Cool Card Design of the Day9/8/2015 - I hope to have the WAC Review tomorrow. Today's card could definitely only be printed with a silver border, and even then it's questionable. Imagine that you're losing a game and hoping for a miracle. Or that you're going to lose this turn and peel the top card of your deck out of turn to indicate your concession.
Mise is a sort of proactive miracle (and Dragonflame a sort of Cheatyface Thunderous Wrath). At any time you can draw the top card of your deck—I mean, we can't physically stop you—and if it's a mise card you just get to keep it and continue playing. Of course, if it's not, you just drew illegally and will suffer a game loss.
Tournament rules are more complicated than that and the repercussions of drawing an extra card depend on your intent… and attempting to mise will look a lot like intentional cheating if we don't define it properly. There is a much different wording that spells out exactly how this should work in an un- tournament. Perhaps: "You may reveal the top card of your library at any time. If it has mise, draw it. Otherwise, you lose the game. This ability works from the library."
I have a feeling that some people will try to discover whether Mise also protects you from penalties for marked card backs.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that some people will try to discover whether Mise also protects you from penalties for marked card backs.
ReplyDeleteThis is very cute but it is so narrow I don't think it is printable even in Silver border.
ReplyDeleteGoes straight into my Yet Another Aether Vortex deck, with all its top-of-library manipulation.
ReplyDeletePower-level-wise, it's fine, low even. It's something like a very conditional Annihilate. In terms of the precedent we set... Yeah, not so sure.
Game-design-wise, it should perhaps raise warning signs that you've designed a mechanic here that makes you literally lose the game 29/30ths of the times you try to use it.
The trick is that you only try to use it when you're sure yo lose otherwise, so in practice, it actually wins you the game 1/30th of the time.
DeleteEntirely likely that's still not worth it.
This is stolen art from Jason Chan FYI
ReplyDeletehttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=kargan+dragonlord
Power-level-wise, this is pretty bad. I would have expected, like, 10 damage to the face territory.
I'm not going to pretend to know how to balance a card you can draw entirely for free, but only if you're psychic or lucky.
DeleteFascinating idea. I think Cheatyface is precedent that un-sets can allow you to do illegal actions. Although the difference is, cheatyface says you're allowed to _try_, and specifies the penalty if you're caught, so you're not actually breaking the rules.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with this is it's encouraging people to cheat strategically -- deliberately cheat, and hope to get away with it. That should have a MUCH more serious penalty than accidentally screwing up even in a serious way. (I'm not sure what the tournament rules say, is it disqual?) And even if this makes it ok for people with this in their deck, I think it's sending a bad message.
Other thoughts, is accidentally drawing a card a game loss even in un-tournaments? I don't know what EL they're run at but I assumed they were more casual than that.
How about taking a cue from cheaty-face -- if you shuffle your library, you may sneak this into your hand. If your opponent spots you, put it into your graveyard. That's still problematic since it's hard to prove -- if you had it in your opening hand, you could sneak another card and pretend it was this you snuck. And because there's no real downside.
Or a card that says "you may try to cast this without enough mana. if your opponent notices, discard it"?
The message it sends is my biggest concern. The possibility that a player will innocently try to draw a mise card and realize the other player didn't notice and just keep the non-mise card they got, turning them into a cheater seems pretty awful.
DeleteI believe there are solutions to unintentional card draw at lower levels that aren't game losses. I would want a significant penalty for mise, of course, so that players aren't just constantly drawing cards out of turn.
The final mechanic would almost certainly require the card to be revealed as it's drawn, again to keep players from drawing something else and keeping it.
I like your alternatives, though they depict a different concept entirely.
Other thoughts, I'm not used to the tournament rules, but I'm wondering:
Delete* Can you LOOK at the top card, and only draw it if it's this? Then you maybe get an extra warning before losing? :)
* Can you draw from a different deck, say a casual deck you happen to have in your pocket? Or does that not count as "draw"?
* Can you 'draw' from the middle of your deck while you're shuffling?
How about a creature ("Dragon Cheater") with: "Reveal the top card of your deck. If it's a dragon, play it for free. Otherwise lose the game."?
ReplyDeleteIf I were to make a dragon-fire Un-card, I think I'd try to make a more flavorful Ass Whuppin'. Some sort of dragon who breathes flame across your battlefield, then thw battlefield of the game next to you, and so on, before potentially returning to yours. Something like
ReplyDeleteFiery Drag-un 3RR
Creature - Dragon
Flying
At the beginning of combat, if ~ is untapped, it fights a random creature without flying in this game. A random target player at this table gains control of ~.
5/5
Pretty good with the new mulligan-scry rule.
ReplyDelete