The Name Game (Vol. II)

{Render}

{Judging}
pernicious - Distort Creature: I think this is a great one mana counter. It isn’t too powerful as the player still gets a creature with strength relative to their investment, but it will still throw a wrench in their plan. Exactly what you’d want from a one mana counterspell (like with Swan Song). Name is real good too. Art is very fitting as well.



moweda - Creature Discomfort: Simple but strong and effective enchantment. You can totally play around the enchantment with your deck-building, but it’ll be a nice halt against your opponent’s smaller creatures. The name feels a little bit stilted as it is though.



SilentKobold - Creature Comforts: The effect is a solid one that’s been done kind of like it before. I don’t really feel the Goblin part in its effect much, and the Comforts part feels out of place while the effect needs a sacrifice. I get that the flavor text tries to click it together, but the click isn’t really felt.



Idea - Another Creature: Feels a bit silverbordered-y, though in an un-set, it’d probably not have an acorn. The effect also cares about specific wording, which might cause confusion as specific wording for a lot of things change in magic over time. The effect and flavor are fun, though. That gives it a thumbs up.

{Winner}But winner, that’s gotta be pernicious

That is one great counter spell.

{Previous Version}

{Second Version}

{Spoiler}Never thought I'd end up reviewing a scheme and to be honest it might be hard to really assess balance on this. I'm a little conflicted about this card. On one hand, I hate it when ongoing schemes are too easy to dismiss. On the other hand, the card itself is a big interaction blocker that can be fine only if it doesn't stay too long. I think a card like this might work, though I would definitely have preferred a condition that requires more work or sacrifice on the part of the opponents to dismiss it than just inaction, though I suppose what form this should take would depend on the specific archenemy decks.

{Spoiler}While I can appreciate the tabletop RPG feeling in both the effects and dice rolling, I find each of the modes quite underwhelming. In 1v1, you have a 50/50 shot with the third effect to get a slightly better venture into the dungeon, which will get more triggers if you don't take damage until your next turn - otherwise your opponent gets the advantage for themselves. Meanwhile the second effect simply can't break even because at most you make one treasure token. Now, in multiplayer, assuming 4 players, you have about a 50/50 shot (haven't done the math) of beating two of them, slightly better of beating just one (I would take that one as the default scenario, but let's say two is for the sake of argument) and much lower of beating all three. In most cases you will not get the benefit of the third effect unless you deal damage to the opponent who got it, and even then they already got the benefit too. The second effect has a 50/50 shot of breaking even (so not counting the fact you spent a card to store the mana in treasures) and less than that of getting one treasure's worth of advantage. Treasures are better than mana, and if you're lucky this could represent a ritual down line, but there's a lot hidden ifs there. The first effect is in 1v1 at best half of a Reckless Impulse and at worse a waste of two mana and a card, and in multiplayer format has 50/50 shot of being a reckless impulse and less than that of being Act on Impulse.

The card has about a 50/50 shot of being approximately cards at its mana value or worse, and in some of the modes less than 50/50 odds of even being cards half its mana value. In many scenarios it may do nothing or even benefit opponents without you getting anything.

The version in the spoiler I feel is much better. While it loses the fun of choosing, it compensates by potentially being worth spending mana and a card on this by bundling all these effects that are, putting it generously, less than stellar on their own.

{Spoiler}I guess this card has a red feeling to it, but that's also why I dislike it. Not that I inherently dislike things that have red's reckleness baked into them, but rather this card is red in flavor and red in spirit, but wants to be any other color to work mechanically. Red does not have the best tools to control the top of its library and as by far the most aggressive color does generally tend to have lower costs overall, especially in the types of decks built with it. Now if your deck runs this and wants treasures most likely you are using the more expensive side of red, but the fact alone that this card is a simple toss up between you getting treasures or your opponent getting a ton of mana instead, and that your methods of controlling this are hampered by the color its in, make the card less than ideal right there.

On top of that though, even if the card does work, it could mean a one-turn-kill-enabler. Simply lucking out a ton of mana very early on could put you in such an advantage as to make victory a matter of time, the game a foregone conclusion. I assume this kind of potential win-out is the benefit you get for the risk the card is that I described before, but the fact that the card not working or the card working are both results that could be quite unfun I think makes this design lacking.

{Spoiler}I love this card. It's silly but it also tickles my Johny side seeking out the potential ways to interact with it and what it could do. Being zero mana and doing but targeting still can be so fun just by triggered effects on casting or stuff being targeted. Cast this, point at an illusion, and it's gone.

{Spoiler}The winner is pernicious