Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Set Design: Sephorgia 2B

HV: This pitch is by Jacob Munford.  My comments are in blue.  The pitch from round one is here.  The wiki page for this set is here.  



Dreamtheft
4B
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals his hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card.
If an Aura was discarded this way, you may return it to the battlefield from that player's graveyard attached to a permanent it could enchant.

A neat form of black enchantment hate, but this effect seems wacky enough that it should be uncommon.

Ethereal Cutpurse
B
Creature – Spirit
Intimidate
1/1

I assume this guy is here to carry auras.  Seems fine.

Hulking Nightmare
5B
Enchantment Creature - Nightmare
When Hulking Nightmare dies, you may transform it. If you do, attach it to target creature.
5/2
//
Visions of Death
Enchant creature – Aura
Enchanted creature gets +5/-2

I love the DFC creature-into-aura, and things like this have a ton of design space.  But... +5/-2?  Why not just -2/-2?

Nightshadow Scorpion
3B
Enchantment Creature - Insect
First strike
3B, T: Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains first strike until end of turn.
2/2

I get what you're going for with the enchantment creature that transfers itself to other creatures.  But in practice, this is a permanent on-board combat trick, which is something they're cutting down on hard in NWO.  And he can target himself, which makes for a 4/4 first-striking blocker that'll just shut down combat completely.  

Septic Curse
4BB
Enchantment – Curse
Enchant player
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted player's upkeep, that player loses X life where X is the number of enchantments he or she controls.

A reasonable card, but how do curses fit into the set?  They made sense in a top-down horror set, but I'm not sure why this isn't just an enchant player.

Smothering Light
1B
Instant
Destroy target enchanted creature.

Good old conditional removal.  Nice and hard to evaluate because far more creatures will be enchanted in this set.  I approve!

Summary

DFCs that turn into auras is the best of these ideas.  The rest are generally fine, but we need a theme that will do heavy lifting for an entire set, and that one shows the most promise.  This pitch still hasn't solved the problem of, "What goes on in this world besides enchantments, enchantments, and enchantments?" A follow-up pitch based on this one will have to make some sort of concrete thematic decisions.

2 comments:

  1. Enchantments don't need hate, they have enough problems built in. If enchantment world is going to work, we should be alleviating those problems, not exacerbating them. I'd much rather see "Destroy target creature that isn't enchanted."

    I like the idea of simplifying licids. How about:

    Nightshadow Scorpion 3B
    Enchantment Creature - Insect
    Deathtouch
    T: Another target creature gains deathtouch until EOT. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
    2/2

    Here's a discard card that looks like enchantment-hate, but is encouraging players to keep their auras. Still too hatey?

    Bad Dreams B
    Sorcery
    Target opponent discards a card. If that player discards a land or aura card, he or she loses 3 life.

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  2. A few possibilities for mitigating the aura 2:1 problem:

    Totem Armor

    Universal

    Runeward

    Safe Ward

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