The Grail8 Legendary Artifact
Sanctity (As you cast this spell or when it leaves the stack, if you have less than five cards in hand, you may draw cards until you have five cards in hand.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may gain life equal to the amount of life you lost since your last turn. Fools seek its power, but it does nothing for them. It extends the reach through time and space—but to no avail for those with no talent in these forces and the gift of life. A null void existence; full of nothing but deprivation; eternal winter.
Notes: Okay, when I first thought to do this design, I had envisioned it with a flashy Deus Ex Machina keyword. But then, when tuning the cost, quickly reconsidered the freespace would not be there for it. There still seemed to be a void in the cost/power/utility levels, and I thought I saw some great potential in using this design as a teaching tool, for how to work-around (or redirect) incessant desires to tag a Deus Ex Machine keyword on everything you make. I think naturally, once you start working with it, you're going to want to put it on everything. But if you want to develop a well-balanced world, naturally the potential isn't going to be there to do that.
The problem stands, that designs are bound to have small voids in the trinity of their power/cost/utility. For most spells, you can justtack a cantrip on it. For permanents like this however, one will have to be more technical, and implement other spot cash flow effects (scry, draw, regrowth, etc.) to seal the void.
Unfortunately, in reconsidering the cost, the void opened up significantly greater, so I was able to shift back to the initial Deus Ex Machina concept; and with that won't be able to use this design to provide a creative hotfix cash flow effect example.
This Deus Ex Machina is a very simple, flavorful effect that I've envisioned to be used for an exclusive set of 'Holy Relics', The Grail naturally being one of them. I have considered increasing the range of the effect to 6 or 7 cards even, but I don't think that range preserves the aspect of challenge enough for good world balance in your macrocosmic development. With that said, the range remains 5 cards as originally envisioned. I do realize that it could probably just read, "...you may draw cards until you have five cards in hand."; however, the initial clause of, "if you have less than five cards in hand", is provided for coherence.
Eternity Vessel is definitely overcosted but 3 is way too low for this effect as it makes you nearly immortal. I don't think it could reasonably be costed at less than 5.
Eternity Vessel is definitely overcosted but 3 is way too low for this effect as it makes you nearly immortal. I don't think it could reasonably be costed at less than 5.
Just want to note really quick that this dynamic is more of a Force Bubble type effect. And Force Bubble cost' too much too, so...
I was thinking the same thing about the cost though. If a player is going to use it, to preserve an aspect of challenge by making them reach for it (resource/manawise).
It should definitely be costed more, as it right now basically says "You have to kill me all at once, or you won't kill me."
It does create an interesting dynamic with things line instant speed damage. Otherwise, though, it will make a lot of games not fun, because the person with the grail cannot attack for value, but the other player won't attack because they know can't one-shot the grail player.
What might be good is having a cost for the other player to prevent the lifegain somehow, like "At the beginning of your upkeep, an opponent may sacrifice a creature. If no opponent does, you may gain life equal to the amount of life you lost since your last turn." The exact cost would need to be tweaked, but that way there can be an incentive for an opponent to attack through knowing they can make the damage stick.
Eternity Vessel is definitely overcosted but 3 is way too low for this effect as it makes you nearly immortal. I don't think it could reasonably be costed at less than 5.
Just want to note really quick that this dynamic is more of a Force Bubble type effect. And Force Bubble cost' too much too, so...
I was thinking the same thing about the cost though. If a player is going to use it, to preserve an aspect of challenge by making them reach for it (resource/manawise).
It isn't at all like Force Bubble. Force Bubble is a flat out prevention effect. There are workaround with any effect but preventing the damage and undoing damage are still radically different. If you don't like the Eternity Vessel Comparison then a closer comparison would be Sun Droplet. While I don't have a wide range of opinions I don't think many people would consider Sun Droplet overcosted its effect just isn't warranted; I have used it in EDH and canceling out 4+ damage a turn is brutal.
