CCDD 080614—Parade of Gnomes

Cool Card Design of the Day
8/6/2014 - Symmetrical effects are some of the most challenging designs because they tend to look unappealing and the line between too good and too bad is thinner; it can't be balanced by costs alone. There needs to be something about the effect that benefits its caster enough for her to spend the mana and the card to make it happen, but there needs to be a significant cost to abusing it thoroughly. Creatureless decks turn Day of Judgment into a one-sided effect, but playing no creatures means they need to find another way to win, and are vulnerable to decks that can't push through their removal. Anyhow.

You could definitely cut this text half-way and still have an interesting symmetrical card. You can get more value out of your gnomes with Tempered Steel or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, or making your opponent's irrelevant with Ghost Prison or Soulblast. I think I've convinced myself that's all the card should be, but let me explain why I added the second half: It allows a deck to benefit from Parade of Gnomes without any specific combo cards. Simply running more lands is enough to make this version good for you, since your opponent won't be able to upkeep as many gnomes and will end up getting less out of the deal. While it's not strictly necessary, I think that makes the card interesting a lot more often. And it still combos with all those cards, so we shouldn't lose much Johnny love as a result.

Parade of Evil Gnomes is just a darker twist. Instead of simply losing gnomes, you find them killing you. They demand payment in gold or blood. This version is even more self-sufficient. I'm not sure if it's too easy to use, stealing the cleverness from the player, but I wouldn't be surprised. What do you think?