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Post by melono on Aug 30, 2022 6:34:12 GMT
Thanks! Now, hoping to invigorate this challenge once again, the Pauper-banned card Invigorate! This card was banned for how oppressively strong it is in combination with infect. If it was legal in modern, it would shoot up infect strategies as well probably. So your challenge is to keep the card's spirit of "free" pump, but not make infect ridiculously strong in the process.Oh, and try to keep it common as well, but it's not a necessity. |
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Post by hydraheadhunter on Aug 31, 2022 9:10:07 GMT
Embody the Leylines
A white, blue, black, red, and green
Instant
Uncommon
Domain — Embody the Leylines cost less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control. Each basic land type reduces the cost by the color of mana it produces. (For example, if you control a Forest and a Mountain, Embody the Leylines costs a Red and a Green less to cast.)
Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn. If you control five different basic lands type you may choose an additional target.
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So, the idea here's that you need to set up all five basic land types, and yeah, you can do that pretty easily with two well selected triomes, but in pauper (or more accurrately peasant cause I just couldn't quite justify it to myself for this to be a card at first printing; maybe bump it down to common for a master's set, but first printing would be uncommon) you don't have access to triomes, just shockless-shocks and a half cycle of trigger fetches.
So, I think getting the correct lands to consistantly cast this for free is gonna be challenging enough to justify it being strong, especially when you consider that the way it works, you're not allowed to double dip on your basic lands for mana (because an island produces blue mana and therefore reduces the cost by blue, it doesn't provide you wit two pips toward the cost, you either need all five basic types or another source of mana).
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Post by twintania on Sept 2, 2022 15:27:23 GMT
 I am assuming that giving your opponent one untapped land is risky enough though I don't know much about pauper. And I changed the pitch condition because I don't like "if you control a forest" style pitch spells. Gush and Thunderclap are okay for they interact with lands to cast them in pitch mode, but kinds of Snuff Out or Invigorate are not beautiful. |
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Post by gluestick248 on Sept 2, 2022 18:22:49 GMT
One way to get around the infect issue is to make it overkill. Mighty Bellow   Sorcery If you control a creature with power 10 or greater, you may cast this spell without paying its mana cost. Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn. |
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Post by vizionarius on Sept 2, 2022 19:50:22 GMT
Invigorate  Instant  If you control a Forest, rather than pay this spell’s mana cost, you may have an opponent gain 3 life. Target blocked creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Sept 16, 2022 9:43:47 GMT
melono Might be a good time to judge this one, plenty of entries and it hasn't gotten a new one for 2 weeks.
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Post by melono on Sept 16, 2022 15:08:57 GMT
melono Might be a good time to judge this one, plenty of entries and it hasn't gotten a new one for 2 weeks. Planning on doing it this Sunday |
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Post by melono on Sept 18, 2022 9:30:32 GMT
Okay, I might or might not have time later today, but for now, I'll announce the winner so this can continue: gluestick248 |
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Post by gluestick248 on Sept 19, 2022 2:54:44 GMT
Thanks melono! For your next challenge, let’s try to ease that banhammer off of Dreadhorde Arcanist! Looking forward to seeing some spell-slinging Zombies that don’t break Legacy! |
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Sept 19, 2022 3:28:20 GMT
Dreadhorde Arcanist  Creature — Zombie Wizard  Trample Whenever Dreadhorde Arcanist attacks, you may cast target sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to Dreadhorde Arcanist’s power from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead. 0/3 It seems like the challenge wants to keep the spellslinging vibe intact, so I thought a bit about how to slightly adjust the card to keep that feel intact without making it too busted. A lot of the concern around Dreadhorde Arcanist revolves around its ability to quickly recycle powerful spells like Brainstorm and Lightning Bolt from the graveyard take the decklist listed here for example. Many of those cards are instants with converted mana cost 1, so I think the easiest fix is to nick those two traits off DHA's list. You can still do things like cast Crashing Footfalls from the graveyard, or use Mutagenic Growth to play a bunch of pump sorceries, but this forces you to actually work for DHA's payoff instead of just casting spells and then letting DHA do all the hard work for you.
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Post by hydraheadhunter on Sept 19, 2022 7:10:32 GMT
Okay, but can someone explain why Arcanist was banned in Legacy? I'm not in on this particular loop.
