The other problem is that crescendo references triggered abilities and this is an activated ability.
While your ability does start with “at” (which I missed at first), there is no trigger and a voluntary trigger is not meaningfully distinct from an activated ability..
Crescendo was (by design) intended to be a simple and lite utility, that adds dynamic interactivity, and blends the line between activated, triggered, and static abilities to add an entirely new dimension to them.
If we always wanted interaction, then there wouldn't be things like Hexproof, Shroud, and Protection
In the standard set that just came out:
A) shroud appears on 0 cards
B) protection appears on 0 cards
C) hexproof appears on 0 cards
If you look, wizards really isn’t about stopping interaction any more. Not in any lasting way. Protection that naturally wears off, and protective effects that aggressors can ignore by paying a cost is the new standard for good design.
It's a prime example of "additional context" to denote the additional parameters of time and space on the effect apart from the conventional dynamics of the game.
What it does different is exclude Crescendo, which has additional applications (and interactions) apart from what's provided.
In my design, it's apart of a greater whole that is excluded in your design.
Certainly, they function similarly, but not interactively, concerning the application of Crescendo here.
Additionally, yours is more confusing that the effect continues or not after the permanent has left the battlefield.
It looks like you are looking for a mixture of Experience Counters and Cumulative Upkeep (where you are guaranteed to gain another counter like Cumulative upkeep but there is no cost, where possessing counters could theoretically increase the potency of passive or triggered abilities as seen in psychic vortex, mwonvuli ooze, Mizzix of the Nivmagus, and Daxos the Returned) with the added benefit of being able to isolate the ability from being connected to a permanent/token/emblem. Is that about right?
With that said, I expect that there is going to be some natural disagreement regarding what level of cognitive load is appropriate for this game. The test card Control Win Condition from Mystery Boosters a few years ago is unlikely to ever see print because it relies on keeping track of a value over a long period of time that the game does not generally give you a way to track (how many turns you've taken, in that case). I recall that you've designed several cards in the past that last 2 or 3 turns without using tokens to track and that's something that wizards hasn't really had people do since Telekinesis back in Legends.
Note that most of the permanent effects I listed above are either Yes-No binaries (either I have a maximum hand-size or I dont, either players can gain life or they can't, either I control the creature or they do, one trait doctoring effect typically overrules all previous ones, etc) or are marked by counters (as with the fireheart or BoED). What you are proposing is effects that can have granularity and that have no remaining way to track magnitude when the card leaves the battlefield (I may need to remember that one card with this ability caused hand sizes to be reduced by 2, that all sources of life gain gain an extra 3 life, and that all of my creatures get +4/+4 in the late-game, for example, with no counters/emblems on any permanents or players to mark that it is still in effect).
I imagine that this is an effect that you don't see any problems with and that I see as going against current design doctrine. No real way past that unless one of us drastically change our design philosophies but thought that the source of contention might be worth pointing out. I think that we can both agree that 1) this design would not be used by Wizards at this current time with their current design philosophies and 2) that this does not bother you as you see Wizards' designs as needlessly restrictive, though you can let me know if I'm wrong.
I said that, the effect was contemporary. And if we put it on a trigger, typically it doesn't make any sense; or at least, it become too confusing for a single instance effect. And this is where the traditional split between triggered and static abilities begins.
When we blend this line, these are the dynamics that take precedence based on how they would work if that static ability was a triggered ability.
Also, I'd like to remind you that since we are blending the line on an innovation here, it's entirely open source to the interpretation of the developer; and this is my interpretation as explained.
Is there any mechanical difference between the effect and
“At the beginning of your upkeep, each player’s maximum hand size is reduced by 1 (this effect doesn’t end at end of turn).”
Call me crazy but I don’t feel threatened by someone who has shown no inclination to capitalize, format, or use proper punctuation for anything other than fake-cursing at people.
The Phyrexian Language has already been transcribed .
The people at Wizards have no ******* idea what they·re doing .
The phyrexian language is created by Wizards, though? Whatever you say about Oggyam Fire Magic or whatever, Wizards can say that “phyrexian” is an altered form that they can do what they want with.
They can’t really be wrong about their own language.
EDIT: Holy thread necromancy, Batman. What are you doing dredging up year-old posts?
RoseBot , you seem to be under the impression that you deserve my time and effort
Then why?
Why make posts with allusions that nobody seems to get? Why make cryptic statements and assertions and get frustrated that the board is “hostile” toward that when you don’t bother to lay out your explanation?
If you want to be taken seriously, you can explain yourself. If you don’t explain yourself and aren’t taken seriously, though, you kind of forfeit the right to complain about it later.
The second ability would go infinite with artifact activated abilities that let you take extra turns, like time sieve or magistrate’s scepter as you are presumably skipping the activation cost.
If your intent is that you still need to pay the activation cost but you can just use an opponent’s artifact (making it fairly useless to use on your own artifacts), you may want to make that clear in parentheses. Something like (you must still pay any activation cost for that ability).
I would quiz you on what the difference between Invoking Despair and Evoking Despair is .
Invoke means that you’re calling on something in the sense of calling upon a tool. Invoking a law or privilege, for example.
Evoke also refers to calling (coming from the same root word) but more refers to calling things to mind. Evoking emotions or memories, for example.
