Hello Artisans. Anastase here. This week I suggest you the following challenge:
There are in Magic many 'answer' cards. R&D uses those as safety plugs to prevent crazy combos to dominate constructed formats, by giving you silver bullets against them.
Cards like Grafdigger's Cage, Loxodon Smiter and Stony Silence come to mind.
Design an 'answer' card that either:
- uses the word 'instead'
- specifically prevents your opponent from doing a small subset of possible actions
Here are the images I suggest for this week's challenge:
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| by Roswell-Ivory |
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| by balaskas |
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| by CGlas |
Good crafting, Artisans!
From the Mist 1R (Art #3)
ReplyDeleteInstant (r)
Until end of turn, if a creature would enter the battlefield under an opponent's control and it wasn't cast, it enters the battlefield tapped. Put a token copy of that creature onto the battlefield under your control.
Take that, Giant Adephage!
DeleteHow is this red and not blue? (See: Gather Specimens.)
DeleteAngel of Balance 3WW (Art #1)
ReplyDeleteCreature-Angel
Flying
Counter any spell that would cause you to sacrifice a creature unless that spell's controller sacrifices a creature.
4/4
Rare
DeleteWill the average player know all the Gatherer rulings on Equinox?
DeleteThis is a neat idea and design buried in a confusing templating. Even polished I'm not a fan of "countering" in white. Instead, how about punishing the opponent that tries to make you sacrifice, by making them sacrifice?
DeleteSomething like:
Flash
If a spell or ability controlled by another player would cause you to sacrifice a creature, instead that player sacrifices a creature.
That could work. I was unaware of the card equinox but was aware that white had a very limited access to countering. I came up with this card as a way to discourage edict effects but not completely shut them off. The idea was that it would fit in as a sideboard card against creatureless control decks.
DeleteDamping Monolith 2
ReplyDeleteArtifact (R)
Players casting spells don't cause abilities to trigger.
Art #2
Two related ideas for art #1, both aimed at being relevant answers in older formats:
ReplyDeleteEgalitarian Angel 2WW
Creature- Angel (Rare)
3/3
Flying, first strike
Whenever a spell or ability would refer to the name of something, instead treat that spell or ability as if nothing was named.
Lawgiver Angel 2WW
Creature- Angel (Rare)
3/3
Flying, first strike
As long as CARDNAME is revealed from your hand, cards in your hand can't be chosen by opponents. (If a spell or ability would cause an opponent to choose a card in your hand, instead no card is chosen.)
Lawgiver Angel interacts awkwardly with Vendilion Clique (and the tournament rules that let you reveal your hand at any time).
DeleteThese are neat ideas, and I honestly don't know if they do work in the rules.
DeleteSomething I don't understand is why you and others see a flying angel in that art. It isn't in flight nor has wings. I see a big woman figure, it could be an Avatar or a Giant.
"Cards don't have names"? I'm not sure it's /impossible/ for that to work. Seems stable, but likely something more for an Un-set.
DeleteWhile it doesn't cover every case, I wonder whether Lawgiver could say "If a spell or ability an opponent controls would cause you to discard a card, you may reveal that card and CARDNAME. If you do, return that card to your hand." I do vaguely remember one of these threads pointing out that you can't trigger abilities in your hand, but I'm not sure I really understood the timg.
I imagine that might be a more appealing card as "If an spell or ability an opponent controls would cause you to discard CARDNAME, return it to your hand instead.
Flying, first strike
You can't discard cards."
Ugh, 'look at' versus 'reveal' is annoying. I'd rather follow the spirit of the challenge than rules-hack my way to similar functionality, so names it is. Also, good point about the creature type, P.
DeleteAvatar of Fairness 2WW
Creature- Avatar (Rare)
3/3
Flying, first strike
Whenever a spell or ability would refer to the name of something, instead treat that spell or ability as if nothing was named.
Take that, True-Name Nemesis!
Despite the name, TNN doesn't actually "name" anything. :P
DeleteStill don't see flying in this art. (Maybe reach?) I can respect the first strike solely because it always beats TNN in combat. Maybe even 3/4 so it beats TNN in a fight too.
Oops, I thought TNN *named* a player (and didn't bother double-checking).
DeleteThat sends me back to my original design idea:
Spells and abilities opponents control can't cause players to make choices. (If a player would choose something, that player chooses nothing instead. Targeting is not a choice.)
On second thought, the "can't choose" formulation captures most of what I want out of this design. Unfortunately it has substantial compatibility issues with, e.g. Charms and and Arc Lightning (to name the first few that came up in Gatherer). So I think 'choose' would have to be defined more strictly. Final design:
DeleteArchon of Fairness 2WW
Creature- Archon (Rare)
3/4
Flying
Whenever a spell or ability would cause an opponent to choose one or more cards, permanents, spells, and/or players, that player chooses nothing instead. (Targeting isn't choosing.)