That said Force Bubble is overcosted because it breaks at 4 damage. Which isn't a high threshold. If you want it to cost 3 then it needs a limit on how much damage it can mitigate either in total or over time. All damage constantly is far too good at such a low cost. Sun Droplet shows that 2 constantly at 2 is a fair price. I don't think you can flat-out increase Sun Droplet to somehow gaining 3 life a normal turn cycle but a sun Droplet with added text similar to Angelheart Vial could be interesting at 3. It's hard to say what good numbers look like on such an effect. Though keeping it low you must be wary of how dangerous multiples are. If Mirrodin wasn't a broken format Sun Droplet could have warped the meta to kill aggro.
More of this "when this spell enters or leaves the stack" stuff? I know these are "artisanal" Magic cards but that's the clunkiest ability I've ever seen.
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Legendary Artifact
Sanctity (As you cast this spell or when it leaves the stack, if you have less than five cards in hand, you may draw cards until you have five cards in hand.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may gain life equal to the amount of life you lost since your last turn.
Fools seek its power, but it does nothing for them. It extends the reach through time and space—but to no avail for those with no talent in these forces and the gift of life. A null void existence; full of nothing but deprivation; eternal winter.
Notes: Okay, when I first thought to do this design, I had envisioned it with a flashy Deus Ex Machina keyword. But then, when tuning the cost, quickly reconsidered the freespace would not be there for it. There still seemed to be a void in the cost/power/utility levels, and I thought I saw some great potential in using this design as a teaching tool, for how to work-around (or redirect) incessant desires to tag a Deus Ex Machine keyword on everything you make. I think naturally, once you start working with it, you're going to want to put it on everything. But if you want to develop a well-balanced world, naturally the potential isn't going to be there to do that.
The problem stands, that designs are bound to have small voids in the trinity of their power/cost/utility. For most spells, you can just tack a cantrip on it. For permanents like this however, one will have to be more technical, and implement other spot cash flow effects (scry, draw, regrowth, etc.) to seal the void.
Unfortunately, in reconsidering the cost, the void opened up significantly greater, so I was able to shift back to the initial Deus Ex Machina concept; and with that won't be able to use this design to provide a creative hotfix cash flow effect example.
This Deus Ex Machina is a very simple, flavorful effect that I've envisioned to be used for an exclusive set of 'Holy Relics', The Grail naturally being one of them. I have considered increasing the range of the effect to 6 or 7 cards even, but I don't think that range preserves the aspect of challenge enough for good world balance in your macrocosmic development. With that said, the range remains 5 cards as originally envisioned. I do realize that it could probably just read, "...you may draw cards until you have five cards in hand."; however, the initial clause of, "if you have less than five cards in hand", is provided for coherence.
Just want to note really quick that this dynamic is more of a Force Bubble type effect. And Force Bubble cost' too much too, so...
I was thinking the same thing about the cost though. If a player is going to use it, to preserve an aspect of challenge by making them reach for it (resource/manawise).
It does create an interesting dynamic with things line instant speed damage. Otherwise, though, it will make a lot of games not fun, because the person with the grail cannot attack for value, but the other player won't attack because they know can't one-shot the grail player.
What might be good is having a cost for the other player to prevent the lifegain somehow, like "At the beginning of your upkeep, an opponent may sacrifice a creature. If no opponent does, you may gain life equal to the amount of life you lost since your last turn." The exact cost would need to be tweaked, but that way there can be an incentive for an opponent to attack through knowing they can make the damage stick.
That said Force Bubble is overcosted because it breaks at 4 damage. Which isn't a high threshold. If you want it to cost 3 then it needs a limit on how much damage it can mitigate either in total or over time. All damage constantly is far too good at such a low cost. Sun Droplet shows that 2 constantly at 2 is a fair price. I don't think you can flat-out increase Sun Droplet to somehow gaining 3 life a normal turn cycle but a sun Droplet with added text similar to Angelheart Vial could be interesting at 3. It's hard to say what good numbers look like on such an effect. Though keeping it low you must be wary of how dangerous multiples are. If Mirrodin wasn't a broken format Sun Droplet could have warped the meta to kill aggro.