Wednesday, May 28, 2014

CCDD 052814—Dread Surprise

Cool Card Design of the Day
5/28/2014 - You could argue that Nemesis Trap is precedent for this card being black, and the art helps, but looking at this design three years later, I can't help but think it has no business in black. Green, maybe. White, surely, with new flavor.


13 comments:

  1. Yeah, that's not black. It's white or green. Would be black if it pulled from the graveyard.

    Also seems fairly weak, compared to Savage Summoning. I guess it lets you put off-colour creatures into play, though, and if I'm reading it right you can use it to make a non-flier block a flier. So it's not useless.

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    1. My leaning is toward green, as this is a sort of a way of giving a creature flash for an extra B. Neat though.

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  2. I thought there more examples of this sort of effect being in black, but I guess all I was remembering was Cauldron Dance, which really just leverages the Red in its cost to perform a Sneak Attack.

    But jeez, Nemesis Trap is such a weird card.

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    Replies
    1. I'm fairly certain Nemesis Trap just got grandfathered in as a callback to Broken Visage (http://magiccards.info/5e/en/11.html). I think Sanctaphrax has got the right of it.

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    2. Ah yes, the ever so valuable Homelands-reference slot, integral design-space for every Expert expansion.

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    3. Don't diss Broken Visage. I drafted Homelands once (huge mistake btw, although someone pulled Baron Sengir) and Broken Visage totally won a game for me.

      But yeah, I don't really understand Nemesis Trap either.

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  3. I think "put onto the battlefield blocking" is an interesting space. I think of it as white but there's not a lot of precedents. But maybe "put onto the battlefield and fights" does a similar job with less rules baggage?

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    1. The risky thing about "put onto the battlefield blocking" is that most players will assume the block must be legal.

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    2. I'm not as concerned about players playing suboptimally due to rules misunderstanding as breaking the rules.

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    3. That argument doesn't quite work for me because we get into O-Ring stacking territory where a player who does understand the rules makes the optimal play and their opponent feels like they're cheating.

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  4. Returned Decoy 1BB
    Instant (U)
    Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield blocking target creature attacking you or a planeswalker you control. Exile it at the end of combat.

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    1. Let it live (if it survives) and this is awesome, and plenty black. Costs more, obv.

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  5. Scout's Warning! That's the card I was sure existed but could not find on Gatherer. Scout's Warning.

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