MTG Salvation

Quote from ReapThaWhirlwind »

I think it would have to say,

Crusade for Balance XXW
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a permanent of each type among artifact, creature, land, enchantment, and planeswalker if that player controls more permanents of that type than you. Each opponent discards cards and exiles cards from their graveyard the same way. Repeat this process up to X times.
"Fight with all your might my son! Never cease your advance! A man's power is his output. When you cease to fight, you will soon after cease to exist."


This is the best I can do. It's basically the same as what you had, just an extra step for coherence. It would probably be way more functional as a single instance effect though.

Solemn Judgement 1W
Sorcery
Each opponent sacrifices a permanent of each type among artifact, creature, land, enchantment, and planeswalker if that player controls more permanents of that type than you.
"Our effort must be almost overwhelming. Our vigilance must be enduring. A man's power lies in his output. Yet beware of that output. The moment you fight for what's wrong, you mine as well cease to exist."

Amazing how rearranging the words would make a card more understandable. Thx much!

Thank you!

Quote from ReapThaWhirlwind »

It costs too much (for what it aspires to do). It actually doesn't do that either.

You're instructing players to sacrifice a number of permanents down to an equal portion as you, which can bypass and exceed the value of X.

How would you word it so it does what it was intended?

What if I change the text to something similar to Torment of Hailfire:

"Repeat the following process X times. Each opponent sacrifices a permanent of each type unless they control equal or fewer permanents as you do of that type. Each opponent discards cards and exiles cards in their graveyard the same way."

With this new wording, it would require players to sacrifice X cards, but automatically stopped if they control the same number as you do.

Dousing Balance
XXW
Sorcery

Each opponent sacrifices up to X artifacts until they have the same number of artifacts you control. Repeat this process for creature, enchantment, land, and planeswalker. Each opponent discards cards and exiles cards in their graveyard the same way.
———

Reference: Balance/Balancing Act/Magus of the Balance/Equipoise

Akin to the spirit of White, Dousing Balance brings everyone down to your level. The keywords here are “up to X”, which means: 1) If your opponent is one card in hand ahead of you and X=2, you cannot make him discard more than one card, 2) If your opponent is three cards ahead and X=2, he’d still end up with one card ahead.

In short, Dousing Balance is an expensive spell that doesn’t really “gain” you anything unless you’re running behind, and it might not even remove troublesome permanents you’re eyeing on, which is why I take the liberty of making its effect massive and only affects opponents.

I’m not too worried about the LD aspect here, consider how expensive this spell is, you’d probably have a lot of lands and/or mana rocks already, which means your opponent likely won’t sacrifice that much mana at all.

Helm of the Host/Evil Twin

Helm's ruling indicates that if it's equipped to a clone, then it will produce tokens of whatever creature that clone was copying. Evil Twin however also gives himself an additional ability. Does Helm copies that ability as well?

Thx for answers!

Ghostly Prison/Bloodthirsty Blade

To my knowledge, if an opponent cannot pay 2 for Prison, none of his creatures could attack me even if one of them equips Bloodthirsty Blade or has similar effect on it.

So assuming my opponent has two mana open and initiates combat, he has creature A and creature B (goaded), can he pay for just A and claim that he runs out of mana, therefore cannot attack with B?

Quote from user_938036 »

That's neat but despite how you dress it up that is definitely a black ability. More specifically it appears to reasonably be mono-black or at least demand black to get access to discard.

Quote from BlazingRagnarok »

Nice try, but this is a color pie break, through and through. Red just doesn't get that kind of discard, plain and simple. It's too discriminating, compared to the random looting and wheeling that are the extent of red disruptive discard. I don't see at all how those color pie philosophies you laid out tie into the mechanics you chose for this card.

I disagree. It's easy to categorize card effect into specific colors, such as all land fetch must be green or all discard must be black, but it's possible to have similar effect in nontraditional colors by having a twist. For example, black traditionally don't have artifact/enchantment removal but it could be done with effect such as Gate to Phyrexia, Phyrexian Tribute, Mire in Misery, and Pharika's Libation. Similarly, red could draw cards via effect like Risk Factor and Browbeat.

Not to mention, this card is a multicolor card that could incorporate different facets into one.

