You know, I could see a fourth PowerPuff Girl showing up. A W/B angel accidentally created by Avacyn's time in the Helvault. She challenges Avacyn, some of the angels (possibly from Goldnight and Alabaster, being allied colours [especially Goldnight, since they're associated with the sun rather than the moon, as Avacyn is {even though Gisela is Avacyn's bestie}]) might join her, leading to an angel war. That would fit with the bloody feather and betrayed by hope bit.
Lovecraft is associated with things other than Cthilu "The Shadow over Innsmouth" has themes about ancestry, mixed races, fear of the other, transformation, and corruption, most which you can broadly apply to the original Innistrad block.
It would be interesting to see Magic handle some of those themes. Obviously some of Lovecraft's, ahem, personal views, would have to be stripped out of several of those themes, but it would be very cool to see a "quieter" storyline, that dealt with very internal threats, instead of world-ending horror, and those sorts of ideas would play very well to that.
That is, of course, if they even go the Lovcraftian-horror route. They could keep it gothic, that's a big genre.
It would be kinda a flavor fail that land that the Eldrazi have drained can be tapped for mana, but I guess it needs to be that way so we can finally have a basic that taps for colorless mana.
Technically, we only know that Ulamog drains land. Kozilek might warp it, as that is his MO in general, leaving it usable, but altered. I think, if these are real, the flavour can still work. But it leaves me wondering what Emrakul might do to land. I guess just straight up destroy. (I don't mean mechanically, just in flavour.)
Huh, that's interesting. The sun doesn't destroy Innistrad vampires (so far as we know?), or zombies, and it doesn't necessarily force werewolves back into human form, but it does have a diminishing effect on all three - as well as some spirits. Humans are safest and strongest during Goldnight, after all. Tapping's almost a better option for "solar" weapons on Innistrad, in a certain way. The sun doesn't really SOLVE any problems there, but it does help and give you time to solve them. I actually REALLY like that. Thank you for the explanation. Maybe the whole artifact needs a rethink...
How about, instead of a "golden bullet" in place of a silver bullet, a ward? Holding up a holy symbol drives the monsters off, so what about something like this:
Ward of the Sun1
Artifact - Equipment {U}
If equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by a Zombie, Werewolf, or Vampire, that creature does not untap during its controller's next untap step.
Equip 1
alongside the actual weapon:
Sungold Dagger2
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has lifelink.
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by a Vampire or Zombie, it gets double strike until end of turn.
Equip 2
Sungold Dagger 2
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and firststrike.
If equipped creature deals combat damage to a zombie, werewolf, or vampire that creature does not deal combat damage, tap it, and it does not untap during it's controllers next untap step.
Equip 2
I'm not sure about tapping, that's a very defensive ability, and this is meant to be an aggressive weapon. But thank you very much for the input and the idea!
Sungold Dagger2
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has first strike.
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by a Vampire or Zombie, it gets double strike and lifelink until end of turn.
Equip 2
I don't like the idea of granting both first strike and double strike due to the inherent redundancy. I'd prefer....
Sungold Dagger2
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has lifelink.
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by a Vampire or Zombie, it gets double strike until end of turn.
Equip 2
...The costs and power boost may need to be adjusted accordingly.
Agreed. Having both there is inelegant and redundant. First strike would function all the time, but this is supposed to be meant for dealing with vampires and zombies, and otherwise is mostly useless as equipment, so it doesn't really need to be there.
I think I like this version the best so far. Small boost, lifegain, and it hurts undead. That all makes sense thematically, and it doesn't feel too over the top, but does manage to be a little unique among all the equipment I drew inspiration from. Admittedly, it does kind of just feel like a reshuffle of the abilities present on that equipment, but it's a reasonable reshuffle... I think. Still need to figure out costs as you said. Thank you for the suggestions.
I completely misread what your lifegain condition was, originally. I thought it meant you gained life equal to the target creature's power, which is why I brought up Ghoultree. It's a big zombie you could just keep pinging for minimal damage but still suck 10 life off of each time. Having read the ability correctly it certainly not as abuse-able as I thought.
Double strike v Vampires and Zombies is much more elegant, thank you for thinking of that. But now I'm torn between the lifegain ability and double strike.
With proper costing, would this work, or does it just read like a lame attempt to mash keywords together? (Really unsure about leaving first strike in there, even if it is permanent against the other two conditional abilities.)
Sungold Dagger2
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has first strike.
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by a Vampire or Zombie, it gets double strike and lifelink until end of turn.
Equip 2
You could make it feel less like a repeat by ditching the Human tribal and doing something like,
Sungold Dagger2
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has first strike.
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked by a Vampire, Werewolf, or Zombie, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn, and you gain life equal to its power.
Equip 3
I'm not sure of the balance here, numbers might be off.
Oh that lifegain is interesting! But is it too open to hilarious abuse? If this card had been in the Innistrad block, you had things like Ghoultree, which was a 10/10 zombie. Attack with four of these, that's 40 life in one turn. Extreme case, certainly, but it could happen a lot more outside of limited.
