Cool Card Design of the DayHere's a slightly radical land design.
This thing has huge upside and huge downside. We call that swingy, in the business. High variance isn't inherently good or bad on a single card, though. I'd consider Brass Once Land in a set that wanted to get lands into graveyards, especially if it supported 3+ color decks. Assuming it's printable, which maybe it's not. Crucible of Worlds thinks not.
Mana abilities that draw cards cause all sorts of problems, the draw should probably be a separate trigger when it dies, or when it's sacrificed.
ReplyDeleteRight. That's fine.
DeleteYeah, if they hadn't just reprinted Crucible of Worlds. And printed Muldrotha. Maybe Muldrotha's not so bad because of the amount or work involved there and it's more vulnerable. But Crucible of Worlds could go in any color deck.
ReplyDeleteYou could get around Crucible stuff if you had it exile instead of sacrifice, but I don't know how appealing that would be as a design.
ReplyDeleteI'd take that trade in a heartbeat. Good call.
DeleteThis land sounds like a godsend to all my colorless decks, which is probably not where you want to be if your intention is "a land that mana fixes."
ReplyDeleteI don't need more lands? Draw a card!
I do need more lands? Good thing all my spells are the only "color" this land consistently produces.
That's true of colored decks too.
DeleteIf cycling-for-a-land-drop is valid anywhere, I think it's valid everywhere-ish.
Multicolored decks probably don't want a bunch of these in the opening hand? That's the main downside.
DeleteIt's Archeological Dig but strictly better. The draw a card bit seems a bit too much; feels like this goes in all sorts of combo decks who don't care about the fixing. It might be a bit retro, but why not slow-trip, like Mishra's Bauble and other Ice Age cards?
ReplyDeleteApparently it's spelled Archaeological Dig.
DeleteI'm 100% on-board with a card that's strictly better than a card that's much worse than Tendo Ice Bridge, which itself is bad.
DeleteIf making it a slowtrip is the thing that makes this printable, I'd consider it, but I'm not loving the memory issue.
DeleteI like the idea, but it feels like cycling for free is way too attractive on a land, it swamps everything else about the card. Can it be tweaked, maybe ETBT or adding a mana cost, possibly with another upside if needed?
ReplyDeleteI wish the mana ability could be separated, but it's hard to do "any mana once" without then sacrificing the land. I guess this is why we end up with lands with awkward counters on them.
I guess "produce any colour of mana on turn 6" would be too wacky?
Brass Once Threshold Land
DeleteLand (rare)
When ~ is exiled from the battlefield, draw a card.
T: Add C.
T, Exile ~: Add one mana of any color. Activate this ability only if you control 5 or more lands.
I wouldn't ever let this get into a set. Not because it's bad design, but because this is one of those cards where either we nerf it until it's terrible and no longer reads well or we risk causing huge problems in every format of the game.
ReplyDeleteHorizon Canopy is strong enough already and instead of costing 1 to draw a card, this card generates mana while doing it. I would play this in virtually any deck that wants lands, and it's extra scary in Dredge.
I'm waiting for a "they have some brass ones" joke :)
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced this design is mortally flawed.
ReplyDelete