CCDD 121014—Recanter of Realities & Inevitable Revival
Cool Card Design of the Day 12/10/2014 - These would currently be silver-bordered. I'm not saying they should be black-bordered, but I do think the question is worth examining.
A player can concede with lethal damage pending to reduce the impact of Recanter of Realities. I suppose that makes it pretty bad. Any redeeming value?
A player can concede in response to Inevitable Revival, but that will rarely be reasonable, and I think I'm okay with that.
Inevitable Revival is likely to make an incredibly uninteresting game. If you play it in a control deck, and you stabilize and use your Sphinx's Revelation or Wurmcoil or whatever to get up to 30 life, the next game is just a non-game because the poor aggro deck can never kill you from 50 life.
Boringly, I think the Un set did the right form of this card already, with Patrick Stewart in Double Dip.
Even without the concession loophole the former is way too good. You can put a one-of in any Genesis Wave-esque deck and instantly win the match rather than just game 1, removing the entire post-sideboard weakness of silver bullet combo decks.
The latter is problematic with infinite life combos for the same reason.
T1, Cathedral Sanctifier. 23 life. T2, Inevitable Revival. 27 life. T3, Inevitable Revival. 31 life. Concede. Board out your Cathedral Sanctifiers. Game 2. Start the game with 82 life. Try to cast Inevitable Revival again before hitting lethal so you get the bonus in the next game, too.
If your opponent thinks she can beat your deck in a best-of-1, it's in her best interest to concede game 2 before you can cast a Revival again.
Haha. Nice. Yeah, the ability to concede seems like the nail in the coffin. I suppose these cards could include concession caveats but that's too much mess for a merely neat idea. Well argued, artisans.
Maybe this could be a cycle in the next Conspiracy set
White Privilege Conspiracy (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.) Your starting life total is increased by five.
Blue Privilege Conspiracy (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.) You rstarting and maximum hand size is increased by one.
Black Privilege Conspiracy (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.) At the beginning of your first upkeep, each opponent reveals their hand to you. You choose a nonland card from those cards. Its owner discards that card and draws a card.
Red Privilege Conspiracy (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.) At the beginning of your first upkeep, put a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste onto the battlefield.
Green Privilege Conspiracy (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.) You may play an additional land on your first turn.
Compare Chancellor of the Forge (Red Privilege but only if you choose to keep a hand with a 7-drop in it). Also compare Sentinel Dispatch (like Red Privilege but much worse).
The blue one only seems to be half a Divination, but that's still a big deal when it happens before mulligans. The black one is terrifying. The white one is quite weak relative to the others.
Keep in mind that these don't need to be balanced for Standard or even Limited duels. Since they're conspiracies, they only need to work in a casual multiplayer format like Conspiracy.
Divination puts you +1 card, so this is Divination with upside (it is the card advantage that matters).
These cards do need to be balanced with normal Magic in some sense, in that they need to be in packs with mostly reprints. If the Blue privilege above was in a cube, it would be a higher pick than Ancestral Recall, and that is not a space we need to be putting cards in.
(Sure, Ancestral Recall puts you up two cards instead of one, but it costs a mana, and only works in the games where you draw it. It also locks you into a color. This card is colorless, free, and you automatically get the +1 card bonus.)
The Green one quite literally makes one of your lands a Mox.
White Privilege Conspiracy White Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be white or colorless.) Your starting life total is increased by five.
Blue Privilege Conspiracy Blue Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be blue or colorless.) At the beginning of you first upkeep, draw three cards.
Black Privilege Conspiracy Black Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be black or colorless.) At the beginning of your first upkeep, each opponent reveals their hand to you. You choose a nonland card from those cards. Its owner discards that card and draws a card.
Red Privilege Conspiracy Red Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be red or colorless.) At the beginning of your first upkeep, deal 2 damage to target player.
Green Privilege Conspiracy Green Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be green or colorless.) At the beginning of your first main phase, add {G} to your mana pool.
I think encouraging mono-colored decks in draft (which is the only place Conspiracies will ever appear, I imagine), is a bad idea. It really nerfs your flexibility and choices, which is a large part of the fun of draft. I don't mind the idea of color restrictions, but I would probably do it more subtly, e.g. "Hidden agenda ... Reveal this only if you control 3 or more Mountains. When you reveal this, ~ deals 3 damage to each opponent." or something.
I'm guessing your theory with the Blue one is it seems impressive to draw 3 cards but since it is the first turn you'll probably end up discarding 3 anyway, so it is really just looting? I'd just make that explicit, to avoid abuse "Reveal this to draw a card and then discard a card." (Looting is also very feel bad in the early turns of the game when so many of your cards are good. It is better to let players do it later, I think.)
I had earlier considered:
Another Demonic Consultation
Conspiracy
Before the game begins, exile a card from your sideboard facedown under ~.
2BB, Pay 4 life: Put the card exiled with ~ into your hand.
Cool Card Design of the Day
A player can concede with lethal damage pending to reduce the impact of Recanter of Realities. I suppose that makes it pretty bad. Any redeeming value?
ReplyDeleteA player can concede in response to Inevitable Revival, but that will rarely be reasonable, and I think I'm okay with that.
It's novel, but is it worthwhile for enough players? "Match" doesn't mean anything at the kitchen table.
ReplyDeleteYeah. You could say "next game if it's against the same opponent(s)" but that's more awkward.
