Working on adding some green commons to the file. We have a number of green cards, but probably not enough commons.

This card is intentionally visualized as the simplest type of card with the Spore ability. Strictly a drawback (without any other fungus to work with) on this card, with heightened stats to make up for it.

Oop. Just noticed Lumbering Mycoshamble. That may be a better choice. Both might be playable, if we want to forego vanilla creatures and say that these two are the vanilla creatures.

Our set is going to have a lot of average words at common, but that's probably alright.
Also, are we sure we want to go the direction of only putting counters on opponent's creatures?

I don't know... that one I've been trying to figure out. If all the fungus ability did that, it would be a heck of a drawback to work around. But, if we always put the option in the hands of the caster, we wouldn't be able to cost very efficient creatures, and we run the risk of that player never putting a +1/+1 counter on their opponent's creatures, thus making a lot of lines like "~ can't be blocked by Fungus" irrelevant. I think the original idea, flavor wise, was to spread the fungal infection as much as possible. If players just decide to put a counter on one opponent's creature, and not the rest, we're missing on flavor.

I'd also say that your original idea of "put it on a creature that doesn't have one yet" is a good plan, except you would then clearly put it on the creature that is coming into play... that doesn't really solve the problem.

I figured that this was the most dramatic version, and as such, needed to be tested. It seems to me (and I could be very wrong about this) that if always putting counters on the opponents creatures works, then we should probably run with the more dramatic effect. I think there is a fair chance that this version can get off the ground, also, with cards like the fog we've been arguing over and cards that move counters around, putting them back on your creatures.

It is, however, quite possible that playtesting tells us that this is too swingy, or that people just respond to this as not fun. I definately see that.

Part of the problem is that "that Fungus ability" has a lot of words. I'd say that there is plenty of room in design for a lot of different variants... but that's a bit complex for the new player. I'm pretty sure we want to keep all the commons with the same line, then we can screw around with the uncommons. It might also be fair to say that all the commons might be giving your own creatures counters, and all the uncommons might be doing it to your opponents. I don't know.

I agree with trying the more dramatic version first.