Cool Card Design of the Day7/28/2011 - One promising design well that remains substantially untapped is lords. I've made a few CCDD lords already and you can bet this won't be the last of them. What's brilliant about a creature lord is that if it's for a popular or well-supported tribe, Timmy's going to love it and if it's for a smaller tribe or a tribe that hasn't gotten much love recently, Johnny (or Vorthos) is going to love it. You're always going to have an audience.
Today's card is the lord of shades. It's also kind of a no-brainer once you've got the concept of shade lord in your head. I'd be amazed if I'm the first to design this guy. That said, he sure hasn't been printed... yet.
Sorry, couldn't resist. Here's the actual shade lord:
(Should be rare)
What I love about Noble Revenant's ability is that it overcomes the inherent disadvantage to playing a lot of Shades in your deck. This is normally the worst kind of creature to have in multiples (after legends) because they each require mana—preferably lots of it—to shine. With the Revenant in play, all your Shades shine simultaneously (heh, "shimultaneoushly"). Well, they're probably not shining so much as darkling.
Even more than a goblin deck with Goblin Chieftan or an Elf deck with Elvish Archdruid, your Shade deck is going to be particularly sad when the Revenant isn't on the battlefield. That's why I didn't shy away from the full-on 2/2 for 1CC lord stats despite his impressive ability. Nantuko Shade, meet your new best friend. If your deck is going to risk that much to get one dude on the board, he might as well be strong enough to stand on his own.
I'm posting another Shade tomorrow that will make the idea of a Shade deck even less laughable.
I'd be surprised if this guy over came the inherent problems with the Shade tribe to actually encourage Spikes to play multiples in a deck.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, it's so aggressively costed that just playing four of them in a deck might be all you need. I mean, it's an insane version of Cylian Sunsinger that sometimes means your nantuko shades get a boost, too.
Yay, shades are my favorite creature type. It hurts me when WotC increase their activation costs for power reason, so I hope yours won't do that.
ReplyDeleteBUT!
Why is he noble when he lived corruptly? I don't get it.
He was a corrupt nobleman. He used his vassles in battle to protect his power, but eventually they were none left and his enemies killed him. So much innocent blood was lost in his name that his soul could not rest. Dark forces have appointed him to continue his leadership over their other conscripted souls.
ReplyDeleteWould up the cost of the pump to BB. Otherwise great idea.
ReplyDelete