Cool Card Design of the Day12/15/2014 - Last week I posted four R-D dragons and Evan made an important observation: "The white, blue, and black ones all feel like they could be monocolored examples of those colors' respective iconics." And he was dead-on. The white one could easily be a mono-white angel; the blue one would make an odd sphinx, but is monoblue; and the black one would be an unusal demon but is monoblack. Clearly, these dragons have to feel as red as they do their second color, and they have to feel more like dragons than not.
Here's another go:
Better? They're still very strong. While I could see some of these as angels, sphinxes or demons, I can't see them as being mono-colored.
I like where you're going with this, but now you point it out, they still feel like they could be more dragon-y... Maybe each have firebreathing, plus an ability that combos with it (even though I normally wouldn't suggest a rare cycle needed a shared ability like that)?
ReplyDeleteLifelink kind of combos with firebreathing. What else?
DeleteI like this idea:
DeleteThe Green one could have firebreathing and fight
The Blue one could have firebreathing and UR: reveal the first card of your library: you can cast it for free if it is an instant or sorcery spell that costs less than half the power of CARDNAME rounded down.
The white one indeed combos well with firebreathing
The black one could be similat to the blue one:
BBR: you may return target creature in a graveyard with power inferior to half of CARDNAMES power rounded down to the battlefield under your control. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at EOT.
My shot at "firebreathing matters": use the riders as second-color tap abilities that care about firebreathing in situations where it's not profitable to attack.
DeleteCleric's Dragon
3WR
Creature - Dragon - Rare
Flying
R: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
3W, T: Gain life equal to CARDNAME's power.
4/4
Archer's Dragon
3RG
Creature - Dragon - Rare
Flying
R: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
3G, T: CARDNAME deals damage equal to its power to another target creature with flying.
4/4
Wizard's Dragon
3UR
Creature - Dragon - Rare
Flying
R: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
3U, T: Target player puts X cards from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is equal to CARDNAME's power.
4/4
Banshee's Dragon
3BR
Creature - Dragon - Rare
Flying
R: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
3B, T: Destroy target creature with converted mana cost X or less, where X is CARDNAME's power.
4/4
Judge still feels like a monowhite angel (albeit a very oppressive one). Red doesn't get "damage to attacking or blocking only" except on red-white hybrid cards.
ReplyDeleteSeer could pass as a monoblue sphinx, since it doesn't use red's "exile, cast until eot" fake card draw and blue cares about instants and sorceries just as much as red (see: both Izzet mechanics).
Wraith isn't monored due to deathtouch. Black can get plusses on the front end with minuses on the back, but as removal it generally goes for -/-, while red does Flowstone; so good on the dual color with this one.
Hunter actually feels like it doesn't need the green now, because red is secondary in trample and monogreen doesn't get big fliers.
White doesn't really get "damage to attacking or blocking only" outside of red-white cards anymore, but I agree it still feels more white. I do disagree that it feels more angelic than draconic.
DeleteI don't know that limiting the UR dragon's spells makes it less red, but formally switching to the red exile&cast template is definitely smart.
Red is also secondary in fight, but a creature as good at fighting as this still feels green to me. Hmm, if we skip trample, what keyword would work? Vigilance seems strange. Haste is only tertiary in green. Awkward.
Red-green could have Cost: Loses flying and gains lure target thing UEOT. That's convoluted enough to feel like green removal and makes trample more relevant too.
DeleteMy whack at multicolor dragons that feel a little more "dragony":
ReplyDeleteAshbark Dragon 3RG
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying, haste
Whenever Ashbark Dragon attacks, it deals 3 damage to another target creature. If a creature dies in this way, you may search your library for a Forest card and put that card onto the battlefield. If you did, shuffle your library.
4/4
Battalion's Mascot 3RW
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying
Whenever Battalion’s Mascot deals combat damage to a player, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
3R, Tap X untapped creatures you control: Battalion’s Mascot deals X damage to target creature.
