine a Gorgon would feel comfortable in a Swamp" (paraphrased). Liliana feels comfortable in a Swamp, too, if my memories of Uncharted Realms aren't betraying me right now. And is that not in general more or less true for most characters in black cards?
Rather than "Vraska = Slow slow kill, Swamp Ramp and Assassins" you can sum up Vraska as we've seen it easily in two aspects (which are intertwined):
The card you propose does not feel like a Gorgon Assassin since in the end it is less a killer, maybe a thief/Rogue if I look at the ultimate or a swamp-dwelling Shaman that worships destruction? You are forcing your theme onto an existing character and you fail to surprise since these abilities do not fit any character we currently have. But there is a simple solution for you: Make up a new name and free yourself of the established expectations people will have of an existing character.
That said this planeswalker doesn't even feel like a cohesive whole formed around a single theme. This is not the better card "mono-black Swampy" deserves. This is a card with three unconnected abilities of which one happens to involve Swamps. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a hard time coming up with a new character that brings those ideas together either without being "some generic black dude".
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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