OMFG!!! I remember this game!!! I knew you were feathers from this site, Rocko510 is my other username, and the deck wasn't a delver deck it was just a 4-color list I made the night before because I couldn't sleep, lol. I still need to test that deck, but my reasoning for 4-colors was if zoo could do it than so could this.
PS: I missclick ALOT online that is why you saw the KOTR and I'm sorry for leaving, I forget why I did that, probably because I never make sideboards.
Edit: oh right I remember why I left, that was my first day on cockatrice and I didn't realise that you were still in my lobby, I thought you left and didn't just concede.
The base of the deck I was thinking about uses cards like Back to Basics, Propaganda, and counters to slow down your opponents while you setup your manabase (mentioned above) to cast powerful blue instants and sorceries like Rite of Replication, Bribery, Expropriate, Time Warp, etc. The goal here to use cards that Jace can flashback for double value to overwhelm your opponents.
Or Mindslaver could be run as a way to grind opponents out by making them fight each other.
First, yes this card is obviously overpowered. I set out to make a card to my liking and in doing so I had to be bias as I am trying to achieve a specific set of goals with this card. This is a brief version of the flavor I wanted to build the card upon. A mysterious elemental Drake born out of Zendikar's roil that travels across parts of the plane attracting Drakes and reshaping the terrain much like the actual roil.
From this I assembled a list of goals:
-Lands Matter (Native to Zendikar so a strong influence)
-Create a terrain warping effect like the roil
-Drakes sub theme (not drake tribal)
-Low CMC
-Color Identity of atleast Blue-Green (would prefer to have black as well if it could work)
I appreciate you spending the time to make that card and wow was the amount of text worse than I thought so obviously the land-specific ability needs to be dropped or atleast significantly reworked. I would like to have a similar effect to this, because I'm still attached to the idea that this creature gains power from the lands it's warping based off its type.
The "warping" ability is certainly going to be the base I would like to design this card from going forward and I understand the concerns of how powerful it could be so I was thinking about moving the random land from your library from immediately after to at the beginning of your next upkeep. Doing this keeps you a land behind on your opponents' turns and it gives you another Drake on your upkeep instead of the turn before meaning it can't attack right away. After that landfall drake generator is something I'm looking to keep.
I do really like having the warp effect triggers for each player during their upkeeps but forcing everyone shuffle every turn seems very cumbersome, while forcing myself to shuffle every turn is something I don't mind. What I liked about your version of the ability though was that it added an aspect of control to the card and randomness which I was interested in achieving.
As for a potential deck theme I could see this card fitting in would be a land-based control deck that wins with tokens. Overlapping a bit with Titania strategies.
Thanks for all the responses. Hopefully I can flesh this card out to bit somewhat more balanced this time and update this with my progress.
I came up with some lore to help me design this card. The setting is pre-ROE Zendikar and focuses on the mystery of the roil. [Insert Name] is an ancient creature born out of the roil, an elemental with the body of a Drake. Much like the roil, [] has the capability to alter the land in its wake. Comparatively though, []'s effect is much smaller and often goes unnoticed to those not looking for it and the few that have been lucky enough to find its trail are often left lost, as the [] is forgiving to no creature. Because of this [] remains as one of Zendikar's mysteries. [] tends to remain in Zendikar's vast seas, harsh swamps and lush forests but as it travels other Drakes are drawn to it. Drakes in the flock follow the will of [].
Card Ideas:
Soon into brainstorming ideas I shifted the primary focus from Drakes to lands to fit into the overall Zendikar theme while trying to keep true to the original Drake theme. With this in mind I have a few key points I wanna hit: interacts with lands, creates drakes, low cmc. Using the previous points and the "lore" I created the following base for the card:
[]
Legendary Creature - Elemental Drake (M)
Flying, Shroud
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, create a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying.
2/2
Originally I wanted to make this a 3cmc commander but I felt that was really pushing it, especially in its current state it feels very bland and I knew I wanted to add another ability. So I came up with this:
-
Whenever a land you control leaves the battlefield, you may sacrifice X Drakes you control. If that land was an Island, untap up to X target permanents you control and tap up to X target permanents an opponent controls, those permanents do not untap during their controller's next untap step. If that land was a Swamp, target opponent discards X cards at random from their hand. If that land was a Forest, you may return up to X cards from your graveyard to your hand at random.
