Created for Challenge # 016.

This is mostly a pretty boring design - similar to the original Chandra Nalaar, but less strong and a heck of a lot cheaper. See Hassti the Corrupted for a discussion of what abilities are okay on one-drops.

One notable point here is that the rarity is rare, not mythic.

Insanely powerful =\

Let me clarify why this is too good: think of it like a 1-mana super-powered Shrine of Burning Rage that starts with 1 counter and you don't have to pay any mana to activate. Yes, you can attack this, unlike the Shrine, but if you're attacking a red player and surviving, you're probably winning anyway.

It's not quite the same as a more powerful Shrine. This card can only deal 1 damage each turn, and dies to pretty much anything. Also, the Shrine can potentially gain counters faster as well.

"If you're attacking a red player and surviving, you're probably winning anyway."

That might normally be the philosophy, but most red creatures don't say "If you are attacked this turn, sacrifice ~." On top of that, red is very easy to attack, since most of its creatures are turned sideways. I'd probably say something closer to "If you can't attack this, and you're playing against red, you've already lost."

I do, however, think this card may be too strong. It's hard not to compare this to Goblin Fireslinger... I know you can't exactly attack the fireslinger... but you can't Tragic Slip this card.

Planeswalkers are tough to evaluate correctly. I've mentioned in someone's post (maybe ttt's?) that I need to spend a day and play a pile of Multiverse Planeswalkers just to get a feel for what's fair and what isn't. I think this card would end up on that list.

@ttt: I'm not only talking about the 1 per turn from the +1, I'm also talking about the ticking time bomb of the -6 that incidentally wipes your board as it kills you XD

@jmg: Red is easy to attack, but if the creatures you cast aren't forced to block in the early turns, then you're probably winning anyway is my point. The point at which you're not forced to block red is the point where the game is beginning to turn in your favor.

Another thought is the metagame. If we can agree that whenever Chandra gets to 6 counters, the opponent is most likely dead, that means she needs to be interacted with before then. That means that on the play, the opponent must, at the very latest, cast a creature by turn 4 or planeswalker removal spell by turn 5, which means that a lot of control decks will have trouble staying alive until the midgame, where they would usually begin to stabilize.

Hmm. You may be right. We could make the ultimate less good and/or more expensive.

Yeah, I think that would do it :)