In real like, you could evoke despair but could not meaningfully invoke despair.
In a fantasy world with magic, though, an invoker of despair would be calling upon despair as a tool to accomplish a specific end (likely through magic) whereas an evoker of despair would be calling forth a mental state of despair (which may or may not be through magic).
TLDR: if despair is the tool, you are invoking it. If despair is the end result, you are likely evoking it. There can can be hypothetical overlap (such as if you invoke despair to evoke despair in those around you) in a magical world.
Glissa , Slobad , and Bosh are Rachelè , Wayne , and Douglas
Okay, I’ll bite. Who are Rachelle, Wayne, and Douglas.
You seem to be very fixated on finding links between the lore of MTG and it’s supposed literary, philosophical, and mythological inspirations… but you aren’t very good at explaining it.
If you want to argue that a link exists, what you would preferably want to do is to be very straightforward regarding what you are referring to (including a direct link to the primary source material, if needed), explain the link you are trying to draw, and articulate why you think that Wizards or a story writer is trying to make that link based on what specific commonalities between the story and the “source”.
Begging in mind that your argument would need to be clear and convincing enough to overcome Occam’s Razor (that there are just a finite number of dramatic situations and that they may repeat by coincidence without direct inspiration) and the potential problem that an intentional reference made by one writer may be missed or eschewed by other writers down the road, making it effectively non-cannon with regards to predicting where the story moves from this point onward.
To be clear, you would need to do this EVERY TIME for EVERY LINK if you want to be taken seriously. There is no magical point of RP trust where you get to list a few names and assert that sowething is true and expect others to do the homework with nothing but three out-of-context names.
Without the specific information, people cannot see or infer your line of thought and you end up looking a bit odd (if for no other reason than that you expect people to know the names).
Nobody here has time for your RP. Nobody here has time for you to pretend that you are a freelancer who controls art design and set codenames and who slips in references from your life and interests through mtg.
Make your specific statements/claims. If you make specific statements (esp regarding mechanics) and they are confirmed, that is how you prove that it is worth the effort of trying to parse your statements. You have given no definite reason for anyone to do so.
You are not Q-anon. You are not Nostradamus. You have yet to establish any degree of verifiable credibility to justify anyone following you down your rabbit hole.
PS. The link to your blog (which is definitely you as it used the same attempt at “phyrexian” language, ka) that you previously had in your signature, which included a partial picture of your face, could at any time be provided to Mark Rosewater if you claim to be authentic. Please discontinue this behavior before someone angrier than I tries to call you on your bluff and gets you either blacklisted or ridiculed.
The last mode on Cabaretti Confluence honestly confuses me...? Why does it let you target other players? It's *sorcery speed* and only lasts until EoT. You can't combat trick it to pump your opponents creatures at an opportune time, what value does being able to target other players carry?
I can’t quite remember what the rules justification was but I remember wizards making the very deliberate choice that confluence and command effects must either have NO targeting abilities or ONLY targeting abilities.
So… anyone with two working eyes can see that white has gotten some major innovations regarding card advantage in New Capenna and the accompanying New Capenna Commander. Apparently, most of the ideas that they have been talking about for years must have been crammed into this single space. As there are a surprising number of these and it can be easy to lose track, I wanted to take a look at the various forms of card advantage/ramp for white in this set, giving my opinions and rating the cards themselves. Of course, all of the ratings are simply my own personal opinions.
Starting with Mono-White
[spoiler]
#Just No: Buy Your Silence: …let nobody say that I’m not super thorough. You can technically trade 5 mana and a nonland permanent for one (1) treasure. I mean, don’t… just don’t… but you can.
#Vanilla: Gathering Throng: Another squadron hawk effect that isn’t playable in commander. Just ignore the 3/1 for 3 with no rules text.
#Honorable Mention: Mage’s Attendant: Okay, this one isn’t card draw or ramp. It’s included in the list as it’s the first time in a VERY long time that white has been allowed to counter spells. It functions more like a tax effect than a real counterspell and I never expect to see people using this spell (even in a party deck) but had to at least give it some credit.
#20 Boon of Safety: Scry 1 is card selection. It’s not new by any stretch but I’m being thorough as heck today. I will say that giving shield counters at instant speed really does seem like the best way to handle them as it avoids the feelbad situation where blocking or being blocked by a small creature removes the shield you were hoping to save, though this is essentially a gods willing effect that trades unblockability and untargetability for the ability to survive through a wrath.
#19 Raffine’s Informant: While worse in a vacuum, the informant is actually better than teacher of symbology from Strixhaven in commander, where learn lets you rummage and conniving lets you loot and get a possible counter. I don’t think that the informant is strong enough for most decks (though it is a rare white wizard if that is ever relevant for a color-restricted party deck).
#18 Sky Crier: Yeah, spectral sailor this is not. Trading flash and one mana for lifelink is a bad trade and letting an opponent get a card from each activation isn’t the best. I do think that this is one of the best implementations of “symmetrical card draw” from white, though, as this card lets you “spread the love”. Drawing 3 cards and having each opponent draw 1 card doesn’t feel as bad as secret rendezvous. Allowing activation at instant speed also means that you can use it at your opponent’s end step so you get the benefits of the card draw first. I’m not going to pretend that this card is great by any stretch of the imagination but this is something I can imagine a “politics” player shoving in to play around with at low-power tables.
