Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.
 |
| sneaky |
 |
| lookout |
 |
| Anne Bonny |
Last pirate challenge for a while. Design a pirate card for one of these illustrations. Bonus points if you use raid,
taunt,
treasure hunt,
while-tapped, or another mechanic you think could have worked for Ixalan's pirates.
Art #2
ReplyDeleteKeeneye Lookout
2U
Creature - Human Pirate - Rare
You may cast Vehicle spells as though they had flash.
Whenever a Vehicle enters the battlefield under your control, it becomes a creature until end of turn.
2/3
I'm not entirely convinced keeping an eye out for other ships gives me the ability to manifest and crew them instantly, but the flavor does kind of work.
DeleteRegardless, that's an exciting vehicles-matter rare. I wonder how it impacts Standard... If its deck is good enough to play, does it hurt attacking enough to slow down tourneys?
I meant for the vibe would be "we knew you were coming and laid this clever trap for you," but now that you mention it, I can see where the disconnect might be. It's always interesting to hear when an idea I have groks/doesn't grok- I feel like that's one of the hardest things to know without polling other people when designing. (Which is why I love this site!)
DeleteYeah, getting feedback is so crucial to progress.
DeleteArt A
ReplyDeleteMidnight Pursuit 1UB
Enchantment - U
Whenever three or more creatures you control become tapped, draw a card.
Sacrifice ~: until end of turn, whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card.
It reminds me of fires of yavimaya but with dimir pirate flavor.
The first line of this is great, and that made me sad to see there was a second line. The second ability will sometimes be irrelevant, and sometimes game-winning… and that will always be tempered by losing the first ability.
DeleteAnother notable thing is that this is does nothing on its own. x3. By which I mean, this and two creatures isn't even relevant (b/c even if those two creatures are unblockable, you've still over-payed for a Mind Rot.) You've got to have 3+ creatures for Midnight Pursuit to kick in. That makes me wish the second ability were one that helped you get more creatures to help accomplish the first ability.
Rules question: If I tap two pirates to crew a big ship and then attack with that ship, does that count as tapping 3+ or more creatures? (This is easily fixed by making it at EOT trigger "if you tapped 3+ creatures this turn.") I do very much like how this interacts with vehicles and with raid.
First ability could grant a form of evasion and the second an on combat damage ability?
Delete[sneaky]
ReplyDeleteCutthroat Incursion
2UU
Sorcery
Creatures with power 2 or less can't be blocked this turn.
Until end of turn, whenever a creature deals combat damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.
[lookout]
Scan the Horizon
2U
Sorcery
Scry 1.
Draw a card.
Choose a creature you control. It explores.
(templated this way to avoid letting the creature be killed to fizzle the spell or have two instances of 'target play')
[Anne Bonny]
Seize a Cutlass
1R
Instant
Target creature you control gets +2/+1 and gains first strike until end of turn.
Raid - If you attacked with a creature this turn, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
Cutthroat Incursion compares well with Open into Wonder. It costs less and will often draw more cards, but is also less likely to kill your opponent on the spot.
DeleteScan the Horizon is too cute. By which I mean, it's fun to design and read, but too awkward for actual play.
Seize a Cutlass is pretty solid. The treasure makes it strictly better than Thunder Strike but it's nice for the card in this slot to promote attacking a bit more explicitly. I would definitely remove the +0/+1 because red hates granting toughness and first strike makes it unnecessary: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?text=+[%2b]+[first]+[strike]+[until]&color=|[R]&type=+[Instant]
lookout:
ReplyDeleteScout for Riches 1UR
instant
create three treasure tokens... ect
scry 1.
draw a card.
This is too strong. It pays for both its own mana cost and cardboard, with upside. It also accelerates your mana too fast on the next turn.
DeleteBut the core idea is fine. I could see Dev dropping from 3 treasure to 1 and keeping this design.
An all-smoothing card like that will appeal to some players.
Fits the art pretty well too.
Art #2
ReplyDeleteCrows Nest 2
Artifact - Equipment U
Whenever equipped creature attacks, it explores.
Equip 2
It's almost weird that Prying Blade exists and this doesn't, but this would have to be uncommon at least.
DeleteFlavor curiosity: Is this equipment? Is it a vehicle? Creative would definitely re-concept this (but you were building to the art, so yeah).
If you equip it to a dinosaur I like to imagine the Dino has a crow Nest strapped to its' head.
DeleteThis is a good image.
DeleteSneaky crew 1UU
ReplyDeleteCreature - Human Pirate (U)
CARDNAME can't be blocked if you attacked with another creature this turn.
3/1
Inspired by taunt/escort, I think this has some of the same play patterns. Might be too good with the unblockable Merfolk in real Ixalan.
I really want to playtest this because it looks so much better than Invisible Warrior but in practice probably isn't. Two of these making each other unblockable is terrifying, but so is losing both to a Dual Shot. I think this is officially a raid trigger.
Deleteerr Phantom Warrior
DeleteLatch Keeper doesn't have the restriction, so this is probably safe even in a set with Raid https://magiccards.info/avr/en/63.html
Delete(Anne Bonny)
ReplyDeleteCarmine Justacorp 1R
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has taunt. (Whenever this creature attacks, target creature can’t block this combat unless it blocks this creature.)
When equipped creature taunts a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Equip 2
Making the second line "when equipped creature becomes blocked" probably makes this more fun to play against/lets you play around with the costs more.
DeleteBeing able to put taunt on any creature should be fun (at unc+) since you could put it on a huge green one or a slippery flier.
DeleteGrowing every time is definitely too easy; the new trigger makes it more like Desecration Demon which is neat. Thematically it makes more sense that it gets the counter when it isn't blocked, but that's probably too easy to do with evasive creatures.
What's a Carmine Justacorp and why is this artifact red (beyond the fact that taunt is so red)?
DeleteCarmine (red) Justacorp (1680s-ish pirate jacket). It was originally an enchantment named "cut a dashing figure", but I'm growing tired of how cumbersome auras are where templating is concerned, so equipment + weaken the trigger was the right choice for me.
DeleteIf the set wanted no colored artifact costs, the second trigger could be "when... pay R, then put +1/+1" to keep a red color identity with generic top & equip costs.