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CardName: Red Commons Submissions Cost: Type: Pow/Tgh: / Rules Text: Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Community Set Common

Red Commons Submissions
 
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Created on 25 Sep 2011 by Link

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2011-09-25 14:06:14: Link created the card Red Commons Submissions

Like I said on Black Commons Submissions, these are just 14 common cards I designed, with a basic idea of red's current themes and of what red usually does in a set. It's by no means meant to be final or to perfectly fit the skeleton.
­Kiln Fiend
­Arc Tail Devil
­Snowcloaked Yeti
­Cavern Stalker
­Howling Mauler
­Zheru Yeti
­Frostbite Elemental
­Devil's Flare
­Marked for Mauling
­Icy Tempest
­Seething Force
­Cryoclasm
­Vicious Bloodlust
­Devilish Tunneling

I've filled in 3/4 of the red common skeleton.

There's plenty of creatures; I put in something for every slot, and there's more I'd definitely like to use (probably either putting those in when some of the current creatures get moved to uncommon or cut, or moved into uncommon).

I've provisionally put in one pump slot, one cheap burn slot, two other burn slots, and one player-only burn slot (that could be replaced with an evasion spell, possibly). Suggestions for some more burn spells (like (((Harvest Pyre))) or something rather than just "N damage") would be useful.

Then there's a couple of spell slots left that can be used for other red things: land/artifact destruction; no blocking; set/color theme; act of treason.

Frost Chomp is very nice, but I'm worried it'll mostly just be used for giving things /-X which could be red but is more black.

We've got plenty of existing cards that are interesting that could go there; I'm probably going to try a couple of them out, but expect them to move as we decide we want some specific effects in red common to complement what goes on elsewhere. (Eg. I've not put in an artifact or land destruction spell yet because what we want is likely to depend on whether we use fortifications, and what color fixing we decide on.)

More suggestions for "common or uncommon red spells" would also be fine at this point.

It is very heartwarming to see that as soon as I rolled up my sleeves, that multiple people decided to back me up. Thanks everyone for reminding me why we like to do this sort of work in the first place. If you don't hear from me too much Jack (and Alex who seems to be taking control of multicolor right now), it's mostly because I'd like to see what happens when I get hands off the colors I'm not currently working on. Excellent stuff, otherwise.

on 05 Apr 2012 by Visitor:

Mmm... all-in is an interesting idea for a mechanic; but it pretty much means "I do what I would be doing naturally? Cool. does that make me win? No? Um, well, I won't do it. Great, now all my stuff is even MORE rubbish than expected."

Do like that the yeti is still 5/5 during opponents turns, that's nice. Don't like that red is the only colour that actually cares about toughness when removing; and am giggling insanely that blue can use twiddle as a white-style "Your attack fails, oh, and half your attackers die because of it" combat trick.

So yeah. Reds removal is pretty good, but slightly hard to use. Reds creatures really aren't - though those rubbish -2/2 firebreathers actually won me a game. Attack with enough mana to pump effectively and you can still win.

There have been several printed blocks with "all-in" mechanics, though. I'm reminded particularly of Morningtide's Prowl mechanic (as on Latchkey Faerie and Morsel Theft), which only works if you're getting through already; and for that matter Shards of Alara's Exalted mechanic and most Landfall creatures from Zendikar means your creatures are great on attack but pretty poor on defence. So I think giving one colour an all-in mechanic is okay.

My guess is that all-in mechanics are harder to balance well, because if you stumble in an early turn, it tends to all be over, but if not, it tends to overwhelm the opponent before they have much room to find answers. So, speculating wildly, I guess they tend to end up being balanced at "just under the strength to annhiliate someone".

If there's any truth to that, it suggests (a) we may need to tweak the power of a couple of cards up a bit (carefully) so they're still strong but have more of a chance of hitting the opponent[1]. And (b) we may want some spell that helps keep the momentum up when you're attacking with everything and the opponent has some big blockers, but without totally obliterating all the blockers. Eg. "R. Tap X creatures you control, tap X target creatures" drawing offensive-tapping from red in future sight. Eg. Something that could remove some of your creatures from combat so they don't die when they attack into a creature (but still feels red).

[1] Did Devil Charge or Final Charge come up in playtest? Did they help?

on 05 Apr 2012 by Visitor:

Devil charge came up, and was an expensive combat trick that bounced off of green's cheap combat trick.

Final charge is "I win" and far too metagamey to be allowed to exist. (It didn't actually come up)

Devil Charge caused a Yeti to deal 10 damage to a player once or twice as well, IIRC. I.e. it functioned like Lava Axe + "Target creature can't be blocked this turn".

I've been thinking about this, and I think I can see where the problem is. We want this feel for red that it's always one step ahead of the opponent, and, therefore, can always get an all in attack. But, if it got like that, red would just be winning. We don't want to just make red better than the other colors, so its mechanic works.

Ideally, what we want is for red to turn off and on, getting an all out attack every other turn. It should have turns where it can turn every guy sideways, and that makes sense, and turns where it has to hold back and build.

The best way to do this is with 'virtual vanilla'. Cards like Crossway Vampire (that come into play tapped, I suppose), Stingscourger or just some dudes with Haste helps this "Surprise! I got an attack in this round!" In stead of having creatures with evasion, I think we should have a higher density of creatures that grant evasion when they etb, so that you can get some solid hits in, but you've still got to play the game on the ground. Oh, and we missed reprinting some sort of Dwarven Warriors. He seems custom tailored for our needs in all-in red.

The other way for red to do this, is to let it take a step out of Green and White's playbook and sit back and slowly build on turns it isn't casting anything or swinging. Unfortunately, the cleanest way to do this is with +1/+1 counters and/or token creatures. But green has bud in block, and those token creatures will all have to turn sideways when you attack. This is still a doable strategy, but it may need to pop up in the uncommon sheet, since I think filling the board with imps will discourage some players to all-in attack, even when they really should. Alternatively, we can look into cards that use counters in different ways. For example, an enchantment that uses counters in some fashion to 'level up' your team. It should take some time, but give you a nice reward that can let you push over the top when it does. Again, this might be better reserved for the uncommon slots.

"we should have a higher density of creatures that grant evasion when they etb, so that you can get some solid hits in, but you've still got to play the game on the ground"

This analysis sounds spot-on to me. Let's make a couple of sample cards and put them in the skeleton.

Some submissions for ya! Impish Firestarter, Yeti Cannonballer, Imp Switcheroonie, Cauldron Spoiler and a bonus Tethered Valesk which attacks the problem from a different angle.

Oh, and one more suggestion: A good card to bluff around. I suggest reprinting Trumpet Blast. That should allow you to make occasional all-in attacks, even when you have nothing but land in your hand.

Maybe just give red some more ways to cope with "Oh crap, my everything is tapped and now my opponent is swinging back in"

Stuff that gets boosted if you took damage last turn? Flash creatures (on the blocking side this time)?

In a very limited test of red, this didn't seem to be a problem. At least, not yet. I saw red sometimes attack with all its creatures, and sometimes not. I saw the other team not counter-attack because it had to block, and sometimes race. That's kind of what a normal Magic game is like when you're playing an aggressive color anyhow. If you're winning with a B/R bloodthirst deck, you don't give quarter, you just swing and deal.

Again, though, that was just my opinion on playing maybe 5 or 6 games, and not with playing mono-red.

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