This is the 5th and final thread featuring commons of a given color for a two set block based in Ravnica. The sets are named [LoR] Lords of Ravnica and [GDW} Guild Wars. Eventually (very soon actually), I will revisit the previous four threads in this "series" with updates reflecting my statement in the above link. And will expand it to a full 10 threads featuring the commons of each color from both sets. But for now, I'm just going to "complete" (but not finalize) the series with this thread. Thanks again to everyone who's helped me get this far.
One of my major design goals for the green guilds in this set (Selesnya and Golgari), was for them to both feel and play out differently. Of course, it is a goal of mine for every guild to feel, if not play, differently, but it seems to me that factions of green (and white) in particular have a quality of feeling "samey" if not carefully sculpted. Selesnya is primarily go-tall, secondarily go-wide. Golgari is primarily go wide, secondarily graveyard shenanigans. With there being manifold options where the two overlap.
BoneCollector (Common) GW
Creature - Human Cleric
1/1
Whenever another creature you control dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Bone Collector.
Brutal Interrogation (Common) 2G
Sorcery
Target creature you control fights target creature you don’t control.
Draw a card.
Carapace Armor (Common) 3G
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3.
Swarm 3 — Pay 3 life (Pay 3 life, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create three 1/1 black or green Insect creature tokens. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Card Name (Common) G
Creature – Type
1/1
Indestructible 2: Card Name loses indestructible until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
Collective Strength (Common) 1GW
Instant
Until end of turn, target creature you control gets +3/+3 and other creatures you control get +1/+1.
Convocate (Common) G
Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control have “T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.”
Draw a card.
DeathriteCultist (Common) 1G
Creature – Elf Shaman
2/1 B, Sacrifice Deathrite Cultist: Add BBB to your mana pool.
Elemental Boon (Common) 5GG
Sorcery
Thrive 5. (Create a 5/5 green Plant creature token or put five +1/+1 counters on target creature.)
FeastBoar (Common) 2G
Creature – Boar
2/3
When Feast Boar dies, you gain 3 life.
Grave Tender (Common) 3GG
Creature – Human Cleric
3/3
When Grave Tender dies, thrive 3. (Create a 3/3 green Plant creature token or put three +1/+1 counters on target creature.)
Grove Guardian (Common) 2GG
Creature – Dryad Druid
2/2
When Grove Guardian enters the battlefield, thrive 2. (Create a 2/2 green Plant creature token or put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.)
GuardianLynx (Common) (G/W)
Creature – Cat
1/2
Part of the revised vanilla hybrid cycle.
LoxodonBrute (Common) 3G
Creature – Elephant Warrior
3/2
Trample
Loxodon Brute can’t be blocked by more than one creature.
MantisWarrior (Common) 1G
Creature – Insect
2/2
Swarm 2 — 1G(1G, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create two 1/1 black or green Insect creature tokens. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Sanctify (Common) 2(G/W)
Sorcery
Exile target artifact or enchantment.
You gain 3 life.
Search the Undercity (Common) G
Sorcery
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card. Put that card into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
Trostani’sBlessing (Common) G
Instant
Target creature you control gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
Unbury (Common) 1(B/G)
Sorcery
Return target creature or land card from your graveyard to your hand.
Wall of Webs (Common) 2G
Creature – Wall
0/4
Defender
Reach
Swarm 6 — 9G(9G, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create six 1/1 black or green Insect creature tokens. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
WingPierce (Common) 1G
Instant
Destroy target creature with flying. If W was spent to cast Wing Pierce, exile that creature instead.
I want to talk about thrive real quick. The target being hidden makes it awkward for some cards. Specifically with a card like Grave Tender, is this effect meant to fizzle(giving you no plant) during a wrath? And Elemental Boon, the fact that the target is hidden means this will be misplayed constantly.
Fledgling Cockatrice, flavored as Selesnya feels wrong.
Golgari Gorgon, another flavor question, you're adding male gorgons to the world just for an unimpressive vanilla creature?
Search the Undercity, this has to cost at least two. You've taken Recross the Paths, removed the bad upside and added an up/downside while reducing the cost by 2. If the mill was exile I could see the reason for such a big discount, but when you have a mechanic that benefits from self mill you have to consider the potential upside of this drawback.
Unbury, I could of sworn this was on your black list, either way Grim Discovery says you can get both. If you really want to keep it one or the other then drop the cost to 1.
If you look at both Ravnica blocks, it isn't hard to find cards (like Fledgling Cockatrice) that have no apparent connection to guilds and are even blatantly generic, yet are in their colors, supposedly representing the guild somehow. That being said, flavortext helps, and my cards don't have flavor text (yet).
Grave Tender - I don't see how the ability would fizzle? Day of Judgement resolves. Grave Tender dies. Thrive 3 triggers. You opt for a 3/3 green and white Plant creature token. It enters the battlefield.
Golgari Gorgon - It might get reflavored to an Ooze or something.
Search the Undercity - Good catch. I've changed it so that now the land enters the battlefield tapped.
Unbury - This was also in the black list because it's black. It seems helpful to have all of a color's cards in its list, even if they were previously in another list. Reducing the cost to (B/G) would make it strictly better than quite a few Raise Dead cards. Likewise, making it a hybrid Grim Discovery would also obsolete quite a few similar cards. I'm not aiming to make every card the best of its type. I think Unbury is fine as is because it already benefits from being hybrid.
Brutal Interrogation - I kind of like the flavor here, but interrogation feels like a white or red thing. In any case, this seems fair.
Carapace Armor - I'd be much more interested in creative Swarm costs than prohibitively expensive ones. Maybe "Put 3 creature cards from your grave on the bottom of your library"?
Convocate - I think this has to cost 1G or not be a cantrip or both. Interesting design space... but I'd also rather see it at uncommon. At common it feels swingy and like it should be the backbone of a draft archetype that poops out tokens to power out big spells. And you certainly don't want this, do you?
Deathrite Cultist - Please make him a 2/1. This isn't a defensive card, thematically.
Elemental Boon - I think thrive is interesting. 2 points: (1) I think it should be green alone. Multicolor tokens are messy. (2) I think it should be an Ooze. Variable P/T Oozes are a thing, plants... not so much. Besides, I've never really understood "plant" as an offensive creature type. Sometimes? Sure. As the backbone of the mechanic? Preferably not.
As for the spell... I think this could easily cost 4GG, even at common. I'd also toss around the idea that it gives creatures haste... so your ooze could attack. Finally... maybe this should be an enchantment? If you made Thrive trigger on playing, as opposed to resolving, it'd be elegant. If not, you could still "When this enters the battlefield, Thrive 5. Creatures you control have trample." it.
Feast Boar - Is a functional reprint of Brindle Boar too tricky for your format? I think not. Maybe Ravenous Baloth the boar ceature type?
Fledgling Cockatrice - Sure? But I'd rather this not be common. If uncommon, you could push it to 1/3??? Still, I'd hate to walk around and see these regularly...
