Can someone else further explain why burning inquiry is so bad for the game? I mean from my perspective it's basically just used in Hollowed One decks, and those as of late aren't nearly as popular as they were a year ago.
From my perspective it gave red good disruption at the cost of card advantage. I don't see this card destroying games. And It never got the ban hammer so it can't be that bad.
The game already has a great deal of variance from the order of your deck being random, and wizards doesn't want to make games even more decided by luck by creating efficiently costed and powerful cards that have random effects. When a 1 mana spell can effectively decide who wins the game on the spot at random depending on bad luck, it creates the scenario wizards fear. Disruption is one thing, discarding your lands on turn 1 is another.
Morophon, the Boundless7
Legendary Creature - Shapeshifter (M)
Changeling (This card is every creature type.)
As Morophon, the Boundless enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Spells of the chosen type you cast cost WUBRG less to cast. This effect reduces only the amount of colored mana you pay.
Other creatures you control of the chosen type get +1/+1
6/6
The Sixth SunWUBRG
Legendary Artifact (M)
Spells you cast cost WUBRG less to cast. This effect reduces only the amount of colored mana you pay. (For example, if you cast a spell with mana cost 1UB, it costs 1 to cast.)
A lot of people have been expecting exactly this card for a while because its competitive and workable.
I don't think anyone was expecting it to be a rare in a relatively low print supplementary product that's legal in multiple formats, thereby artificially constraining a ton of decks that want it with a ridiculous price tag. I really hope this card is making it into standard, but I know that its definitely not, otherwise it wouldn't be printed as a rare in this set along the 'updated busted cards' theme.
Perhaps templated more directly as; All slivers you control have "Remove a +1/+1 from this creature: Create a 1/1 colorless sliver creature token"
You can just repeat it any number of times times. It was always a little weird with crypt rats
I think though it would be too easy to go infinite in combos. Anything that adds +1/+1 counter when it enters the battlefield would make infinite tokens. Just a sigil champion turns this into an infinite number of 2/2's
Gerda Äagesdotter, Archmage of the Unseen1U
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
Whenever you would shuffle your library, instead exile the top card of your library, then shuffle your library and put the exiled card on top of it. T: Put the top card of your library on the bottom of your library.
1/2
Perhaps it should specify that both players choose their own number? That's what it would do and what I assume you intended, but it might be slightly ambiguous and lead to people thinking the casting player chooses the number and both players discard/draw that many. As far as wheel effects go, I like this one. Without the symmetrical drawback I think it would be too strong, but with it, it seems balanced. Heartwarming Redemption/Fateful Showdown show wizards are pretty cautious about wheels and make sure they don't improve card selection, even if they've got an upside at instant speed- its still 4 mana. Pretty good flavor for the symmetry.
Mephistopheles's ContractB
Sorcery (M)
Discard your hand, then draw seven cards. An opponent of your choice controls you until the end of your next turn. As long as that player controls you, they may gain control of cards they play from your hand. (Permanents they gain control of this way will remain under their control indefinitely)
I'd be worried how manamorphose has already warped some combo decks, that adding another 4 copies could push certain archetypes into bad places. And while the colors are clearly more restrictive, that wouldn't be tough if the deck is RG, at which point its one much scarier upgraded manamorphose. Still I wonder how much need for the uncounterability clause there is compared to just another determined, insist or overmaster. Or abeyance
Tuning Fork3
Artifact (U) T: Choose a type of counter on target permanent with one, two or three of those counters on it. Add or remove counters to set it to one, two or three counters of that type.
Is your intent that the creature loses all other abilities and just becomes something else, and the new creature would have the same abilities and stats no matter what you attached to (preexisting +1/+1 counters aside)? If it is, you need a "loses all abilities" clause, but if not, I like this even more - finding the ideal hosts and building a deck around that seems very fun. Example: double strikers! I will say this seems like a perfect opportunity for monohybrid equip costs.
