Hating on counters is kind of Black's thing (c.f. Hunter of Eyeblights), although most of the time it's either removing them or stealing them. I'm not 100% sure that hating on them should be centered in Black, but liking counters is mostly a Bant space, so Rakdos made sense to me.
Niche cards that have wild variance based on what your opponent is playing are cool, but will never be run if the meta doesn't promise a decent ROI. This is more playable outside of a counter-heavy metagame, but probably needs quite a bit more number tweaking.
I was going to suggest this could put a counter or two out there, probably -1/-1 counters, but this card doesn't need more text so maybe we remove the self-sacrifice bit, losing the callback, but making a very focused anti-counters card for the sideboard?
ReplyDeleteThat's definitely an option. I approached the card as a new ball lightning and ended up in anti counter country, but I'm not averse to tweaking it in that direction.
DeleteThe sacrifice does seem kind of unnecessary? If they don't have any creatures than the card is just a 3/1 and is likely going to eat removal within a couple of turns or you're already winning the game anyway. If they do have creatures it's going to get blocked and killed (hopefully after getting a boost with its ability and getting a few more points of damage in.)
ReplyDeleteOr based on your comment, were you thinking of this as a payoff card for a -1/-1 counter-focused set like Amonkhet? It would fit well in R/B then since they were the colors that were using them on opponent creatures.
I like that this creature is always big enough to kill their Planeswalker. Does it attack for too much if an opponent has multiple planeswalkers out? I could easily see it attacking for ten on some boards.
ReplyDeleteIf your opponent had two pws and no blockers available, they won't be in a position to complain about this guy.
DeleteForgive my ignorance, but why not? If I'm playing against control deck in cube my opponent curves Karn into Gideon and I attack them for fifteen damage with my haste 4-drop, I don't feel as though I've had a fun, interactive game.
DeleteWhat's the difference between this and a color hoser? Both punish people for playing their cards. Aether Snap and other effects give the opponent a chance to try to come back after their board is decimated, and Sudden Impact can never deal much more than 7 -- and those are pretty niche designs as well.
Again -- seriously not saying this to be combative. I love your stuff and think you're a great designer. I'm just curious about what kinds of effects are appropriate to punish and what kind of effects should punish them.
Oh, now I feel dumb for not realizing it was counters on permanents, not just creatures.
ReplyDeleteI've been having tech trouble replying to comments, lately. Anyone else?
ReplyDeleteMine's working from my cell. Haven't tried desktop today
DeleteCan confirm that it's not working on my desktop.
DeleteYes. Nothing happens when I hit Reply.
ReplyDelete