I know that Ashiok has a lot of expectations on them regarding representation in the game, so I want to make sure that their story fits with the desires of representation and is generally a good origin story for a villain. I've glossed over quite a bit, but I think all the relevant points are there.
Aisha had never felt comfortable in her body. No one, least of all her parents, understood how uneasy she perpetually felt. Her only respite came to her during the night - dreams. Sleeping was her favorite activity, and she found the only reason she even played as a child was to tire her body enough that it would allow her to return to her dreams.
She had a knack for knowing when she was dreaming, and remained asleep with the reassuring knowledge that she had ultimate power over her surroundings. Lucid dreaming, however, was not without its consequences for Aisha. Every night she awoke to strange, unreal entities surrounding her, choking her, sitting on her chest such that she could barely breath. Even these, she accepted as a price of her dream realm - she would recreate the Mori in her dreams and conquer them. Though she felt powerless in the waking world, in her dreams she would command the Mori to do her bidding, tearing apart imaginary doppelgangers of her bullies. As the years went on, her list of victims grew to include teachers, friends, and even family.
After a particularly terrible fight with her mother, a 13 year old Aisha gathered her things and ran away from home. She was seeking a witch rumored to live near the local lagoon. After much effort, she found the witch, and offered her a trade: She would give the witch all her worldly possessions, and in exchange the witch would cast a spell over Aisha so she would fall into an everlasting sleep. The witch obliged, leaving Aisha's body in a secluded and forgotten cocoon of thicket.
Aisha spent the next few years creating her own twisted paradise. She finally felt at home. Everything she experienced was under her dominion, and she could create or destroy at will. Until one day, when she noticed a strange figment out of the corner of her eye. She struggled to find it, to chase it down, and to examine it. It was a being made of pure darkness, wearing golden armor with a delightfully terrifying helm. She did not remember creating it, but on the other hand she had created for so long now that surely she didn't remember all of her conceptions consciously.
Shrugging, she flicked her wrist at it and started to walk away, but quickly froze. The thing had not dissipated when she commanded it to. Instead, it leaned toward her and whispered, "I am my own master."
Aisha stumbled back. For the first time in her twisted world, she felt terror. Instinctively, she conjured several Mori and commanded them to attack the nightmare in gold armor, who seemed to be growing larger as Aisha's fear mounted. She realized that she had left her image vulnerable. After all, when she could create and destroy anything at a whim there was little reason for her to change her body. Now, however, it was critical to grow up. The nightmare dispatched her minions with ease, and lurched toward her, armored claws raised. Aisha cried out in a mix of agony and anticipation. She folded all of her years of imagination into herself, swallowed the myriad of dreams into her contorted visage. Creator and creation became one, while the nightmare cried out over the rushing sound.
"You created me, but that does not mean you can control me." said the nightmare. "I reject the name you've given me - I give myself the name Ikelious."
Creator and creation tried to reply, but the world grew dark and spun and swirled and suddenly they were thrown to the ground in a dim moonlit courtyard. A young satyr nearby bounded over.
"Are you alright?" The cloaked satyr asked to no response. "What... what happened to your face?" Again no response. "Who... what are you?"
They pondered these questions for a moment. Alright? Yes, they felt perfectly at home in their new frame. Face? The visage had absorbed a world full of distorted dreams. Who? "I, too, reject the name given to me" thought Creator. Creation agreed in chorus.
"We are Ashiok."
Crawling Skin1B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -2/-2. "I can't put my finger on it, but I don't feel right."
Night Terrors2B
Sorcery (C)
Target player reveals his or her hand. You choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card. When waking up is so terrifying, why not just stay asleep?
Deep Sleep1U
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant tapped creature
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step. Aisha begged the witch to let her sleep forever, and the witch obliged.
Ikelious, Dreambreaker3BB
Legendary Creature - Nightmare (R)
Unravel (You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
As long as Ikelious has a -1/-1 counter on it, it can’t be blocked by untapped creatures and tapped creatures can block it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player sacrifices a tapped creature. "You created me, but that does not mean you can control me."
4/4
Ashiok's Becoming4BB
Sorcery (R)
Each player discards his or her hand. Search your library for a card and put it into your hand. Aisha was so terrified when her creation refused her, that she tore down her world and recreated herself.
Ashiok's Becoming looks like it would make for a very unfun Limited experience.
I'm curious why you think that a 6-mana rare is so problematic for limited? Mob Rule or Volcanic Vision are entire unfun when played against you too, but a high-cost rare like these is hardly ever considered a problem for limited.
I haven't looked in depth, but what I've seen looks pretty great.
The biggest problem I see is the overpowered Tibalt: I saw that you made him attack each turn if able, but he's still way too good. Even if he had no planeswalker side, he'd still be arguably better than Goblin Guide, one of the best red one drops of all time. With the planeswalker side, it hardly matters what Tibalt's toughness is, as you'll never beat him by blocking, you'll just turn him into an even greater threat (though not an immediate threat to your life total. I like that part of the design because it gives the opponent an interesting choice.)
The card is definitely cool, but it is also beans-broken. It may be fixable without changing too much, but as a 2/2 haste for 1 with a very small downside, and a huge upside, it is definitely too powerful.
Here's some feedback on existing cards. I just looked at white, and the only notes I have are nitpicking, so here's some nitpicking.
Sanctum Archon shouldn't be named Archon if it's human.
I don't like that Ivory Unicorn is common: it feels like unicorns are supposed to be a little elusive (I have absolutely no problem with the design, just the flavor)
That's it. White feels pretty solid so far. I also looked at blue, and it seems a little more troubled, but a little more fleshed out.
I like unravel as a mechanic, but all the blue creatures with it seem pretty anemic. If you don't give them the counter, they're low-level playable (which is where they should be), but when you play them for value, they are really weak for cost, and the upsides are generally small and expensive. It reads like reverse Monstrous, where rather than starting vanilla, and paying to get good, you start weak, and pay to catch up to vanilla. The mechanic is cool, but you have to make it worth it. I think that the cost to remove the counters should be small (usually just one colored mana) as the major cost is that it asks you to play something like a 1/2 for 2U, which can be a dangerous thing to do if your opponent is trying to race you. Alternatively, you could make the upside bigger: if Somber Visitant drew 2 cards instead of one when it removed its counter, it would make up for a lot of that lost tempo.
Fleeting Mori in particular feels frustrating to use: it returns to your hand when you remove its -1/-1 counter, so you never get to use it at full power unless you relinquish the ability to return it in the first place. I think giving it hexproof until end of turn would be a better way for it to protect itself.
Some of the standouts: Forethought is simple and elegant. I also really like Tezzeret's design, particularly on the creature side.
Ashiok's Becoming looks like it would make for a very unfun Limited experience.
I'm curious why you think that a 6-mana rare is so problematic for limited?
Because it's like "Surprise! You're ****ed!"
Aaaaand? I mean, isn't the DEFINITION of the reaction to a bomb-y instant or sorcery?
Like, exactly? How often do you expect to see a six-mana rare in Limited? An OP cheap common would ruin Limited; this awesome and flavorful card would just ruin EDH friendships.
I'm seriously considering not having flipwalkers since they don't accurately fit the story the set is trying to tell. Story-driven design is rough! Some of the walkers are nice in that I can just keep their backsides fairly intact. Others I need to do more rework on. I'm not certain the flipwalkers are out, but I'd like to see some reactions to these alternatives.
Nahiri1WW
Planeswalker
[+1]: Create a colorless artifact Equipment token with "Equipped creature gets +1/+1." and "Equip 1".
[-2]: Search your library for an Equipment or Aura card, reveal it, and put it on top of your library. (Shuffle your library after it's searched.)