I was not entirely sure on the templating, but yeah my idea was effects similar to lignify, dragonshift, Polymorphist's Jest. But yeah, looking at that I'm definitely missing the 'loses all other abilities' clause and should edit that in, thanks.
I think losing all abilities besides maybe making it easier to balance would make it easier to represent in a game state. They could print a pseudotoken similar to the perforated counters, a version of sengir here that you'd simply place over your creature. Maybe something like the uncard Curse of the Fire Penguin
also on the issue of losing abilities vs not- I think that while maybe it opens up more interactions, it would be less mechanically distinct from just regular equipment effects. It might as well just tweak the numbers and be something like +3/+3, gains flying and the ability. But actually changing the whole card like its a clone effect- that makes it less an equipment and more a 'champion a creature'
Thanks I wasn't really sure what the ability is called since its neither a clone/copy nor just a type-setting effect. I think that power level wise, it actually opens up a different way of thinking about the pricing of equipment. Its effectively a creature you pay for with multiple mana costs and a 'sacrifice', rather than the traditional improvement to an existing creature. So you'd want to use a token for it sure, but that's as fine as it is with say demon of catastrophes
I do want to stress though I think you might have misread the ability- I meant it as insanely better than the ability on baron sengir, not weaker. It was my intent to create a very very powerful ability that could swing a game on its own, but still required a big board state and 'reset' to removal. It says he gets a counter and +1 life whenever any creature deals combat damage- not just killing creatures, not just himself, not just creatures you control. So an opponent swinging 4x creatures into you and you blocking 3 of them, would result in 7x +1/1 counters and gain 7 life.
I had a thought, what if some Equipments were designed around the same character-defining-ability 'overwriting objects' template as cards like lignify. Its something that hasn't actually been done as far as I can tell. Just standard 'in addition to its other types' like Sigiled Sword of Valeron. So I came up with this idea for a homelands set
The Defiled Chalice3
Legendary Artifact - Equipment (M)
Equipped creature is a legendary black 5/5 Vampire creature named Dark Lord Sengir with flying and "Whenever any creature deals combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on Dark Lord Sengir and you gain 1 life." and loses all other abilities.
Whenever The Defiled Chalice becomes unattached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equip 3BB
I think its kind of similar to animated equipment like Haunted Plate Mail or otherwise hiding a creature in it like Elbrus, the Binding Blade, but the idea is more like a reuseable 'champion a creature'- any such equipment would let you keep turning dorks or tokens into a specified baseline, while not necessarily being great on creatures that are already splashy. As far as the static ability, I thought it would be a suitable riff on Baron Sengir to make it really powerful if it sticks in a crowded board (any creature, not just those that die or those you contro)- but can be soft reset by removal on the creature to make it fair.
This spoiler season was something special. Especially due to the story elements involved, it would have been neat to see the set in order as the previews were intended.
At least the fate of the big name characters weren't leaked in week one.
I think there were three problematic factors-
some cards leaked out of order from unofficial sources- something we'll always have to deal with (at least it wasn't like NPH)
some cards were oddly spoiled out of order from official sources (after act 2, we started just bouncing around randomly with no coherent storyline)
the plotline itself was predictable and very bland
I was really surprised actually because I assumed Wizards had decided that the amount of planeswalkers in the game had gotten too stuffed and they wouldn't be able to introduce too many new ones without killing off a bunch of old ones, and that they could take that moment to do some kind of radical thematic change like they did with the mending. Instead, its like the writing in TV shows where everyone gets back home in the end, except for 3 out of like 50 characters who get the axe.
I mean geez, when apocalypse ended the brothers/weatherlight sagas, everyone died. You either had to be off-screen or karn or you died, all the rules were thrown out, everything after that point started fresh. Every main character, even the godlike ones and the ones wizards used as their chief branding characters like urza, got decapitated and killed and then brought back to life and then extra-super killed to make sure they're absolutely dead, and the writers threw in explicit guarantees that death was permanent.
