So the most common play pattern will be Lost Mine like ThatOneNinja said.
So play it on T3 as a 3/3 vigilance ETB scry 1.
Attack on T4 and make a 1/1 goblin.
Attack on T5 and get a +1/+1 counter.
Definitely weaker than a rabblemaster but still not horrible I think. It misses my cube on it's own but another few Venture cards at or above that power level and I'll definitely give them a try. It's probably around 70% of Blade Splicer which has been excellent for us. Edit: awful comparison because so much of Splicers value is the aggro body that needs to be answered isn't the half that gets abused with synergies.
I have Trinket Mage and Impulse in my 360 powered that supports storm. Spellseeker has been in and out. Agree with wtwlf with one tiny quibble I have Scroll a hair above Solve. It goes in fewer decks but it's better enough in them that I'd have it in if my goal is to try and support storm. Solve is better if I was more interested in promoting combo/reanimator more broadly.
Angel's Mercy is also a completely garbage card and Lone Missionary exists and is more abusable as a creature. Gains more than half the amount of life and costs half the mana. Birth of Meletis also exists as does timely reinforcements. 7 may be a tiny bit high but it's definitely not implausible.
Okay so saying the effect should be red got it. I'm not fully in agreement that becoming a copy is the red sort of chaos. Red's copying is usually in temporary token form. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror breaker or felhide spiritbinder. But in doing a quick search I saw that WotC disagrees with me in the form of Tilonalli's Skinshifter so I stand corrected. Seems fine as hybrid after all which was really my only hang up with the card.
Nevermind the technicalities. I just rolled it back, this preserves more aspect of challenge anyways.
It is hybrid for flexability, in that other colors are able to diversify their structure without having to include off colors.
For example, Red White can run this without Blue. Green Blue can run this without Red. This is great for play value.
That's why I was raising the question though. It can be run in decks without blue but I'd argue this effect is pretty much explicitly blue, and it feels strange seeing it on a card that can be mono red.
Are you arguing that the effect should be available to red or that having hybrid blue justifies the card? I really like the design fwiw, I just think it should be a mono blue card.
For it to trigger, the imprinted card is already on the stack as spell, yes?
Almost. The activated ability is what puts the spell on the stack. So when you activate it the ability to put the spell on the stack goes onto the stack, but as RosyDumplings has been explaining the triggered ability resolves first and shuffles in while the activated ability is still on the stack.
Activating the ability doesn't put the ability on the stack immeadiately. It creates an activated ability that will then cast the spell, putting it onto the stack.
Edit: too slow. Also can I ask why unstable identity is hybrid red and blue?
Question for all of you, in the pandemic era have you found an online program for drafting you like? I've been mostly doing rotisserie because it avoids the question all together but it would be nice to be able to do proper drafts. Thanks in advance!
Putting together a budget cube and coming to the conclusion that the lands will probably have to be peasant-style tap lands (Tri/Vivid/Thriving my top 20 picks due to versatility in draft). If I'm aiming to support 2 color decks (but not really more colors) how many more cycles would you recommend adding? 0-2 more sounds reasonable to me (likely the bounce/scry cycles), but having trouble making up my mind.
Which do you prefer, the bounce or the scry? Could the signets reasonably fill the role of 3rd cycle of fixers? Alternatively springing a part of the budget on the man lands as lands that aren't too expensive and may survive the transition if I ever decide to de-budgetize the cube?
Any budget colorless lands anyone really loves (I didn't really see any on first glance)?
On the off chance you're still looking for replies to this two weeks later I am a big fan of the scrylands. The creature lands are also mostly quite good too. They're the two strongest cycles of always tapped duals.
I will just quickly add that cards in library aren't considered card advantage. It's specifically about cards in hand. Cards returning to library is generally considered a very marginal benefit because the vast majority of games end before most of the library is drawn. So reshuffles are considered to be almost irrelevant because they so rarely matter.
Edit: I think that Unstable Identity should probably be a mono blue card. I don't love the idea of it as a mono red card which the hybrid mana forces me to consider.
Fitz having a death trigger is definitely a nod to the novels. Agreed it shouldn't be overused but I think it's appropriate for the character in question. I don't love the idea of a card that interacts with the monarchy without granting it but I actually really like the idea of him denying the monarchy. That's probably a better fit for his flavor. Might tinker around with him for a bit.
