Mentor of Foresight1U
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Vigilance
Sorcery and instant spells you control have Scry 1.
1/3
Mentor of Renewal1W
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Lifelink
Sorcery and instant spells you control have lifelink.
1/3
Mentor of Exploration1G
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Reach
Sorcery and instant spells you control have Explore. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put the card back on top or into your graveyard.)
2/2
Mentor of Pain1R
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Haste
Sorcery and instant spells you control have "This spell deals 1 damage to any target."
1/3
Mentor of Success1B
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Deathtouch
Sorcery and instant spells you control have deathtouch. (Any amount of damage a spell with deathtouch deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.)
1/3
I like this cycle. I really like the white and black cards because the creature abilities paralel the spells very well. I wish all of then where like this but I know it's not always possible.
It would be fun if the red one had double strike and doubled the damage of your spells though.
These are interesting. Unfortunately the green one doesn't function and the red one is a nightmare.
Creatures explore, Enter the Unknown, so you can't simply add it on to spells.
Adding a target to your spells is simply not a good idea, it opens all of your spells to fizzling and adds the complication of what happens when your spell targets and then it no longer has the ability that targeted. Or has other abilities that interact with targeting. This is an easy fix though, simply don't target. Either deal the damage to each opponent or deal the damage untargeted which is significantly more powerful.
Yeah, I'd support changing the red one to either "up to one target" or "damage to each opponent".
I'm not sure what abilities you could use for a new Green Mentor, but as numbers said Explore doesn't work.
Also, the stats on these feel pretty pushed for 2 mana creatures?
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“Tell me who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are.” Esmeralda Santiago Art is life itself.
Watchwolf is correct, the "Scry 1" would need to be in quotes, and is probably better as just a triggered ability. In most cases you would want to scry first anyways before casting a blue spell, which would happen with the triggered ability but not if you add it on (since newly-added abilities happen last).
Modifying the text of spells is always interesting in theory, but in practice it's difficult because any changes should be important to the spell itself; otherwise they're just better checking that the spell exists or was cast (example: Refuse deals damage equal to the spell's converted mana cost, instead of adding "this spell deals damage to you equal to its converted mana cost". There is a difference, but it rarely matters and the way Refuse does it is simpler).
A better approach might be, for the red mentor, "Instant and Sorcery spells you control have 'this spell deals 1 damage to each creature, player, and planeswalker that it targets.'" That way some aspect of the spell is important to the new text (its targets), and so placing the ability on the spell helps tie it to the fact that some aspect of the spell itself is important.
This is why the "replace all color words" sort of effects work, like Swirl the Mists; because any spell or permanent referencing a color is likely doing something with that color.
So the blue mentor could be "Instant and sorcery spells you control have 'each permanent you control that this spell targets gains hexproof until end of turn.'"
The green mentor, "Instant and [...] have 'each creature you control that this spell targets explores (reminder text).'"
The red, "[...] have 'this spell deals 1 damage to each creature, player, and planeswalker it targets.'"
and then the white and black ones could change to use the same format (or they could just stay the same. The black one might be a bit strong, but they're overall both fine).
As an aside, I would really love a whole slew of 'spellcrafting' creatures as an alternate take on a spell-slinger deck. Battlefield Thaumaturge, Soul-Scar Mage, Soulfire Grand Master, and a few of your new cards in a deck full of Splice Onto Arcane spells would be super-fun if not necessarily good.
Also, vigilance isn't really blue outside of time spiral block. You should probably just give Mentor of Foresight prowess.
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Vigilance
Sorcery and instant spells you control have Scry 1.
1/3
Mentor of Renewal 1W
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Lifelink
Sorcery and instant spells you control have lifelink.
1/3
Mentor of Exploration 1G
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Reach
Sorcery and instant spells you control have Explore. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put the card back on top or into your graveyard.)
2/2
Mentor of Pain 1R
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Haste
Sorcery and instant spells you control have "This spell deals 1 damage to any target."
1/3
Mentor of Success 1B
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
Deathtouch
Sorcery and instant spells you control have deathtouch. (Any amount of damage a spell with deathtouch deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.)
1/3
It would be fun if the red one had double strike and doubled the damage of your spells though.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Creatures explore, Enter the Unknown, so you can't simply add it on to spells.
Adding a target to your spells is simply not a good idea, it opens all of your spells to fizzling and adds the complication of what happens when your spell targets and then it no longer has the ability that targeted. Or has other abilities that interact with targeting. This is an easy fix though, simply don't target. Either deal the damage to each opponent or deal the damage untargeted which is significantly more powerful.
I'm not sure what abilities you could use for a new Green Mentor, but as numbers said Explore doesn't work.
Also, the stats on these feel pretty pushed for 2 mana creatures?
Art is life itself.
Instant and sorcery spells you cast have "Scry 1."
Or:
Instant and sorcery spells you cast have "Up to one target creature you control explores."
That would be the functional wording, anyway. More likely, however, these cards would just have triggers on casting instants and sorceries instead:
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, scry 1.
Or:
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, target creature you control explores.
That way the bonuses don't have to wait for the spells to resolve.
The white and black ones are good though. I would explore more stuff like those.
Modifying the text of spells is always interesting in theory, but in practice it's difficult because any changes should be important to the spell itself; otherwise they're just better checking that the spell exists or was cast (example: Refuse deals damage equal to the spell's converted mana cost, instead of adding "this spell deals damage to you equal to its converted mana cost". There is a difference, but it rarely matters and the way Refuse does it is simpler).
A better approach might be, for the red mentor, "Instant and Sorcery spells you control have 'this spell deals 1 damage to each creature, player, and planeswalker that it targets.'" That way some aspect of the spell is important to the new text (its targets), and so placing the ability on the spell helps tie it to the fact that some aspect of the spell itself is important.
This is why the "replace all color words" sort of effects work, like Swirl the Mists; because any spell or permanent referencing a color is likely doing something with that color.
So the blue mentor could be "Instant and sorcery spells you control have 'each permanent you control that this spell targets gains hexproof until end of turn.'"
The green mentor, "Instant and [...] have 'each creature you control that this spell targets explores (reminder text).'"
The red, "[...] have 'this spell deals 1 damage to each creature, player, and planeswalker it targets.'"
and then the white and black ones could change to use the same format (or they could just stay the same. The black one might be a bit strong, but they're overall both fine).
As an aside, I would really love a whole slew of 'spellcrafting' creatures as an alternate take on a spell-slinger deck. Battlefield Thaumaturge, Soul-Scar Mage, Soulfire Grand Master, and a few of your new cards in a deck full of Splice Onto Arcane spells would be super-fun if not necessarily good.
Also, vigilance isn't really blue outside of time spiral block. You should probably just give Mentor of Foresight prowess.
- Rabid Wombat