Cool Card Design of the Day6/21/2017 - Bounty of the Luxa's use of homarid technology got me thinking about new ways to implement homarids. Is there a solution that doesn't require counters on multiple permanents (which can get out of sync)?
Whenever you see me use brackets like that, it means we could include that text or not. In this case, including self-mill makes Industrious Hermit a self-contained card, but if all new homarids did that, it might prove too much (both in terms of milling yourself out and in terms of combining their value). I don't know. I'd want to test it both ways. If we do leave that off, we'll need some very playable self-mill cards in blue and/or colorless at common in the same set. We could also trade the upkeep trigger for an ETB trigger, but continual progress just feels more oceanic.
We can simplify this ability to counting land in your graveyard—and if the environment needs that, sure—but I went ahead and exiled them, both to limit the rate your homarids grow, and because players are going to be separating those cards to track the bonus anyhow. (Also for flavor. Shellters don't get built by accident, crabeople!)
Also could combine the two for more distinct flavor:
ReplyDeleteIndustrious Hemit v2
U
Creature - Homarid - Common
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library.
CARDNAME gets +1/+1 for each land card exiled by a Homarid you control.
You could have Homarids that exile but don't care about exiled cards:
Homarid Netcaster
3U
Creature - Homarid - Uncommon
U, T: Tap target creature, then exile the top card of your library. If it is a land card, that creature doesn't untap during its controllers next untap step.
3/3
...or vice versa:
Homarid Goliath
4UUUU
Creature - Homarid - Rare
At your upkeep, create X 1/1 blue Crab creature tokens, where X is the number of land cards exiled by Homarids you control.
8/8
That's nice and smooth. I think I prefer that.
DeleteThe key to Homarid/Bounty's flavor is that it represents the tide coming in and going out, so they're cyclical. These new designs just get bigger, so I don't think it's really accomplishing the same goals. This really makes them more like a Sun/Moon mechanic ala werewolves
ReplyDeleteMoonmap Hermit U
DeleteCreature - Homarid
Prophesy (Instead of drawing a card for your draw step, look at the top two cards of your library, exile one of those cards and draw the other.)
As long as the number of your exiled cards is even, Moonmap Hermit gets +1/+1
0/2
Industrial Hermit definitely forgoes the original cyclical nature in favor of permanent upward growth. I'm trading the flavor of tides coming in and out with the flavor of the tides eroding land to create sand, which these hermit crab people use to craft bigger and stronger shells.
DeleteI do like how Prophesy has inherit value as a smoothing mechanic, and also powers the incidental homarid bonus on Moonmap Hermit.
Yesssss, more homarids!
ReplyDeleteSomewhere on magicmultiverse, I suggested a mechanic which did something when you played a third, sixth, ninth etc land, attempting to capture the cyclic flavour of homarids without the downside or as much complexity. It wasn't quite right but I liked the approach.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty clever.
DeleteWas the issue that it combos too well with self-bounce?