I've had decks that had a decent number of morphs, but you'd really better be an all-in morph deck to play this. Guess it depends how many cards qualifies as a "theme".
Having a few morphs can be good even w/o any direct synergy, simply because the more morphs you have, the harder it is to figure out which one it is, or play around it correctly.
What's a decent number? 5-10 or 10-20? All in I'd think 25 minimum, but most likely around 30. 5-10 would be clearly not enough for this, and I'd assume 10-20 would still be too low. The upper bound of that though is where the bordeline might be, though that may be in the 20-25 range. Maybe if you have ways to recycle morphs in there, or repeated manifest triggers.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
But all the same it's true despite being unintuitive. The new way only works due to setting up a delayed triggered ability.
Reflexive* triggered ability. Introduced in Amonkhet, IIRC. A little bit more complicated stack, but much more intuitive in normal play.
For the sake of exert, yes, and I always forget the name but it's damn fine design technology.
I'm assuming the name means it triggers itself. (Like the reflexive property of equality, a=a, or the reflexive voice in grammar.)
A reflexive trigger is generally in the form "you may {do thing A}, when you do, {do thing B}". Similar abilities before Amonkhet were in the form "you may {do thing A}, if you do, {do thing B}". The latter, pre-Amonkhet form required you to choose targets for {thing B} before you decide whether to do {thing A} or not. The former, post-Amonkhet form lets you choose to do {thing A} or not, then when you do choose to do so, {thing B} gets put on the stack as a triggered ability, and that's when you choose targets. See cards like Heart-Piercer Manticore or Hypothesizzle.
Mostly, moving to this template removes rules weirdness like Lorthos, the Tidemaker+Dismiss into Dream; you can attack with Lorthos and make your opponent sacrifice 8 creatures of your choice without paying 8 mana. Of course, they aren't errataing old cards to use reflexive triggers, so Lorthos keeps getting to turn reality into dreams.
Mechanically Temur card, with a Sultai creature for the artwork. It does share colors though.
It sorta fits in both wedges. It was the Sultai who had the toughness subtheme.
True, but in Commander, morph is one of the things Animar does best.
The Bant arc could also be a morph arc as well, albeit mostly because of Astral Slide (which this, of course, doesn't work with).
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Paying X as an etb instead of on cast is really weird design. It lets you reuse it on Venser blinking, but I'm not sure what that means flavorfully.
Flavorfully, it's an enchantment that inspires hobgoblins to rise up, so what happens is that the enchantment is created, then hobgoblins are drawn to whoever created it. The more Mana you pump into it, the more effective it is at attracting hobgoblins.
As a card, it's fairly meh. It's not the most expensive token generator, and it can grant first strike to it's 1/1s and likely most of your other creatures. It makes goblins, but you aren't going to be running this in a goblin deck because of the white color identity.
Those goblins are also soldiers though, and there are some solid Boros soldier generals. Most would be fairly casual, so this could fit. Argus Kos with make these 3/3s when he attacks, and if you are packing other soldiers matter cards they can get buff.
Otherwise, as tstorm pointed out, you can blink this (or bounce it) to make it a recurring source of tokens. Venser yes, but also Cloudstone Curio if you have another enchantment.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I feel like I'd have more use for this as either a monored or monowhite card, for either Purphoros, God of the Forge or Kwende, Pride of Femeref, or just goblin or soldier tribal. There's not really a payoff for Goblin + Soldier tribal like there is for Bird Soldiers in the form of Aven Brigadier(who sucks by today's standards,) but it would be a cool deck theme to have.
Paying X as an etb instead of on cast is really weird design. It lets you reuse it on Venser blinking, but I'm not sure what that means flavorfully.
Ruleswise this is how x-cost ETB triggers are usually done. It has to do something with if a permanent can remember the value of x from the stack. (The exception is "ETB with X +1/+1 counters", which means it goes from the stack to the battlefield with that many +1/+1 counters, plus that templating is required to make something like Endless One work.)
By the way, Sun Titan can also take advantage of this because of the templating. (And it's an Eventide card, so it's pretty much "this is as out there as black border non-Goblin Game cards get". This is actually pretty normal by comparison to some of the cards in Shadowmoor block.) Just putting that out there.
