Tuesday, June 3, 2014

CCDD 060314—Elven Traveler

Cool Card Design of the Day
6/3/2014 - I haven't added to my folder of card ideas much this year, and it's starting to dry up. There're a lot of so-so or so-bad cards in there. Here's one where I can at least show a thoughtful improvement.


Elven Traveler can produce any color of mana, but at the "cost" of removing land from your deck (and you including that type of land in the first place). That should mostly only appeal to Spike (though it certainly works well with Deathrite Shaman), but ultimately, shuffling every turn isn't remotely worth the effect.


This version is less powerful, but still useful enough to consider running (It does scry 1 every turn, after all) while hitting the same story.

An Elvish Mystic that sometimes does nothing when you tap it isn't ideal though, so here's a brand new iteration:


And because I found it while making the newest version, and can't remember why I didn't think it was worth sharing, here's the rare version (not sure if this came before or after the uncommon one):


8 comments:

  1. I like the rare version best-- exciting and solves the shuffling problem very cleanly (following Endless Horizons). I especially appreciate the fact it doesn't do an unlimited Mana Severance imitation, and the parallel (intended or not) with Gemstone Mine.

    Another rare version could have you play with the top card of your library revealed and key off of that. Then at least you know when your T ability will do something.

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  2. "This mana doesn't drain from your mana pool until end of turn" is definitely not NWO common.

    Tying the mana directly to the self-mill feels clunky. What about this?
    Elvish Traveler (uncommon)
    G
    Creature - Elf Scout
    T: Put the top card of your library into your graveyard.
    T: Add one mana to your mana pool of any color a land card in your graveyard could produce.
    1/1

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    Replies
    1. I definitely agree that players shouldn't be manipulating libraries as part of a mana ability. I don't think clunky even begins to describe the rule nightmares associated with that sort of behavior. Thank heavens Deranged Assistant isn't good enough to be played in constructed formats, and that one was at least kind enough to take the card from the top of the deck.

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  3. Sylvan Traveler 1G
    Creature - Elf Scout
    When ~ enters the battlefield, name a land card.
    When ~ attacks, you may put a land card with the chosen name from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
    2/1

    Or even more exciting:

    Sylvan Pilgrim G
    Creature - Elf Scout
    When ~ enters the battlefield, name a card.
    When ~ attacks, you may put a land card with the chosen name from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
    1/1

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    Replies
    1. The second could be a rare, but I like the first one best. Should be reasonably safe at uncommon, but if the Limited format doesn't lean toward mono-, maybe even doable at common.

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  4. Elvish Traveler 1G
    Creature - Elf Scout (C)
    When ~ enters the battlefield, you may play an additional land this turn.
    2/1

    ReplyDelete