Friday, June 11, 2021

Weekend Design Challenge 061121 - Young Planeswalker Fan


Happy Friday Artisans! Click through to see this weekend's design challenge. Your mission is to design a custom Magic card that follows the guidelines. Over the course of the weekend, give feedback to your fellow designers on their designs and incorporate their feedback to iterate on your own. I'll try to offer some feedback of my own starting on Monday.

Young Necromancer caught my eye in the Modern Horizons 2 spoiler, since it suggests a partial cycle with Young Pyromancer. They have art, names, and mechanics that suggest they're imitating Liliana and Chandra respectively. Your job this week is to design an uncommon creature named Young Animist (Nissa), Young Illusionist (Jace), Young Hieromancer (Gideon), or Young Healer (Ajani) to continue the cycle. Bonus points if it has power exactly 2 and a mana value that isn't 2 or 5.

Good luck and have fun!

11 comments:

  1. Young Healer (uncommon)
    2W
    Creature - Cat Cleric
    2/3
    When CARDNAME blocks, you may pay 1W. If you do, another target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn.

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    Replies
    1. I really like the top down approach over here, and the vulnerability of it while it protects another. I wonder if it might be a little too good in control, drawing out unwinnable games a little too long. Playtesting would tell us whether the 2 mana trigger cost is enough.

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    2. "Blocks" triggers are tricky, because whether you get value from them is totally up to the opponent. If they decide not to attack into Young Healer you're just sitting there with two open mana and two creatures that didn't do anything useful this turn. So I have the opposite concern as zefferal-- I wonder if it might not be impactful enough by this cycle's standards.

      No objection to the card otherwise, though! Cool text box and a great encapsulation of Ajani's attitude.

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  2. How about all of the (remaning) Origins five then?

    Young Hieromancer
    {W}
    Creature - Human Cleric
    Pay 4 life: Tap Young Hieromancer. It gains indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say “destroy” don’t destroy it.)
    2/1

    Young Illusionist
    {3}{U}
    Creature - Human Wizard
    When Young Illusionist enters the battlefield, if it’s not a token, create a token that’s a copy of Young Illusionist. It has “When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.”.
    2/2

    Young Animist
    {2}{G}
    Creature - Elf Druid
    Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, it becomes a 2/2 Elemental creature with haste until end of turn.
    2/1

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    1. These are great! Very resonant, though paying 4 life as opposed to a mana or two seems out of place in mono-W to me. (Adanto Vanguard was a color pie bend specifically for a BW tribe with a lifegain / life-payment theme.) Mechanically my main reaction is that I want these to be swingier. The Illusionist in particular feels like it should reward you for doing Jace-y things rather than just being two bears.

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  3. Young Illusionist {3}{U}
    Creature - Human Wizard
    Flash
    When ~ enters the battlefield, create a 2/1 blue Illusion creature token with "When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it." When you do, you may change a target of target spell to that token.
    2/1

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    Replies
    1. Cool! This is very like kristbg's Illusionist, but it's even more flavorful and fixes the mechanical problem I raised too. Power level also seems well chosen, since it's a choice between slightly weaker versions of Mystic Snake and Talrand's Invocation.

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  4. Young Heiromancer 2W
    Creature - Human Wizard (U)
    When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target non-land permanent you don't control until ~ attacks, blocks, or leaves the battlefield.
    3/2

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    Replies
    1. Expanding the "until" clause seems like neat design space design space :)

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    2. So it's a Banishing Light on a stick, but the stick part is all downside unless (or until) you just want the 3/2 body instead? Interesting. For some reason it doesn't strike me as particularly exciting or resonant but that's just my personal taste. Very much a fan of the templating innovation here, though.

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    3. Maybe making it trigger when it attacks as well? That would (mostly) keep it from exiling more than one permanent but still make it stronger.

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