Hey Artisans. Click through to see the requirements for this weekend's design challenge, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, so once you've got your great idea down, give some thoughtful critique to some of your peers. Revise your submission any number of times, and on Monday-ish, I'll review the most recent submission from each designer.
Guys! It's happening! It's finally happening! We're going back to Ravnica!
Ravnica is a designer's paradise. So go nuts. Engage in some wishful speculation, and make a card for my most favorite plane ever. Design a card for your favorite guild. It can have suggested new keywords, suggested new mechanical hooks, amazing flavor, whatever. I'll allow well-justified guild-less designs, since I know that's a thing some people are into, but no cards that are specifically designed to work for multiple guilds. Save that nonsense for return to Alara.
Good luck, have fun, and see you all Monday!
Parabola Tracer
ReplyDeleteUG
Creature - Fish Bird - Common
- ~ has flying as long as there are five or more creature types among creatures you control.
2/1
Sorry, that should say “Menagerie” before the hyphen. It’s an ability word of the form “as long as there are five or more creature types among creaures you control, X”.
Delete"Biodiversity Matters" seems like prime design territory for Simic.
DeleteDoh. Didn't complete my analysis though. Five seems like two high a threshold here. I realize it already has two, but it's a 2/1 for two different mana. I feel like it should be easier to make fly.
DeleteAlso, given the existence of Leonin Skyhunter and Silverbeak Griffin, a flying 2/2 for UG is probably just the rate nowadays.
DeleteI intentionally aimed simple since the mechanic is what I wanted to show off, but making it a 2/2 is easy to do. I want the threshold to be high enough that there’s room for cool effects.
DeleteI almost added +1/+1 to the ability, but realized that the effect can’t/shouldn’t give P/T boosts (or, at least not at common) because of the “end of combat, it shrinks and dies” issue.
+1 for not shrinking and dying at the end of combat. But I agree with others that the base stats should be more aggressive- 2/2 at least, maybe 3/1 or 2/3.
DeleteThat's a cool ability word, and very simic in many ways. I'm not sure that Simic specifically are allowed to have named guild mechanics that don't relate to +1/+1 counters, given the success of graft and evolve. Without the strong mechanical and thematic inertia, I'd definitely be on board with this as a Simic gimic. I also think that five types might be too many, but it's hard to guess that in a vacuum.
DeleteI'm fine with the stats at 2/1 or 2/2. Some cards are designed for draft, and this does plenty to hint at the types of rewards we could expect for hitting the proper creature threshold. Gold commons just don't have to be pushed as hard as the uncommons do.
Great point. What if we went along the lines of:
DeleteParabola Tracer
UG
Creature - Fish Bird - Common
Flying
Biodiversity 1 (~ enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter if you controlled creatures with four or more different creature types as you cast it.)
1/2
It seems more green than blue. Also, in general I like it as an ability word more than a keyword, just because keywording this with a specific upside is very constraining.
DeleteI would like to workshop something bonkers and broken in a Simic concept to see if it's actually workable.
ReplyDeleteFirst the creature, then an explanation:
Vinkul, Psychprodder (Mythic Rare)
3UG
Legendary Creature - Drake
Flying
When ~ attacks, you may trigger a single triggered ability of target creature you control.
3/3
So I've been brainstorming a U/G concept of creatures evolving enough sentience that they are able to take control over it and their own biology in new ways. Sort of flipping Simic on its head almost.
I started thinking about the relatively new concept presented with the Panharmonicon and Naban of letting things trigger multiple times. I wondered how that might be played with.
So I've gatekept this with by making the creature legendary and giving it an attack trigger. I still worry that it's terribly broken, especially in older formats. My immediate thought is any creature with a triggered win/lose condition.
The flavor of it is that this drake has evolved much higher sentience than its kind and has developed telepathic abilities and can essentially help its kin learn how to trigger their own abilities more frequently.
