Cool Card Design of the Day4/25/2017 - Inspired by one facet of yesterday's discussion—the one about Amonkhet's gods—I made some alternate Hazorets.
We've got a bunch of permanents the gods care about. What if they're always real, but made more powerful and more impactful when they are worshipped more?
Or we can stick with the pacifism template, but ask you to keep casting spells of their color (and help you do that).
Same idea, but rewarding the set's cycling and discarding themes.
Same idea, but rewarding the set's two flashback mechanics, and tying into the world's ambient necro-magic story.
What if we had to build a god's monument before they'll visit us?
Let me know which of the above you prefer and why. Share your own alternatives below.
The top designs still feel very Theros-y, basically animating enchantments. The Temple idea is cool, and would have been a neat place for the monuments to go:
ReplyDeleteHazoret's Monument 3
Legendary Artifact (M)
Indestructible
Whenever you discard or cycle a card, you may pay R to put a brick counter on Hazoret's Monument and deal 1 damage to target creature or player.
3R, T: Create a X/X red legendary God creature token with haste named Hazoret, where X is the number if brick counters on Hazoret's Monument.
Bontu's Monument 3
Legendary Artifact (M)
Indestructible
Whenever you put a creature card into your graveyard from anywhere, you may pay B to put a brick counter on Bontu's Monument and have target player discards a card.
2B, T: Create a X/X black legendary God creature token with menace named Bontu, where X is the number if brick counters on Bontu's Monument.
My other idea was Gods you couldn't cast, but instead cycled for an effect and could be played from your graveyard.
Hazoret, the Fervant
Creature - God
Uncastable, Haste
Pray 1RR (1RR, Discard this card: Draw a card)
When you pray to Hazoret, discard a card and deal 4 damage to target creature or Planeswalker.
3R: Return Hazoret from your graveyard to the battlefield. You may only activate this ability if you have one or fewer cards in your hand.
5/4
I'm sure there's an article around somewhere, or if there isn't, there ought to be, on iconic god-y cycles from yore. I know the Myojins were mentioned as the gods for kamigawa, but to me, the closest thing Magic does to that build-around awe towards unique entities are the Incarnations, both from Judgment and Lorwyn, and the _of_ cycle from Shadowmoor and Eventide.
ReplyDeleteKennet's Monument 3
ReplyDeleteLegendary Artifact
Whenever a spell or ability causes you to draw cards, you may pay U to put a brick counter on Kennet's Monument and target creature doesn't untap during its controllers next untap step.
2U, T: Create a X/X blue legendary God creature token with flying named Kennet, where X is the number if brick counters on Kennet's Monument.
Took me a while to sweeten on it, but I think I actually like the way this cycle works now. With the possible exception of being able to tap at instant speed.
DeleteThe Temple/God idea really wants to be a DFC. It does feel more Egypt-y than what we got, though.
ReplyDeleteDFC God Monuments would have been great
DeleteWhile I love the flavor, that would be a bit rough for commander players.
DeleteI think the recreatable token that many of you have touched on is important - I think one of the things that make these feel so similar to the Theros gods is that indestructible is the way they again chose to flavor "very hard to kill". Other choices that would be flavorful - reanimation, return to hand clauses, or, ambitiously, the following:
ReplyDeleteHazoret the Fervent
2R
Legendary Creature - God - MR
Whenever Hazoret would be put into a graveyard from play, if you control a Trial, exile Hazoret instead. Trials you control gain "When this permanent leaves the battlefield, return Hazoret from exile to the battlefield."
Hazoret can't attack or block unless you control a Cartouche.
5/4
Completely separately, I think it was a big mistake to make hand size the condition for two of the Gods. Hand size is super non-interactive - playing against Hazoret with a limited deck that had literally no answers for her and no way to make my opponent draw cards was one of the least fun prerelease experiences I've ever had.
Hazoret, Fervor Alive 3R
ReplyDeleteLegendary Permanent - God - MR
Whenever a red card enters your graveyard from anywhere, Hazoret becomes a 6/4 indestructible creature with haste until end of turn.
2R, Discard a card: Hazoret deals 2 damage to target creature.
"Is permanent a card type now?"
DeleteI was tempted to do something like:
Legendary Creature-God
~ isn't a creature unless [condition]
but shied away because I guess everything needs to have a type at all times? IDK. Weirdness.
Types and supertypes are all back-end and fixable/negotiable. To be honest - why can't something be a permanent? It does make it "difficult to kill but not impossible". Obviously you wouldn't drop it face-first into the set without testing for it first, but other than literally Tarmogoyf, I don't know of any problem with it.
Delete(The idea with this specific pair of abilities is: if you have something you can kill or cycle, cool; if you've got a land, you can discard it and ping one of your own red creatures [if the opponent has none] to still smash in with Hazzy.)
(This is me saying "hey we can change the rules without breaking previously printed cards/the game", not "I believe the game currently works precisely this way"; similar to being open to changing how the "Enchant (blah)" text is defined.)
DeleteI mostly agree.
DeleteMy only concern is printing the word permanent on the type line, even though 'permanent' isn't actually a card type, but a superset of cardtypes (perhaps not even that, but just a characteristic inherent to certain types).