Thursday, October 6, 2016

CCDD 100616—Kern, Silver Butler

Cool Card Design of the Day
10/6/2016 - I was exploring the idea of cycling expensive cards from your opening hand and came to the idea of getting them back at some specific point rather than just returning them to your deck. I don't believe that's a keywordable idea, but seems like a cool rare.


What do you think the threshold should be? Should Kern fit its own threshold, or come short? How cheap can such a card go?

11 comments:

  1. So you *can* exile Kern and never get the two cards back, or wait to cast him and eventually get them back when it dies? It's a neat twist, but I think hard to grok the second line at first.

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    Replies
    1. It's not important to the design that you can exile Kern to himself. Can fix that with numbers or add "other".

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  2. Doesn't work as written; a card doesn't have 'memory' outside of zones, so this guy can't remember what he exiled.

    'return any cards exiled by cards named Kern, Silver Butler' kinda works, and probably doesn't cause too many problems.

    I think a nice keyword could be "Cyxle * (You may exile * from your hand. If you do, draw a card.)"

    Land Friend {1}{G}
    Creature -- Elf
    When ~ enters the battlefield, you may cyxle a land card. (To cyxle, exile a land card from your hand. If you do, draw a card.)
    {T}: Put a land cyxled by ~ onto the battlefield.
    1/2

    and then, I dunno...

    Kern, Silver Butler {5}
    Artifact Creature - Construct
    If this card is in your opening hand, you may reveal it to cyxle 2 cards that cost 5 or more. (Exile 2 cards that cost 5 or more from your hand. If you do, draw a card.)
    When ~ dies, return target cyxled card you own to your hand.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah. I shorthanded the templating. Designer prerogative.

      Land Friend is sweet, though I'd put a mana cost on its activation.

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    2. {1}{G}? match the casting cost?
      could see something like {G} casting cost for a 1/1 with {2} activation cost, too..

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    3. 1G seems a good cost for this. G or 2 or 1G seem good activations.

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  3. I'm not a big fan of cards that do things from opening hands. Early drops accomplish the same thing while sticking to the "rules" of magic.

    Smugglers' Will R
    Enchantment (C)
    When Smugglers' Will enters the battlefield, exile two card from your hand. If you do, draw two cards.
    When a rogue you control dies, sacrifice Smugglers Will and return those cards to your hand.

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    Replies
    1. Feels too powerful, but maybe it's actually okay? I like the Rogue flavour a lot. ... also it's weird that the exiling isn't an additional cost, but I guess it works out fine, haha

      I'm with you on opening hand stuff, though. It's always felt kind of like a weird mechanic to me

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    2. Opening hand abilities break the color pie and normal mana cost restrictions of Magic. That /might/ be fine in a set like New Phyrexia where those transgressions are the norm, although that set isn't the best guide

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    3. I feel like I've just never had a good grasp on when they're appropriate or what they're good for. It's like a coin flip?

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    4. Good argument and alternative. Like it.

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