I love the idea of a triggered abilities theme for Simic. But I'd definitely have some rules questions.
Delete1. Right now, Vinkul can infinitely trigger itself. Not intended, right? "Another target creature you control" maybe?
2. If you trigger an ability that references the thing that triggered it (e.g. Corrosive Ooze), nothing happens... right?
3. Fortunately most of the crazy triggered abilities (like Biovisionary) are protected from abuse by an intervening if-clause. But it's hard to be sure. What's the most busted thing that Vinkul can do? Lock an opponent out of the game with Stonehorn Dignitary triggers?
1. Yes, it's supposed to have the "another target creature." I forgot to include that, but it definitely is not intended to be able retrigger itself.
Delete2. Since Corrosive Ooze's triggered ability only hits equipment of a creature blocking or blocked by it already, nothing happens. Well, nothing different happens. If it blocks or is blocked by a creature with equipment, that equipment gets destroyed at the end of combat regardless of Vinkul.
3. I'm not quite sure myself! the most logical reading is that Vinkul would cause you to win when you attack if you have four biovisionaries in play (instead of waiting until the end step). But conditional creature count could also be considered a trigger. The trigger checks both timing of the turn and number of biovisionaries.
Just trying to template this concept is fascinating. Choose a triggered ability that target creature has. You may cause that ability to trigger.
DeleteI'm fairly confident that this won't work as intended, given the breadth of types of triggered abilities it would have to attempt to shoot off at the wrong time. A rules manager with a greater sense of adventure than me might disagree, but I would be very worried about breaking the game with this as printed (or at least as intended).
My gut tells me that doubling a trigger like this (and that's really what this is doing - getting a second or premature shot at a trigger) should be secondary in Red, rather than Green (and a quick scryfall search turned up Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice to confirm my suspicion.) I think there's room to divide up the types of triggers among different colors, as well. Doubling an ETB trigger should be WU, an "on attack or block" trigger into some combination of Temur color, etc. It's hard to just cause triggers to happen without their triggering event, or at least not without specifying the type of trigger. I'd be interested in seeing the fifty cards this one implies, but I don't think it's workable as is.
Ultimately, after thinking about it for a long time, even if it's not terribly broken immediately based on existing cards, it would create a bad game design framework for future cards where every single creature-based trigger would need to be viewed through the lens of this creature's existence. It would be like Doubling Season, except possibly even more repressive.
DeleteSo there may be fun and interesting ways to retrigger other triggers beyond what we have now, but I don't think it's good game design for it to be presented on a creature in this way.
Overseer Drake
ReplyDelete1WU
Creature- Drake (Common)
2/2
Flying
When ~ enters, each opponent creates a colorless Paperwork artifact token with "You can't cast spells" and "1: Sacrifice this artifact."
This plus Stony Silence is quite the combo.
DeleteOh wow, yes. Hadn't thought of that.
DeleteI guess you could always make the token an enchantment. Probably that's a better policy in general since artifacts tend to have more interactions?
DeleteIt's still pretty gross with Suppression Field, Doubling Season, & several other effects.
DeleteHow about something like:
Overseer Drake
1WU
Creature- Drake (Common)
2/2
Flying
When ~ enters, each opponent creates a colorless Paperwork enchantment token with "Spells you cast cost an additional 1 to cast. Whenever you cast a spell or at the beginning of your end step, sacrifice ~."
Effects like these are deceptively powerful. Being able to curve out nicely while hampering your opponent's curve (and planned turn, possibly) is very strong in the early-mid game.
DeleteDoes the drake ... assign the paperwork? Is it a drake advisor? Does it have a rider?
DeleteI realize these are kind of silly flavor questions, but there was a bit of a disconnect for between the creature type and what behaviors players associate with drakes and what this creature does.
