Tuesday, July 2, 2013

CCDD 070213—Kerberos

Cool Card Design of the Day
7/2/2013 - Kerberos is directly inspired by Taresivion's Champion of the Gods submission for the last weekend art challenge. It had "protection from non-divine creatures" which I swapped with "protection from non-legendary creatures." That ability makes the creature it's on a fearsome combatant few can stand against, but it also makes legendary creatures better, since they're the only ones that can defeat it.

As I went to put that on a new card, some particularly vile monster born out of Greek myth, I also took a note from Magic 2014's Fiendslayer Paladin, and reduced protection down to the core element that's important to this card.


Update:


12 comments:

  1. Reduced protection is a good call, for M14 and for this.

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    1. I'm really glad to see Wizards finally moving away from protection. It's such a bloated, counter-intuitive keyword.

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  2. I like the design, and the idea, but not the vorthos identity... I am not sure Kerveros (three headed dog of Hades, guarding the dead in the lands of the dead) would be green. Otherwise I like the numbers.

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    1. Indeed. This design doesn't seem to care whether this is a one-headed beast or a three-headed one.

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    2. You're probably right it's not necessary, but I like the flavour of the original.

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  3. I could also see this being a pure downside mechanic on a common green or red beater. Flavor isn't as good (and mechanic has been done before), but Kerveros version still makes legends feel kind of bad (they still die).
    Scared Ogre 4R
    Prevent all damage CARDNAME would deal to legendary creatures.
    5/3

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    1. Yeah the 6 power makes it pretty hard for any legends without first strike to survive. I suppose it could 3/3 or something.

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  4. I like this from a design point of view. Unfortunately I'm not sure I'd like it as much a 6/2 that none of creatures can damage is beating down on me in limited.

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  5. creature type: hydra? not every hydra has +1/+1 counters and the iconic link seems a good fit here.
    otherwise this should be bumped up to rare unless there are a whole bunch of legendary creatures with first strike at uncommon, and even then... this should probably be rare.
    as a site note I want to cast Smite the Monstrous on this sooooooo badly.

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    1. Hydra really would fit this rules and flavor text nicely.

      Agreed about Smite the Monstrous.

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  6. Flavor-wise, I think there's a good justification for "Protection from nonlegendary creatures" as opposed to just damage prevention: If only a few heroes can stand against this guy, should you really be able to chump-block him?

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