MTG Salvation

Solesticio - Humble Tutor seems too abusable.

Do you think? It certainly is flexible, but is like the old tutors. They were good, but I doubt this one would be that broken.

Quote from gumOnShoe

My card today was supposed to be a "Black Overrun" but its not getting much love. Hopefully everyone noted it was a sorcery. But it felt black to me anyways. Too cheap?

I think maybe just a tad, for what it does. Mindslaver costs 10 altogether (for the casting cost, then the activation cost) and it's a Mythic at that, and although Sorin Markov is 6cmc, you typically dont ever get to do his ultimate. Your card is basically casting him and doing his ultimate right off the bat. AND you can control him during your turn.

Heads-up: won't be here tomorrow, as I'm PTQing and need to get up super-early to meet my ride.

EDIT: It'd be appreciated if someone posts the thread today. Cheers.

Quote from gumOnShoe

Yeah, but what it normally is is Venser's -1 ability, which is also CMC five. You choose to have your opponent's not block. If you're lucky, you get to play a destruction spell. The lands your opponent tapped during their turn, don't untap, nor do those creatures. And not many activated abilities are as devastating when you can't play sorcery effects.

I guess I could bump it up to 6cmc. But does everyone really think it needs that much of a bump?

I agree with Mundus. I thought your card was a little undercosted, Gum. Yes, Venser's -1 is also cmc 5... but only if you're going two colors for him. And yours adds a whole bunch of other effects besides just giving you unblockable creatures. A whole bunch.

So having completely missed the 4th, I was wondering, how often do you guys forget about the DCC and not remember in time to get a card in for the day? Or is that just me?

It happens to me at least once per month. I remembered it happening once 3 days before the end of the month, destroying my chances of winning that month (I was a couple points behind the leader.)

Just a reminder that Memnarch will not be around to post the DCC today. I have my hands full too so please someone else do it, soon if possible.

I came back now and no one was able to put the new thread :s I'll jump for it now.


EDIT: It's done. Uff this is hard. Memnarch, tell me you have a script....you do this for so long

Quote from Zoomba

Thanks a lot Solestico. From my one failed attempt I know how annoying it is to get that thread up and running. Also, the mana tags in your card for tomorrow are off and I can't tell what color it is.

They're not off, it was the simplest way I came up to represent Phyrexian incolor mana. So instead of :sympw:, which can be paid with white, you should be able to pay with or 2 life.

Thank you very much, gumOnShoe. I have figured my cards for the past few days have been both balanced and interesting but I figured others didn't really think so.

Can someone let me know in reference to my card today, if I make things creatures do they have to have a power and toughness? Or can they just gain the type as I intended?

Quote from KarmicNoose

Can someone let me know in reference to my card today, if I make things creatures do they have to have a power and toughness? Or can they just gain the type as I intended?

I think that it will work, though it will run into a lot of confusing issues. Off the top of my head: Ashes of the Fallen + Haakon, Stromgald Scourge.

Your Lich turns your artifacts into creatures. Ashes turns them into Knights. Haakon brings them back from the grave. When they hit the board, they are no longer creatures, so they stick around.

Of course, I could have just used Living Death, Reanimate, etc for recurrsion examples.

But as is, I think it would work, since they can't move into the graveyard due to no toughness because they are already in the graveyard.

Also, the tokens don't leave has no effect on your ability because tokens aren't cards, so the creature's ability won't see them anyways. And if it did, then it's another headache because "Did I have 3 tokens in there or 4?"

Quote from Yodavader

I think that it will work, though it will run into a lot of confusing issues. Off the top of my head: Ashes of the Fallen + Haakon, Stromgald Scourge.

Your Lich turns your artifacts into creatures. Ashes turns them into Knights. Haakon brings them back from the grave. When they hit the board, they are no longer creatures, so they stick around.

Of course, I could have just used Living Death, Reanimate, etc for recurrsion examples.

That was kind of the point. I wanted to give him the combo potential to let you Zombify an enchantment back from the graveyard.