[-6]: Each player sacrifices lands until they control the same number of lands as the player who controls the fewest lands. Players discard cards and sacrifice creatures the same way.
[3]
Tezzeret2UU
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tap or untap target permanent. It is an artifact in addition to its other types. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
[-2]: Draw three cards, then discard two cards unless you discard an artifact card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Tap an untapped artifact you control: Tap target permanent."
[5]
Ashiok2BB
Planeswalker
[+1]: Exile the top card of each player's library. You may play a card exiled by Ashiok.
[-1]: Each opponent reveals his or her hand. Exile a card revealed this way.
[-6]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control have menace." and "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, that player sacrifices a permanent."
[4]
TibaltRR
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tibalt deals 1 damage to each player.
[-1]: Untap target permanent an opponent controls at random. You gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste until end of turn.
[-X]: Discard your hand, then draw X cards and add X R to your mana pool.
[2]
Garruk3GG
Planeswalker
[+1]: Untap up to one target creature. It must block this turn if able.
[-2]: Create a 4/4 green Beast creature token with trample.
[-9]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature dies, draw cards equal to its power and gain life equal to its toughness."
[6]
Tezzy's +1 is hideously bad since he can't do anything with it until (and unless! Given his -2, there is not much incentive to ult him!) he ultimates, even with a high loyalty to compensate. Could you throw in something like "Artifact creatures you control gain hexproof until your next turn" or "artifacts you control get +1/+1 UEOT"? I appreciate that you're trying to put him well away from Nahiri in artifact space, though.
I'm not sure hiding a shuffle in reminder text is a good idea, but that's a templating issue, not a design issue.
On Ashiok, I suspect his ult is a little too easy to achieve (universal, permanent Wit's End/Sire of Insanity seems a little extreme as the ult of a 4-mana card, compare Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker). I kinda want to move the -1 to an emblem (Probably adding some P/T buff) instead and find something else for the -1. Maybe "exile top three, you may cast a card exiled this way this turn"?
Garruk's ult is not bad per se, but looking at Tibalt? Garruk really, really ought to have some way of prepping/stocking up your hand. Could the other two effects be a token and a Disentomb-type effect?
Updated the planesculptors file with some new uncommon and rare additions and would love feedback if anyone feels so inclined. So far I haven't made the change to single-face walkers official yet, but I'm still hammering out the details on what they'll look like.
A complete draft of the set is up on Planesculptors here! If anyone is interested in providing feedback it'd be very appreciated. A good way to get a bite-sized chunk of cards to review is to generate a sealed pool using the site's "Host event" functionality. You've all been very helpful so far, and I hope to get a chance to play with the set soon.
In cast you didn't know, MaRo said Cohort was a fail. Something to consider for Operate. That being said, I think you've done a better job with Operate than R&D did with Cohort.
I still LOVE this set. If I didn't mention a card, it's because I love it as is. Just the white crits for now.
Shortwing Griffin - This is bad even for bad. It looks like it could be 3/1.
Lithomancer's Resolve - What harm would it do to prevent the damage to any creature? I think the fun of the modality is worth the bleed.
Ozuawe Innocent - Seems like it should be 2WW and Emeria Flock should be 2W as landfall and creating tokens are all colors determined only by flavor while lifelink is firmly (if not strictly) white (and black).
Kor Swordsman - Not flashy enough for rare. It’s trying to be build-around but failing as all one needs to trigger the ability is one Equipment. It’s a mid-pick for Spike. Timmy and Johnny won't touch it. A feelbad pack rare for everyone. It will never gain monetary value for collectors as it's already completely obsoleted in the eternal cardpool by Soldier of the Pantheon and even Dryad Militant. It should be demoted to uncommon or made interesting somehow.
Penitence – I love this card. I really do. But I’m not sure if a 100% Rakdos hoser should exist with no investment required or out for your opponents. Eternal could probably handle it. In limited, if this hits the battlefield on turn three or four, the Rakdos opponent might as well scoop. No big deal I guess, but it would completely shut out an entire color combination in Standard. Maybe add an activation cost ala Spear of Heliod.
Only Metal Remains – Please tell me this is a placeholder name. It just sounds so horribly Gagdrazi and blatantly out of place for your set. Also, the art isn’t vast enough and epic enough for a wrath effect. It looks small and singular like a swords effect.
Resurrection Trap – Terrible as rare. Far too weak. Resurrection effects have always been uncommon and still are uncommon. It needs a big boost or a demotion to uncommon. It would make for an exciting uncommon. Another possibility is “Second Sunrise Trap”.
Nahiri – Despite Balance, discarding is not part of white’s slice of the color pie. Drop the discard part and expand the sacrificing to include all permanent types.
Shortwing Griffin - Decreased activated ability cost by 1.
Lithomancer's Resolve - One of the common trends I've heard in people's experiences of feeling "villainous" in magic is using cards in unorthodox ways. With that in mind, I suppose opening it up to saving an opponent's/teammate's creature couldn't hurt.
Kor Swordsman - Agreed. One of my recurring weaknesses is designing interesting rares. Changed to "As long as rw01 Kor Swordsman is equipped, prevent all damage that would be dealt to it."
Penitence - Changed to the slightly less abusive "Whenever one or more creatures deals damage to you, exile one of those creatures until Penitence leaves the battlefield."
Only Metal Remains - Changed placeholder name to "All is Rust".
Resurrection Trap - Nice! Renamed to Sunbreak Trap, using Second Sunrise for permanents as the spell effect. Still musing on what the trap condition should change to.
Nahiri - Discard is very far out of white's color pie, but as a 'walker ultimate I'm okay with having a color break to reference an iconic card.
In cast you didn't know, MaRo said Cohort was a fail. Something to consider for Operate. That being said, I think you've done a better job with Operate than R&D did with Cohort.
What MaRo said was that Cohort did poorly in market research (which is usually a marker of mechanics that are mostly effective in limited, I've found), to me that is quite different from being a failure across the board like Radiance or Cipher (okay, cipher's basic design is actually a good, but the actual implementation doubtlessly fail across the board).
Okay, after a little research, I retract my advice concerning Innocent and Flock and suggest you revert to your original mana costs. You had them right the first time.
All is Rust - That's funny. (P.S. - I hate Eldrazi.)
Nahiri - Okay.
Kor Swordsman - Better but probably still uncommon material.
Penitence - Looks good. Forces opponents to attack with two+ creatures at a time, goading them into overextinding. Still very very strong. Playtesting will reveal how good it actually is or isn't.
Shortwing Griffin - I'm looking at Stormfront Pegasus and Daring Skyjek for reference. Will the set metrics not accommodate a 3/1 or is it that "x.5" flyers is the sweet spot?
BLUE
There’s something weird about the term “Operate” – It sounds like you’re performing surgery rather than operating machinery, especially on the black cards and (to a slightly lesser extent) the blue cards.
Question: Why isn’t Unravel mandatory? As in “Unravel (This creature enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.)” I realize it’s a Dimir homage to Rakdos’ Unleash, but unlike Unleash, 99.999999% of the time you want the counter especially with cards like Just a Dream floating around.
Etherwrought Agent and Sunwing Harrier are stepping on each other’s toes, which is fine in the whole of a set, but probably shouldn’t share the same rarity. In light of Ravenwing Mage, if you’re going to make a change, I’d suggest changing Sunwing Harrier.
Rotted Wanderer – Sounds like a Nomad, not a Wizard
Aether Helix – Just a nitpick: “Aether” doesn’t sound so much Grixis as it does Esper, even though technically it’s “Ether” that is associated with Esper and not “Aether”.
Sedraxis Portal – Should this say “additional -1/-1 counter”?
Inconspicuous Informant – The third “permanent” evasion card at common but no instants/sorceries. Seems high. Also, the flavor is superbad. How about a Flight with flash?