White traditionally has universal discard effect like Balance, Balancing Act, and Restore Balance, and they have effects that would "tax" people to prevent, such as Smothering Tithe/Leonin Arbiter, resource suppression base on card type via cards like Cataclysm/ Limited Resources. Red has punishment effect that make people pay, such as Skullscorch and Breaking Point, discard effect like Sirocco or discard to pay a price such as Chain of Plasma, and effect that make people sacrifice permanents such as Crack the Earth, Rite of Ruin, and Whims of the Fates .

It may seem odd at first, but in reality Issac isn't doing anything outside of Naya pie, he merely combining what's already there. In fact, he could be complete Boros and it'd still make sense, with enough cards from the past to back it up.

The only ability that I'm not completely satisfied with is his activation ability. It is a little off to have a mana dump via discard. I will remove that one.

Is the color of Surgical Extraction a bit “light” compare to the original?

Issac the Bitter
WRG
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
2/4

At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player may pay 2. If they don’t, they reveal their hand. If three or more cards of the same card type are revealed this way, that player discards one of those cards unless they sacrifice a permanent of that type.

”Survival requires both truth and lies.”

———————

Flavor/Lore

Issac is a middleman between nobles and peasants, sometimes a messenger, sometimes a collector. He did his job begrudgingly and inevitably led to suffering of many, including his own family (whom he frequently paid the nobles to spare). Occasionally, he’d hide vital information from his noble superiors so they don’t know what to steal from the commoners.

W: Taxing
R: Compassionate and going under the law
G: Family oriented
WR: Universal punishment
WG: Dealing with the mass against the elites
RG: Helping the lower castes
WRG: Champion for the weak through roguish acts

Mechanics

Issac follows the popular WG trend of suppression, with R added showing his “in-between man” ability.

The wording of Issac follows that of Invasion block Domain cards. If an opponent reveals 3+ cards of one permanent type, he either discard it or sacrifice one that shares its type. If it’s instant/sorcery that got revealed, then they have no choice but to discard one of those cards.

Gameplay

Not an easy card to build around, but ultimately benefit from WG’s ability to retrieve permanent cards, as well as R’s ability to cycle cards in hand. His activation ability is a useful political tool.


EDIT 1: Removed the activation ability of Issac.

Thank you!

Thank you for your comment.

For starter, I mentioned this was created as a lore card, depicting the ideal Kamigawa and Konda before he fell to his own obsession, as a wise ruler instead of a nonmalleable madman. In the Golden Era when everyone worships spirits, they receive their blessing in return, they were the core of Kamigawa's momentum.

Saccing spirit being counterproductive, that was intended, because Konda did it for temporary power and never came back from that route, personally I enjoy cards with a lot of choice making. This version of Konda would no doubt be a creature-based deck, that too was intended, because it's a plane where people and spirits mingle, Konda's position as Shindo's chosen cannot be as aloof as King Kenrith is.

Experimental Frenzy

Given madness is a card you discarding, can you cast it under the influence of EF?

I love all three of them.

Power wise, Uro seems to be the most powerful due to his draw/ramp/life package.

Polukranos whom I already started a thread here, noted that he could be a repeatable creature killer once you provide protection and growth, all the while being a perfect sac fodder due to its size.

Kroxa's ability to group-slug at low cost is valuable, and he will likely go into a discard-centric deck or as a support in Grixis, and B/R never lacks a way to drop things into the GY (and Squee can return again and again!). However, I am not sure if one card (even if from everyone) is good enough, compare to Uro's universal effect and Polukranos's potential two-hit kill.

After testing, I noticed that I tend to cast both titans TWICE from command zone before sending them to the graveyard waiting to escape. Uro is a given since his ability makes each recast that much easier, Kroxa would require extra support and vice effect. Polukranos being Golgari gives him permanent destructions the other two lack.

I will make decks for all of them, that's for sure. I don't shay away from powerful but costly effects.

Quote from Singe »

I was thinking of Ghoulcaller Gisa since it can give you plenty of 2/2 Zombie tokens off of saccing Polukranos, Unchained. Combos with Death's Presence and Doubling Season.

That certainly adds to card advantage and allow you to "go wide" when necessary!