So I've been toying around with this keyword concept:
Brutality (If this would deal damage to a creature, it deals twice as much damage instead.)
But I just realized that it has some weird ambiguities with how trample works. How much damage do I have to assign to be considered lethal? How much damage would trample over to the defending player/planeswalker? Is there an alternate way to word the keyword so that the answers to these questions are obvious? I don't have a particular answer I'd like to shoehorn the ability into; I'm just hoping for something elegant I can balance cards around.
Does this version of the keyword work within the current rules? I'm not sure if changing power can be done at the very last second like this.
Brutality (If ~ would deal damage to another creature, double ~'s power until end of turn.)
A 4/4 with brutality trampling over a 2/2 will assign 2 damage to the creature, 2 to the player. When it actually does damage the 2/2 will take 4 and the player will take 2.
It doesn't. You assign damage before it's dealt. So you'd assign 2 damage to the creature and 2 to the player. When you go to deal damage it would deal the 2 damage assigned and also double your creature's power. Even if it did work it'd also double the damage to the player and completely destroy multiple blockers because it'd double for each creature. You'd die if you blocked a 4/4 trample brutality with a 2/2 and 2 1/1s because it'd be a 32/4.
You'd have to modify the rules for lethal combat damage assignment. It'd kind of be like how 1 point of damage from a source with deathtouch is considered lethal, but it'd only apply to assigning the damage from sources with brutality and nothing else.
Ignoring the confusion that occurs with dealing and assigning damage, I don't think there has ever been an effect in the entire game that used the word "if" in its replacement effect definition while not actually having anything to do with the event itself.
In other words, it's ambiguous whether the power being doubled is reflected in the damage being dealt or not. The sane person would say it does only to have dealing damage be ruled in his or her favor, but the ambiguity still lies within.
As far as actually dealing damage goes, yes, it would essentially make half of the damage useless when trampling. If a brutal 2/2 trampler being blocked by a 3/3 is supposed to be able to have 1 damage trample over to the 3/3's controller, then rule 702.19b would have to be changed to allow for taking the power that brutality modifies into account.
How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Alright. I was hoping to get a keyword that affected fighting and combat, but it really wants to be green. And not pairing well with trample (even if just through combat tricks) is a pretty huge strike against it. I think I'll look for some design space elsewhere... I don't like mucking with the CR.
Berserk (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power.)
I may be overrating the feel-bad of the interaction with trample. Good point about Furnace of Rath. Like I said above, I was hoping for something that would work equally well with both combat and "fight"s. Maybe I'll make a one-off card that has brutality v1 unkeyworded and see how people receive/perceive it.
So I've been toying around with this keyword concept:
Brutality (If this would deal damage to a creature, it deals twice as much damage instead.)
But I just realized that it has some weird ambiguities with how trample works. How much damage do I have to assign to be considered lethal? How much damage would trample over to the defending player/planeswalker? Is there an alternate way to word the keyword so that the answers to these questions are obvious? I don't have a particular answer I'd like to shoehorn the ability into; I'm just hoping for something elegant I can balance cards around.
Does this version of the keyword work within the current rules? I'm not sure if changing power can be done at the very last second like this.
Brutality (If ~ would deal damage to another creature, double ~'s power until end of turn.)
Does this version of the keyword work within the current rules? I'm not sure if changing power can be done at the very last second like this.
Brutality (If ~ would deal damage to another creature, double ~'s power until end of turn.)
You'd have to modify the rules for lethal combat damage assignment. It'd kind of be like how 1 point of damage from a source with deathtouch is considered lethal, but it'd only apply to assigning the damage from sources with brutality and nothing else.
In other words, it's ambiguous whether the power being doubled is reflected in the damage being dealt or not. The sane person would say it does only to have dealing damage be ruled in his or her favor, but the ambiguity still lies within.
As far as actually dealing damage goes, yes, it would essentially make half of the damage useless when trampling. If a brutal 2/2 trampler being blocked by a 3/3 is supposed to be able to have 1 damage trample over to the 3/3's controller, then rule 702.19b would have to be changed to allow for taking the power that brutality modifies into account.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
That is the same way Furnace of Rath works with trample.
How about just a trigger when it becomes blocked?
Berserk (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power.)
Prevent all damage that CARDNAME would deal to players.
That is disguised as being just a really strong blocker, but has hidden interaction with still being able to attack planeswalkers.