A couple of weeks ago we ran a Zendikar preview art challenge. There's still more art, so let's do another! Have an Angel! Make it Mythic!
Good luck, have fun, and I'll see you all next week.
Friday, August 21, 2020
Weekend Art Design Challenge 20200821 - ZendikART Rising (2)
A couple of weeks ago we ran a Zendikar preview art challenge. There's still more art, so let's do another! Have an Angel! Make it Mythic!
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Guarding Luminarch 2WW
ReplyDeleteCreature Angel Mythic
Flying, Vigilance
~ must block if able to.
Other creatures you control have indestructible.
2/5
Alternativelly the last ability: sources your opponent control cannot make you sacrifice permanents.
Really cool idea! First thought was to compare it with Avacyn, Angel of Hope but this has way more counterplay. Play Design would probably have to look at whether it was too strong with Springleaf Drum effects-- and my guess is the mana cost and/or toughness would have to be adjusted in any event-- but as a concept for a mythic angel this knocks it out of the park.
DeleteTo be honest, it's very difficult for me to evaluate how powerful this card is. Two of these give each other indestructible, which seems like a powerful sequence that would come up a lot. Then again, this is a weak play when you're behind. I would really be interested to see it in action!
DeleteI was tempted to make it legendary, but thought about it a bit more and settled for the more exciting card that leads to a less broken commandrr experience.
DeleteVery cool, very mythic. I think that as a 4 drop it would absolutely be a format defining card, so I agree that evaluating its power level is very tricky, but in the abstract, that's a cool clean card.
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ReplyDeleteZendriel, Blade of Emeria 4WWW
ReplyDeleteLegendary Creature - Angel - Mythic
Flying, Vigilance
When Zendreil, Blade of Emeria enters the battlefield choose a color. Destroy all creatures of the chosen color.
6/6
Since you are choosing a color, I dont think the wrath effect will be TOO pushed, but most likely it will usually be a one sided board wipe which may be too much on a 6/6 flying body.
Sweet callback to Iona, Shield of Emeria. This is much less oppressive even though flicker etc. can re-trigger the ability. It also reminds me, in a good way, of Wakening Sun's Avatar. Very solid and suitably mythic.
DeleteThis is a really clean and cool card! I think this is a little on the strong side, but I think it would still be fine. Sunblast Angel was a mana cheaper and was also a kind-of one-sided wrath.
DeleteI've never played against a Sunblast Angel outside of commander, so I don't have a strong sense of how well costed a one-sided wrath on a creature of that size should be costed. The wrath is fine at that mana cost, as cards like Planar Cleansing and Hour of Reckoning will attest.
DeleteZendikar 1 pushed monocolor to a degree, and I wonder if a card that lets you hose a single color has a home in a set where that's the case. Either way, that's a scary looking angel to be facing off against, and a nice design.
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ReplyDelete
DeleteZuel, Embodiment of Hope 6WW
Legendary Creature - Angel (M)
Flash, flying
When you cast ~, if target opponent controls more creatures than you, create 1/1 white Spirit creature tokens with flying equal to the difference. If target opponent has more life than you, gain life equal to the difference.
5/5
Man, what an amazing equalizer. Absolute perfect top end for a control deck. Just let them do their thing and then blam this down when you're at 2 life. OOF what a hit. Especially with flash, this can become a huge trick. Love the name too, just holding out hope for Zuel.
DeleteAn even bigger and more scalable Linvala, the Preserver? That definitely justifies mythic, though I'm not sure what the odds are that two Zendikar sets in a row would use a mythic slot in such similar ways. Part of the "awesomeness" that justifies mythic rare can come from novelty, not just going bigger.
DeleteIntentional that Zuel leaves you 1 creature ahead (since the cast trigger resolves before Zuel's on the battlefield)?
Yeah, it was intentional, although the cast trigger is also important to keep this away from reanimation/blink shenanigans. I see your point about bigger not always being better, though to be honest I'm kind of a sucker for the huge expensive mythics.
DeleteI'm a big fan of White Balance cards that create, rather than destroy. A pox on both our houses feels far less in line with white philosophy than building things up to be more fair. While I agree that this bears more than a passing resemblance to Linvala, the Preserver, having a legacy legendary hook I would consider a feature, not a bug. If there's too much concern about stepping on Linvala's halo, would you consider adding a second color to this? If so, which?
DeleteI could see a B/W angel. Like:
DeleteZuel, Embodiment of Hope 6BW
Legendary Creature - Angel
Flash, flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may exchange your life total with target player.
5/5
Though at that point, it's a completely different card. Also, the epithet would need to change.
Hedron-Wielder Angel 3WW
ReplyDeleteCreature- Angel (Mythic)
3/4
Flying, vigilance
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, create a Relic token. (A Relic is a colorless artifact with "T: Add W".)
3, T, Tap an untapped Relic you control: Exile target creature until that Relic leaves the battlefield.
*"T: Add C"
DeleteWhile white has been moving towards having more ramp options, I think giving it ramp without any conditions dependent on opponents (being ahead on board, them performing specific actions) is a little over the line. That being said, I love cards that create unique tokens and the activated ability is super sweet, so I think you could be onto something there.