#17 Inspiring Overseer: I’ve seen some people liking the superior cloudkin seer as a possible element of blink decks. While it isn’t a “terrible” option, the fact that we already have spirited companion and wall of omens makes me wonder how many of these effects you’d realistically want, even in a dedicated blink deck. Probably not too many.
#16 Patch Up: A single spell that could theoretically gain 3 cards from your grave to the battlefield doesn’t sound half-bad on paper. Most of the time, though, the dream of grabbing back… what, esper sentinel, giver of runes, and serra ascendant? That probably won’t be happening most of the time. If you feel that your deck would regularly get back at least 2 creatures for that cost, though, I can see people testing this out in a realistic way. I really think that white benefits more rom a call of the death-dweller effect that black does as the latter is not especially known for low-cost creatures that aren’t just sac or discard outlets.
#15 Depopulate: Another Shatter the Sky variant. Far worse in mono-white decks but it does have the capacity to generate card advantage and the simple virtue of being another 4-mana wrath gets this card as high up the list as it is. Note that it only looks for multicolor cards, not for color identity or having creatures with multiple colors. Kenrith and Najeela won’t draw cards and quite a few boards, even against multicolor decks, won’t draw your opponents a thing. Given that you already have options for your 4-mana wraths, though, I can’t imagine this card seeing too much play.
#14 Sanctuary Warden: While the effect is big and splashy and draws some natural comparisons with the oldschool titans, I’m fairly cool on this card. Shield counters are much less useful on big creatures than small ones as there is a much higher chance that any combat involving your creature would “waste” the shield creature against a smaller creature rather than “using” the shield counter against a larger creature. This card is A 5/5 flier that replaces itself and that has a decent chance to live long enough to attack and generate actual (slight) card advantage, popping out two 1/1 tokens in the process. I don’t think that has enough impact to really make a dent at commander tables, though this card seems like a good baseline that I hope wizards builds upon.
#13 Elspeth Resplendent: Grabbing a permanent costing 3 or less from among the top 7 cards and giving it a shield counter is pretty nice. The fact that it can grab land from your library into play untapped is a decent floor. I could imagine games where Elspeth may even live long enough to try that trick a second time… though I wouldn’t count on it. Elspeth is a bit too expensive for most commander tables, alas. I could imagine someone trying Elspeth in a counters matters deck, however, as she can provide five different kinds through her first two abilities.
#12 Master of Ceremonies: I like this type of symmetry. The type of symmetry that lets everyone else draw 1 card and you draw three seems less offensive to me than just you and one other player drawing 3 apiece. I think that the cost is reasonable as well. While I appreciate that forcing your opponents to make a choice helps you out more than letting your opponent make a yes-or-no choice a la tempting contract, the fact that generating tokens is a fairly obvious “correct” choice for players and the fact that this card needs to live a full turn to do anything, however, kind of sour me on the card.
#11 Rumor Gatherer: Rumor Gatherer is, in most respects, a worse Welcoming Vampire. No flying, worse body and cost, and needing a second creature to come in before you get a card is kind of rough. If you are powering out a large number of creatures and tokens for a go-wide strategy, however, being able to dig past lands and dead draws to make sure that you keep drawing into gas may be a legitimate strategy. Not a card for everywhere but I do think that this has a place somewhere.
#10 Aerial Extortionist: As is so often the case, this is a good card that costs too much. ghostly pilferer already exists as a 2-drop and having a larger flyer that essentially bounces nonland permanents for 5 mana doesn’t seem worthwhile. I love that this is one of the few white card draw effects with no limits per turn and that it can theoretically continue building advantage while disrupting enemy tempo. The fact that an opponent may just bolt this card immediately and reduce this card to a 5-mana man-o-war makes me sad, though.
#9 Jailbreak: If you have a stomach for semi-symmetrical effects, I think that this is one of the better ones. The fact that you control what is returned gives you some flexibility and the fact that your card comes back second may be relevant on occasion. The worst-case scenario of giving your opponent back a fetchland to get back one of your own doesn’t seem terrible, either. While you end with neutral card advantage against two players and -1 cards compared to your target, the degree of choice and dirt-cheap mana cost are very tempting in my eyes.
#8 Angelic Sleuth: So… this card is hard to appraise. This card can trigger any number of times per turn, which is nice. Triggering a whole bunch doesn’t necessarily make clue producers good, as search the premises shows us, though we may have a bit more control over this. The fact that any permanent you control with any kind of counter leaving the battlefield (even if exiled, bounced, or blinked) triggers the angel makes that trigger look super-versatile, though I think that this is a card that will sleep for a bit before we discover the perfect environment.
#7 Giada, Font of Hope: Mana ramp for angels on a cheap angel that provides additional tribal support. Very narrow, of course, but a very good inclusion to its tribe.
#6 Rabble Rousing: This is a very Timmy card and I am a bit of a Timmy myself so I need to be careful. This card is not the sort of 5-mana card that creates infinite combos like Cathars’ Crusade or Archangel of Thune. Doubling your army with each attack makes a go-wide strategy more of a possibility for white decks, however, and I know that’s something that some players love to do. If you really want this card, the free hideaway card is likely just a tacked-on bonus.