Golgari Gorgon - Still pointless and offensive. Cards like these are utterly forgettable, and that's the sign of bad design. I'll remember most of the embalmers, I'll remember Future Sight's pushed vanilla cycle (well, save the crappy blue one which I remember for being crappy), but this? This I'll forget and when I look it up, I'll hate it because it wasted a hybrid golgari slot. Just make it a Deathtoucher with Swarm. Nice, simple, flavorful, fun, and MAYBE useful somewhere.
Grave Tender - You know, at 3GG he could Thrive 3 when he comes into play. So cost him at 2GG or 3G. Or... gasp... 1GG. You cost him at 1GG and it might be a card people play. GASP!
Grove Guardian - Given the above discussion, I'm going to suggest costing this at 1GG or 3G, with the former being interesting and potentially constructed playable (with thriving to a different creature being pseudo-haste on that 2 power), and the latter being boring and bad.
Note on Thrive: This is more or less "Fabcricate 2.0", so I strongly suggest you TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE MECHANIC. One of the biggest misses of Fabricate is that it had to cost more than either of the modes alone, and thus the cards were always underpowered. To change this, you need ENABLERS that work with BOTH MODES:
Astral Thrive1GW
Enchantment (U)
Whenever you create one or more creature tokens, you may exile target non-token creature. If you do, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the end of turn.
Whenever you place one or more +1/+1 counters on a creature, you may gain 2 life.
You get what I'm saying, right? Cards that work with both modes that you can build around.
Loxodon Brute - Stalking Tiger + Trample = -0/-1? Can't this be a 3/3 for 2GG? You're willing to use double green elsewhere, use it here instead. The interesting synergy with Thrive makes this appealing, but it's still limited jank.
Q: Can you evergreen "Stalking" and give this Trample and Haste for 2GG at (U)? I'd perk at that?
Mantis Warrior - Look, it's the kind of efficient guy that you want all your Swarmers to be. (Also, again, please monogreen tokens here). I'd consider playing this in several formats. Please use this as a template for swarm, not the exception.
Nature’s Reprieve - I'd rather you just reprint Natural Spring. But really? Do something clever. Gain 3 life. Strive 3. Gain 4 life, Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn. Or use Atogstorm's Gain N life, then +X/+X, where X equals the amount of life you gained this turn. Stand-alone life gain cards are cards designed to make fools out of people that play them. Either make life gain matter, or don't print cards like this. Please. Note: I say this as someone who inevitably sits down with new drafters and has to look for enough playables to help them not lose so soundly.
Sanctify - I'd prefer this at instant at WG. Maybe make the lifegain card hybrid... and good?
Scavenger Beast - Looks at Mortician Beetle, wishes your card was elegant and fun, not clunky gibberish. There's a lot of ways to go here; why not let it get a +1/+1 counter when you exile one or more cards from a grave? Or when you create a token? Or just colorshifted Mortician Beetle?
Search the Undercity - 2G. MAYBE 1G if it put it into play tapped... and was uncommon. I'f prefer the uncommon variant, so please do that.
Selesnya Wildborn - Previously, I've asked for more cycles. So here's the thing: I want to see a cycle of 5 mana French vanilla hybrid creatures with 2 keywords each.
Golgari? Reach and Deathtouch. Make it your spider. Or something and Swarm.
Selesnya? Flash and Thrive (if Thrive triggers as you play it, which it currently doesn't), or trample and vigilance, or - if you evergreen "Stalking", Stalking and Vigilance
Just PLEASE do not suggest printing wastes of paper. Your set does need some vanillas. Print good ones. Not this garbage. Not Hybrid. Because Hyrbids will have to be less powerful than non-hybrid cards at the same cost, so your making already disadvantaged vanillas weaker.
Trostani’s Blessing - Target creature becomes a basic forest until end of turn?
Unbury - Wasn't there a version of this where it was the bleed golgari card? In any case, this still feels off. Can it cost 1 hyrbid?
Wall of Webs - Gibberish. You don't care about this card, it'd annoying in several ways, please don't. How about: Webbed TreatsG
Creature - Web (C)
Defender, Reach
Swam 3 - Exile spider from your graveyard.
0/3
Wing Pierce - Why am I bothering to run this in a 2 color deck? How about if you paid W, gain 3 life? It worked for lightning helix
I love Swarm. I'm not entirely how sure it'll play out but it's a cool mechanic, something I would be excited to play with. Much more so than Scavenge for whatever reason.
Thrive on the other hand is just fine. It doesn't really convey a sense of unity- it actually feels somewhat individualistic. I think something like bolster or support would work better but I understand if you want all original mechanics. I suspect it will play pretty decently though.
Arach’Thrax: 4/2 spider feels scandalously unconventional. I think it's good if there are some really specific mechanical or flavour reasons (ie, the Arach'Thrax has evolved to prey on the Fluttermoth and the Fluttermoth is a 1/4 flier) but I feel like you have to show a little more respect for tradition.
Brutal Interrogation: Again, the card feels fine mechanically and I guess it works for a generic card but it doesn't particularly feel like it belongs to either guild.
Carapace Armor: It's a good card. It will feel nice to play an aura and not be afraid of 2 for 1s. The theme is cool too.
Convocate: Great throwback, cool card. Very exciting for a common.
Deathrite Cultist: Not a card I'm super excited to play with, feels strange in a modern set. I wish there was more of a throwback to Deathrite Shaman.
Elemental Boon: Big exciting card. The trample clause adds a very interesting dimension to the choice. It's costed pretty conservatively, I wonder if 6 mana would be too little.
Feast Boar: Simple text, good gameplay. A perfect common.
Fledgling Cockatrice: I second the cockatrice feeling wrong. Mechanically it checks out, and in terms of Magic card design it's actually pretty clever, but it just feels wrong from a player perspective.
Golgari Gorgon: I appreciate the world building but this is just a boring piece of information haha.
Grave Tender - Mantis Warrior: All fine filler.
Nature's Reprieve: I don't really like these useless cards in a set, but WotC keeps doing it so I guess there's a reason. I mean they are probably exciting to someone, and this is almost enough lifegain to actually matter.
Sanctify: It's a fine card, but I feel like these obligatory effects are more exciting when they use one of the set's mechanics rather than being printable anywhere.
Scavenger Beast: It's a good card but dependent on context. I would like to see a sac outlet or two in the set to help it out.
Search the Undercity: I love it. Good role player but it also has an element of excitement and design danger. I would like to see more daring cards like this. But it is fairly overpowered in its current state. I think ETB tapped at 2 mana would be fair and 1 mana but only putting the land in hand would also be fine.
Selesnya Wildborn: I think this is one where you really want to nail the flavour. Right now it's very boring, but if players can love Vizzerdrix, they can love this.
Unbury: Very good; I think the simple flavour here works well because the card's gameplay is exciting enough.
