Cool Card Design of the Day7/23/2015 - Today's mechanic is an iteration (appropriately enough) on yesterday's. At face-value, reverberate is comparable to rebound, but when you can fill your graveyard with reverberate cards without casting them, then getting their 'flashback' for free becomes broken.
Improve looks to tighten up that loophole by requiring a payment to 'flashback' and limiting the trigger so that it augments only copies of itself.
With those limitations in place, I was able to remove the exile clause, allowing players to recast the card every time they cast the original. The resulting mechanic is something between Kindle and kicker, and I think strongly evokes the sense that you are mastering this particular spell.
I think there's not currently a way to cast any given copy in your graveyard more than once per new spell cast, but I wouldn't be surprised to be shown wrong. If you believe it is possible, I invite you to explain how and find a better template.
We could theoretically have an improve cost of {0}. Not sure we could ever warrant that below rare, though, and even there it seems tricky to develop.
I'm not proposing all five of these cards comprise the first common cycle for the mechanic, because we'd want to save innovations like this one for later sets or higher rarities, just demonstrating a couple variations.
This variant is my favorite. The front side of the card is pretty weak, but could be worthwhile in the right deck provided you have multiples. But the back-side if you go all-in is such a fun story. Maybe the hellion should even get haste?
EDIT: Added some rares:
This is so much more powerful than the previous version it concerns me it will be like drafting Ripple cards, which was very unpopular (and the mechanic doesn't do much in constructed, since you can have at most 4 copies in 60 cards).
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction is that I liked yesterday's version better, but I may change my mind after I let it simmer.
You wouldn't play a Shock that's two Shocks the second time you cast it in Standard?
DeleteIf you cost it aggressively enough that I'd play it without Improve, obviously I'd play it in Standard. Would development aim these cards at Standard? Probably not, these cards are incredibly high variance and that won't appeal to most tournament players.
DeleteIf I were to aim one of these cards at Standard, it would be one that encouraged you to reduce the variance with lots of self-mill for late game value. That reduces the variance and encourages interesting deck building.
(Is the game where you're playing an aggro deck and your opponent's opening hand has two of the Improve Shock fun?)
I think this is a neat space, I just think the previous iteration seemed more fun and more likely to impact limited and constructed in interesting ways.
PS: I really feel like Gather the Wolf Pack should be Black and make zombie tokens.
This seems like a strong, technically interesting mechanic, but it really doesn't excite me? What's the scenario where this makes it past development, through a draft environment and into my deck successfully? That I cast the same spell three to six times in one game? Is that a good reward for all of the work that would have to happen to get there? Would that even be a good reward if it was easy to implement?
ReplyDeleteMy thought is no.
You wouldn't play Gathering Wolf Pack in Limited?
DeleteI would play several of these cards, especially Gathering Wolf Pack. You're right, I should clarify. As a Spike this is a fine mechanic that would lead to me winning games, but at least some of those games would be from my opponents playing bad Improve cards in their deck.
DeleteWhat I mean is that if the format this was printed in made Improve a reliable source of card advantage, I think that format would be fundamentally repetitive. If it wasn't a reliable source of card advantage, and only triggered once in a while, is it worth it? That part I'm less sure about, but it seems like it would be Spell Mastery at best, and I currently don't consider Spell Master at all when I'm drafting a card.
Kindle was interesting but not exactly exciting. It doesn't really play as well as people always think it does. Devin and Tommy have said pretty much my thoughts on the matter.
ReplyDeleteI think Reverberate is similarly interesting, because it attacks a deck-building angle we've never seen before, but it's a lot more exciting since you're more likely to actually be able to use the effect again without warping your draft.
I made a similar ability called Lore (When you cast this, you may copy it for each card in all graveyards with the same name. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
ReplyDeleteIt's meant for small standalone set like Coldsnap, drafted with 3 packs. Where players are expected to get many copies of some commons.
This is very different than Kindle and Ripple. Ripple is very luck-based in that you hope to hit the copies in the top 4 cards of your library. Kindle et al. increases in effect, but it's weak in that it's a single spell (can be countered by a single counterspell) and it doesn't allow multiple targets.
Lore bypasses these downsides. You can see how many copies are in the graveyards, so you don't have to guess how many copies you get. The spell is copied and you can choose new targets for the copies.
Lore doesn't require an extra cost. So the initial cost is slightly higher, but late game it's better value to get the copies for free. Also without extra costs, it's easier to grok and strategize.
examples:
Pass the Torch {2}{R}
Instant
Pass the Torch deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Lore (When you cast this, you may copy it for each card in all graveyards with the same name. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
For storm or combo decks, this card produces extra mana beyond the first copy:
Fire Ceremony {1}{R}
Instant
Add {R}{R} to your mana pool.
Lore (When you cast this, you may copy it for each card in all graveyards with the same name. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
IMHO Lore sounds very flavorful. With fitting card names like Chilling Mystery, Epic Adventure, Horror Story, Groundbreaking News, Fact Check, etc.
Nice!
DeleteLore's definitely safer around Storm.
Is it just me, or is something wrong with the wording? I read that whenever you cast a card with the same name, you can cast your card in the graveyard infinite times...
ReplyDeleteHow do you get infinite?
Delete"When you cast a spell with the same name you can cast this card from the graveyard" After you cast it from the graveyard, it is still in your graveyard, it never went to another zone, so all the conditions are still met. So you can cast it again. The only restrain is your mana
ReplyDeleteI believe this template actually works as intended. It's a triggered effect, so it will happen exactly once.
DeleteTo clarify: it doesn't trigger off itself, because when you cast the spell, it's on the stack. It won't be back in the graveyard until it resolves.
DeleteBut why would the ability end? It was in your graveyard and it still is in your graveyard. The card dit not get any other propperties when you cast it, so why can you not cast it again?
DeleteBecause the trigger already came and went. It's not an on-going effect.
DeleteI much prefer the older reverberate to this improve. This tells casuals "Don't bother putting me in a deck unless you have 4 of me", and removes all the fun deckbuilding constraints/rewards that excited me as a Johnny.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't play 3 of these?
DeleteI'd play them in limited, sure. I'd feel rather put off playing a constructed deck, even casual, with only 3. It'd be like playing Affinity with only 1 Ravager.
Delete