#5 Halo Fountain: Fighting very hard to resist the hype, here. Strixhaven Stadium was another 3-mana card that had a “useful” function and made players lose and it was dangerously overhyped by some people. I will give this card some credit as being a possible incentive for going wide. I will acknowledge that it doesn’t take much to start generating some value with this card. I will acknowledge that there are some potential 3-card combos in bant decks and the like. I will even acknowledge that this is one of the easier hoops to hop through in mono white to get an extra card draw each turn in mono-white and that pseudo-vigilance that lets cards like weathered wayfarer or mother of runes tap again can be a nifty tool in the toolbox. At the end of the day, however, a 3-mana artifact that needs both board presence and mana investment to function isn’t at the top of my list.
#4 Tenuous Truce: I have been waiting for a half-decent 2 MV white cad advantage card for a long while and this is the closest we’ve come so far. While it is technically “fragile”, there are a lot of games where it takes several turns for someone to build up a board state sufficient to start making attacks and I’ve met few players who would use their turn one mana dork to attack you to give you a -1 out of spite rather than making a mana-efficient play and drawing a card for free. I like that you get to use the card you draw off of this before your opponent as well. By the standards of white card draw, an asymmetrical howling mine effect that favors you for a couple of rounds before vanishing isn’t half-bad. I’ll be the first to admit, however, that this card is far more dependent on diplomacy in the late-game, however.
#3 Extraction Specialist: Goes infinite with Saffi, has a decent and cost-efficient body (which is small enough for Sevinne’s Reclamation or Sun Titan to grab back), and can grab a number of useful cards that don’t need to attack to be useful (esper sentinel, mother of runes, stoneforge mystic, etc.). Can be blinked to grab more pieces as well. A big fan and I imagine that we’ll see more combo opportunities in the future.
#2 Benni Bracks, Zoologist: This card is simply outstanding. It’s a token commander that can cheat its own mana cost and potentially draw several cards in a turn cycle (especially if you have ways to generate tokens on your opponents turn). The fact that it will draw you cards for generating noncreature tokens is also fairly impressive. I can imagine people shoving this into a fair number of token decks with white in them. An outstanding card.
#1 Smuggler’s Share: This is probably one of the nicest cards that we have received for a long time. While I acknowledge that this is FAR WEAKER than smothering tithe (which will naturally trigger and help us or punish foes every turn no matter what), this does seem like a fairly good card. If anyone draws a card with a card effect during their turn, you draw a card. If someone stops paying Rhystic Study taxes during their turn to play several spells, you draw a card. If someone plays and cracks a fetch in the same turn, you get a treasure. The card does a lot and I see myself using it quite a bit.
[/spoiler]
Multicolor: While white is commonly described as a good support color, that is typically for its wide removal suite and less for being part of the ramp/advantage package. For that reason, I did want to list the multi-color cards with white that offer card advantage as well.
#11 Brazen Upstart: While it can help you grab a creature, the actual body doesn’t seem worth the original investment (especially for three colors).
#10 Broker’s Charm: The worst-case scenario is instant-speed card advantage, which is nice, but I’m still not sure how often a card like this would realistically crack your 99.
#9 Metropolis Angel: While it’s a source of reusable draw, I’m lukewarm on this card. It’s behind rate, doesn’t give you the tools to get the card draw, and only lets you draw one card per turn. Even for the dedicated token deck, I’m not a huge fan.
#8 Phabine, Boss’s Confidant: I don’t think that a symmetrical card draw that’s accompanied by a couple of hasty tokens and a small anthem is a huge payoff for playing a 6 mana card (compared to the craziness of Brudiclad, for example), especially when the pay-off is fairly random from round to round. I may be underestimating Phabine but I kind of doubt it.
#7 Cabaretti Ascendancy: A possible extra card draw each turn that you reveal for a very intensive mana cost does not seem worth the effort in many environments. The fact that you can “scry” a dead card to the bottom of your library to increase the chance of drawing gas is at least some sort of consolation prize, however.
#6 Rigo, Streetwise Mentor: The fact that the central-white hybrid commander lets you draw up to three cards per turn (more if your opponents have walkers) really stands out to me, especially as it starts off fairly cheap and gets a bit of protection each time you cast him. While this card can’t keep up with he OG Edric, it still sounds like a fairly fun deck to build.
#5 Life Insurance: Treasure for each nontoken killed (yours or an opponent’s) is nice, providing some possible redundancy for pitiless plunderer in certain decks and giving you an outlet for some of that treasure to heal you back up. While I’m not smart enough to come up with one on my own, this is the type of card that I look at and imagine that someone will find infinite combos for.
#4 Tivit, Seller of Secrets: Even if you don’t build around voting, this card seems generally good. It feels like far more of a “titan” than the Sanctum Defender, being a 6/6 for 6. It needs combat damage instead of an attack to get its trigger but it gets both protection AND evasion (and the vote ability) in exchange. The fact that this card can basically guarantee you getting two treasure when it comes out, letting you pay the commander tax if your opponent pays the ward cost to kill Tivit, is particularly sweet. Having a bunch of leftover clues that you can use to dig is just a bonus. Tivit is one of my favorite commanders this time around.
