Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Zeffrikommons Part 4: Ash to Bone

Hello? Is this thing on? 1-2, 1-2?

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Oh no, that won't do at all. Let's just turn these up a bit…
  1. Small Creature 
  2. Small Creature 
  3. Small Creature 
  4. Small Creature 
  5. Small Creature 
  6. Small Creature 
  7. Small Creature 
  8. Small Creature 
  9. Medium Creature 
  10. Medium Creature 
  11. Medium Creature 
  12. Medium Creature 
  13. Aura 
  14. Aura 
  15. Instant 
  16. Instant 
  17. Instant 
  18. Sorcery 


Much better. Now, let's see here. I think the head dude may have made a diagram or something with some directions here…

Alright, can you guys start unloading those cases over there? We should have everything we need to put this thing together. Just take this list and set each item aside until we're ready to use it: 

  • 1x Vanilla 
  • 1x French Vanilla 
  • 4-6x Virtual [french] Vanilla 
  • - 
  • 1-4x Flying creatures 
  • 1x Vigilance creatures 
  • 0-1x First strike creatures 
  • 0-1x Defender creatures 
  • 0-1x Lifelink creatures 
  • 0-1x Instants that grant any of those keyword abilities 
  • - 
  • 1x creature or spell that destroys enchantments and/or artifacts 
  • 1x creatures that lets you tap an opponent's creature, possibly repeatedly. 
  • 0-2x creatures and/or spells that gain you life 
  • 0-1x creatures that gives itself or something else a +1/+1 counter 
  • 1x creature or spell that puts small creature tokens onto the battlefield 
  • 0-1x pacifism/o-ring style enchantment (can be uncommon) 
  • 1x instant/sorcery soft creature destruction/exile 
  • 1-2x instants that grant a single creature +*/+* 
  • - 
  • More Cowbell 
  • - 
  • 4-7x creatures or spells that directly involve set-specific mechanics 
  • 1x DFC creature 
  • 1x Bravado creature 
  • 1x excavate 
  • 1x trap matters 
  • 1x trap 
  • 2x equipment matters 
  • 1x quest 
  • 1x plains matters card 
  • 1x forest or island matters card 

Perfect, perfect. Guys, I know it looks like a mess now, but it's like a puzzle. Once you start fitting things together it will make a lot more sense.

  1. Glory Seeker - 1W Human Soldier - 2/2 (Reprint) (Vanilla Cycle) 
  2. Medium Creature - Flying (French vanilla cycle) 
  3. Small Creature - (DFC Cycle) - can be either design option based on which archetype needs more representation 
  4. Kor Outfitter - WW - Kor Soldier - 2/2 - When Kor Outfitter enters the battlefield, you may attach target Equipment you control to target creature you control. (Reprint) 
  5. Small Creature - Bravado 
  6. Small Creature - Kor - As long as ~ is equipped, … 
  7. Small Creature - When ~ enters the battlefield, if an opponent controls more lands than you, search your library for a plains card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. 
  8. Small Creature - ally landtype matters 
  9. Small Creature 
  10. Medium Creature - Trap matters 
  11. Medium Creature - ETB destroy artifact or enchantment 
  12. Medium Creature - 3x tokens, or two if attached to a creature 
  13. Aura - excavate 
  14. Enchantment - quest 
  15. Instant - Trap 
  16. Instant - Target gets +*/+* and possibly a keyword 
  17. Instant - Soft creature removal 
  18. Sorcery - Gain life equal to the number of Plains you control. 

Man, no matter how many times I put this rig together or take it apart, I always forget how crowded it feels as it's going up. You two can start putting in the fixtures over there.

  1. Glory Seeker - 1W Human Soldier - 2/2 (Reprint) (Vanilla Cycle) 
  2. Medium Creature - Flying (French vanilla cycle) 
  3. Small Creature - When a creature you control dies, transform ~ // [bigger] (DFC Cycle) 
  4. Kor Outfitter - WW - Kor Soldier - 2/2 - When Kor Outfitter enters the battlefield, you may attach target Equipment you control to target creature you control. (Reprint) 
  5. Small Creature - Vigilance, Bravado 
  6. Small Creature - Kor - As long as ~ is equipped, it gets +1/+1. 
  7. Small Creature - When ~ enters the battlefield, if an opponent controls more lands than you, search your library for a plains card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. 
  8. Small Creature - ~ gets +1/+1 and has prowess as long as you control an Island. 
  9. Small Creature - T: Tap target creature unless its controller pays 4. 
  10. Medium Creature - Whenever you cast a trap spell, ~ gains lifelink until end of turn. 
  11. Medium Creature - When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact or enchantment. 
  12. Medium Creature - When ~ dies, put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield. 
  13. Aura - When ~ enters the battlefield, excavate 1. Enchanted creature has vigilance and "Whenever you excavate, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn." 
  14. Quest - Enchantment - Whenever you gain life, you may sacrifice ~ and return target creature with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. 
  15. 2W Instant - Trap - If an opponent is attacking with any number of creatures that have a total power of 5 or more, you may pay 0 rather than pay ~'s mana cost. Exile target attacking creature. Return it to the battlefield at the end of turn. 
  16. Instant - Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains first strike until end of turn. 
  17. Instant - Destroy target creature that dealt damage to you this turn. 
  18. Sorcery - Gain life equal to the number of Plains you control. 

