Cool Card Design of the Day9/27/2017 - This keyword doesn't have to be just for pirates, but I think it works well both flavor-wise and for the tribe's colors. For those of you who remember, it's basically the opposite of escort.
If I attack with a Belligerent Buccaneer and, say, a Scroll Thief, I can keep your lone Barony Vampire from blocking my saboteur and ensure that I draw a card. Whether you decide to trade your vampire for my pirate is up to you.
If I attack with a Stormbuckler and a Belligerent Buccaneer, they can target the same creature to prevent it from blocking entirely. Teamwork! (In the form of swearing like a sailor.)
Stormbuckler is the kind of taunter you hope to send again and again to tie up a blocker every round. Cabin Boy is a bit more disposable. Not quite as good as a one-drop with "whenever ~ attacks, target creature can't block this turn" but that would be uncommon and this is fun too.
Rather than make a standard taunt-lord, I thought it would be neat to carry the basic philosophy of taunt over from combat to spells. You get to choose which member of your crew is most expendable so that your officers can continue to raid and pillage like you do.
I like this ability! It's great that it avoids the oppressiveness of Provoke, which slaughtered newly played creatures.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the templating, because I'm not sure how clear it is that a player has the option not to block at all.
Maybe:
(Whenever this creature attacks, choose a creature the defending player controls to block it this turn. The defending player may tap that creature rather than blocking.)
Don't know, it's a weird one.
Of these, I think "can't block creatures other than ~ this turn" is clearer. But it's definitely something we'd want to test and get Editing's eye on.
DeleteI designed something similar for faeries on multiverse. http://www.magicmultiverse.net/cards/41992
ReplyDeleteMy version DID make it block, partly for flavour reasons and partly because I thought it would be simpler, although the templating was complicated.
It used the most obvious variant you didn't use here, of taunt with flying, which is "can't block" (but only on ground creatures, you can't stop the flier from blocking)
Must-block makes it a lot more like provoke which obviously was good enough to see print at one point.
DeleteYeah, the combo with any other evasion is strong.
I've designed this exact same ability while trying to find a good blue creature keyword. I called it "decoy". http://mondaymorningmaro.blogspot.com/2014/01/unsolved-design-problems-blue-creature.html
ReplyDeleteYour templating is better, though. :-)
Actually, I take it back-- they're not exactly the same. A Spike-Tailed Ceratops or similar can block two creatures with decoy, but not two creatures with taunt.
DeleteNow that you mention it, you might have pointed that out to me some months ago.
DeleteWobbles, do you think Ipaulsen's wording is better?
"Whenever this creature attacks, target creature can't block this combat unless it blocks this creature."
It's certainly better than mine!
Delete"Can't block unless it blocks" still doesn't parse well for me. "Choose a creature the defending player controls. That creature can only block this creature if it blocks this turn."
I'd love to see this in action! A mechanic that needs this much interaction between cards is hard for me to figure out without playing with it. I'd be worried that this doesn't do enough as it's only good when you attack with multiple creatures. And even then I'm not sure how good the ability is.
ReplyDelete