Cool Card Design of the Day7/12/2011 - Most Hydra* don't get any smarter when you add another head. As it should be. But sometimes you've got to make an exception to prove the rule. How do we represent this in Magic? In this game, smarter equals more cards.
The idea of using the Maro ability to tie the size of the Hydra to your hand was kind of exciting to me since before that I was still using +1/+1 counters and trying to tie those to the card draw. Next, the grow-a-head ability from Feral Hydra is represented by drawing a card, which has a pretty obvious upside. Bigger than the +1/+1, even. Which gives Celestial Hydra a unique role in green and makes it a very different looking Hydra. Even having tied the extra card to the added wisdom of a newly grown head, it's still a bit odd to see "X: Draw a card" in green, so I made a version that it less historical but definitely more green.
I mean, that's pretty good too. Sure does seem like a spell you'll be happy to cast the turn after Oracle of Mul Daya. It even makes sense for a Hydra to grow as you give him more space.
*I looked up the plural of "Hydra" yesterday and the majority consensus is that "Hydras" is correct and "Hydrae" is definitely not. Yeah well, "Hydra" feels more right to me than "Hydras," so I'm going with that despite what older, more linguistically-educated nerds than I have said.7/13 Update: I'm adding Omniscient Hydra after the fact because it is exactly the kind of over-the-top awesome I've been aiming for and it clearly belongs on this page for its relation to Celestial Hydra. Big ups to Nich Grayson on this one.
I like the first one better. It's a green Maro-fied Sphinx of Magosi! Which is, itself, a decent Hydra design if not for the flying.
ReplyDeleteThis is an intriguing concept that I'll devote a little extra time to think about, but for now I'll just say that I'm not keen on a green permanent with an activated ability that just says "draw a card"
ReplyDeleteThinking Hydra 3GG
ReplyDeleteCreature- Hydra
Thinking Hydra has power and toughness equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Whenever Thinking Hydra deals or is dealt damage, draw a card.
*/*
The second feels too much like a Maro sorcerer to me, the first too blue.
ReplyDeleteFlavor text "Fifteen heads are better than fourteen heads."
"A dozen heads are better than one" feels more punchy to me. And it's good text for pretty much any hydra.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, tying the Maro ability to Hydras is pretty great. Good eye, Jay.
ReplyDeleteI like the first card more, because the card draw feels like growth. Why doesn't it have a Blue activated cost? For the specificity of the card concept, it would seem a natural Simic card.
And the reason I'm less keen on the second card is that the ability just replaces the land that was in your hand, so the Hydra isn't getting bigger, it's just not getting smaller.
Finally, how about Maro plus Spellbook? It's pretty straight forward:
Mindblossom Hydra (Rare)
3GG
Creature - Hydra
*/*
You have no maximum hand size.
Mindblossom Hydra's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Overall the biggest hurdle Maro's ability has is that you have to maintain a hand to have it have any sort of board impact when it sees play. Psychosis Crawler has taught me that most recently. So what about:
Omniscient Hydra (Rare)
5GU
Creature - Hydra
*/*
When Omniscient Hydra enters the battlefield, if you have fewer than seven cards in hand, draw cards equal to the difference.
You have no maximum hand size.
Omniscient Hydra's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Duncan, your ability draws two cards whenever the Hydra tangles with another creature? There's precendent for half of that in Fungusaur which is a card a lot of people make play mistakes about but a lot of people love (including myself). It certainly makes sense on a Hydra.
ReplyDeleteLCan, I could have sworn I wrote that flavor text (or something slightly inferior to it) on one of this week's Hydra, but I can't find it anywhere. Do like.
Nich, funny you should mention Spellbook: I thought up Celestial Hydra while driving and I very much considered adding that clause but I predicted it would look too smooshed on the card with all the other text. I forget to check when mocking the card up later, but I think it would fit *and* read well on the first version.
I did also think about making the activated ability blue, which makes some sense given the nature of the beast, but ultimately I wanted Hydra week to be mono-green.
I like Omniscient Hydra both in name and ability, though the Spellbook part feels weird to me in this configuration. I guess because one ability says "7 cards max" and the other says "no max." Maybe if it was just straight-up, "draw seven?" Actually, that sounds like exactly the kind of over-the-top awesome I've been looking for. I'm adding that to this post right now.
I think using cards in hand as a way to represent heads is really interesting, but your design fails to tie the growing of heads to damage dealt to the creature. Therefore here's my suggestion:
ReplyDeleteNemean Hydra 3GG
Creature - Hydra
0/0
Nemean Hydra has power and toughness each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Whenever Nemean Hydra is dealt damage, draw a card.
I like the idea of the cards in hand, but I also think that hydras growing is really necessary for their flavor.
ReplyDeleteHandy Hydra 3GG
Creature - Hydra
0/0
Handy comes into play with a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the cards in your hand.
Whenever you draw a card, put a +1/+1 counter on Handy Hydra.
I think this works because it doesn't create an incentive not to play spells. The hydra grows bigger, over time, not growing or shrinking based on what's happened in your hand.
It makes it act more like a Hydra than a Maro.
@ Jeff - I believe one of the primary design lessons derived from Kamigawa block is that it's a horrible idea to incentivise not playing spells. Obviously Maro-designs do have this sort of impact on gameplay, but I can't think of a good reason to exacerbate that quality.
ReplyDeleteDuncan and DrJones each suggested a passive trigger, another thing I think is best avoided, especially on green creatures. Swans of Bryn Argoll is perhaps the most extreme example of that clause, but they made it more palatable by setting it up as a protective shield AND combo-enabler.
That said, to mimic the accelerated growth of Primordial Hydra and make the design more proactive, why not fuse Maro and Cold-Eyed Selkie?
Ha-ha-hydra
3GG (R)
Creature - Hydra
Trample
~'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, draw that many cards.
*/*
This series is turning out to be awesome!
ReplyDeleteI really like Omniscient Hydra, but drawing 7 for 7cc seems too good. How about, "draw a card for each card in your hand?"
So many good ideas! We should make Hydras more often.
ReplyDeleteExpansive Hydra 3GG
ReplyDeleteCreature-Hydra
~ has P/T equal to the number of lands (forests?) you control.
When ~ ETB or attacks, Rampant Growth.
*/*
My set file actually has that more or less, albeit as a Baloth (beast):
ReplyDeleteOhgun Behemoth
4G
Creature - Beast (U)
Trample
When ~ enters the battlefield, search your library for a Forest card and put it onto the battlefield.
~ has power and toughness each equal to 1 plus the number of Forests you control.
1+*/1+*
3GG makes more sense as a cost if it's just equal to lands, otherwise additional G in the cost is a redundant color-restriction, as the card is already pretty much just for monogreen.
And that mine searches for a Forest as opposed to Rampant Growth is to tie in to my use of duals with land-types.