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Sept 19, 2022 8:40:42 GMT
Okay, but can someone explain why Arcanist was banned in Legacy? I'm not in on this particular loop. Imagine Snapcaster Mage but its ETB instead happens once every turn, or Jace, the Mind Sculptor but it costs 2 mana. That's Dreadhorde Arcanist when built properly. Slightly longer but probably butchered explanation: Keep in mind Legacy is home to a lot more powerful 1-mana spells than Modern is. Brainstorm as I mentioned above is the obvious example. The repeatable advantage Dreadhorde Arcanist was able to give you by recasting those spells was basically far better than any other comparable card that Legacy Delver*, a deck that was already one of the more powerful decks at the time, was starting to pull ahead even more in terms of being the only viable deck. It got to the point where Legacy playerbase started to be concerned about it and WOTC subsequently decided hitting DHA was the best call to keep the deck under control. *(a UR/URG value deck based around repeatably spamming cheap Instants/Sorceries that would use Delver of Secrets as the main source of damage, though better cards like Dragonspeaker Mage and Murktide Regent have been printed for the role since then) |
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Post by vizionarius on Sept 26, 2022 19:49:01 GMT
Dreadhorde Arcanist Creature — Zombie Wizard Trample Whenever Dreadhorde Arcanist attacks, exile target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard. Copy it. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost if its mana value is less than Dreadhorde Arcanist’s power. 2/3 Bumped up the creature's cost and power, but the spell has to be less than the power, and you must exile a spell every time it attacks. Uses Demilich's phrasing. Hoping this slows things down a bit, and adds an extra element of thought to attack with him or not, since you will be losing spells each time you do.
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Post by melono on Oct 1, 2022 14:16:28 GMT
I really wanted to come back on this one where I didn’t properly judge, as there were plenty interesting cards for my invigorate challenge previously. Might do a card for the current Dreadhorde Arcanist card as well later. {Spoiler} hydraheadhunter - Embody the Leylines: I wonder if this would be hard for infect to abuse, at least in Modern. It isn’t a correct match for modern infect strategies currently, so that's good and gives new ideas for deckbuilding. A kind of strong card with normally a really big cost. It’s unlikely you’re paying mana for it if you are properly building your deck around it, but it can plenty easily be a completely dead card in hand if you don’t get the right lands. The possible two targets for the +4/+4 also give more hard choices: wait and get +8/+8 in total, or do I need the +4/+4 now? Choices good. twintania - Overabundant Power: In a sense it is risky to give a land to opponents due to tempo loss (and especially if it's a non-basic land), but a land is often not enough to counteract 4 poison damage. Especially in Pauper, as the lands are not especially strong, except for maybe the tron lands. I do like the cost, as it is reminiscent of Path to Exile, and the added green creatures only works well to keep it from going somewhere non-green. Needs some rewording, but it’s clear what it wants to do. gluestick248 - Mighty Bellow: This is very solid, is fun in its free cost, but also isn’t completely skewed if you were to pay for it normally. Might even make it an instant, but it might be more balanced this way. I would love to see people try to make this work in something like Hot Dogs, which is all about Kiln Fiend boosting to instawin (or in two bursts). vizionarius - Invigorate: A very simple edit, making the card way more defensive. You are making sure the enemy gains those 3 life though, while with the original your are trying to inch in that 1 damage from the +3 life minus the +4 power. |
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Post by melono on Oct 2, 2022 10:06:40 GMT
Dreadhorde Sorcerer
Creature - Zombie Wizard Trample Whenever ~ attacks, target instant or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to ~'s power in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. 1/3 No need to get too complicated, just make people pay for their cards.
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Post by gluestick248 on Oct 4, 2022 4:09:51 GMT
Just a small bump letting everyone know I plan on judging soon.
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Post by gluestick248 on Oct 4, 2022 19:55:02 GMT
…And time’s up! These cards were remarkably similar, so there’s not enough to say for a full judging. I’ll give this one to melono, since it reminds me of Snapcaster Mage, which proves that flashback is powerful even if you have to pay for your cards. |
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Post by melono on Oct 4, 2022 21:31:44 GMT
Thanks ftw! Next card, a pauper card that was too great a finisher for affinity... the original Atog! Don't make it too powerful and keep it a common, but besides that, design away!  |
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Post by vizionarius on Oct 6, 2022 17:06:55 GMT
Atog Creature - Atog  : Sacrifice any number of artifacts. Atog gets +2/+2 for each artifact sacrificed this way. Activate only once each turn. 1/2 The idea is to force the use of the ability all at once, so you can't pump one at a time to feel out "in response to" things. But also, the risk is mitigated when you do activate it because you don't end up sacing a bunch of artifacts as a cost to then have Atog get Shocked. The sac being an effect is also likely useful with artifacts you'd want to sac, so people can respond a little easier.