2BRG
Haste
While ~ is on the battlefield you cannot lose the monarchy.
When ~ dies you become the monarch.
When ~ attacks you may have it fight target creature.
4/4
Now we have haste for his recklessness, defending the monarchy for flavor and a black concept (greedily protecting the monarch) and then fighting to capture his berserker nature and recklessness in one.
I should have given The Fool a subtitle or gone with Beloved, The Fool as the card name. He's definitely not the concept of the fool, but a jester/fortune teller specific to these novels who goes by "The Fool". Unlike the broader concept he definitely doesn't fit the black section of the color pie at all being a character defined by selflessness or at least continuously choosing selflessness against his wishes. I considered the creature type shapeshifter but it's not quite right. Rogue might work but it would have to be rogue and shaman because he is defined by his branching visions of the future and trying to alter which path the world takes.
Kennit is definitely in a weird spot right now. I was trying to capture his masochism and greed but I didn't quite hit the right design.
Maybe he could be a BB 1/1 with the same ability. That would have him come down earlier and be more likely catch early in the game damage. Plus BBBB is a really ugly mana cost to not be a super flashy card. I like that sometimes it will be a huge risk to choose to draw the card and that you often won't be able to. Sort of an aggressive take on Ad Nauseum rather than a combo one. My main concern would be is it too good with blood artist style of cards.
I was basing Tintaglias's cost on Agent of Treachery. She's a bit more narrow in terms of stealing though but has better stats and a tribal benefit. Felt like a reasonable tradeoff. Plus I'm old school and think non baby dragons should be expensive.
@Rowan Thanks for your feedback too. The white was in mind mind for flash (and flavor). I always forget it's technically in red's color pie for creatures. Would it be reasonable at 1WR mana or is that still too pushed? I'll have to try and think of something to make the card more white. Definitely want it to be a WR card but need to rework it mechanically.
Althea was definitely designed to be a bit of a johnny card. Similar to a harmless offering effect. Just a bit off kilter to get the creative juices flowing. Though maybe too aggressive in effect to be interesting to Johnnies. As for being a pirate or not I'm a bit torn on that for flavor reasons. She sort of eventually becomes one but most of her journey is defined by hating a pirate and working to stop one. She's a sailor but not a pirate really.
And wow. I completely missed the mark on kennit. I thought tying it to opponents life loss would make it nowhere near those cards, but if it's drawing those comparisons I clearly completely misjudged him.
And that makes sense on Tintaglia. Definitely wanted a trigger on herself as well as other dragons. Too pushed with the haste though. A 4/4 probably makes more sense.
~ cannot attack or block unless a creature has died this turn.
Whenever a creature you control dies ~ gains your choice of flying, trample, lifelink, or vigilance until the end of turn.
4/4
Verity, King-In-Waiting 1WU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Vigilance Wt: tap target creature. 5UU: gain control of target creature.
1/1
Burrich, Heart of the Pact 4WG
Shroud
When ~ enters the battlefield create 2 1/1 white dog tokens.
Dogs you control get +1/+1 and have lifelink.
2/2
I know wotc doesn't use shroud anymore but I pulled it out for flavor purposes (he's sealed from the telepathic magic in the novels both friendly and hostile). Preventing flicker shenanigans is just upside in costing him slightly more aggressively.
Took a swing at turning some characters from the Robin Hobb novels into cards. Althea is my favorite of the bunch, I think it really captures her early character.
Fitz, the Royal Bastard 1BRG
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior (M)
Ward 2
When ~ attacks you may have it fight target creature.
When ~ dies you become the monarch.
4/4
(The jund colors aren't really justified mechanically unfortuantely. To me he is those colors as a character but I didn't want to jam more abilities into the card)
The Fool WR
Legendary Creature - Shaman
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield you may change the target of target spell or ability with a single target.
1/1
Althea, Headstrong Sailor 1RB
Legendary Creature - Human
Meance
When ~ enters the battlefield target opponent gains control of a permanent you control.
As long as an opponent controls a permanent you own creatures you control have haste.
3/1
Kennit, the Storm BBBB
Legendary Creature - Human Pirate
Whenever an opponent loses life you may pay that much life, if you do draw a card.
2/2
Could be prowess for island if you're wanting to change hexproof.
