I'd imagine the "tweak" that made it better was that it is now optional to reveal. I'd imagine you'd still be forced to pay the life if you decided to reveal, though, so sometimes it would still be quite risky.
Also, even when the entire effect is mandatory, the card is quite good. It's best to remember that 2/1 creatures tend to not be in play for the entire game, that most competitive cards cost 5 or less mana, and that over a third of the cards in almost all decks have converted mana costs of zero.
Spock is not portrayed correctly. If Vulcans are above petty emotions, what motivates him to join the most elite starship crew in the galaxy? I, on the other hand, have transcended the weakness of emotion and achieved a blissful lack of caring. Apathy is my strength, our strength, which prevents us from being all-to-human. In this spirit, may Meh be with you, always.
Um not really, I just would own you giveing you all land and junk. That's like playing Dullusions and tring to pay the cumlative upkeep. Or you could just start shuffling and shake the winners hand...?
Forgetting the fact that players start with seven cards?
One of the most important questions to ask yourself when deciding on a mulligan is "can I win the game with these seven cards"? If you cannot and you keep your hand you are asking to lose the game. In your example you're assuming the black mage has made a poor mulligan decision and in fact cannot win the game with their opening hand. Not to mention there would be a least two draw steps before this card's effect hit the table.
Black has access to plenty of card drawing and cantrips as well. A very aggressive black deck could have your life total down quickly enough where constantly denying cards at the cost of life would put you at a strong disadvantage. Bear in mind that the way I wrote the ability still provides the Black Mage cards via their draw step - the ability only gives the opponents the option to deny the Black Mage an additional card during upkeep.
We'll find out for sure how they tuned it when Ravnica is previewed but I think you underestimate the potential of the ability.
i think you guys are looking at this wrong, people are saying things like "try not to use cards that cost more then 5" why on earth would you use anything that costs more then 3 in black suicide, if this were aroung now id just fill a deck with blind creepers, and those 2/1 fear guys probobly the only 3 mana cards id use would be homorobis wisper
Sauoro: giving your opponent options is bad always. For example, hymn to tourach is always better than skullscorch because the only time the opponent would take 4 would be when it was a better option than discarding two cards randomly. Giving your opponent the option to Zur's Wierding you for free is suicidal.
Actually, I think the most powerful change would be to make all players draw and lose life.
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At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player reveals the top card of his library and must pay life equal to the card's converted casting cost and put it in his hand.
2/1
Sauoro: giving your opponent options is bad always. For example, hymn to tourach is always better than skullscorch because the only time the opponent would take 4 would be when it was a better option than discarding two cards randomly. Giving your opponent the option to Zur's Wierding you for free is suicidal.
I disagree - giving your opponent more options creates more room for error. The fewer decisions an opponent has to make, the fewer mistakes they will make. At the higher levels of play a single mistake or suboptimal decision is often the difference between a win and a loss.
The original version of meddling mage required you to sacrifice the creature to counter the named spell. It was unplayable. R&D made it into one of the best-designed creatures ever.
R&D's job is to make balanced cards, not broken ones, and I think they do pretty well at it. Sometimes they make cards better and sometimes worse.
I think Maher's card is pretty good as submitted, though it only fits in a suicide black archetype. In fact, it fills a hole in suiblack by allowing you to keep the beats coming without playing noncreature cards like night's whispers or arena. But I think we should take R&D's word when they say they made it better than ever. It won't be broken, but it will be good.
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The original version looks pretty good as is. Not only is it good in sui-black, but it could be amazing in combo. In storm combo, you usually have no cards over two or three anyway, and drawing two extra cards could be amazing.
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player reveals the top card of his library and must pay life equal to the card's converted casting cost and put it in his hand.
2/1
I am not quite sure how this would work as worded, as you can't pay life you don't have. My suspision is, as worded, it would either do nothing if you don't have enough life, or give you the card anyway. It would definitely have to be "loses life equal to the card's converted mana cost, and puts that card in his or her hand."
