The process:
I wanted to make a card that really wanted you to exile it, so I determined I wanted a static effect on exile. I didn't want to make it too easy to exile, so I put it in Red, the color least likely to exile its own things, and gave it something Redish as a static effect. After that, I determined I wanted practical use out of it beyond just tricking it into exile, so I made it an efficient beater that really penalizes you for using it as a creature, and does it again if you try to get it into your GY, the zone easiest to exile stuff from. I like where it ended up.
I thought what the theme might look like in other colors, so I mocked up a Blue card as well.
That's tricky to exile, and the reward probably isn't worth it, but the existence of Nivmagus Elemental alone makes this somewhat easy to do.
I feel like exiling a card is unusual enough that you don't need to make it even harder. You do maybe want to check that the player is playing that color, like Wonder et al.
ReplyDeleteOrcish Leper {1}{R}{R}
Creature-Orc Shaman (rare)
As long as ~ is in exile and you control a Mountain, attacking creatures you control get +1/+0.
3/3
This came up on Blogatog a few days ago, but this card inherently wants to be additively distracting. I wanted to be very clear that you could play it in two specific types of deck - Red hyper aggro or as part of some kind of combo.
DeleteAlso, I completely forgot to mention how much I love how it interacts with impulsive draw.
I don't follow. That link describes what's bad about additive distraction. What's good about it?
DeleteFor it to be played in red hyper aggro, I do not want a creature that deals 8 damage to me before dealing any damage to the opponent, but I guess it sort of plays around path. I actually would like it as a 2/4 with haste and when it attacks it gets +2/+0 and trample to mirror the exile ability and lose the second instant of losing 4 life.
DeleteIt's unfortunate that it would be awesome to slow-blink this as a combat trick, but the card specifically punishes you for doing that.
Delete@Jay: Something that wants to be exiled, and specifically calls out rewarding it, and doesn't provide a way to exile itself, is by definition going to be additive, since the game doesn't provide a natural way to get things into exile. No matter how efficient the creature is (or inefficient), the text about exile will distract from anything else going on.
DeleteMy thoughts are, as long as it reads like its bad due to AD, let's give it a drawback that directly signals its efficiency to you.
@Doug - I like that 2/4 with the attacking ability.
@Tommy - That's an awesome interaction I hadn't considered, and I like the idea of changing the damage triggers to cast and dies just to make that work.
I was thinking in the same vain as Tommy. Also, cheating this into play would hit you for four, which is not fun. Would be fun with scavenging ooze and making it a death trigger we now can faithless looting.
Delete4-of Serum Powder could do some work here, but the reward would need to be higher.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this kind of card is difficult to design because the effect can't be too oppressive, as there aren't many reliable ways to interact with cards in exile. What about something like this:
ReplyDeleteOrcish Leper 1RR
Creature - Ogre (R)
Trample
Shuffle Orcish Leper into your library from exile: Creatures you control gets +2/+0 and gain trample until end of turn.
4/3
This way, you get a one-time bonus from exiling Orcish Leper, but it's more difficult to abuse and you don't have to put huge drawbacks like taking 8 damage.
Or maybe put it on the bottom instead of shuffling it into the library, to prevent the effect from taking too long.
DeleteAnother note, templating wise, it needs to say "exiled face up" rather than just "in exile."
ReplyDelete