DeleteI think the relic token would be a great template to build off of in other parts of the set as well. Each color slots its identity into having relics on the board similar to devotion. White exiles, red deals damage based on the number of relics, etc. Having the relics be mana rocks and O-rings seems really strong. Maybe the caveat for the exile should be that the relic remains tapped and you can choose to not untap them? I may be overestimating the value of that mana production though.
DeleteVery flavorful! I really like the relic tokens! I would imagine each color had its own use for them, tied to cards. I would tweak the cost to be more Oblivion ring and make it sac and exile under the angel, but that is personal taste.
DeleteThanks for the helpful feedback! Yes, making the Relics mana rocks that can repeatedly O-ring might be a step too far. I tried to err on the side of too powerful / explosive since this is a mythic rare. I imagine the common Relic-makers as being mostly conditional ETB triggers or spell effects (with the flavor of "quest reward").
DeleteInitially I thought about making the Relics have no rules text (kind of like energy counters) but that seemed too parasitic. And many of the other good ideas for abilities (treasure, clues, food) are already taken.
How about this?
Hedron-Wielder Angel 3WW
Creature- Angel (Mythic)
3/3
Flying, vigilance
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, create a Relic token. (A Relic is a colorless artifact equipment with Equip 1 and "Equipped creature gets +1/+1".)
3, T: Exile target creature until CARDNAME leaves the battlefield. Activate this ability only when you could cast a sorcery and only if CARDNAME is equipped.
I've been thinking about new artifact tokens recently and my intuition is that Equipment tokens would be a bit powerful and need to have a higher equip cost.
DeleteComparing to Treasure, Clue or Food tokens, all of those give an effect that's a little cheaper than 1 mana, they're used once and then they're gone.
On the other hand an equipment token with equip 1 is already a 1 mana card (Short Sword). So making a relic is like drawing that card and getting to put it into play. Then once in play they can be moved around, and repeatedly stacked up to make dorky creatures relevant or evasive creatures must kills.
This is all maybe too much of a development comment for a mythic, but I think tokens which sacrifice to give a +1/+1 counter (at sorcery speed) could be better. There's some additional tension in what creature to use it on, and commons that make them can be cheaper. The downside is that there's more rules text to spell out on the token and cards that make them.
But overall I really like the card design of an angel that attacks to make artifact tokens and then somehow uses them to repeatedly o-ring things (after attacking because it has vigilance!).
I like the change to relics, as mana rock tokens is both too similar to our existing treasures, and difficult to do in a volume enough that they don't entirely warp a format. That said, equipping to turn on repeatable exile seems like it might be too potent? Do we really need to give people another reason to run Lightning Greaves?
DeleteIt's definitely a mythic, but one I don't think would be particularly fun to play against. If you were to drop the repeated removal avenue, but keep everything else as is (cost adjustable), what would you add that would still feel mythic without being oppressive?
Good points. I initially went for the O-ring effect for flavor reasons-- hedrons keep Eldrazi in prison. As alternatives, I'd look at things like "Sacrifice a Relic: Exile target creature, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control" or "Sacrifice a Relic: Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn".
DeleteHedron Warden 3WW
ReplyDeleteCreature-Angel
Flying, vigilance
Whenever ~ attacks exile up to one target permanent. Then choose one
-Return it to the battlefield under it’s owners control.
-Return it to the battlefield under its owners control at the beginning of the next end step.
5/5
I love where you're going with this, although I'm a bit skeptical that there's much reason to use the first option. I could be missing something, but you would always want to use the second option on an opponent's creature to keep it from blocking, and how many ways are there to use your own creature in your second main that you couldn't do in your first main? That being said, I think with a little tweaking this would be fantastic!
DeleteThanks for your thoughts! The idea of the first ability is that it allows you to flicker a land to retrigger your other creatures landfall abilities during combat.
DeleteI think the ability is maybe more appropriate for a rare as it's complicated rather than impressive.
I really like that. The flicker ability in the landfall context can be pretty potent, so I'm comfortable with this at mythic. It might even be too strong with the stats, but we'll let PD sort that out. This is a templating nitpick, but I think that it would more likely look like this:
DeleteWhenever ~ attacks, choose one --
* Exile target permanent you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owners control.
* Exile target nonland permanent you don't control until the beginning of the next end step.
I'm not sure I love having the split exile abilities, but without both options, I'm not sure that it's a mythic. Either way, it would be a lot of fun to test out that card.
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ReplyDeleteBased on the pic and the angle has two swords and a Jace like hood:
ReplyDeleteArmed Angel 2WW
Legendary Angel Flying 4/4
U: Attach an Equipment to ~
~ Gets +1/+1 for each Equipment attached to it
While 4 for a 4/4 angel is nothing to sneeze at, I'm not convinced that this is quite into mythic territory just yet. The +1/+1 for equipment attached to it is fun, but isn't exactly novel, and has appeared across a bunch of different rarities. Adding the activated, instant-speed auto-attach is actually pretty exciting. I think the cost might be too low for the ability. I'm also not sure why it was put in blue. Is it because of the Jace connection you made? or to open a color for commander. Either excuse is fine, but it is a perfectly on-color ability for white.
Delete