If this is implemented similarly to The Walking Dead I can't support the product. I think it's unhealthy for the long-term health of the game to cater to the whales and collectors and not have accessible non-blingy counterparts of these products available. The Godzilla skins were wonderful, this is not that. Price has always been a barrier to accessibility with cube - the problem is usually less pronounced with cards from recent sets though (especially when the most expensive among them inevitably get hit with a banhammer). I think this product subverts that norm pricing people out of many new upcoming staples as well and there's no relief from rotation or bans for these.
Amarant Coral2RG
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (R)
Haste
When Amarant Coral enters the battlefield you may sacrifice an artifact, if you do, Amarant Coral gets +1/+0 until end of turn and deals damage equal to its power to target creature. Excess damage is dealt to that creature’s controller instead.
3/2
I wanted to convey Amarant's throw ability. I thought of multiple cards to get to this iteration of Amarant - Bosh, Iron Golem, Flametongue Kavu, and Ram Through. I made some last minute adjustments - originally Amarant was a 2/2 and got a pump equal to the sacrificed artifact's mana value but when I compared that iteration against Flametongue Kavu, it just felt far too strong. If you sacrificed a 3 mana artifact you could deal up to five damage to a creature, deal any excess damage to an opponent and then swing with a power boosted creature on top of all that which is just too much.
My next iteration, had Amarant as a 2/2 and the pump was +2/+0, I think this was okay if you have an artifact to sacrifice, but without it the floor here was too low. I finally settled on making the pump just +1/+0 and raising the p/t to 3/2. I think this gives the card a passable floor while allowing this to do an explosive FTK+ effect when you sacrifice an artifact. I chose not to add an additional toughness to help balance out how powerful this can be when the ability goes off.
If you have an artifact to sacrifice for Amarant he effectively provides a Flame Spill attached to a 4/2 hasty body.
I saw Lone Wolf when I made that statement about the effect being unprecedented on a 2CC creature. This card is markedly stronger than Lone Wolf:
- 2CC instead of 3
- + 1 Toughness
- Reach
- Deals 3 unblocked damage and usually can do this earlier then Lone Wolf.
- Toughness boosting effects = More potential unblockable damage - that also allow her to trade up with larger toughness creatures!
The only place where Lone Wolf wins is that it doesn't have to exert, but with two toughness and being a 3 drop, Wolf is far more likely to die when it initially swings. Freya will frequently swing unblocked for normal damage on turn 3 and then have the option to push through additional damage by exerting.
I don't believe this card needs further push - not every rare is for the spikes and this already has several interesting interactions.
Honestly, I don't think you even need to exert here. Its easy enough to block a 2/3 and the option to push 3 to the opponent instead of trading with their 3 toughness creature isn't a huge enough gain to need to stay tapped next turn.
That aside, this is a good way to solve for the color pie break of the earlier version
Appreciate your thoughts here! Couple things I'd counter with.
1) The ability deals damage equals to Freya's toughness - if you have ways to bolster the toughness, Freya not only survives blocks but can deal sizeable amounts of unblockable damage in exchange for exerting.
2) The ability to deal damage as though the creature was not blocked is unprecedented on a 2 CC creature. This creature can push damage in the early game and close out a game. Watchwolf can be chump blocked and has little utility in the late game.
Thanks for the feedback - I decided to go with Exert Freya afterall to eliminate the color pie break.
Freya CrescentGW
Legendary Creature - Rat Knight (R)
Reach
You may exert Freya Crescent as it attacks. When you do, Freya Crescent deals combat damage equal to her toughness and may assign its combat damage as though it weren’t blocked. (An exerted creature won’t untap during your next untap step.)
2/3
I decided to use the Thorn Elemental ability paired with toughness matters as a color pie friendly way to translatee Freya's Jump ability into MTG. As for the color pairs I have most of the primary characters (and a couple supporting characters) tied to a color pair.
Garnet Til Alexandros XVIIWU General BeatrixWB Eiko CarolUR Vivi OrnitierUB Zidane TribalRW Armarant CoralRG Freya CrescentGW Quina QuenGU KujaBR SoulcageBG
Freya CrescentGW
Legendary Creature - Rat Knight (R)
Reach
Whenever Freya Crescent attacks you may exile it.
If Freya Crescent is exiled from the battlefield, at the beginning of your attack step you may return it to the battlefield, if you do, it deals damage equal to its toughness to target player, planeswalker, or creature with flying.
2/3
Concept Notes: I associated each of the primary characters of FFIX with a color pair an an associated dual land. For Freya it is G/W and the associated dual land is Cleyra. I wanted an ability set that really captured the essence of her signature dragoon ability which is "Jump". Freya has the ability to deal unblockable damage by exiling out for a turn. This pseudo-blink effect is the white portion of the card, and the reach/damage to creatures with flying, and toughness matters is where green is reflected. I used toughness matters here to exemplify how Jump is just a bit more powerful than a normal attack.