This black dude definately has some potential but I don't see it's place outside of budget T1 monoB decks.
btw: Was there any invitational card in kamigawa?
No their isn't any invitational cards in Kamigawa. Maher's version should have come out in the Kamigawa block but his 1st version was a card that gave an opponent poison counters. So he had to come up with another card which is the 1 we are discussing. Because it took him awhile to come up whith the 2nd version they had to push it off to Ravinca.
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Bah lazy thats what he is, i dont really thik wotc would let a card that is so much worse than a card that is already good (prehxyan arena). I think it might affect all players.
Last May, Bob Maher (nicknamed “The Great One”) won the 8th Annual Magic Invitational and earned the right to make a Magic card. He submitted a 2/1 creature for BB with the ability "During each upkeep you reveal the top card of your library and must pay life equal to the card's converted casting cost and put it in your hand."
I can't give away the rules text today, but I can say that it is almost exactly the same with only one small change (which improves the card). I do know the card's been showing up in the FFL League (the league the developers play that's a year ahead). I also cannot show you the art because we're planning to premiere it during this year's Invitational. So what can I say? The card is going to be a black rare in Ravnica. It will be called Dark Confidant and has the flavor text “Greatness, at any cost.”
PS: I think the altered rules text includes adding the word "may" between "you..." and "reveal".
It can be one of two things.
"At the beginning of each player's upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. You may pay life equal to that card's converted mana cost. If you do, put that card into your hand."
or...
"At the beginning of each player's upkeep, you may reveal the top card of your library and put it into your hand. If you do, you lose life equal to that card's converted mana cost."
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If you do it the first of two ways it would be very powerful, letting you pick up free lands. Maybe too powerful as it could really speed up your game, out of the 2 the first option has the most flexibility.
And may I add, Dark Confidant is an awesome name for this dude too, the flavor text alone makes it on my *must have* list when Ravinca hits shelves...
I agree with the speculative changes that they'll make to his card being putting a 'may' in one or two places, all of which turn a 'meh' card into an 'ohhhh yeah' card...
Shame all invitational players are unattracted males so we know the art is going to be. I don't see how suicide black is going to do anything but I guess we'll see.
Shame all invitational players are unattracted males so we know the art is going to be. I don't see how suicide black is going to do anything but I guess we'll see.
Maybe you were thinking of the word 'unattractive'?
Anyway, don't let stereotypes get you down. Chris Pikula (of Meddling Mage fame) got married some time back, as did Bob Maher Jr.
Wow... Dark Confidant... awesome name. Nice little card as well, well designed and all. It's a shame he didn't take the time to design it BEFORE the Invitation though, and ended up submitting that absurd poison thingy.
Phex. Arena: Must Draw a card at upkeep, Lose 1 life.
Necropotence: May Draw a card at end of turn, Lose 1 life.
Yawg. Bargin: May Draw a card, Lose 1 life.
Invitational Card: Must Draw a card at draw phase, Lose 0-13 life.
They need to make it a LOT better for it to be playable.
If you're playing cards that costs 4-13 mana in a deck that runs the Confidant, it doesn't make it a bad card, it makes you a bad player.
We'll have to wait to see what Ravnica offers before we cane make a clean cut call on this.
Also, even when the entire effect is mandatory, the card is quite good. It's best to remember that 2/1 creatures tend to not be in play for the entire game, that most competitive cards cost 5 or less mana, and that over a third of the cards in almost all decks have converted mana costs of zero.
edit:
1 Darksteel Colossus
3 Eternal Witness
4 Tooth and Nail
3 Fireball
4 Sylvan Scrying
2 Rude Awakening
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Sensei Diving Top
3 Oblivious Stone
1 Duplicant
1 Platinum Angel
2 Reap and Sow
1 Sundering Titan
4 Cloud Post
9 Forest
2 Shivan Oasis
1 Stalking Stones
1 Okina Temple to the Grandfather
3 Mountain
3 Pinecrest Ridge
0: 23
1: 10
2: 8
3: 6
4: 2
5: 3
6: 1
7: 5
8: 1
11: 1
Average mana cost: 2.117
Even when decks are focused on big, expensive spells, the competitive ones tend to keep the average mana cost surprisingly low.
