*This one was inspired by a GDS2 card, Fiery Deadeye.
*Vampire Finches exist in real life!
I like these cards. I like the way you can see the mana symbol and imagine what that creature is doing, what that mana is turning into - whether it's immolating the creature in fire, enchanting its sword with ice, creating a magic arrow, etc. I feel that because of this imagery, if I were a new player that was drawn to Magic through cards that represent Dragons and Angels and Wizards and such, I would also be attracted to these.
Mechanically, these designs aren't so special. These are similar to past cards such as Undead Leotau, Rampant Elephant, and Kashi-Tribe Warriors. It's also possible that some of these activations would create too many small choices about mana use every turn. There could be simpler cards that would create just as much game play as these would.
Those points aside, I do think that there is a lot of potential for resonance in off-color activated abilities. Creatures can gain a lot of characterization not just by their physical characteristics, but also by their special moves. While not every off-color activation card in the past was concerned with giving a flavor explanation for the activated ability (Pestilent Kathari or Serpentine Kavu are examples), now that design is concerned most with resonance, I think off-color activated abilities present a great opportunity for representing creature concepts that are both resonant and characteristic.
I hate the Finch and I'm not sure about the Archer, but I love the others and I'm impressed with this line of thinking. Kudos to Chah and Trevor and the team for bringing it to light.
ReplyDeleteNice work. These come off even better than I was thinking they would.
ReplyDeleteOne issue for a next revision would be complexity. I these are to be at common I think we need to take off all "creature damaged by/blocked by" and adjust costs accordingly.
The UW guy could just be a flat out tapper but taps to do it or can only use once per turn, the finch could cost 1 less but only drain player, and the archer could cost more and tap or only be used once per turn but deal 1 to all attacking creatures
Err finch would have to be once per turn too or tap and for the Archer actually I guess 1 to all attackers is overpowered for common in my previous comment might have to play with the cost on that've bit
ReplyDeleteIt is reasonable to have 10 activated abilities on common creatures, provided that the majority don't affect the board directly and/or are limited to once-per-round effects. We can think of Drifting Shade and Fiery Hellhound as having nearly once-per-round effects since their abilities can be templated as X: +X/+0 until EOT and you very rarely pump the same guy on different turns.
ReplyDeleteSo let's use this space to brainstorm *flavorful* common creatures with OCA that won't produce degenerately complex board states.
Let's start by evaluating the five cards above in this respect. Blazing Dead's ability does affect combat but can normally only be activated once per turn. Seems fine.
ReplyDeleteRapidfire Archer basically has an X ability: "Destroy target creature with toughness X blocking or blocked by ~" though that could be used on multiple combatants. It could be very very difficult figuring out how to fight a group of creatures that includes this guy. Too complex.
Vampire Finch is confusing. Against a player, you can use it any time between combat damage and the end of the turn. Against a creature, it first has to survive combat damage (something I don't want new players to have to figure out) and if first strike is in the mix it gets harder.
Barbarian Houndmaster can be used more than once and to great effect. That'll lead to chessy decisions too often for my taste. Too bad, because I like the idea. How inelegant is to staple "Activate this ability only once per turn" on?
As currently worded, Frostblade Duelist would need to be activated once per creature you want it to supertap. That won't come up often with power 2, but it won't be obvious when it does. "1U: Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a creature this turn, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step." That's a bit more straightforward.
It occurs to me is that two of the three abilities I like best here could also work as static Bond abilities.
Frostblade Duelist could have Island Bond — Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a creature if you control an Island, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
and Barbarian Houndmaster could have Forest Bond — Whenever ~ attacks, if you control a Forest, target creature must block it this turn if able.
Here's a first stab at it.
ReplyDeleteSavannah Scout
1W
Creature - Human Scout
2/2
1G: Target creature gains trample until end of turn.
Reclusive Scholar
1W
Creature - Human Advisor
1/2
U, T: Target player puts the top 2 cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Evanescent Crane
1U
Creature - Bird Illusion
1/2
Flying
W, T: Gain 1 life.
Corrosive Crab
3U
Creature - Crab
1/4
2B - CARDNAME gains deathtouch until end of turn.
Roofstalker Wight (reprint)
1B
Creature - Zombie
2/1
1U - CARDNAME gains flying until end of turn.
Burning Shade
2B
Creature - Shade
2/2
R: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Goblin Gravedigger
1R
Creature - Goblin
2/1
B, sacrifice CARDNAME: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Balduvian Fireshaper
R
Creature - Human Shaman
1/1
G, T: Add RR to your mana pool.
Elvish Torchmage
2G
Creature - Elf Shaman
3/2
1R: Target creature can't block CARDNAME this turn.
Guardian Baloth
5G
Creature - Beast
4/5
2W: CARDNAME gains vigilance until end of turn.
Balduvian Fireshaper is a clever use of OCA. Love the Orcish Lumberjack call-back.
ReplyDeleteI also think Roofstalker Wight is a perfect reprint.
Not a fan or Evanescent Crane. It just doesn't do much. Reclusive Scholar and Savannah Scout feel downright weird to me. Even though their abilities aren't white, I think they should play into a mono-white strategy. Perhaps:
Tree Farmer 1W
Creature-Farmer
2G, T: Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token OTB.
