Cool Card Design of the Day2/25/2015 - Simian Pugilist has a strange form of evasion. If you've got no cards or your opponent knows you have no instants somehow, then it does nothing, but most of the time it threatens to let you Giant Growth or Necrobite for free. What Pugilist threatens is limited only by your deck (and not by color). Of course, you can only play what's in your hand, but your opponent rarely knows that.
While posting this it occurred to me that putting no ceiling on this effect might be too dangerous, but searching up all the biggest green combat tricks turned up nothing broken. Become Immense is the most expensive but it doesn't grant trample (and was balanced for use with delve anyhow).
This mechanic reminds me of a keyword I proposed for blue two years ago, attuned.
EDIT: This template is much better.
And this card reverses which benefit it gives you, but serves the same goal in another very interesting way, care of Wobbles:
My dream is to put Eldrazi Conscription on it, but I suspect I could dream bigger!
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me that, though I'm pretty sure that is legal with this template (but I don't swear anything), you probably don't mean for that to be legal.
DeleteRight, my intention was to subvert mana costs, not timing restrictions.
DeleteI'm curious how to template that, actually. You'd think it would be the default, but looking at the reminder text for cascade I think the opposite is true. Of course you could say "instant" but that misses stuff like Feral Invocation.
Delete"...you may cast spells that target it without paying their mana costs this turn."
DeleteWhile Simian Pugilist is blocked, spells that target it cost you {0} to cast.
DeleteBeautiful Jay! Or maybe more standardish "You may pay 0 instead of..."
DeleteI vastly prefer it being able to subvert timing restrictions. Not only does it play more intuitively, but it really ups the Johnny potential
DeleteThat's a really cool card too, and serves basically the same purpose.
Delete"While Pugilistic Simian is blocked, you may cast spells that target it as though they had flash."
I would consider taking it all the way to "you may cast an aura targeting it as though it had flash", maybe? More restrictive, but clearer-themed for LSPs. I'd have to know which wording read more intuitively for newer players.
DeleteNow that I'm past templating issues, the only issue I see with this (very elegant) design is that the ability happens when you have all of your mana open (that is, when you're attacking). Thus, this only actually gets you anywhere if you have a trick and another play you couldn't make if you paid for the trick.
ReplyDeletePerhaps something like "Instant spells cost you 3 less to cast if an opponent is attacking you with one or more creatures," would give a similar tension?
That is a downside (though it does let you cast a {3}{B} trick when you just have two forests, for instance).
DeleteThe reason I didn't make it defensive is that we generally don't want to give players more reasons not to attack. But there might be an environment where that would be good. Certainly, it will feel better to get a free spell when you're tapped out.
Definitely agree about not wanting to stall things out.
DeleteMaybe something like "attacked by exactly one creature" or something avoidable?
Making it something avoidable is a clever solution.
DeleteIt's still a bit harder to get excited about a card that if you leave back might influence how your opponent attacks. Super-passive.
That is why I was suggesting (and admittedly this isn't super clear because I never wrote up a full card) removing the "that targets this" and just hit any instant if that change was made, which was also why I switched to 3 cheaper.
DeleteThis feels like if it isn't broken now, it will break. All it takes is some sort of fatty with a weird targeting trigger...
ReplyDeleteI actually love the ability. I think it could be a really cool keyword. But it worries me. If I were at WotC I would playtest it and hand it to development for them to try to bust it. I think it's really good.
Ultimately, it's a 2/2 for two your opponent can simply choose not to block. Even with a Lure on it, I can just keep my creatures tapped. Or, y'know, Shock it. I don't think this can be broken.
DeleteI'm with Jay. Two mana Phantom Warrior isn't going to break the game forever. What all this discussion proves is that this card will look exciting to players. That doesn't mean we should disregard what it can cast; if they're too good players will never get to actually trigger it because their opponents are too afraid to block.
DeleteAnything that cheap that says, "play without paying its mana costs" can be a problem. I would hate to discover it couldn't be printed as is. I think it's great.
DeleteThere will be no decks that run this as the main theme. So first you'll need this creature. Then you need a cool spell to put on it. Then you have to make your opponent block it. So if your combo is to strong, the will never help you with that. Its to difficult to pull it of. While in limited this will be super interesting, as you dont know if they have anything serieus to work with it.
ReplyDeleteThe only isue in have with it: its too complicated for a common and maybe even uncommen, but barely strong enough for a rare