"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Because Mana Crypt is one of the 15 most powerful cards ever printed (in my opinion one of the 3 most powerful cards ever printed) and we don't need a higher risk more powerful version. This would be in undeniable competition with black lotus and ancestral recall for the most powerful card of all time and I think it would eventually be recognized as the most powerful.
Also just a point of reference this card doesn't need to call even or odd because it deals damage on the odd roll. And if you wanted it be in line with the recent die rolling cards it would probably be 1-3: take 4 damage
Mana Trap 3
At the beginning of your upkeep, roll a d6.
1-3: take 4 damage t: add 3
Is still too powerful but at least it's not immediately one of the most powerful cards ever printed.
True though I was hoping to keep the mana value low so that it would be an auto include in cEDH and Commander decks that like a very low mana curve early game to get those explosive starts similar to a first turn Sol Ring followed with Arcane Signet or Fellwar Stone. I'd reduce the mana value of Mana Trap to 1 or 2 while leaving the rest of the oracle text the way you have it. People thought Jeweled Lotus would end up being one of the most powerful cards ever printed and it's only because it's Commander restricted that it's not as good. In Mono Color EDH it's amazing but in Multi Color it depends on the mana value of the Commander.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
1) cards are not supposed to be auto-includes in every deck. Not even in Commander. I know Sol Ring isn't banned there, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't print it if it didn't already exist.
2) If you want this to be like Jeweled Lotus, you need to actually include the restriction. As is, it'd need to be emergency-banned in both legacy and vintage.
1) cards are not supposed to be auto-includes in every deck. Not even in Commander. I know Sol Ring isn't banned there, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't print it if it didn't already exist.
2) If you want this to be like Jeweled Lotus, you need to actually include the restriction. As is, it'd need to be emergency-banned in both legacy and vintage.
True. That's how staples a.k.a. "cookie cutter" cards became a problem in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh! 20 years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long ago. Players take advantage of running functionally identical cards in Commander ALL THE TIME as the main argument against it is that it hurts variance. To some degree it does but I don't see any harm in printing a functionally identical version of Sol Ring with a different name If it helps with deck consistency though I can see how it can take up valuable deck space within the 99.
Maybe to prevent Mana Trap from getting emergency banned in Legacy and Vintage instead of having to roll dice during your upkeep you exile cards from the top of your library equal to the total mana value of your Commander. Similar to Cumulative Upkeep it adds up every turn until you decide to sacrifice it. That way it doesn't boost Dredge and Graveyard based decks unnecessarily but for cEDH decks with Commanders that have a mana value of 2 or less it probably won't hurt as much as running a Commander with a mana value of 3 or more.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
True. That's how staples a.k.a. "cookie cutter" cards became a problem in the early days of Yu-Gi-Oh! 20 years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long ago. Players take advantage of running functionally identical cards in Commander ALL THE TIME as the main argument against it is that it hurts variance. To some degree it does but I don't see any harm in printing a functionally identical version of Sol Ring with a different name If it helps with deck consistency though I can see how it can take up valuable deck space within the 99.
Maybe to prevent Mana Trap from getting emergency banned in Legacy and Vintage instead of having to roll dice during your upkeep you exile cards from the top of your library equal to the total mana value of your Commander. Similar to Cumulative Upkeep it adds up every turn until you decide to sacrifice it. That way it doesn't boost Dredge and Graveyard based decks unnecessarily but for cEDH decks with Commanders that have a mana value of 2 or less it probably won't hurt as much as running a Commander with a mana value of 3 or more.
The problem is that drawback does nothing for legacy and vintage because they don't have commanders. So you would just exile 0 every time.
I get that you want to design it for commander but outside of giving it the jeweled lotus styled restriction or something like: "if you control a commander Mana Trap gains: tap for 3." it's going to be broken in legacy and vintage.
Odds/Evens on a D6 or any other even-sided die is the same as flipping a coin, so why aren't we just flipping a coin? Your card is overpowered obviously, but even its reason for existence needs more justification. You want to roll a D6? Change the odds on the outcome to justify six numbers.
Because Mana Crypt is one of the 15 most powerful cards ever printed (in my opinion one of the 3 most powerful cards ever printed)
I'm sorry to not really add anything as I don't particularly care for commander cards which it has pretty well been stated this was designed for. But I'm more curious about what the top 15 cards are in your opinion. If you don't mind.
I'm sorry to not really add anything as I don't particularly care for commander cards which it has pretty well been stated this was designed for. But I'm more curious about what the top 15 cards are in your opinion. If you don't mind.
Not counting contract from below which would be with Lotus and Ancestral I've say the list is roughly like this:
1/2 Lotus/Ancestral
3 Mana Crypt
4-9 Sol Ring/ABUR Moxen
10 Mishra's Workshop
11 Bazaar of Baghdad
12 Time Walk
13 Channel
14 Mana Vault
15 Gitaxian Probe
Other cards in the running for me are Survival of the Fittest, Yawgmoth's Will, Underworld Breach, Mental Misstep, Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune, Oath of Druids, Tinker, Tabernacle at Pendrel Vale, and Strip Mine.
At the beginning of your upkeep, roll a d6 and call evens or odds. If you roll odds, Dice of Rolling deals 4 damage to you.
T: Add 3 mana
I figured since most players roll dice for Mana Crypt why not print a card that actually capitalizes on that?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Also just a point of reference this card doesn't need to call even or odd because it deals damage on the odd roll. And if you wanted it be in line with the recent die rolling cards it would probably be 1-3: take 4 damage
Mana Trap 3
At the beginning of your upkeep, roll a d6.
1-3: take 4 damage
t: add 3
Is still too powerful but at least it's not immediately one of the most powerful cards ever printed.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
2) If you want this to be like Jeweled Lotus, you need to actually include the restriction. As is, it'd need to be emergency-banned in both legacy and vintage.
Maybe to prevent Mana Trap from getting emergency banned in Legacy and Vintage instead of having to roll dice during your upkeep you exile cards from the top of your library equal to the total mana value of your Commander. Similar to Cumulative Upkeep it adds up every turn until you decide to sacrifice it. That way it doesn't boost Dredge and Graveyard based decks unnecessarily but for cEDH decks with Commanders that have a mana value of 2 or less it probably won't hurt as much as running a Commander with a mana value of 3 or more.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
The problem is that drawback does nothing for legacy and vintage because they don't have commanders. So you would just exile 0 every time.
I get that you want to design it for commander but outside of giving it the jeweled lotus styled restriction or something like: "if you control a commander Mana Trap gains: tap for 3." it's going to be broken in legacy and vintage.
I'm sorry to not really add anything as I don't particularly care for commander cards which it has pretty well been stated this was designed for. But I'm more curious about what the top 15 cards are in your opinion. If you don't mind.
Not counting contract from below which would be with Lotus and Ancestral I've say the list is roughly like this:
1/2 Lotus/Ancestral
3 Mana Crypt
4-9 Sol Ring/ABUR Moxen
10 Mishra's Workshop
11 Bazaar of Baghdad
12 Time Walk
13 Channel
14 Mana Vault
15 Gitaxian Probe
Other cards in the running for me are Survival of the Fittest, Yawgmoth's Will, Underworld Breach, Mental Misstep, Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune, Oath of Druids, Tinker, Tabernacle at Pendrel Vale, and Strip Mine.