Sakura-Tribe Scout feels more powerfull to me than the grazer, especially in the context of their respective sets (i.e. the moonfolk that bounced your own land). Thats not even considering how much stronger creatures have gotten on average since.
The scout has to last a turn before it has an effect so you can't benefit from the acceleration until turn 3 at the earliest, while the beast immediately works, has a far more impressive board presence, and is legal in far more sets. I'd say that's going to make it better for all but a very tiny number of decks that constantly replenish lands in their hand and need ways to keep putting them on the board.
Scout has the same speed, as you can produce +1 mana the turn after you've cast it, as its earliest ramp. The scout is vulnerable to removal, but the land enters untapped so it can ramp on turn 2. But besides just continuing to drop lands on following turns, the scout lets you see an additional card before you activate it, increasing the odds you'll have lands to use its ability, and letting you dig deeper with draw/search effects. This doesn't, it has to be in your hand with the lands. Although in fairness, the scout plays worse with EBTB lands than this, since its better to drop them on turn 1 with a redundant tapped clause- but using any ETBT lands or colorless lands reduces the odds of landing this turn 1 anyway
In standard though, there's very little in the way of deathtouch modifiers. But status is cheap and can be left up as protection at just 6 mana. One thing worth keeping in mind is that when you've got enough evasive flying damage in the air to close out a game in ~2-3 turns, you don't need too permanent a lock
Are 8 duals and maybe unclaimed territory enough to reliably cast this turn 2, and still have options for asplosion zone on turn 3-4-5+?
The color intensity of UB makes it play a lot worse with colorless producers... and yet
That's a pretty amazing combo since it lets you maindeck explosion zone and keep it around as an answer to threats, a sweeper for tokens, a sweeper vs weenie/aggro/monoblue, or a repeatable card draw engine you can use EOT with only 3 lands and 1 permanent on the board- and still blocking efficiently. Yikes
The game already has a great deal of variance from the order of your deck being random, and wizards doesn't want to make games even more decided by luck by creating efficiently costed and powerful cards that have random effects. When a 1 mana spell can effectively decide who wins the game on the spot at random depending on bad luck, it creates the scenario wizards fear. Disruption is one thing, discarding your lands on turn 1 is another.
I had previously designed;
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/custom-card-creation/368164-salvations-scct-ocaat-single-card-ideas-by-you?page=924#c26965
I don't think anyone was expecting it to be a rare in a relatively low print supplementary product that's legal in multiple formats, thereby artificially constraining a ton of decks that want it with a ridiculous price tag. I really hope this card is making it into standard, but I know that its definitely not, otherwise it wouldn't be printed as a rare in this set along the 'updated busted cards' theme.
All slivers you control have "Remove a +1/+1 from this creature: Create a 1/1 colorless sliver creature token"
You can just repeat it any number of times times. It was always a little weird with crypt rats
I think though it would be too easy to go infinite in combos. Anything that adds +1/+1 counter when it enters the battlefield would make infinite tokens. Just a sigil champion turns this into an infinite number of 2/2's
Gerda Äagesdotter, Archmage of the Unseen 1U
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
You may look at the top card of your library at any time.
Whenever you would shuffle your library, instead exile the top card of your library, then shuffle your library and put the exiled card on top of it.
T: Put the top card of your library on the bottom of your library.
1/2
Mephistopheles's Contract B
Sorcery (M)
Discard your hand, then draw seven cards. An opponent of your choice controls you until the end of your next turn. As long as that player controls you, they may gain control of cards they play from your hand. (Permanents they gain control of this way will remain under their control indefinitely)
Tuning Fork 3
Artifact (U)
T: Choose a type of counter on target permanent with one, two or three of those counters on it. Add or remove counters to set it to one, two or three counters of that type.
I was not entirely sure on the templating, but yeah my idea was effects similar to lignify, dragonshift, Polymorphist's Jest. But yeah, looking at that I'm definitely missing the 'loses all other abilities' clause and should edit that in, thanks.