Wall of Webs: Great card. Very exciting to look at but is not likely to cause problems in gameplay. In fact it really improves things by taking the sting out of every extra land you topdeck, though it'll probably be unlikely that a player will reach 10 mana without warping their deck.
Wing Pierce: Flavour feels good, clause is relevant. Good card.
If you look at both Ravnica blocks, it isn't hard to find cards (like Fledgling Cockatrice) that have no apparent connection to guilds and are even blatantly generic, yet are in their colors, supposedly representing the guild somehow. That being said, flavortext helps, and my cards don't have flavor text (yet).
Grave Tender - I don't see how the ability would fizzle? Day of Judgement resolves. Grave Tender dies. Thrive 3 triggers. You opt for a 3/3 green and white Plant creature token. It enters the battlefield.
It was more how a Cockatrice feels out of place in those colors, but its a small concern.
I misread Trive, so that is where the problem lies.
Elemental boon is way over the top for a common. Commons exceeding more than two counters on target creatures as the base effect simply do not exist (I'm aware of Terrus Wurm, but its base effect was a 5/5 for CMC7 i.e. unplayable).
Mantis Warrior's swarm is undercosted. I know everyone always wishes these commons were undercosted (see also: reactions to every single scavenge cards when they were spoiled), but it's still VERY playable with a more sensible swarm cost of 4G (minimum 3G). On the other hand, the general aversion to auras means Carapace Armor's swarm cost CAN go down. Heck, how about just plain swapping these two card's swarm effects and be done with it?
Golgari Gorgon is, uh, not a gorgon. I believe I said something like that back in the black cards pass.
1. This isn't a design convention so much as s "we've never had reason to do this" thing. If it gave 7 (IE, more than a dice), we might worry. But it's fine.
2. Let's not mince words: It's good; it's not great. It's Lingering Souls meets Embalm. Trueheart Duelist is a fair comparison, and that's not constructed playable. This? Might be.
3. Yup.
Honestly, designing vanilla creatures (and more importantly french vanillas like Mantis Warrior) is an important skill to have, and every time I see a hybrid mana stapled to an undercosted vanilla... I pull at my hair.
One suggestion I can offer for designing vanillas is make them have a relevant creature type. I'm not saying print a functional merfolk of pearl trident, but if you need a vanilla creature at common in green, and you have an uncommon lord (a design practice I REALLY like, by the way, especially in tribally-weak formats where it'll just be an incremental advantage in limited), make the common relevant to that type.
Large Beetle1G
Creature - Insect (C)
2/3
Swarm Lord2G
Creature - Insect (U)
Other Insects you control get +1/+1. T: Put target card from a graveyard on the bottom of its owner's library. If it was a creature, create a 1/1 green insect token.
3/2
I'm not saying Large Beetle is constructed playable. Then again, I'm not saying it's not either. I'd rather have a utility creature there, but if there's no Wild Mongrel insect...
Oh, by the way, I'd like to see a Wild Mongrel variant in the set. It'd work very well with the "smaller than mana cost" swarm creature cards you're saving for the higher rarities, and - if Noose Constrictor is any indication, not necessarily overpowered. Besides, this kind of card really makes interesting more exciting and helps to teach players not to play extra lands - a skill they need to learn. Any time you can have a card that teaches players how to play the game... it's a great design. It also opens up Reanimator strategies in both limited and constructed - keep that in mind.
1. This isn't a design convention so much as s "we've never had reason to do this" thing. If it gave 7 (IE, more than a dice), we might worry. But it's fine.
Let's not mince words: It's good; it's not great. It's Lingering Souls meets Embalm. Trueheart Duelist is a fair comparison, and that's not constructed playable. This? Might be.
And what rarity were those cards again? Oh, right, they were both uncommons.
Carapace Armor - I love the idea of a nonmana Swarm cost here. The Swarm cost has been changed to "Pay 3 life" since in this set green is paired with the two life gain colors - white and black. It makes Nature's Reprieve a little more (obviously) attractive as well.
Feast Boar - There are some cards that make little sense in a vacuum. This is one of them. It's part of a lifegain subtheme, a mirror to a white "etb gain 3 life", and it synergizes with the Rakdos mechanic (which is in this set). I don't explain every card like this because third party opinions of these batches with limited information are invaluable to me because they lean towards objectivity.
Fledgling Cockatrice - This serves as a quality Thrive target at common that competing drafters guilds are unlikely to pick.
Golgari Gorgon - Renamed to Golgari Ooze and retyped to Ooze.
Mantis Warrior - I'm aware that this little hate bear pushed (for now). Playtesting may result in an increased thrive cost.
Sanctify - Remember that hybrid mana uses up some complexity points and is even considered a mechanic in its own right. The gold cards are being carefully crafted to attract players to guild drafting by rewarding them in unique ways. Disenchant + Naturalize won't cut it. I also don't want utility effects to be locked into just one guild.
Search the Undercity - I love the idea of putting it into hand because it also fits with Gruul's land/landfall subtheme.
Selesnya Wildborn - Bear with me on these. The entire hybrid supercycle will receive an overhaul. They serve as my flex cards and aren't to be considered finalized until the entire set is filled in.
Arach’Thrax - Reachers can be frontloaded, even at common.
Deathrite Cultist - The body could change, but it's unlikey the effect will. I want the Golgari drafter to have the means to ramp into an early Thrive. Thematically, Dark Ritual and Lake of the Dead are still in blacks slice of pie, albeit in the crust these days. But don't let the three black mana symbols fool you, this is a green card.
Elemental Boon - The trample rider has been removed. I think that's what was pushing it to uncommon. The base effect, however, remains the same (for now). Common is no stranger to cards that involve more than two +1/+1 counters. Both Modular and Awaken can stack counters like Thrive. Monstrous is safer and more efficient than Thrive, if not outright better from a Spike perspective. Wurmskin Forager and Earthen Arms are my best defense here.
Wurmskin defense is literally the only card that could be argued against my point, and it predates NWO by a significant margin. In everything else putting counters on target creature is not the upfront effect (awaken primarily turns a spell into an ETB ability, modular is a death trigger, Hunger is not even from a standard-legal set and still not the base effect anyway, and cards that puts counters on themselves are completely irrelevant to my argument)
Wurmskin defense is literally the only card that could be argued against my point, and it predates NWO by a significant margin. In everything else putting counters on target creature is not the upfront effect (awaken primarily turns a spell into an ETB ability, modular is a death trigger, Hunger is not even from a standard-legal set and still not the base effect anyway, and cards that puts counters on themselves are completely irrelevant to my argument)
I admit that Thrive is strong, but I think it's as acceptable as Monstrous.
Elemental Boon is <= Earthen Arms
Creatures that put counters on themselves - namely creatures with Monstrous - are >= these Thrive designs because cards with Monstrous effectively have Thrive cards built into them.
Awaken is virtually analogous to Thrive. Arguably better.
