Tuesday, March 18, 2014

CCDD 031814—Bridge to Anywhere

Cool Card Design of the Day
3/18/2014 - Last June, I proposed a land called Bridge to Anywhere that would help alleviate land screw. Today I offer an updated version that eschews shuffling and is less powerful (which is good, because that makes it more usable at common—the place we want most of our fixing).


I have to explicitly call out that this version doesn't actively fix your colors (there is a chance it will fetch the color you need), where the original version let you get the exact basic land you wanted. Again, this is much less powerful, but the original was somewhat OP.

EDIT: Added renderings of Pasteur and Ipaulsen's variants. Both are faster and less text.

Pasteur's "put them on the bottom in the order you removed them"

Ipaulsen's "just pitch 'em"

20 comments:

  1. This isn't a good fixer, but it is a good pseudo-scry: it helps those opening hands where you think "I could make this work if I draw a land in the first turn or two." Its utility greatly increases if it gets put in a set with landfall.

    I maintain that when a bunch of cards go on the bottom of the library, it should be "any order" to reduce shuffling.

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  2. As Evan sais: It does not really escew shuffling. You shuffle the revealed non-land cards. I would also make it basic land personally.

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  3. It's unfortunate that this template is so texty. I wonder if wizards could eschew "in any order" text without causing problems. That said, I love the gameplay.

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  4. Randomizing the order of 2 or 3 cards cannot be called shuffling, and it doesn't take very long. Certainly less time than actual shuffling.

    That said, I also prefer "any order."

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    1. You could also say "exile cards... until you exile a land card. Put that card on top of your library." That shortens the template, clarifies that the land ends up on top, and makes the physical operation go faster. Exiling the cards doesn't change the gameplay too much, and it's hard to build a degenerate deck with this because Bridge to Anywhere is a land itself.

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    2. Just leave them exile? That saves a lot of words. The downside is that turns off the LSPs who need it most. But that's not a good reason to avoid something entirely, is it?

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    3. I kinda think it is. Losing cards from your library just feels bad.

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    4. Also, do we need more Laboratory maniac enablers?

      4 bridge to Anywhere, simian and elvish spirit guide, lots of 0 artifacets, serum powers, moxes etc... exile almost everything, win?

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    5. Hmm. You have to mulligan/serum powder/bauble into having exactly a Bridge and Maniac in your opening hand. You can Bridge each of the first four turns to set up an empty library during your fourth turn's main phase, and then presumably use a Chromatic Sphere/Chromatic Star to draw the Maniac trigger and win the game. It's a pretty linear combo that requires drawing and protecting a 2U creature without a lot of backup, which makes me think it's inferior to Twin in Modern and Doomsday in Legacy; but at the same time, I can agree that that's definitely not my type of fun.

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    6. Legacy: You can't break what's already broken.

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    7. I was just trying to point out that it would be better if it put cards at the bottom of your library as you reveal them, as per Pasteur's version.

      If you do it that way, however, you could do tunnel vision and laboratory maniac highlander deck. That could be a cool Jhony deck.

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  5. Hmm. I can't think of a number of cards for which it is faster to consider and stack in the order you would rather draw them later than to randomize. A way to speed this up could be some template that meant "in the order that they were revealed", essentially cutting your deck to a land? Maybe:

    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a nonland card, put it on the bottom of your library and repeat this process.
    T: Add 1 to your mana pool.

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    1. The downside to this is that it really doesn't want to have a "may" (I think). It also doesn't contain the phrase "until you reveal a land", which means it will take new players an extra beat to get what the card does. But the speed with which the action can be performed, and the shorter text, I think is worth that (especially as once you have played the card once, you do understand it entirely).

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    2. This is really clever! Pasteur's concern can be addressed by saying "you may reveal," so that doesn't seem like a major issue.

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    3. Good idea, but if you want that, what's wrong with just saying "Put the rest on the bottom of your library in the same order" on the original card?

      I suspect there may be a reason Wizards haven't done that, but I can't see anything obviously wrong with the wording?

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    4. For clarity, jack's solution is best. For brevity, Pasteur's.

      I don't get what's bad about making this process optional.

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    5. Thank you, yeah, that makes sense.

      I'm not sure about "may". FWIW, I find it somewhat odd that the land has a smoothing option which is bad in the late game -- I can imagine people being puzzled if they play the land but don't want to use the ability. But I'm not sure why that's odd.

      Is it a problem if it's not optional, if it means you *have* to put a land on your library -- if they're topdecking, will beginners not realise they should not play the land, or not realise it's not optional?

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    6. My biggest problem with the "may" was that you could begin the process, repeat it X number of times, but stop before hitting a land. But in retrospect, that's not really a broken play, just a weird one. It's easy to overthink these things, and not punishing beginners for playing this late is probably for the best.

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  6. The weirdest thing about this for me is that you don't draw the land, rather, it mandates your next draw. Even if you want more land, there's kind of an annoyance there.

    I think the land should go into your hand. It taps for colorless mana after all, the only reason to use it is for the ability.

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