Tuesday, June 21, 2011

CCDD 062111—Craniomancer & Persuasive Doppleganger

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/21/2011 - There are 19 variants of Seasinger and 14 variants of Spawnbroker, but there are no variants of Sower of Temptation. Granted, that's not terribly surprising since it's still relatively new to the game, but it's such a simple, straight-forward effect in a sea of wordy mind-controlling dudes that I feel like there should be more. First up is the gimme: Boiling down the execution to its simplest form.


Humorously enough, when I first designed this guy, I'd forgotten Sower of Temptation existed and costed Craniomancer at 2UU. "On a stick" seemed like a fair enough drawback to get Control Magic in the abstract. Sower, with its doubly-relevant body and evasion, while very good was never unfair in its time, so presumably our fragile 1/1 will be good but fair at 1UU.

So we've gone less fancy, let's take a step toward more fancy.

I always knew I liked Clone a lot, but this series has made me come to realize it's one of my favorite cards of all time. Anyhow, I'm quite happy with Persuasive Doppelganger. It's a strong card that should lead to interesting or at least funny play, and I'm pretty fond of the flavor too. Almost tempted to add black to its cost just for the flavor (and slightly better card balance).

7 comments:

  1. Awesome! Craniomancer actually looks balanced to me, as there won't be tribal synergies protecting it like in the Faerie deck.

    Maybe persuasive Doppleganger could cost one more (even though it's not strictly better than Mind Control) and be Mythic.

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  2. I don't think the "dies" template is correct here; what if the creature goes to any other zone other than the battlefield?

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  3. Tigt has a very good point, especially with the rise of exile-removal.

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  4. "For as long as ~ is on the battlefield" is the correct wording, yes.

    Love the idea of the second one, too, though I don't think you can target with an "As" effect.

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  5. Maybe we take it one step further with
    "As ~ ETB, choose a creature OTB. It becomes a copy of that creature. You control *each* creature with the same name as ~ for as long as it remains OTB."
    Not sure I like that better, but it's a thought.

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  6. Destructive Influence 2RR
    Creature- Spirit R
    Haste, Destructive Influence attacks each turn if able
    When Destructive Influence enters the battlefield, gain control of target creature until Destructive Influence leaves the battlefield. That creature gains haste and attacks each turn if able.
    4/2

    Terrible Influence 3BB
    Creature- Spirit
    At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on creatures you own and on creatures you don't control.
    When Terrible Influence enters the battlefield, gain control of target creature until Terrible Influence leaves the battlefield.
    2/3

    Positive Influence 4WW
    Creature- Spirit
    When Positive Influence enters the battlefield gain control of target creature. That creature gets +3/+3, flying and vigilance as long as Positive Influence remains on the battlefield.
    0/2

    Primal Influence GGG
    Creature- Spirit
    When Primal Influence enters the battlefield, gain control of target creature until Primal Influence leaves the battlefield. Put two +1/+1 counters on that creature and it loses all abilities.
    3/3

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  7. Those are pretty sweet, Duncan, particularly the red and black ones.

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