Many people have expressed concern that the removal of cheap land destruction effects has limited red's slice of the color pie, and I agree. Everything they've printed of late has been either too expensive (Memorial to War) or ineffective (Stensia Innkeeper). So, I came up with concepts for design trends which would allow red to disrupt mana development again. Please let me know which you think would work best.
Goblin Squatter1RR Creature - Goblin
When Goblin Squatter enters the battlefield, exile target land until Goblin Squatter leaves the battlefield.
Goblin Squatter attacks each turn if able.
2/1
This old gobbo's LD is temporary as long as the other guy is willing to remove it somehow, which should be easy given the 1 toughness and forced attacking.
Looming Fallout2R Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land
When enchanted land becomes tapped, its controller sacrifices it.
A delayed effect that allows the victim to choose when their land is lost, and use the mana one last time.
Gremlin Hive1R Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land
Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, target opponent creates a 2/2 red Gremlin creature token.
Very cheap, punishes you for using your mana instead of removing the land completely. If they need it more than once, the value this card can generate is massive.
Goblin Squatter, there is more problem in a critical mass than in this one card. As the sole cheap LD in a format it's cute. As part of a slew of similarly coated cards in every set it quickly becomes degenerate because you got a body with the LD. Honestly is might be too good anyway because of the 2 power on the body.
Loomimg Fallout probably the most balanced effect. Still adds fear of a critical mass.
Germlin Hive, absurdly broken. The investment to benefit ratio is insane. On the play you can hit their ONLY land. To stay at this cost it would have to cost you either life or mana to get the creature.
LD has rarely been an important part of red decks plan to win. It going away isn't a problem. Though as far as solutions go none of these are that great. Turning them into Gemstone Mines would be a better than the immediate destruction. Or the gremlin land where you can only get X total gremlins(3?).
Gremlin Hive -- there's something wrong with the wording here. You still control the enchantment, so your opponent is the one getting the gremlins. So, this should probably read "Enchant land target opponent controls. Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, create a 2/2 red Gremlin creature token." Should cost more.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
How about a blend of the last two cards to make something a bit less snowbally:
Rumbling Burrows2RR
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land
When enchanted land becomes tapped, its controller sacrifices it and you create two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens.
^That templating also gives the card some use if you topdeck it in the late game (use it on your own land).
Cards like Goblin Squatter are more dangerous than you might realize. When you staple efficient land removal to a creature as a drawback to keep it in check in the intended case- kill the gobbo and get it back- you also empower it to be extremely oppressive in the more dangerous case. All land removal strategies by their nature are aimed at locking your opponent out of casting their spells, and when the limiting factor on the land destruction requires your opponent to cast spells, that means they can set up board states where you can't answer the land destruction. So when Goblin Squatter locks an opponent out of casting spells, he winds up being a stone rain that deals 2 damage per turn. A massive upside. Imagine your opponent has only 2+ mana cards in hand and you play turn 1 birds, turn 2 squatter, turn 3 squatter, turn 4 other land destruction, etc etc. Your opponent never gets to cast a spell. Eventually they miss a land drop and you've stabilize a board where you're dealing 4 damage per turn and they have 1 land and are discarding to hand size.
Gremlin Hive however is a great effect, just not priced right or templated properly as others have said. I think its a very interesting idea to let your opponent control when you get the value from it. As a punisher effect- an opponents choice- the value of the card is equal to less than either of the two options, made worse by the disparity between the options and made better by your ability to manipulate the choice. In this case, the two options are 'poop out goblins' and 'destroy a land'. Its always going to be worse than a stone rain effect at the same price. Significantly worse, because creating tokens and destroying lands are very different effects and your opponent can choose which of the two is better for them in any game state. And while your opponent has the full choice of whether to tap their lands for mana and you can't manipulate that, you can manipulate it directly with effects like rishadan port. I think if you figured out what the proper balance is for such an effect, it could make for a neat card. You'd want to alter either/both its mana cost and the body created until you get a good balance.
Goblin Squatter 1RR
Creature - Goblin
When Goblin Squatter enters the battlefield, exile target land until Goblin Squatter leaves the battlefield.
Goblin Squatter attacks each turn if able.
2/1
This old gobbo's LD is temporary as long as the other guy is willing to remove it somehow, which should be easy given the 1 toughness and forced attacking.
Looming Fallout 2R
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land
When enchanted land becomes tapped, its controller sacrifices it.
A delayed effect that allows the victim to choose when their land is lost, and use the mana one last time.
Gremlin Hive 1R
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Land
Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, target opponent creates a 2/2 red Gremlin creature token.
Very cheap, punishes you for using your mana instead of removing the land completely. If they need it more than once, the value this card can generate is massive.
Loomimg Fallout probably the most balanced effect. Still adds fear of a critical mass.
Germlin Hive, absurdly broken. The investment to benefit ratio is insane. On the play you can hit their ONLY land. To stay at this cost it would have to cost you either life or mana to get the creature.
LD has rarely been an important part of red decks plan to win. It going away isn't a problem. Though as far as solutions go none of these are that great. Turning them into Gemstone Mines would be a better than the immediate destruction. Or the gremlin land where you can only get X total gremlins(3?).
Looming fallout -- blight was unplayable at 2cc.
Gremlin Hive -- there's something wrong with the wording here. You still control the enchantment, so your opponent is the one getting the gremlins. So, this should probably read "Enchant land target opponent controls. Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, create a 2/2 red Gremlin creature token." Should cost more.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Rumbling Burrows 2RR
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land
When enchanted land becomes tapped, its controller sacrifices it and you create two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens.
^That templating also gives the card some use if you topdeck it in the late game (use it on your own land).
Rain of Dust 1R
Sorcery {C}
Return target land to its owner's hand.
Gives you the desired "reversed" ramp effect but does cause mana screws.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Gremlin Hive however is a great effect, just not priced right or templated properly as others have said. I think its a very interesting idea to let your opponent control when you get the value from it. As a punisher effect- an opponents choice- the value of the card is equal to less than either of the two options, made worse by the disparity between the options and made better by your ability to manipulate the choice. In this case, the two options are 'poop out goblins' and 'destroy a land'. Its always going to be worse than a stone rain effect at the same price. Significantly worse, because creating tokens and destroying lands are very different effects and your opponent can choose which of the two is better for them in any game state. And while your opponent has the full choice of whether to tap their lands for mana and you can't manipulate that, you can manipulate it directly with effects like rishadan port. I think if you figured out what the proper balance is for such an effect, it could make for a neat card. You'd want to alter either/both its mana cost and the body created until you get a good balance.