Evil Coco
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 110
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
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Post by Evil Coco on Mar 31, 2019 0:08:16 GMT
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Mar 31, 2019 0:31:23 GMT
The tomes are pretty cool.
Not too crazy on Burn Up sourcing the damage elsewhere without a few clarifications.
If you cast it with a Gisela on the opponent's battlefield, would that cause the Burn Up pain to deal double?
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Post by fluffydeathbringer on Mar 31, 2019 11:48:55 GMT
there is a lot to unpack here that I'll get to later but I'm gonna start with Angel's Call. let's break down what it is. it costs three mana to play. it requires you to be playing two different colors in your deck. and it's a common, meaning it'll show up in limited basically every round at least once.
it does one damage to a player. that alone would be a bad card meme legend if printed in real MTG. but the player it does the damage to is you. the player casting it. not, as one might expect, an opponent, damage to whom would at least hasten the end of the game a little. you. you pay three mana, you have to sacrifice mana reliability for a two-color deck... and it hurts you. that's all it does.
in what alternate reality was this a good idea. because it sure isn't one here.
"now, fluffy," you might be thinking, "it feeds the 'damage dealt to you matters' theme! it's synergy!" well,
1) other common two-color instants, such as Hypothesizzle and Sphinx's Insight, can synergize with the archetypes they support while, miraculously, also doing things that have actual helpful function even outside them. all this card does is 1 damage to you. at, not to belabour the point, three mana, while already sacrificing mana reliability by playing a two-color deck. 2) this keyword doesn't even function. players don't deal damage. cards do.
oh and instants don't enter the battlefield and reminder text doesn't use card names, so even the reminder text is borked.
now for some perhaps more constructive advice
- if you still want to do this thing, you could maybe have Angel's Call have some kind of base effect while also allowing you to hurt yourself for a more powerful version of it or some added benefit. that way, it can actually look like a card that a person could potentially want to play, and not like something featured on whymtgcardsmith- in order for this mechanic to work, maybe word it as (As you cast this spell, you may have a permanent target opponent controls deal 1 damage to you.)
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Post by fluffydeathbringer on Apr 2, 2019 11:54:06 GMT
okay I'm back
- hellraiser dragon being a 6/6 flier for 5R at uncommon is very much too powerful in terms of fliers that red gets, and its tutor ability isn't red at all - demon of war not flying even though it's got wings is weird - abyssal assailant isn't in-color for monoblue (it doesn't get to destroy creatures) - clarity shouldn't be a keyword, discarding your entire hand shouldn't be a keyword because that implies it'll be showing up a lot, and discarding your hand is not something that should show up a lot. maybe have it discard only one card and adjust the additional benefit accordingly? also blue doesn't mana ramp - navia: does the +1 add only one color or any combination of colors. the token has no P/T and green doesn't get flying unless the circumstances are very special (and they probably aren't here) - the tomes are legit cool - dragon's talisman/null brooch isn't. one half is unplayably weak and narrow and the other isn't in color for either blue or black, and also is quite undercosted for what it does - abyssal shaman's neat
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Apr 2, 2019 13:48:23 GMT
- clarity shouldn't be a keyword, discarding your entire hand shouldn't be a keyword because that implies it'll be showing up a lot, and discarding your hand is not something that should show up a lot. maybe have it discard only one card and adjust the additional benefit accordingly? also blue doesn't mana ramp I'm going to expand on this point with a suggestion. It looks like you're keeping that in U to synergize with U/B Hellbent. What makes Hellbent for R/B so good is that the aggro playstyle it accompanied wants to dump cards out quickly, but aggro itself isn't especially concerned with drawing cards and keeping them in hand. If you really want to make a new keyword to accompany Hellbent for U/B control, try making one that rewards you for casting spells, like what Surge did, or add a generic mana cost in reduction, or something, or using a keyword like Flashback to get value from cards from the graveyard so players don't mind losing cards in hand as much. |
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Post by ameisenmeister on Apr 2, 2019 16:13:44 GMT
May I humbly suggest using my Guide on how to evaluate mechanics? It maybe isn't perfect but can probably help you finding the flaws in your mechanics and how to come up with better ones. |
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Evil Coco
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 110
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
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Post by Evil Coco on Apr 2, 2019 22:01:13 GMT
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temawimag
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 137
Favorite Card: Elite Arcanist
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Post by temawimag on Apr 2, 2019 22:37:28 GMT
For the card specifics, Symphony of Dreams is kind of weak - you need to have three cards get tossed before you get more value than a Catalog, and even then you're looking at sorcery speed. For Visions of Wisdom definitely doesn't need to be a rare nor use two Xs in its casting cost since you're not actually drawing any of the cards (compare to Index). Can't speak for everyone else here, but I like the revision you did a lot more (being a sucker for wheel effects doesn't help). It's kind of like storm in that it can get ridiculous for just dumping out cheap spells, except it has a hard boundary for when the benefit stops, and it even has synergy with whatever discard outlets you want to do on the side (keep in mind though that you need to have an especially good effect to make that worthwhile). Only real suggestion I can think of is that you might want to consider changing it to knock a generic off instead, that way you have a clear way to handle multicolor cards that would use this keyword (and if it's uniform with, like, one generic for each card pitched, you can do things like have a permanent that gives all instant and sorcery cards clarity). (For the ones that don't really concern the mechanic, Archangel's Command could be worded as "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and vigilance until the end of turn. If Archangel's Command burned up, instead they get +2/+2 and vigilance until your next upkeep." There's not really a reason to have them as two separate effects there since you're not tying them to a pseudo-keyword on the replacement. Also, the Hellbent cards need the "if you have no cards in hand" moved, since that isn't a part of the cost, but a restriction. It should read something like "T: Put the top two cards of target opponent's library into their graveyard. Activate this ability only if you have no cards in hand." (Also, you need to either target an opponent, choose them, or just declare all opponents)). |
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Evil Coco
2/2 Zombie
Posts: 110
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
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Post by Evil Coco on Apr 5, 2019 20:20:55 GMT
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Post by ameisenmeister on Apr 24, 2019 13:16:04 GMT
Symphony of Dreams is pretty weak. Your just shuffling cards into your library and don't get anything directly. Furthermore, you also have to discard a card, so your spending two cards and some mana to get basically nothing. However, I like the delayed discard as a synergy with the Clarity mechanic (which is pretty interesting on itself). Why not start with something simple like a sorcery that makes you draw two cards now and discard one at the beginnning of your next turn's upkeep? Would be a nice twist to work with Clarity.
The sellsword mechanic is fine but I don't really see how the name Sellsword has anything to do with colors among your permanents.
Burn up is better now, but still a bit weird with all the target opponent and choose a permanent stuff. Why don't you just have the spell deal 1 damage to you?
All in all, let me stress again, that I think Clarity is particularly cool and I'd like to see more and different ways to design with it.
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- A pseudo ability designed around taking damage
- A new red ability designed to synergize with Divine Blessing.
- A returning pseudo ability relating to having an empty hand.
- A new ability built to synergize with Hellbent.
- A new pseudo ability designed around splashing green into a deck.
