With the old art, there was more variety. I personally preferred that, but it also meant that many pieces of art were hated and berated. Stasis is the classic example of a divisive card. AfewDrewTuckerpieces were also in for a fair amount of criticism.
So I guess they are aiming for everyone hating no art rather than everyone loving some art and hating other.
Urza's block is always the period of time I think of when I think of great art in Magic. Boy do I miss those days. It's a shame we likely won't see anything like that again.
It's between red and white I think. It's hard to say if Dualcaster Mage will find a place in formats outside of EDH but I think white's Containment Priest will, along with Masterwork of Ingenuity. Heck I want to try Nahiri as a one of in a stoneforge deck for kicks. So I think right now red is a little more valuable due to the reprints in it but white has potential to have more impact on legacy.
first of all, I really, really like your initial idea(s). I'm sure a million different ideas for a Serra planeswalker have been done but this is great. A few general comments:
1. As Dahammer said, Replenish is insane, but single targeting an enchantment is fine. -3 for that still seems reasonable, perhaps if she has a higher starting loyalty.
2. I think turning a single permanent into a dude, as you said, is kind of played out. Tezzeret does it, Koth does it, Nissa does it. But having an ultimate that turns ALL your enchantments into serra angels is pretty neat. They should have vigilance though!
3. the humility on a stick is genius. why not make it work better with her ultimate and have it only humble non-angels?
4. where does "the white maiden" come from, is that a story point?
Here's my take on where you started:
Serra, [the White Maiden] 2WWW
Planeswalker - Serra
+1: Until your next turn, all non-Angel creatures lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 1/1.
-3: Return target enchantment card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
-7: You get an emblem with “Each non-aura enchantment you control is a white Angel creature in addition to its other types with flying, vigilance and base power and toughness 4/4."
4 Loyalty
I thought she should be heavy white in her cost. I changed the +2 to a +1 since it now spares your angels (and potentially is REALLY good in an angel deck), but reduced the cost of her ultimate since it probably isn't as strong as Sarkhan Vol's and makes your enchantments a lot more vulnerable.
EDIT: if we wanted to make her a commander, like the other new planeswalkers in C14, maybe change the +1 ability to "non-enchantment creatures" so it is less of an auto-win in an angel deck (or just make it all creatures, as you originally had it).
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you like the starting points. I agree with you guys on replenish being too good, I think for a 5 mana walker making it single target for -2 is alright, but would certainly keep an eye on it when testing her out.
Your changes to her humility effect are very flavorful and I like either of them, though I'm leaning more towards non-angels than non-enchantment creatures. I'm just concerned if that is too good in either case, if it doesnt effect enchantment creatures then you can run stuff like Spirit of the Labyrinth to hinder your opponents even more, and angels tend to be more expensive so I think they might be the more okay option of the two. Either way I'd want to test them out because I think it's an awesome idea.
I do agree with vigilance on her ultimate being more flavorful and am okay with putting. The main reason I didn't include it initially was text space concerns.
As for her title, it doesn't reference anything that I know of, I just used it as a temporary one for now. Since she shared her name with a goddess and created her own heavenly realm I though it sounded pure and fit.
Serra the character is definitely mono-white, and has been associated with martial prowess (Serra Angel, Serra Avatar, Serra Avenger), lifegain, and enchantments. So I'd go something like this:
Serra, Voice of Radiance WWWW
Planeswalker - Serra
+2: You gain 3 life.
-X: Search your library for an Aura card with converted mana cost X or less, reveal it and put it into your hand. You may play that card without paying its mana cost. Shuffle your library.
-7: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control have lifelink, flying, vigilance and get +4/+4."
4
Colour intense Walkers haven't really been done before, so I went with quad white instead of 3WW. She can protect herself and you (but not well) by getting Pacifism effects but works better when you already have a board presence.
My initial thoughts for this card were to design something that might be playable in legacy enchantress since I don't believe they have a planeswalker, so I never considered a WWWW cost. I think for this particular case I'd want to avoid it to keep it more castable in a two color deck but I can certainly get behind that cost as it fuels devotion quite nicely. I would love to see them give the old walkers more cards in these supplementary products down the line like how Jace and Ajani have multiple different ones; I would definitely use this cost for a second Serra card.
I also like that Voice of Radiance title you used, ties nicely with the Voice cycle from Urza block and Radiant, Archangel. Definitely fitting of a lady famous for her angels.
I like the second one best, but I would switch the + and - abilties. So she can protect herself, and humility is kinda silly on a Plus ability seems hard to actually kill her.
I think if they were to make a Serra Planeswalker, her ultimate has to throwback to Serra Avatar.
Something like.....
Serra, Angelic Archon 4WWW
Planeswalker- Serra
+2: Up to on target creature becomes a 1/1 creature and lose all abilities.
-3: Search your library for an enchantment card and put it onto the battlefield.
-8: Put a white */* Avatar creature token into play named Serra Avatar where * equals your life total.
5
My problem with that ultimate is Ajani already did it, and I think her ultimate should be something that ties in with the enchantment theme. The reason I chose humility was because it's a powerful enchantment that reminds of me of Jace, AoT's plus ability in a way. I think the fact that Serra can get attacked does make it worse than humility, especially against decks that go wide like Young Pyromancer whose already working with 1/1's. For version 2 I think her minus ability could work as a plus but I'd be worried about being able to make a 4/4 flyer every turn (Sarkhan does it for red though so maybe). Appreciate the feedback.
I like the first version more, but the middle ability is a bit strong (recurrable Replenish good). Make it target a single enchantment in your 'yard to tone down the cost a bit.
Thanks for the feedback. So if we go ahead and make version 1's - ability only target 1 enchantment, do you think it should be reduced to -1?