#3 Falco Spara, Pactweaver: Is fine. If you make the appropriate deck, Falco should hopefully let you dig fairly easily (especially I you have creatures like managorger hydra or forgotten ancient that get counters whenever you cast spells, essentially negating the extra cost).
#2 Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer: A Creature tutor that grabs things to the battlefield that you can put in your command zone. Seems like fairly high-grade combo fare and I’m okay with that.
#1 Prosperous Partnership: While an optimized Rocco deck would likely be more powerful overall, this seems like one of the cards that is easiest to take advantage of in a broad array of decks. If you are red and white, have a go-wide strategy, and aren’t green (which simply has better options like earthcraft or cryptolith rite), this is a card you should consider. If you have a Kykar deck or Winota deck that pops out a bunch of tokens, consider a partnership. If your Aurelia deck isn’t Voltron and the Mana Value of your Edgar deck isn’t too low, consider a partnership. Don’t just pop this in everywhere though. While this card does give you 2 out of the three tokens you need to get started, playing this on turn 3 with the hope that you’ll start making one treasure token each round makes this into an awkward manalith-type card.[/spoiler]
While your ability does start with “at” (which I missed at first), there is no trigger and a voluntary trigger is not meaningfully distinct from an activated ability..
According to you.
According to you.
In the standard set that just came out:
A) shroud appears on 0 cards
B) protection appears on 0 cards
C) hexproof appears on 0 cards
If you look, wizards really isn’t about stopping interaction any more. Not in any lasting way. Protection that naturally wears off, and protective effects that aggressors can ignore by paying a cost is the new standard for good design.
It looks like you are looking for a mixture of Experience Counters and Cumulative Upkeep (where you are guaranteed to gain another counter like Cumulative upkeep but there is no cost, where possessing counters could theoretically increase the potency of passive or triggered abilities as seen in psychic vortex, mwonvuli ooze, Mizzix of the Nivmagus, and Daxos the Returned) with the added benefit of being able to isolate the ability from being connected to a permanent/token/emblem. Is that about right?
As has been noted, permanent abilities have been done in the past. Agent of Treachery takes things forever, Riding the Dilu Horse never ends (though that's an old and awkward example), Stigma Lasher makes a permanent effect, Lots of moonlace-type effects never wear off, Counsel of the Praetors gives a permanent benefit, and Obsidian Fireheart/Book of Exalted Deeds create counters that have permanent abilities that last beyond the original permanent.
With that said, I expect that there is going to be some natural disagreement regarding what level of cognitive load is appropriate for this game. The test card Control Win Condition from Mystery Boosters a few years ago is unlikely to ever see print because it relies on keeping track of a value over a long period of time that the game does not generally give you a way to track (how many turns you've taken, in that case). I recall that you've designed several cards in the past that last 2 or 3 turns without using tokens to track and that's something that wizards hasn't really had people do since Telekinesis back in Legends.
Note that most of the permanent effects I listed above are either Yes-No binaries (either I have a maximum hand-size or I dont, either players can gain life or they can't, either I control the creature or they do, one trait doctoring effect typically overrules all previous ones, etc) or are marked by counters (as with the fireheart or BoED). What you are proposing is effects that can have granularity and that have no remaining way to track magnitude when the card leaves the battlefield (I may need to remember that one card with this ability caused hand sizes to be reduced by 2, that all sources of life gain gain an extra 3 life, and that all of my creatures get +4/+4 in the late-game, for example, with no counters/emblems on any permanents or players to mark that it is still in effect).
I imagine that this is an effect that you don't see any problems with and that I see as going against current design doctrine. No real way past that unless one of us drastically change our design philosophies but thought that the source of contention might be worth pointing out. I think that we can both agree that 1) this design would not be used by Wizards at this current time with their current design philosophies and 2) that this does not bother you as you see Wizards' designs as needlessly restrictive, though you can let me know if I'm wrong.
Is there any mechanical difference between the effect and
“At the beginning of your upkeep, each player’s maximum hand size is reduced by 1 (this effect doesn’t end at end of turn).”
Or would they function identically?
The phyrexian language is created by Wizards, though? Whatever you say about Oggyam Fire Magic or whatever, Wizards can say that “phyrexian” is an altered form that they can do what they want with.
They can’t really be wrong about their own language.
EDIT: Holy thread necromancy, Batman. What are you doing dredging up year-old posts?
Then why?
Why make posts with allusions that nobody seems to get? Why make cryptic statements and assertions and get frustrated that the board is “hostile” toward that when you don’t bother to lay out your explanation?
If you want to be taken seriously, you can explain yourself. If you don’t explain yourself and aren’t taken seriously, though, you kind of forfeit the right to complain about it later.
If your intent is that you still need to pay the activation cost but you can just use an opponent’s artifact (making it fairly useless to use on your own artifacts), you may want to make that clear in parentheses. Something like (you must still pay any activation cost for that ability).
Invoke means that you’re calling on something in the sense of calling upon a tool. Invoking a law or privilege, for example.
Evoke also refers to calling (coming from the same root word) but more refers to calling things to mind. Evoking emotions or memories, for example.
In real like, you could evoke despair but could not meaningfully invoke despair.
In a fantasy world with magic, though, an invoker of despair would be calling upon despair as a tool to accomplish a specific end (likely through magic) whereas an evoker of despair would be calling forth a mental state of despair (which may or may not be through magic).