I assumed it had a rider. The flavor I was going for was "Speed limit enforced by aircraft" or similar. :-)
DeleteR Stech's version would likely play better, but it's wordy. (Also, there's a weird interaction if you get into a counter war with the trigger on the stack.) I think I'll swap "artifact" to "enchantment" and leave it at that.
Thanks for all the feedback!
These seem like good changes, but to hit the "speed limit" flavor, consider taxing the second spell cast in a turn? I'm assuming this is a one-off, not a full "Paperwork" guild mechanic, right?
DeleteIs this common?
I assumed it was a guild mechanic. If it isn't, then it's not common.
DeleteI had this fantasy in my head of the sentient drakes the Simic were creating in my card getting jobs with the Azorius Senate as building inspectors.
DeleteI like Pasteur's idea to simplify it for common. It also allows you to dial the tax up and down for rarity levels.
It could just be because I've found Azorius to be notoriously unfun in the past, but this seems like an oppressive and unfun mechanic. How many times have you been waiting to topdeck that last land you need to turn on half the spells in your hand? Having these sit around, with the possibility of them piling up, is super flavorful, and highly Azorius in concept, but I don't think leads to particularly fun gameplay, especially if it's going to show up as a recurring mechanic at common.
DeleteAzorius being unfun was kind of a problem WotC brought on themselves. "Hey, let's take the color combination that lots of players complain is unfun, and make its thematic identity all about the reasons why they think it's unfun!"
DeleteOTOH, detain was a hit, so maybe the secret to making Azorius fun is to laser-focus in on the flying creatures/battlefield control part.
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ReplyDeleteCatnip and Yarn (Common)
ReplyDelete{WG}
Sorcery
If you control a basic Plains, create a 1/1 white Cat creature token.
If you control a basic Forest, create a 1/1 green Cat creature token.
Exguesstimentation (Common)
{2}{UR}
Sorcery
If you control a basic Mountain, discard a card, then draw a card.
Draw a card.
If you control a basic Island, draw a card, then discard a card.
Those are hybrid mana, right?
DeleteCorrect, you can pay with either one of the two colours shown
DeleteI like these. I am inclined to let players reap the reward of dual lands, especially since neither of these seem like they'd be especially busted in Modern/Legacy. The designs as-is would help push players towards two-color decks though (since more than two colors require more duals and far fewer basics), which is a key point of Ravnica. So perhaps you're actually right to exclude duals. Both effects are perfectly costed and feel appropriate for their guilds. Nice!
DeleteCould catnip and yarn make a white Cat and a green Plant?
DeleteWhy? The flavour idea is that cats are attracted by catnip and by yarn
Delete(Though the flavour could easily be changed based on requirements of the set)
Partly because making a white Cat token and a green Cat token feel redundant, and partly because I could imagine using a green Plant token elsewhere in the set, and I have a harder time imagining using a green cat elsewhere - but that's a very minor quibble.
DeleteI assumed that the green plant would be an onboard representation of the catnip, that's all!
I like these designs, but I like them more for Return to Shadowmoor than RtRtR.
DeleteThese cards worked in Shadowmoor, because they needed psuedo-gold cards (or pseudo-split cards, at any rate) to manage the lack of mechanical overlap for cards that could be played in either of two colors. They did good work there.
Ravnica doesn't have that same need. In fact, it's the opposite on Ravnica. There are plenty of cards that tell you to stick to your two colors. The hybrid cards are truly designed to be splashable outside of the guild, and shine inside.
The Izzet one in particular is a very fun card, but I don't think that Ravnica is where it should be printed.
My favourite guild have always been the Golgari, so it was clear what colour my card would be. Something nice and grindy, featuring the graveyard in some form. My first idea was a legendary creature of some kind, but there's plenty of those. So instead, I turned to value generating enchantments, something both green and black have plenty of. And besides, I figured a card to show the philosophy of the Golgari, where nothing is ever wasted, could be cool.