Untouchable (Common) U
Enchantment – Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has flying and hexproof.
Ravenwing Mage – This makes a total of two permanents that giving flying. I could be wrong, but it seems monotonous. This could easily lose U and be fine.
Hide in Wait – Do you want this to be able to hexproof your opponent’s creatures effectively making this a counterspell for spells that target their creatures? Just wondering.
Inked Skaald – I guess a poet can be a Wizard, but’s strange. It’s also a strange effect for a poet. He must be a bad poet and not know it.
Drowning Sensation – Great card but a total flavor wiff.
Etherium Matrix – This is just terrible. It’s a good candidate for some “whenever this becomes tapped, something special happens” wording. Or increase the drain to 2.
Tempest Servant – “without paying that SPELL’S mana cost” (needs apostrophe)
Lurking Leviathan – Makes no sense as a Leviathan, but it’s PERFECT for a Sphinx.
Crashing Wave – Traumatize + This = Win. Just not a fun card imo, but I guess it’s fine. Question: Which origin world does this fit into – Zendikar? That’s fine I guess but a little funny since Nahiri is GW and travels to a WB place.
Ingenious Invention – Why can’t X be 0?
Tezzeret of Carmot – Immediately I see a rare and a mythic doing pretty much the exact same thing. Not good. His emblem should just say “Tap an untapped artifact you control: Tap target permanent.” It saves a line.
Psychic Mastery – 99.9999% of the time you’re getting one card for 3UUU. Why not make it XXUUUU so there’s a chance to get two cards for 4UUUU? It’s not like you’re spashing it anyway. It’s only one mana less, but it makes a big difference.
BLACK
Subcity Custodian – Unlike Tithe Drinker, this guy is stepping on its own mechanical toes.
Duskwood Piper – Can it return itself?
Noble Horde – imo Noble Dead or Noble Undead (like Unbreathing Horde) sounds better than Noble Horde. “Horde” on its own without an undead identifier sounds like a horde of Barbarians or Goblins rather than Zombies.
Dessicate – Any reason you’re not using Death Wind here? Black currently has Instants 2, Sorceries 5, Aura 1. Another possibility is “Put X -1/-1 counters on target creature.” Which I prefer because it would be a really nice common Unravel enabler with modality to boot.
Blood Beggar – This is filling the same space as Ethershard Priestess, only Ethershard Priestess is interesting and this is not.
Malefactor’s Herald – I haven’t picked up on any use whatsoever for one black mana floating on turn three+. Are there any? If not, maybe it could be a little black rampy guy “Remove a counter from herald: Add B to your mana pool.”?
Ladar Skeleton – Looks like utter garbage, but I could be wrong. Does it have any application in Limited?
False Step –It should probably say “activate or triggered abilities…”. Personally, I don’t think black should be countering abilities. I recommend the name “Garrote”. It’s possible that “nonblack, nonartifact” would be relevant and flavorful and more balanced.
Dreamborn Specter – There’s very very few black 3/3 with flying for 4cmc. And none nonrare without a drawback. Seems unlikely that the first one would come with benefits.
Ashiok’s Becoming – I still hate this card (at six mana).
Escape Artist – Flavor wiff.
Aisha – The creature side seems to have a serious wording problem. The second pw ability should say “dream counter on them”. The third pw ability isn’t worded correctly either. Not sure what you’re going for there.
RED
Ember Hound – This should be an Elemental Hound unless there’s a Devil archetype I’m not picking up on. In general, it seems like you’ve gone a little overboard with the devilish cards. I realize it’s for Tibalt, but sheesh, what about red on the other worlds?
Riot Devils – This is a really bad reprint unless, again, there’s a Devil tribal archetype of which I’m unaware. Common red already has Badlands Tracker which is strictly better by far. Common red lacks a 3/2 body. Perhaps there could be a 3/2 for 2R instead of Riot Devils.
Cultist Mob – Seems very “Cleric” like rather than Warrior like. Or just plain Human with no class type.
Outlaw’s Bargain – Flavor wiff. There’s no sense of a “bargain” taking place whatsoever.
Tear Down – Why does this say “an opponent controls”?
Saloon Fire – “Arson” isn’t a cardname yet.
Valkas Pyromancer – Feels like an enchantment.
Caught Red Handed – I know I’ve said it before, but I have to say it again, maybe a little more bluntly: I like the flavor and I like the effects, but together they make absolutely no sense.
Sunari Dreadnought – This grouping of abilities probably shouldn’t be on the same creature – particularly menace.
Hellion’s Revival – Heh, this is one of the first cards I ever designed. I called it “Flight of the Phoenix”. Is there a precedent for mono-red doing this? Or do you think it should be a red effect?
Tibalt – Should say “Whenever Tibalt becomes blocked…”
Stalking Wolf – I absolutely LOVE the flavor of this card. Absolute genius.
Grove Behemoth – I suggest Grove Terror for a name. “Behemoth” doesn’t sound treefolk-horrorish.
Spurious Evolution – Is the same-name archetype actually doable? It seems like a deadend archetype.
Expose the Wilds – Strange name. I suggest “Explore the Wilds” or “Search the Wilds”.
Search for Spring – Some kind of wording/spelling problem here.
Regrowth Trap – Pretty bad. It could cost 1GG with trap G and be fine. Again, I don’t know your set metrics, so if it’s the curve you want, then it’s fine. I do think since the trap trigger is so niche, it could be G even if the cmc remains the same.
Idealon Stag – This feels extremely random. Is there a 4-5 color archetype that I haven’t picked up yet? Also, what is an “Idealon”?
Excessive Retribution – Remind me again why this is a sorcery and not a creature?
Birthing Shaman – Flavor not working here. How about Unearthing Shaman?
Pinnacle of Evolution – The flavor is extremely forced. Then you get past the name and realize the “pinnacle of evolution” is actually just a French vanilla Enormous Baloth. I mean yeah, it’s a Johnny thing, but it just seems like it should be doing a little more. Indestructible?
Kalonian Huntress – The wording sounds all wrong. I think it would be cool and flow better if it were “…deals combat damage to a hunted creature”. You could then have something like “target creature gains flying until end of turn. If it’s being hunted, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.”
Cursed by the Veil – Ten cards makes this unplayable. It’s not even doing anything until turn SEVEN (unless ramped). In Limited you’ll basically have two turns to win even if you ramp it out on turn four. Which is basically impossible unless you lucked out with a 6/6 haste flying thing. 3BG and mill 5 cards would work nicely. It would be strong in constructed, but not too good.
Ringsir Beastcharmer – Do you realize that this is doubling up on token creation? If so, that’s fine, but I think it’s going to be quite quite strong. Also have you considered “Whenever you scry a total of 2 or more this turn, etc…” so that it’s tallying your scry total each turn instead of forcing you to scry 4. I mean, “scry 4” means pretty much nothing since there’s like what, one or two cards that scry 4 or more?
Cleansing Trap – What’s green about this? It wouldn’t be the first multicolored card featuring a superfluous color. Just sayin’.
Bolgrim Patroller – So terrible. Can’t it just be like “whenever it becomes tapped add one mana etc”?
Golden Spellgun – Great idea. Kinda klunky. Doesn’t seem refined.
Imbued Lotus – what!? No!!
Etherium Lotus (Mythic)
0
Artifact
Operate – T, Tap an untapped artifact you control, Sacrifice Etherium Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.
I will happily answer them, but I'm about to leave home for a long weekend trip so it'll be a while before I get back.
In the meantime, I managed to update planesculptors before I left in response to your feedback. You should be able to reference which cards changed in the change log, I think?
I'm back! Ready to get into some answers, let's go.
Re:Shortwing Griffin - While the upside for this card isn't incredible, it'd be too much if a 3/1 had its ability. White does want this cardslot to be evasive, from a metrics standpoint just comparing it to official sets.
