Cool Card Design of the Day11/12/2013 - The ability to deal X damage to a creature is not what makes Blaze a strong Limited card. It's the ability to do an unbounded amount of damage directly to your opponent—with the added option to kill a creature instead if circumstances require it—that makes it so strong. So I set about thinking up other ways to Blaze.
This design also has an upside beyond nuking a creature, but it's an and instead of an or. Note that the best case scenario for Respiratory Ignition is actually much higher (kill a creature and deal X damage to your now-blocker-less opponent) but that will rarely happen for high values of X (because boards tend to clog as games go long) and that both halves of this card are dependent on you having a creature and it not getting Doom Blade'd in response.
Too strong? Too weak? Too weird? What do you think?
I like that this feels like the creature takes a deep breath (+X/+0) then exhales (Deal X damage). very cool. WOuld this make more sense if you had the creature fight target creature instead of just doing Direct damage to it?
ReplyDeleteTo be clear:
DeleteDeep Breath (Onyxia reference for WoW fans) XR
Sorcery
Target creature you control gets +X/+0 UEOT. That creature fights target creature.
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ReplyDeleteI think the potential to do 2*X damage total makes this worth more than {X}{R}.
ReplyDeleteReading at first, I assumed it was an "or". As-is, I like it as well! It's a good reward to having excess mana in Limited, and there's combo-fun with either lifelink (obvious) or deathtouch (1R Terror) to give it some extra value on card-evaluation.
ReplyDeleteAt first I assumed that this was an instant (probably because firebreathing can be activated at instant speed). That would probably be too strong at the current cost, though. What about XRR and instant speed?
ReplyDeleteAlso, there's an interesting choice between having the creature deal damage and having the spell deal damage directly. The second option is more powerful because killing the creature doesn't stop the damage, but I agree with your choice of the first option from a top-down point of view.
I think this is strong enough to be XRR, though it would be much weaker since it would cost four mana just to deal 2 damage, so I'd still try pushing it at XR before downgrading.
ReplyDeleteWe could use fight, but since the creature gets +X/+0, I fear that'll often in a 1:2 even if your opponent has no response. Given the history of red creatures that deal damage and spells that make them do it, I think this card is better without fight. But I can imagine a different card that does use fight—it would play along similar to Shrapnel Blast, which is neat.
I prefer this as a sorcery, both thematically and for gameplay reasons. Respiratory Ignition after blockers or in response to removal just feels icky to me.
I think the flavour of this being a deep breath then a big burst of flame is great. There are some weird things like the creature can attack with the bonus that break flavour, but the card itself is too simple, resonant, and cool to mess with.
ReplyDeleteWhat about
ReplyDeleteBreath Fire XR
Sorcery
Target creature you control deals X damage to target creature or player.
Flavor is you use red mana to power your creature and cause it to breathe fire at target. Vorthos Likes it!.
Hidden use: if you have a blue creature out you can get around protection from red. Melvin Likes it!