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Post by Flo00 on Oct 10, 2022 23:06:49 GMT
Atog Creature - Atog , Sacrifice an artifact: Atog gets +2/+2 until end of turn. 1/2 This fix is so boring I wasn't sure I really wanted to post it. |
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Post by melono on Oct 25, 2022 18:11:00 GMT
Woops, forgot this. Anyhoo, I'll declare vizionarius the winner with an interesting nerf to the original. Also, Flo00, it's not the most spectacular change, but it'd effective. |
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Post by vizionarius on Oct 25, 2022 20:50:11 GMT
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Post by melono on Oct 25, 2022 21:11:48 GMT
Bloody Massacre   Sorcery  Until end of turn, whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you gain 1 life. Each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. Very simple edit, but I thought it was a sorcery first time I saw it.
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Post by twintania on Oct 25, 2022 22:41:53 GMT
Sheoldred's Execution Legendary Enchantment When Sheoldred's Execution enters the battlefield, each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn and sacrifice all creatures named Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Whenever a creature named Sheoldred, the Apocalypse enters the battlefield under your control, sacrifice it. Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life. Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you gain 1 life. "You did."Wizards says the standard before meathook was banned had had "healthy" and Meathook itself had not outstood. This is half joking, but half serious. |
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Post by vizionarius on Nov 22, 2022 8:29:01 GMT
Whoops, time flies! Judging in the next 16 hours.Feedback: melono: Actually, I thought it was a sorcery too. I think your solution fixes it nicely. I'd still play it (as would most other decks that were playing it before the ban). It doesn't need to be more than this. twintania: Haha, yeah, I think they just pushed a little too much (BRO didn't fix that either....). They decided to ban the most-used/expensive card as a solution. Nice solution to the probem: only allow one of the two annoying cards to be in play at the same time.  Winner: melono wins with a straightforward but effective solution. |
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Post by melono on Nov 23, 2022 19:56:43 GMT
Thanks for the win! Next, for the commander crowd, I'd like to see y'all unban the otter boy that never got a chance to shine: Lutri, The Spellchaser The reason it was banned was its Companion restriction, as it is simply the commander restriction, which means you have a free 8th card in your starting hand, as long as you play blue+red. So at least change that, but other changes besides the companion are also allowed. |
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Post by vizionarius on Nov 28, 2022 18:23:45 GMT
Lutri, The Spellchaser  Legendary Creature — Elemental Otter Companion — Each nonland card in your starting deck is a noncreature spell with a different name. Flash When Lutri, the Spellchaser enters the battlefield, if you cast it, copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy. 3/2 Should make for an interesting deck limitation to have him as the companion now, whether in commander or otherwise.
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Post by hydraheadhunter on Nov 30, 2022 0:48:18 GMT
Lutri, The Spellchaser
A generic and a red or blue
Legendary Creature — Elemental Otter
Companion — Your starting deck contains no non-land permanent cards.
Flash, Haste
When Lutri, the Spellchaser enters the battlefield, if you cast it, copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for the for the copy.
a blue or red, and tap, T: Return Lutri, the Spellchaser to its owner’s hand.
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Make the restriction so much harsher; no non-land permanent cards is such a harsh condition, no mana rocks, no creatures, no planeswalkers, etc. I'd say there's a secret non-commander errata that lets your commanders be non-land permanent card ,i your starting deck, but I didn't want to put that on the card itself.
In exchange for being harsher, the card itself is much better enabling it to bounce itself and copy spells you don't control.
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Post by melono on Jan 4, 2023 16:15:08 GMT
vizionarius version is a simple but effective manner of making Lutri legal in commander, while hydraheadhunter their version also immediately makes Lutri more commander-friendly in a sense, as it allows for re-usability/multiple uses, which might make it a good commander even. I'll give the win to hydraheadhunter, though I do think the card can stay three mana despite its harsher companion condition due to the haste and reusability being added.
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Post by hydraheadhunter on Jan 5, 2023 3:08:10 GMT
I'll give the win to hydraheadhunter , though I do think the card can stay three mana despite its harsher companion condition due to the haste and reusability being added. I agree with you, the idea was to pay five mana total to flicker lutri; somewhere along the way, I crossed my wires on that. It should be a 3 drop which is the going rate for reverberate with legs, and I'll be fixing that post to make it so.
Anyway, another problem commander card that I didn't realize was banned but am very happy to discover the fact: It's Leovold, Emissary of Trest. |
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