Thursday, October 29, 2015

CCDD 102915—Sentry Basilisk

Cool Card Design of the Day
10/29/2015 - Turns out there's never been a creature with both vigilance and deathtouch. Not hard to imagine why there aren't a lot of those, but surely one rare or uncommon would be neat.


Green gets both these abilities and the card could be mono-green, but I'm drawn to the idea of making a potentially annoying combination of abilities a little harder to get together. In retrospect, this isn't unpalatable with just 3 toughness, but we could use such tech for a creature with first-strike + deathtouch, for instance.


12 comments:

  1. I think this would mean a lot more on a 2/1 than on a 3/3. Standard aside, Deathtouch on a 3/3 is just not super relevant. I'm fond of:

    Forest Sentry GW
    Creature - Elf Soldier (C)

    Vigilance, deathtouch

    2/1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I saw "uncommon with vigilance plus deathtouch", I imagined a 1/4 or 2/4 (though the 2/4 would probably have to cost 1GBW or 4G).

      Delete
    2. Considering how annoying Giant Scorpion and Ukud Cobra have been, I'm not optimistic about the game play of a 1/4 or 2/4 Deathtouch creature with Vigilance.

      Delete
    3. Forest Sentry's pretty cool.
      Maybe too strong for common, but maybe not.

      Delete
    4. I mean its a common gold card so it is allowed to be reasonably strong. Look at Wojek Halbadiers.

      Delete
  2. I guess, "deathtouch" gets weaker as the power of the creature increases, so there must be a point in the middle where it's useful but not too annoying :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed. My guess is 3. Tommy's is 2.

      Delete
    2. And of course it is relevant with double blockers and what not. I'm certainly not saying I think there should never be 3 power (or 6 power) creatures with Deathtouch, but I think that the combination Deathtouch and pow>=3 should usually occur at Rare or higher unless there is a good reason. E.g. 3/1 Deathtouch Menace would be a perfectly reasonable uncommon.

      Delete
    3. What makes 3 power deathtouch better with menace than vigilance?

      Delete
    4. Here if it were a 2/1 it would be very easy to say treat it as an unblockable 2/1 (which is often irrelevant). A 3/1 puts on more pressure, making the combo of deathtouch and menace more relevant.

      Of course one could design a combination of stats for a set where there are almost no creatures that trade one for one with a 3/3 so the deathtouch would be relevant often by putting a bunch of 2/X's and 3/4+'s in the set, but a high percentage of the time a 3/3 Deathtouch will play like a Nessian Courser.

      Delete
    5. It's a significant percentage, but I don't believe overly high. There are plenty of X/4s and X/5s in every set.

      Fair to say that the gold Sentry Basilisk would be even better as a 3/4.

      Delete
    6. The "As played" of creatures with 4 or more toughness is very low in most sets. Those usually have CMC>=5, and a typical limited deck will have only 2-4 such cards. Many of them will have flying, etc.

      I've had the Deathtouch on Grave Titan be relevant plenty of times in cube (I may first pick Grave Titan a lot). I do think a 3/3 Deathtouch for 2G would be a reasonable Uncommon in a lot of sets.

      My comment was more that if you want to highlight the synergy between Deathtouch and Vigilance you should probably put it on a body that highlights both Deathtouch and Vigilance.

      Delete