Re:Mandatory Unravel - To me, it isn't deserving of a proper keyword if the option isn't there. Having tested only once and against myself, I found that sometimes it was better to just take the larger body. This runs into the kicker issue, where players want to get their value even if it's the wrong play. After more testing, I might be open to giving the raw sizes some moderate boost to make the vanilla versions more attractive, or make the creatures more interesting in either mode (such as with the Specter).
Re:Inconspicuous Informant - With the Harrier change I think your initial concern has been addressed. The goal for the design was a repeatable way to trigger Scry that an opponent could interact with. Soft evasion seemed a good way to go.
Re:Hide in Wait - I like changing the wording to Vines of Vastwood style, since it gives another opportunity for the "I'm using the card in an unconventional way" players to feel Intelligent (one of the core emotions for meeting the design goal). It does make the flavor worse though.
Re:Crashing Wave - Crashing Wave is from Ringsir, aka Garruk's backwater home. The set wants to have some alternate win condition cards players can scheme and plot towards, and mill is one of the classic unconventional directions to take. If testing doesn't show this making much of an impact, it'll probably get changed to some other alternate win condition effect.
Re:Ingenious Invention - X can't be zero was to avoid issues with Lotus Bloom and other "no cost" cards being cheated into play. Instead the correct decision is to use a different design instead.
Re:Duskwood Piper - It's naming a different card, the green one that searches for a Piper (Precursor IIRC). The two form a weird synergy in that they find each other. I'm considering letting them find both Pipers and Precursors, essentially doubling up on the "same name matters" experiment.
Re:Ladar Skeleton - The initial application for limited was to be a weird sacrifice outlet for the WB aristocrat archetype, but I found a different outlet for that on Blood Beggar.
Re:False Step - This is admitedly a step in the "arms race" of creatures versus removal. I'm of the opinion that it's an acceptable step for removal to edge in on, but I'm also leveraging the goal of letting players feel like they're intruding on the acceptable terms of warfare.
Re:Ember Hound - part of the reason that there are so many Devils is that Tibalt brings them with him to Lorado. The other worlds that exhibit red are Grixis and Shandalar, which have a fair representation. I'd be open to including some kind of niche Devil tribal card.
Re:Hellion's Revival - The only precedent I'll cite is the inspiration for the effect: Grixis' keyword in Alara was Unearth. Since Grixis is one of the planes the set visits, I wanted to include at least one card that referenced Unearth, and I figured it'd be fun to go big.
Re:Spurious Evolution - I too am curious if the same-name archetype is doable! I'm hopeful it is, but if not I have some other ideas for what BG drafters can aim for.
Re:Idealon Stag - Idealons are a creature type from Aenyr that reference paintings come to life. The ability is also a reference to Aenyr's Imaginarium mechanic. If the card survives playtesting, it'll get some flavor text that hopefully serves to explain what's going on here.
Re:Excessive Retribution - There's no big reason this is a spell instead of a creature, but there are some small reasons. I think the name does a better job of explaining the story moment of Garruk's first kill (at least of humans). There are players who actively enjoy tokens and this spell caters to them. The difference is minimal in most gameplay scenarios.
Re:Pinnacle of Evolution - I agree, I'm not particularly happy with the design. I don't expect this to survive playtesting.
Re:Dropping flipwalkers - I've had some lengthy conversations about the merits of both options. For the time being I've dropped the creature half because the moment of sparking isn't as crucial to the set's storylines as the moment of crossing the line. Sparking is relevant, but it seems a distraction from the set's focus. This doesn't mean flipwalkers are out, just that I'm currently leaning to the other side of the fence.
Re:Overlaps - I've noticed this as well as I review and rereview the set file. I'm going to look for a couple of ways to increase the overlaps by bleeding abilities and synergies into third colors like I've done with Esper. Unravel bleeds into red. Wither bleeds into green. Hunt bleeds into white. Traps bleed into blue. (Operate has already bled into black.)
Re:Crush - I like red's common artifact destruction not hitting creatures since it's quite a color hosing thing to do in this set. But I could see using Anvil and Forge with noncreature artifact and probably buffing it to "choose one or both".
Re:Filigree Bracing - I rationalized this as "a learning moment for players that equipment doesn't tap with an attacking creature" but that seems more likely to trip people up since it doesn't usually matter. Playtesting it hasn't been too rough with experienced players, but I'll probably change the slot regardless.
Re:Blue death triggers - I thought I had included more, I'm glad you pointed this out.
Re:Escape Artist - There's reasonable justification for this to be tweaked into a legendary creature, which I think would alleviate your concerns.
I've been doing quite a bit of paper playtesting, using sealed pools either solo or with friends to make limited decks. Got some great feedback and much better understanding of where the mechanics are at and how they function. This led to two big changes:
1) Hunt, as awesome as it is in premise, sadly doesn't work.
As a mechanic, Hunt was in an awkward spot where it could either shut a player out of the game (they weren't able to put together meaningful defenses) or it was utterly irrelevant. That's not good design space. After a few games I tried another user's implementation of Hunt (This creature must be blocked if able.) and it worked much better. Granted, I've only tried it in one match, but I hope it bears fruit in future games.
2) Unravel's decision space wasn't meaningful enough.
Making -1/-1 counters a good thing is new ground that friends liked, from an "I'm the Villain" perspective, but the one-time decision and the design philosophy in general wasn't quite there. The choice, they said, wants to be whether you're going to hurt your minions for your own gain. So I'm shifting around the Unravel triggers to be more one-shot spell effects, and I'm changing the mechanic from an ETB -1/-1 counter to Unravel (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a -1/-1 counter on this creature.)
Overall, the flavor of the set didn't ooze villainy as much as I hoped. I'll need to do a lot more work on naming and flavor text to really get that across.
After some extensive playtesting and even more extensive changes to the card file, I've got a big update for Magic Villains. The most major changes involve the mechanics suite. I tested four different versions of Hunt, and none playtested to a healthy standard. Unravel was a bit better mechanically, but it failed to deliver the flavor and feeling of being villainous. Fortunately I was also testing a cost reduction version of Unravel, which played very well and hit the mark on villainy. Without getting too much further into things, here's the changes to the mechanics suite:
OUT: Hunt, Unravel, Wither
IN: Frenzy, Possess, Torture
KEEP: Traps, Operate (Renamed Machinate)
Frenzy N (Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +N/+0 until end of turn.)
Frenzy was discovered after much frustration and brainstorming what to do with the red-green Garruk faction. I knew I wanted it to be combat related, forcing players to engage in combat even in losing matchups. Each version of Hunt (and Provoke) tried to do achieve that end by directly forcing creatures into combat. Frenzy uses a more subtle approach, since frenzy creatures are more dangerous to a player's life total than to a creature's toughness. So far mining frenzy's design space has gone well.
Possess (When this creature enters the battlefield, it possesses target creature an opponent controls until either leaves the battlefield.)
Once I got rid of Hunt, I had a bit more complexity space to work with. Unravel wasn't playing as well as I hoped, and its alternative felt more at home in than in . We realized that the mechanic wants to really hone in on Ashiok's breed of villainy - The fear-inspiring shadowy character who uses your deepest secrets against you. Some discard and mill mechanics were considered, but were scrapped from the drawing board once we brainstormed Possess. Possess takes advantage of the complexity gap left behind by Hunt, and fulfills the sensation of villainy much more appropriately. Balance testing is yet to be finalized for this mechanic.
Torture (You can harm your creatures to cast this spell. Each creature you put a -1/-1 counter on while casting this spell pays for .)
