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Post by sdfkjgh on Dec 26, 2019 16:56:25 GMT
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lizstar
1/1 Squirrel
At GDQ, won't really be here for a week. Contact me on Twitter if you want, also watch GDQ.
Posts: 77
Formerly Known As: Liz the Goddess, Marzen64
Favorite Card: Bearscape
Favorite Set: Odyssey
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green
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Post by lizstar on Dec 26, 2019 18:03:11 GMT
Bundle - If this spell is the second spell you've cast this turn, EFFECT
Shockblast  Sorcery  ~ deals 3 damage to target creature.
Bundle - If this spell is the second spell you've cast this turn, ~ deals 3 damage to any target instead.
Coldwatch Gatekeeper   Creature - Human Soldier  Bundle - If this spell is the second spell you've cast this turn, tap target creature. It doesn't untap during its owner's next untap step. Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a creature, tap it. It doesn't untap during its owner's next untap step. 2/3
Legendary Creature - Goblin Wizard  Spells you cast have "Bundle - If this spell is the second spell you've cast this turn, ~ deals 2 damage to any target and you scry 1." At the end of your turn, return a permanent you control to its owner's hand. 4/4
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DoctorStrangelove
0/0 Germ
Posts: 36
Formerly Known As: drstrangelove
Favorite Card: Emrakul, The Promised End
Favorite Set: Ooh, that's tricky. Probably Dominaria, or maybe Time Spiral.
Color Alignment: White, Red
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Post by DoctorStrangelove on Dec 26, 2019 20:55:45 GMT
This challenge was a bit popular on the old forums (under the name Invent the Keyword Contest), so I thought I'd try to bring it back. Here's how this challenge works! 1. Every week, the judge chooses an (English) word. 2. Each contestant creates a mechanic that's named the chosen word and makes any number of cards with that mechanic. 3. After the week is over, the judge chooses the best entry of both mechanics and cards, and the winner becomes the judge. Your first challenge is going to be to create a mechanic with the name Infuse. Good luck! Bundle - If you've cast another spell this turn with the same converted mana cost as [CARDNAME]... The similarity to the previous contestant's mechanic is purely coincidental - honest     |
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Post by Jartis on Dec 28, 2019 13:02:57 GMT
Just posting the idea for now:
Bundle X (You may pay this spell’s bundle cost as you cast it. If you do, copy this spell for each spell put on the stack before it resolves.)
Functionally, it's like paying a kicker cost to start a personal mini Storm count
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Post by viriss on Dec 28, 2019 17:06:26 GMT
Bundle (When this creature dies, create a Clue token, a Food token, and a Treasure token.)
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Post by ameisenmeister on Jan 5, 2020 12:03:49 GMT
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Post by kilenc on Jan 5, 2020 16:55:34 GMT
Last call for entries! I will be judging tomorrow afternoon, about 24 hours from now.
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thaneofglamis
8/8 Octopus
Thane's activated abilities can't be activated
Posts: 444
Favorite Card: Slimefoot, the Stowaway; Phyrexian Rager; Swarm Shambler
Favorite Set: Midnight Hunt
Color Alignment: Green
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Post by thaneofglamis on Jan 5, 2020 23:17:40 GMT
Bundle X (You may cast this spell for its bundle cost if you cast another spell with Bundle this turn.) Airborne Assistance Sorcery Bundle (You may cast this spell for its bundle cost if you cast another spell with Bundle this turn. )Create a 2/2 white Bird creature token with flying. Larder Spider   Creature - Spider  Bundle Reach When Larder Spider enters the battlefield, if its bundle cost was paid, create two Food tokens. 2/5 |
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Post by kilenc on Jan 6, 2020 18:43:16 GMT
Tesagk -- Bundle [cost] (You may cast this along with another Bundle spell for its Bundle cost. If you do, it becomes Bundled. You must pay the Bundle cost for each Bundled spell)I think this conveys the flavor of bundling well, but I'm not sure it plays well. This is basically "splice onto Arcane" with a different name and some further exploration of the design space (additional effects if you spliced). I would like this more if it was similar to the improved slice cards seen in Modern Horizons (the ones that aren't specific to Arcanes). As is, though, this is very parasitic because it only works with other bundled spells.
melono -- Bundle N (Up to N target creatures you control attack, block and act as though they were one creature until end of turn. They share toughness, power, abilities and being tapped.)
