Cool Card Design of the Day9/3/2014 - In a duel, this card simply must attack each turn. In multiplayer, it serves a similar goal as dethrone, though as a drawback rather than a bonus. While the opponent with the most life isn't always the biggest threat at the table, this can backfire just as easily, forcing you to pick on a player who is mana-screwed. Pouncing Almedon also doesn't give you any particular reason to play it in multiplayer, but printing it in a multiplayer product would be sufficient.
Indeed, indeed, just as a common
ReplyDeleteAfter playing Conspiracy with some very new players, I appreciated the design of dethrone being pure upside instead of pure downside, where it would have been so easy to be a "must attack" instead.
ReplyDeleteIt made people value it more highly, gave new players direction for what to do, promoted ending the game, and avoided feel-bad moments.
A dethrone-like version of this would work in 2-player magic too.
DeleteIt would be a neat way for Red to exercising its tendency to punish large hand size.
Whenever Pouncing Almedon attacks the player with the most cards in hand, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
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There's a nice side effect to making this all upside (which is of course a huge gain by itself): We can now look at the controller's handsize as well, simplifying the wording, and giving your opponent an out.
Assuming this is {1}{R}: that's a very good card for an aggressive deck. But I guess it goes unpredictably bad in the mirror or against another aggressive deck, which is pretty interesting.
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