TLDR: if despair is the tool, you are invoking it. If despair is the end result, you are likely evoking it. There can can be hypothetical overlap (such as if you invoke despair to evoke despair in those around you) in a magical world.
Okay, I’ll bite. Who are Rachelle, Wayne, and Douglas.
You seem to be very fixated on finding links between the lore of MTG and it’s supposed literary, philosophical, and mythological inspirations… but you aren’t very good at explaining it.
If you want to argue that a link exists, what you would preferably want to do is to be very straightforward regarding what you are referring to (including a direct link to the primary source material, if needed), explain the link you are trying to draw, and articulate why you think that Wizards or a story writer is trying to make that link based on what specific commonalities between the story and the “source”.
Begging in mind that your argument would need to be clear and convincing enough to overcome Occam’s Razor (that there are just a finite number of dramatic situations and that they may repeat by coincidence without direct inspiration) and the potential problem that an intentional reference made by one writer may be missed or eschewed by other writers down the road, making it effectively non-cannon with regards to predicting where the story moves from this point onward.
To be clear, you would need to do this EVERY TIME for EVERY LINK if you want to be taken seriously. There is no magical point of RP trust where you get to list a few names and assert that sowething is true and expect others to do the homework with nothing but three out-of-context names.
Without the specific information, people cannot see or infer your line of thought and you end up looking a bit odd (if for no other reason than that you expect people to know the names).
Nobody here has time for your RP. Nobody here has time for you to pretend that you are a freelancer who controls art design and set codenames and who slips in references from your life and interests through mtg.
Make your specific statements/claims. If you make specific statements (esp regarding mechanics) and they are confirmed, that is how you prove that it is worth the effort of trying to parse your statements. You have given no definite reason for anyone to do so.
You are not Q-anon. You are not Nostradamus. You have yet to establish any degree of verifiable credibility to justify anyone following you down your rabbit hole.
PS. The link to your blog (which is definitely you as it used the same attempt at “phyrexian” language, ka) that you previously had in your signature, which included a partial picture of your face, could at any time be provided to Mark Rosewater if you claim to be authentic. Please discontinue this behavior before someone angrier than I tries to call you on your bluff and gets you either blacklisted or ridiculed.
I can’t quite remember what the rules justification was but I remember wizards making the very deliberate choice that confluence and command effects must either have NO targeting abilities or ONLY targeting abilities.
Starting with Mono-White
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#Just No: Buy Your Silence: …let nobody say that I’m not super thorough. You can technically trade 5 mana and a nonland permanent for one (1) treasure. I mean, don’t… just don’t… but you can.
#Vanilla: Gathering Throng: Another squadron hawk effect that isn’t playable in commander. Just ignore the 3/1 for 3 with no rules text.
#Honorable Mention: Mage’s Attendant: Okay, this one isn’t card draw or ramp. It’s included in the list as it’s the first time in a VERY long time that white has been allowed to counter spells. It functions more like a tax effect than a real counterspell and I never expect to see people using this spell (even in a party deck) but had to at least give it some credit.
#20 Boon of Safety: Scry 1 is card selection. It’s not new by any stretch but I’m being thorough as heck today. I will say that giving shield counters at instant speed really does seem like the best way to handle them as it avoids the feelbad situation where blocking or being blocked by a small creature removes the shield you were hoping to save, though this is essentially a gods willing effect that trades unblockability and untargetability for the ability to survive through a wrath.
#19 Raffine’s Informant: While worse in a vacuum, the informant is actually better than teacher of symbology from Strixhaven in commander, where learn lets you rummage and conniving lets you loot and get a possible counter. I don’t think that the informant is strong enough for most decks (though it is a rare white wizard if that is ever relevant for a color-restricted party deck).
#18 Sky Crier: Yeah, spectral sailor this is not. Trading flash and one mana for lifelink is a bad trade and letting an opponent get a card from each activation isn’t the best. I do think that this is one of the best implementations of “symmetrical card draw” from white, though, as this card lets you “spread the love”. Drawing 3 cards and having each opponent draw 1 card doesn’t feel as bad as secret rendezvous. Allowing activation at instant speed also means that you can use it at your opponent’s end step so you get the benefits of the card draw first. I’m not going to pretend that this card is great by any stretch of the imagination but this is something I can imagine a “politics” player shoving in to play around with at low-power tables.
#17 Inspiring Overseer: I’ve seen some people liking the superior cloudkin seer as a possible element of blink decks. While it isn’t a “terrible” option, the fact that we already have spirited companion and wall of omens makes me wonder how many of these effects you’d realistically want, even in a dedicated blink deck. Probably not too many.
#16 Patch Up: A single spell that could theoretically gain 3 cards from your grave to the battlefield doesn’t sound half-bad on paper. Most of the time, though, the dream of grabbing back… what, esper sentinel, giver of runes, and serra ascendant? That probably won’t be happening most of the time. If you feel that your deck would regularly get back at least 2 creatures for that cost, though, I can see people testing this out in a realistic way. I really think that white benefits more rom a call of the death-dweller effect that black does as the latter is not especially known for low-cost creatures that aren’t just sac or discard outlets.
