Anybody else play the Arkham Horror board game? I've had it for quite a bit and absolutely loved it. Using Strange Eons, I've created an Ancient One card for our favorite overzealous shield-on-head-wearing Grand Cenobite: Elesh Norn.
I also wrote a bit of backstory that tries to tie Phyrexia into the Arkham Horror setting.
In the artificial world of Argentum, the glistening oil took root. Karn, the godlike golem and creator of the plane, did not know of it until it was too late. The time of his world, with all its peoples, was over. A New Phyrexia was dawning, and like its predecessor, it would not be content with ruling just one world.
Elesh Norn, the Grand Cenobite, prevailed among the other Praetors to lead Phyrexia. Though the corrupted, mad Karn remains on the throne of the Father of Machines, it is Norn who is the power behind the throne and who has decided upon a new plane to conquer: Ours.
Now, with her descent at hand and the planar portals in place, Norn's very presence menaces Arkham. Sleeper agents -- Phyrexians in human skin -- and compleated horrors from other worlds stalk the streets, infecting those they wound with the Phyrexian contagion. The Phyrexians have underestimated modern human anatomy though; whereas on Argentum the native creatures simply withered and died, Earth, with its rich evolutionary history, is more sturdy, and if health is restored in time, the body can handle the poison on its own.
Even the sturdiest can fall before the might of Phyrexia, however. While other Ancient Ones may allow some men to go on with an array of afflictions, Phyrexia seeks to purge and correct such weakness.
I hope you guys like this! Feel free to give any advice to make it better or for other Arkham Horror crossovers you'd like for me to do! Thanks!
Kicking an Into the Roil to bounce a token may seem like a nice, safe play until your opponent casts Scout's Warning to flash in Consecrated Sphinx and draw 2 cards himself. A Disperse wouldn't have made such an opportunity possible.
For your easy one... if I've tapped out to play something while I have lots of Pegasus tokens out thanks to Sacred Mesa but my opponent is a meanieface and casts Æther Snap to sweep my tokens, I'm gonna be pretty happy I have an Armored Pegasus to sacrifice so I can keep my Mesa alive. Courier Hawk doesn't do much there.
@Corvus: The reason why having the whole set spoiled ahead of time is because Wizards is able to get pre-release hype generating by spoiling cards on their own schedule, which means more sales. Just as importantly, many sites, some of which are rather small, are given their own preview card. Having an exclusive preview card generates a lot of traffic for those sites, so having it spoiled ahead of time hurts them financially as well.
Another HUGE reason this is bad is that the spoiler wouldn't have happened had Matignon, Wafo-Tapa, and who knows who else hadn't been playtesting with the new cards before anybody else even knew they existed. Matignon broke the Non-Disclosure Agreement he had to sign in order to be given the Godbook to cover in Lotus Noir, but the others were also punished because using that kind of information in an abusive way undermines the trust Wizards placed in them, and the trust we place in Wizards.
There are plenty of other problems, but that's what I came up with.
Wow, that was a really tough one, especially without mana burn! (Otherwise Lotus Vale would've made it no problem.)
This scenario is kind of a stretch. Hopefully someone will eventually be able to give a better one, but here it goes.
You have Metalcraft, and all mana sources are tapped out except for two Islands. Your opponent has a Lullmage Mentor out and 5 other Merfolk (mostly tokens). He casts Divination with three cards in his hand. Seeing an opportunity to deny his two-for-one, you cast Stoic Rebuttal.
But surprise! He removes two janky blue cards from his hand to Commandeer your Stoic Rebuttal. He can't chooses to have his own Divination countered still but now he controls it, so Lullmage Mentor produces that 7th merfolk to give him an astounding amount of permission.
Had that Stoic Rebuttal been Cancel, the Divination would have resolved, but you might have been able to use the rest of your hand after untapping to stop the Commandeer from occurring.
Like I said, that was a huge stretch, but dear GOD that one was tough.
The rules of the game are simple. The first poster will post two cards, asserting that one is strictly better than the other. The person who replies has to come up with a scenario in which the "strictly worse" card is actually better than the "strictly better" card, disproving the first person's assertion. Then the second poster makes his own assertion, for the next person to disprove, etc.
tl;dr:
Bob: Card X is strictly better than card Y.