Should it have the toughness boost? It is just a dagger, you can't really protect yourself much with that. Wooden Stake is similar to what you're suggesting, and both it and Silver-Inlaid Dagger only give +power.
Sungold Dagger2
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has first strike.
If equipped creature would deal damage to a Vampire or Zombie, it deals double that damage to that creature instead.
Equip 3
I agree about the lifegain. It felt like it needed an enters-the-battlefield effect, thematically, to reinforce the idea of bright, aggressive magic - the sun dawning after the long night, that kinda thing. But since it's equipment I wasn't sure how to do anything useful with that, and did indeed just tack lifegain on.
I'm not sure how to keep it "feeling" Goldnight-themed while getting it away from Sharpened Pitchfork. I guess ideally it should come somewhere between Sharpened Pitchfork and Blazing Torch, to some degree?
With the return to Innistrad looming, I got to thinking about how the humans deal with threats - particularly when they don't have Avacyn's backing.
Avacyn, as well as most of the plane, has significant associations with the moon, and even draws power from it. But with Avacyn gone, humanity and the angels started to lose that power. It's fallible. And who knows what might be about to happen to it, given that ominous trailer for Shadows Over Innistrad.
The Cathars and Archmages of Goldnight had a prophecy that Avacyn would disappear one day, and tried to prepare accordingly. Their associated branch of the church (and Flight of angels) is even named after a day of the year when the sun never sets. However, they're only associated with the sun; they still draw power from Avacyn - and the moon.
We know non-Avacynian, non-evil magic exists on Innistrad, so why not take Goldnight's line of thinking a little further? Why couldn't a spearsage do a bit of creative thinking (they are the red-aligned part of the church, after all) and take their own ideology of "...spells [that] are powerful and aggressive, casting blinding rays of holy light..." and try and draw power from the sun itself? They were already preparing against Avacyn's disappearance before, now they know how powerless they'll be if it happens again.
I don't know if Innistrad's sun actually offers any kind of power the way its moon does. There's no evidence or implication of that, but I thought it was an interesting idea to toy with. In theory, in-setting, this weapon would/could still work on vampires and the undead, because of the sun's representation of fire (and also because magic), but I'm not sure it would be any good against werewolves, since, well, silver's their thing. Maybe it would also work as a ward against spirits, warding them off like the sun would.
For the card itself, I took inspiration from Silver-Inlaid Dagger, and tried to make something that fit thematically with Goldnight. Most of the cards that clearly depict or reference Goldnight have ETB effects, first strike, and life gain; and many of Innistrad's artifacts had an "If human" clause. I tried to combine all this well, but I feel it might be a bit too much, both in terms of power, and just messy to look at.
Thanks for reading.
SUNGOLD DAGGER2
Artifact - Equipment {U}
Equipped creature has first strike.
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
As long as equipped creature is a Human, it gets an additional +1/+0
When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
Equip 2 Avacyn's power failed us once, it can fail again. - Heretical Spearsage
If things are going to be very story-focussed, I don't know if there will be a place for it, but I really hope we get a look at the rest of the world. Innistrad has a thriving sea port, ship building, traders, captains who can control the wind... Where are they all going? Plus, since the Creature From the Black Lagoon was a notably missing "classic movie monster" it'd be a great chance to get fish-people in. (Which also fits with the general Lovecraftian vibe everyone seems to be expecting.)
I would think spark-less beings would remain on the plane when tangling with a walker. Thassa had Kiora by the throat and didn't get pulled along when Kiora walked away. If, somehow, a plane bound entity did end up in the Blind Eternities they would be ripped apart without the protection of a spark.
Ah, forgot about Thassa. That's a perfect, recent example.
How large an object can a neo-walker 'walk? Clothes, swords, books, we've seen all that carried along. But a planeswalker can't take her favourite horse. What if a planeswalker is in a thopter? Can she 'walk that? What if a shapeshifter turned into a pair of pants? Would the planeswalker arrive pants-less? And at what point does a person "along for the ride" die? Or do they? For example, a planeswalker is grappling with a non-walker, and they enter the Blind Eternities. Does the person they're grappling with simply stay behind, or get pulled along and obliterated?
I think this is a very interesting approach, having the story online and in the fatpacks.
Innistrad had a very interesting story to it, but it was spread out and buried and remains difficult to read all of. BFZ's story, on the other hand, is everywhere. You can pick up the cards, know roughly that the Eldrazi are bad and generally how they get stopped; you can go online and find out more about the characters in very clearly linked but slow to appear articles; or you can buy a fat pack and get the story all at once. And of course, it makes perfect financial sense. What to know the story? Well, pay up.
Well, yeah. True enough. That was more just there as a random guess at a possible 4th generation, which, correct me if I'm wrong, there's never been any evidence of pre-Razia angels?
