MTG Salvation

So, is it possible I might post some opinions I have in this thread? Don't worry, I'll make sure they're constructive.

Here is how to make a flavor stretch and has a blue Fog. Making all creatures mist is an acceptable flavor stretch.

Mist Transition
Instant
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by each creature.

Still, no one would print this card though.

Are you sure Skyhopper's suicidal nature fits with the guild's theme? Just ask, if you do, that's fine.

Chieftain Black-Cloud - I understant what you guys are trying to do here, but isn't a little confusing and difficult to catch up with the number of those cards? Could there be other way to work around this?

Ps. Magpie-Clan is awesome. One thing though, he shouldn't be an assassin, I mean, assassins kill other dudes, he does not.

Elder Lord of the mystics - There are currently no rules that allow playing activated ability from an unknown card in hand. Forecast requires you to reveal it for everyone to see and then you could play it. Add some more text such as,

Remove 4 mystics you control from the game, reveal ~ from your hand: Put ~ into play.



Auramantic Sacrifice - I personally believe this card is too wordy. You can make it return itself to it's owner's hand and cut the last sentence out. I know it might change the function a bit, but by the current wording, player can't put Auramantic Sacrifice in play again, which in normal circumstances people wouldn't do that anyway. Or if they're doing that to get a sacrifice outlet, this card is for the Johnny! So it could even be,

Auramantic Sacrifice
:1mana::symu::symr:
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature you control || :symw:, return ~ to it's owner's hand, sacrifice enchanted creature: blah blah



Mystic Magic - 99.9% of the time this card is Dissipate. With 99.9% more difficult casting cost. I think it definitely needs change.



Wizards' Anger - Shouldn't this card gets something white built-in? I mean, it's quite wierd to have a monocolored card that has no effect at all if you don't play multicolor, isn't it? Monocolored cards with off color abilities are normally meant to have some effect, but get better if you play the other colors, but ithis card has no effect at all unless you play the other colors.



Pyrostorm - From the guild concept, should this guild has a mass burn spell? I thought they're about creating double standard.



Quickcasting - Shouldn't the Quicken-enchantment ability cost U and W? W for enchantment and U for the Quicken effect. I see no red in that ability.


Yare's Glare - Why doesn't the third mode does something about enchantment? It seems out of place. Could be target enchantment deals damage equal to CMC to its controller or something.


Dematerialize - The phrase about losing P/T is redundant. If it becomes an enchantment, it loses P/T anyway.


Shielding Force - Add creature type?


Confusing Thoughts - What does W has to do with the deflection effect? It should be a red card and U for kicker.


Solar Justice - Again, according to the guild concept, should this guild gets direct damage?


Starlight - The phrase 'If you do' is redundant with the phrase 'you may' before it. Both for the blue ability and the red ability. Try cutting it out and this card would still works as you hope it would do.


Do I catch the guild concept right? Is this guild trying to create rules for the others to follow, but make another rules for themselves and gain advantage out of that. Put it in simple word, is this guild trying to create double standard?

Working on the Gaunlet? Shouldn't you be working on MaRo's designer search?

Alacar, as to show my sincerity, these are some artworks you might find some use.

24) A mass-destruction spell of holy power.
29) A dark-haired male in pain.
31) A scene of unholy destruction.

Dunno if they would match the arts you're searching for or not. But please consider them.

Well, last time I checked, you got the trophy and I never said a word that you shouldn't. But there was a flaw in the card as I pointed it out.

Last time I checked, you admited the flaw, bravely. Then you fixed it very nicely.

Last time I checked, I said that after the new wording she was perfect.

Last time I checked, I was saying congratulations to you, I also called your glory as 'great success'.

Last time I checked, I was saying that I also believed that the judges saw the good things on this card and that's why this card won.

Last time I checked, I complimented her as 'freakingly great example of a great design'.

Last time I checked, Kraj mentioned something that I thought wasn't right, so I pointed it out. It was meant to be between me and Kraj. And you know what, I was supporting your wording. And after that reply, you deleted the perfect version of the card.

Now what have I done wrong to you, Alacar?

Yeah, yeah. That's out of my authority, so I'd sit and watch. But I'm curious, who's the Master of redundant card wording? For as much as I can remember, someone posted that wording before I did.

What I've been doing is pointing out the flaws, or should we rather proceed with flaws in our works? And should we also hide our flaws and hope no one finds it?

I don't know what would happen if someone create a card that has 'At the beginning of your upkeep, you may search your library for this card. Reveal it, then put it into your hand.'

You have been so brave for accepting the truth and errata'd the card, I admire you for that. But you just lost your bravery and started running away from the truth once you said that this is ridiculous. I'm disappointed, I thought as a designer, and as one with lots of works being presented to the public, correcting one's mistake should be of paramount importance.

And now for everyone who thinks the card should stay the way it was originally worded, congratulations for having a great fantasy Magic card that doesn't belong to Magic rules.

Oh, well Kraj. Please don't make me do this again. There are significant differences between Chord of Calling and Dreamweaver.