I chose to have this return from exile during the attack step to prevent this ability from being able to be used each turn, to allow Freya to take out a flying blocker before blocks and also to permit Freya to play a defensive role in between Jumps. I also considered using exert here in place of the exile and deal damage upon its return, but I think being able to deal the three unblockable damage on turn 3 may be a little too strong and I worry that any toughness boosting spell would make the exert ability way too strong. The main way you can abuse the toughness matters effect as written is by having anthem type effects which I think is a more fair synergy.
I'd like to get a little bit larger sample for this project so I'm going to leave it open through 2/13. Will also likely make a reddit post and combine the responses.
We've had ranking projects for land cycles broadly, but I think it would be useful to get a look at land selections by guild. Personally, I'm still running certain manlands/painlands that I think I need to switch out and this will help me get to get a crowdsourced opinion to help inform my choice of replacements. I'm also particularly interested in where some newer cycles like pathways or temples fall for everyone.
I think it is safe to assume that ABU Duals, Fetches, and Shocks are going to top 3 for most guilds for most people so in order to capture the diversity of options beyond that let's rank our top 6 per guild. I'll post two guilds per week. Voting for these guilds ends 9 A.M. CT 2/6/21.
As time allows, I have a pet project of creating an FF9 inspired MTG set. This is one design inspired by FF9 and brought into the world of MTG.
FF9 Creature - Epitaph (Oeilvert)
Epitaphic Emobdiment1UB
Creature - Shapeshifter (R) : Epitaphic Embodiment becomes a copy of target creature an opponent controls except it has all abilities of Epitaphic Embodiment. : Destroy target creature with the same name as this creature.
2/2
I think Epitaph when translated into MTG would look a lot like Evil Twin. This has some advantages and disadvantages when compared with Twin. It has a p/t of its own, it has a lower CC, it has a repeatable copy effect and kill effect. On the other hand Embodiment is slower than Evil Twin at copying and killing and it can only copy opponent's creatures.
Let me know - does this design invoke the epitaph enemy of FF9? Is this a card you would want to play?
Agree with all that's been said. Cut is between Skymarcher Aspirant or Mardu Woe-Reaper. Think aspirant will be the cut as Woe Reaper has more relevant creature types and the incidental graveyard hate is mildly more impactful than the rare game where aspirant flies.
I think History of Benalia might be my cut here. I run Finale of Glory too, but I like that Finale of Glory will never require you to wait for the effect and it can win games on the spot in a Purphoros build. Both History of Benalia and this card when foretold have a turn delay minimum for the full token output of the card and History is definitely weaker than this.
Edit: Also, this is legitimately the first card spoiled that I think is a likely inclusion from this set. A few others worthy of testing, but overall this set is the calm before the wallet-busting storm (aka Modern Horizons 2)coming later in the year and I am okay with that.
Electrolyze or Fire/ Ice --> Prismari Command
Testing:
History of Benalia --> Elite Spellbinder
Baleful Mastery --> (Undecided)
Sedgemoor Witch --> (Undecided)
Vanishing Verse --> Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (R)
Haste
When Amarant Coral enters the battlefield you may sacrifice an artifact, if you do, Amarant Coral gets +1/+0 until end of turn and deals damage equal to its power to target creature. Excess damage is dealt to that creature’s controller instead.
3/2
I wanted to convey Amarant's throw ability. I thought of multiple cards to get to this iteration of Amarant - Bosh, Iron Golem, Flametongue Kavu, and Ram Through. I made some last minute adjustments - originally Amarant was a 2/2 and got a pump equal to the sacrificed artifact's mana value but when I compared that iteration against Flametongue Kavu, it just felt far too strong. If you sacrificed a 3 mana artifact you could deal up to five damage to a creature, deal any excess damage to an opponent and then swing with a power boosted creature on top of all that which is just too much.
My next iteration, had Amarant as a 2/2 and the pump was +2/+0, I think this was okay if you have an artifact to sacrifice, but without it the floor here was too low. I finally settled on making the pump just +1/+0 and raising the p/t to 3/2. I think this gives the card a passable floor while allowing this to do an explosive FTK+ effect when you sacrifice an artifact. I chose not to add an additional toughness to help balance out how powerful this can be when the ability goes off.
If you have an artifact to sacrifice for Amarant he effectively provides a Flame Spill attached to a 4/2 hasty body.
- 2CC instead of 3
- + 1 Toughness
- Reach
- Deals 3 unblocked damage and usually can do this earlier then Lone Wolf.