Torture started out with a different name in and was an immediate hit. The designs were focused around creatures that gave you a positive spell effect whenever they were wounded, and the decision space was a high point for playtesters. On the other side of the table, though, wither players felt at a disadvantage - their creatures were enabling their opponents to beat them with what they thought was an upside ability. In some cases wither creatures were locked out of combat due to a simple Torture creature on the other side of the board. Wither felt like a filler mechanic, and with Possess filling in the mechanic and bringing in another "returning" mechanic for , it was time to cut Wither and let Torture take over.
The impact of such sweeping changes to the set file has been large. With the exception of white, each color has basically been entirely reworked. White managed to stay relatively intact, but still has significant changes especially at uncommon. The changes have been overwhelmingly positive - even as I was designing the changes it felt much more cohesive and on-point with the set's design goals.
As always, you can view the latest version of the set on PlaneSculptors.net or contact me if you want to obtain the latest version of the set file and get your villain on.
Frost Beast should be 3/5. Geez laweez, I know vanillas are not supposed to be great, but you know you're in a bad position with a card when I'd rather pick Dreg Reaver in nine drafts out of ten.
Other than that weirdly specific quibble the latest version looks great. I don't even miss the transform-walkers.
The latest version has been playing really well, and there's a lot of minor improvements I've been making over the past couple of days. Did a test with a Trap deck last night and learned a lot about their role in the format. I'll be updating again soon with a more polished edition, but I think the overarching redesign work is over.
@Legend, I'm looking for an opportunity to answer the questions you posed, but don't have the opportunity to yet. Soon I hope!
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She had a knack for knowing when she was dreaming, and remained asleep with the reassuring knowledge that she had ultimate power over her surroundings. Lucid dreaming, however, was not without its consequences for Aisha. Every night she awoke to strange, unreal entities surrounding her, choking her, sitting on her chest such that she could barely breath. Even these, she accepted as a price of her dream realm - she would recreate the Mori in her dreams and conquer them. Though she felt powerless in the waking world, in her dreams she would command the Mori to do her bidding, tearing apart imaginary doppelgangers of her bullies. As the years went on, her list of victims grew to include teachers, friends, and even family.
After a particularly terrible fight with her mother, a 13 year old Aisha gathered her things and ran away from home. She was seeking a witch rumored to live near the local lagoon. After much effort, she found the witch, and offered her a trade: She would give the witch all her worldly possessions, and in exchange the witch would cast a spell over Aisha so she would fall into an everlasting sleep. The witch obliged, leaving Aisha's body in a secluded and forgotten cocoon of thicket.
Aisha spent the next few years creating her own twisted paradise. She finally felt at home. Everything she experienced was under her dominion, and she could create or destroy at will. Until one day, when she noticed a strange figment out of the corner of her eye. She struggled to find it, to chase it down, and to examine it. It was a being made of pure darkness, wearing golden armor with a delightfully terrifying helm. She did not remember creating it, but on the other hand she had created for so long now that surely she didn't remember all of her conceptions consciously.
Shrugging, she flicked her wrist at it and started to walk away, but quickly froze. The thing had not dissipated when she commanded it to. Instead, it leaned toward her and whispered, "I am my own master."
Aisha stumbled back. For the first time in her twisted world, she felt terror. Instinctively, she conjured several Mori and commanded them to attack the nightmare in gold armor, who seemed to be growing larger as Aisha's fear mounted. She realized that she had left her image vulnerable. After all, when she could create and destroy anything at a whim there was little reason for her to change her body. Now, however, it was critical to grow up. The nightmare dispatched her minions with ease, and lurched toward her, armored claws raised. Aisha cried out in a mix of agony and anticipation. She folded all of her years of imagination into herself, swallowed the myriad of dreams into her contorted visage. Creator and creation became one, while the nightmare cried out over the rushing sound.
"You created me, but that does not mean you can control me." said the nightmare. "I reject the name you've given me - I give myself the name Ikelious."
Creator and creation tried to reply, but the world grew dark and spun and swirled and suddenly they were thrown to the ground in a dim moonlit courtyard. A young satyr nearby bounded over.
"Are you alright?" The cloaked satyr asked to no response. "What... what happened to your face?" Again no response. "Who... what are you?"
They pondered these questions for a moment. Alright? Yes, they felt perfectly at home in their new frame. Face? The visage had absorbed a world full of distorted dreams. Who? "I, too, reject the name given to me" thought Creator. Creation agreed in chorus.
"We are Ashiok."
Crawling Skin 1B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -2/-2.
"I can't put my finger on it, but I don't feel right."
Night Terrors 2B
Sorcery (C)
Target player reveals his or her hand. You choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card.
When waking up is so terrifying, why not just stay asleep?
Deep Sleep 1U
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant tapped creature
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
Aisha begged the witch to let her sleep forever, and the witch obliged.
Ikelious, Dreambreaker 3BB
Legendary Creature - Nightmare (R)
Unravel (You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
As long as Ikelious has a -1/-1 counter on it, it can’t be blocked by untapped creatures and tapped creatures can block it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player sacrifices a tapped creature.
"You created me, but that does not mean you can control me."
4/4
Ashiok's Becoming 4BB
Sorcery (R)
Each player discards his or her hand. Search your library for a card and put it into your hand.
Aisha was so terrified when her creation refused her, that she tore down her world and recreated herself.
I'm curious why you think that a 6-mana rare is so problematic for limited? Mob Rule or Volcanic Vision are entire unfun when played against you too, but a high-cost rare like these is hardly ever considered a problem for limited.
The biggest problem I see is the overpowered Tibalt: I saw that you made him attack each turn if able, but he's still way too good. Even if he had no planeswalker side, he'd still be arguably better than Goblin Guide, one of the best red one drops of all time. With the planeswalker side, it hardly matters what Tibalt's toughness is, as you'll never beat him by blocking, you'll just turn him into an even greater threat (though not an immediate threat to your life total. I like that part of the design because it gives the opponent an interesting choice.)
The card is definitely cool, but it is also beans-broken. It may be fixable without changing too much, but as a 2/2 haste for 1 with a very small downside, and a huge upside, it is definitely too powerful.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Here's some feedback on existing cards. I just looked at white, and the only notes I have are nitpicking, so here's some nitpicking.
Sanctum Archon shouldn't be named Archon if it's human.
I don't like that Ivory Unicorn is common: it feels like unicorns are supposed to be a little elusive (I have absolutely no problem with the design, just the flavor)
That's it. White feels pretty solid so far. I also looked at blue, and it seems a little more troubled, but a little more fleshed out.
I like unravel as a mechanic, but all the blue creatures with it seem pretty anemic. If you don't give them the counter, they're low-level playable (which is where they should be), but when you play them for value, they are really weak for cost, and the upsides are generally small and expensive. It reads like reverse Monstrous, where rather than starting vanilla, and paying to get good, you start weak, and pay to catch up to vanilla. The mechanic is cool, but you have to make it worth it. I think that the cost to remove the counters should be small (usually just one colored mana) as the major cost is that it asks you to play something like a 1/2 for 2U, which can be a dangerous thing to do if your opponent is trying to race you. Alternatively, you could make the upside bigger: if Somber Visitant drew 2 cards instead of one when it removed its counter, it would make up for a lot of that lost tempo.
Fleeting Mori in particular feels frustrating to use: it returns to your hand when you remove its -1/-1 counter, so you never get to use it at full power unless you relinquish the ability to return it in the first place. I think giving it hexproof until end of turn would be a better way for it to protect itself.
Some of the standouts: Forethought is simple and elegant. I also really like Tezzeret's design, particularly on the creature side.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Aaaaand? I mean, isn't that the DEFINITION of the reaction to a bomb-y instant or sorcery?