As others mentioned, this is essentially banding. I think it gets weaker since they have to tap together, so it may be a bit more balanced, but ultimately the worst part of banding was that it discouraged attacking since it was so strong on defense. Also, of course, it was really confusing. I think your iteration is a little bit better but banding is a lost cause to me.
lizstar -- Bundle -- If this is the second spell you cast this turn, ... I think this mechanic is alright but may not play as well as it seems. In constructed, playing two cards in a turn is relatively easy if you've built your deck well, so the effects of this mechanic couldn't be too pushed. In limited, however, you're relying on a lot more top-decking, so the effects want to be powerful so you've got pay off. The conflicts b/w these two incentives might make it hard to design strong cards with this mechanic. That being said, I think there's some room to explore other variations of this mechanic to find a happy medium. Also, FYI, Shockblast doesn't work as-is. You have to choose targets before you cast the spell.
DoctorStrangelove -- Bundle -- If you've cast another spell this turn with the same converted mana cost as ~, ... The biggest downside of this mechanic is that it references CMC, which is R&D red-flagged for being confusing terminology, and would make it hard to really put this mechanic at common since it would eat up your complexity. However, I do think "CMC matters" is a really interesting Johnny mechanic that encourages cool deck-building. It suffers from the same limited issues as Lizstar's mechanic, but I think the constructed payoff is more difficult to achieve, so the cards may be easier to design.
Jartis -- Bundle [cost] (You may pay this spell's bundle cost as you cast it. If you do, copy this spell for each spell put on the stack before it resolves). I think this is an improvement on storm because cards will be easier to balance (since the storm count is harder to get up) and is only an optional cost. However, the count being smaller also means the mechanic isn't as Timmy/splashy leading to cool gameplay moments. The other downside is that the stack is red-flagged terminology, so it will be hard for this to show up at common or on a lot of cards. Honestly, I think this would be fine if the "stack" part was removed and this was just a kicker-storm variant.
viriss -- Bundle (When this creature dies, create a Clue token, a Food token, and a Treasure token). This is super flavorful and Christmas themed, which is probably what you were going for. As far as play goes, I think it's pretty bad, because all three of these tokens in the same environment is gonna get confusing. But as far as your goal of flavor goes, it's a solid job.
ameisenmeister -- Bundle [cost] (When you cast this spell from you hand, you may an additional [cost]. If you do, cast a card with the same name from your graveyard without paying its mana cost).
Although this a more specific "kicker", I really like this mechanic because I think it has a lot of design space you didn't explore. There's the possibility of the bundle cost being different than the original cost, or special effects triggering when a card is cast from the graveyard. The biggest flaw I see with this mechanic is that it might lead to confusion for some newer players, and the reminder text is a bit wordy. With some tweaks, I think this would be a great recursion mechanic.
thaneofglamis -- Bundle [cost] (You may cast this spell for its bundle cost if you cast another spell with Bundle this turn.)Like Tesagk's mechanic, this mechanic is similar to "splice onto Arcane" in that it's parasitic, but I like that you don't have to cast them at the same time, which will make it play a bit better. I think this would work best if the "another spell with Bundle" was just "another spell"--dropping the parasitic part in favor of the "second spell" theme in a few other user's mechanics (and I guess making your mechanic like a less-restrictive "slice"). Of course, if you do so, you'd run into the design problems I talked about above (hard to balance between constructed & limited). Overall, I think this templating is super easy to understand, and gets pretty close to the sweet spot b/w the "slice" and "second spell" themes in the submissions. I can easily envision a modified version of this mechanic doing a lot of work in a limited environment, yet still producing constructed-playable cards.
