A couple of cards for a Lovecraftian-themed set I've been tinkering with for a while. Probably all uncommons.
Flaring Darkfiend 3R
Creature - Horror
Haste
When Flaring Darkfiend enters the battlefield, add RRR.
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Flaring Darkfiend.
4/1
Devouring Mist 2GG
Creature - Elemental
If Devouring Mist has not been the target of a spell this turn, prevent all damage that would be dealt to it.
6/2
Tome of Silent Murmurs 3
Artifact
2, T: Draw a card.
When Tome of Silent Murmurs becomes tapped, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, put an insanity counter on Tome of Silent Murmurs and, if it has two or more insanity counters on it, discard two cards.
I'm trying to get the tome to show power that slowly drives you insane, but I'm not sure I've hit the right rhythm (for lack of a better term) to make the risk be unpredictable enough to keep using it, so if you have any ideas to tweak that specifically, I'm glad to hear it.
Flaring Darkfiend; I think this creature could probably be a little underpowered, some kind of strange hybrid of Coal Stoker and Spark Elemental. It's actually messing with my brain a little bit that it's not an Elemental.
Devouring Mist is strange. There are plenty enough decks that can't even target it with a spell, especially in draft, and there's no workaround, so it's just an aggressively costed indestructible creature a lot of the time. I like the Hungry Mist callback but I think maybe this should be a 4/2?
Tome could probably be costed more aggressively; Jalum Tome, Bloodletter Quill, and Phyrexian Vault go unplayed for the most part because of the mana cost associated with them; that tells me that 3 cmc and 2 to draw is pretty fair. Since you won't keep using this thing when the drawback kicks in, it's more of a Mazemind Tome or Sunset Pyramid with more downside and more cmc. I think if this upgraded to "Draw two cards then discard a card at random" when you "go insane," it would be more interesting. I think random discard better illustrates madness.
I could see buffing the Darkfiend. I was on the fence about giving it trample, I was thinking of it more as a buffed Lightning Elemental, but maybe that would be the right way to go afterall.
Hungry Mist was what I was going for I prefer the current statline, so maybe I just need it at Rare. I like the dynamic of the controller not being able to pump it without the risk of it dying. Maybe it needs to be 3GG?
The Tome thing is tricky, because I definitely want someone to be encouraged to keep "rolling the dice" as it were. The current setup's work around is that the penalty triggers on tapping, so you'd avoid the penalty if you activate with no cards in hand. The Pyramid and Tome are good examples, though, so this would definitely make sense at 2 instead of 3.
Hungry Mist was what I was going for I prefer the current statline, so maybe I just need it at Rare. I like the dynamic of the controller not being able to pump it without the risk of it dying. Maybe it needs to be 3GG?
Maybe. As we get higher in CMC we are less of a busted 4 drop and more of a worse Phytotitan. So 6 would probably be unreasonably too much. The closest thing I can think of at 4 is probably Bellowing Elk, and that's much worse than this guy as a 4 drop. It's probably okay to be better than the elk, but maybe it preys on or targets decks that are already pretty weak as it is.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Flaring Darkfiend 3R
Creature - Horror
Haste
When Flaring Darkfiend enters the battlefield, add RRR.
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Flaring Darkfiend.
4/1
Devouring Mist 2GG
Creature - Elemental
If Devouring Mist has not been the target of a spell this turn, prevent all damage that would be dealt to it.
6/2
Tome of Silent Murmurs 3
Artifact
2, T: Draw a card.
When Tome of Silent Murmurs becomes tapped, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, put an insanity counter on Tome of Silent Murmurs and, if it has two or more insanity counters on it, discard two cards.
I'm trying to get the tome to show power that slowly drives you insane, but I'm not sure I've hit the right rhythm (for lack of a better term) to make the risk be unpredictable enough to keep using it, so if you have any ideas to tweak that specifically, I'm glad to hear it.
Devouring Mist is strange. There are plenty enough decks that can't even target it with a spell, especially in draft, and there's no workaround, so it's just an aggressively costed indestructible creature a lot of the time. I like the Hungry Mist callback but I think maybe this should be a 4/2?
Tome could probably be costed more aggressively; Jalum Tome, Bloodletter Quill, and Phyrexian Vault go unplayed for the most part because of the mana cost associated with them; that tells me that 3 cmc and 2 to draw is pretty fair. Since you won't keep using this thing when the drawback kicks in, it's more of a Mazemind Tome or Sunset Pyramid with more downside and more cmc. I think if this upgraded to "Draw two cards then discard a card at random" when you "go insane," it would be more interesting. I think random discard better illustrates madness.
Hungry Mist was what I was going for I prefer the current statline, so maybe I just need it at Rare. I like the dynamic of the controller not being able to pump it without the risk of it dying. Maybe it needs to be 3GG?
The Tome thing is tricky, because I definitely want someone to be encouraged to keep "rolling the dice" as it were. The current setup's work around is that the penalty triggers on tapping, so you'd avoid the penalty if you activate with no cards in hand. The Pyramid and Tome are good examples, though, so this would definitely make sense at 2 instead of 3.
Maybe. As we get higher in CMC we are less of a busted 4 drop and more of a worse Phytotitan. So 6 would probably be unreasonably too much. The closest thing I can think of at 4 is probably Bellowing Elk, and that's much worse than this guy as a 4 drop. It's probably okay to be better than the elk, but maybe it preys on or targets decks that are already pretty weak as it is.