Cool Card Design of the Day9/26/2016 - Its countermagic week on Goblin Artisans. Cancel/Counterspell are such clean and effective cards, but are they fun for both players? It's nice when there's a cat and mouse game where either you're playing around a specific kind of counter, or you've got a counter that you need to optimize based on your opponent's deck/plays.
Exceed Your Grasp becomes strong against affinity, delve, and other cost reduction mechanics, alternate casting methods like miracle and surge, and mana acceleration strategies like Sol Ring. And it does that with a single idea, even if it's one most new players will have trouble fully appreciating initially.
Really not a fan of counter magic. They just seem to exist in a gray area between being uninteractive and too narrow.
ReplyDeleteCountering is such a concept with limited design space, the only real way to expand on it is to add conditions. Conditions of course, by definition make the card conditional. Setting said conditions to the pint where they are good and yet still dont feel unfun is VERY hard.
i think the best example so far is Ceremonious Rejection; just because its conditional enough to be a solid sideboard, but came out in a set were it would be live a decent enough times in sealed and such. Your example would be a pretty decent card in a set full of cost reduction style mechanics.
So how about this
Disillusion U
Instant (C)
Counter Target Enchantment
[i]If gods dis exist, we would have to unimagine them[/i]
Pretty basic counterspell. Probably the last one of this type wotc hasnt already done just because of how rare it is to get Enchmant blocks. This is flavored for my "card type wars" set which I told mr Treat about at washingcon. The idea is to Ravnica style guilds but based on card type match ups (i.e. Creature/Artifact, Enchantment/lands) rather than colors,; all themed around a primal world undergoing rapid change.
In this case the Gods are Enchantments and there is tension between Shamans who worship them (Creature/Enchantment) and mystics and artificers who are taking magic and technology into there own hands for the first time ( Creature/artifacts and creature/instant+sorceries)
I also just like the pun in the name, and the opportunity to do a riff on a classical quote in a way that still fits mtg lore.
Yeah.
DeleteAnnul
Man I hate gatherer search sometimes.
Delete:/
Gatherer has definitely tricked me more than once.
DeleteWithout having seen the set, I would make Exceed Your Grasp cost U, or:
ReplyDeleteExceed Your Reach {3}{U}{U}
Instant
Counter target spell.
If that spell's controller controls fewer lands than its converted mana cost, you may cast CARDNAME for {U}.
My counterspell idea the other day was:
ReplyDeleteCounterlapse UU
Instant (U)
Exile target spell. Its controller may put it on top of their library.
I'd imagine this would cost UU, if not 1UU
ReplyDeleteWhy 1UU?
DeleteThe clearer version:
ReplyDeleteCounter target spell if its mana cost wasn't paid or its cost was reduced.