Cool Card Design of the Day4/4/2011 - What if you could play your Clone before the creature you want to copy enters the battlefield? Ladies and gentlemen, I offer you, Lesser Mimic:
Now this particular implementation comes with a notable downside. You don't get to choose what it copies, it just becomes the very next thing to be cast. If you add a "may" to its ability, the cost would need to go to 2UU or something since it would then be largely better than Clone. Another alternative is to make it even better:
This is somewhere between Unstable Shapeshifter (which is totally underpowered) and Cryptoplasm; whenever a creature comes into play, Greater Mimic has the chance to become a copy of it. This didn't originally have a cost on the trigger, but I think it will be more fun with some shields-down moments and that also allows a more aggressive casting cost. That said, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Development increased either cost.
Something about this post feels like you've already forgotten Renegade Doppelganger.
ReplyDeleteHeh. I hadn't, but you're right that it's silly not to mention it. Renegade Doppelganger is very similar to these cards: Every time you lay a creature down, it gets to copy that creature for a turn. The copy effect is neither permanent nor indefinite and it can't copy creatures other players cast, but its effect is both optional and free. You definitely wouldn't want to print these in the same set or even the same standard because they use the same mindspace and players would confuse them all the time. That said, I do think the differences are enough to warrant printing one or both mimics when the time is right.
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