Like, exactly? How often do you expect to see a six-mana rare in Limited? An OP cheap common would ruin Limited; this awesome and flavorful card would just ruin EDH friendships.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Nahiri 1WW
Planeswalker
[+1]: Create a colorless artifact Equipment token with "Equipped creature gets +1/+1." and "Equip 1".
[-2]: Search your library for an Equipment or Aura card, reveal it, and put it on top of your library. (Shuffle your library after it's searched.)
[-6]: Each player sacrifices lands until they control the same number of lands as the player who controls the fewest lands. Players discard cards and sacrifice creatures the same way.
[3]
Tezzeret 2UU
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tap or untap target permanent. It is an artifact in addition to its other types. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
[-2]: Draw three cards, then discard two cards unless you discard an artifact card.
[-8]: You get an emblem with "Tap an untapped artifact you control: Tap target permanent."
[5]
Ashiok 2BB
Planeswalker
[+1]: Exile the top card of each player's library. You may play a card exiled by Ashiok.
[-1]: Each opponent reveals his or her hand. Exile a card revealed this way.
[-6]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control have menace." and "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to an opponent, that player sacrifices a permanent."
[4]
Tibalt RR
Planeswalker
[+1]: Tibalt deals 1 damage to each player.
[-1]: Untap target permanent an opponent controls at random. You gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste until end of turn.
[-X]: Discard your hand, then draw X cards and add X R to your mana pool.
[2]
Garruk 3GG
Planeswalker
[+1]: Untap up to one target creature. It must block this turn if able.
[-2]: Create a 4/4 green Beast creature token with trample.
[-9]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature dies, draw cards equal to its power and gain life equal to its toughness."
[6]
I'm not sure hiding a shuffle in reminder text is a good idea, but that's a templating issue, not a design issue.
On Ashiok, I suspect his ult is a little too easy to achieve (universal, permanent Wit's End/Sire of Insanity seems a little extreme as the ult of a 4-mana card, compare Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker). I kinda want to move the -1 to an emblem (Probably adding some P/T buff) instead and find something else for the -1. Maybe "exile top three, you may cast a card exiled this way this turn"?
Garruk's ult is not bad per se, but looking at Tibalt? Garruk really, really ought to have some way of prepping/stocking up your hand. Could the other two effects be a token and a Disentomb-type effect?
I still LOVE this set. If I didn't mention a card, it's because I love it as is. Just the white crits for now.
Shortwing Griffin - This is bad even for bad. It looks like it could be 3/1.
Lithomancer's Resolve - What harm would it do to prevent the damage to any creature? I think the fun of the modality is worth the bleed.
Ozuawe Innocent - Seems like it should be 2WW and Emeria Flock should be 2W as landfall and creating tokens are all colors determined only by flavor while lifelink is firmly (if not strictly) white (and black).
Kor Swordsman - Not flashy enough for rare. It’s trying to be build-around but failing as all one needs to trigger the ability is one Equipment. It’s a mid-pick for Spike. Timmy and Johnny won't touch it. A feelbad pack rare for everyone. It will never gain monetary value for collectors as it's already completely obsoleted in the eternal cardpool by Soldier of the Pantheon and even Dryad Militant. It should be demoted to uncommon or made interesting somehow.
Penitence – I love this card. I really do. But I’m not sure if a 100% Rakdos hoser should exist with no investment required or out for your opponents. Eternal could probably handle it. In limited, if this hits the battlefield on turn three or four, the Rakdos opponent might as well scoop. No big deal I guess, but it would completely shut out an entire color combination in Standard. Maybe add an activation cost ala Spear of Heliod.
Only Metal Remains – Please tell me this is a placeholder name. It just sounds so horribly Gagdrazi and blatantly out of place for your set. Also, the art isn’t vast enough and epic enough for a wrath effect. It looks small and singular like a swords effect.
Resurrection Trap – Terrible as rare. Far too weak. Resurrection effects have always been uncommon and still are uncommon. It needs a big boost or a demotion to uncommon. It would make for an exciting uncommon. Another possibility is “Second Sunrise Trap”.
Nahiri – Despite Balance, discarding is not part of white’s slice of the color pie. Drop the discard part and expand the sacrificing to include all permanent types.
Shortwing Griffin - Decreased activated ability cost by 1.
Lithomancer's Resolve - One of the common trends I've heard in people's experiences of feeling "villainous" in magic is using cards in unorthodox ways. With that in mind, I suppose opening it up to saving an opponent's/teammate's creature couldn't hurt.
Ozuawe Innocent - Cost changed to 1WW.
Emeria Flock - Cost changed to 3W. (Retreat to Emeria)
Kor Swordsman - Agreed. One of my recurring weaknesses is designing interesting rares. Changed to "As long as rw01 Kor Swordsman is equipped, prevent all damage that would be dealt to it."
Penitence - Changed to the slightly less abusive "Whenever one or more creatures deals damage to you, exile one of those creatures until Penitence leaves the battlefield."
Only Metal Remains - Changed placeholder name to "All is Rust".
Resurrection Trap - Nice! Renamed to Sunbreak Trap, using Second Sunrise for permanents as the spell effect. Still musing on what the trap condition should change to.
Nahiri - Discard is very far out of white's color pie, but as a 'walker ultimate I'm okay with having a color break to reference an iconic card.
What MaRo said was that Cohort did poorly in market research (which is usually a marker of mechanics that are mostly effective in limited, I've found), to me that is quite different from being a failure across the board like Radiance or Cipher (okay, cipher's basic design is actually a good, but the actual implementation doubtlessly fail across the board).
Okay, after a little research, I retract my advice concerning Innocent and Flock and suggest you revert to your original mana costs. You had them right the first time.
All is Rust - That's funny. (P.S. - I hate Eldrazi.)
Nahiri - Okay.
Kor Swordsman - Better but probably still uncommon material.
Penitence - Looks good. Forces opponents to attack with two+ creatures at a time, goading them into overextinding. Still very very strong. Playtesting will reveal how good it actually is or isn't.
Shortwing Griffin - I'm looking at Stormfront Pegasus and Daring Skyjek for reference. Will the set metrics not accommodate a 3/1 or is it that "x.5" flyers is the sweet spot?
BLUE
There’s something weird about the term “Operate” – It sounds like you’re performing surgery rather than operating machinery, especially on the black cards and (to a slightly lesser extent) the blue cards.
Question: Why isn’t Unravel mandatory? As in “Unravel (This creature enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.)” I realize it’s a Dimir homage to Rakdos’ Unleash, but unlike Unleash, 99.999999% of the time you want the counter especially with cards like Just a Dream floating around.
Etherwrought Agent and Sunwing Harrier are stepping on each other’s toes, which is fine in the whole of a set, but probably shouldn’t share the same rarity. In light of Ravenwing Mage, if you’re going to make a change, I’d suggest changing Sunwing Harrier.
Rotted Wanderer – Sounds like a Nomad, not a Wizard
Aether Helix – Just a nitpick: “Aether” doesn’t sound so much Grixis as it does Esper, even though technically it’s “Ether” that is associated with Esper and not “Aether”.
Sedraxis Portal – Should this say “additional -1/-1 counter”?
Inconspicuous Informant – The third “permanent” evasion card at common but no instants/sorceries. Seems high. Also, the flavor is superbad. How about a Flight with flash?
Untouchable (Common)
U
Enchantment – Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has flying and hexproof.
Ravenwing Mage – This makes a total of two permanents that giving flying. I could be wrong, but it seems monotonous. This could easily lose U and be fine.
Hide in Wait – Do you want this to be able to hexproof your opponent’s creatures effectively making this a counterspell for spells that target their creatures? Just wondering.
Inked Skaald – I guess a poet can be a Wizard, but’s strange. It’s also a strange effect for a poet. He must be a bad poet and not know it.
Drowning Sensation – Great card but a total flavor wiff.