0/2
Ice Caster W
Creature-Wizard
U, T: Tap or untap target permanent.
1/1
Glad you spotted the callback! Orcish Lumberjack was one of my favorite cards when Ice Age first came out. It's funny that by today's standards, Orcish Lumberjack is horribly broken, but its old partner Ernham Djinn is a pathetic joke.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Crane's pretty mediocre. Originally it was a sac effect for 4 life, but I don't want to overuse sacrificing within the megacycle. Ice Caster's a fine substitute, although I'd just make it tap. Also, creatures only; the whole "tap a land during your upkeep" is basically the opposite of fun.
The idea behind Savannah Scout is that it would work well in a W/G deck, but I see the point of having it be useful in mono-W. Unfortunately, repeatable token making is not common; MaRo made that clear during GDS2. What's another good green effect? I avoided pump because of on-board trickiness, and hexproof for similar reasons. So maybe reach or regeneration?
Steppe Ranger
1W
Creature - Human Scout
2/1
1G: Regenerate CARDNAME.
(Some flavor text about knowing a lot about healing herbs from their travels)
It's like Votary of the Conclave, but with less suck.
or
Elf-trained Archer
1W
Creature - Human Soldier
2/2
G: CARDNAME gains reach until end of turn.
"Steppe Ranger: It's like Votary of the Conclave, but with less suck."
ReplyDeleteHeh. I love The Big Idea.
A few cards:
ReplyDeleteObstructing Oyster
2U
creature - oyster
1/3
W, tap: Tap target creature
Salt-Crusted Crab
4U
creature - crab
1/5
1W: CARDNAME gets +0/+3 until end of turn.
Frozen Shade
3U
creature - shade
1/1
Flying
1B: CARDNAME gets +2/+2 until end of turn
Angry Boar
2G
creature - boar
2/2
R: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Necromancer's Familiar
1B
creature - imp
1/1
Flying
U, Tap: Draw a card, then discard a card.
Obstructing Oyster is problematic: tapping is already in-color for blue, so it doesn't feel like it's borrowing enough from white. Salt-crusted crab needs a "once per turn" clause. I like Necromancer's Familiar; I was trying to figure out how to use looting without putting it on an unplayably small body, and a 1/1 flyer is a good solution.
ReplyDeleteHadn't thought about that part of the Oyster, but I do really want a Giant Oyster update, so maybe there's some way to salvage it. Or maybe it just needs to go somewhere else. After further reflection, I hate the crab.
ReplyDeleteWould Angry Boar make more sense with a 1R activation cost?
Trample seems like the go-to green ability. Maybe the Treetop Ranger evasion could work too.
Stompy Giant
4R
creature - giant
4/3
G: CARDNAME gains trample until end of turn.
Pouncing Puma
2W
creature - cat
2/2
G: CARDNAME can't be blocked except by creatures with flying until end of turn.
I like the idea of a firebreathing Shade, but I always want them to have flying. Maybe something like:
Burning Shade
3B
creature - shade
2/2
flying
1R: CARDNAME gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
One idea I had was that since a big part of the argument for OCAs is the added flavor, we should try to make things easy on new players by syncing the abilities up with what actually appears on the mana symbol.
ReplyDeleteStarting with Chah's great depiction of burning, which stems from the fire flavor of the red mana symbol. Firebreathing is always a fine back-up:
Blazing Dead V.2 2B
Creature-Zombie
1R:~ gets +2/-1 until end of turn.
2/2
Burnwillow Ancient 3G
Creature-Treefolk Shaman
1R:~ gets +2/-1 until end of turn.
3/3
The skull on the black mana symbol automatically gets you thinking about death:
Gimuraan Vulture 1U
Creature-Bird
Flying
B, Sacrifice a creature: ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/1
Femur Basher 1R
Creature-Goblin Warrior
B, Sacrifice a creature: ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/1
The white mana symbol is the sun, here I went with blinding light, but some sort of illumination flavor would be equally valid.
Sunscale Wurm 4G
Creature-Wurm
W, T: Tap target creature.
3/4
Brilliant Student 1U
Creature-Human Wizard
W, T: Tap target creature.
1/2
The green mana symbol's tree might evoke nature or growth. Repeated land search would get annoying fast, and untapping lands didn't seem to do much, so I went with straight mana production.
Sproutender Sentry 2W
Creature-Human Soldier Druid
Vigilance
G, T: Add GG to your mana pool.
2/2
Wild-Eyed Giant 3R
Creature-Giant Shaman
G, T: Add GG to your mana pool.
3/2
I was having a lot of trouble finding something watery for blue. This flavor is usually conveyed through bouncing or +1/-1 and -1/+1 abilities, and neither option really works on commons. Islandwalk was the best I could come up with, but I'm not sold on it.
Brackwater Moccasin 1B
Creature-Snake
U: ~ gains islandwalk until end of turn.
2/1
Boresian Midshipman W
Creature-Human Soldier
U: ~ gains islandwalk until end of turn.
1/2