ReplyDeleteMy first idea:
Eternal Cycle(Rare)
{B/G}{B/G}2
Enchantment
Whenever a Creature enters the battlefield, you may pay G. If you do, draw a card and lose 1 life.
Whenever a Creature dies, you may pay B. If you do, target Creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn and you lose 1 life.
{B/G}: The owner of target creature card in a graveyard shuffles it into their library. If they do, you gain 2 life.
On one hand, it's a 4 mana do nothing enchantment. On the other hand, it has carddraw, potentially cascading removal, lifegain and incidental graveyard hate all in one card. Potentially playable in limited even if you're just in Green (and maybe in Black too?). It can definitely get you lots of carddraw in any kind of (or against a) token deck.
Definitely feels Golgari. As you say yourself though, it has 'carddraw, .. cascading removal, lifegain and incidental graveyard hate all in one card'. That's a bit much, and makes the card feel unfocused.
DeleteMaybe you can trim away elements, and focus on what you want to be the core of the card (life and death, I would guess?)
Perhaps you can combine the second triggered ability and the activated ability into one (simpler) triggered ability?
The core concept was profiting off of the cycle of life and death, getting a bonus for each step. But I can try condensing it down to 2 abilities, let's see...
DeleteEternal Cycle v2(Rare)
{B/G}{B/G}2
Enchantment
Whenever a creature dies, you may pay B. If you do, return target creature card in your graveyard with lesser converted mana cost to your hand. You lose life equal to the second creature's converted mana cost.
G: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. You gain life equal to its converted mana cost.
I tried to keep the duality of green lifegain with a black card advantage ability that costs life. Second ability simplified, as I was not sure it's worth the extra wordcount of making it a shuffle in.
I really like this card, although it still needs some smoothing out. I prefer it as gold to hybrid, partially for reasons described above re: hybrid, but also because most black decks would snap pick this, while most green decks would prioritize it lower. The disparity in power level is high.
DeleteThe costs need to be brought up a tick. Maybe set at two mana, but more likely three. Constant recursion (esp. in decks with sacrifice triggers, like Golgari do) is problematic for incidental costs like this. Same with steady potentially large chunks of life gains.
There have been a bunch of cards recently that play in this space, but I think that this is too easily abused. Savra, Queen of the Golgari is definitely not a powerhouse by current standards, but she is well balanced.
Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, you may exile it and pay B/GB/G. If you do, choose one:
* Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Lose life equal to that card's converted mana cost.
* Gain life equal to the number of creature cards in your Graveyard.
Still a lot of knobs to be tinkered with, but this has you starting to play a Mel/Spike game of figuring out when to let things go to/sit in your GY and when to exile them.
Pain Juggler 1RB
ReplyDeleteCreature - Human Rogue (R)
Menace
Whenever you cast a Rakdos instant or sorcery, you may pay B. If you do, return a Rakdos sorcery or instant card from your graveyard to your hand, respectively. (Rakdos cards are just Black, Red or Red and Black.)
3/1
Playing around with some templating.
Hm, I've found that a fair number of people are unfamiliar with what 'respectively' means. Perhaps you could word it as "If you do, return a Rakdos card of the same cardtype from your graveyard to your hand"?
DeleteThis feels more Izzet than Rakdos to me. There's no "pain" in the card despite the cardname, plus of the colors that care about instants and sorceries, I'd expect R, not B, to be the activation cost (also, I'd expect some amount of balance in the activation cost; either a hybrid mana or one of each mana.)
DeleteSince we're paying R and B to cast these in the first place, what if we just pay 2 (3?) life instead of mana on the trigger? That way you juggle the pain but it's probably still a rare-worthy efficient draw engine.
DeleteI like the life cost idea. What if instead of recurring spells it let you exile spells from your graveyard and cast a copy of it until the end of turn? That makes it much less Izzet and much more of the sort of reckless Rakdos feel.