{Judging}The winner is thaneofglamis, whose mechanic was simple but revealed a good nugget of design. The runner-ups are ameisenmeister for a unique recursion mechanic and jartis for an interesting modification of storm.
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thaneofglamis
8/8 Octopus
Thane's activated abilities can't be activated
Posts: 444
Favorite Card: Slimefoot, the Stowaway; Phyrexian Rager; Swarm Shambler
Favorite Set: Midnight Hunt
Color Alignment: Green
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Post by thaneofglamis on Jan 6, 2020 19:47:17 GMT
Thanks for the win!
For the next challenge, how about... Zeal!
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Post by Tesagk on Jan 6, 2020 20:59:16 GMT
Zeal (This creature cannot be tapped by spells.abilities of other permanents, as the cost for a spell, and does not tap when attacking.)  |
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Post by kefke on Jan 8, 2020 3:22:16 GMT
   EDIT: That should probably be "nontoken creatures", but if someone wants to wipe their own board for a tag-along effect, I say let 'em. EDIT 2: Looking over it with fresh eyes, the wording seems a little weird, but I borrowed directly from Offering, and that's how WotC worded it. |
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Post by gateways7 on Jan 8, 2020 5:00:42 GMT
Fanatic of the Crimson Order Creature - Human Warrior (common) First strike Zeal (When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the end step of your next turn or if it would leave the battlefield.)3/1 Crimson Marshal   Creature - Human Soldier (common) Zeal (When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the end step of your next turn or if it would leave the battlefield.)When Crimson Marshal enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token. 3/2 Crimson Bannerets Enchantment (uncommon) Whenever a nontoken creature you control leaves the battlefield, create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token. If it had zeal, each opponent loses 1 life. Bkosami, the Crimson King Legendary Creature - Human Warrior (rare) Haste Zeal (When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the end step of your next turn or if it would leave the battlefield.)Whenever Bkosami or another creature you control leaves the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to each opponent and you gain that much life. 5/4
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Post by kilenc on Jan 8, 2020 21:25:25 GMT
My idea is... Zeal N (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, put N +1/+1 counters on it)     Above: common, archetype uncommon, supporting common, supporting rare To me, "zeal" screamed Boros--it's passion (red) for a cause (white). I thought of the typical Boros strategy (go-wide aggro) and a combat focused keyword it got--Bushido. Then I remembered that Mark Rosewater had written about various tweaks of Bushido they messed with for Eldraine, and I decided to look them up. I really liked Discipline, but when I tried to tweak it myself, I didn't find anything I liked more. (I thought of the counters making creatures "zealous", like Monstrosity, or being given to other creatures, like a kind-of Mentor, or only applying if you survive combat, but I think the simplicity of the mechanic as-is will play better). Ultimately I went with the base version Rosewater talked about, cus I think it really fits the word Zeal (every time you block, I come back with more passion to break through the defense!). But, if it's too taboo to use a keyword that others have proposed, I'm fine with not winning. I had fun designing these cards! |
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Post by melono on Jan 8, 2020 22:13:32 GMT
Pff, banding was a great keyword and there is absolutely nothing wrong with my bundle mechanic whatsoever! On to more serious matters: Zeal - As long as this creature's power is higher than its power at the start of this turn's upkeep, effect. Horned Heartstoker  Creature - Minotaur Warrior Zeal - As long as ~'s power is higher than its power at the start of this turn's upkeep, target creature gets +2/+0. 3/3 Righteous Lancers Creature - Human Soldier Zeal - As long as ~'s power is higher than its power at the start of this turn's upkeep, ~ can block any amount of creatures. : Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. 1/4 Gurney, Razing Pathleader Legendary Creature - Human Warrior Zeal - As long as ~'s power is higher than its power at the start of this turn's upkeep and it is your postcombat main phase, you may sacrifice ~. If you do, untap all creatures that attacked this turn. There is an additional combat phase and main phase after this phase. 4/2 Zealous Angel Creature - Angel Flying Whenever ~ attacks, you may put an Aura with converted manacost 4 or less from your hand onto the battlefield attached to ~. Zeal - As long as ~'s power is higher than its power at the start of this turn's upkeep, ~ has trample and double strike. 3/3 |
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Post by viriss on Jan 9, 2020 0:44:09 GMT
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Post by sdfkjgh on Jan 9, 2020 17:27:59 GMT
Dammit, these entries are all great, but whenever I try to come up with something, all I can think about is this. |
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Trisky
0/0 Germ
Who do you think I am!? I'm asking for a friend.