At this point, playtesting is in order.I'm going to keep the cards as they are unless a new point is made and move on to re-presenting the previous colors'threads. I'll share the results when they're in. Thanks for the input.
EDIT: Thrive tokens are now monogreen instead of green and white.
Carapace Armor - Here's the thing - Alternate cost makes this notable and potentially playable regardless of anything the card actually says or does. My one suggestion is this: Make sure there are a few madness outlets. Madness Outlets - even inefficient ones - enable alternate limited and constructed strategies; the ability to discard this and swarm for "free" (IE, no mana) is quite interesting.
Feast Boar - Make it a 3/2, as white's a 2/3. Good? No. But more interesting. Note that white's works with flicker, this does not.
Fledgling Cockatrice - Thrive target or not, this really feels like it should be uncommon in your format. Generally speaking, commons should be open (IE, print more hybrid quality cards) and uncommons can be more selective.
Golgari Gorgon - Renamed to Golgari Ooze and retyped to Ooze.
I think this misses the point. No one wants this card; make it a card someone wants. If you give it deathtouch, then at least it'd play a limited role. French Vanilla hybrids - even jank like this revised version I'm proposing - would be interesting in draft. Note that between Hybrid and mono-color cards, it might be possible to mono-color draft in this kind of environment. Desirable? Maybe not, but it should be an option. Make the hybrids with this in mind.
Mantis Warrior - You mean "Swarm", and it's fine as-is.
Selesnya Wildborn - Bear with me on these. The entire hybrid supercycle will receive an overhaul. They serve as my flex cards and aren't to be considered finalized until the entire set is filled in.
Hyrbids should be designed first, not last. Make more simple, vanilla and french vanilla mmono colored creatures (or two-colored watchwolf-style cards!), and let hybrids be interesting effects and/or desirable creatures. Remember - these are cards that effectively twice as many people might be looking to get; so they should be high picks, not low.
Deathrite Cultist - I'm all for this being a 2/1, flavorwise. Your version is probably better than that, but given it's nature, making it easier to kill is a good thing.
Elemental Boon - This is now 7 mana for a 5/5. I realize this kind of effect is dumb with an evasion creature, but that's a reason to have efficient removal or scarcer evasion creatures. If you're worried about dropping a lot of counters on a flyer, make this a 7/7 for 5GG with some ridiculous Swarm cost (Swarm 7 - Sacrifice 7 lands).
Edit: Maybe a 7/7 for 5GG with Swarm 1 - 0? Maybe Swarm 1 - 1? Early game, you discard to your wild mongrel variant; late game you play it.
Generally speaking, I think you should make most Thrive cards Thrive 2, with the occasional Thrive 1, and then the occasional rare card with Thrive 3 or more. This isn't because "too many counters bad", but because you're effectively teasing giant flyers at the drop of a hat.
Many suggestions heeded. Original post updated with a few links for precedent.
Card Name - Could use some salt.
Brutal Interrogation - Feels very Gruul or Jund (or even passably Simic), not so Golgari or Selesnya though. I like it mechanically though and it fills a nice place for green. Just needs to be reseasoned.
Bone Collector (1) I was okay with the deathoucher. This is garbage. If it's 2/2, I'm in. Can it have lifelink or deathtouch>
You do a good job of showing existing cards with a similar mana cost, but then your cards are unsettlingly regularly just functionally worse versions. Why? WHY? Alpha played great, but that's no excuse for printing gray ogre again.
Card Name - This mechanic was never very fun. Also, I'm against the "genericification" of indestructible. Indestructible shouldn't be common. If you're asking what I'd do instead; here it is:
1/3 for G. Vanilla. Strong limited card, possibly constructed playable. Still a good blocker.
Fledgling Cockatrice - I don't see how this is better here than in white. Flying is not green, and deathtouch is GB. At least in white, flying came from W and DT from G. Here? Flying makes it asymmetrically black.
Golgari Ooze - Boring. Bad. Unplayable in almost all formats, and mediocre in limited. AGAIN; do something interesting with hybrids, and show us your vanilla design skills in single-colored cards. Also, as I've said before, this is a great slot for a french vanilla "filler" Gorgon. Throw on some Swarm to make it tier 2. Maybe 3HH for a 2/5 with Swarm 2? Question: Can Swarm become something Snake-themed? Gorgons and Snakes go together, so you could have your Gorgons all have Swarm, and then some Snake/Gorgon lord give all snakes deathtouch. Insects are fine, but Snakes/Gorgons seems like an untapped design archetype that fits with the world theme and helps facilitate interesting tribal strategies (think of the retroactive potential, and all of the EDH potential...)!
Watchgorgon3:symgb::symgb:
Creature - Gorgon (C)
Deathtouch
Slither 2 - 2(2:symgb:, exile this card from your graveyard: Create two 1/1 green snake creature tokens. Play this ability as a sorcery.)
2/3
You'll note I drastically overcosted this, as you're happy to pay that in limited, and the Slither 2 for 2H is just cheap enough that you can see it being a semi-plausible inclusion in some deck with a madness outlet at some point in time. Of course, giving it an alternate Slither/Swarm cost (FE, discard a creature card?) would push it to "good somewhere."
Trostani’s Blessing - I don't like it. I've noted indestructible feels less special/intersting when it's littered all over the place. End of the day, Hexproof and +1/+1 or Hexproof and Trample would be fine "bad" cards. I'd be interested in seeing some variant with Swarm... Snake ShieldG
Instant (C)
Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
Slither 1 - 1G(1G, exile this card from your graveyard: Create a 1/1 green snake creature token. Play this ability as a sorcery.)
Designing a set requires that you make some boring cards; vanillas and french vanillas at limited. Your keywords (as opposed to ability words) don't add a lot to the complexity at common. So use them more. And in creative ways when possible.
Unbury: Note I wanted to point this out as an example of good, simple hybrid design. It does a simple thing, and is cost relatively fairly (I could see pushing it to cost 1 hybrid mana, but I digress). It's the sort of effect you do not print every set, so you can easily see this being played in standard as "the card that does this", and in commander as "one of the cards in my commander's colors that do this." This is a rather important niche to be able to design for. Please design french vanilla hybrids that do this, and yes - Swarm counts towards your French Vanillas here.
Wall of SnakesG
Creature - Snake Wall (C)
Defender
Wall of Snakes has power and toughness equal to the number of snakes you control.
Slither 6 - Sacrifice 6 lands (Sacrifice 6 lands, exile this card from your graveyard: Create 6 1/1 green snake creature tokens. Play this ability as a sorcery.)
*/*
Rationale:
1) Alternate cost means this might see SOME play.
2) Alternate cost is high enough to make it interesting.
3) Fulfills your "Wall" quota, although I think you could probably nix the defender and cost this at 2G. It'd be on par with other contemporary "p+t=# of X you have" creatures.
If you want to keep Swarm > Slither, you could do this with "Wall of beetles" and it'd be fine.
