Quote from Swithin »Am I seeing the interaction between Wedding Ring and Consecrated Sphinx correctly? Presumably you'll get to the end of your deck first, drawing two cards at a time and all, but there's no "may" rider: once you've drawn a card on your turn, you can force repeated draws until one of you runs out of cards.
Edit: now I am legitimately curious about how the triggers would stack. You control C. Sphinx and one Ring then draw on your draw step. Your opponent then must draw a card, which allows you to draw two. Does Wedding Ring then put a trigger on the stack for each of your draws, and after the first resolves you draw twice again? Or does it respond to a single event that drew you two cards with one trigger that draws both cards at once? This interaction seems kinda nutty to me.
Second edit: also, isn't it weird that you can force any opponent (who doesn't have hexproof, at least,) to marry you? Granted, this ring isn't legendary, so draw enough copies and you can forcibly marry the whole table (or Megamarry that one blue player who draws a ton.)
So the rules state that when a card tells you to draw multiple cards (e.g. Draw 3 cards. Or Draw X Cards) it's actually that many individual "draw a card" effects. Each card is drawn individually and triggers any effects that trigger upon drawing a card, such as say, oh I don't know, a Wedding Ring or Consecrated Sphinx.
Clarification: you will resolve the whole lot of "draw a card" effects at once as part of the resolution of that spell or ability but then that many triggers will be waiting to hit the stack once all that is done. The only thing that could've put a spanner in the works is if the ability read "whenever... draw one or more cards..." because then it would only trigger once even if you had "Draw 53 cards" resolving.
6
1
Sorry for the low-res images, it might be unclear. They reused the art from Snow-Covered Island on a basic Island. Same art, two cards with different names. As far as I know this is the only time that this has happened.
1
This post got a little long, so I'm hiding passages behind spoiler tags. This was my phase 1 design and the thoughts behind it:
Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian 1RW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Protection from rats, spiders, and insects
"You forget to close one little teleportal and off it goes, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder how far it got?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
My initial idea was to create a card that met the bare minimum of the requirements at each stage in the cheekiest way possible, and see where that led me. A 0/1 with what amounts to trinket text seemed like a good place to start, and the first concept that came to mind to fit these stats was a tiny creature with a push-broom, keeping the vermin at bay. I chose gnome because we've never had a legendary example, and I liked the humble and affable vibe they give off. There's exactly one mono-red gnome and the rest are artifacts, but neither identity seemed exciting. I decided to go RW to lean into potential artifact equipment synergies, and because Moppe's cheerfully industrious character touched on both those colors. I landed on 1RW as it had both colors, the one generic visually hinted at the artifact nature of the card, and it left a bit of ceiling for the card to power up.
I chose the name Moppe (which, in my mind, sounds like the word moppet without the t) to reflect its designated purpose and because I thought it sounded kinda cute. I added the flavor text to steal some of that Fblthp tiny-creature-in-a-world-full-of-dangers magic (and yeah, I chose archzebrademons as the villains specifically because the word is a hot mess to scan,) but with the second prompt I've decided to lean into it.
The story so far:
Moppe doesn't know how long it's been active, but every day it cleans the magical research laboratory at the academy, and every night it dreams of dusting and decluttering more important, more heroic, halls. Tidiness is next to justice, after all. It has been a good life, full of purpose. One day, lost in a fantasy of clearing the floor of litter in some valorous general's command tent, or polishing the marble of an august senate gallery, Moppe blithely strides through a floor-level portal that has been left open accidentally. What awaits on the other side is a cacophony of screams and clanks, and underneath that hammering din: soot. Cake. Strips of leather, charred and discarded. It's a mess!
Moppe instantly gets to work tidying, but gradually begins to notice that the figures towering above it aren't the familiar robed magicians... these striped and braying forgemasters are looking at it quizzically, whinnying and snorting some apparently hilarious joke between them. At first they torment poor Moppe, kicking it over, throwing tongs and ingots and coal at its head, but soon they grow bored of their game and let the little gnome sort out the messes they've made around the workshop. Not knowing what to do, Moppe continues its tasks, but as the days go by it starts to notice troubling signs. The mages treated it with indifference, but their experiments seldom resulted in anything other than a gentle glow, a soft buzz, or some combination of smells following a bang. These smiths, however... their tools look wicked, their materials oddly organic and familiar. When Moppe sees the first captive brought in for harvesting, its recent uneasiness is suddenly confirmed. It knows it has to do something. It knows that the zebra demons must be stopped. But how?