Posts: 6
Favorite Card: Godhead of Awe
Color Alignment: Red
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Post by Trisky on Jan 9, 2020 17:43:59 GMT
Zeal X ( If this creature untapped this turn, it gains +X/+X until the end of turn.) Zelotes’s Attitude Enchantment - Aura Enchant creature Enchanted creature has Zeal 1. Cleanse the Temple Instant Until the end of turn, creatures you control have Zeal 2. Zelotes of the Unconquered Soul Legendary Creature - Human Ally Flash, Zeal 3 ~ enters the battlefield tapped. Whenever an Ally creature you control untaps, put a +1/+1 token on it. 3/2 Edit: Changed Zeal text from "At the beginning of your upkeep, ..." to "At the beginning of your untap step, ..." Unexpected Drop Instant Untap up to two target creatures you control, each creature untapped this way has Reach until the end of turn. Edit2: Changed Zeal text to "If this creature untapped this turn, it gains +X/+X until the end of turn." |
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Trisky
0/0 Germ
Who do you think I am!? I'm asking for a friend.
Posts: 6
Favorite Card: Godhead of Awe
Color Alignment: Red
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Post by Trisky on Jan 9, 2020 20:21:39 GMT
Zeal X ( At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature is tapped it gains +X/+X until the end of turn.) This ability won't work as is because the untap step comes before the upkeep step. Might be better worded as "When this creature untaps, it gets +X/+X until end of turn."Yeah, I am very rusty at this. I'll change the text to "At the beginning of your untap step, …" |
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Post by gluestick248 on Jan 10, 2020 4:28:51 GMT
This ability won't work as is because the untap step comes before the upkeep step. Might be better worded as "When this creature untaps, it gets +X/+X until end of turn."Yeah, I am very rusty at this. I'll change the text to "At the beginning of your untap step, …" That doesn’t quite work either, since anything that would trigger during untap happens during your upkeep instead. Either make it trigger off untapping, or make it a static +N/+N if it untapped this turn. |
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Trisky
0/0 Germ
Who do you think I am!? I'm asking for a friend.
Posts: 6
Favorite Card: Godhead of Awe
Color Alignment: Red
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Post by Trisky on Jan 10, 2020 14:13:55 GMT
Thank you for the help, both you and kilenc. (I've been out of mtg for years now, only occasionally playing in casual/friendly tourneys. My last post on the MSE sourceforge forums was from five or six years ago.) The idea was that Zeal would trigger just once per turn, such as a consequence of activating an ability, attacking, or otherwise being tapped previously. I wanted to avoid making it exploitable in a meta where untap effects exist, hence I avoided triggering off of untapping alone. Disconnecting the effect from the upkeep, but restraining it to trigger only once per turn prevents exploits, but can allow it to trigger on other player's turn defensively. If this creature untapped this turn, it gains +X/+X until the end of turn. |
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Post by sdfkjgh on Jan 10, 2020 21:44:44 GMT
Trisky: This might be a better, cleaner, more elegant wording:
When this permanent becomes untapped for the first time this turn, {FOO}.
