Cool Card Design of the Day3/20/2013 - The conversation around yesterday's Giant Attack got me thinking about the value of trample as a combat trick. To explore that further, today's card is the other half of Wildsize.
Infuriate could arguably be red or hybrid. It could also be an Instant, but I went with Sorcery to help offset the value of a "free" trample effect on top of G: Draw a card and because the card becomes tactically more interesting when you have to cast it before blockers.
I'm happy to discuss those choices, but I'm mostly interested in the merit of Infuriate as a potential card, or more specifically, the merit of granting a creature trample without boosting its power. For colors with a lot of high power creatures, like red and green, granting trample to a creature for one turn is a lot like a conditional Lava Spike. Does that somehow make it not green anymore? Does that make it redundant in red?
What do you think?
It feels very green as it is since it's using a creature to (effectively) deal damage directly to a player. If you make it red it would probably boost power as well (but not toughness) and not cantrip.
ReplyDeleteMono-green seems right to me. Green has by far the most common fatties and is primary in trample. Red can already go to the dome, as you say.
ReplyDeleteI lean towards instant, since it's already a narrow combat trick that you wouldn't run very often. Let people live the dream and steal games with Vastwood Gorger!
I'd also want to try it as an instant, because of the blocking decisions it makes for your opponent. Chump-blocking with a 1/1, for instance, becomes much less attractive when it could get trampled over at no cost of cards. And if your opponent has only a single high-toughness blocker, sorcery speed Infuriate feels really underwhelming.
ReplyDeleteSeems like a cheap, green finisher in the right circumstances. Even when it's not, it's a loot for G. I'd be happy playing this, but then I'm a casual player.
ReplyDeleteOh man, this is an automatic 4-of in my Lorescale Coatl deck.
ReplyDeleteThe only issue would be that "Infuriate" is a very red name.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, where IS the cantrip lava spike? How come there's not a simple red spell which says "R. Deal 1 damage to target player. Draw a card," to compare this to. What price/damage combination would be fair for it?
ReplyDeleteWell, red has a grand total of 38 cantrips, so it's safe to say that they haven't really gotten around to designing them all.
DeleteBut if Cantrip Lightning Bolt costs 6R and Zap is 2R, who knows where the Cantrip Lava Spike sits.