I had a thought, what if some Equipments were designed around the same character-defining-ability 'overwriting objects' template as cards like lignify. Its something that hasn't actually been done as far as I can tell. Just standard 'in addition to its other types' like Sigiled Sword of Valeron. So I came up with this idea for a homelands set
The Defiled Chalice3
Legendary Artifact - Equipment (M)
Equipped creature is a legendary black 5/5 Vampire creature named Dark Lord Sengir with flying and "Whenever any creature deals combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on Dark Lord Sengir and you gain 1 life." and loses all other abilities.
Whenever The Defiled Chalice becomes unattached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equip 3BB
I think its kind of similar to animated equipment like Haunted Plate Mail or otherwise hiding a creature in it like Elbrus, the Binding Blade, but the idea is more like a reuseable 'champion a creature'- any such equipment would let you keep turning dorks or tokens into a specified baseline, while not necessarily being great on creatures that are already splashy. As far as the static ability, I thought it would be a suitable riff on Baron Sengir to make it really powerful if it sticks in a crowded board (any creature, not just those that die or those you contro)- but can be soft reset by removal on the creature to make it fair.
This might be pedantic, but that isn't a CDA. True characteristic-defining abilities are abilities designed to, well, define a card's characteristic in a way that can't be represented with the usual means. Tarmogoyf doesn't have traditional numbers in its P/T box, the usual place that defines a creature's P/T, so it needs a CDA to have stats, which then apply regardless of what zone it's in. Dryad Arbor is a creature with a color that can't have that color represented in its casting cost, the usual place that defines a creature's color, so its needs a CDA (represented now by a color indicator) to be green, which also applies regardless of zone.
This is not a CDA, first and foremost because CDAs are innate by definition. They can't be granted to other creatures (in black-border magic) or gained temporarily. What you have here is an ability that sets power and toughness, changes the creature's color, gives the creature a new super- and sub-type, changes its name, and gives it a couple of abilities. It is not, however, a CDA.
As far as the card itself goes, you could stand to make the equip cost cheaper, actually. You're already paying the upfront equivalent of Baron Sengir himself, with a weaker ability and a requirement of already having a creature that doesn't eat removal in response to the equip activation. It also requires the equipped creature to be small and expendable, contrary to how normal equipment makes big creatures even bigger.
It's an interesting concept and would actually go extremely well with phyrexia since the original storyline was Yawgmoth saving people by replacing their mortality with artifice.
Functionally it has the general issues with costing. You have to cost it with the rate in mind that people can use tokens as a body, but doing so makes it too overcosted for non-tokens so you may want to consider making it only non-token creature equipable.
Thanks I wasn't really sure what the ability is called since its neither a clone/copy nor just a type-setting effect. I think that power level wise, it actually opens up a different way of thinking about the pricing of equipment. Its effectively a creature you pay for with multiple mana costs and a 'sacrifice', rather than the traditional improvement to an existing creature. So you'd want to use a token for it sure, but that's as fine as it is with say demon of catastrophes
I do want to stress though I think you might have misread the ability- I meant it as insanely better than the ability on baron sengir, not weaker. It was my intent to create a very very powerful ability that could swing a game on its own, but still required a big board state and 'reset' to removal. It says he gets a counter and +1 life whenever any creature deals combat damage- not just killing creatures, not just himself, not just creatures you control. So an opponent swinging 4x creatures into you and you blocking 3 of them, would result in 7x +1/1 counters and gain 7 life.
Is your intent that the creature loses all other abilities and just becomes something else, and the new creature would have the same abilities and stats no matter what you attached to (preexisting +1/+1 counters aside)? If it is, you need a "loses all abilities" clause, but if not, I like this even more - finding the ideal hosts and building a deck around that seems very fun. Example: double strikers! I will say this seems like a perfect opportunity for monohybrid equip costs.
