Tuesday, December 2, 2014

CCDD 120214—Volcanic Musing

Cool Card Design of the Day
12/2/2014 - Explosive Revelation meets Act on Impulse. Inspired by Reuben's Flare of Inspiration.

Sometimes you get one spell and sometimes you get a land as well. My favorite thing is that the less damage the revealed spell causes, the more likely you are to afford to cast it.



23 comments:

  1. It's neat but I think it's probably too good. It makes Erratic Explosion look a bit sad, and Erratic Explosion isn't terrible. Maybe bump up the cost.

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    1. {3}{R} might be correct.
      In fact, considering the similarity to Treasure Hunt, I think you're right. {1}{R}{R} is most likely too cheap.
      The concern being that Act on Impulse gets a lot worse the more it costs.

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    2. Another option to help keep this cheap is to divorce it from Erratic Explosion and limit it to hitting either creatures or players. Admittedly I do like it better with both modes so that players can dream of the big burn-out finish, but because they have it in their decks for that, they get the suspense of targeting a creature when it's their only option.

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  2. I like it a lot.

    But I think it might be doing too much. Just giving you a non-land card with "damage and cast it" would be interesting by itself. I agree, it's really nice that the two upsides trade off against each other.

    And reveal until non-land, play any number is interesting, with the drawback that it's a bit confusing that it says "any number" when in reality, it will almost never be more than two.

    I'm not sure if it's too busy to have both on the same card.

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    1. Volcanic Musing and Act on Impulse don't say "any number."

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  3. I think there are just too many lines of text for that to be the right version of the card, but I am reluctant to lose any of them. I'm not as convinced as most that it is overcosted, though the mode where you get the free land doesn't feel super Red in this case (even though it is something red gets with exile-draw).

    Here's my Red card of the day:

    Helpful Familiar R

    Creature - Lizard

    You may look at the top card of your library.

    R, Sacrifice ~: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.

    1/1

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    1. I didn't put on a rarity because I could conceive of this in just about any rarity.

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    2. I like it. Common if it didn't Sphinx.

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    3. Agree, though without the Sphinx part I don't think anyone is putting it in their deck, and I'd like to see how the two effects play together.

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    4. In my mind the sphinxing undermines the redness of the other effect. It's all about looking ahead. I could see this as a multicolored card, but not as is. Also, I'd play this without the sphinxing in a draft environment with a lot of 2/1s. 1/1s are generally unplayable because they get outclassed too quickly, but later on you have plenty of mana to turn this into a card.

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    5. I also wondered about the redness, but I don't think it is a problem as long as it doesn't always use the mechanic this way. Not everything Red has to be totally random. And this is still very random, you get to decide if it is worth activating the ability, but you don't get any sway over what the card there is.

      For what its worth, if this was more efficient or somehow repeatable, I could see making this RU, but I think I stand by this version as monored for now.

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    6. As a red player who enjoys taking blind leaps, I'd much prefer this goblin didn't have prescience. That it cycles is still pretty good.

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    7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    8. are R cost are too cheap? it has 2 ability u know.
      the second ability is certainly red.
      however red hardly get an ability to peek on top library though.
      maybe it should UR?

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    9. Any color can get this ability. See Lens of Clarity.

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    10. Artifact abilities != Any color abilities

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    11. I considered making a clarifying post, I agree in general, the existence of Jayemdae Tome doesn't mean we can print unconditional card draw in any color.

      However, the existence of something as the throw away half of a one cost artifact suggests its use is, to say the least, not overly restricted.

      I suspect people would like it better if it was "Play with the top card of your library revealed" because then it isn't strictly an upside and has a more "screw the consequences" kind of feeling to it, but I felt that might somewhat take away from the fun of nabbing a counter spell or just the right instant off the top of your library (something that would never happen with the blind version people are suggesting).

      Also, just generally, I've never understood why Future Sight/Oracle of Mul Daya/etc reveal the top card instead of letting you look at it.

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    12. For those of you who like the blind chance aspect, I think that works well on something Timmy like:

      Spellbreather Dragon 4RR
      Creature - Dragon (M)
      Flying

      R: Exile the top card of your deck. If it is an instant or sorcery card, you may play that card as though it had flash. Activate this ability only if ~ is attacking.

      4/4

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    13. well, i don't mean red never get any ability that can peek top cards, i mean sitting around and give ppl an active ability isn't really a red type of card. Red, well... basically aggresive.
      you should see red's peeking ability on Sigiled Skink. where as it must attack to get a scry. :)
      im also don't really understand why do green get to peek top library anyways, perhaps they're related to Druid like maybe.

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  4. I like the card! Too many words for a simple card, so I think it'll have to wait till one of those actions is keyworded.

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