First of all, CoC search for a creature card with the specified CMC. So when you serach one and put it into play, all along the processes the game always get to see whether everything is in checked.

Now let's Congregation at Dawn for Dreamweaver. Using the wording 'If ~ would be revealed from your hand or library, put it into play tapped instead'

You search for a three creature cards, during the time that you're searching for those cards, The game doesn't know what cards you're searching for. Sure it expects you to search for creature cards, but it still doesn't know what those cards are for the time being. It would know later, when you finish searching and reveal them.

So now you have already done searching for three unknown cards, and as you're about to reveal them, pffs! one creature suddenly comes into play, that creature card wasn't revealed because the revealing process was replaced by her ability. Now what's the problem?

It's rather obvious for the player to see that the 2 cards are the same. By all means, you just searched for some cards, put one into play and that card is Dreamweaver, so that's fine. But does the game sees that in the same way?

Definitely no. What the game sees is you're searching for some cards, which the game currently doesn't know what they are, because you haven't revealed it yet. What the game sees, is that there are 3 cards being searched, and it's waiting to see what those 3 cards are. And suddenly, while it still doesn't know that she is one of the 3 cards, she pops into play. How could the game justifies a card if it never knows what the card is? And why would her ability works if the game never knows that the searched card is her? Seriously you know that it's her. But the game doesn't know, and if a game doesn't know what the card is, then how come would the ability of the card works?

So this is mainly rule-wise. People might not understand what purposes those seemingly redundant words serve. But if you'd like to make it fits with the rule, that's what you have to do. Lots of people don't know why there must be Substances on those Instantment from Mirage, but it serves rule purpose, and so as the part 'instead reveal it' for Dreamweaver.

Replacing the revealing with another revealing makes lots of sense IMO.

Things should happen it proper order, reveal it then put it into play, that's how she should work.

Because if not, then if you'd reveal her, you put her into play right away. And if so, as the game sees it, there would be no point where she is still in your hand or library and also get revealed. It's like, I'm searching for something and then suddenly I put her into play, the moment my opponent gets to see her is the moment she's already in play, that's not right, even though the result would be effectively the same.

So by this wording, if I'm searching I get to reveal her, my opponent sees that's really her, and then she goes into play. That's more smooth and proper.

That's exactly the same wording as I had thought at the time I noticed the flaw in the old text. Now this card is perfect, and she's gorgeous, honestly.

I admire what you've done, I admire your article and I admire what you have been presenting to the public. The issue I brought up was nothing more than an urge to notify the public that an error happened, and no one has noticed it for the whole competition. That is somehow not right.

Those three long paragraphs of the example situations were meant to make my post more solid. Looking back at it now and it seems a little too harsh, I'd be careful not to do that again.

I do design, too. And I have a 350-card set of my own, but I still don't think it's good enough to be presented to the public and I'm learning. And as I do the designing, there was one thing I learned,

No matter how far your creativities go, they must stick to the basic rules. The Experience mechanic is based firmly on the current rules, and that's how everything should be. Otherwise it would be a chaos. Suspend and Flash are new mechanics that step into a new area of design, but nevertheless explainable by the basic rules and wording.

So please, no more arguement as that one about Ancestral Recall. Ancestral Recall made sense when it was printed, as every card should be. If a card doesn't make sense, it should be errata'd. (Look for Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, that's a very good example. He got errata'd almost immediately because the ability of the flipped side was written as a static ability, but that would never work as a static ability. So they errata'd that into a triggered ability.) I would never make a card that make no sense when it is printed in hope that it would make sense in the unknown future.

And hey, congratulations to the great success. I believe the judges saw what you already mentioned. She is freakingly great example of a great design.

Oh, come now. Despite the fact that it's a very good idea for design, this card creates rule problems that prevent it from being any great use. Seriously, when her triggered ability resolves, where is she the moment before she comes into play?

If you say on the stack, bah! You're wrong.

The truth is, she would be either in your hand or your library. Because she never changes zones, and her ability never specifies that she changes zones.

Let's say you got Blackmailed. Then you reveal 3 cards from your hand which has more than 3 cards. You happen to reveal this cute little girl so her ability is triggered. Then you put those cards back to your hand. Now, when her ability resolve, you put her into play. Then your opponent points out. "Is that the same card as the card you revealed?" And you say "Hell, why not, I just revealed her." And he say again. "How do you proove that the card you revealed and that card are the same card?" You shrugged, scoop up your cards, say "Noob" to his face and left the table. But never forget the fact that he was right.

Now you play Aethermage's Touch, reveal her along with another creature and 2 irrelevant cards. You put the other critter into play and put her at the bottom. Now when her triggered ability resolves, you try to get her into play. Then your annoying rule-lawyer opponent says that you have no proofs that the 2 cards are the same. You claim the you are taking the bottom card of your library, that could be her. Cause you just revealed those 3 cards at the bottom of your library and she was one of them, so that could only be her. He sighs and say "There are no rules that support what you're trying to do." And he was so damned right.

