Had a weird idea on a quasi mass land freeze effect that slowly gets less obnoxious.
Unnamed 3RR Enchantment
As ~ comes onto the battlefield tap all lands.
At the end of the opponent's turn before your own put a regrowth counter on ~.
Players can only untap a number of lands equal to the number of regrowth counters on ~ during their untap step.
With each passing card I get more and more annoyed with this set - H.P. Lovecraft Innistrad sounded so cool but this is the biggest whiff in Magic history
These are some cards who's design has stuck in memory over the years.
Magma FlowR Sorcery
Mountains have "Sacrifice this land: Add R to your mana pool." until the end of the turn.
(Red's High Tide).
Stategy of Numbers1R Enchantment
Red creatures you control have +1/+1 if you control more creatures than any other player.
A simple strategy, yet an effective one.
(Red crusade more or less)
Spell DrainXU Instant
Counter target spell with converted mana cost X. At the beginning of your next main step add X blue mana to your mana pool.
(Crosses the weakest counterspell ever printed (Spell Blast) with the most broken (Mana Drain) in an attempt to find a balanced card).
Fallen Dreams4WW Sorcery
Destroy all permanents with mana abilities.
(Given WotC's hatred of LD these days - which has went overboard - I doubt this would be printed at any cost)
The Dozens1RR Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep that player must insult the opponent to their left within two seconds. The first insult so uttered must begin with 'A', then 'B', proceeding through the alphabet. If Z is reached, start again at A. If a player fails to do this sacrifice The Dozens and it deals damage to that player equal to the numerical position of the letter to be used (1 for A, 2 for B, etc).
Airhead, Butthole, Creeper...
(Quite obviously this is an un-card)
BackdrawU Enchantment
All players flip their libraries and draw from the bottom.
(Another un-card I think. It could be done in Black border world though.)
Whenever this creature is dealt lethal damage and would be put into a graveyard you may pay <cost>. If you do tap it and remove it from combat, otherwise put it into the graveyard.
That might be closer to how it worked in beta anyway, which also didn't mention shield counters.
In any case -- in the middle of this discussion -- I'm not exactly clear as to what the intended functionality of hardy actually is. The main question is this: Is a 2/2 with hardy supposed to have a 1 damage from a deathtouch creature prevented?
Yes. Using the "mark" wording to try to get around this is unintuitive and confusing. So a hardy creature survives deathtouch - so what?
Uh, no. The outside rules need to be added because of how you want the ability.
? What I propose is drop dead simple: Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature less than its toughness. Damage prevention shuts off deathtouch as a side effect, but that isn't the main intent.
To make deathtouch damage not apply either requires more , not less.
How? Damage prevention has been in the game a long time and works as it always has.
Besides, Hardy isn't regenerate.
Never said it was. Simply thought it would be something to fill the same role.
It doesn't protect from destruction.
Wrong. It does protect from destruction due to insufficient damage.
Also to remphasis: Source?
Latest Developments column sometime in the last month. That or Making Magic. It's the only two columns I follow. This isn't a legal dissertation or a term paper, I'm not looking it up for you.
So? That's the point of deathtouch, it kills stuff regardless of damage. Seems dumb to hose it for no reason.
Also makes this ability more complicated than it needs to be by adding additional rules outside those appearing on the card. And for the record regeneration hoses deathtouch as well, so I don't see a change to the status quo.
I like Regeneration the way it is too, but apparently WotC thinks we're all too stupid to grok it and have decided to not print anymore cards with it until they can make a smoother way for it to work in the rules.
You could use the Oracle wording from an existing card, Ogre Enforcer.
[CARDNAME] can't be destroyed by lethal damage unless lethal damage dealt by a single source is marked on it.
Why bring up the term "marked" when I've never seen another card with it? It isn't functionally different than preventing damage less than the creature's toughness, and a bit more complicated since it begs the question "what is the game meaning of marked"?
As for this as a regeneration replacement - apparently WotC R&D has decided regeneration is too complicated as it currently stands in the rules, so this is a mechanic that would be used in the same situations to create tough to deal with creatures, especially fatties.
Inspired by the Madness reminder check, this might be an easier way to have regeneration work. It isn't exactly the same but 90% there.
Regenerate: X (When this creature dies exile it, then return it to the battlefield tapped for its regenerate cost or put it into the graveyard).
Rules support beyond the reminder text would need to stipulate that counters and auras remain attached (normally they would not due to the blink way this works) but I think this could work. Thoughts?
This is inspired by the hardy ability in the Savage Worlds RPG of all places.
Hardy (If a source would deal damage less than this creature's toughness, prevent that damage)
Or maybe this phrasing
Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
I'm not sure which of the two is closest to modern templating, but for the example cards I'll use the second.