#15 Depopulate: Another Shatter the Sky variant. Far worse in mono-white decks but it does have the capacity to generate card advantage and the simple virtue of being another 4-mana wrath gets this card as high up the list as it is. Note that it only looks for multicolor cards, not for color identity or having creatures with multiple colors. Kenrith and Najeela won’t draw cards and quite a few boards, even against multicolor decks, won’t draw your opponents a thing. Given that you already have options for your 4-mana wraths, though, I can’t imagine this card seeing too much play.
#14 Sanctuary Warden: While the effect is big and splashy and draws some natural comparisons with the oldschool titans, I’m fairly cool on this card. Shield counters are much less useful on big creatures than small ones as there is a much higher chance that any combat involving your creature would “waste” the shield creature against a smaller creature rather than “using” the shield counter against a larger creature. This card is A 5/5 flier that replaces itself and that has a decent chance to live long enough to attack and generate actual (slight) card advantage, popping out two 1/1 tokens in the process. I don’t think that has enough impact to really make a dent at commander tables, though this card seems like a good baseline that I hope wizards builds upon.
#13 Elspeth Resplendent: Grabbing a permanent costing 3 or less from among the top 7 cards and giving it a shield counter is pretty nice. The fact that it can grab land from your library into play untapped is a decent floor. I could imagine games where Elspeth may even live long enough to try that trick a second time… though I wouldn’t count on it. Elspeth is a bit too expensive for most commander tables, alas. I could imagine someone trying Elspeth in a counters matters deck, however, as she can provide five different kinds through her first two abilities.
#12 Master of Ceremonies: I like this type of symmetry. The type of symmetry that lets everyone else draw 1 card and you draw three seems less offensive to me than just you and one other player drawing 3 apiece. I think that the cost is reasonable as well. While I appreciate that forcing your opponents to make a choice helps you out more than letting your opponent make a yes-or-no choice a la tempting contract, the fact that generating tokens is a fairly obvious “correct” choice for players and the fact that this card needs to live a full turn to do anything, however, kind of sour me on the card.
#11 Rumor Gatherer: Rumor Gatherer is, in most respects, a worse Welcoming Vampire. No flying, worse body and cost, and needing a second creature to come in before you get a card is kind of rough. If you are powering out a large number of creatures and tokens for a go-wide strategy, however, being able to dig past lands and dead draws to make sure that you keep drawing into gas may be a legitimate strategy. Not a card for everywhere but I do think that this has a place somewhere.
#10 Aerial Extortionist: As is so often the case, this is a good card that costs too much. ghostly pilferer already exists as a 2-drop and having a larger flyer that essentially bounces nonland permanents for 5 mana doesn’t seem worthwhile. I love that this is one of the few white card draw effects with no limits per turn and that it can theoretically continue building advantage while disrupting enemy tempo. The fact that an opponent may just bolt this card immediately and reduce this card to a 5-mana man-o-war makes me sad, though.
#9 Jailbreak: If you have a stomach for semi-symmetrical effects, I think that this is one of the better ones. The fact that you control what is returned gives you some flexibility and the fact that your card comes back second may be relevant on occasion. The worst-case scenario of giving your opponent back a fetchland to get back one of your own doesn’t seem terrible, either. While you end with neutral card advantage against two players and -1 cards compared to your target, the degree of choice and dirt-cheap mana cost are very tempting in my eyes.
#8 Angelic Sleuth: So… this card is hard to appraise. This card can trigger any number of times per turn, which is nice. Triggering a whole bunch doesn’t necessarily make clue producers good, as search the premises shows us, though we may have a bit more control over this. The fact that any permanent you control with any kind of counter leaving the battlefield (even if exiled, bounced, or blinked) triggers the angel makes that trigger look super-versatile, though I think that this is a card that will sleep for a bit before we discover the perfect environment.
#7 Giada, Font of Hope: Mana ramp for angels on a cheap angel that provides additional tribal support. Very narrow, of course, but a very good inclusion to its tribe.
#6 Rabble Rousing: This is a very Timmy card and I am a bit of a Timmy myself so I need to be careful. This card is not the sort of 5-mana card that creates infinite combos like Cathars’ Crusade or Archangel of Thune. Doubling your army with each attack makes a go-wide strategy more of a possibility for white decks, however, and I know that’s something that some players love to do. If you really want this card, the free hideaway card is likely just a tacked-on bonus.
#5 Halo Fountain: Fighting very hard to resist the hype, here. Strixhaven Stadium was another 3-mana card that had a “useful” function and made players lose and it was dangerously overhyped by some people. I will give this card some credit as being a possible incentive for going wide. I will acknowledge that it doesn’t take much to start generating some value with this card. I will acknowledge that there are some potential 3-card combos in bant decks and the like. I will even acknowledge that this is one of the easier hoops to hop through in mono white to get an extra card draw each turn in mono-white and that pseudo-vigilance that lets cards like weathered wayfarer or mother of runes tap again can be a nifty tool in the toolbox. At the end of the day, however, a 3-mana artifact that needs both board presence and mana investment to function isn’t at the top of my list.