It would be interesting to see Magic handle some of those themes. Obviously some of Lovecraft's, ahem, personal views, would have to be stripped out of several of those themes, but it would be very cool to see a "quieter" storyline, that dealt with very internal threats, instead of world-ending horror, and those sorts of ideas would play very well to that.
That is, of course, if they even go the Lovcraftian-horror route. They could keep it gothic, that's a big genre.
How about, instead of a "golden bullet" in place of a silver bullet, a ward? Holding up a holy symbol drives the monsters off, so what about something like this:alongside the actual weapon:
Agreed. Having both there is inelegant and redundant. First strike would function all the time, but this is supposed to be meant for dealing with vampires and zombies, and otherwise is mostly useless as equipment, so it doesn't really need to be there.
I think I like this version the best so far. Small boost, lifegain, and it hurts undead. That all makes sense thematically, and it doesn't feel too over the top, but does manage to be a little unique among all the equipment I drew inspiration from. Admittedly, it does kind of just feel like a reshuffle of the abilities present on that equipment, but it's a reasonable reshuffle... I think. Still need to figure out costs as you said. Thank you for the suggestions.
I completely misread what your lifegain condition was, originally. I thought it meant you gained life equal to the target creature's power, which is why I brought up Ghoultree. It's a big zombie you could just keep pinging for minimal damage but still suck 10 life off of each time. Having read the ability correctly
Double strike v Vampires and Zombies is much more elegant, thank you for thinking of that. But now I'm torn between the lifegain ability and double strike.
With proper costing, would this work, or does it just read like a lame attempt to mash keywords together? (Really unsure about leaving first strike in there, even if it is permanent against the other two conditional abilities.)
Should it have the toughness boost? It is just a dagger, you can't really protect yourself much with that. Wooden Stake is similar to what you're suggesting, and both it and Silver-Inlaid Dagger only give +power.
Hmm. What about stealing from Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, a little bit?
Sungold Dagger 2
Artifact — Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has first strike.
If equipped creature would deal damage to a Vampire or Zombie, it deals double that damage to that creature instead.
Equip 3
With that change, how about "gain life equal to damage done by equipped creature." ?
Thank you both for the ideas and input!
I agree about the lifegain. It felt like it needed an enters-the-battlefield effect, thematically, to reinforce the idea of bright, aggressive magic - the sun dawning after the long night, that kinda thing. But since it's equipment I wasn't sure how to do anything useful with that, and did indeed just tack lifegain on.
I'm not sure how to keep it "feeling" Goldnight-themed while getting it away from Sharpened Pitchfork. I guess ideally it should come somewhere between Sharpened Pitchfork and Blazing Torch, to some degree?
Avacyn, as well as most of the plane, has significant associations with the moon, and even draws power from it. But with Avacyn gone, humanity and the angels started to lose that power. It's fallible. And who knows what might be about to happen to it, given that ominous trailer for Shadows Over Innistrad.
The Cathars and Archmages of Goldnight had a prophecy that Avacyn would disappear one day, and tried to prepare accordingly. Their associated branch of the church (and Flight of angels) is even named after a day of the year when the sun never sets. However, they're only associated with the sun; they still draw power from Avacyn - and the moon.
We know non-Avacynian, non-evil magic exists on Innistrad, so why not take Goldnight's line of thinking a little further? Why couldn't a spearsage do a bit of creative thinking (they are the red-aligned part of the church, after all) and take their own ideology of "...spells [that] are powerful and aggressive, casting blinding rays of holy light..." and try and draw power from the sun itself? They were already preparing against Avacyn's disappearance before, now they know how powerless they'll be if it happens again.
I don't know if Innistrad's sun actually offers any kind of power the way its moon does. There's no evidence or implication of that, but I thought it was an interesting idea to toy with. In theory, in-setting, this weapon would/could still work on vampires and the undead, because of the sun's representation of fire (and also because magic), but I'm not sure it would be any good against werewolves, since, well, silver's their thing. Maybe it would also work as a ward against spirits, warding them off like the sun would.
For the card itself, I took inspiration from Silver-Inlaid Dagger, and tried to make something that fit thematically with Goldnight. Most of the cards that clearly depict or reference Goldnight have ETB effects, first strike, and life gain; and many of Innistrad's artifacts had an "If human" clause. I tried to combine all this well, but I feel it might be a bit too much, both in terms of power, and just messy to look at.
Thanks for reading.
And gargoyles! I demand more gargoyles!
Ah, forgot about Thassa. That's a perfect, recent example.
I always figured Ob Nixilis = obnoxious.
Innistrad had a very interesting story to it, but it was spread out and buried and remains difficult to read all of. BFZ's story, on the other hand, is everywhere. You can pick up the cards, know roughly that the Eldrazi are bad and generally how they get stopped; you can go online and find out more about the characters in very clearly linked but slow to appear articles; or you can buy a fat pack and get the story all at once. And of course, it makes perfect financial sense. What to know the story? Well, pay up.