Cool Card Design of the Day2/8/2013 - There are no white Oozes. Crusader of Odric and Ajani's Pridemate are about as close as you get to white creatures that work like oozes, but I'm looking for a literal creature-type Ooze. What would a white ooze look like?
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Our theoretical white Ooze pretty much has to key off of either creatures entering the battlefield or life gained. Cathars' Crusade mechanically oozes your team but is just an enchantment. Juniper Order Ranger is very oozey, but again, neither mono-white nor technically an Ooze. I might've mocked one up like this, except Champion of the Parish is already doing it better.
So a life-ooze, it is. To differentiate from Ajani's Pridemate, we'll key off of each point of life gained like Ageless Entity. We could just color-shift that old green card (can something ageless be old?) but oozes want to be cheap. Just ask grand-daddy Primordial Ooze. Removing counters from an Ooze is all but unheard of, but Soul Ooze is kinda broken with this drawback (see Rest for the Weary and Soul Sisters.dec). For an Ooze that can gain power so quickly (also unusual), losing them nearly as quickly is pretty standard (Manaplasm, Bioplasm, Ancient Ooze). Actually, having listed those, it would seem there's a much simpler execution:
Having established what a white Ooze might look like, doesn't mean we should make it. Having explored the idea, I'd argue that this ability would work better on a Spirit, Angel or Avatar and that white just shouldn't get Oozes at all. If you have other ideas for a white Ooze or justification for Oozes in white, share it in the comments.
I do still think there's room to expand on Ageless Entity's ability; Here's a very black Ooze:
White Ooze: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=141818
ReplyDeleteThe black one is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe final design here is awesome (and perhaps still too strong), but I agree with your assessment of white's lack of need for Oozes.
ReplyDeleteI actually wrote this up a while ago, as a "case study" looking on to different lessons in Magic design that can be obtained from studying a card's "Creature type & Color" breakdown. Thought you might find it interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://xdesignlanguagex.blogspot.com/2012/06/hello-everyone-my-name-is-ant.html
The creature type I looked into first was the Ooze
for those that read that article, I apologize that it reads like i have multiple ideas in my head at the same time. This was a "draft" that i unfortunately have yet to find the time to finish.
DeleteAwesome. I particularly like the Venn Diagram. It feels oozey itself.
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