Cool Card Design of the Day4/2/2014 - Based on today's Planeswalker Guide, I wanted to paint a worshiper of Pharika who either uses drugs and poisons to murder others and resurrect herself, or who is rewarded with prolonged life by her god when she poisons someone else.
Was tricky finding a place where she'd be good enough you'd care about recurring her, without being so good that she'll always return, or that bringing her back too much would be completely game-dominating.
I wonder if this is going to have the Mossdog problem where the ability never actually does anything. It certainly won't go quite that far since at some point they have to block or die, but there's not a lot of room to get blocked by a bigger creature and giant growth since that would often let Servant live anyway. I like this in a set with lots of Vampire's Bites.
ReplyDeleteIf this trades with a creature in combat does it come back? I feel like the intent is to finish off a creature post-combat with something like lightning strike in order to recur this, but I honestly don't know what happens if it trades, and I feel like it's going to get misplayed often.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought was "It's clearly intended to come back when it trades", but you're right, there are rules issues with that (which I didn't notice when writing my comment below). What about this?
DeleteB: Return CARDNAME from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only if a creature dealt damage by CARDNAME this turn died this turn.
It's a little clunkier, and I'm not sure it works correctly, but it's at least worth considering.
It's certainly the intent that this comes back from a trade.
DeleteThis is a really nice design-- clear, clever, flavorful, and mechanically interesting. I hope there's a way to make clear that the Servant might not actually be in your graveyard-- I think I see the problem with an intervening if clause, but just saying "you may return..." would be helpful.
ReplyDeleteCool idea, and very awesome with Mortarpod. But I believe this actually doesn't work within the rules, since objects don't retain memories when they change zones.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very strange ability, to be sure.
DeleteThe way she's currently worded, she has to be in the 'yard at the time of the death event for her trigger to work. But 'dies' triggers look back in time, so in the event that she blocks a Deathgreeter, for example, the Deathgreeter's ability (which functions only on the battlefield) triggers once, which logically would mean that her ability, which functions only from the graveyard, wouldn't trigger at all.
I also believe the Mortarpod interaction does not work because the damage is dealt as she last existed on the battlefield and the game counts that as a different object from the one in the 'yard.
Some objects do retain memories when they change zones (otherwise Rancor et al. wouldn't make any sense), but that doesn't seem to be what we're dealing with here.
All rules issues aside, the main thing I dislike about this card is that nothing about her evokes any flavor of "poisons" or "drugs." She feels more like a zombie than anything else.
Was tempted to give her deatchtouch, but then her trigger is trivial. So 3 power on an otherwise 1/1 creature is her poison.
DeleteWell, Rancor only works during a zone change, and that's because it has a triggered ability. In general, I don't think cards in the graveyard can look back and recall what they did back on the battlefield.
DeleteServant of Pharika 1B
ReplyDeleteCreature - Cleric
2B: Regenerate CARDNAME. CARDNAME gains deathtouch until end of turn.
1/1
Servant of Pharika 2B
Creature - Cleric
T: Target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
1/1
Your first Servant of Pharika would just lead to games where nothing happens forever, which is the sort of thing that they (rightfully) try to avoid. Just think how much Sedge Scorpion and Baleful Eidolon slow down games.
ReplyDeleteThe second I like, but for MTGO purposes I want it to be "each opponent" to save on clicks.
Plus its Scholar of Athreos.
DeleteWhenever ~ deals damage to a creature, if both creatures dies this turn, it's owner returns ~ from his or her graveyard to the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteor
When ~ dies, if it dealt damage to another creature this turn, and that creature also dies, return ~ to the battlefield under it's owner's control.
If you break away from the "this turn" conceit, you can have a really cool infect/parasite top down design.
ReplyDeleteWhenever ~ deals damage to a creature, put a soul counter on that creature.
Whenever a creature with a soul counter dies, if ~ is in your graveyard, return it to the battlefield tapped.