Commander 14 giving us old walker cards got me thinking about what a Serra planeswalker would be like and so I tried to put my novice skills of card design to the test and come up with something. I started with the theme of enchantments as it seemed to fit what I know about Serra (admittedly I'm not a heavily committed Vorthos) and went from there, using various cards as inspiration for her abilities. Here are two versions I came up with (they probably aren't very balanced):
Version 1
Serra, The White Maiden 3WW
+2 Until your next turn, all creatures lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 1/1.
-3 Return all enchantment cards from your graveyard to play.
-10 You get an emblem with “Each non-aura enchantment you control becomes a white Angel creature in addition to its other types with flying and base power and toughness 4/4.”
3 Loyalty
This version was designed to protect Serra while you build up to her ultimate to win the game, with her middle ability providing some utility if you needed it. Mostly just a control card that takes several turns to build up to a win.
Version 2
Serra, The White Maiden 3WW
+2 Until your next turn, all creatures lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 1/1.
-2 Target non-aura enchantment becomes a white Angel creature in addition to its other types with flying and base power and toughness 4/4 until end of turn.
-8 You get an emblem with “At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for an enchantment card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.”
4 Loyalty
I wasn't sure if the first version would really be something Enchantress would want to do for 5 mana so I went and looked at Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas which is a good artifact walker for ideas, and gave this one a similar minus ability, allowing you to choose to either + her and be defensive or - her and go offensive. What I don't like about this version is the ultimate, I just threw on enduring ideal's effect and lowered the cost a bit, but I don't know if it's all that good (never played with ideal personally) or not as an ultimate.
Looking for feedback on which version you guys like more as well as balancing help.
I love this card, I would definitely run one of in a Stoneblade deck, I don't think you need more (and that means only having to buy one copy of the deck, yay). Makes late game SFM actually matter which I am happy about.
I like the power level of the card and think it's playable in Legacy, but the deck it's right for might not be there yet. Could try it out in a pox list or a deck that sacrifices a lot. The problem I have with it though is not being able to hit a Deathrite Shaman, Bob, or Batterskull token, all three of which are fairly represented in legacy.
Well Wizards is certainly doing a good job of making red more interesting, I mean it's my least favorite color in Magic and right now I don't see a more fun deck to play.
Ummm, guys. Glaring Spotlight is kind of already a card. If that didn't change the hexproof general voltron, this won't either.
Except this can't be countered, costs nothing to play and is a land versus an artifact, so there are fewer cards that hit it. It also hits shroud which spotlight doesn't, so all in all I think this is more powerful.
I personally like her since her + ability is 2 and her ult is only 6, allowing her to build up to it fairly quickly over and over for some nice card advantage. She also gets to make a mana elf every turn she's not drawing you cards so you can ramp into bigger things or chump block with. I think she could have cost 4 mana and been okay still but for commander I think she's fine. She may not be seeing any play in a legacy or vintage tournament but she'll definitely be fun to play with casually.
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you like the starting points. I agree with you guys on replenish being too good, I think for a 5 mana walker making it single target for -2 is alright, but would certainly keep an eye on it when testing her out.
Your changes to her humility effect are very flavorful and I like either of them, though I'm leaning more towards non-angels than non-enchantment creatures. I'm just concerned if that is too good in either case, if it doesnt effect enchantment creatures then you can run stuff like Spirit of the Labyrinth to hinder your opponents even more, and angels tend to be more expensive so I think they might be the more okay option of the two. Either way I'd want to test them out because I think it's an awesome idea.
I do agree with vigilance on her ultimate being more flavorful and am okay with putting. The main reason I didn't include it initially was text space concerns.
As for her title, it doesn't reference anything that I know of, I just used it as a temporary one for now. Since she shared her name with a goddess and created her own heavenly realm I though it sounded pure and fit.
My initial thoughts for this card were to design something that might be playable in legacy enchantress since I don't believe they have a planeswalker, so I never considered a WWWW cost. I think for this particular case I'd want to avoid it to keep it more castable in a two color deck but I can certainly get behind that cost as it fuels devotion quite nicely. I would love to see them give the old walkers more cards in these supplementary products down the line like how Jace and Ajani have multiple different ones; I would definitely use this cost for a second Serra card.
I also like that Voice of Radiance title you used, ties nicely with the Voice cycle from Urza block and Radiant, Archangel. Definitely fitting of a lady famous for her angels.
Version 1
+2 Until your next turn, all creatures lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 1/1.
-3 Return all enchantment cards from your graveyard to play.
-10 You get an emblem with “Each non-aura enchantment you control becomes a white Angel creature in addition to its other types with flying and base power and toughness 4/4.”
3 Loyalty
This version was designed to protect Serra while you build up to her ultimate to win the game, with her middle ability providing some utility if you needed it. Mostly just a control card that takes several turns to build up to a win.
Version 2
+2 Until your next turn, all creatures lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 1/1.
-2 Target non-aura enchantment becomes a white Angel creature in addition to its other types with flying and base power and toughness 4/4 until end of turn.
-8 You get an emblem with “At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for an enchantment card and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.”
4 Loyalty
I wasn't sure if the first version would really be something Enchantress would want to do for 5 mana so I went and looked at Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas which is a good artifact walker for ideas, and gave this one a similar minus ability, allowing you to choose to either + her and be defensive or - her and go offensive. What I don't like about this version is the ultimate, I just threw on enduring ideal's effect and lowered the cost a bit, but I don't know if it's all that good (never played with ideal personally) or not as an ultimate.
Looking for feedback on which version you guys like more as well as balancing help.
Except this can't be countered, costs nothing to play and is a land versus an artifact, so there are fewer cards that hit it. It also hits shroud which spotlight doesn't, so all in all I think this is more powerful.