Etherium Matrix – This is just terrible. It’s a good candidate for some “whenever this becomes tapped, something special happens” wording. Or increase the drain to 2.
Tempest Servant – “without paying that SPELL’S mana cost” (needs apostrophe)
Lurking Leviathan – Makes no sense as a Leviathan, but it’s PERFECT for a Sphinx.
Crashing Wave – Traumatize + This = Win. Just not a fun card imo, but I guess it’s fine. Question: Which origin world does this fit into – Zendikar? That’s fine I guess but a little funny since Nahiri is GW and travels to a WB place.
Ingenious Invention – Why can’t X be 0?
Tezzeret of Carmot – Immediately I see a rare and a mythic doing pretty much the exact same thing. Not good. His emblem should just say “Tap an untapped artifact you control: Tap target permanent.” It saves a line.
Psychic Mastery – 99.9999% of the time you’re getting one card for 3UUU. Why not make it XXUUUU so there’s a chance to get two cards for 4UUUU? It’s not like you’re spashing it anyway. It’s only one mana less, but it makes a big difference.
BLACK
Subcity Custodian – Unlike Tithe Drinker, this guy is stepping on its own mechanical toes.
Duskwood Piper – Can it return itself?
Noble Horde – imo Noble Dead or Noble Undead (like Unbreathing Horde) sounds better than Noble Horde. “Horde” on its own without an undead identifier sounds like a horde of Barbarians or Goblins rather than Zombies.
Dessicate – Any reason you’re not using Death Wind here? Black currently has Instants 2, Sorceries 5, Aura 1. Another possibility is “Put X -1/-1 counters on target creature.” Which I prefer because it would be a really nice common Unravel enabler with modality to boot.
Blood Beggar – This is filling the same space as Ethershard Priestess, only Ethershard Priestess is interesting and this is not.
Malefactor’s Herald – I haven’t picked up on any use whatsoever for one black mana floating on turn three+. Are there any? If not, maybe it could be a little black rampy guy “Remove a counter from herald: Add B to your mana pool.”?
Ladar Skeleton – Looks like utter garbage, but I could be wrong. Does it have any application in Limited?
False Step –It should probably say “activate or triggered abilities…”. Personally, I don’t think black should be countering abilities. I recommend the name “Garrote”. It’s possible that “nonblack, nonartifact” would be relevant and flavorful and more balanced.
Dreamborn Specter – There’s very very few black 3/3 with flying for 4cmc. And none nonrare without a drawback. Seems unlikely that the first one would come with benefits.
Ashiok’s Becoming – I still hate this card (at six mana).
Escape Artist – Flavor wiff.
Aisha – The creature side seems to have a serious wording problem. The second pw ability should say “dream counter on them”. The third pw ability isn’t worded correctly either. Not sure what you’re going for there.
RED
Ember Hound – This should be an Elemental Hound unless there’s a Devil archetype I’m not picking up on. In general, it seems like you’ve gone a little overboard with the devilish cards. I realize it’s for Tibalt, but sheesh, what about red on the other worlds?
Riot Devils – This is a really bad reprint unless, again, there’s a Devil tribal archetype of which I’m unaware. Common red already has Badlands Tracker which is strictly better by far. Common red lacks a 3/2 body. Perhaps there could be a 3/2 for 2R instead of Riot Devils.
Cultist Mob – Seems very “Cleric” like rather than Warrior like. Or just plain Human with no class type.
Outlaw’s Bargain – Flavor wiff. There’s no sense of a “bargain” taking place whatsoever.
Tear Down – Why does this say “an opponent controls”?
Saloon Fire – “Arson” isn’t a cardname yet.
Valkas Pyromancer – Feels like an enchantment.
Caught Red Handed – I know I’ve said it before, but I have to say it again, maybe a little more bluntly: I like the flavor and I like the effects, but together they make absolutely no sense.
Sunari Dreadnought – This grouping of abilities probably shouldn’t be on the same creature – particularly menace.
Hellion’s Revival – Heh, this is one of the first cards I ever designed. I called it “Flight of the Phoenix”. Is there a precedent for mono-red doing this? Or do you think it should be a red effect?
Tibalt – Should say “Whenever Tibalt becomes blocked…”
Stalking Wolf – I absolutely LOVE the flavor of this card. Absolute genius.
Grove Behemoth – I suggest Grove Terror for a name. “Behemoth” doesn’t sound treefolk-horrorish.
Spurious Evolution – Is the same-name archetype actually doable? It seems like a deadend archetype.
Expose the Wilds – Strange name. I suggest “Explore the Wilds” or “Search the Wilds”.
Search for Spring – Some kind of wording/spelling problem here.
Regrowth Trap – Pretty bad. It could cost 1GG with trap G and be fine. Again, I don’t know your set metrics, so if it’s the curve you want, then it’s fine. I do think since the trap trigger is so niche, it could be G even if the cmc remains the same.
Idealon Stag – This feels extremely random. Is there a 4-5 color archetype that I haven’t picked up yet? Also, what is an “Idealon”?
Excessive Retribution – Remind me again why this is a sorcery and not a creature?
Birthing Shaman – Flavor not working here. How about Unearthing Shaman?
Pinnacle of Evolution – The flavor is extremely forced. Then you get past the name and realize the “pinnacle of evolution” is actually just a French vanilla Enormous Baloth. I mean yeah, it’s a Johnny thing, but it just seems like it should be doing a little more. Indestructible?
Kalonian Huntress – The wording sounds all wrong. I think it would be cool and flow better if it were “…deals combat damage to a hunted creature”. You could then have something like “target creature gains flying until end of turn. If it’s being hunted, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.”
Cursed by the Veil – Ten cards makes this unplayable. It’s not even doing anything until turn SEVEN (unless ramped). In Limited you’ll basically have two turns to win even if you ramp it out on turn four. Which is basically impossible unless you lucked out with a 6/6 haste flying thing. 3BG and mill 5 cards would work nicely. It would be strong in constructed, but not too good.
Ringsir Beastcharmer – Do you realize that this is doubling up on token creation? If so, that’s fine, but I think it’s going to be quite quite strong. Also have you considered “Whenever you scry a total of 2 or more this turn, etc…” so that it’s tallying your scry total each turn instead of forcing you to scry 4. I mean, “scry 4” means pretty much nothing since there’s like what, one or two cards that scry 4 or more?
Cleansing Trap – What’s green about this? It wouldn’t be the first multicolored card featuring a superfluous color. Just sayin’.
Bolgrim Patroller – So terrible. Can’t it just be like “whenever it becomes tapped add one mana etc”?
Golden Spellgun – Great idea. Kinda klunky. Doesn’t seem refined.
Imbued Lotus – what!? No!!
Etherium Lotus (Mythic)
0
Artifact
Operate – T, Tap an untapped artifact you control, Sacrifice Etherium Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.
Okay that’s it.
Cool. If you don't mind, I would actually appreciate answers to my questions because they weren't rhetorical. Thanks in advance if you can.
In the meantime, I managed to update planesculptors before I left in response to your feedback. You should be able to reference which cards changed in the change log, I think?
Re:Shortwing Griffin - While the upside for this card isn't incredible, it'd be too much if a 3/1 had its ability. White does want this cardslot to be evasive, from a metrics standpoint just comparing it to official sets.
Re:Mandatory Unravel - To me, it isn't deserving of a proper keyword if the option isn't there. Having tested only once and against myself, I found that sometimes it was better to just take the larger body. This runs into the kicker issue, where players want to get their value even if it's the wrong play. After more testing, I might be open to giving the raw sizes some moderate boost to make the vanilla versions more attractive, or make the creatures more interesting in either mode (such as with the Specter).
Re:Inconspicuous Informant - With the Harrier change I think your initial concern has been addressed. The goal for the design was a repeatable way to trigger Scry that an opponent could interact with. Soft evasion seemed a good way to go.
