(I really have to update my MSE - between the new modal templating and its inability to handle P/T - rules text interactions with the M15 frames, my renders are looking jankier than usual)
Demystify could also get rid of other attached things (auras, equipment) in the appropriate colors, but in any set that has enough of [attached thing] matters to make the ability anything more than marginal, they're not going to want it in enough numbers to justify the ability word.
The other area they could explore for hybrid designs is casting instants from the graveyard. This effect would never really be printed at common though (and uncommon is questionable).
Question of the day: If you had to remove a mechanic firmly in White, Red, or Green, and give it to Blue or Black, particularly to expand Dimir Hybrid design space, what mechanic do you reassign and why?
I could see an argument for stripping "regrowth" from green and reallocating it to blue.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you want to give the color that is already the king of card selection even more card selection, in a zone that 3 other colors are supposed to have more interactions with?
DeleteBlue can have its instants and sorceries. Leave green alone.
Straight up "regrowth" is pretty powerful. I move that black retains raise dead effects and blue get "return a non permanent".
ReplyDeleteBlue already gets nonpermanents (and artifacts) from the GY.
DeleteI like demystify. It's a very black way of removing an buff/enchantment. I'd probably still want to change it to "blocks or becomes blocked" instead of a combat damage trigger. There's very little chance that a 2/2 lives through a combat with a creature with any kind of buff, and that really reduces the power level of the ability on small creatures.
ReplyDeleteBlack almost certainly couldn't get demystify for artifacts/enchantments, but green and white would love it. GU or GB could demystify for anything, but not as a hybrid.
DeleteI know you couldn't do this in hybrid as mono-blue can't make this happen, but Demystify made me think of the following:
ReplyDeleteBurden of Mysticism
2UB
Sorcery - Rare
Each creature gets -1/-1 for each counter on it and each permanent attached to it.
In fact, this is possibly just mono-black.
DeleteIt is. I wish black and red would have more cards that punished owning enchantments/artifacts to offset their inability to deal with them directly.
DeleteI felt a good common non-evasion keyword for Blue/Black could be this:
ReplyDeleteHypnotic (As long as this blocks or is blocking a creature, that creature loses all abilities unless it has hypnotic.)
I think changing P/T is probably not good for common, but losing abilities in combat probably works fine. Templating may be off. I think the only point of confusion would be when the effect wears off.
As always, the problem with removing abilities is */*s. Tarmogoyf or Nightmare blocks a hypnotic creature: what happens? Getting to outright kill them (by setting * to 0 as would currently happen) feels a bit good, but maybe it's not a problem?
Delete*/*s make up such a small subsection of creatures (and they're pretty much never common), so I wouldn't anticipate that being a huge hurdle to this ability. I'm more concerned with activated pump abilities from a NWO perspective - As a relatively new player would they get the timing interactions between a firebreathing creature being blocked by a hypnotic creature? What about a firebreathing creature that was pumped before blockers were declared? Will they assume it returns to base PT?
DeleteInteresting though. I'd test it.
DeleteThought Shackles (common)
ReplyDelete{ub}
Instant
Look at target player's hand. Name a nonland card. Your opponents can't cast spells with the chosen name this turn.
Draw a card.
Graveyard Fiend (uncommon)
{ub}{ub}
Creature - Skeleton
CARDNAME can't be exiled.
2/2
Dimir Demagogue (rare)
{4}{ub}{ub}{ub}
Creature - Shapeshifter
You may have CARDNAME enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it gains "When this creature enters the battlefield, gain control of all creatures that share a name with it."
0/0
All good and interesting space to play in, but do any of them warrant two or more cards with that mechanic in the set?
DeleteI'm not convinced it's a sensible decision for gameplay, but First strike is a much better flavor fit for black than white or red. It's subtle; it's underhanded; and it doesn't care about "fairness."
ReplyDeleteMoving first strike to black doesn't help out {U/B} hybrid though, since it's still way out of blue's pie. Unless you're saying to take it out of white and red and move it into both blue and black?
DeleteWhat about double strike? Would that stay in white and red, or move to blue and black as well?
Well I don't hate the flavor in blue either since it feels like "clever fighting," but the other side of the coin is that in gameplay terms it's "being good at creature combat" which definitely isn't blue's wheelhouse.
DeleteEven if we did such a move, double strike is a tough nut to crack because it's both better first strike and a mechanic that plays very differently (more offensive than defensive, all in with pump spells, etc.). I really like it in red, but I'm convinced it needs to be in a subset of first strike colors and having red and black get first strike just exacerbates the issue of them already having too much overlap. Like I said in the first comment: I'm not convinced the flavor improvement is worth the gameplay costs.
I think I like it better in (bg), but one option is to take a page out of Mortus Strider's book.
ReplyDeleteDecoy (When ~ dies you may pay its mana cost, if you do, return it to its owner's hand.)
This could work well in blue or black, with completely different flavours: black can have it flavoured as undead that don't stay dead, while blue can have magical constructs, illusions and suchlike, that are easy to literally recast. It's possible that both of them could make it work with the sneaky "decoy" flavour too, but I'm not sure.
DeleteParalytic (Whenever ~ deals damage to a creature, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.)
ReplyDeleteStill my vote for an added blue evergreen keyword.
DeleteWho would get it secondarily? White? Black?
DeleteWhite has a little precedent (Kor Hookmaster), as does green (Matsu-Tribe Sniper and other Kamigawa snakes). Of the two, blue and green already share hexproof and flash, so white would make more sense in terms of colour-pair needs; white and blue are the best flying colours, but it'd be nice to have an alternative white-blue mechanic. "Stun" was the nickname in Kamigawa, and would work as a name that's suitable both for white and blue flavour. The trick would be to make white make rather different use of the ability than blue.
DeleteYou could justify any color except red via the flavor. I chose the name 'paralytic' above to suggest it would be black as well as blue, but green did this a lot in Kamigawa, and white could do it too thanks to detain and tappers.
Delete