I think losing all abilities besides maybe making it easier to balance would make it easier to represent in a game state. They could print a pseudotoken similar to the perforated counters, a version of sengir here that you'd simply place over your creature. Maybe something like the uncard Curse of the Fire Penguin
also on the issue of losing abilities vs not- I think that while maybe it opens up more interactions, it would be less mechanically distinct from just regular equipment effects. It might as well just tweak the numbers and be something like +3/+3, gains flying and the ability. But actually changing the whole card like its a clone effect- that makes it less an equipment and more a 'champion a creature'
I do want to stress though I think you might have misread the ability- I meant it as insanely better than the ability on baron sengir, not weaker. It was my intent to create a very very powerful ability that could swing a game on its own, but still required a big board state and 'reset' to removal. It says he gets a counter and +1 life whenever any creature deals combat damage- not just killing creatures, not just himself, not just creatures you control. So an opponent swinging 4x creatures into you and you blocking 3 of them, would result in 7x +1/1 counters and gain 7 life.
Legendary Artifact - Equipment (M)
Equipped creature is a legendary black 5/5 Vampire creature named Dark Lord Sengir with flying and "Whenever any creature deals combat damage, put a +1/+1 counter on Dark Lord Sengir and you gain 1 life." and loses all other abilities.
Whenever The Defiled Chalice becomes unattached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equip 3BB
I think its kind of similar to animated equipment like Haunted Plate Mail or otherwise hiding a creature in it like Elbrus, the Binding Blade, but the idea is more like a reuseable 'champion a creature'- any such equipment would let you keep turning dorks or tokens into a specified baseline, while not necessarily being great on creatures that are already splashy. As far as the static ability, I thought it would be a suitable riff on Baron Sengir to make it really powerful if it sticks in a crowded board (any creature, not just those that die or those you contro)- but can be soft reset by removal on the creature to make it fair.
/e fixed template as void noted
I think there were three problematic factors-
some cards leaked out of order from unofficial sources- something we'll always have to deal with (at least it wasn't like NPH)
some cards were oddly spoiled out of order from official sources (after act 2, we started just bouncing around randomly with no coherent storyline)
the plotline itself was predictable and very bland
I was really surprised actually because I assumed Wizards had decided that the amount of planeswalkers in the game had gotten too stuffed and they wouldn't be able to introduce too many new ones without killing off a bunch of old ones, and that they could take that moment to do some kind of radical thematic change like they did with the mending. Instead, its like the writing in TV shows where everyone gets back home in the end, except for 3 out of like 50 characters who get the axe.
I mean geez, when apocalypse ended the brothers/weatherlight sagas, everyone died. You either had to be off-screen or karn or you died, all the rules were thrown out, everything after that point started fresh. Every main character, even the godlike ones and the ones wizards used as their chief branding characters like urza, got decapitated and killed and then brought back to life and then extra-super killed to make sure they're absolutely dead, and the writers threw in explicit guarantees that death was permanent.
Scout has the same speed, as you can produce +1 mana the turn after you've cast it, as its earliest ramp. The scout is vulnerable to removal, but the land enters untapped so it can ramp on turn 2. But besides just continuing to drop lands on following turns, the scout lets you see an additional card before you activate it, increasing the odds you'll have lands to use its ability, and letting you dig deeper with draw/search effects. This doesn't, it has to be in your hand with the lands. Although in fairness, the scout plays worse with EBTB lands than this, since its better to drop them on turn 1 with a redundant tapped clause- but using any ETBT lands or colorless lands reduces the odds of landing this turn 1 anyway
Downside schm-ownside. Compares quite favorably to plague spores, into the maw of hell and spiteful blow,
The color intensity of UB makes it play a lot worse with colorless producers... and yet
That's a pretty amazing combo since it lets you maindeck explosion zone and keep it around as an answer to threats, a sweeper for tokens, a sweeper vs weenie/aggro/monoblue, or a repeatable card draw engine you can use EOT with only 3 lands and 1 permanent on the board- and still blocking efficiently. Yikes