<bb> PWW's Battleboard (Tokata of the Mask)

Messenger Of Divinty

Enchantment
Plentiful Congregation: A simple card, elegant in its simplicity and without much issues. Not much ese to say. 8/10

Light of the Moon: Does a job and does it well. 9/10.

It was not a bad day at the village near the Mysterious Masks shop. The sun was a little too bright, bringing the smiling villagers to sweat as they carried buckets of wheat to the mill after a nice harvest. Some of the lankier men, young and old, had been left with the guarding positions, though it wouldn't be long until the younger group had gathered in the barracks for a mid of gambling. Maybe that was why nobody noticed the approaching creature, with a four that poured out shadows like a cup that's too full and yet is still being filled pours out water. It placed a hand on one of the huts, leaving over the straw as it bent forward, blocking out the sun from anyone in the vicinity. Everyone seemed too stunned to move as the creature's empty "eye sockets" (if indeed those were such a thing) seemed to fixate on those right below it.

"Small...matter...mask....where....artisan...."

Those few reverberating words from the creature were the drop in the metaphorical bucket that had the villagers drop their actual buckets as their eyes and mouths widened and they turned and ran in a panic. Some braver men (and the soldiers who were gambling earlier, eager to at least have an excuse for the blunder of missing the monster while they were slacking off) attempted to throw spears or pitchforks at it, only to see those pass through the monster and drop somewhere as though thrown into mist. The turn of its eyes sent even these brave ones running, however.

Ordinarily, Soumaw would've given them chase. The ones who were hostile to It were threats, if minor ones, after all. This time, however, Soumaw had come with a much more specific purpose: Information. It had wanted to avoid starting by attacking given what It wanted, It had resisted this feast in front of It, but alas...

Soumaw approached one of the villagers that had fallen while trying to run away, an old lady with a frilly white head accessory and a now broken tiny pair of glasses. This would be the last chance.

"Where...mask...artisan...where..."

"S-s-s-s-STAY AWAY! Stay away! Please!" The woman begged. Soumaw stared for a moment, though It knew it was pointless by now. There had been some who had told Soumaw Its methods were too rash. Well, here was the proof, Its goals wouldn't be met by talking even if it tried. Besides, it was a waste of souls anyway.

Soumaw reached down to the woman, grabbing her by torso and lifting her up into the air, Its maw beginning to open to engulf her whole.

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There is a wide range when it comes to 2 mana auras and not many examples of the kind of thing that happens in the middle ability (read: none that I could find), but overall this seems to be at about the appropriate level for such. The effect matches the scene's flavor well, and there's some interesting interplay in boosting a creature to be a proxy to your life loss, especially when you use bind which pretty much just makes the token to die in your stead.

No complaints here, 10/10.

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It was in the nick of time that the mask swooped in to the rescue, the old woman screaming even as she was pulled away a mere moment before Soumaw's jaw closed. The creature's would-be-lips clashed against one another seeming to merge as the mists were propelled against one another. It didn't take much shouting to get Soumaw's attention, before It could react to whatever manner of thing that little bug was that took away Its source of information. After all, without being able to tell precisely how, Soumaw was able to tell this new person's soul was substantially different from the rest. It was substantially greater than the rest. Soumaw bent Its body and tilted Its head as It turned to Tokata.

"You....artisan....mask....mask....artisan...?" Though this person didn't look like the manner of artisan Soumaw was most familiar with, It knew the multiverse had many oddities and different peoples. It was true this person cast the magic from earlier, but was that proof enough they were the wise person Soumaw sought? No, but It had little choice but to believe that person, for now. Pulling on the last words of those It had consumed, it seemed this would be one of those rare chances in which Soumaw could speak a full sentence: "Can we just talk?.. Please... Can we just talk?..."

The tone and pitch of the sentence was irregular, Soumaw being unsure of the true purpose of the way the man had spoken then.