Hey, looking good. I think all we have to do now is adjust some levels and we can get this show on the road.

  1. Sanctuary Cat W - Creature - Cat 1/2 (Reprint) (Vanilla Cycle) 
  2. Cautious Griffin 4W - Creature - Griffin - 2/4 - Flying (French vanilla cycle) 
  3. Luke Skywalker 1W - Creature - Human Soldier - 1/3 - When a creature you control dies, transform ~ // Jedi Knight [white] - 3/5 (DFC Cycle) 
  4. Kor Outfitter WW - Creature - Kor Soldier - 2/2 - When Kor Outfitter enters the battlefield, you may attach target Equipment you control to target creature you control. (Reprint) 
  5. Fight Picker 1W - Creature - 1/2 - Vigilance, Bravado 1 
  6. Kor Recruit W - Creature - Kor Soldier - 1/1 - As long as ~ is equipped, it gets +1/+1. 
  7. Guarded Cartographer 2W - Creature - Kor - 0/4 - When ~ enters the battlefield, if an opponent controls more lands than you, search your library for a plains card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. 
  8. Coastline Monk 2W - Creature - 2/1 - ~ gets +1/+1 and has prowess as long as you control an Island. 
  9. Zendikar Revenue Service 1WW - Creature 2/3 - 1, T: Tap target creature unless its controller pays 4. 
  10. Kor Trapweaver 3W - Creature - Kor - 3/3 - Whenever you cast a trap spell, ~ gains lifelink until end of turn. 
  11. Misspelled Dispeler 3W - Creature - 1/4 - When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact or enchantment. 
  12. Doomed Martyr 2WW - Creature - 2/2 - When ~ dies, put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield. 
  13. White Digger's Aura W - Enchantment - Aura - When ~ enters the battlefield, excavate 1. Enchanted creature has vigilance and "Whenever you excavate, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn." 
  14. Quest for Rejuvenation 3W - Enchantment - Whenever you gain life, you may sacrifice ~ and return target creature with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. 
  15. Phaseshifter's Trap 2W - Instant - Trap - If an opponent is attacking with any number of creatures that have a total power of 5 or more, you may pay 0 rather than pay ~'s mana cost. Exile target attacking creature. Return it to the battlefield at the end of turn. 
  16. Ally's Ambush 2W - Instant - Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains first strike until end of turn. 
  17. Tagback 1W - Instant - Destroy target creature that dealt damage to you this turn. 
  18. Fountains of Grain WW - Sorcery - Gain life equal to the number of Plains you control. 
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Posted by zefferal at 9:28 PM
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15 comments:

  1. AlexCAugust 13, 2015 at 7:25 AM

    Fun to see someone else working through this kind of process!

    As expected, there's a number of balance issues in a first draft like this. Kor Recruit is strictly worse than Kitesail Apprentice (though I guess it's still printable). Ally's Ambush is strictly worse than Zealous Strike (though so was Skillful Lunge). Doomed Martyr is strictly worse than Mausoleum Guard, though that's an uncommon. Phaseshifter's Trap looks pretty awful to me - isn't it much worse than Holy Day? Or am I missing something? Misspelled Dispeler I think should be uncommon: Most variations on ETB-disenchant are uncommon (Reclamation Sage, Indrik Stomphowler/Conclave Naturalists, Viridian Shaman, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Acidic Slime); generally at common you can only destroy one or the other (Wispmare/Enlightened Ascetic, Batterhorn/Wild Celebrants). And is Fountains of Grain right, given that Landbind Ritual is an uncommon and costs {5}?

    I can't evaluate White Digger's Aura without reminder text for excavate.

