I wanted to design a creature or planeswalker card which, when played, behaved as though it was an entirely new player that had just joined the game. Planeswalkers are arguably like this but, flavorfully, you still control planeswalkers to the extent that you've recruited them and they follow your orders. I wanted this card to behave completely actively (rather than passively) and autonomously, to the point where it would impact the board but have the same effect on the game regardless of which player had it under their control. This is what I came up with:
Barzal, the Impetuous (1)(B)(R)(R)
Legendary Creature - Demon {M}
Flying, haste
Barzal, the Impetuous can’t block and can't be sacrificed.
At the beginning of your declare attackers phase, if Barzal is untapped, flip a coin. If you win the flip, Barzal attacks an opponent chosen at random, if able. Otherwise, Barzal can’t attack this combat.
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, that player gains control of Barzal, the Impetuous and untaps it. "You summoned me, yes, but I heed no call."
4/6
I also wanted to include "Barzal, the Impetuous has shroud as long as it's tapped" in order to prevent players from getting around the chance factor of the card, but felt that it a) made the card too wordy and b) actually didn't really fit the flavor I was going for since players are perfectly capable of reacting to what their opponents are doing under normal conditions (so why shouldn't a player be able to kill Barzal in response to his "decision" to attack them?).
Anyway, as you can tell, I made the card heavily red to fit with the autonomous flavor of the card, but only after finishing it did I realize that it would actually be possible to design cards of any color that behave this way (e.g., a white creature that blocks/prevents damage to its controller or its controller's weakest creature, but changes controllers based on life totals, who controls how many creatures, or whether any of its controller's creatures died last turn, etc.).
But before I get ahead of myself, how does this card look? Is it formatted properly? Does it work the way I intend it to? Does it break the game somehow? (The legendary rule doesn't cause you to sacrifice permanents, right?) How is its power level? (To the statistically/probabilistically uninitiated, this card is actually more likely to help you than hurt you in the long run in a 1v1 game. Assuming you played it during your pre-combat main phase, by the time your next main pre-combat main phase rolls around, if Barzal hasn't died or been targeted by any spells or abilities and there were no extra combat phases, the odds that it's a) attacked your opponent are 50%, b) attacked you are only 25%, and c) under your control are 75%).
Is "impetuous" the word I was searching for?
[Edit]: Would "Barzal, the Impetuous can’t block and spells or abilities any player controls can't cause Barzal to be sacrificed" be better, if wordier?
Legendary Creature - Demon {M}
Flying, haste
Barzal, the Impetuous can’t block and can't be sacrificed.
At the beginning of your declare attackers phase, if Barzal is untapped, flip a coin. If you win the flip, Barzal attacks an opponent chosen at random, if able. Otherwise, Barzal can’t attack this combat.
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, that player gains control of Barzal, the Impetuous and untaps it.
"You summoned me, yes, but I heed no call."
4/6
I also wanted to include "Barzal, the Impetuous has shroud as long as it's tapped" in order to prevent players from getting around the chance factor of the card, but felt that it a) made the card too wordy and b) actually didn't really fit the flavor I was going for since players are perfectly capable of reacting to what their opponents are doing under normal conditions (so why shouldn't a player be able to kill Barzal in response to his "decision" to attack them?).
Anyway, as you can tell, I made the card heavily red to fit with the autonomous flavor of the card, but only after finishing it did I realize that it would actually be possible to design cards of any color that behave this way (e.g., a white creature that blocks/prevents damage to its controller or its controller's weakest creature, but changes controllers based on life totals, who controls how many creatures, or whether any of its controller's creatures died last turn, etc.).
But before I get ahead of myself, how does this card look? Is it formatted properly? Does it work the way I intend it to? Does it break the game somehow? (The legendary rule doesn't cause you to sacrifice permanents, right?) How is its power level? (To the statistically/probabilistically uninitiated, this card is actually more likely to help you than hurt you in the long run in a 1v1 game. Assuming you played it during your pre-combat main phase, by the time your next main pre-combat main phase rolls around, if Barzal hasn't died or been targeted by any spells or abilities and there were no extra combat phases, the odds that it's a) attacked your opponent are 50%, b) attacked you are only 25%, and c) under your control are 75%).
Is "impetuous" the word I was searching for?
[Edit]: Would "Barzal, the Impetuous can’t block and spells or abilities any player controls can't cause Barzal to be sacrificed" be better, if wordier?