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This one is a gift, not attack:

I guess it fits well enough as a response, though it does have the gap that it often won't do anything if you happen to play the spell during your turn. Also a little iffy on the "does this fit within the roleplay" department. I guess Tokata is about to share secrets, but that's not really what's happened so far, unless sharing her identity (sort of) counts? I guess I'll lean to a positive there. The card seems fun though, a nice simple effect that makes opponents more weary of when to draw extra cards, that adds nice gameplay strategy. Balance wise it's pretty good as well. On one hand you have Mind's Eye, at two more mana than this AND you have to pay to use it, but it's a colorless card and it lets you draw for the first card. On the other hand, at just one more mana there's Consecrated Sphinx which is blue and admittedly mythic, but draws you a whole two cards for each card the opponent draws (plus 4/6 flying body). If your card was rare or higher it might even have been ever so slightly undercosted.

Final tally: 9/10

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By this point, the vast majority of the villagers had escaped, or were in process of escaping, now already outside of Soumaw's reach. Some did stay behind, however, hiding behind the corners of their homes or standing at a distance, unable to resist the urge to find out what Soumaw's presence meant, and what Its connection with the mask maker was. Though Soumaw intended to express that It wanted to speak with this Tokata in private, that had apparently not come across. Well, no matter. Villagers of the arena wouldn't be involved - indeed, they probably wouldn't even understand - what Soumaw sought.

Admittedly, the sudden cheerful demeanor was perplexing as well. The villager's reaction was far more within the lines of Soumaw's usual interactions with others. Still, it wasn't unwelcome given Its objective.

The shadowy planeswalker leaned forward closer to the masked one.

"Mask....artisan....tales...beyond...guiding stones...seek...find...must find...guiding stones...tell...speak..."

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I've got no reason to complain here, the card is pretty self-limiting already and unblockable is a pretty inconsistently-costed mechanic. Maybe I could see a reduction in cost by , but that's about it. It fits well within the roleplay response and as a response to my card too, plus it's an imaginative one.


10/10

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How could Soumaw explain this? It could tell the mask maker "prey", but that was far too vague an answer. There was prey for Soumaw all around them after all. A name was also beyond what Soumaw could offer, not only because It lacked the word in the first place but because even It wasn't entirely sure where the place it sought to reach was or what it was like, let alone what it was called, and It doubted anyone he asked, even this story teller from beyond, would know it either. Soumaw's only real choice here, now as before, was to rely on the words from the prophecy.


"Prophecy... Hidden... Home... Beyond touch... Distant sights... Distant paths... Meet...To find... To be found... Lone traveler... Everywhere... A piece..."

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(gift)

Things that aren't really any ward effects for non-permanents in MTG yet, so it's hard to find an exact comparison. Looking at some effects to make things uncounterable, they seemed to rate at about 3/4 mana, but this is more like making certain cards cost extra mana to try to counter (which is usually how you'll interact with instants or sorceries), so I guess 1 mana or so for that kind of effect, and then we have the second effect of Baral, Chief of Compliance, more or less. All in all, the cost seems to work great! Maybe I would bump the rarity to rare, but that's more of a nitpick. It works decently as a support even though it's not particularly specific to its kind of effect, and less so for the RP context.

Overall 9/10, the card is great but there's simply an accumulation of various little things such that I feel it could do better still.

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The mask-maker seemed visibly (or audibly rather) uncertain of their answer, yet they described a feeling of an oddity, a disturbance that touched them at a level that could be closely, though not accurately, as "spiritual". Soumaw recalled words previously described by a sage - "like ripples in the soul, changes that exalt like the touch of nyx". There were many forms of trying to approximate describing the feeling of the guiding stones. Yet, there was one commonality. One which Soumaw had come suspecting the mask-maker shared.

"Mask...maker...are you...a planeswalker?"

The crafter's words about planeswalking seemed to suggest as much. Few entities knew of planeswalking who weren't planeswalkers themselves - let alone spoke of it in such blasé terms. Planeswalking to a different location in the same plane was a trick that took time to learn, and precision in planeswalking. It was always so strange, how so few words could change one's view of another so...

And then there was a scream. For once, Soumaw was not the cause.

