Phyrexian Oil Slinger 1B
Creature - Phyrexian
When Phyrexian Oil Slinger enters the battlefield, contaminate target creature you don’t control. (It gains “At the beginning of your end step, if you control one or more uncontaminated creatures, contaminate one. Otherwise, you lose 1 life.”)
Whenever a contaminated creature dies, draw a card.
3/1
Reborn In Oil 2WB
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield, except it’s contaminated. (It has “ At the beginning of your end step, if you control one or more uncontaminated creatures, contaminate one. Otherwise, you lose 1 life.”)
Oily Bear G
Contaminated Creature - Bear (At the beginning of your end step, if you control one or more uncontaminated creatures, contaminate one. Otherwise, you lose 1 life.)
2/2
This mechanic captures the flavor and invasive playstyle of the Phyrexians. Contaminating an opponent’s creature pressures them to play more aggressively to either end the game more quickly, play more creatures to delay the life loss, or lose their contaminated creatures to prevent the life loss. Contaminating your own creatures pushes you to play the same way but there’s design space to reward you with extra value. I think this creates a similar feel to infect without some of the gameplay problems, and is way more interactable.
The spread will complete pretty quick and then it just says "Lose life equal to how many creatures you control at EOT", meaning you end the game very quickly.
Unless there are ways to remove contamination easily (and you do need some kind of marker to track with as well), this will punish playing creatures which isn't a great play pattern.
Since infect was part of scars of mirrodin block's mechanics, maybe contaminated creatures can get -1/-1 counters on their controller's upkeep. See Unstable Mutation for reference.
This forces the creatures to either attack aggressively or weaken their creatures.
To balance the mechanic a little, you can have cards that remove counters for effects like Channeler Initiate for the nonphyrexian. This way there is some benefit to putting counters on your own creatures.
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
I really like that -1/-1 counter thematically, dave, and it avoids the big issue of having loads of contaminated creatures in play, but I think it would be a nightmare in Limited. If you play a contaminated creature, there's a huge risk to your other 2-3 creatures. Either you build in big power/toughness to avoid horrible board stalls or you're heading into The Abyss.
Lymantri - would you consider something other than life loss? Again, it's thematic, but as rowan says, 'at the end of turn, lose one life for every creature you control' is pretty crippling.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Did you think to kill me? There's no flesh and blood within this cloak to kill. There is only an idea. Ideas are bulletproof." - V, V for Vendetta. Alan Moore
So, rules gurus please amend my wording, I've been wondering if something like:
Contaminate X (When you cast this spell, put a Phyrexian counter on X non-Phyrexian creatures. Otherwise, lose 2X life.)
might be workable?
It would allow the mechanic to be used on nonpermanent spells, it would hearken back to p-mana, it would enable Phyrexian tribal, and allow a way to over-throttle the cards (hopefully) fairly.
For the product and the company, you'd want to do something more interactive and dynamic.
Public Mod Note
(rowanalpha):
Per the mission statement of the forum, offering feedback for improvement is encouraged, but this is unconstructive and bordering on spam/trolling. Consider this an unofficial warning.
So, rules gurus please amend my wording, I've been wondering if something like:
Contaminate X (When you cast this spell, put a Phyrexian counter on X non-Phyrexian creatures. Otherwise, lose 2X life.)
might be workable?
It would allow the mechanic to be used on nonpermanent spells, it would hearken back to p-mana, it would enable Phyrexian tribal, and allow a way to over-throttle the cards (hopefully) fairly.
I'm guessing the phyrexian counter is meant to be a creature type counter. I haven't been keeping up with spoilers. Are creature type counters a thing? If not I'll spend some time thinking how they need to be worded.
Stepping away from that. It reads as a downside mechanic that punishes you for playing the spells against creatureless decks and Phyrexian tribal decks. Unfortunately it's not such a significant draw back that you can really juice up the cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Creature - Phyrexian
When Phyrexian Oil Slinger enters the battlefield, contaminate target creature you don’t control. (It gains “At the beginning of your end step, if you control one or more uncontaminated creatures, contaminate one. Otherwise, you lose 1 life.”)
Whenever a contaminated creature dies, draw a card.
3/1
Reborn In Oil 2WB
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield, except it’s contaminated. (It has “ At the beginning of your end step, if you control one or more uncontaminated creatures, contaminate one. Otherwise, you lose 1 life.”)
Oily Bear G
Contaminated Creature - Bear
(At the beginning of your end step, if you control one or more uncontaminated creatures, contaminate one. Otherwise, you lose 1 life.)
2/2
This mechanic captures the flavor and invasive playstyle of the Phyrexians. Contaminating an opponent’s creature pressures them to play more aggressively to either end the game more quickly, play more creatures to delay the life loss, or lose their contaminated creatures to prevent the life loss. Contaminating your own creatures pushes you to play the same way but there’s design space to reward you with extra value. I think this creates a similar feel to infect without some of the gameplay problems, and is way more interactable.
Unless there are ways to remove contamination easily (and you do need some kind of marker to track with as well), this will punish playing creatures which isn't a great play pattern.
This forces the creatures to either attack aggressively or weaken their creatures.
To balance the mechanic a little, you can have cards that remove counters for effects like Channeler Initiate for the nonphyrexian. This way there is some benefit to putting counters on your own creatures.
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
Lymantri - would you consider something other than life loss? Again, it's thematic, but as rowan says, 'at the end of turn, lose one life for every creature you control' is pretty crippling.
Contaminate X (When you cast this spell, put a Phyrexian counter on X non-Phyrexian creatures. Otherwise, lose 2X life.)
might be workable?
It would allow the mechanic to be used on nonpermanent spells, it would hearken back to p-mana, it would enable Phyrexian tribal, and allow a way to over-throttle the cards (hopefully) fairly.
It's just a bland, empty tribal.
For the product and the company, you'd want to do something more interactive and dynamic.
Stepping away from that. It reads as a downside mechanic that punishes you for playing the spells against creatureless decks and Phyrexian tribal decks. Unfortunately it's not such a significant draw back that you can really juice up the cards.