Now try this one more time. You reveal it with Congregation at Dawn, but before her triggered ability resolves, something cause you to shuffle your library. Now, what would you do when her ability resolves? Search for the card in your library? Simply ignore her effect? Stumble and cry? Smash your opponent's face for causing you to shuffle?

The truth is there is nothing in the rulebook that make this card possible to play. It has gone beyond the Comp Rule and thus should probably belongs to somewhere else with the rules that could support her. Now people would start criticizing me. "This is just a fantasy card you idiot!" "Damn you for defiling this great moment of a man's glory!" But hear me, if you create a card that doesn't belong to Magic rules, is that a Magic fantasy card? If I create a card with a card type 'trap', as in Yugi-oh, which of course has never been one of Magic's card type. Could I call that a fantasy Magic card?

It should be the card's designer's responsibility to create card that are comprehensible, practically playable and explainable in rule aspect. Am I not right?

Oh! I have tear in my eyes....

And Richard Kane Ferguson is back! I love his artworks!

Talking about this card in the design aspect, I think WotC has created a very nice mechanic.

As you can see, Suspend has a very broad spectrum fro design and can be used in variety of cards and in vaviety of ways.

First of all we have Suspend card with no mana cost as Lotus Bloom. Which couldn't be played normally in any way other than Suspend. But I'm certained thay wouldn't make many cards with no mana cost. Otherwise the coolness would drop dramatically.



Secondly we might have Suspend card that you can spend less mana but invest your turns to lessen the mana needed to play it. Such as

Suspend Bear
2G
Creature
Suspend 2 - G
2/2



And we might even get a few Suspend card with variable suspension time!

Suspended Kudzu
Creature
1G
Suspend X - 2G (Choose X as you play Suspend)
Suspended Kudzu comes into play with X +1/+1 counters.
1/1



And there could be Suspend cards that the suspending costs more than the normal cost. But give some bonus. I think this category would be very interesting. It could be like

Suspend Call of the Herd
2G
Sorcery
Suspend 2 - 2GG
Put a 3/3 green Elephant creature token into play.
When you Suspend ~, put a 3/3 green Elephant creature token into play.

The Suspend bonus and the card doesn't have to be the same though, such as

Councel of the Soratami
2U
Sorcery
Suspend 1 - 2UU
Draw two cards
When you suspend ~, draws a card.

Interesting, huh?



Or it could be a card that have a bonus only if played via Suspend.

Suspend City of Brass
Land
Suspend 2 - 0
If you play ~ from your hand, it comes into play with a pain counter on it.
Tap: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
When ~ becomes tapped, it it has a pain counter on it. ~ deals 1 damage to you.

If you could wait for the Suspension time, it becomes an unlimited Gemstone Mine!

Pretty vast area of design to explore, huh? Don't forget that they could use the simple variation of Suspend in the first block and the more complex ones in the following blocks.

Let's see whether I would be right.

Hi y'all This is a version I created myself. It revolves around the Yosei lock. Which is quite a difficult combination to get them all out, but when you do, it ends the game right there. Let's take a look at the decklist before I continue.



So this is a control style of Haakon. Early in the game you manipulate your library and hand to gather the combo pieces. Also secure any threat with Mortify and Wrath of God. Castigate has prooven itself to be pure gold against control. Gifts and Compulsive Research we already know about. And Tellin Time is there because I usually have a very difficult time making the deck runs smoothly without a few more library manipulation. If I can find some way to make the deck runs more smoothly they can be removed to free up the slot for something else.

Now for the creatures, Court Hassar and Haakon need no further discussion. The House Guard is there to fetch Gifts or Wrath, or Faith's Fetters if you side it in, House Guard has also prooved its usefulness in fetching the very great business cards of the deck, another purpose is to be the sacrifice outlet for the Yosei lock. Azorius Herald is there mainly for repeating life gain, which is very good against control, you should get the chance to look at their face when I recur the Herald 3 times in 1 turn, gaining 12 lives, but I might cut him of later if another choices seem more interesting. Thoughtpicker Witch is a superb sacrifice outlet for Yosei, Hussar and Azorius Herald, your opponent will draw no business for the rest of the game.

Normally the creatures are fetched by Gifts, starting with Haakon and Hussar first. Then the second Gifts fetches Yosei and Thoughtpicker Witch after the combo has been set.

For the sideboard, I'm deciding whether Faith's Fetters or Pithing Needle would fit. Since I have 3 Wraths and 3 Mortify and a recuring troop of creatures, creatures should be that much of a problem so the life gain and the prison provided by Faith's Fetters might not be that much relevant. I'm still thinking about them even now. Terashi's Grasp and Sacred Grounds also need no further discussion. The other fatties are there to provide more threat in any match-up that might need them. 2 Cremates are dedicated the many graveyard usage that is becoming popular in standard lately.

I know this deck feels rather weak since the threats are very limited, but believe me, it's fun to play. And after some more modification it will be in a better shape.

Any opinion would be very much appreciated.