DeleteExiling removes the juggling flavor of the card, which Is really what Im going for. The Life payment is good, although I worry about degenerate things happening too easily without a mana payment (Dark Ritual getting back Rite of Flame or whatever).
DeleteI really like "respectively" as a templating option, although it doesn't parse easily. I can't think of another way to do this, but I'm open to suggestions.
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DeleteMaybe
DeletePain Juggler 1RB
Creature - Human Rogue (R)
Menace
Whenever you cast a Rakdos instant or sorcery, you may pay 3 life. If you do, return a Rakdos instant or sorcery card at random from your graveyard to your hand. (Rakdos cards are just Black, Red or Red and Black.)
3/1
Once we find the most elegant way to use guild names as batching keywords, there's definitely some fun stuff to do with it.
DeleteI do agree that specifically calling out instants and sorcery cards has a more Izzet feel to it than Rakdos, given that much of their historical identity has been playing in that space. Practically it's the same, but it reads differently to say "whenever a creature your opponent controls becomes the target of a Rakdos spell you control, return noncreature rakdos spell at random etc."
There's no way that guildname batching happens in Guilds of Rav, but it's possible that by Set 3 in the nonblock they will have had enough time to process feedback from Historic to include it there. There are issues surrounding a card's color identity vs. its color. Is Sunforger a Boros card or not? If there's a good way to address that without writing a master's thesis of reminder text, I'm on board.
"Rakdos cards have no colored mana symbols on them except {R} or {B}."
DeleteMaybe too out there... :P
I don't think batching guild names will or should ever be a thing, because there's too much flavor stuff tied up in what it means to belong to a certain guild. It'd be the tribal problem all over again. For instance, Golgari Grave-Troll is clearly a Golgari card. It has Golgari in the name, has the Golgari watermark, and has the set keyword associated with Golgari. But... it's somehow, simultaneously, also a Selesnya, Gruul, and Simic card? Does it want to be, or is there a way to say that it isn't, without putting protection-level clutter into the batching rule?
DeleteHistoric worked because there was no consensus on what a "historic Magic card" meant; even the concept of "famous from the past" was more closely tied in the Magic lexicon with "iconic" (GJ, Iconic Masters) or "nostalgic." And even then, historic still has some weirdness because artifacts get lumped into it, leading to some nonsense statements like "every 1/1 Servo token is historic."
Strong agree. If it were a digital card game, extra tags like the guilds could be binding, but as an analog game I think batching is a net negative here for understanding with little gameplay upside, especially for newer players.
DeleteI'm struggling to find the correct wording here:
ReplyDeleteCommunism 3WU
Sorcery
Gain control of all creatures. Then, starting with the player to your left, redistribute those creatures among all players.
Flavor 1: "It may not be fair, but at least it's equal."
Flavor 2: "All creatures are equal, but some creatures are more equal than others."
You could make Thieves' Auction your model.
Delete"Exile all creatures. Starting with the player to your left, choose one of the exiled cards and put that card onto the battlefield under that player's control. Repeat this process until all cards exiled this way have been chosen."
Or, another approach:
"For each creature on the battlefield, choose a player. Then if you chose youself for the least number of creatures or tied for the least, the chosen players gain control of those creatures."
Incidentally I like R over U in the cost. It's a chaos effect, after all, and communist revolutions tend to be pretty red-aligned (no pun intended).
This is a cool card but it doesn’t read as an Azorius card to me. I’m not sure it fits cleanly in a Ravnica guild.
DeleteVery cool card. I agree with Ryan that it doesn't quite fit any guild, nor neatly within the concept of a creature belonging to a guild. Although, if it hit all noncreature permanents, that would be somewhat more appropriate for Azorius (political redistribution of assets) though much less impactful.
DeleteGolgari Seedsower 2BG
ReplyDeleteCreature - Fungus (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep, scatter. (Create a green Seed enchantment token with "Exile three cards from your graveyard: This becomes a 1/1 Saproling creature.")
