My point is less that it is too powerful and more that it combines with just about any creature to be extremely unfun. I would expect it to cause more groans and less enjoyment than the likes of Counterspell, Stone Rain, and Mind Rot because it is extremely uninteractive.
Also, I had not previously noticed your disclaimer that you don't consider limited when designing. That removes most of my complaints with it.
Hang on, check the logic there. If you want a hexproof unblockable beatstick with Invisible Stalker in limited, you need Invisible Stalker (an uncommon), the appropriate aura to attach to it (let's say Trollhide, a common), and the mana to cast them. If you want a hexproof unblockable beatstick with Azurian Blessings in limited, you need Azurian Blessings (a rare), the appropriate creature to attach it to (let's say Æther Adept, a common), and the mana to cast them. I don't see either situation as all that broken, nor do I see them as all that different from each other. Except that Invisible Stalker is nice when drawn without the Trollhide. Azurian Blessings without the Æther Adept, not so much...
Except that Invisible Stalker isn't nice when drawn without the trollhide. Its pretty terrible.
Azurian Blessings without the Aether Adept is fine, because you can just slap it on a Grizzly Bears. Or a Coral Merfolk, or a Lurking Crocodile, etc. All you need is a fairly cheap 2+ power dude, and most limited decks have plenty of those.
It seems reasonable to guess that the person to our left is now in blue (instead of black). If that is the case, then they will presumably take, say, Steamcore Weird in P2P1 when they otherwise would not have. We won't be able to account for this because we will never get the information that there was a Weird in the pack at all. This is even worse for, say, P2P7.
I'm not one of those people who thinks that hexproof is OP. Everytime someone cries that Invisible Stalker is such a broken unfair card I wince a little in front of my computer.
That said, I think azurian blessings would be extremely unfun and quite possibly too good. Invisible Stalker has 1 power. Dungrove Elder has no evasion. If you want to do something powerful with them, you at least need to work for it. Azurian Blessings+Hill Giant is very easy to assemble, and will basically suck everytime it happens (in limited). This seems like a card which would hugely benefit from the Shadowmoor/Eventide style of aura wording.
v.02a is nice. You get a 1/1 for one, and then later you get some reach or creature kill. Very printable, probably pretty fun, still quite powerful, and good old goblin flavor.
v.02b isn't blatantly OP, but it looks just a little bit oppressive in limited. I'd increase the activation cost by 1, or lower it by R and either reduce the damage to 1 or make it player only.
Versatile Killer - :sympb::sympr:
Creature - Human Knight (R) /:1mana::symbr://,/,Discard a card/Pay 3 life: Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
2/1
I'm being silly with it, of course.
I know this wasn't serious, but I find it amusing that the 3rd and 4th costs amount to 2:Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn. It totally obsoletes the first two and is better than the 5th except for payments of exactly 1.
Crookclaw transmuter doesn't seem so hot now that damage stacking is gone. I'd go with might sliver as it has easily the most potential and we aren't giving up that much anyway.
Also, can't we go BRW, BRU, and BRG just as easily guildwise?
Also, I had not previously noticed your disclaimer that you don't consider limited when designing. That removes most of my complaints with it.
Except that Invisible Stalker isn't nice when drawn without the trollhide. Its pretty terrible.
Azurian Blessings without the Aether Adept is fine, because you can just slap it on a Grizzly Bears. Or a Coral Merfolk, or a Lurking Crocodile, etc. All you need is a fairly cheap 2+ power dude, and most limited decks have plenty of those.
That said, I think azurian blessings would be extremely unfun and quite possibly too good. Invisible Stalker has 1 power. Dungrove Elder has no evasion. If you want to do something powerful with them, you at least need to work for it. Azurian Blessings+Hill Giant is very easy to assemble, and will basically suck everytime it happens (in limited). This seems like a card which would hugely benefit from the Shadowmoor/Eventide style of aura wording.
v.02b isn't blatantly OP, but it looks just a little bit oppressive in limited. I'd increase the activation cost by 1, or lower it by R and either reduce the damage to 1 or make it player only.
Looks like a good start. I wish this would be reasonable to sustain past pick 8.
I know this wasn't serious, but I find it amusing that the 3rd and 4th costs amount to 2:Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn. It totally obsoletes the first two and is better than the 5th except for payments of exactly 1.