Cool Card Design of the Day 10/24/2017 - This is like a slow trap. It gets cheaper/better in response to a certain action your opponent might take, but it's less preventative and more punitive.
It reads so much more naturally. The same is not true for 'trample' or every other keyword that's a noun or verb rather than an adjective, unfortunately.
I worry both cards are adding a lot of verbage for fairly little game play effect here. Like the first could either cost less if the opponent just controls a flying creature without the attacking clause. Or you can split the difference and just cost 1G for +2/+2 and reach.
The second card could have flash or fight a tapped flying creature.
Yeah. An aura is probably the least relevant place for a mana discount to appear. If it were more significant (5G -> 1G) it would matter more, but then the variance when your opponent isn't attacking with flyers is larger and also the base effect starts to creep away from common.
While writing that, it occurred to me that auras should cost more and do more in general. If you're going to risk card disadvantage to suit up a monster, you might as well risk mana disadvantage too, especially since you absolutely must cast a creature first (and that creature probably isn't dirt cheap either).
I don't know. My inclination is that auras could usually stand to be cheaper? Like a 2/2 flyer is 2U, +2/+2 flying aura is 1U. Expensive auras mean you get blown out for card advantage and tempo if something happens to the creature, which isn't good gameplay. Or the suited up creature just runs away with the game (hello Ixilan!) Which isn't great either.
1U wouldn't get a vanilla +2/+2 aura; it shouldn't get "+2/+2 and flying" at that rate, either. I would call Spectral Flight and One With the Wind explicitly mistakes of design and development.
The current costing us a bit all over the board. Cartouches had a super high power level, but weren't nearly as bad to play against as One With The Wind/Mark of the Vampire. Auras are so dependant on other things in the environment: the type of removal, evasion, resilient creatures. It feels like auras can be an aftersight once those other variables have been set
If Spectral Flight had bestow, I'd agree it needs to be 2U (or more b/c it now gets an extra life as well as an extra mode). But auras are literally unplayable on their own, and invite 2:1s. They are risky, and they have to be worth that risk.
Cool Card Design of the Day
I really prefer the "flying creature" verbage to "creature with flying"
ReplyDeleteIt reads so much more naturally. The same is not true for 'trample' or every other keyword that's a noun or verb rather than an adjective, unfortunately.
DeleteWouldn’t the last design be much cleaner and effectively do the same thing if it just had flash instead of all the text?
ReplyDeleteNot identical but you're still right, flash is just better there.
DeleteFor that reason i like the first design better - it feels much fresher and unlike any card I’ve seen before.
DeleteI worry both cards are adding a lot of verbage for fairly little game play effect here. Like the first could either cost less if the opponent just controls a flying creature without the attacking clause. Or you can split the difference and just cost 1G for +2/+2 and reach.
DeleteThe second card could have flash or fight a tapped flying creature.
Yeah. An aura is probably the least relevant place for a mana discount to appear. If it were more significant (5G -> 1G) it would matter more, but then the variance when your opponent isn't attacking with flyers is larger and also the base effect starts to creep away from common.
DeleteWhile writing that, it occurred to me that auras should cost more and do more in general. If you're going to risk card disadvantage to suit up a monster, you might as well risk mana disadvantage too, especially since you absolutely must cast a creature first (and that creature probably isn't dirt cheap either).
I don't know. My inclination is that auras could usually stand to be cheaper? Like a 2/2 flyer is 2U, +2/+2 flying aura is 1U. Expensive auras mean you get blown out for card advantage and tempo if something happens to the creature, which isn't good gameplay. Or the suited up creature just runs away with the game (hello Ixilan!) Which isn't great either.
Delete1U wouldn't get a vanilla +2/+2 aura; it shouldn't get "+2/+2 and flying" at that rate, either. I would call Spectral Flight and One With the Wind explicitly mistakes of design and development.
DeleteThe current costing us a bit all over the board. Cartouches had a super high power level, but weren't nearly as bad to play against as One With The Wind/Mark of the Vampire. Auras are so dependant on other things in the environment: the type of removal, evasion, resilient creatures. It feels like auras can be an aftersight once those other variables have been set
DeleteIf Spectral Flight had bestow, I'd agree it needs to be 2U (or more b/c it now gets an extra life as well as an extra mode). But auras are literally unplayable on their own, and invite 2:1s. They are risky, and they have to be worth that risk.
DeleteYeah, they made that card (Griffin Guide) for 2W.
DeleteGriffin Guide and Nimbus Naiad
Delete