Joe: No, if A and B are out and you're at C life, Y can make you survive the game, while having X out means you lose.
Joe: Card V is strictly better than card U.
Bill: No, if F and G happen...
Tips and recommendations
1. When you're posting creatures to be compared, try to make sure that creature types match. Otherwise you're leaving yourself open to Door of destinies, Coat of Arms, and other easy stuff. Make it hard on them!
2. While the point of the game is to come up with hilariously archaic or bizarre board positions where certain cards are better, please don't make a Rube Goldberg machine if another answer seems simple.
3. Certain scenarios are too far-reaching and have therefore been banned. Examples include:
-Mindslaver: It's too easy. I think we all know that a spell meant to crush your opponent will usually be "worse" if they Slaver you. And don't be cute and put Sorin Markov's ultimate instead.
-Mental Misstep, Spell Snare, etc.: If two cards do something very similar, and one costs less, don't be lazy and say it happens to get smacked by a particular counterspell that preys upon efficiency and call it a day. While this is true, I want you to work for your proof, damn it.
-Declaration of Naught, Meddling Mage, and other cards that mention specific cards by name : 'Nuff said.
-No functional reprints: I'm looking at you two, Divination and Counsel of the Soratami.
-More to be added if needed as I see the thread progress. Hopefully we won't need any, though I'm sure we will.
4. If you can make your scenario tie in with actual tournament decks in any formats, +2 internets to you.
5. Only a 15 card sideboard for "outside the game", please, unless you're doing something hilariously awesome that requires access to a "collection".
6. Similarly, no Silver-bordered cards unless your scenario is jaw-droppingly awesome and requires one. If so, please no more than two.
I think that's all for now, I'll put more up there if I need to.
Let's start it off! I think I'll do an easy one to begin.
Aheh, well, I'm free the next few days, and I have experience with coding and all that... ^ ^;
So, if Memnarch will be gone Sunday and Monday, would we like to try using those two days to test out a themed version of DCC?
There are plenty of themed contests already. I like the free-for-all nature of the DCC. It lets us either showcase some of our favorite creations for other things or just come up with something off the tops of our heads.
I guess A Matter of Time wasn't popular, eh? Heh, I guess I shouldn't make two auto-win cards in a row.
Entropy's Embrace2RR
Sorcery Chroma -- Entropy's Embrace deals damage to each player equal to the number of white mana symbols plus the number of blue mana symbols among permanents he or she controls. "All of creation flows toward chaos naturally. The more one tries to contain it, the more violent of backlash to suffer." ~Sashiki
A Matter of Time
Sorcery
A Matter of Time is blue and black.
Suspend 13 -- UB(Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay UB and exile it with 13 time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)
While A Matter of Time is suspended, no spells or abilities except its own can change the number or types of counters on it.
When you cast A Matter of Time, if it wasn't cast from exile, counter it.
You win the game. "Focus on holding back the resistance for now. Our force may not be swift, but it is certainly unstoppable." ~ Rose Alexandros, Ayernos General
Actually, Valarin, there are a significant number of Vintage tournaments; they're almost all X-proxy or all-proxy, so the amount of sanctioned vintage tournaments is pretty much nil.
But Legacy is what you want to look into for normal, non-rotating formats. You can make a Legacy deck as competitive or as casual as you want. Of course, the former is better if you want to go to tournaments, but the nice part is that most competitive Legacy cards maintain their value.
Not when your team consists of 4 5/5 Phyrexian Devourers and you already have a Kjeldoran War Cry in the bin.
Moldervine Cloak is strictly better than Oakenform.
I also wrote a bit of backstory that tries to tie Phyrexia into the Arkham Horror setting.
I hope you guys like this! Feel free to give any advice to make it better or for other Arkham Horror crossovers you'd like for me to do! Thanks!
Here's a classic:
Mana Prism is strictly better than Celestial Prism.
For your easy one... if I've tapped out to play something while I have lots of Pegasus tokens out thanks to Sacred Mesa but my opponent is a meanieface and casts Æther Snap to sweep my tokens, I'm gonna be pretty happy I have an Armored Pegasus to sacrifice so I can keep my Mesa alive. Courier Hawk doesn't do much there.
Next one:
Regrowth is strictly better than Elven Cache.