- Toughness boosting effects = More potential unblockable damage - that also allow her to trade up with larger toughness creatures!
The only place where Lone Wolf wins is that it doesn't have to exert, but with two toughness and being a 3 drop, Wolf is far more likely to die when it initially swings. Freya will frequently swing unblocked for normal damage on turn 3 and then have the option to push through additional damage by exerting.
I don't believe this card needs further push - not every rare is for the spikes and this already has several interesting interactions.
Appreciate your thoughts here! Couple things I'd counter with.
1) The ability deals damage equals to Freya's toughness - if you have ways to bolster the toughness, Freya not only survives blocks but can deal sizeable amounts of unblockable damage in exchange for exerting.
2) The ability to deal damage as though the creature was not blocked is unprecedented on a 2 CC creature. This creature can push damage in the early game and close out a game. Watchwolf can be chump blocked and has little utility in the late game.
Freya Crescent GW
Legendary Creature - Rat Knight (R)
Reach
You may exert Freya Crescent as it attacks. When you do, Freya Crescent deals combat damage equal to her toughness and may assign its combat damage as though it weren’t blocked. (An exerted creature won’t untap during your next untap step.)
2/3
I decided to use the Thorn Elemental ability paired with toughness matters as a color pie friendly way to translatee Freya's Jump ability into MTG. As for the color pairs I have most of the primary characters (and a couple supporting characters) tied to a color pair.
Garnet Til Alexandros XVII WU
General Beatrix WB
Eiko Carol UR
Vivi Ornitier UB
Zidane Tribal RW
Armarant Coral RG
Freya Crescent GW
Quina Quen GU
Kuja BR
Soulcage BG
Legendary Creature - Rat Knight (R)
Reach
Whenever Freya Crescent attacks you may exile it.
If Freya Crescent is exiled from the battlefield, at the beginning of your attack step you may return it to the battlefield, if you do, it deals damage equal to its toughness to target player, planeswalker, or creature with flying.
2/3
Concept Notes: I associated each of the primary characters of FFIX with a color pair an an associated dual land. For Freya it is G/W and the associated dual land is Cleyra. I wanted an ability set that really captured the essence of her signature dragoon ability which is "Jump". Freya has the ability to deal unblockable damage by exiling out for a turn. This pseudo-blink effect is the white portion of the card, and the reach/damage to creatures with flying, and toughness matters is where green is reflected. I used toughness matters here to exemplify how Jump is just a bit more powerful than a normal attack.
I chose to have this return from exile during the attack step to prevent this ability from being able to be used each turn, to allow Freya to take out a flying blocker before blocks and also to permit Freya to play a defensive role in between Jumps. I also considered using exert here in place of the exile and deal damage upon its return, but I think being able to deal the three unblockable damage on turn 3 may be a little too strong and I worry that any toughness boosting spell would make the exert ability way too strong. The main way you can abuse the toughness matters effect as written is by having anthem type effects which I think is a more fair synergy.
Let me know what you think!
I think it is safe to assume that ABU Duals, Fetches, and Shocks are going to top 3 for most guilds for most people so in order to capture the diversity of options beyond that let's rank our top 6 per guild. I'll post two guilds per week. Voting for these guilds ends 9 A.M. CT 2/6/21.
Azorious
1. Tundra
2. Flooded Strand
3. Hallowed Fountain
4. Celestial Colonnade
5. Temple of Enlightenment
6. Hengegate Pathway // Mistgate Pathway
Dimir
1. Underground Sea
2. Polluted Delta
3. Watery Grave
4. Creeping Tar Pit
5. Sunken Ruins
6. Temple of Deceit
Usher of the Fallen -> Skymarcher Aspirant
Testing
Doomskar -> Parallax Wave
Starnheim Unleashed -> History of Benalia
Pathway Lands
Watching
Cosima, God of the Voyage
Valki, God of Lies
Eradicator Valkyrie
Behold the Multiverse
FF9 Creature - Epitaph (Oeilvert)
Epitaphic Emobdiment 1UB
Creature - Shapeshifter (R)
2/2
I think Epitaph when translated into MTG would look a lot like Evil Twin. This has some advantages and disadvantages when compared with Twin. It has a p/t of its own, it has a lower CC, it has a repeatable copy effect and kill effect. On the other hand Embodiment is slower than Evil Twin at copying and killing and it can only copy opponent's creatures.
Let me know - does this design invoke the epitaph enemy of FF9? Is this a card you would want to play?
Edit: Also a full art version of this needs to happen if it isn't already out there.
Edit: Also, this is legitimately the first card spoiled that I think is a likely inclusion from this set. A few others worthy of testing, but overall this set is the calm before the wallet-busting storm (aka Modern Horizons 2)coming later in the year and I am okay with that.