#4 Tenuous Truce: I have been waiting for a half-decent 2 MV white cad advantage card for a long while and this is the closest we’ve come so far. While it is technically “fragile”, there are a lot of games where it takes several turns for someone to build up a board state sufficient to start making attacks and I’ve met few players who would use their turn one mana dork to attack you to give you a -1 out of spite rather than making a mana-efficient play and drawing a card for free. I like that you get to use the card you draw off of this before your opponent as well. By the standards of white card draw, an asymmetrical howling mine effect that favors you for a couple of rounds before vanishing isn’t half-bad. I’ll be the first to admit, however, that this card is far more dependent on diplomacy in the late-game, however.
#3 Extraction Specialist: Goes infinite with Saffi, has a decent and cost-efficient body (which is small enough for Sevinne’s Reclamation or Sun Titan to grab back), and can grab a number of useful cards that don’t need to attack to be useful (esper sentinel, mother of runes, stoneforge mystic, etc.). Can be blinked to grab more pieces as well. A big fan and I imagine that we’ll see more combo opportunities in the future.
#2 Benni Bracks, Zoologist: This card is simply outstanding. It’s a token commander that can cheat its own mana cost and potentially draw several cards in a turn cycle (especially if you have ways to generate tokens on your opponents turn). The fact that it will draw you cards for generating noncreature tokens is also fairly impressive. I can imagine people shoving this into a fair number of token decks with white in them. An outstanding card.
#1 Smuggler’s Share: This is probably one of the nicest cards that we have received for a long time. While I acknowledge that this is FAR WEAKER than smothering tithe (which will naturally trigger and help us or punish foes every turn no matter what), this does seem like a fairly good card. If anyone draws a card with a card effect during their turn, you draw a card. If someone stops paying Rhystic Study taxes during their turn to play several spells, you draw a card. If someone plays and cracks a fetch in the same turn, you get a treasure. The card does a lot and I see myself using it quite a bit.
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Multicolor: While white is commonly described as a good support color, that is typically for its wide removal suite and less for being part of the ramp/advantage package. For that reason, I did want to list the multi-color cards with white that offer card advantage as well.
#11 Brazen Upstart: While it can help you grab a creature, the actual body doesn’t seem worth the original investment (especially for three colors).
#10 Broker’s Charm: The worst-case scenario is instant-speed card advantage, which is nice, but I’m still not sure how often a card like this would realistically crack your 99.
#9 Metropolis Angel: While it’s a source of reusable draw, I’m lukewarm on this card. It’s behind rate, doesn’t give you the tools to get the card draw, and only lets you draw one card per turn. Even for the dedicated token deck, I’m not a huge fan.
#8 Phabine, Boss’s Confidant: I don’t think that a symmetrical card draw that’s accompanied by a couple of hasty tokens and a small anthem is a huge payoff for playing a 6 mana card (compared to the craziness of Brudiclad, for example), especially when the pay-off is fairly random from round to round. I may be underestimating Phabine but I kind of doubt it.
#7 Cabaretti Ascendancy: A possible extra card draw each turn that you reveal for a very intensive mana cost does not seem worth the effort in many environments. The fact that you can “scry” a dead card to the bottom of your library to increase the chance of drawing gas is at least some sort of consolation prize, however.
#6 Rigo, Streetwise Mentor: The fact that the central-white hybrid commander lets you draw up to three cards per turn (more if your opponents have walkers) really stands out to me, especially as it starts off fairly cheap and gets a bit of protection each time you cast him. While this card can’t keep up with he OG Edric, it still sounds like a fairly fun deck to build.
#5 Life Insurance: Treasure for each nontoken killed (yours or an opponent’s) is nice, providing some possible redundancy for pitiless plunderer in certain decks and giving you an outlet for some of that treasure to heal you back up. While I’m not smart enough to come up with one on my own, this is the type of card that I look at and imagine that someone will find infinite combos for.
#4 Tivit, Seller of Secrets: Even if you don’t build around voting, this card seems generally good. It feels like far more of a “titan” than the Sanctum Defender, being a 6/6 for 6. It needs combat damage instead of an attack to get its trigger but it gets both protection AND evasion (and the vote ability) in exchange. The fact that this card can basically guarantee you getting two treasure when it comes out, letting you pay the commander tax if your opponent pays the ward cost to kill Tivit, is particularly sweet. Having a bunch of leftover clues that you can use to dig is just a bonus. Tivit is one of my favorite commanders this time around.
#3 Falco Spara, Pactweaver: Is fine. If you make the appropriate deck, Falco should hopefully let you dig fairly easily (especially I you have creatures like managorger hydra or forgotten ancient that get counters whenever you cast spells, essentially negating the extra cost).
#2 Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer: A Creature tutor that grabs things to the battlefield that you can put in your command zone. Seems like fairly high-grade combo fare and I’m okay with that.
#1 Prosperous Partnership: While an optimized Rocco deck would likely be more powerful overall, this seems like one of the cards that is easiest to take advantage of in a broad array of decks. If you are red and white, have a go-wide strategy, and aren’t green (which simply has better options like earthcraft or cryptolith rite), this is a card you should consider. If you have a Kykar deck or Winota deck that pops out a bunch of tokens, consider a partnership. If your Aurelia deck isn’t Voltron and the Mana Value of your Edgar deck isn’t too low, consider a partnership. Don’t just pop this in everywhere though. While this card does give you 2 out of the three tokens you need to get started, playing this on turn 3 with the hope that you’ll start making one treasure token each round makes this into an awkward manalith-type card.[/spoiler]