Thursday, December 5, 2013

CCDD 120513—Tireless Intruder

Cool Card Design of the Day
12/5/2013 - For this art, I wanted a spirit soldier that would never stop fighting for you. This is meant to be the aggressive half of a Reassembling Skeleton pair. I definitely want to limit it's ability to working on attacks, since an infinite chump-blocker has already been done.


I'm less married to it returning to your hand instead of directly the battlefield, especially since that makes it a bit more like the already-dangerously-similar Gravecrawler, but at uncommon I think the cost is worth it. Plus it combos with extort.

17 comments:

  1. love the flavor of a spirit that relentlessly attacks you until you can exile it somehow. very cool and white/black

    im not sure that wording works written that way. i think you could do:
    When CARDNAME dies, if it attacked an opponent this turn, return it to your hand.

    that way development could also limit its power by changing it to "if it dealt combat damage to an opponent" or something.

    very cool idea tho!

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    Replies
    1. No exiling necessary. You just Shock it during any phase that's not their combat.

      Delete
  2. I'd like to hear why you think this is hybrid W/B when Mortus Strider is multicolor U/B.

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    Replies
    1. honestly i think this card could be R/B. feels like an angry spirit that as long as he is continuously beating you in the head, he comes back for more until you are dead too.

      Delete
    2. Could be black-anything, I suppose. I think I went with white because it's so spirit-y.
      There's nothing blue about Mortus Strider (except that it's useful in a controlling Dimir build).

      Delete
    3. Reminds me a lot of Viashino Sandstalker/Cutthroat.

      Delete
  3. How about "As long as it's your turn, CARDNAME has indestructible"? It's essentially equivalent to your card except that it doesn't require you to re-cast the creature, and it uses a well-established template (see, e.g., Oak Street Inkeeper).

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    Replies
    1. Better in some ways (saving mana), worse in others (doesn't trigger ETB, LTB or Extort triggers). Mostly stronger, overall. Not liking the story quite as well, personally.

      Delete
    2. Good point-- returning from the graveyard is much cooler, and a better flavor match. Also, my design wasn't really black at all.

      Delete
  4. What about:

    "When ~ dies, if it attacked this turn, return it to your hand."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure why it's important that we get him back if the opponent shocks it after combat instead of during, but this template definitely fits Magic, where I'm not sure mine does.

      Delete
  5. Ruby Phoenix 3R
    Creature - Phoenix (u)
    Flying
    When ~ dies while attacking, return it to it's owner's hand.
    3/1

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  6. The straightforward option is just to have it attack every turn if able, or take away its ability to block. Not as exciting in terms of theorycrafting but hey, whatever works...

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  7. When CARDNAME dies, if it was attacking, return it to your hand.

    That uses LKI and is worded pretty simply.

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    Replies
    1. That was my original wording and I decided to explore for brevity, but mine is an outlier and this one fits Magic.

      Delete
  8. I just realized that a variation on this ability would be a great mechanic for a set I'm currently trying to design. Is it OK if I use it?

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  9. I really like this! This is cool! I wonder if it's W/B, not R/B or G/B. I think G/B might make more sense, as the flavour of plant-like zombies would work, but I don't know.

    ReplyDelete