Fun Johnny combos with cards like Archfiend of Depravity, Gifts Ungiven, and Worldpurge. Also, I think I finally found the right creature type.
Silent Monolith 3
ReplyDelete[Art by Balaskas]
Artifact (Rare)
T: Add C to your mana pool.
3, T: Until end of turn, each player can’t draw more than two cards.
Bonus flavor text:
Delete"Take that, Talrand players!"
- Mysterious engravings on the Silent Monolith
It's one-sided, but at that cast + activation cost, I'd even go for "one card". Pop it on upkeep and they can only draw their one draw step card.
DeleteI should have called the challenge take that ---- !
ReplyDeleteI know it is my challenge, but I am too happy about this card not to talk about it:
Etherial Anchor {3} Art #2
Uncommon
{2}: until EOT, target creature cannot be exiled or returned to its owner's hand.
Nice flavor match, that.
DeleteWhy not just "Creatures [you control] can't be exiled or return to their owners' hands"? Or for more completeness with top-of-library effects: "Creatures can't be put anywhere except a graveyard from the battlefield".
The one rules hitch I can think of is that the interaction with Annihilating Fire and the like is poorly defined. State-checking rules keep saying the targeted creature should die, the Annihilating Fire ability keeps saying it should be exiled instead, and the Ethereal Anchor ability says that can't happen.
And, uh... take that, Perilous Vault!
Angel of Balance 3WWW
ReplyDeleteCreature - Angel
Flying
Whenever another creature would enter the battlefield, if any player controls fewer creatures, exile that creature instead. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control when Angel of Balance leaves the battlefield.
4/4
Neat! I can't help massaging the templating a little...
DeleteWhenever another creature would enter the battlefield, if any player controls fewer creatures than its controller, instead exile that creature until CARDNAME leaves the battlefield.
First artwork
ReplyDeleteCelestial Remonstrator
2WW
Creature - Angel (rare)
Flying, Persist
Whenever CARDNAME or another creature enters the battlefield from a graveyard, if it entered with one or more counters on it, you may have it enter with an additional counter of each of those types on it.
3/4
If you're playing in Shadowmoor, this stops Kitchen Finks blocking twice or Murderous Redcap killing you due to Melira combo. If you're playing in Dark Ascension, this doubles your Undying counters. Even outside of the random Persist hosing, it's still at least two flyers which seems fine from a limited perspective.
I look at the second art and see something like "If an ability would choose a creature or player, it instead chooses CARDNAME" alongside a cycling ability... or just being Slate of Ancestry really. I would LOVE it if the third art was something like:
Walk the Shadowed Path
4B
Enchantment
As CARDNAME enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures of the chosen type get -1/-0 and have Shadow.
Choose one - target tribal boardstate can't block, or target tribal boardstate can't BE blocked.
(The angel is my entry, in case that isn't too clear. The other two just seem like somewhat obvious directions to go in for me.)
DeleteFascinating. But it feels weird to me that the Angel specifically include itself when you basically never want it to return with an additional -1/-1 counter. Maybe make the doubling mandatory? And maybe remove the graveyard clause so this is less of a narrow answer?
DeleteLegal Guardian 3W
ReplyDelete[1 Roswell-Ivory]
Creature-Archon (rare)
Flying
If an opponent would make a choice for an effect, instead you make that choice for them.
3/3
I love the punning name, and how the artwork matches one meaning but the textbox matches another.
DeleteI hadn't seen this design but I ended up going down a very similar path (even to the same creature type).
Ha. Neat.
DeleteMaybe I should focus on the kinds of choices I was thinking about since those are different from yours:
Whenever an opponent would choose a number or a mode, you choose for them instead.
Then again, 'mode' doesn't normally appear in card text. I'lol just leave it.
DeleteSar, the Blind Judge-2W
ReplyDeleteLegendary Creature- Human Judge
Players can't cast spells with higher converted mana costs than the number of lands they control.
"Only the Blind can judge fairly."
1/2
Ooh, that's a cool one, and very relevant too. Maybe not relevant enough to justify a 1/2 body, though. Stats adding up to 4 or 5 seem more likely here.
DeleteTake that, Goblin Charbelcher!
I was trying to think of a wording where instead of lands, it was the number of turns, but that was to complicated.
DeleteI wasn't sure how relevant the ability would be, because the only big contender would be eldrazi. It also makes creature based ramp, like Elves in modern pretty bad.
But I just realized that you can still sneak stuff in to play, aka Show and Tell or Goryo's Vengeance. Which I kinda wanted.
Final Submission:
DeleteSar, the Blind Judge- 1W
Legendary Creat- Human Judge- Mythic
If a creature would enter the battlefield and it has a higher converted mana cost than the number of lands you control, exile it instead.
1/2
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My first card might just be better design all around( with the stat change suggested by Ipaulsen) but, hey, I never go for easy. This one is a whole lot more powerful, and would most likely create a completely new deck type across all formats. I call it "Mono White Two Mana Lock Out Control!" Or Hatebears for short.