Spock is not portrayed correctly. If Vulcans are above petty emotions, what motivates him to join the most elite starship crew in the galaxy? I, on the other hand, have transcended the weakness of emotion and achieved a blissful lack of caring. Apathy is my strength, our strength, which prevents us from being all-to-human. In this spirit, may Meh be with you, always.
Forgetting the fact that players start with seven cards?
One of the most important questions to ask yourself when deciding on a mulligan is "can I win the game with these seven cards"? If you cannot and you keep your hand you are asking to lose the game. In your example you're assuming the black mage has made a poor mulligan decision and in fact cannot win the game with their opening hand. Not to mention there would be a least two draw steps before this card's effect hit the table.
Black has access to plenty of card drawing and cantrips as well. A very aggressive black deck could have your life total down quickly enough where constantly denying cards at the cost of life would put you at a strong disadvantage. Bear in mind that the way I wrote the ability still provides the Black Mage cards via their draw step - the ability only gives the opponents the option to deny the Black Mage an additional card during upkeep.
We'll find out for sure how they tuned it when Ravnica is previewed but I think you underestimate the potential of the ability.
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22: 27.5%
23: 26.3%
24: 25.5%
25: 25.1%
26: 25.3%
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At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player reveals the top card of his library and must pay life equal to the card's converted casting cost and put it in his hand.
2/1
I disagree - giving your opponent more options creates more room for error. The fewer decisions an opponent has to make, the fewer mistakes they will make. At the higher levels of play a single mistake or suboptimal decision is often the difference between a win and a loss.
R&D's job is to make balanced cards, not broken ones, and I think they do pretty well at it. Sometimes they make cards better and sometimes worse.
I think Maher's card is pretty good as submitted, though it only fits in a suicide black archetype. In fact, it fills a hole in suiblack by allowing you to keep the beats coming without playing noncreature cards like night's whispers or arena. But I think we should take R&D's word when they say they made it better than ever. It won't be broken, but it will be good.
I am not quite sure how this would work as worded, as you can't pay life you don't have. My suspision is, as worded, it would either do nothing if you don't have enough life, or give you the card anyway. It would definitely have to be "loses life equal to the card's converted mana cost, and puts that card in his or her hand."
No their isn't any invitational cards in Kamigawa. Maher's version should have come out in the Kamigawa block but his 1st version was a card that gave an opponent poison counters. So he had to come up with another card which is the 1 we are discussing. Because it took him awhile to come up whith the 2nd version they had to push it off to Ravinca.
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PS: I think the altered rules text includes adding the word "may" between "you..." and "reveal".
"At the beginning of each player's upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. You may pay life equal to that card's converted mana cost. If you do, put that card into your hand."
or...
"At the beginning of each player's upkeep, you may reveal the top card of your library and put it into your hand. If you do, you lose life equal to that card's converted mana cost."
Which color are you?
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Random quote of the last time I updated my sig:
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I agree with the speculative changes that they'll make to his card being putting a 'may' in one or two places, all of which turn a 'meh' card into an 'ohhhh yeah' card...
I hope so. Otherwise, I wouldn't put that in a deck with Draco, or some other expensive cards.
Yeah, I'd hope a may will be thrown in there somewhere.....otherwise I wouldn't put it into any deck with cards.
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Maybe you were thinking of the word 'unattractive'?
Anyway, don't let stereotypes get you down. Chris Pikula (of Meddling Mage fame) got married some time back, as did Bob Maher Jr.
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If you're playing cards that costs 4-13 mana in a deck that runs the Confidant, it doesn't make it a bad card, it makes you a bad player.
We'll have to wait to see what Ravnica offers before we cane make a clean cut call on this.
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Even if that's the only poison counters in the set?
T1: 3 pc.
T2: STE
T3: Witness/3pc
T4: Regrowth/3pc
T5: Regroth or Witness/3pc. Game.