Post by Syliris on Jul 30, 2019 2:00:08 GMT
Hello again peeps, I'm here to test another commander card that supports an unsupported tribe/style. This time it's for something I've been excited for since I saw them, vehicles! Plus, I'm taking inspiration from the Partner with commanders to push the narrative of a pilot and their ship. So, I present to you Jalsi, Ovalchase Champion and her ship, Aetherduster, Mach 3!
So, the idea is that both of these cards can be in your command zone, with Jalsi being the technical general. For their initial iteration, I'm pretty sure I've made them too overpowered in several aspects. I definitely need advice on number tuning with mana costs, power/toughness ratios, keywords, etc... I do know that I want Jalsi's power to be equal to Aetherduster's crew cost since it is her ship. Let me break down my thoughts and reasoning on what I have so far below.
Jalsi, Ovalchase Champion
I knew i wanted to be in the Mardu colors because one, all the pilots in Kaladesh are in Mardu colors. That was actually more of a coincidence, I knew Depala was Boros, so I wanted to add an additional color to that, and I went with black because black has a bunch of awesome stuff with artifacts that I think are underused. I think this also puts a new spin on Mardu, and with the emphasis on tapping creatures and attacking that vehicles naturally lean towards, the aggressive nature of Mardu seemed perfect. Next, I thought the most unique thing I could do with a vehicle commander would to throw that vehicle into the command zone! I'm not sure how practical this is, but I think it's a pretty cool idea and doesn't break too much of the game since a vehicle does turn into an artifact creature, and there is the occasional planeswalker to the field has been broken wide open. I figured the specific partner with mechanic would be a great fit, especially since I wanted to color the vehicles, something R&D has been doing recently with a card like Parhelion II. This also prevents Jalsi or Aetherduster to be potentially paired with another partner commander and if they go into the 99 of a deck, the vehicle finds the pilot and the pilot finds the vehicle. This is something I really liked about the Battlebond legends was their flexibility in both the zone and the 99. For the power/toughness, if you look at some of the other pilots they all have high power and low toughness to crew larger vehicles, ex: Speedway Fanatic & Veteran Motorist. Giving Jalsi first strike allows her to attack more safely to trigger her ability to find vehicles when she doesn't have any out, or when more want to be found. The attack trigger gives synergy by digging for vehicles, but it still puts Jalsi at risk and she only has 2 toughness. Lastly, I wanted to give a good reason for Jalsi to crew vehicles, and that ended up being the effect of giving them haste and indestructible, kinda similar to Zurgo Helmsmasher. I figured flavor wise she is the best, so why should her vehicles ever be in danger of crashing or getting destroyed, and vehicles played after Jalsi is played get to be crewed immediately! I like how she's turned out a lot, I just need some tweaking.
Aetherduster, Mach 3
The third version of Jalsi's ship that puts everyone in the dust! I had more trouble designing this one, and it needs more help than Jalsi. Aetherduster has the same crew cost as Jalsi's power since it is her ship, but the mana cost, crew cost, power/ toughness, and effect are pretty scattered among vehicles that exist. I chose 4 mana as a base line, but that could easily be increased. The ship could also not be in Mardu colors. I had another idea where Jalsi is partnered with 3 different vehicles, one for Boros, Orzhov, and Rakdos to make Mardu, but I didn't know how that would work with the Partners mechanic. Back to the current version, I made Aetherduster a 7 powered vehicle because since it's a commander (would a vehicle need the "This card can be your commander" text that the planeswalker commanders have?) the ship could take someone out in 3 turns if it connects cleanly all 3 times. I wanted to give Aetherduster an attack trigger or combat damage trigger that was powerful as well to incitivise attacking with it, and I added Trample to more easily trigger the combat damage trigger which affects everyone a little bit. I want the Aetherduster to be this massive threat since it requires a few hoops to jump through unlike normal creature commanders that attack. But does the triggered effect not make any sense? Is it overpowered affecting the whole board? Does the costs for the card justify the high power and low toughness? Below is a list of the other vehicles to see if you see anything I don't to help me tune.