Final thoughts:
1) I strongly suggest taking a look at Swarm #. If you can tie the Swarm # to the power of the creature w/o losing much, do so (FE, your 2/2 for 1G would have Swarm 1G, not Swarm 2 - 1G, as it's power is 2). If you cannot, then put Swarm on other things.
2) Given Golgari have a connection to Gorgons, I suggest moving from Insects (rather generic) to Snakes, and trying to make the relevant "Swarm" creatures into Snakes and/or golgari as appropriate. Golgari and Snake tribal would be a nice design space to explore at uncommon and rare.
3) Vanilla Hybrids -> French Vanilla Hybrids. It's easier to carve out "design space" that is subpar but closer to being fringe playable with french vanilla than vanilla.
4) Vanilla non-hybrids. 5 total. Look to Future Sight for design influences; IE "the best common vanilla at that cost you think can be printed." During your next playtest round, if someone's 5/7 for 3GG turns out to be good... great! It means you can ramp up the limited-fodder removal slightly closer to being constructed playable.
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This is the 5th and final thread featuring commons of a given color for a two set block based in Ravnica. The sets are named [LoR] Lords of Ravnica and [GDW} Guild Wars. Eventually (very soon actually), I will revisit the previous four threads in this "series" with updates reflecting my statement in the above link. And will expand it to a full 10 threads featuring the commons of each color from both sets. But for now, I'm just going to "complete" (but not finalize) the series with this thread. Thanks again to everyone who's helped me get this far.
One of my major design goals for the green guilds in this set (Selesnya and Golgari), was for them to both feel and play out differently. Of course, it is a goal of mine for every guild to feel, if not play, differently, but it seems to me that factions of green (and white) in particular have a quality of feeling "samey" if not carefully sculpted. Selesnya is primarily go-tall, secondarily go-wide. Golgari is primarily go wide, secondarily graveyard shenanigans. With there being manifold options where the two overlap.
Bone Collector (Common)
GW
Creature - Human Cleric
1/1
Whenever another creature you control dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Bone Collector.
Brutal Interrogation (Common)
2G
Sorcery
Target creature you control fights target creature you don’t control.
Draw a card.
Carapace Armor (Common)
3G
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3.
Swarm 3 — Pay 3 life (Pay 3 life, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create three 1/1 black or green Insect creature tokens. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Card Name (Common)
G
Creature – Type
1/1
Indestructible
2: Card Name loses indestructible until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
Collective Strength (Common)
1GW
Instant
Until end of turn, target creature you control gets +3/+3 and other creatures you control get +1/+1.
Convocate (Common)
G
Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control have “T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.”
Draw a card.
Deathrite Cultist (Common)
1G
Creature – Elf Shaman
2/1
B, Sacrifice Deathrite Cultist: Add BBB to your mana pool.
Elemental Boon (Common)
5GG
Sorcery
Thrive 5. (Create a 5/5 green Plant creature token or put five +1/+1 counters on target creature.)
Feast Boar (Common)
2G
Creature – Boar
2/3
When Feast Boar dies, you gain 3 life.
Fledgling Cockatrice (Common)
BG
Creature – Cockatrice
1/2
Flying
Deathtouch
Golgari Ooze (Common)
4(B/G)
Creature – Ooze
2/6
Grave Tender (Common)
3GG
Creature – Human Cleric
3/3
When Grave Tender dies, thrive 3. (Create a 3/3 green Plant creature token or put three +1/+1 counters on target creature.)
Grove Guardian (Common)
2GG
Creature – Dryad Druid
2/2
When Grove Guardian enters the battlefield, thrive 2. (Create a 2/2 green Plant creature token or put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.)
Guardian Lynx (Common)
(G/W)
Creature – Cat
1/2
Part of the revised vanilla hybrid cycle.
Loxodon Brute (Common)
3G
Creature – Elephant Warrior
3/2
Trample
Loxodon Brute can’t be blocked by more than one creature.
Mantis Warrior (Common)
1G
Creature – Insect
2/2
Swarm 2 — 1G (1G, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create two 1/1 black or green Insect creature tokens. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Sanctify (Common)
2(G/W)
Sorcery
Exile target artifact or enchantment.
You gain 3 life.
Search the Undercity (Common)
G
Sorcery
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card. Put that card into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
Trostani’s Blessing (Common)
G
Instant
Target creature you control gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
Unbury (Common)
1(B/G)
Sorcery
Return target creature or land card from your graveyard to your hand.
Wall of Webs (Common)
2G
Creature – Wall
0/4
Defender
Reach
Swarm 6 — 9G (9G, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create six 1/1 black or green Insect creature tokens. Swarm only as a sorcery.)
Wing Pierce (Common)
1G
Instant
Destroy target creature with flying. If W was spent to cast Wing Pierce, exile that creature instead.
Fledgling Cockatrice, flavored as Selesnya feels wrong.
Golgari Gorgon, another flavor question, you're adding male gorgons to the world just for an unimpressive vanilla creature?
Nature’s Reprieve, is weird, Heroes' Reunion says its over costed but Spring of Eternal Peace, and Meditation Puzzle say its in the right place. I'm not sure which way I lean.
Search the Undercity, this has to cost at least two. You've taken Recross the Paths, removed the bad upside and added an up/downside while reducing the cost by 2. If the mill was exile I could see the reason for such a big discount, but when you have a mechanic that benefits from self mill you have to consider the potential upside of this drawback.
Unbury, I could of sworn this was on your black list, either way Grim Discovery says you can get both. If you really want to keep it one or the other then drop the cost to 1.
If you look at both Ravnica blocks, it isn't hard to find cards (like Fledgling Cockatrice) that have no apparent connection to guilds and are even blatantly generic, yet are in their colors, supposedly representing the guild somehow. That being said, flavortext helps, and my cards don't have flavor text (yet).
And the list goes on and on.
Grave Tender - I don't see how the ability would fizzle? Day of Judgement resolves. Grave Tender dies. Thrive 3 triggers. You opt for a 3/3 green and white Plant creature token. It enters the battlefield.
Golgari Gorgon - It might get reflavored to an Ooze or something.
Search the Undercity - Good catch. I've changed it so that now the land enters the battlefield tapped.
Unbury - This was also in the black list because it's black. It seems helpful to have all of a color's cards in its list, even if they were previously in another list. Reducing the cost to (B/G) would make it strictly better than quite a few Raise Dead cards. Likewise, making it a hybrid Grim Discovery would also obsolete quite a few similar cards. I'm not aiming to make every card the best of its type. I think Unbury is fine as is because it already benefits from being hybrid.
Arach’Thrax V2 1GB
Creature - Spider Demon (C)
Reach
Deathtouch
2/3
Brutal Interrogation - I kind of like the flavor here, but interrogation feels like a white or red thing. In any case, this seems fair.
Carapace Armor - I'd be much more interested in creative Swarm costs than prohibitively expensive ones. Maybe "Put 3 creature cards from your grave on the bottom of your library"?