Is your intent that the creature loses all other abilities and just becomes something else, and the new creature would have the same abilities and stats no matter what you attached to (preexisting +1/+1 counters aside)? If it is, you need a "loses all abilities" clause, but if not, I like this even more - finding the ideal hosts and building a deck around that seems very fun. Example: double strikers! I will say this seems like a perfect opportunity for monohybrid equip costs.
I was not entirely sure on the templating, but yeah my idea was effects similar to lignify, dragonshift, Polymorphist's Jest. But yeah, looking at that I'm definitely missing the 'loses all other abilities' clause and should edit that in, thanks.
I think losing all abilities besides maybe making it easier to balance would make it easier to represent in a game state. They could print a pseudotoken similar to the perforated counters, a version of sengir here that you'd simply place over your creature. Maybe something like the uncard Curse of the Fire Penguin
also on the issue of losing abilities vs not- I think that while maybe it opens up more interactions, it would be less mechanically distinct from just regular equipment effects. It might as well just tweak the numbers and be something like +3/+3, gains flying and the ability. But actually changing the whole card like its a clone effect- that makes it less an equipment and more a 'champion a creature'
Legendary Artifact - Equipment (M)
Equipped creature is a legendary black 5/5 Vampire creature named Dark Lord Sengir with flying and "Whenever any creature deals combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on Dark Lord Sengir and you gain 1 life." and loses all other abilities.
Whenever The Defiled Chalice becomes unattached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equip 3BB
I think its kind of similar to animated equipment like Haunted Plate Mail or otherwise hiding a creature in it like Elbrus, the Binding Blade, but the idea is more like a reuseable 'champion a creature'- any such equipment would let you keep turning dorks or tokens into a specified baseline, while not necessarily being great on creatures that are already splashy. As far as the static ability, I thought it would be a suitable riff on Baron Sengir to make it really powerful if it sticks in a crowded board (any creature, not just those that die or those you contro)- but can be soft reset by removal on the creature to make it fair.
/e fixed template as void noted
This is not a CDA, first and foremost because CDAs are innate by definition. They can't be granted to other creatures (in black-border magic) or gained temporarily. What you have here is an ability that sets power and toughness, changes the creature's color, gives the creature a new super- and sub-type, changes its name, and gives it a couple of abilities. It is not, however, a CDA.
As far as the card itself goes, you could stand to make the equip cost cheaper, actually. You're already paying the upfront equivalent of Baron Sengir himself, with a weaker ability and a requirement of already having a creature that doesn't eat removal in response to the equip activation. It also requires the equipped creature to be small and expendable, contrary to how normal equipment makes big creatures even bigger.
Functionally it has the general issues with costing. You have to cost it with the rate in mind that people can use tokens as a body, but doing so makes it too overcosted for non-tokens so you may want to consider making it only non-token creature equipable.
I do want to stress though I think you might have misread the ability- I meant it as insanely better than the ability on baron sengir, not weaker. It was my intent to create a very very powerful ability that could swing a game on its own, but still required a big board state and 'reset' to removal. It says he gets a counter and +1 life whenever any creature deals combat damage- not just killing creatures, not just himself, not just creatures you control. So an opponent swinging 4x creatures into you and you blocking 3 of them, would result in 7x +1/1 counters and gain 7 life.
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I was not entirely sure on the templating, but yeah my idea was effects similar to lignify, dragonshift, Polymorphist's Jest. But yeah, looking at that I'm definitely missing the 'loses all other abilities' clause and should edit that in, thanks.
I think losing all abilities besides maybe making it easier to balance would make it easier to represent in a game state. They could print a pseudotoken similar to the perforated counters, a version of sengir here that you'd simply place over your creature. Maybe something like the uncard Curse of the Fire Penguin
also on the issue of losing abilities vs not- I think that while maybe it opens up more interactions, it would be less mechanically distinct from just regular equipment effects. It might as well just tweak the numbers and be something like +3/+3, gains flying and the ability. But actually changing the whole card like its a clone effect- that makes it less an equipment and more a 'champion a creature'