So, creatures with Hardy can't suffer a death of a thousand cuts - you got to get them in one blow. This makes big hardy creatures very hard to deal with.
Example cards
Barkskin Bruiser3G Creature - Beast
3/3
Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
Barkskin Baloth3GG Creature - Beast
4/4
Trample, Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
Barkskin Spider2GG Creature - Spider
2/5
Reach, Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
Barkskin Wurm4GG Creature - Wurm
6/6
Trample, Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
"Never ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence." - Napoleon Bonaparte.
It isn't treason, just stupidity.
Unnamed 3RR
Enchantment
As ~ comes onto the battlefield tap all lands.
At the end of the opponent's turn before your own put a regrowth counter on ~.
Players can only untap a number of lands equal to the number of regrowth counters on ~ during their untap step.
One of the weirder ideas I've had in a while.
You've obviously not experienced Homelands.
Magma Flow R
Sorcery
Mountains have "Sacrifice this land: Add R to your mana pool." until the end of the turn.
(Red's High Tide).
Stategy of Numbers 1R
Enchantment
Red creatures you control have +1/+1 if you control more creatures than any other player.
A simple strategy, yet an effective one.
(Red crusade more or less)
Spell Drain XU
Instant
Counter target spell with converted mana cost X. At the beginning of your next main step add X blue mana to your mana pool.
(Crosses the weakest counterspell ever printed (Spell Blast) with the most broken (Mana Drain) in an attempt to find a balanced card).
Fallen Dreams 4WW
Sorcery
Destroy all permanents with mana abilities.
(Given WotC's hatred of LD these days - which has went overboard - I doubt this would be printed at any cost)
The Dozens 1RR
Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep that player must insult the opponent to their left within two seconds. The first insult so uttered must begin with 'A', then 'B', proceeding through the alphabet. If Z is reached, start again at A. If a player fails to do this sacrifice The Dozens and it deals damage to that player equal to the numerical position of the letter to be used (1 for A, 2 for B, etc).
Airhead, Butthole, Creeper...
(Quite obviously this is an un-card)
Backdraw U
Enchantment
All players flip their libraries and draw from the bottom.
(Another un-card I think. It could be done in Black border world though.)
Whenever this creature is dealt lethal damage and would be put into a graveyard you may pay <cost>. If you do tap it and remove it from combat, otherwise put it into the graveyard.
That might be closer to how it worked in beta anyway, which also didn't mention shield counters.
So, what about "This creature will not be destroyed by lethal damage unless damage from a single source is equal to or greater than its toughness."
Or
"Lethal damage for this creature must come from a single source or it isn't destroyed."
Yes. Using the "mark" wording to try to get around this is unintuitive and confusing. So a hardy creature survives deathtouch - so what?
? What I propose is drop dead simple: Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature less than its toughness. Damage prevention shuts off deathtouch as a side effect, but that isn't the main intent.
How? Damage prevention has been in the game a long time and works as it always has.
Never said it was. Simply thought it would be something to fill the same role.
Wrong. It does protect from destruction due to insufficient damage.
Latest Developments column sometime in the last month. That or Making Magic. It's the only two columns I follow. This isn't a legal dissertation or a term paper, I'm not looking it up for you.
Also makes this ability more complicated than it needs to be by adding additional rules outside those appearing on the card. And for the record regeneration hoses deathtouch as well, so I don't see a change to the status quo.
Equal or greater
Why bring up the term "marked" when I've never seen another card with it? It isn't functionally different than preventing damage less than the creature's toughness, and a bit more complicated since it begs the question "what is the game meaning of marked"?
As for this as a regeneration replacement - apparently WotC R&D has decided regeneration is too complicated as it currently stands in the rules, so this is a mechanic that would be used in the same situations to create tough to deal with creatures, especially fatties.
Regenerate: X (When this creature dies exile it, then return it to the battlefield tapped for its regenerate cost or put it into the graveyard).
Rules support beyond the reminder text would need to stipulate that counters and auras remain attached (normally they would not due to the blink way this works) but I think this could work. Thoughts?
Hardy (If a source would deal damage less than this creature's toughness, prevent that damage)
Or maybe this phrasing
Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
I'm not sure which of the two is closest to modern templating, but for the example cards I'll use the second.
So, creatures with Hardy can't suffer a death of a thousand cuts - you got to get them in one blow. This makes big hardy creatures very hard to deal with.
Example cards
Barkskin Bruiser 3G
Creature - Beast
3/3
Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
Barkskin Baloth 3GG
Creature - Beast
4/4
Trample, Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
Barkskin Spider 2GG
Creature - Spider
2/5
Reach, Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
Barkskin Wurm 4GG
Creature - Wurm
6/6
Trample, Hardy (Prevent all damage less than this creature's toughness)
That can be prevented by proper templating. "As this creature is tranformed" instead of "When"