DeleteInevitable Revival is likely to make an incredibly uninteresting game. If you play it in a control deck, and you stabilize and use your Sphinx's Revelation or Wurmcoil or whatever to get up to 30 life, the next game is just a non-game because the poor aggro deck can never kill you from 50 life.
ReplyDeleteBoringly, I think the Un set did the right form of this card already, with Patrick Stewart in Double Dip.
Yeah, that's better.
Deletehttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5726
Even without the concession loophole the former is way too good. You can put a one-of in any Genesis Wave-esque deck and instantly win the match rather than just game 1, removing the entire post-sideboard weakness of silver bullet combo decks.
ReplyDeleteThe latter is problematic with infinite life combos for the same reason.
IIRC, Double Dip-style cards were put in Future Sight but cut for being un-implementable on MTGO.
ReplyDeleteAssuming practicality, I'm still not sure these are developable. It's a cool idea, though.
T1, Cathedral Sanctifier. 23 life.
ReplyDeleteT2, Inevitable Revival. 27 life.
T3, Inevitable Revival. 31 life.
Concede. Board out your Cathedral Sanctifiers.
Game 2. Start the game with 82 life. Try to cast Inevitable Revival again before hitting lethal so you get the bonus in the next game, too.
If your opponent thinks she can beat your deck in a best-of-1, it's in her best interest to concede game 2 before you can cast a Revival again.
Haha. Nice.
DeleteYeah, the ability to concede seems like the nail in the coffin.
I suppose these cards could include concession caveats but that's too much mess for a merely neat idea.
Well argued, artisans.
Maybe this could be a cycle in the next Conspiracy set
ReplyDeleteWhite Privilege
Conspiracy
(Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.)
Your starting life total is increased by five.
Blue Privilege
Conspiracy
(Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.)
You rstarting and maximum hand size is increased by one.
Black Privilege
Conspiracy
(Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.)
At the beginning of your first upkeep, each opponent reveals their hand to you. You choose a nonland card from those cards. Its owner discards that card and draws a card.
Red Privilege
Conspiracy
(Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.)
At the beginning of your first upkeep, put a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste onto the battlefield.
Green Privilege
Conspiracy
(Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone.)
You may play an additional land on your first turn.
Most of these are super, super broken. The blue one, for example, is giving you a free Divination, a 3 mana spell.
DeleteCompare Chancellor of the Forge (Red Privilege but only if you choose to keep a hand with a 7-drop in it). Also compare Sentinel Dispatch (like Red Privilege but much worse).
DeleteThe blue one only seems to be half a Divination, but that's still a big deal when it happens before mulligans.
DeleteThe black one is terrifying.
The white one is quite weak relative to the others.
Keep in mind that these don't need to be balanced for Standard or even Limited duels. Since they're conspiracies, they only need to work in a casual multiplayer format like Conspiracy.
Since their color-aligned, I'd love to see some kind of requirement that your deck include at least N spells/lands of that affiliation.
DeleteDivination puts you +1 card, so this is Divination with upside (it is the card advantage that matters).
DeleteThese cards do need to be balanced with normal Magic in some sense, in that they need to be in packs with mostly reprints. If the Blue privilege above was in a cube, it would be a higher pick than Ancestral Recall, and that is not a space we need to be putting cards in.
(Sure, Ancestral Recall puts you up two cards instead of one, but it costs a mana, and only works in the games where you draw it. It also locks you into a color. This card is colorless, free, and you automatically get the +1 card bonus.)
The Green one quite literally makes one of your lands a Mox.
Ahh.
DeleteYup.
Fair.
DeleteWhite Privilege
Conspiracy
White Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be white or colorless.)
Your starting life total is increased by five.
Blue Privilege
Conspiracy
Blue Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be blue or colorless.)
At the beginning of you first upkeep, draw three cards.
Black Privilege
Conspiracy
Black Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be black or colorless.)
At the beginning of your first upkeep, each opponent reveals their hand to you. You choose a nonland card from those cards. Its owner discards that card and draws a card.
Red Privilege
Conspiracy
Red Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be red or colorless.)
At the beginning of your first upkeep, deal 2 damage to target player.
Green Privilege
Conspiracy
Green Aligned (Start the game with this conspiracy face up in the command zone. The color identity of cards in your deck must be green or colorless.)
At the beginning of your first main phase, add {G} to your mana pool.
I think encouraging mono-colored decks in draft (which is the only place Conspiracies will ever appear, I imagine), is a bad idea. It really nerfs your flexibility and choices, which is a large part of the fun of draft. I don't mind the idea of color restrictions, but I would probably do it more subtly, e.g. "Hidden agenda ... Reveal this only if you control 3 or more Mountains. When you reveal this, ~ deals 3 damage to each opponent." or something.
DeleteI'm guessing your theory with the Blue one is it seems impressive to draw 3 cards but since it is the first turn you'll probably end up discarding 3 anyway, so it is really just looting? I'd just make that explicit, to avoid abuse "Reveal this to draw a card and then discard a card." (Looting is also very feel bad in the early turns of the game when so many of your cards are good. It is better to let players do it later, I think.)
I had earlier considered:
Another Demonic Consultation
Conspiracy
Before the game begins, exile a card from your sideboard facedown under ~.
2BB, Pay 4 life: Put the card exiled with ~ into your hand.