It maintains the appearance of mindlessly cleaning the space around it, but its mind is whirring with possibilities. It stashes every bit and morsel of usable material, every pin, length of wood, and stray demon-hair. It doesn't know what these will become, but some day or night when the archzebrademons leave to rest, or raid, or satisfy whatever twisted desires they may have, Moppe will have the forges to itself. Yes. And it will get to work...
And here, after some alone-time at the forges, is Moppe Phase 2:
Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian 1RW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
First strike, haste, protection from Rats, from Spiders, and from Insects
(Melds with Demonbristle Broom)
"I forgot to close one little teleportal and off it went, sweeping right into the painforges of the archzebrademons. I wonder, how long could it have survived in there?"
--Luka Pnyx, Laboratory Assistant
0/1
Demonbristle Broom1R
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +3/+0 and has "R: this creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn."
Equip: 2
RW: If you both own and control Demonbristle Broom, and it is equipping a creature you both own and control named Moppe, Enthusiastic Custodian, exile them, then meld them into It That Pans the Dust.
Restrictions breed creativity. Of course, having plentiful magical materials to hand and access to hellfire-fueled forges doesn't hurt.
It That Pans the Dust
Color Indicator: Red and White
Legendary Artifact Creature - Gnome
Double strike, haste, protection from Rats, from Spiders, from Insects, and from Demons
(R/W): It That Pans the Dust gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
When It That Pans the Dust enters the battlefield it deals damage equal to its power to each creature you don't control.
Moppe turned toward its demonic captors with a righteous fury it had never before known. At long last it had completed its weapon and cleared the dungeons of vermin: now it was going to take out the trash.
3/1
First, I decided to keep Moppe's PT at 0/1. That seems kinda central to the design at this point, but I wanted it to feel more naturally RW. I added First Strike and Haste, which in a vacuum do nothing to increase its power, but make it a more tempting equip target. I also cleaned up the text itself a bit.
Making a relic-level broom out of zebrademon manes seemed too fun to pass up. There aren't a lot of colored equipment cards yet, but WotC seems to be moving in that direction. It's a little more aggressively costed than equivalent uncommons, but it's not nearly a world-beater outside of the meld ability.
Lastly, It That Pans the Dust. I didn't want the melded form to simply portray Moppe wielding the broom (which is a prerequisite to using the meld ability) but to represent the plucky little gnome stepping into its destiny. The stats are a combination of Moppe's base form and the equipment abilities, only the first strike has been layered over the regular attack to yield double strike, and the firebreathing ability has been shifted into hybrid R/W. I don't think the one-sided boardwipe is too much, given that you've invested nine mana to get it, and all the pieces are fragile (two artifacts, one of which is also a 0/1 creature.) I do like how it's tempting to wait on melding until you have the free mana to pump It That Pans the Dust in response to the ETB, but I'm worried that the card is getting a little busy. I may have to cut things drastically in later phases.
2
1
I know my evaluation skills are rusty, so I hope you don't mind me running my untested build past you guys to get your feedback. I've done extensive solo testing (for what that's worth,) and I think that unless I'm missing something, it's consistent enough and just zany enough that I'll want to actually suit up some better version of this in real life.
4 Sage of Hours
4 Favored Hoplite
Enchantments (12)
4 Hardened Scales
4 Aqueous Form
4 Ordeal of Thassa
Instants (14)
4 Solidarity of Heroes
4 Gods Willing
4 Feat of Resistance
2 Swan Song
2 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
Lands (24)
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Plenty
4 Temple of Mystery
3 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
2 Island
2 Plains
I know the mana base needs to be tweaked (I just distributed the lands symmetrically for the moment,) but I'm actually pretty happy with the scry-lands. If the game goes to turn five, you'll want that to drop untapped (since it enables Ajani, Mentor of Heroes and a host of profitable three-instant combinations,) but the filtering seems invaluable. I also cut Ajani down to two to make room for another Swan Song, good move / bad move?
I might be wrong on some judgment calls here, but I can explain every one. If you think this list is just terrible, please let me know why so I can see what to do better (and what I'm doing wrong.)