Hybrid never struck me as that weird, but the way Shadowmoor uses hybrid to bend the color pie slightly does. The color pie breaks like Augury Adept are weird. But the weirdest thing is q, followed by wither and chroma. Obviously wither and chroma don't feel as weird now. But at the time, it actually felt weirder than Future Sight.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
A weak fact or fiction that garauntees the best card hits the yard. Reasonable if you have an arcane theme, because let's face it your decks going to be pretty casual. My Tasigur deck has an arcane theme, and this performs well there (Tasigur is one of the better commanders to support the theme, because of his ability to recur arcane spells to splice stuff onto, sultai being a good color combo for a controlly build, and him generally just being a great commander).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Saw the title for today and got real excited b/c I confused this garbage draw spell with Minions' Murmurs, another garbage draw spell toward which I have an arbitrary affection. #sad.
It's a bad FOF since you have no decisions, so you just get the worst two cards of three. It is still card advantage, though possibly worse than Divination (you gain instant speed, but you get the two worst cards, and it doesn't trigger things like The Locust God and Alhammarret's Archive). Since Mulldrifter exists, that should tell you where this goes.
3/10 most of the time, 6/10 if you're doing graveyard shenanigans
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I started to ponder the color changing part and figured this card exists so that Firesong and Sunspeaker could give Comeuppance lifelink, but clearly the answer is that they should unban Painter's Servant already.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
What's a decent number? 5-10 or 10-20? All in I'd think 25 minimum, but most likely around 30. 5-10 would be clearly not enough for this, and I'd assume 10-20 would still be too low. The upper bound of that though is where the bordeline might be, though that may be in the 20-25 range. Maybe if you have ways to recycle morphs in there, or repeated manifest triggers.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Mostly, moving to this template removes rules weirdness like Lorthos, the Tidemaker+Dismiss into Dream; you can attack with Lorthos and make your opponent sacrifice 8 creatures of your choice without paying 8 mana. Of course, they aren't errataing old cards to use reflexive triggers, so Lorthos keeps getting to turn reality into dreams.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
True, but in Commander, morph is one of the things Animar does best.
The Bant arc could also be a morph arc as well, albeit mostly because of Astral Slide (which this, of course, doesn't work with).
On phasing:
I'm not sure what counts as a "moment" in magic. Cause here it's too short a time to even pass priority, but elsewhere it last a whole turn.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
Free Morphs from Animar isn't enough?
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
I'm loving your comments by the way
Paying X as an etb instead of on cast is really weird design. It lets you reuse it on Venser blinking, but I'm not sure what that means flavorfully.
Flavorfully, it's an enchantment that inspires hobgoblins to rise up, so what happens is that the enchantment is created, then hobgoblins are drawn to whoever created it. The more Mana you pump into it, the more effective it is at attracting hobgoblins.
As a card, it's fairly meh. It's not the most expensive token generator, and it can grant first strike to it's 1/1s and likely most of your other creatures. It makes goblins, but you aren't going to be running this in a goblin deck because of the white color identity.
Those goblins are also soldiers though, and there are some solid Boros soldier generals. Most would be fairly casual, so this could fit. Argus Kos with make these 3/3s when he attacks, and if you are packing other soldiers matter cards they can get buff.
Otherwise, as tstorm pointed out, you can blink this (or bounce it) to make it a recurring source of tokens. Venser yes, but also Cloudstone Curio if you have another enchantment.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Ruleswise this is how x-cost ETB triggers are usually done. It has to do something with if a permanent can remember the value of x from the stack. (The exception is "ETB with X +1/+1 counters", which means it goes from the stack to the battlefield with that many +1/+1 counters, plus that templating is required to make something like Endless One work.)
Mechanically, this is fine for token decks, and doesn't take much to make it dangerous. Anointed Procession, Cathars' Crusade, Balefire Liege, Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran, Path of Mettle, Goblin Bombardment, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Martyr's Bond, to say nothing of soldier tribal. Expand into green and you get all the usual cards. Expand into blue and you get Venser and some bounce spells. Expand into black and you get Zulaport Cutthroat, Dictate of Erebos, Attrition, and the like.
By the way, Sun Titan can also take advantage of this because of the templating. (And it's an Eventide card, so it's pretty much "this is as out there as black border non-Goblin Game cards get". This is actually pretty normal by comparison to some of the cards in Shadowmoor block.) Just putting that out there.
On phasing:
You can splice Evermind this.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
On the plus side, Alms Collector and Spirit of the Labyrinth don't notice it.
3/10 most of the time, 6/10 if you're doing graveyard shenanigans
On phasing:
I started to ponder the color changing part and figured this card exists so that Firesong and Sunspeaker could give Comeuppance lifelink, but clearly the answer is that they should unban Painter's Servant already.
(The color change was an attempt to preserve the bizarre functionality from the original wording.)
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