Cool Card Design of the Day2/4/2014 - We've seen various iterations of this card before, including M13GA's Blood in the Water and the recent WAC submission Fatal Flaw. I don't like Finishing Blow better than Blood in the Water, because that card undoes the implicit card disadvantage of this effect, but this one has the benefit that you can combo it with global -1/-1 effects or cheap semi-removal like Weakness so that you at least don't lose a creature in the deal.
That extra line about toughness is awkward, but it's thematic (and mechanically relevant to the color). More importantly, it's not pushing tricky text into incomprehensibility, but easy text into (mild) trickiness.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=16623
ReplyDeleteSurprising close to an existing card. I do not know if the little extra flavor is worth the wording akwardness on the new implementation, even though jhonies would like it more this way.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: If I have Night of Soul's Betrayal out (or Curse of Death's Hold or Illness in the Ranks or whatever), does this card work on a 2/2 my opponent just played? How about a 2/2 that's been out for more than one turn? I don't know the answer and that concerns me.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think the second part of the condition is more trouble than it's worth, especially in light of Ben's comment.
ReplyDeleteIt may well be not worth adding, especially with such a similar card already existing in Fatal Blow. That said, don't take the way it's worded above as gospel. There's always another way to template something that does make the answer to questions like Ben's more clear. The intention is that if any effect is lowering the creature's toughness, it's vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteDestroy target creature that has been the target of another spell or ability this turn.
ReplyDeleteExcept that strays into illusion territory.
Illusionary Existence U
Instant (Unc)
Until end of turn, target creature gains "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it."
Neat. Even though that's been going on blue creatures lately, it's probably still a black effect. (The original skulk was black after all)
DeleteI think an instant with this will work similarly in most cases. Not sure if it's clearer or not though.
ReplyDelete"Target creature gets -0/-X until end of turn where X is it's toughness - 1."
Ironically, the simpler template does what we want but only for players who know how layering works:
Delete"Target creature's toughness becomes 1 until EOT."