Convocate - I think this has to cost 1G or not be a cantrip or both. Interesting design space... but I'd also rather see it at uncommon. At common it feels swingy and like it should be the backbone of a draft archetype that poops out tokens to power out big spells. And you certainly don't want this, do you?
Deathrite Cultist - Please make him a 2/1. This isn't a defensive card, thematically.
Elemental Boon - I think thrive is interesting. 2 points: (1) I think it should be green alone. Multicolor tokens are messy. (2) I think it should be an Ooze. Variable P/T Oozes are a thing, plants... not so much. Besides, I've never really understood "plant" as an offensive creature type. Sometimes? Sure. As the backbone of the mechanic? Preferably not.
As for the spell... I think this could easily cost 4GG, even at common. I'd also toss around the idea that it gives creatures haste... so your ooze could attack. Finally... maybe this should be an enchantment? If you made Thrive trigger on playing, as opposed to resolving, it'd be elegant. If not, you could still "When this enters the battlefield, Thrive 5. Creatures you control have trample." it.
Feast Boar - Is a functional reprint of Brindle Boar too tricky for your format? I think not. Maybe Ravenous Baloth the boar ceature type?
Fledgling Cockatrice - Sure? But I'd rather this not be common. If uncommon, you could push it to 1/3??? Still, I'd hate to walk around and see these regularly...
Golgari Gorgon - Still pointless and offensive. Cards like these are utterly forgettable, and that's the sign of bad design. I'll remember most of the embalmers, I'll remember Future Sight's pushed vanilla cycle (well, save the crappy blue one which I remember for being crappy), but this? This I'll forget and when I look it up, I'll hate it because it wasted a hybrid golgari slot. Just make it a Deathtoucher with Swarm. Nice, simple, flavorful, fun, and MAYBE useful somewhere.
Grave Tender - You know, at 3GG he could Thrive 3 when he comes into play. So cost him at 2GG or 3G. Or... gasp... 1GG. You cost him at 1GG and it might be a card people play. GASP!
Grove Guardian - Given the above discussion, I'm going to suggest costing this at 1GG or 3G, with the former being interesting and potentially constructed playable (with thriving to a different creature being pseudo-haste on that 2 power), and the latter being boring and bad.
Note on Thrive: This is more or less "Fabcricate 2.0", so I strongly suggest you TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE MECHANIC. One of the biggest misses of Fabricate is that it had to cost more than either of the modes alone, and thus the cards were always underpowered. To change this, you need ENABLERS that work with BOTH MODES:
Astral Thrive 1GW
Enchantment (U)
Whenever you create one or more creature tokens, you may exile target non-token creature. If you do, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the end of turn.
Whenever you place one or more +1/+1 counters on a creature, you may gain 2 life.
You get what I'm saying, right? Cards that work with both modes that you can build around.
Loxodon Brute - Stalking Tiger + Trample = -0/-1? Can't this be a 3/3 for 2GG? You're willing to use double green elsewhere, use it here instead. The interesting synergy with Thrive makes this appealing, but it's still limited jank.
Q: Can you evergreen "Stalking" and give this Trample and Haste for 2GG at (U)? I'd perk at that?
Mantis Warrior - Look, it's the kind of efficient guy that you want all your Swarmers to be. (Also, again, please monogreen tokens here). I'd consider playing this in several formats. Please use this as a template for swarm, not the exception.
Nature’s Reprieve - I'd rather you just reprint Natural Spring. But really? Do something clever. Gain 3 life. Strive 3. Gain 4 life, Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn. Or use Atogstorm's Gain N life, then +X/+X, where X equals the amount of life you gained this turn. Stand-alone life gain cards are cards designed to make fools out of people that play them. Either make life gain matter, or don't print cards like this. Please. Note: I say this as someone who inevitably sits down with new drafters and has to look for enough playables to help them not lose so soundly.
Sanctify - I'd prefer this at instant at WG. Maybe make the lifegain card hybrid... and good?
Scavenger Beast - Looks at Mortician Beetle, wishes your card was elegant and fun, not clunky gibberish. There's a lot of ways to go here; why not let it get a +1/+1 counter when you exile one or more cards from a grave? Or when you create a token? Or just colorshifted Mortician Beetle?
Search the Undercity - 2G. MAYBE 1G if it put it into play tapped... and was uncommon. I'f prefer the uncommon variant, so please do that.
Selesnya Wildborn - Previously, I've asked for more cycles. So here's the thing: I want to see a cycle of 5 mana French vanilla hybrid creatures with 2 keywords each.
Golgari? Reach and Deathtouch. Make it your spider. Or something and Swarm.
Selesnya? Flash and Thrive (if Thrive triggers as you play it, which it currently doesn't), or trample and vigilance, or - if you evergreen "Stalking", Stalking and Vigilance
Just PLEASE do not suggest printing wastes of paper. Your set does need some vanillas. Print good ones. Not this garbage. Not Hybrid. Because Hyrbids will have to be less powerful than non-hybrid cards at the same cost, so your making already disadvantaged vanillas weaker.
Trostani’s Blessing - Target creature becomes a basic forest until end of turn?
Unbury - Wasn't there a version of this where it was the bleed golgari card? In any case, this still feels off. Can it cost 1 hyrbid?
Wall of Webs - Gibberish. You don't care about this card, it'd annoying in several ways, please don't. How about:
Webbed Treats G
Creature - Web (C)
Defender, Reach
Swam 3 - Exile spider from your graveyard.
0/3
Wing Pierce - Why am I bothering to run this in a 2 color deck? How about if you paid W, gain 3 life? It worked for lightning helix
I love Swarm. I'm not entirely how sure it'll play out but it's a cool mechanic, something I would be excited to play with. Much more so than Scavenge for whatever reason.
Thrive on the other hand is just fine. It doesn't really convey a sense of unity- it actually feels somewhat individualistic. I think something like bolster or support would work better but I understand if you want all original mechanics. I suspect it will play pretty decently though.
Arach’Thrax: 4/2 spider feels scandalously unconventional. I think it's good if there are some really specific mechanical or flavour reasons (ie, the Arach'Thrax has evolved to prey on the Fluttermoth and the Fluttermoth is a 1/4 flier) but I feel like you have to show a little more respect for tradition.
Brutal Interrogation: Again, the card feels fine mechanically and I guess it works for a generic card but it doesn't particularly feel like it belongs to either guild.
Carapace Armor: It's a good card. It will feel nice to play an aura and not be afraid of 2 for 1s. The theme is cool too.
Convocate: Great throwback, cool card. Very exciting for a common.
Deathrite Cultist: Not a card I'm super excited to play with, feels strange in a modern set. I wish there was more of a throwback to Deathrite Shaman.
Elemental Boon: Big exciting card. The trample clause adds a very interesting dimension to the choice. It's costed pretty conservatively, I wonder if 6 mana would be too little.
Feast Boar: Simple text, good gameplay. A perfect common.