2/2
Interesting. The Seed tech gets around the feel-bad of scattering without enough cards, which is nice, but I wonder whether it's worth the clunkiness.
DeleteBusy, but fun! If we had "slow" keyworded for sorcery speed, this would be a great place to use it, but as-is I would have the Saproling etb tapped to make sure scattering isn't problematic for combat. This is a promising card for a guild mechanic that fits Golgari well.
DeleteIt's interesting how the enchantment tokens just turn into creatures, my first instinct would have been to make them enchantment tokes you can sac as part of paying the exile cost to create the saporlings.
DeleteI'm not sure what's better, they both feel a tad clunky and might have some tracking issues in play.
Also flavour fail in that with your wording the saporling tokens still have the name seed :P
Lots of love for Golgari today.
DeleteI like these in concept. I am really unsure how they would play in testing, but my guess is not great, mostly due to cost/payoff balance. Exiling three cards from a GY is a non-negligable cost, especially when you're going to want to do it repeatedly. Getting a handful of saprolings from the deal isn't the payoff I'd want to see.
Does two cards per seed work, since we're already jumping through the hoop of getting the seed to begin with? The, uh, seed of the idea is definitely there, but it needs to be a little less bookkeeping.
Yeah, the exiling three cards thing definitely isn’t set in stone. Things I also considered:
Delete- Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature you control - probably too unintuitive for newer players.
- When a nontoken creature dies - I was worried that this would discourage combat too much.
Cheap Warrior-2WR (Rare)
ReplyDeleteCreature-Human Warrior
Minuteman-RW(You can cast CARDNAME for the minuteman cost if you control 2 or more fast creatures. Fast creatures have haste, first strike, or double strike)
Haste, Double Strike
2/2
Not sure if this is too pushed or not, playtesting would tell what numbers to tweak.
An interesting quality to care about. This will enable some explosive starts with the right opening. (Maybe something with goblin guide/swiftspear?)
DeleteIt might be a bit winmore, though. If you have a board, it's easy to grow your board, but if you don't, it's a 4 drop.
Yeah on turn three is getting a somewhat discounted 2/2 haste, double striker great not sure, but a 2/2 haste, double strike creature is also only a little below rate as a 4 drop.
DeleteCaring about a creature's particular's combat skills was a neat place to take R/W in Ixalan (and then in white in Dominaria) and it wouldn't surprise me at all if something like it didn't make an appearance in Boros when we go back.
DeleteThat said, this is really easy to trigger just by playing R/W creatures. I was going to suggest something like maybe requiring fast creatures to attack before triggering the Minuteman cost, but that kind of defeats the point of giving this guy haste.
I don't care for minuteman as a keyword, mostly because it relies on nesting keywords (one of my pet peaves), and beyond that, relies on a nested batch keyword which doesn't already exist. That's a lot of memory issues in a small package.
DeleteThat said, the core mechanical hook (cheaper if you have a first strike or double strike creature) can be a good mechanic. I'm not sure it's 100% boros (the mana reduction works for the red half, less so for the white half), but there's definitely something fun there.
I initially was going to just have it be a tweak on dash where you could cast it for cheaper if you attacked with a certain number of creatures but that seemed, very boring.
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ReplyDeleteI love the place-ness of the enchant land cards like Underworld Connections, but though Ravnica has had a few enchantment subthemes before, trying to do anything with it unfortunately gets fairly fiddly and awfully wordy. So, artifact it is, for a "place-you-build-and-go-to" feel.
ReplyDeleteOrzhov Guildpost {1}{WB}
Artifact (u)
{WB}, T: Add WW, WB, or BB.
2WB, Discard a card, T: Return target artifact or creature card from its owner’s graveyard to its owner’s hand. That player loses life equal to its converted mana cost.
I’m not confident that they’d be willing to print these at 2 CMC. It’s been a looooong time since they’ve printed two mana rocks, and even Rampant Growth seems like it’s out of favor.