I think it could probably cost 2G because it effectively costs 4 mana thanks to needing an untapped land to attack that turn. It would be strong at 2G but given the risks of animating a land I think it would be okay. Could really go either way depending upon how much you wanted to push it.
To the spells themselves, I dislike the lack of consistency in how the effects are carried out. The Black and White ones have effects that do something regardless of how you sweep, but sweeping makes them better and I like that usage of the land returning as a sort of "kicker" to an effect. Green/Red/Blue, on the other hand, aren't that exciting (especially Green, which doesn't make sense to me as an effect that is worth playing).
The challenge of Sweep is that it sets you back on board so much if you maximize it, that the payoff has to be BIG. Your first two accomplish that, but the rest don't.
I can't agree on the assement of the powerlevel of the green one. Green and Black seem to me incredibly powerful. Black puts Dark Petition to shame and that's already a very powerful card. It's basically Rain of Filth and dark petition stapled together and that is insanely powerful. And green isn't far off that in terms of ritual potential. At 6 lands it's dark ritual. With any sort of mana doubling effect it's a cheaper palinchron. I don't know if that would make it good enough for anything but generating that much mana is something that always scares me. The beauty of the green one is that unless it's countered it doesn't set your board back at all. It's actually a really clever design for a green ritual, I just get antsy designing big rituals. Compare it to Brass's Bounty, while you can't carry the mana between turns 4 is a lot less than 7.
Thanks! I was wondering if it might work that way (as it's an additional cost) but figured if they were replacing hexproof it would have the same functionality. Switching it to hexproof.
So play it on T3 as a 3/3 vigilance ETB scry 1.
Attack on T4 and make a 1/1 goblin.
Attack on T5 and get a +1/+1 counter.
Definitely weaker than a rabblemaster but still not horrible I think. It misses my cube on it's own but another few Venture cards at or above that power level and I'll definitely give them a try.
It's probably around 70% of Blade Splicer which has been excellent for us.Edit: awful comparison because so much of Splicers value is the aggro body that needs to be answered isn't the half that gets abused with synergies.Edit: my only question is should this be our grand opening rather than our grand finale? Or were we wanting to do a specialty for the grand opening?
That's why I was raising the question though. It can be run in decks without blue but I'd argue this effect is pretty much explicitly blue, and it feels strange seeing it on a card that can be mono red.
Are you arguing that the effect should be available to red or that having hybrid blue justifies the card? I really like the design fwiw, I just think it should be a mono blue card.
Almost. The activated ability is what puts the spell on the stack. So when you activate it the ability to put the spell on the stack goes onto the stack, but as RosyDumplings has been explaining the triggered ability resolves first and shuffles in while the activated ability is still on the stack.
Activating the ability doesn't put the ability on the stack immeadiately. It creates an activated ability that will then cast the spell, putting it onto the stack.
Edit: too slow. Also can I ask why unstable identity is hybrid red and blue?
On the off chance you're still looking for replies to this two weeks later I am a big fan of the scrylands. The creature lands are also mostly quite good too. They're the two strongest cycles of always tapped duals.
Edit: I think that Unstable Identity should probably be a mono blue card. I don't love the idea of it as a mono red card which the hybrid mana forces me to consider.
Fitz having a death trigger is definitely a nod to the novels. Agreed it shouldn't be overused but I think it's appropriate for the character in question. I don't love the idea of a card that interacts with the monarchy without granting it but I actually really like the idea of him denying the monarchy. That's probably a better fit for his flavor. Might tinker around with him for a bit.
2BRG
Haste
While ~ is on the battlefield you cannot lose the monarchy.
When ~ dies you become the monarch.
When ~ attacks you may have it fight target creature.
4/4
Now we have haste for his recklessness, defending the monarchy for flavor and a black concept (greedily protecting the monarch) and then fighting to capture his berserker nature and recklessness in one.
I should have given The Fool a subtitle or gone with Beloved, The Fool as the card name. He's definitely not the concept of the fool, but a jester/fortune teller specific to these novels who goes by "The Fool". Unlike the broader concept he definitely doesn't fit the black section of the color pie at all being a character defined by selflessness or at least continuously choosing selflessness against his wishes. I considered the creature type shapeshifter but it's not quite right. Rogue might work but it would have to be rogue and shaman because he is defined by his branching visions of the future and trying to alter which path the world takes.
Kennit is definitely in a weird spot right now. I was trying to capture his masochism and greed but I didn't quite hit the right design.