I haven't finalized the sideboard yet, either, but I don't think it will be too hard to swing in a much more traditional Bant Hardened Scales shell. I haven't thought very deeply about this yet, but I actually think Bant might be a winner coming out of FRF for this deck: you guys have brought up Monastery Mentor, am I crazy in thinking that it has amazing synergy with Ephara's Enlightenment? You play Enlightenment, spawn a token, and immediately return Enlightenment to your hand to cast again. It's good even without a Hero of Iroas on the board, but with both Mentor and Hero in play it basically reads:
Ephara's Enlightenment, {W}{U}
Sorcery
Trigger heroic on target creature (place one to five +1/+1 counters on that creature)
Place one to five +1/+1 counters on target creature
Monk tokens you control get +1/+1 until end of turn, then place a 1/1 white Monk token with Prowess into play
When Ephara's Enlightenment resolves, if it would be placed into your graveyard instead return it to your hand
That's the best sorcery ever printed for this deck!
Anyway, thanks everyone for tuning your Hardened Scales decks and sharing your info and results, and thanks for taking a look at mine.
Edit: Maybe this is why I shouldn't post when I'm so sleepy, it looks like Mentor triggers off Enlightenment being cast, so the token comes into play before the Enlightenment is on the battlefield to notice it. Darn.
1
This hurts my heart a little.
I won't complain about it, but those are precisely the reasons why we would have loved for him to get a pw card. He's not just a character who *wasn't* a functional planeswalker, he's a character who *could have been* a great red 'walker and traded that away without thought or remorse to do what he felt was right and to help his friends. His story was admirable and endearing, and it leaves us wondering what kind of career he would have had hopping across the multiverse as Goblin MacGyver. It certainly would have been a touching call-back to give him a "what if" card in a supplemental product to scratch that itch, and might have provided just a little fan-compensation for his tragic life and meaningless death (which are part of why his story works, and shouldn't be undone in canon.)
Also, he's not just memorable for being the potential red goblin planeswalker that didn't happen, there's a case to be made that Slobad could have been a great ambassador/face for the color red. Maro has mentioned many times that creative is looking for ways to showcase more of red's philosophy on cards, but is limited by the combat-centric nature of the game and what it allows to be expressed through mechanics. As a character, Slobad represents red's take on other colors' primary concerns very well, and some of these differences could be shown mechanically:
Blue: He's certainly smart enough that he can't be framed as either envious or ignorant, which seems to happen to red a lot, but his intelligence is intuitive and unlike blue's methodical and aloof styling. He's into mental challenge because he finds it interesting and he has a knack for it, not because he values learning as a status-signifier. Even when he's set apart (and exiled!) for his mental aptitude, he doesn't respond by feeling his intelligence should automatically grant him a position of authority or privilege anywhere. He does potentially have enough blue in him to justify multicolor depending on how his character would have developed, however. This can be expressed mechanically within red's slice of the pie through interaction with artifacts.
White: He sacrifices his spark to save his friends, so he can't be slurred as an uncaring barbarian. He's motivated to do what he feels is right, but this is primarily driven by concern and not ideology. He obviously cares about the survival and well-being of Mirran society at large, but he has been hurt (and enslaved!) by group-think-y communities, so he probably doesn't care much for rules and stratified social structures (he ends up exiling himself, but this is more for his own good and not about preserving social order.) This can be expressed mechanically within red's slice of the pie through self-sac effects.
Green: He has lived as a hermit in the wilderness and accepted his true nature, so green can't say that he's brainwashed or coddled by "civilised" living, but that said he doesn't expect or attempt to be happy and at peace with his inner self. He doesn't believe that all of his impulses and feelings can ever be reconciled; he is who he is, but he *suffers* for it. No idea how this could be expressed mechanically, really.
Black: He's a survivor, willing to tough out and escape enslavement(!) and scavenge for sustenance, but he doesn't really have any of the classical black impulses. He could have translated his skill with machines into influence (and revenge) somehow if he had really cared to do so. Of all the colors, Slobad is probably furthest from black. There still might be some place to find mechanical nuance, but I'm not entirely sure where (artifact-based looting?)
Anyway, I'm glad to see that Palliano stuck, but it would have been awesome to get Slobad. It's not like there aren't reasons people still talk about him.