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This feels like a fair price as an enchantment whose purpose is effectively reducing the cost of the activated ability and considering specificity I wouldn't be surprised to see this at 1 mana even. Sacrificing the enchantment feels unnecessary though, both because this cost would work for broader things than just clue cost reduction and without needing any drawback, but also because then you might as well make this a sorcery. The card fits with the scene, and I have mixed feelings about the support this gives to the other card, because if on one hand cost reduction on clue draw is not what I would expect, on the other it just kind of makes both instances of the card's use the same which isn't all that interesting.

Overall, I'm giving this a 7/10.

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Now knowing for certain that the mask-maker was a planeswalker as well, if it turned out the monument they spoke of earlier was indeed a guiding stone, Soumaw would definitely have to return and obtain more information from them. As such, the shadow creature had no qualms with accompanying the informant towards the source of the scream. After all, even if Soumaw didn't completely understand why, It could instinctively grasp that acting to the interests of that person might make them more inclined to do the same for It in the future.

The most immediate and notable thing was the enormous black monster smashing the walls of homes and flailing about its long flaming tongue onto the villagers that had returned out of curiosity or relief. Those attempting to fight it would quickly be grabbed by the tongue or flung away by it, leaving them ablaze or at the very least with burns that were sure to leave rather visible scars. How had such a thing come to the village unnoticed? The lack of people keeping watch after they escaped from Soumaw might explain it partially, but a thing of that size should have been visible to at least one of the planeswalkers before.

The answer perhaps laid with another attacker, a man in a red hood conjuring whips of flame, which he used to defend himself against anyone coming in his direction, but also to whip the large demon into a frenzied attack.

"HAHAHA! YES! YES! This is our opportunity! Their watch is down, they lay defenseless. Even that wretched To-" And then the man spotted Soumaw and the mask-maker, and his enormous grin turned into raging clenched teeth. Having gotten closer, Soumaw realized this man's soul matched one he sensed before. In other words, he was a member of the village. "You... weren't you fighting one another?"

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Conjuring a Crimson Mage (Magic 2012, I believe these count as core sets)




and alongside the conjuring





(consider this an attack)

Most protection-giving enchantments seem to be on the older side, so again it's hard to judge the kind of cost this card would have on a contemporary magic card. Considering things like Mask of Law and Grace and Spirit Mantle, I think that especially at uncommon, the +1/+1 isn't enough to push the dual protection past 2 mana. would probably be the right cost for it, in my view.

Overall the design works nicely as a response, isn't really fitting into the roleplay, and is all in all a simple and decent card.

I'll give it a 9/10.

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The pyromancer covered his face as soon as the fog burst forth from the mask. He gestured his hands into circles to conjure new flames, only to find they were soon swallowed up by the fog and extinguished. He clicked his tongue, and covering his mouth he made his escape, not staying to listen to the answer to his question, though he had already started to feel sluggish from the fog's effect. The binding on the demon seemed to be working at least, though the creature was struggling to free itself.

Sensing the man running away, Soumaw approached the fog and a purple hue of mana glowed on Its palms.

"Waste...not..." Soumaw made a grab for the fog, which began to change color as Soumaw's mana made contact with it. As the change spread, the fog began to condense into a darker mass, spinning around itself like a storm, then limbs sprouted featuring long strange wings of many files of twisted stretches, like flesh-like tree branches of black fog, as well as a fluke tail and finally as the glowing dorsal formed emerged the mono-eyed maw. The creature screeched and leaped into the air, chasing after the pyromancer. He tried to conjure a another spell to stop it, but the creature's speed was too fast to finish it, and swallowed up the would-be-villager, passing through him like the fog it was made of. The only mark of the attack was the look of terror on the man's face as he fell to his knees.

The creature then backflipped as though swimming in the air and turned toward the demon that was being restrained. The pyromancer glanced at the creature and was startled by the way it seemed to grow to titanic proportions in that instant, swallowing the demon whole while seemingly having no impact on anything else in the vicinity. Unlike it's summoner, the demon did not escape the consumption.

