Cool Card Design of the Day
3/20/2011 - A lot of players don't like coin flip cards. Being a fan of risk-reward calculation, I am a fan. But what if we could find a middle ground. I propose a set of cards that allow a player to take a slightly below-average effect for sure or to flip a coin at a chance for an above-average effect... or nothing at all.
Perilous Bolt
R
Instant
You may flip a coin. If you do and you win the flip, ~ deals 4 damage to target creature or player. If you don't flip, ~ deals 2 damage to that target.
You may flip a coin. If you do and you win the flip, ~ deals 4 damage to target creature or player. If you don't flip, ~ deals 2 damage to that target.
Perilous Spark
2R
Creature-Elemental
Trample
When ~ ETB, you may flip a coin. If you do it gains haste. If you lose the flip, sacrifice it at EOT.
3/1
Perilous Study
U
Instant
You may flip a coin. If you do and you win the flip, draw two cards. If you don't flip, draw a card.
You may flip a coin. If you do and you win the flip, draw two cards. If you don't flip, draw a card.
Which should be red-ified to fit the theme:
Perilous Lore
R
Sorcery
Draw a card.
Draw a card.
You may flip a coin. If you do and you win the flip, draw another card. If you lose the flip, discard a card at random.
Perilous Fire
2RR
Sorcery
~ deals 4 damage to target player.
You may flip a coin. If you do and you win the flip, ~ deals 4 damage to each creature that player controls. If you lose the flip, ~ deals 4 damage to you.
Perilous Mercenary
1R
Creature-Human Mercenary
At the beginning of your upkeep step, you may flip a coin. If you do and you win the flip, ~ gets +2/+1 and gains trample until EOT. If you lose the flip, target opponent gains control of ~.
2/1
Perilous Dragon
3RR
Creature-Dragon
Flying
When ~ ETB, flip a coin. If you win the flip, it deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player. If you lose the flip, it deals that much damage to you.
5/4
You will notice Perilous Dragon actually doesn't give you the choice to not flip. In this case, the choice just waters down the thing that makes the card exciting. I've learned that choice-flips are actually a little tricky to find, the line they rest on existing right between should-always-flip and should-never-flip. I'm sure there are enough designs in this vein to warrant inclusion in a block, but only at relatively low numbers (which is fine: you don't want too many coin flips anyhow, even optional ones).
While there are some who enjoy this sort of risk-reward calculation, like you said, the fact that you are making the decision to flip the coin can actually increase the amount of "feelbad" for others. After all, if you lose the flip, it's _your_ fault for being greedy and taking the risk. If coin flips are going to be involved in a card, I much prefer them being "all upside" like Clash designs in Lorwyn.
ReplyDeleteI like random mechanics, but I think the problem here is twofold: Firstly, those who dislike random cards where something bad or nothing might happen oppose the randomness of it, and so making a coin-flip card which has very little random swing is not going to make anyone happy. Zac Hill and Mark Rosewater explain this very well in a recent video interview on mananation.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I think, when it comes to randomness in Magic, it's best to use the library. I love coin-flipping, but... I dunno, there's a part of me that would prefer a "reveal the top card of your library. If it is a land card.." or "nonland card" so instead of heads/tails, its land/nonland. Or any other variable: creature/noncreature, CMC5 or more/CMC4 or less, colored/colorless, black/white, and so on. I think that's more interesting because while it is random, the randomness is in the player's hand and spike and johnny actually find an appeal to the randomness because it's like a challenge; "Make me NOT random anymore!"
Or not. I dunno. I'm rambling.