4/4
Bloodgreed Dragon 3RB
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying, lifelink
Whenever another creature dies, put a hoard counter on Bloodgreed Dragon.
XR, Remove X hoard counters from Bloodgreed Dragon: Bloodgreed Dragon deals X damage to target creature or player.
4/4
Runescale Dragon 4UR
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying
Whenever you would draw a card, you may exile it face-down instead.
1UR: Reveal a card exiled by Runescale Dragon at random. If it is a spell, you may cast it without paying its mana cost. Otherwise, draw a card.
5/5
Some of them are a little bit wonky, and less "dragony" than others, but hey.
If Ashbark Dragon grabbed a Mountain instead of a Forest he'd not only be mono-red but very red.
DeleteBattalion's Mascot's first ability feels more red than white to me (inspiring new recruits through awesome attacks), and its second ability feels both red and white (white because of the creature tapping cost, and red because it can hit whatever whenever). Mechanically I think this is close, though my inner Vorthos isn't convinced an allied Dragon will be the thing to organize your army into a ballista squadron.
Why's Runescale Dragon bigger? To make up for how random its ability is?
This is a hard cycle to design, right?
But this was a good stab. Better than my first, for sure.
DeleteIt is quite hard xD I was also going off flavor, Ashbark Dragon was supposed to be a sort of "forest fire" type effect, cleaning out creatures to allow for new Forests to grow. The Battalion Mascot is being inspired by its battalion to attack more than organizing your army into a ballista squad. It also wasn't supposed to be a hard 5 CMC 4/4 cycle, just turned out that way for 3 of the 4 which didn't help xD
DeleteWraith's Dragon would feel more Black-Red if the ability was BR: If ~ is attacking, creatures defending player controls get -0/-1 until and of turn and ~ gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
ReplyDelete(that template could sure use work).
Victor's Dragon 4WR
ReplyDeleteCreature - Dragon
Flying, haste
When ~ deals damage to an opponent, untap and put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
4/4
Seer's Dragon 4UR
Creature - Dragon
Flying, haste
When ~ deals damage to an opponent, draw a card.
4/4
Witch's Dragon 4BR
Creature - Dragon
Flying, haste
When ~ deals damage to an opponent, search you library for a creature card and put it into your graveyard. Then shuffle your library.
Druid's Dragon 4RG
Creature - Dragon
Flying, haste
When ~ deals damage to an opponent, untap all lands you control.
4/4
I think putting "When ~ deals damage to an opponent" effects on high power evasive creatures is not very exciting. Oh look, I get to do these cool things. What, you're dead? That's too bad. I think 4 is probably the absolute upper bound on power for such cards, and probably it would be more exciting with a different trigger.
DeleteNote: I do think this is a good way to make cards that impress Timmy but end up being at most fringe playable in draft: Giant Adephage, Liege of the Tangle, Lord of the Void, ..., but I'm not sure that that is a good target to aim at.
I really like the idea of 4 fire-breathing dragons that have a non-red ability that pairs well with fire-breathing.
ReplyDeleteMy shot at it:
Dragon of War 3WR
Creature - Dragon
Flying
R: +1/+0 UEOT
2W: CARDNAME gains first strike UEOT
5/5
Dragon of the Wilds 3RG
Creature - Dragon
Flying
R: +1/+0 UEOT
2G: CARDNAME gains trample UEOT.
5/5
Dragon of Blood 3BR
Creature - Dragon
Flying
R: +1/+0 UEOT
2B: CARDNAME gains lifelink UEOT.
5/5
Dragon of the Mist 3UR
Creature - Dragon
Flying
R: +1/+0 UEOT
2U: CARDNAME gains Hexproof (or becomes unblockable but that is way strong) UEOT.
5/5
Nice.
DeleteThe second ability costing 3 hurts its synergy with firebreathing quite a bit. I'd say they could all be static abilities, but the blue one then becomes too good. Of course, that's the one that doesn't combo with firebreathing anyhow. Maybe Scry X = combat damage dealt to opponent?