Fledgling Cockatrice: I second the cockatrice feeling wrong. Mechanically it checks out, and in terms of Magic card design it's actually pretty clever, but it just feels wrong from a player perspective.
Golgari Gorgon: I appreciate the world building but this is just a boring piece of information haha.
Grave Tender - Mantis Warrior: All fine filler.
Nature's Reprieve: I don't really like these useless cards in a set, but WotC keeps doing it so I guess there's a reason. I mean they are probably exciting to someone, and this is almost enough lifegain to actually matter.
Sanctify: It's a fine card, but I feel like these obligatory effects are more exciting when they use one of the set's mechanics rather than being printable anywhere.
Scavenger Beast: It's a good card but dependent on context. I would like to see a sac outlet or two in the set to help it out.
Search the Undercity: I love it. Good role player but it also has an element of excitement and design danger. I would like to see more daring cards like this. But it is fairly overpowered in its current state. I think ETB tapped at 2 mana would be fair and 1 mana but only putting the land in hand would also be fine.
Selesnya Wildborn: I think this is one where you really want to nail the flavour. Right now it's very boring, but if players can love Vizzerdrix, they can love this.
Unbury: Very good; I think the simple flavour here works well because the card's gameplay is exciting enough.
Wall of Webs: Great card. Very exciting to look at but is not likely to cause problems in gameplay. In fact it really improves things by taking the sting out of every extra land you topdeck, though it'll probably be unlikely that a player will reach 10 mana without warping their deck.
Wing Pierce: Flavour feels good, clause is relevant. Good card.
I misread Trive, so that is where the problem lies.
Mantis Warrior's swarm is undercosted. I know everyone always wishes these commons were undercosted (see also: reactions to every single scavenge cards when they were spoiled), but it's still VERY playable with a more sensible swarm cost of 4G (minimum 3G). On the other hand, the general aversion to auras means Carapace Armor's swarm cost CAN go down. Heck, how about just plain swapping these two card's swarm effects and be done with it?
Golgari Gorgon is, uh, not a gorgon. I believe I said something like that back in the black cards pass.
2. Let's not mince words: It's good; it's not great. It's Lingering Souls meets Embalm. Trueheart Duelist is a fair comparison, and that's not constructed playable. This? Might be.
3. Yup.
Honestly, designing vanilla creatures (and more importantly french vanillas like Mantis Warrior) is an important skill to have, and every time I see a hybrid mana stapled to an undercosted vanilla... I pull at my hair.
One suggestion I can offer for designing vanillas is make them have a relevant creature type. I'm not saying print a functional merfolk of pearl trident, but if you need a vanilla creature at common in green, and you have an uncommon lord (a design practice I REALLY like, by the way, especially in tribally-weak formats where it'll just be an incremental advantage in limited), make the common relevant to that type.
Large Beetle 1G
Creature - Insect (C)
2/3
Swarm Lord 2G
Creature - Insect (U)
Other Insects you control get +1/+1.
T: Put target card from a graveyard on the bottom of its owner's library. If it was a creature, create a 1/1 green insect token.
3/2
I'm not saying Large Beetle is constructed playable. Then again, I'm not saying it's not either. I'd rather have a utility creature there, but if there's no Wild Mongrel insect...
Oh, by the way, I'd like to see a Wild Mongrel variant in the set. It'd work very well with the "smaller than mana cost" swarm creature cards you're saving for the higher rarities, and - if Noose Constrictor is any indication, not necessarily overpowered. Besides, this kind of card really makes interesting more exciting and helps to teach players not to play extra lands - a skill they need to learn. Any time you can have a card that teaches players how to play the game... it's a great design. It also opens up Reanimator strategies in both limited and constructed - keep that in mind.
We have _strong_ indication that this happen at uncommon and higher only (Increasing savagery, Quest for the Gemblades, Evolutionary Escalation, Hunting Triad, Primeval Bounty, Give and Take). Even bolster cards were strictly limited to 1 or 2 at common.
And what rarity were those cards again? Oh, right, they were both uncommons.
Carapace Armor - I love the idea of a nonmana Swarm cost here. The Swarm cost has been changed to "Pay 3 life" since in this set green is paired with the two life gain colors - white and black. It makes Nature's Reprieve a little more (obviously) attractive as well.
Feast Boar - There are some cards that make little sense in a vacuum. This is one of them. It's part of a lifegain subtheme, a mirror to a white "etb gain 3 life", and it synergizes with the Rakdos mechanic (which is in this set). I don't explain every card like this because third party opinions of these batches with limited information are invaluable to me because they lean towards objectivity.
Fledgling Cockatrice - This serves as a quality Thrive target at common that competing
draftersguilds are unlikely to pick.Golgari Gorgon - Renamed to Golgari Ooze and retyped to Ooze.
Mantis Warrior - I'm aware that this little hate bear pushed (for now). Playtesting may result in an increased thrive cost.
Sanctify - Remember that hybrid mana uses up some complexity points and is even considered a mechanic in its own right. The gold cards are being carefully crafted to attract players to guild drafting by rewarding them in unique ways. Disenchant + Naturalize won't cut it. I also don't want utility effects to be locked into just one guild.
Search the Undercity - I love the idea of putting it into hand because it also fits with Gruul's land/landfall subtheme.
Selesnya Wildborn - Bear with me on these. The entire hybrid supercycle will receive an overhaul. They serve as my flex cards and aren't to be considered finalized until the entire set is filled in.
Arach’Thrax - Reachers can be frontloaded, even at common.
Deathrite Cultist - The body could change, but it's unlikey the effect will. I want the Golgari drafter to have the means to ramp into an early Thrive. Thematically, Dark Ritual and Lake of the Dead are still in blacks slice of pie, albeit in the crust these days. But don't let the three black mana symbols fool you, this is a green card.
Elemental Boon - The trample rider has been removed. I think that's what was pushing it to uncommon. The base effect, however, remains the same (for now). Common is no stranger to cards that involve more than two +1/+1 counters. Both Modular and Awaken can stack counters like Thrive. Monstrous is safer and more efficient than Thrive, if not outright better from a Spike perspective. Wurmskin Forager and Earthen Arms are my best defense here.
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
Earthen Arms
I admit that Thrive is strong, but I think it's as acceptable as Monstrous.
Elemental Boon is <= Earthen Arms
Creatures that put counters on themselves - namely creatures with Monstrous - are >= these Thrive designs because cards with Monstrous effectively have Thrive cards built into them.
Hunger of the Howlpack is from Dark Ascension, which was standard legal.
Awaken is virtually analogous to Thrive. Arguably better.
At this point, playtesting is in order.I'm going to keep the cards as they are unless a new point is made and move on to re-presenting the previous colors'threads. I'll share the results when they're in. Thanks for the input.
EDIT: Thrive tokens are now monogreen instead of green and white.
Feast Boar - Make it a 3/2, as white's a 2/3. Good? No. But more interesting. Note that white's works with flicker, this does not.
