Mulldrifter.
It's one of those cards that is both balanced and broken at the same time. Hard casting it gives you a respectable 2/2 flyer, and 2 cards in hand. Absolutely fine for any control deck trying to stabilize, or any combo deck digging for combo pieces. Evoking it gives you a Divination, which at times is exactly what you need. This alone would make for a fine card, but there is so much more. He works wonderfully with Revillark, and insane with cards like Momentary Blink. Heck, any thing that blinks him is great. Oh, and that art...gorgeous.
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- TheGrease
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Last active Mon, Sep, 4 2017 15:03:49
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I don't see this doing anything in any format besides Standard. Fun card. Unique ability. But nothing amazing.
Not a group of selfish, sadistic, cliche evil dudes doing evil thing because...umm...they're evil. No. A group of Planeswalkers controlled, brainwashed, manipulated, enslaved, or extorted by Bolas or maybe even Ob Nixilis. It would be framed as the "good guys" vs. the "bad guys", but just like real life, it's seldom that simple. I'd even love to see one of the traditionally "good" planeswalkers turn to the dark side. I mean, how cool would it be if Chandra truly breaks in this set? With all the little evil nothings that Liliana keeps whispering in her ear, the imprisonment (possibly death) of her Mother, and whatever Aether Revolt brings, she may just snap and then be easily influenced by an manipulative outside force: see Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.
That said, she will stay banned. Why? Same reason that Pod will stay banned. It's the kind of card that development will always have to keep in mind when creating other cards, in this case, Equipment cards. Stoneforge Mystic does two very powerful things; she tutors and she cheats cards into play. Overall, Wizards is fine with one or another, but not both. This is why Elvish Piper is fine, and Treasure Mage is fine. Heck, I remember when Batterskull was printed, and all I could think was "what is Wizards thinking? Cawblade is already dominate enough!"
Here's another example, one that is all too recent. While Splinter Twin was unbanned, Wizards had to constantly be wary of the text "Untap target creature" printed on a creature. Now that's it's banned, they don't have to walk on eggshells anymore. Sure, Kiki Jiki still exists, but he isn't nearly at the same level as Splinter Twin was.
Now if only I have 3x more copies of Ancestral Visions...
Overcooked my spaghetti last night. I'll keep a copy of Thraben Inspector in the kitchen to keep me on point next time.
That's really cool. I'd love the see the pictures when you have a chance.
I guess this all boils down to how well somebody shuffles. There are factors that are hard to take into effect though, such as bad shuffling and sticky cards (think how old Dragon Shield sleeves tend to stick to themselves). Whenever my wife plays Commander, she always gets me to shuffle the deck because the deck is huge, her hands are small, and I simply know how to shuffle better than her.
If you shuffle your deck even half way decently, then seven shuffles should be fine and the deck should be statistically random.
Fair enough. There is a balancing act for these types of cards. Even if +9/+9 for GGGG isn't very powerful, it is still only one card as opposed to 3 Giant Growths for the same effect. That's why cards like Flame Javelin can be powerful, even though they scale poorly. You get more bang out of one card.
But, like you said, at some point you have to stop looking at it mathematically, and look at things realistically. And realistically, a GGGG is tough to cast, and even more tough to play properly.
I'd like to do a thought experiment, and I think the general forum is the right place for it. If not, this thread can be moved to the create-a-card forums.
Take a 1 CMC spell, then add one more mana of the same color to that spell's cost. Then improve the spell's effect relative to the increase in cost. Repeat the process 2-3 times.
For example, let's take Giant Growth. For G any creature gets +3/+3 at instant speed. That's pretty standard and balanced. In fact, it's been the status quo for pumps spells since Alpha. So, let's add one more G to that cost. What would the ability be now? Well, instinct says +4/+4, but that seems very weak. Vines of Vastwood is vastly superior to this theoretical spell for multiple reasons. Titanic Growth is also better because it requires only one colorless and a green. It's fair to say that this theoretical new card would be: "GG, Instant, Target creature gets +5/+5 until end of turn". At a cost of GGG, we could push the effect to +7/+7, which is equivalent to Might of Oaks.
Luckily for me, pump effects are easy to scale. Even GGGG for +9/+9 seems fair (or as DSF pointed out, not even very good), but what about other cards? Healing Salve, Sleight of Hand, Shock, Disfigure, etc? And feel free to add other cards, even creatures, that you feel can be scaled appropriately.
How do you amplify these types of cards without straying too far from the original effect? The idea is to simply change the numbers, and not the core effect of the card.
(PS. Some of these cards already have answers to this question)
Maybe. I wouldn't lose my mind if it was banned, and I do understand the argument behind keeping it, and behind banning it. Either way, I don't think it's right to ban it now. I'm sure it is on Wizards' secret watchlist of cards though.
I didn't mean to start a serious conversation about Ensnaring Bridge though; I just saw the opportunity for the joke and went for it.