Vehicles
Thank you all again for taking a look at my cards, have a good day, I look forward to your feedback.
So, the idea is that both of these cards can be in your command zone, with Jalsi being the technical general. For their initial iteration, I'm pretty sure I've made them too overpowered in several aspects. I definitely need advice on number tuning with mana costs, power/toughness ratios, keywords, etc... I do know that I want Jalsi's power to be equal to Aetherduster's crew cost since it is her ship. Let me break down my thoughts and reasoning on what I have so far below.
Jalsi, Ovalchase Champion
I knew i wanted to be in the Mardu colors because one, all the pilots in Kaladesh are in Mardu colors. That was actually more of a coincidence, I knew Depala was Boros, so I wanted to add an additional color to that, and I went with black because black has a bunch of awesome stuff with artifacts that I think are underused. I think this also puts a new spin on Mardu, and with the emphasis on tapping creatures and attacking that vehicles naturally lean towards, the aggressive nature of Mardu seemed perfect. Next, I thought the most unique thing I could do with a vehicle commander would to throw that vehicle into the command zone! I'm not sure how practical this is, but I think it's a pretty cool idea and doesn't break too much of the game since a vehicle does turn into an artifact creature, and there is the occasional planeswalker to the field has been broken wide open. I figured the specific partner with mechanic would be a great fit, especially since I wanted to color the vehicles, something R&D has been doing recently with a card like Parhelion II. This also prevents Jalsi or Aetherduster to be potentially paired with another partner commander and if they go into the 99 of a deck, the vehicle finds the pilot and the pilot finds the vehicle. This is something I really liked about the Battlebond legends was their flexibility in both the zone and the 99. For the power/toughness, if you look at some of the other pilots they all have high power and low toughness to crew larger vehicles, ex: Speedway Fanatic & Veteran Motorist. Giving Jalsi first strike allows her to attack more safely to trigger her ability to find vehicles when she doesn't have any out, or when more want to be found. The attack trigger gives synergy by digging for vehicles, but it still puts Jalsi at risk and she only has 2 toughness. Lastly, I wanted to give a good reason for Jalsi to crew vehicles, and that ended up being the effect of giving them haste and indestructible, kinda similar to Zurgo Helmsmasher. I figured flavor wise she is the best, so why should her vehicles ever be in danger of crashing or getting destroyed, and vehicles played after Jalsi is played get to be crewed immediately! I like how she's turned out a lot, I just need some tweaking.
Aetherduster, Mach 3
The third version of Jalsi's ship that puts everyone in the dust! I had more trouble designing this one, and it needs more help than Jalsi. Aetherduster has the same crew cost as Jalsi's power since it is her ship, but the mana cost, crew cost, power/ toughness, and effect are pretty scattered among vehicles that exist. I chose 4 mana as a base line, but that could easily be increased. The ship could also not be in Mardu colors. I had another idea where Jalsi is partnered with 3 different vehicles, one for Boros, Orzhov, and Rakdos to make Mardu, but I didn't know how that would work with the Partners mechanic. Back to the current version, I made Aetherduster a 7 powered vehicle because since it's a commander (would a vehicle need the "This card can be your commander" text that the planeswalker commanders have?) the ship could take someone out in 3 turns if it connects cleanly all 3 times. I wanted to give Aetherduster an attack trigger or combat damage trigger that was powerful as well to incitivise attacking with it, and I added Trample to more easily trigger the combat damage trigger which affects everyone a little bit. I want the Aetherduster to be this massive threat since it requires a few hoops to jump through unlike normal creature commanders that attack. But does the triggered effect not make any sense? Is it overpowered affecting the whole board? Does the costs for the card justify the high power and low toughness? Below is a list of the other vehicles to see if you see anything I don't to help me tune.
Vehicles
Thank you all again for taking a look at my cards, have a good day, I look forward to your feedback.