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Frankly, this card is a Journey to Nowhere with a downside, because most of the time if you're using something like this you're not flickering and most of the stuff attached to a creature is not going to be yours. I guess it deals with equipment, but you normally want those auras to die rather than giving the opponent the chance to recast them, and same goes for other stuff that might be attached to the creature and isn't an equipment (what is not coming to mind other than effects that exile cards attached to something). To be fair though, Suspension Field also exists, and that's Journey to Nowhere with even more of a straight up downside. In most cases though, especially as you climb from 2 to 3 or even 4 mana, at minimum the range of targets is more versatile.

As a response it works but isn't very specific to the card being cast, also there seems to be some confounding of story and cards, where there is an assumption of the transformation being the Skyhaunter being attached to Impervious Form (or at least that would be my guess). I think since this kind of assumption isn't based on my card or anything I said it skips some steps with such an assumption which makes it confusing as a response and as a tie-in to flavor. I think a simple solution would have been to simply state this assumption outright instead of it being something I had to guess was implied, if it even is.

I think the card has a bit of potential for some niche situations and perhaps some creative bouncing, but all in all, I can only give it a 6/10. 

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The fog had... a name? Ah, so that's how it was. It did seem particularly fast and simple, but Soumaw hadn't thought of of it until now. Just a particularly malleable spell, It had figured. But, as it turned out, it was based on a soul somehow, one of Soumaw's own specialties in manipulating. Nonetheless, the mask-maker's concern was puzzling. Words like friends were always strange, but souls were things to consume and use. They were useful, yes, but speaking to them was a mere formality or habit. Who would drink from a glass shard? What's more, Soumaw had thought to use the creature It had just formed to cross onto the monument Tokata had spoken of, yet the other planeswalker had nonchalantly unmade it.


"Fear...mind...eat...itself..." Soumaw decided to move onto the question, still set on falling out of Tokata's good graces, though It lacked the words to explain what the Nightmare had done. If It had known things would turn out this way, Soumaw would've at least attempted to syphon out the demon's soul as it perished.

Soumaw hung back and watched as Tokata approached the cultist, narrowing It's eyes and preparing a spell in case the pyromancer tried to escape. Through a corner of his eye, the pyromancer noticed this.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" He grumbled, clenching his teeth. "Years upon years hiding away in a place like this, only for my chance to be squandered twice over!"

He spat on the ground in front of Tokata.

"Like I'd tell you. I don't know where you two came from, but you better watch your backs. Light clears the shadow, and I heard wood burns well. I'll be damned if this is the last you heard of the Hellbrought you..." He stopped. His eyes widened. An ashen scent began to fill the air. "Ah. Ah. AH. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The man's eyes lit up first as did the inside of his mouth. Then his skin cracked, and the flames burst fourth covering the entire alley and spreading out into the streets adjacent. Any houses that were too close were now ablaze, as was some portion of the ground due to the debris. Fortunately such a small village's ground was mostly dirt, so the fire might not spread so much, but those caught in the initial explosion might not consider that such good fortune.

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And accompanying that, there is a conjuring:

I guess I can see where it's coming from as a response, like you said it's not a direct response, but it deserves points for creativity. Unfortunately I don't have much time to check on balance today (at least not by my usual metrics) so I'll just go with gut feeling and say this seems pretty good.

All in all, a solid 9/10.

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Soumaw Itself was about to cast a protective spell as well (though only for Itself), but that turned out to be redundant with Tokata's quick reaction. It was something of a spectacle the flames surrounding them filtered only by the shield of blue smoke around them. When the metaphorical but not the literal smoke cleared, standing in the midst of the rain (not that the rain bothered Soumaw, it mostly just passed right through It), Tokata inquired about the Hellbrought.


"No..."Soumaw simply shook Its head. It had never heard of them, and for now they didn't seem to be much of a threat to It, not that the dead man had given them much information aside from the name regardless. Still there was one thing It COULD do. "Know...I am... Soumaw..."

Soumaw raised a hand towards the spot where the man's body had become ashes. There was a slight disturbance in the spot, and it became as though looking at it through water, slightly distorted. With the black mana It had gathered earlier, Soumaw formed a vacuum of sorts to draw in the soul before it could depart or be unmade, its tiny spectral form beginning to appear inside a small sphere in Soumaw's hand. The creature then opened its maw and threw the sphere inside.