Maybe he could be a BB 1/1 with the same ability. That would have him come down earlier and be more likely catch early in the game damage. Plus BBBB is a really ugly mana cost to not be a super flashy card. I like that sometimes it will be a huge risk to choose to draw the card and that you often won't be able to. Sort of an aggressive take on Ad Nauseum rather than a combo one. My main concern would be is it too good with blood artist style of cards.
I was basing Tintaglias's cost on Agent of Treachery. She's a bit more narrow in terms of stealing though but has better stats and a tribal benefit. Felt like a reasonable tradeoff. Plus I'm old school and think non baby dragons should be expensive.
@Rowan Thanks for your feedback too. The white was in mind mind for flash (and flavor). I always forget it's technically in red's color pie for creatures. Would it be reasonable at 1WR mana or is that still too pushed? I'll have to try and think of something to make the card more white. Definitely want it to be a WR card but need to rework it mechanically.
Althea was definitely designed to be a bit of a johnny card. Similar to a harmless offering effect. Just a bit off kilter to get the creative juices flowing. Though maybe too aggressive in effect to be interesting to Johnnies. As for being a pirate or not I'm a bit torn on that for flavor reasons. She sort of eventually becomes one but most of her journey is defined by hating a pirate and working to stop one. She's a sailor but not a pirate really.
And wow. I completely missed the mark on kennit. I thought tying it to opponents life loss would make it nowhere near those cards, but if it's drawing those comparisons I clearly completely misjudged him.
And that makes sense on Tintaglia. Definitely wanted a trigger on herself as well as other dragons. Too pushed with the haste though. A 4/4 probably makes more sense.
Really appreciate your feedback!
Edit a few more characters.
Verity-as-Dragon4
Legendary Artifact Creature - Dragon
~ cannot attack or block unless a creature has died this turn.
Whenever a creature you control dies ~ gains your choice of flying, trample, lifelink, or vigilance until the end of turn.
4/4
Verity, King-In-Waiting 1WU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
Vigilance
Wt: tap target creature.
5UU: gain control of target creature.
1/1
Burrich, Heart of the Pact 4WG
Shroud
When ~ enters the battlefield create 2 1/1 white dog tokens.
Dogs you control get +1/+1 and have lifelink.
2/2
I know wotc doesn't use shroud anymore but I pulled it out for flavor purposes (he's sealed from the telepathic magic in the novels both friendly and hostile). Preventing flicker shenanigans is just upside in costing him slightly more aggressively.
Fitz, the Royal Bastard 1BRG
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior (M)
Ward 2
When ~ attacks you may have it fight target creature.
When ~ dies you become the monarch.
4/4
(The jund colors aren't really justified mechanically unfortuantely. To me he is those colors as a character but I didn't want to jam more abilities into the card)
The Fool WR
Legendary Creature - Shaman
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield you may change the target of target spell or ability with a single target.
1/1
Althea, Headstrong Sailor 1RB
Legendary Creature - Human
Meance
When ~ enters the battlefield target opponent gains control of a permanent you control.
As long as an opponent controls a permanent you own creatures you control have haste.
3/1
Kennit, the Storm BBBB
Legendary Creature - Human Pirate
Whenever an opponent loses life you may pay that much life, if you do draw a card.
2/2
Tintaglia, Sapphire Queen 3UURR
Legendary Creature - Dragon
Flying, haste
Whenever a dragon enters the battlefield gain control of target creature.
6/6
I think it could probably cost 2G because it effectively costs 4 mana thanks to needing an untapped land to attack that turn. It would be strong at 2G but given the risks of animating a land I think it would be okay. Could really go either way depending upon how much you wanted to push it.
I can't agree on the assement of the powerlevel of the green one. Green and Black seem to me incredibly powerful. Black puts Dark Petition to shame and that's already a very powerful card. It's basically Rain of Filth and dark petition stapled together and that is insanely powerful. And green isn't far off that in terms of ritual potential. At 6 lands it's dark ritual. With any sort of mana doubling effect it's a cheaper palinchron. I don't know if that would make it good enough for anything but generating that much mana is something that always scares me. The beauty of the green one is that unless it's countered it doesn't set your board back at all. It's actually a really clever design for a green ritual, I just get antsy designing big rituals. Compare it to Brass's Bounty, while you can't carry the mana between turns 4 is a lot less than 7.