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    Replies
    1. zefferalAugust 13, 2015 at 1:07 PM

      Yeah, I think I made a mistake of focusing too much on getting the distribution of costs and p/ts in line with an average set, and as a result my power levels dropped lower than I would have liked. I need to add excavate reminder text to MSE.

      Strictly worse/better is not typically an issue at common. Sometimes sets are gonna have worse (or better) versions of existing cards. I think there are a few too many examples here. Also, apparently in designing Zeffrikar I ended up designing Innistrad too?

      Delete
    2. AlexCAugust 13, 2015 at 6:46 PM

      I wouldn't call it a mistake to focus on getting costs and p/ts where they need to be!
      And yeah, I agree all of the strictly-worses I pointed out are still perfectly printable and I wouldn't be surprised to see Wizards print any of them.

      Delete
  2. BassAugust 13, 2015 at 12:55 PM

    So... Bravado is a problem. I have a 2/2 with Bravado 2 and it blocks a 3/3 with Bravado 1. Are they both 4/4s? Is one 3/3 and the other 4/4? What if I pump my 2/2 with a giant growth? Does it trigger the 3/3's Bravado which in turn triggers my Bravado? I could work out the answer, and it probably involves APNAP and what not, but that kind of fiddly rules-ing is something MtG tries to avoid now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BassAugust 13, 2015 at 12:57 PM

      I just realised that Bravado becomes even more fiddly if you have say, a 3/2 with Bravado and a 2/3 with Bravado square off. And then there's the annoying thing about how I don't want to pump my Bravado guys with lords and equipment as it'll shut off their ability.

      I think just renaming Bushido as "Duelling" or something is the way to go here.

      Delete
    2. AlexCAugust 13, 2015 at 12:58 PM

      It only happens at the moment of declaration of blockers, and only triggers if the imbalance in either P or T is against your creature at that moment. Giant Growth etc would have to be before declaring blockers. One Bravado ability resolving can't trigger another because, again, Bravado can only trigger at the moment of declare blockers.

      However, this is all assuming the current wording is accurate. Which it can't be because the "fights" bit doesn't make sense - it would *work*, but only resolve *after* the fight which is obviously silly.

      Delete
    3. AlexCAugust 13, 2015 at 12:59 PM

      It's true that a 2/3 and a 3/2 can both have their bravado abilities trigger. As the reminder text currently reads, there's no intevening if so it doesn't matter which order those abilities resolve in.

      Delete
    4. zefferalAugust 13, 2015 at 1:02 PM

      Oops! I forgot to update the reminder text in MSE. Bravado is indeed renamed bushido (+ fight).

      Delete
    5. Jay TreatAugust 13, 2015 at 1:15 PM

      What do we lose by removing the 'if' clause?

      Delete
    6. zefferalAugust 13, 2015 at 2:54 PM

      I don't understand the question?

      Bravado 1's actual reminder text is: "Whenever this creature blocks, becomes blocked by, or fights another creature, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn"

      Which is much more intuitive (and interesting) than checking relative power or toughness.

      Delete
    7. Jay TreatAugust 13, 2015 at 4:58 PM

      The text on Fight Picker only triggers when it combats a creature with higher power or toughness. That's what this thread has been discussing.

      Delete
    8. HavelockVAugust 13, 2015 at 11:11 PM

      I think the fight clause doesn't work properly within the rules. If they Prey Upon your 2/2 Bravado with their 2/3, first they'll fight, then Bravado will go on the stack. But it'll still deal only 2 damage, and it'll still die when SBEs are checked before its toughness ever increases.

      Delete
    9. zefferalAugust 14, 2015 at 1:31 AM

      Sounds legit. I doubt it's worth contorting the reminder text to properly cover fight as well, so it may just end up as reskinned Bushido.

      Delete
    10. Jay TreatAugust 14, 2015 at 9:55 AM

      We've covered that particular concept before. You can say "if creature would fight, instead it gets +2/+2 until EOT and then fights" but that breaks the flow of bushido even more. Hmm. Maybe we can ditch the 'instead:' "if creature would fight, it gets +2/+2 until EOT."

      Delete
    11. PasteurAugust 16, 2015 at 10:14 AM

      Can you just say "Whenever this creature would block, become blocked, or a fight a creature, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn."? I know it probably doesn't work in the rules, what with stacking and resolving triggers during the resolution of another spell or ability; but it does work semantically in plain player's english...

      Since they're such unique actions within the game, could "blocking" and "fighting" be made slightly-special-actions in the rules, where this sort of thing can slip in? IDK.

      Delete

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