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I think this card is comparable to the likes of Paladin Class and Intrepid Adversary, as well as Call for Unity. Paladin class's total effect does not build up for the stack of team +1/+1s but it does build up through other effects, starting out cheaper. At 9 mana it does quite a bit, including a big team buff and double strike. Intrepid is on the other end, requiring a big investment of 6 mana minimum for anything past a simple +1/+1 to team, and it doesn't let you build over time. Call for Unity is probably the closest comparison, but there is a key different where I think the card should be costed closer to Intrepid than Paladin, and that's the fact that exiling four cards from a graveyard, while a significant condition, can itself be a benefit - in fact I think this is seen in how this card responds. As such, I feel the card is ever so slightly undercosted, and could probably use being instead.

Other than that, I think it's pretty excellent design. 9/10

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Needless to say, Tokata didn't seem terribly impressed with Soumaw's actions. The creature had not forgotten her earlier concern for another of the villagers, though It had figured there would be less so for the one that just attempted to take her life, and Soumaw's as well. Memories flooded into Soumaw's mind, tearing apart inside of It as if caught in a massive sandstorm that chip away at form and substance of the spirit within, breaking it, turning it to more of the "wind" and "dust" that made up Soumaw's darkness, and though this would only leave Soumaw with fragments to work with, those fragments were better than nothing, and they were being opened up to Soumaw. The planeswalker then tapped into leylines in the land and Its own mana, and ejected the spirit in between a spot where it channeled both, allowing the bound spirit to take a visible form. It resembled the hooded man, but his face could not be seen under the hood, and he carried a glowing, foggy lantern.

"Cult... location... where..." Though Soumaw's words were limited, It didn't truly require speech to make Itself understood to the spirits it had bound. Thus, the ghost nodded.

"The caves to the west. The tunnels are deep. Don't get lost. Secret passage, marked by the claws of our fury, and our masters." The spirit spoke, using its own fragmented memories.

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(gift)

I think the closest comparison here would be Groundskeeper, with Life From Loam and Turntimber Sower also being comparable to it though less closely related. Given what it is, though unlike those cards yours is limited to once per turn (albeit Life from Loam is pretty much once per turn at max too), repeatedly bringing a land back should incur from these examples in some kind of cost, especially at a lower rarity like this. Perhaps the card could be a bit more counter-balanced given the once per turn thing, letting you bring back up to two lands, though Life from Loam is a one-time thing and repeating it not only needs the mana, but also replacing card draw (not gonna count the Dredge as a cost here since it's usually put in decks where dredge is an upside). It's a nice and creative support for my card though, but I think it should at least something like "(...) you may pay , if you do..." considering existing examples.

I'm giving this card a 9/10. Not really deviating from the trend, but I don't think my principle complaint with this card is enough to go any lower, and my only other concern is more debatable (how well this fits into the RP).

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Though it sounded rather troublesome, something Soumaw saw gave It reason to take up Tokata's offer. As a bonus, it could earn repute with Its fellow planeswalker for that future consultancy, and perhaps even obtain some additional souls to channel Its magic through. Thus, Soumaw nodded.

"I...Shall..." It declared simply, and began to head to outside the village, where it would wait. Some of the villagers that had returned in the meanwhile were trying to help rescue the burning homes, though the rain Tokata had conjured was taking care of that as well. Despite the angry, hating or fearful glares of those who believed Soumaw had somehow caused this event, even the brave ones that had tried to attack Soumaw earlier weren't making a move anymore. That was a good thing of course. Many didn't realize the futility the first time. Case in point...

"Get out of here!" Some child shouted. The rock passing right past Soumaw's body earned them a glance. How curious. Most of the children here were human, yet there were small signs of elongated ears on that one. Well, many humans were born with their own little oddities, but differences stand out all the more in places this, well, "samey".

The adults tried to rush to the boy to pull him away. Shaking and squirming the boy fought back, throwing some more rocks at Soumaw, who simply took the cue to ignore those pebbles and keep walking. There was something of a march through the desert now, after all.

Soumaw awaited for Tokata outside the village.

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(Consider an attack)