Quote from Yodavader

But as is, I think it would work, since they can't move into the graveyard due to no toughness because they are already in the graveyard.

Also, the tokens don't leave has no effect on your ability because tokens aren't cards, so the creature's ability won't see them anyways. And if it did, then it's another headache because "Did I have 3 tokens in there or 4?"

Yea. I'll rework this.

Quote from KarmicNoose

Can someone let me know in reference to my card today, if I make things creatures do they have to have a power and toughness? Or can they just gain the type as I intended?

I'm pretty confident it would work as written, but since any effect which cares about the power or toughness of the card (such as Dead Reckoning) will end up using 0 (the default for an undefined value), I think it might be better to explicitly make them 0/0 to avoid confusion.
Then again, that just doesn't read as cleanly and elegantly as the current version, so I'm not sure.

For those who liked River of Dreams: Thank you. I thought I'd offer a bit of insight on how it came to be.

The first idea came when I was thinking about a "land drop" as a cost for a spell, as it presents a very interesting paradox: In the first turns, it's an almost unfathomable cost, but in the late game is basically free and a relief to an unwanted topdeck. The compromise was found allowing you to make a choice depending on your situation; in the first turns you can choose to keep the land and in the late turns, get the effect 9(but never both). This allows me to make the effect something that would be almost too powerful if played early (something that normally would cost 1 or 2 mana,) but reasonable if played late.

River of Dreams, has perhaps the weakest effect in the cycle, but the most strategically advantageous. Since I won't use the cycle in the DCC, now that the novelty is gone, I'll just leave it here for your consideration:

The W one puts a 2/2 cat creature token onto the battlefield if sacrificed.
The B makes an opponent lose 2 life and you gain 2 life if sacrificed.
The R one deals 3 damage to target creature if sacrificed.
The G one allows you to search your library for any land card and put it in your hand if sacrificed.

I just want to add that I think Surging Chaos's Sparkhunter was heads and shoulders above the other submissions in today's vote. I'd really love if WotC puts out more cards like this that would punish planeswalkers (imo, planeswalkers are a game warping lunacy).

Quote from hoyerhan

I just want to add that I think Surging Chaos's Sparkhunter was heads and shoulders above the other submissions in today's vote. I'd really love if WotC puts out more cards like this that would punish planeswalkers (imo, planeswalkers are a game warping lunacy).

I think it's way too good. This weekend, in Vintage, Slash Panther was the tech card in Mishra's decks because it can kill Jaces out of nowhere. Of course it is incolor, so it fits any deck, but Surging Chaos' entry kills any planeswalker out of nowhere or, if not, is almost certain it will survive for another attack, even if blocked. 2 mana for a 5/4 hasty trampler, imo, is way too good.

Quote from Solesticio

I think it's way too good. This weekend, in Vintage, Slash Panther was the tech card in Mishra's decks because it can kill Jaces out of nowhere. Of course it is incolor, so it fits any deck, but Surging Chaos' entry kills any planeswalker out of nowhere or, if not, is almost certain it will survive for another attack, even if blocked. 2 mana for a 5/4 hasty trampler, imo, is way too good.

So what? I dare say that the very fact that Slash Panter is considered "good" because it is a foil to Jace it is proof that planeswalkers are too good. It certainly is not that Slash Panter is broken.

And ironically, Sparkhunter would never replace Slash Panter in the very deck you used as proof that Sparkhunter is "way too good".

More, Sparkhunter is in essence a reactive card. I'd compare it to Kataki, War's Wage-type cards. And imo, reactive cards are never broken. Kataki and Sparkhunter are pretty underwhelming when not facing artifacts or planeswalkers, respectively.

Sparkhunter broken? I'm not buying it. "Kill Jaces out of nowhere" sounds perfectly fine to me.

Quote from hoyerhan

So what? I dare say that the very fact that Slash Panter is considered "good" because it is a foil to Jace it is proof that planeswalkers are too good. It certainly is not that Slash Panter is broken.

And ironically, Sparkhunter would never replace Slash Panter in the very deck you used as proof that Sparkhunter is "way too good".

