Wednesday, October 24, 2018

CCDD 102418—Keeper of the Maze

Cool Card Design of the Day
I wanted to explore the idea of the minotaur guarding the labyrinth (based on a conversation from Beacon of Creation). The idea of rewarding player's for using their gates to cast it appealed, because of the gate's original relevance to Ravnica's implicit maze (see Maze's End), as well as Castmire's labyrinthine nature and potential use of gates.

My first pass wanted the Minotaur to gain flash so it could ambush unwary maze travelers, but it feels weird making a blue minotaur today. I'm back to using typed mana, and I've got to say it feels quite natural here.
Here's the mono-red pass. You could also let gate mana activate a kicker effect, and that might ultimately be more satisfying if you find the right effect. I like the mana reduction here, though, because gates ETB tapped, and the double red cost means you really need a {R}-producing gate to take full advantage of this.

3 comments:

  1. I like it! I think Ravnica has used some interesting tech to avoid "Gate mana" while still rewarding Gates. Guild Summit And Crackling Perimeter are good examples.

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  2. I'm not sure the first version works under the rules as worded. I think you'd have to attempt to put Keeper of the Maze on the stack before you're allowed to spend mana on it, but you can't put it on the stack at instant-speed if it doesn't have flash.

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