Cool Card Design of the DayWhat should a gold mine look like in Magic? We know what gold is, and we know the card's a land. The trouble is that gold can put players ahead on mana in a way we're not comfortable with our land doing, particularly not repeatedly (which is what we expect from a mine).
 |
| this is definitely rare |
At face-value, Gold Mine lets you bounce an existing basic land in exchange for the gold token, and so manages not to put you up on mana either that turn or in the future, but it does help fix your colors once (like Tendo Ice Bridge) (and that gold token is an artifact that ETBs and sacrifices, which can matter).
Here's the risky part of the design: You're not actually forced to bounce another land and can bounce the Gold Mine itself. You could play Gold Mine as your sole land drop every turn and ensure your ability to cast any one card on-curve, even Cromat. You'd then have zero mana-producers and that's not a situation you'd ever plan to put yourself in. But the ability to Gold Mine each turn that you don't have any other land drop remains significant.
What if we narrowed this to the looping use?
ReplyDeleteGlistening Mineshaft
Land - r
When ~ enters the battlefield, create a colorless artifact token named Gold. It has "Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color."
After your draw step, return ~ to its owner's hand.
Maybe too potent with Restore Balance.
This is mostly (but not strictly) weaker, but it's not hard to imagine playtesting showing the original just too easy to use, and this being more appropriate.
DeleteDo we think that the whole concept of "storage land", a la Dreadship Reef, is now unprintable at any cost?
ReplyDeleteI think there has to be some activation cost (variation of "4" below) at which we can print the simple
Gold Mine
Land
T: Add C
4, T: Create a colorless artifact token named Gold. It has "Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color."
Storage lands both suffer from being dangerous accelerants and from having counters-on-lands. IDK that they're totally unprintable, but they're definitely rarer than 1/yr, or even 5 years.
DeleteThat said, yours seems promising. (Especially since it evades the counters-on-lands problem.)
I think that your version of Gold Mine does have a lot of ways that development can tweak it. It can just bounce another land, bounce an untapped land, bounce a basic land, not even bounce anything.
ReplyDeleteWhat if we require you to spend your gold before mining some more?
Gold Mine
Land
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Create a colorless artifact token named Gold. It has "Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color." Activate this ability only if you control no cards named Gold.
It would let you store one gold for one turn, but I think that's at an ok power level?
no *permanents* named Gold
DeleteExcept for the fact that it creates and sacks artifacts each turn, this basically just taps for one mana of any color, no?
DeleteHey! Thanks for the interesting post! I was thinking, what would the land look like if it didn’t tap at all?
ReplyDelete[Gold Mine (Rare)
Land
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a colorless artifact token named Gold on to the battlefield. It has “Sacrifice this artifact: add one mana of any color to your mana pool.”]
One of the draw backs is that you have to remember upkeep triggers, this may be taxing for newer players. Some lands like Emeria, the Sky Ruin and Inventer’s Fair have similar triggers, so maybe its not so bad? I know its not too flashy, let me know what you think!
What does the upkeep trigger gain us over a tap ability? The gameplay seems basically identical.
DeleteHey, Jay! Thanks for the comment. Depending on the costs of the activated ability, players can use the activated ability of this land to generate value from board states. For example, an affinity player can have Etched Champion, one other artifact, and blank a removal spell targeting Etched Champion by putting a Gold onto the battlefield and activating Metalcraft. Additionally, if the land is an activated ability, it can be a combat trick with creatures that trigger off artifacts entering the battlefield, such as Battered Golem or Salivating Gremlins.
ReplyDeleteDon’t get me wrong, those things sound awesome! It’s a powerful effect, I’m wondering if an upkeep trigger would make it easier for the opponent to play around such a strong effect even though I think an activated ability is more fun to play. Thanks again for the post and the reply!
Relevant.
Delete