More, Sparkhunter is in essence a reactive card. I'd compare it to Kataki, War's Wage-type cards. And imo, reactive cards are never broken. Kataki and Sparkhunter are pretty underwhelming when not facing artifacts or planeswalkers, respectively.

Sparkhunter broken? I'm not buying it. "Kill Jaces out of nowhere" sounds perfectly fine to me.

I'm not saying Slash Panther is broken, I was just introducing my argument. But slash panther costs 4 plus 2 life. Sparkhunter costs 2, it's bigger and has trample.

Also, Kataki is a corner-case hoser. It is completely irrelevant against 1/2 artifacts. And as you can easily have artifacts in any deck, nowadays you usually have planeswalkers in almost all decks. They are part of the game, like it or not. But Kataki is irrelevant against 1/2 artifacts. Sparkhunter is not against 1/2 walkers.

Usually you spent a Bolt, a Beast Within. With Sparkhunter you have card advantage. Why? Because it's so hard to kill if blocked.


Don't get me wrong, I like the idea. But without trample and a boost of +2/+2 would be also good and much more balanced.

Quote from Solesticio

And as you can easily have artifacts in any deck, nowadays you usually have planeswalkers in almost all decks.

I loathe planeswalkers, because - barring cramming your deck with low cost aggressive creatures - there are virtually no answers for them. And if you don't have a quick answer, the planeswalker will win the game. In effect, creatureless decks are unplayable now.

Imo, planeswalkers are in general much more powerful than artifacts, and most artifacts can be answered with 1 or 2 mana spells. Artifact removal is abundant.

Quote from hoyerhan

there are virtually no answers for them.

Oblivion Ring
Any form of direct damage to players
Any form of bounce and several counterspells
Hex Parasite
Vampire Hexmage
Beast Within
Duress
Despise

And I'm only mentioning the heavily played ones. If you take in account that artifacts and enchantments cannot be attacked to get rid of them, how can you say that they are harder to get rid of?

Quote from hoyerhan

I loathe planeswalkers, because - barring cramming your deck with low cost aggressive creatures - there are virtually no answers for them. And if you don't have a quick answer, the planeswalker will win the game. In effect, creatureless decks are unplayable now.

Imo, planeswalkers are in general much more powerful than artifacts, and most artifacts can be answered with 1 or 2 mana spells. Artifact removal is abundant.

Quote from Maokun

Oblivion Ring
Any form of direct damage to players
Any form of bounce and several counterspells
Hex Parasite
Vampire Hexmage
Beast Within
Duress
Despise

And I'm only mentioning the heavily played ones. If you take in account that artifacts and enchantments cannot be attacked to get rid of them, how can you say that they are harder to get rid of?

______^this

Quote from Yodavader

Angelic Savior 7WW
Creature - Angel (M)
Flying, vigilance, protection from black, blue, red, and green.
When ~ enters the battlefield, if you have 5 or less life, your life total becomes 20.
WWW: Exile ~ with 1 time counter. It gains suspend.
6/8

Would this have been better if this was better costed? I've been thinking about this and have come to the conclusion that it should probably be more along the lines of 5WW for the mana cost and 4WW for the suspend ability. It's not so hard to cast anymore and the ability can't be abused as much.

I only ask because I altered my green suspend guy to have 5GG as both the mana cost and suspend ability cost. RRR seems okay for the Giant since after you exile all lands, getting 3 red mana again is a little more difficult.

But then again, Crucible of Worlds doesn't let you play additional lands, so how many land drops can you spare to kill your opponent's guys? Maybe in the late game when you no longer need lands, but at that point, the guys that you want to kill will have higher toughness (or an aggro deck killed you by sheer tempo advantage) As for the green one, yes the effect is perhaps the most powerful, but can you afford to cripple your mana development for a land that you will only be able to play next turn? Think Valakut, the most highly desirable land to be tutored in modern history. Which turn would be ok to set yourself back a land drop just to be able to play valakut next turn? Surely not turn 1-3 and by turn 4 you can just play primeval.