Another HUGE reason this is bad is that the spoiler wouldn't have happened had Matignon, Wafo-Tapa, and who knows who else hadn't been playtesting with the new cards before anybody else even knew they existed. Matignon broke the Non-Disclosure Agreement he had to sign in order to be given the Godbook to cover in Lotus Noir, but the others were also punished because using that kind of information in an abusive way undermines the trust Wizards placed in them, and the trust we place in Wizards.
There are plenty of other problems, but that's what I came up with.
This scenario is kind of a stretch. Hopefully someone will eventually be able to give a better one, but here it goes.
You have Metalcraft, and all mana sources are tapped out except for two Islands. Your opponent has a Lullmage Mentor out and 5 other Merfolk (mostly tokens). He casts Divination with three cards in his hand. Seeing an opportunity to deny his two-for-one, you cast Stoic Rebuttal.
But surprise! He removes two janky blue cards from his hand to Commandeer your Stoic Rebuttal. He can't chooses to have his own Divination countered still but now he controls it, so Lullmage Mentor produces that 7th merfolk to give him an astounding amount of permission.
Had that Stoic Rebuttal been Cancel, the Divination would have resolved, but you might have been able to use the rest of your hand after untapping to stop the Commandeer from occurring.
Like I said, that was a huge stretch, but dear GOD that one was tough.
Next one:
Looming Shade is strictly better than Frozen Shade.
tl;dr:
Bob: Card X is strictly better than card Y.
Joe: No, if A and B are out and you're at C life, Y can make you survive the game, while having X out means you lose.
Joe: Card V is strictly better than card U.
Bill: No, if F and G happen...
Tips and recommendations
1. When you're posting creatures to be compared, try to make sure that creature types match. Otherwise you're leaving yourself open to Door of destinies, Coat of Arms, and other easy stuff. Make it hard on them!
2. While the point of the game is to come up with hilariously archaic or bizarre board positions where certain cards are better, please don't make a Rube Goldberg machine if another answer seems simple.
3. Certain scenarios are too far-reaching and have therefore been banned. Examples include:
-Mindslaver: It's too easy. I think we all know that a spell meant to crush your opponent will usually be "worse" if they Slaver you. And don't be cute and put Sorin Markov's ultimate instead.
-Mental Misstep, Spell Snare, etc.: If two cards do something very similar, and one costs less, don't be lazy and say it happens to get smacked by a particular counterspell that preys upon efficiency and call it a day. While this is true, I want you to work for your proof, damn it.
-Declaration of Naught, Meddling Mage, and other cards that mention specific cards by name : 'Nuff said.
-No functional reprints: I'm looking at you two, Divination and Counsel of the Soratami.
-More to be added if needed as I see the thread progress. Hopefully we won't need any, though I'm sure we will.
4. If you can make your scenario tie in with actual tournament decks in any formats, +2 internets to you.
5. Only a 15 card sideboard for "outside the game", please, unless you're doing something hilariously awesome that requires access to a "collection".
6. Similarly, no Silver-bordered cards unless your scenario is jaw-droppingly awesome and requires one. If so, please no more than two.
I think that's all for now, I'll put more up there if I need to.
Let's start it off! I think I'll do an easy one to begin.
I assert that Glory Seeker is strictly better than Squire.
Nooooooo thank you.
I guess A Matter of Time wasn't popular, eh? Heh, I guess I shouldn't make two auto-win cards in a row.
Sorcery
Chroma -- Entropy's Embrace deals damage to each player equal to the number of white mana symbols plus the number of blue mana symbols among permanents he or she controls.
"All of creation flows toward chaos naturally. The more one tries to contain it, the more violent of backlash to suffer." ~Sashiki
Sorcery
A Matter of Time is blue and black.
Suspend 13 -- UB (Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay UB and exile it with 13 time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)
While A Matter of Time is suspended, no spells or abilities except its own can change the number or types of counters on it.
When you cast A Matter of Time, if it wasn't cast from exile, counter it.
You win the game.
"Focus on holding back the resistance for now. Our force may not be swift, but it is certainly unstoppable." ~ Rose Alexandros, Ayernos General
But Legacy is what you want to look into for normal, non-rotating formats. You can make a Legacy deck as competitive or as casual as you want. Of course, the former is better if you want to go to tournaments, but the nice part is that most competitive Legacy cards maintain their value.