DeleteSee, I thought that too, but Pillar of Origins and Corrupted Grafstone do tempt the other direction. (Requiring double color to activate on T2 is hopefully similar to ETBT.)
DeleteThere's more restrictive tech like "{WB}{WB},T: Add {WB}{WB}{WB}" available to be used if we let hybrid be an output. "3,T: Add {WB}{WB}{WB}{WB}" also has advantages and disadvantages that could make a 2-mana rock narrower and more feasible, but it also takes an extra mental step to get there.
I think the most appealing/easiest to brainspace restriction for "hey we'll ramp you but use our guild" might be to make the casting cost 2 and the mana ability "{WB}{WB},T: Add 1WB." 2 of either gets you one of each and a mana boost to keep on rate.
DeleteThis avoids "spend this only on white black spells" text while still for sure rewarding that behavior.
I like the final numbers you came up with for the rock. The original signets were a little too good, the cluestones a little too lackluster. This is somewhere in between. I don't know that I'd want one of my guild's hybrid slots (assuming that there are only three or four per guild) to be used on mana fixing necessarily.
DeleteBalancing a cycle of these would be something impressive. The different guilds are going to want different effects appended to the mana fixing, and finding the right balance of effect to mana fixing to needs of the guild across all ten would be an adventure. But I really like what it suggests.
I think being able to use this as a stealth Lava Axe is cute, but detrimental to the overall design. If we're going to allow an opponent to resurrect a creature, I think it ought to read "Target player chooses a creature in their GY. Return that creature to its owners hand, then that player loses life equal to its converted mana cost." You can force the life loss, but you're probably not winning the game outright if you drop this in the late game.
The mana rock idea is cool, the GY/life loss shenanigan artifact is cool, but they probably ought to be two separate cards.
Your fix on the return-choice is absolutely an improvement. Thanks!
DeleteMind Feeder 3UB
ReplyDeleteCreature - Horror R
When Mind Feeder deals combat damage to an opponent, that opponent puts the top 5 cards of their library into their graveyard, then loses life equal to the number of card in their graveyard.
1/4
Rakdos Barker 2R
Creature - Goblin Performer C
Hedonist (When ~ enters the battlefield, you may discard a card at random from your hand.)
When you trigger ~'s Hedonisim, deal 2 damage to any target.
2/2
Electrifying Bolt 3R
Instant U
Conductivity (~ costs 1 less for each spell you played before it this turn.)
Deal 3 damage to any target.
Conductivity is a great pick for an Izzet mechanic. Leans noncreature but has options for any type of card at any cost, the math isn't too tricky and is easy to grasp the first time you see it, and the flavor follows well.
DeleteThe Barker just makes me want to see Exploit come back as a guild mechanic for Rakdos, but Hedonism plays well with Hellbent.
What could be interesting about Hedonism is kind of making it like the "cycling matters" cards at higher rarity. So you can have a rare creature or enchantment that does something whenever hedonism is triggered, not just once.
DeleteReviewing Electrifying Bolt since Izzet saw so little love in this challenge.
DeleteConductivity is great. Setting up and balancing "burst" mechanics like this is always a challenge, and I'd love to see this developed. I might even be interested in making the cost reduction a flat {2}, or variable on a card by card basis. Izzet is definitely the right guild for it, and Surge is a great precedent. Solid mechanic. Now put it on a splashy rare.
Dragon's Breath XR
DeleteSorcery R
Conductivity
Deal X damage to any target.
Isn’t that more or less Grapeshot? Obviously it all targets one thing and can be countered, but being able to spend leftover mana to pump it up seems like it more than makes up for that.
DeleteIt is essentially grapeshot. The buy in can be changed to rr if it proves an issue, but turning this into a blaze is much worse that grapeshot. Being able to interact with 1 spell turns on every counter spell, whites damage prevention, red redirection, etc.
Delete