Thursday, October 4, 2018

CCDD 100418—Goblin Liaison

Cool Card Design of the Day
Here's a design I apparently saved from Zefferal's 2016 Goblin Game.
This design came about top-down, but it suggests a vein of anti-tribal design. What merit does such a vein contain?

Goblin Liaison rewards you for having a bunch of creatures, as long as they're not goblins. That means you want to play this card in a creature-heavy red deck that is otherwise goblin-light or -free. This is anti-linear, meaning that playing multiples isn't as strong as playing one at a time (like legendary).

I can only imagine a few corner case benefits here: You really want the card to belong to a certain tribe, but can't afford to let players drop it into tribal decks without a cost; You want to enable a variety-tribal archetype; You want the card to be a lower rarity than legendary cards are in your set, but still keep it anti-linear to ward players off from running too many. Of these, only variety-tribal seems worth consideration.

Does this lead you to any other ideas?

5 comments:

  1. Forewarner of the Living 3W
    Creature - Spirit (u)
    Flying, vigilance
    Non-spirit creatures you control have vigilance.
    2/1

    Is that "generic cross-tribal" or antitribal? Is there a difference? This does boost them rather than letting them boost it.

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    Replies
    1. I think "generic cross-tribal" is "Creatures you control get X."

      Delete
  2. There could be an ability word in there, for a set about a big coalition coming together to fight an enemy, trying to emphasise that it's a diverse army.

    Diversity — For each creature you control this creature doesn't share a type with, do...

    Examples:

    Tolarian Guide {1}{U}{U}
    Creature — Human Wizard
    Diversity — When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of creatures you control that don't share a creature type with CARDNAME. Put one of those cards in your hand and the rest at the bottom of your library in any order.
    1/3

    Elven Legion {3}{G}{G}
    Creature — Elf Soldier
    Diversity — When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Elf Soldier creature token for each creature you control that doesn't share a creature type with CARDNAME.
    2/2

    Willing Sergeant {2}{W}
    Creature — Human Soldier
    Diversity — Whenever CARDNAME attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature you control that doesn't share a creature type with CARDNAME.
    2/2

    Mentor of Raiders {3}{R}
    Creature — Goblin Rogue
    Diversity — Creatures you control that don't share a creature type with CARDNAME get +1/+0.
    3/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice.

      I'd totally print Mentor along these others, but I wouldn't put diversity on it, because it's not counting those different creatures.

      That's one randy elf.

      Delete
    2. Diversity sounds like a really cool mechanic! I definitely want to see that printed!
      The deck building around that seems fun to me... Lots of vorthos potential as well.

      Delete