Expanded it to permanents so you can have it on noncreatures and have them do things like an artifact that makes your spells cost  less this turn. |
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Post by ameisenmeister on Jan 11, 2020 16:57:46 GMT
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thaneofglamis
8/8 Octopus
Thane's activated abilities can't be activated
Posts: 444
Favorite Card: Slimefoot, the Stowaway; Phyrexian Rager; Swarm Shambler
Favorite Set: Midnight Hunt
Color Alignment: Green
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Post by thaneofglamis on Jan 12, 2020 1:16:42 GMT
Oh yeah, I’m judging this one! I’ll start judging tomorrow, unless someone asks me to extend it
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MaiApologies (She/Her)
1/1 Squirrel
Posts: 61
Favorite Card: Ambiguity
Favorite Set: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
Color Alignment: Blue, Red
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Post by MaiApologies (She/Her) on Jan 12, 2020 1:30:24 GMT
Condescending Researcher Creature — Human Wizard Zeal — When you cast Condescending Researcher, if your devotion to blue is higher than any of your opponents’ devotion to any color, draw 3 cards. 2/2 Mountaintop Army Creature — Goblin Army Zeal — When you cast Mountaintop Army, if your devotion to red is higher than any of your opponents’ devotion to any color, amass 2. 1/1 Necrobotanist Creature — Human Cleric
Zeal — When you cast Necrobotanist, if your devotion to green or black is higher than any of your opponents’ devotion to any color, pick one: — Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is your devotion to green. — Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is your devotion to black. 2/2 Quick last-minute entry, based on a random bit of word association while I was out doing something else.
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thaneofglamis
8/8 Octopus
Thane's activated abilities can't be activated
Posts: 444
Favorite Card: Slimefoot, the Stowaway; Phyrexian Rager; Swarm Shambler
Favorite Set: Midnight Hunt
Color Alignment: Green
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Post by thaneofglamis on Jan 12, 2020 18:18:28 GMT
Alright, my first judging!
(that’s not supposed to be a spoiler idk how to fix it) Tesagk - This creature cannot be tapped by spells, abilities of other permanents, as the cost for a spell, and does not tap when attacking.The mechanic itself works fine, but the way it’s used on your example cards is confusing. Why does Avgawa Guard need vigilance if it doesn’t tap when attacking anyway? If a zealous creature can’t be tapped by abilities, how can you exert it? I think this ability is simple enough to have a lot of design space, but the examples you have are throwing me off a little about how it’s supposed to work.
kefke - You may cast this card by sacrificing creatures whose total mana costs are equal to that of this card.
I like this mechanic as a combination of devotion and offering, and I also like mechanics where you get to make a decision when casting, like kicker. It fits the word zeal pretty well too. It might be a little easier to cast zealously if you could sacrifice any number of creatures and pay the difference in mana, like with emerge, but the example cards you gave are pretty cheap anyway.
gateways7 - When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the end step of your next turn or if it would leave the battlefield.
It’s sort of like undying/persist, but for just one more turn. I like the idea of zeal pushing someone to survive for just one more turn, and it has a lot of design space. Your example cards are great.
kilenc - Whenever this creature becomes blocked, put N +1/+1 counters on it.
I also like bushido, and I think this is a nice implementation of zeal, pushing forward even harder when something’s in your way. I think it might fit in green as well as white and red, since it likes forced blocking and +1/+1 counters.
melono - As long as this creature's power is higher than its power at the start of this turn's upkeep, [effect].
I like this mechanic, but it took me about three double takes to understand what it’s trying to say. I feel like seeing “power higher than its power” alone is very confusing. Even other than that, it doesn’t seem like a particularly fun ability to play around with.
viriss - You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It attacks each turn if able as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.
Hey, an alternative to Unleash! I loved the flavor of unleash, and I like this flavor too, but it’s effectively the same thing as unleash with a downside unless the creature has vigilance since it’ll be tapped during your opponent’s turn.
Trisky - If this creature untapped this turn, it gets +N/+N.
I saw that this ability went through a lot of changes, and I agree that it’s much improved. It seems like a slightly better version of viriss’s zeal (sorry!), since it pushes you towards attacking each turn without forcing it. None of your preview cards have/grant tap abilities, so I’m assuming it’s meant to be used with attacking.
ameisenmeister - As you cast this spell, you may exile X cards from your graveyard, where X is equal to its converted mana cost. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
This ability is very complicated and has a lot of moving parts. It also doesn’t fit the flavor of zeal imo, since exiling from the graveyard is usually flavored as either destroying the dead or helping their souls move on to the afterlife, which don’t feel super zealous to me. It also seems like a black effect since exiling from graveyard is more black, although the new escape mechanic from Theros Beyond is in all colors, so what do I know.
