Cool Card Design of the Day4/12/2011 - This one goes out to Mr. Jon Becker, my favorite Philly-based pro player, and fellow Magic spider enthusiast. And by enthusiast, I mean, Jon is far-and-away the most vocal proponent for spiders in Magic (possibly the only one, of such reknown).
This was a fun design. What ability should spiders get that they don't already have? One could make an argument for vigilance or first strike, but c'mon, what do Spiders do aside from climb and catch things? And be creepy? And index the internet? And fight crime in a red and blue suit? That's, right: They wrap their victims up and suck their insides out. And wear roller skates.
2/3 also seems like the only possible p/t at this mana cost. All the iconic lords are 1cc 2/2s, but a spider pretty much has to have greater toughness and 1/3 would just be lame. Alternately, you could just make it 3GG and 3/6 or 4/5. That might be more appealing to the bulk of the audience that cares about spider tribal anyhow. It's not uncommon for the offbeat tribes to have larger lords.
Split the difference - 3/4 for 2GG.
ReplyDeleteI like the card - definitely a good use of the Rot Wolf ability. If you're not going to have it give all of your creatures free auras.
Two things:
ReplyDelete1. Why did you give it a proper name if it's not legendary?
2. Instead of pumping its fellow spiders, give them deathtouch. That may seem like "easy mode", but it fits flavorfully, and there ain't no shame in internalized synergy.
Gah, 'ghost beat me to it. Deathtouch would be awesome! (And this is not just because I'm on the deathtouch/reach/first strike kick) Also, I'd want to tweak its pump to make it more spidery.
ReplyDeleteSpider Queen
1GG
creature - spider
1/3
Reach
Other spider creatures you control get +0/+2 and deathtouch.
Silklash Queen
3GG
creature - spider
2/7
Reach
Other spider creatures you control get +0/+2 and deathtouch.
Whenever a creature goes to the graveyard from the battlefield, if it was dealt damage by a spider you control this turn, draw a card.
Great spider-queen!
ReplyDeleteIt makes me a little sad that Magic's spiders are kind of locked into the whole "reach" shtick. It makes sense, yeah, but there's a lot more spidery stuff you can do besides catching stuff in webs, as these designs show. Maybe a little more loose rules for future spider designs would be all right? Having a concrete tribal identity is good but it's a bit overbearing.
ReplyDeleteRemember the "poison" that the Kamigawa snakes had? Whenever they damaged something it lost its next untap? That always seemed like a very spidery web mechanic to me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, yes metaghost, the proper name is inappropriate for a non-legendary creature.