Tuesday, August 21, 2018

CCDD 082118—Hell's Hydra

Cool Card Design of the Day
Here's a green-black interpretation of a hydra.
Heads-up: This execution is real mythic.

The only concession this mythic allows is not copying itself immediately, so that you at least have to wait a turn before sacrificing your new army.

In practice, it likely needs some kind of limit despite that: Maybe you have to pay {1} to get your copies; Maybe the tokens get smaller each time; Maybe we add "ETB: Lose 2 life" to make too many copies risky.

It's tricky to find something that keeps a card like this safe for Standard without ruining the elegant-all-upside-wtf-ness mythic rares demand.

5 comments:

  1. My guess is it’s fine as a 7 mana 6/6 or something. This line of text is appealing enough for Jenny and Tammy that I think you can sacrifice some of the Spike efficiency.

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  2. This could also maybe use a "if you didn't sacrifice it" clause to prevent some real shenanigans.

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    1. "This creature can't be sacrificed"

      Reads like all upside but it most definitely isn't here.

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  3. Hi guys,

    first time post of an irregular visitor but fellow card designer (aspiring):

    @Jay: Really elegant Hydra! I like it very much. Regarding your thoughts for an appropriate limit, which doesn't interfere too much with the elgance of the simple rules text, how about the following minor tweak:

    Hell's Hydra - {3}{B}{G}
    Creature - Hydra Horror - (Mythic rare)
    5/3
    Whenever CARDNAME dies, create two token copies of it at the beginning of your next upkeep.

    I think this provides "shields down" moments in two ways limiting the cards power:

    Due to summoning sickness, the copies are not an immediate threat (or at least need some haste enabling back-up) and can be answered again if the opponenent manages to cast consecutive removal spells (which is difficult and hence appropriate against a mythic rare I presume).
    The second thing to notice is, that removal does not immediately get invalidated be the two replacments, hence the opponent may still have a chance to find windows for attacks.

    I think this tweek keeps the design as elegant and simple as you made it to be and doesn't sacrifice the splashyness of getting a growing hydra horrors army which I think still wins against the "feel bad moment" of not getting them immediately. :)

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    Replies
    1. Welcome Ryuujin!

      That's a good option.

      I don't know how much the feel bad of not getting to use your hydras for a full extra round weighs compared to your opponent's feel bad.
      Would want to playtest.

      In between these two options is having them ETB tapped.

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