Fledgling Cockatrice - Thrive target or not, this really feels like it should be uncommon in your format. Generally speaking, commons should be open (IE, print more hybrid quality cards) and uncommons can be more selective.
I think this misses the point. No one wants this card; make it a card someone wants. If you give it deathtouch, then at least it'd play a limited role. French Vanilla hybrids - even jank like this revised version I'm proposing - would be interesting in draft. Note that between Hybrid and mono-color cards, it might be possible to mono-color draft in this kind of environment. Desirable? Maybe not, but it should be an option. Make the hybrids with this in mind.
Mantis Warrior - You mean "Swarm", and it's fine as-is.
Hyrbids should be designed first, not last. Make more simple, vanilla and french vanilla mmono colored creatures (or two-colored watchwolf-style cards!), and let hybrids be interesting effects and/or desirable creatures. Remember - these are cards that effectively twice as many people might be looking to get; so they should be high picks, not low.
Deathrite Cultist - I'm all for this being a 2/1, flavorwise. Your version is probably better than that, but given it's nature, making it easier to kill is a good thing.
Elemental Boon - This is now 7 mana for a 5/5. I realize this kind of effect is dumb with an evasion creature, but that's a reason to have efficient removal or scarcer evasion creatures. If you're worried about dropping a lot of counters on a flyer, make this a 7/7 for 5GG with some ridiculous Swarm cost (Swarm 7 - Sacrifice 7 lands).
Edit: Maybe a 7/7 for 5GG with Swarm 1 - 0? Maybe Swarm 1 - 1? Early game, you discard to your wild mongrel variant; late game you play it.
Generally speaking, I think you should make most Thrive cards Thrive 2, with the occasional Thrive 1, and then the occasional rare card with Thrive 3 or more. This isn't because "too many counters bad", but because you're effectively teasing giant flyers at the drop of a hat.
Card Name - Could use some salt.
Brutal Interrogation - Feels very Gruul or Jund (or even passably Simic), not so Golgari or Selesnya though. I like it mechanically though and it fills a nice place for green. Just needs to be reseasoned.
You do a good job of showing existing cards with a similar mana cost, but then your cards are unsettlingly regularly just functionally worse versions. Why? WHY? Alpha played great, but that's no excuse for printing gray ogre again.
Card Name - This mechanic was never very fun. Also, I'm against the "genericification" of indestructible. Indestructible shouldn't be common. If you're asking what I'd do instead; here it is:
1/3 for G. Vanilla. Strong limited card, possibly constructed playable. Still a good blocker.
Fledgling Cockatrice - I don't see how this is better here than in white. Flying is not green, and deathtouch is GB. At least in white, flying came from W and DT from G. Here? Flying makes it asymmetrically black.
Golgari Ooze - Boring. Bad. Unplayable in almost all formats, and mediocre in limited. AGAIN; do something interesting with hybrids, and show us your vanilla design skills in single-colored cards. Also, as I've said before, this is a great slot for a french vanilla "filler" Gorgon. Throw on some Swarm to make it tier 2. Maybe 3HH for a 2/5 with Swarm 2?
Question: Can Swarm become something Snake-themed? Gorgons and Snakes go together, so you could have your Gorgons all have Swarm, and then some Snake/Gorgon lord give all snakes deathtouch. Insects are fine, but Snakes/Gorgons seems like an untapped design archetype that fits with the world theme and helps facilitate interesting tribal strategies (think of the retroactive potential, and all of the EDH potential...)!
Watchgorgon 3:symgb::symgb:
Creature - Gorgon (C)
Deathtouch
Slither 2 - 2(2:symgb:, exile this card from your graveyard: Create two 1/1 green snake creature tokens. Play this ability as a sorcery.)
2/3
You'll note I drastically overcosted this, as you're happy to pay that in limited, and the Slither 2 for 2H is just cheap enough that you can see it being a semi-plausible inclusion in some deck with a madness outlet at some point in time. Of course, giving it an alternate Slither/Swarm cost (FE, discard a creature card?) would push it to "good somewhere."
Trostani’s Blessing - I don't like it. I've noted indestructible feels less special/intersting when it's littered all over the place. End of the day, Hexproof and +1/+1 or Hexproof and Trample would be fine "bad" cards. I'd be interested in seeing some variant with Swarm...
Snake Shield G
Instant (C)
Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
Slither 1 - 1G(1G, exile this card from your graveyard: Create a 1/1 green snake creature token. Play this ability as a sorcery.)
Designing a set requires that you make some boring cards; vanillas and french vanillas at limited. Your keywords (as opposed to ability words) don't add a lot to the complexity at common. So use them more. And in creative ways when possible.
Unbury: Note I wanted to point this out as an example of good, simple hybrid design. It does a simple thing, and is cost relatively fairly (I could see pushing it to cost 1 hybrid mana, but I digress). It's the sort of effect you do not print every set, so you can easily see this being played in standard as "the card that does this", and in commander as "one of the cards in my commander's colors that do this." This is a rather important niche to be able to design for. Please design french vanilla hybrids that do this, and yes - Swarm counts towards your French Vanillas here.
Suggestion: Wall of Webs ->
Pacifist Giant G
Creature - Giant Druid (C)
Reach
0/4
(French vanilla, simple)
and
Wall of Snakes G
Creature - Snake Wall (C)
Defender
Wall of Snakes has power and toughness equal to the number of snakes you control.
Slither 6 - Sacrifice 6 lands (Sacrifice 6 lands, exile this card from your graveyard: Create 6 1/1 green snake creature tokens. Play this ability as a sorcery.)
*/*
Rationale:
1) Alternate cost means this might see SOME play.
2) Alternate cost is high enough to make it interesting.
3) Fulfills your "Wall" quota, although I think you could probably nix the defender and cost this at 2G. It'd be on par with other contemporary "p+t=# of X you have" creatures.
If you want to keep Swarm > Slither, you could do this with "Wall of beetles" and it'd be fine.
Final thoughts:
1) I strongly suggest taking a look at Swarm #. If you can tie the Swarm # to the power of the creature w/o losing much, do so (FE, your 2/2 for 1G would have Swarm 1G, not Swarm 2 - 1G, as it's power is 2). If you cannot, then put Swarm on other things.
2) Given Golgari have a connection to Gorgons, I suggest moving from Insects (rather generic) to Snakes, and trying to make the relevant "Swarm" creatures into Snakes and/or golgari as appropriate. Golgari and Snake tribal would be a nice design space to explore at uncommon and rare.
3) Vanilla Hybrids -> French Vanilla Hybrids. It's easier to carve out "design space" that is subpar but closer to being fringe playable with french vanilla than vanilla.
4) Vanilla non-hybrids. 5 total. Look to Future Sight for design influences; IE "the best common vanilla at that cost you think can be printed." During your next playtest round, if someone's 5/7 for 3GG turns out to be good... great! It means you can ramp up the limited-fodder removal slightly closer to being constructed playable.