Thursday, May 19, 2011

21 Ways to Design a Card: Part 2c - Tomb Raider and Tome Raider

I've designed some cards for each zone in the game, and once again it was a good source of inspiration.


(Click on images to enlarge)

Graveyard:



Library:




Which do you like better?

7 comments:

  1. The second Tomb Raider looks quite fun. Feels more like a necromancer of evil spirit than a human that raids tombs, though.

    I like where you were going with the Tome Raiders (woo Clone variant!) but I feel like there's room for improvement on the implementation. Maybe a 1/4 or so with "Whenever ~ attacks or blocks, exile the top card of target player's library. If it's a creature card, ~ becomes a copy of it" or "…exile cards from the top of target player's library until you exile a creature card…"

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  2. The second Tomb Raider is fun, awesome and probably too good at 1BB. (Free Unearth every turn?! Talk about reanimator.)

    The first Tome Raider seems weird -- in mid-attack, it can become a land or enchantment?

    The last Tome Raider seems like it could have a free triggered ability once per turn, since paying 1U seems awfully steep when you don't know what you're going to get.

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  3. Thanks for the comments, guys!

    I'm hoping the Tomb Raider

    I thought it would be neat if the Tome Raider had the ability to turn into a land to avoid destruction (for example from blocking, if you didn't find a good creature card candidate to morph into) and help boost mana, while threatening to occasionally turn into a Titan or Baneslayer.

    But it could also have normal stats to start out with (3/3 or 2/3 flying?), and optionally turn into something during upkeep if you hit a creature card.

    I can't have it keep milling until it hits a creature card because the opponent might not have a creature. Well, maybe the "put the rest on bottom of library" cause can still fit.

    I do think having a menu of three or so cards to choose from every turn is a fun kind of choice. And it also doubles as a milling effect, even if you choose a land.

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  4. I was going to write above, I'm hoping the Tomb Raider will be balanced by the fact that it is going to die in the attack most of the time. But if not, maybe it could be brought down to 2/2 or 2/1.

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  5. The second Tomb Raider seems to be more popular. I'm starting to like the second one myself, but I do think the first one has a different type of fun - anticipating "what cool card will I discover from my opponent's deck this turn?"

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  6. The first Tomb Raider certainly isn't bad, but the sacrifice effect (while clearly necessary) just feels bad. Even so, I'm sure this thing would be third-pickable or better in most draft formats.

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  7. The first Tomb Raider is just unexciting, and I don't think very good in draft. Realistically, a Grizzly Bear hits once or twice in limited, so you'll mill 2-4 cards, which isn't a lot. You'll probably trade up to a 3/3 or 2/2 flyer.

    Later in the game, you can kill their bomb and take it, but that's still meh. You're paying 2BBB for the privilege, and you have to kill their awesome creature, so you're probably doing okay anyway.

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