MaiApologies (She/Her) - When you cast this spell, if your devotion to [color(s)] is higher than any of your opponents’ devotion to any color, [effect].
I love this ability. It’s very flavorful and creative, it plays off of an existing mechanic without being too complicated, it could have any number of effects, and it fits in any color - I think any color can be highly devoted to a cause.
{Spoiler}
The winner is maiapologies, with kilenc as a close runner-up.
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Post by Tesagk on Jan 12, 2020 22:47:00 GMT
Alright, my first judging!
(that’s not supposed to be a spoiler idk how to fix it) Tesagk - This creature cannot be tapped by spells, abilities of other permanents, as the cost for a spell, and does not tap when attacking.The mechanic itself works fine, but the way it’s used on your example cards is confusing. Why does Avgawa Guard need vigilance if it doesn’t tap when attacking anyway? If a zealous creature can’t be tapped by abilities, how can you exert it? I think this ability is simple enough to have a lot of design space, but the examples you have are throwing me off a little about how it’s supposed to work. It has vigilance because the text on the card is the final text and does not include the "while attacking." The other card doesn't have zeal UNTIL you exert it. Also, as it's worded, it only cares about the abilities of other permanents. It can still tap itself. |
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MaiApologies (She/Her)
1/1 Squirrel
Posts: 61
Favorite Card: Ambiguity
Favorite Set: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
Color Alignment: Blue, Red
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Post by MaiApologies (She/Her) on Jan 13, 2020 4:23:00 GMT
Well hey, I'm happy that I made a good mechanic! I guess I had devotion on the mind, with Return to Theros coming up.
Your next word is thesis.
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Post by Tesagk on Jan 13, 2020 13:40:06 GMT
Thesis (When ~ enters the battlefield or is cast, if you control a permanent or spell with thesis, the card is proselytized.)New Believer Creature - Human Peasant Thesis (When ~ enters the battlefield or is cast, if you control a permanent or spell with thesis, the card is proselytized.)
As long as ~ is proselytized, it has vigilance. His words spoke to me in a way that lit my soul on fire!
1/1
Defense of the Vaar Instant Thesis (When ~ enters the battlefield or is cast, if you control a permanent or spell with thesis, the card is proselytized.) Scry 2.Then draw a card. If ~ is proselytized, scry 4 instead. "Long had Selmar waited to make his case for the Communion." - History of Artar
Instant Destroy all permanents with Thesis.
If you paid as part of this spell's mana cost, all spells with thesis that are cast until end of turn are countered.
Legendary Enchantment All permanents you control and all spells you cast are proselytized. Whenever you cast a spell with Thesis, each player draws a card and you gain 2 life for each card drawn this way. Players can only cast spells on their turn.
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Post by fluffydeathbringer on Jan 13, 2020 15:23:56 GMT
Thesis (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may exile it as it resolves as part of your thesis.)
Impetuous Initiate Creature - Goblin Wizard Thesis (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may exile it as it resolves as part of your thesis.)
CARDNAME gets +1/+0 and has haste as long as there are two or more colors among cards in your thesis.
Goblin exchange students from the Crag Societies often forget that "cutting arguments" isn't meant to be literal.
1/2
Soulspire Archivist Creature - Vedalken Flying; thesis (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may exile it as it resolves as part of your thesis.)
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a player, scry X, where X is the number of cards in your thesis, then draw a card.
3/3
Legendary Creature - Vedalken Wizard Flash, thesis
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, draw a card, then add six mana in any combination of colors that you can only spend to cast instant and/or sorcery spells.
At the beginning of your end step, copy a card from your thesis at random, and you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost. 1/6
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