Re:Hide in Wait - I like changing the wording to Vines of Vastwood style, since it gives another opportunity for the "I'm using the card in an unconventional way" players to feel Intelligent (one of the core emotions for meeting the design goal). It does make the flavor worse though.
Re:Crashing Wave - Crashing Wave is from Ringsir, aka Garruk's backwater home. The set wants to have some alternate win condition cards players can scheme and plot towards, and mill is one of the classic unconventional directions to take. If testing doesn't show this making much of an impact, it'll probably get changed to some other alternate win condition effect.
Re:Ingenious Invention - X can't be zero was to avoid issues with Lotus Bloom and other "no cost" cards being cheated into play. Instead the correct decision is to use a different design instead.
Re:Duskwood Piper - It's naming a different card, the green one that searches for a Piper (Precursor IIRC). The two form a weird synergy in that they find each other. I'm considering letting them find both Pipers and Precursors, essentially doubling up on the "same name matters" experiment.
Re:Ladar Skeleton - The initial application for limited was to be a weird sacrifice outlet for the WB aristocrat archetype, but I found a different outlet for that on Blood Beggar.
Re:False Step - This is admitedly a step in the "arms race" of creatures versus removal. I'm of the opinion that it's an acceptable step for removal to edge in on, but I'm also leveraging the goal of letting players feel like they're intruding on the acceptable terms of warfare.
Re:Ember Hound - part of the reason that there are so many Devils is that Tibalt brings them with him to Lorado. The other worlds that exhibit red are Grixis and Shandalar, which have a fair representation. I'd be open to including some kind of niche Devil tribal card.
Re:Hellion's Revival - The only precedent I'll cite is the inspiration for the effect: Grixis' keyword in Alara was Unearth. Since Grixis is one of the planes the set visits, I wanted to include at least one card that referenced Unearth, and I figured it'd be fun to go big.
Re:Spurious Evolution - I too am curious if the same-name archetype is doable! I'm hopeful it is, but if not I have some other ideas for what BG drafters can aim for.
Re:Idealon Stag - Idealons are a creature type from Aenyr that reference paintings come to life. The ability is also a reference to Aenyr's Imaginarium mechanic. If the card survives playtesting, it'll get some flavor text that hopefully serves to explain what's going on here.
Re:Excessive Retribution - There's no big reason this is a spell instead of a creature, but there are some small reasons. I think the name does a better job of explaining the story moment of Garruk's first kill (at least of humans). There are players who actively enjoy tokens and this spell caters to them. The difference is minimal in most gameplay scenarios.
Re:Pinnacle of Evolution - I agree, I'm not particularly happy with the design. I don't expect this to survive playtesting.
Re:Dropping flipwalkers - I've had some lengthy conversations about the merits of both options. For the time being I've dropped the creature half because the moment of sparking isn't as crucial to the set's storylines as the moment of crossing the line. Sparking is relevant, but it seems a distraction from the set's focus. This doesn't mean flipwalkers are out, just that I'm currently leaning to the other side of the fence.
Re:Overlaps - I've noticed this as well as I review and rereview the set file. I'm going to look for a couple of ways to increase the overlaps by bleeding abilities and synergies into third colors like I've done with Esper. Unravel bleeds into red. Wither bleeds into green. Hunt bleeds into white. Traps bleed into blue. (Operate has already bled into black.)
Re:Crush - I like red's common artifact destruction not hitting creatures since it's quite a color hosing thing to do in this set. But I could see using Anvil and Forge with noncreature artifact and probably buffing it to "choose one or both".
Re:Filigree Bracing - I rationalized this as "a learning moment for players that equipment doesn't tap with an attacking creature" but that seems more likely to trip people up since it doesn't usually matter. Playtesting it hasn't been too rough with experienced players, but I'll probably change the slot regardless.
Re:Blue death triggers - I thought I had included more, I'm glad you pointed this out.
Re:Escape Artist - There's reasonable justification for this to be tweaked into a legendary creature, which I think would alleviate your concerns.
I've been doing quite a bit of paper playtesting, using sealed pools either solo or with friends to make limited decks. Got some great feedback and much better understanding of where the mechanics are at and how they function. This led to two big changes:
1) Hunt, as awesome as it is in premise, sadly doesn't work.
As a mechanic, Hunt was in an awkward spot where it could either shut a player out of the game (they weren't able to put together meaningful defenses) or it was utterly irrelevant. That's not good design space. After a few games I tried another user's implementation of Hunt (This creature must be blocked if able.) and it worked much better. Granted, I've only tried it in one match, but I hope it bears fruit in future games.
2) Unravel's decision space wasn't meaningful enough.
Making -1/-1 counters a good thing is new ground that friends liked, from an "I'm the Villain" perspective, but the one-time decision and the design philosophy in general wasn't quite there. The choice, they said, wants to be whether you're going to hurt your minions for your own gain. So I'm shifting around the Unravel triggers to be more one-shot spell effects, and I'm changing the mechanic from an ETB -1/-1 counter to Unravel (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a -1/-1 counter on this creature.)
Overall, the flavor of the set didn't ooze villainy as much as I hoped. I'll need to do a lot more work on naming and flavor text to really get that across.
OUT: Hunt, Unravel, Wither
IN: Frenzy, Possess, Torture
KEEP: Traps, Operate (Renamed Machinate)
Frenzy N (Whenever this creature attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +N/+0 until end of turn.)
Frenzy was discovered after much frustration and brainstorming what to do with the red-green Garruk faction. I knew I wanted it to be combat related, forcing players to engage in combat even in losing matchups. Each version of Hunt (and Provoke) tried to do achieve that end by directly forcing creatures into combat. Frenzy uses a more subtle approach, since frenzy creatures are more dangerous to a player's life total than to a creature's toughness. So far mining frenzy's design space has gone well.
Possess (When this creature enters the battlefield, it possesses target creature an opponent controls until either leaves the battlefield.)
Once I got rid of Hunt, I had a bit more complexity space to work with. Unravel wasn't playing as well as I hoped, and its alternative felt more at home in than in . We realized that the mechanic wants to really hone in on Ashiok's breed of villainy - The fear-inspiring shadowy character who uses your deepest secrets against you. Some discard and mill mechanics were considered, but were scrapped from the drawing board once we brainstormed Possess. Possess takes advantage of the complexity gap left behind by Hunt, and fulfills the sensation of villainy much more appropriately. Balance testing is yet to be finalized for this mechanic.
Torture (You can harm your creatures to cast this spell. Each creature you put a -1/-1 counter on while casting this spell pays for .)
Torture started out with a different name in and was an immediate hit. The designs were focused around creatures that gave you a positive spell effect whenever they were wounded, and the decision space was a high point for playtesters. On the other side of the table, though, wither players felt at a disadvantage - their creatures were enabling their opponents to beat them with what they thought was an upside ability. In some cases wither creatures were locked out of combat due to a simple Torture creature on the other side of the board. Wither felt like a filler mechanic, and with Possess filling in the mechanic and bringing in another "returning" mechanic for , it was time to cut Wither and let Torture take over.
The impact of such sweeping changes to the set file has been large. With the exception of white, each color has basically been entirely reworked. White managed to stay relatively intact, but still has significant changes especially at uncommon. The changes have been overwhelmingly positive - even as I was designing the changes it felt much more cohesive and on-point with the set's design goals.
As always, you can view the latest version of the set on PlaneSculptors.net or contact me if you want to obtain the latest version of the set file and get your villain on.
Other than that weirdly specific quibble the latest version looks great. I don't even miss the transform-walkers.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
@Legend, I'm looking for an opportunity to answer the questions you posed, but don't have the opportunity to yet. Soon I hope!