Tribal Choice: Ooze
CONTESTANT COMMENTS
Oozes are an incredibly evocative tribe, but their wide variety of executions over only a handful of cards meant having to invent a new identity for them. Oozes have historically been mostly green with a few notable appearances in black, but flavor and two existing legends meant blue would also be expected. Though Oozes are often represented by X/X tokens, shifting toward +1/+1 counters opened up more design space to represent their ever-growing and modular nature (while also cutting down on memory issues).
Oozes are known for growing both tall (often with counters) and wide (often with tokens). Exploring the intersection between these two led to devour. Though not the most popular mechanic, devour combines both their counter and token themes while being an absolutely perfect flavor fit. In this imagined Limited environment, Ooze decks would either look to generate value by devouring small creatures with death triggers, or build critical mass by accumulating and sharing +1/+1 counters between themselves.
This challenge I put a lot of focus on playtesting and keeping the cards easy and fun to play with. I even designed a number of extra commons and uncommons to simulate a Limited/casual deck. This implementation of Oozes can definitely lead to some overwhelming board states, but simpler supporting cards helped to keep things reasonable. More importantly, players had tons of fun shifting the counters on their Oozes around like mad scientists.
You can all thank Ethan for the lack of Ooze-pun flavor texts on these cards.
1) Nutritious Slime (common)
1G
Creature — Ooze
1/1
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield or dies, put a +1/+1 counter on target Ooze you control.
Oozes are an incredibly evocative tribe, but their wide variety of executions over only a handful of cards meant having to invent a new identity for them. Oozes have historically been mostly green with a few notable appearances in black, but flavor and two existing legends meant blue would also be expected. Though Oozes are often represented by X/X tokens, shifting toward +1/+1 counters opened up more design space to represent their ever-growing and modular nature (while also cutting down on memory issues).
Oozes are known for growing both tall (often with counters) and wide (often with tokens). Exploring the intersection between these two led to devour. Though not the most popular mechanic, devour combines both their counter and token themes while being an absolutely perfect flavor fit. In this imagined Limited environment, Ooze decks would either look to generate value by devouring small creatures with death triggers, or build critical mass by accumulating and sharing +1/+1 counters between themselves.
This challenge I put a lot of focus on playtesting and keeping the cards easy and fun to play with. I even designed a number of extra commons and uncommons to simulate a Limited/casual deck. This implementation of Oozes can definitely lead to some overwhelming board states, but simpler supporting cards helped to keep things reasonable. More importantly, players had tons of fun shifting the counters on their Oozes around like mad scientists.
You can all thank Ethan for the lack of Ooze-pun flavor texts on these cards.
1) Nutritious Slime (common)
1G
Creature — Ooze
1/1
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield or dies, put a +1/+1 counter on target Ooze you control.
2) B-ooze-ster Shot (common)
1G
Instant
Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature. It gains hexproof until end of turn. If that creature is not an Ooze, remove those counters at the beginning of the next end step.
1G
Instant
Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature. It gains hexproof until end of turn. If that creature is not an Ooze, remove those counters at the beginning of the next end step.
3) Recycling Slime (uncommon)
4B
Creature — Ooze
3/3
Devour 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the battlefield with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, if it devoured a creature, return target Ooze creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
4B
Creature — Ooze
3/3
Devour 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters the battlefield with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, if it devoured a creature, return target Ooze creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
4) Slime Time (uncommon)
2GU
Sorcery
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Then you may redistribute all the +1/+1 counters on Oozes you control. (You may move +1/+1 counters from any Ooze you control to any other Ooze you control any number of times.)
2GU
Sorcery
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Then you may redistribute all the +1/+1 counters on Oozes you control. (You may move +1/+1 counters from any Ooze you control to any other Ooze you control any number of times.)
5) Famished Fen (rare)
Land
Devour 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This land enters the battlefield with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
T: Add C
1, T: Add G, U, or B. If this mana was spent to cast an Ooze creature spell, as that creature enters the battlefield you may move any number of +1/+1 counters from CARDNAME onto it.
Land
Devour 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This land enters the battlefield with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
T: Add C
1, T: Add G, U, or B. If this mana was spent to cast an Ooze creature spell, as that creature enters the battlefield you may move any number of +1/+1 counters from CARDNAME onto it.
6) Corrosive Touch (rare)
BG
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice CARDNAME and destroy target nonland permanent that player controls.
If enchanted creature is an Ooze, it has deathtouch and trample.
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice CARDNAME and destroy target nonland permanent that player controls.
If enchanted creature is an Ooze, it has deathtouch and trample.
7) Cell Divider (mythic rare)
4GG
Creature — Ooze
6/6
Trample
Whenever an Ooze you control with toughness 2 or greater dies, you may pay 1. If you do, create two 0/0 green Ooze creature tokens, then put +1/+1 counters onto each of them equal to half of the original Ooze's toughness, rounded down.
Creature — Ooze
6/6
Trample
Whenever an Ooze you control with toughness 2 or greater dies, you may pay 1. If you do, create two 0/0 green Ooze creature tokens, then put +1/+1 counters onto each of them equal to half of the original Ooze's toughness, rounded down.
8) Dr. Ooze's Lab (mythic rare)
5
Artifact
2G, T: Create a 0/0 green Ooze creature token then put two +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever an Ooze enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay UB and exile a creature card from a graveyard. If you do, that Ooze enters the battlefield as a copy of the exiled creature card except it's still an Ooze.
5
Artifact
2G, T: Create a 0/0 green Ooze creature token then put two +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever an Ooze enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay UB and exile a creature card from a graveyard. If you do, that Ooze enters the battlefield as a copy of the exiled creature card except it's still an Ooze.
I definitely think Magic should explore more space with moving +1/+1 counters around (Doubling Season notwithstanding). It's a way of adding more interesting concepts to a mostly evergreen mechanic. I've crafted cards similar to Slime Time, but I've color pied them as B/G. But I think it works in blue,too.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Famished Fen is actually secretly an artifact. As a land, what I really, really want to do is animate it.