At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a land. If you do, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card, put that card onto the battlefield and then shuffle the remaining cards back into your library.
-
Yes... It's a wall of text, I know. The second half is supposed to be [] using the roil to warp the land as it passes by, hence the end step trigger. I really like this ability but just that alone would be the same thing as just creating another Drake token and untapping a land at my end step so I felt it needed more. That's when I incorporated the Drakes into the equation to add the Zendikar theme of exploration. I decided to use the basic land types as a way to dictate where the group has traveled and what effects they have "gathered". So, rather than having another Landfall ability I decided to make it a LTB ability instead, as if these effects can only be used as the roil is warping the terrain, potentially losing a few Drakes along the way.
Final Product:
[]
Legendary Creature - Elemental Drake (M)
Flying, Shroud
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, create a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying.
Whenever a land you control leaves the battlefield, you may sacrifice X Drakes you control. If that land was an Island, untap up to X target permanents you control and tap up to X target permanents an opponent controls, those permanents do not unwrap during their controller's next unwrap step. If that land was a Swamp, target opponent discards X cards at random from their hand. If that land was a Forest, you may return up to X cards from your graveyard to your hand at random.
At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a land. If you do, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card, put that card onto the battlefield and then shuffle the remaining cards back into your library.
2/2
Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks for reading this. Sorry if this is the wrong place for this thread, just looking for commander specific feedback.
My only thing against Yahenni is that I would prefer a more "traditional" vampire at the helm, whereas she is an Aetherborn first and foremost. Drana, Liberator of Malakir will for sure be in the deck but I wanted to do a little more than just attack. The synergies with persist are something to note though.
The art on Garza Zol just doesn't do it for me, that's just my opinion though. Other than that I'm not a fan of a CMC of 7. Sorin on the other hand will be in the deck, first for flavor and second because there's a guy in my playgroup that almost always sets my life to 10 with him, time for revenge haha.
Olivia Voldaren I think I put as a future option for the deck, kinda on a mono color deck kick so maybe in the future I would upgrade the deck to include red. My biggest gripe with Drana 1.0 is that she seems so 1 dimensional, being that your main goal every game is to make a bunch of mana.
I never really though of it this way. That's an interesting way to turn the deck building disadvantage into an advantage. I'm a big fan reusable resources in commander so this certainly ups my excitement to build an Anowon deck.
I've narrowed my options down to 3:
Anowon, the Ruin Sage:
Control/Stax build seems logical
Pro:
-Sacrifice effects are very strong.
-Has a bad-ass feel to him.
-Control Decks are my favorite.
Con:
-Limits the amount of non-vampire creatures I can play.
-Decent body but nothing special and no evasion.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief:
Big Mana/Black good stuff
Pro:
-Can be a wincon on her own.
-Evasion and grows in size.
-Has built-in removal.
Con:
-Worried about being a target when she's in play.
Olivia Voldaren:
Pro:
-Can be a wincon on her own.
-Evasion and grows in size.
-Has built-in utility.
-Access to a second color.
Con:
-Not a red player.
Right now I'm leaning towards Anowon but looking for opinions.
Thanks!
Potential ideas:
-A near creature-less deck using Time Twister effects as "experiments" to find combos
Main Concerns:
My ideas for sub themes so far:
Any thoughts or help would be appreciated!
Thanks for the response. Alright, so I'll just keep Coralhelm Commander out of the deck since the Merrow Reejerey is better most of the time. Sad to see my favorite merfolk go. As for True-Name Nemesis, I plan on getting those eventually but the 4th Force of Will is the main priority for me now.
Thanks
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
3 Phantasmal Image
3 Merrow Reejerey
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Aether Vial
Spells:
3 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Dismember
3 Standstill
Lands:
4 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
12 Island
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle
4 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Spreading Seas
2 Hibernation
1 Submerge
2 Echoing Truth
1 Warping Wail
2 Spell Snare
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor