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CardName: Twist Cost: 1U Type: Instant Pow/Tgh: / Rules Text: Prepare {1}{U} ({1}{U}: Exile this from your hand. You may cast it from exile without paying its mana cost.) Untap up to two target permanents. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Multiverse Design Challenge None

Twist
{1}{u}
 
Instant
Prepare {1}{u} ({1}{u}: Exile this from your hand. You may cast it from exile without paying its mana cost.)
Untap up to two target permanents.
Updated on 13 Oct 2020 by Jack V

History: [-]

2020-10-01 21:23:01: Jack V created and commented on the card Twist

Blue uncommon 2-cmc instant ramp: See Challenge # 167.

Blue ramp. My first thought was untapping, but it has to be a one-off. So, untapping, but can be carried forward to your next turn.

I've no idea how strong the effect is, is untapping lands strong or weak or unprintable? I almost wanted a one off "untap N lands" effect, but that led more into a one-off burst of spells like a combo deck, with more chance of being useless or broken, whereas I wanted something incrementally building up like a ramp deck.

I've seen a few variants like prepare, but I went with the simplest possible here, which just lets you invest your mana in a situational spell in advance. It could also give you a greater or lesser version of the effect, maybe if it was restricted to not being cast until your next turn like Alex's version.

Oh, nifty. Yes, "save 2 mana from this turn to next turn" is sortof ramp. Though without Manamorphose's cantrip it's going to be hard to justify putting this into a deck.

Perhaps add a cantrip and bump the Prepare cost to 3 mana?

Also, I love that a mechanic I came up with 5 years ago is still salient in shaping some people's custom card designs :)

Yeah, I keep finding variants on prepare that I NEARLY want to print :)

I find it hard to judge. i was expecting some "sac this for mana" cards to compare it to but found very few. It probably is quite weak because it's only useful if that ramp is exactly what you need. But I'm still worried it's broken somehow :) And with the prepare ability it can serve other duty, eg untapping a creature, or letting you play a reactive spell when you're tapped out.

I'm still thinking more about prepare. It always felt like a big limitation was needing to invest mana in preparing it, making it hard to have any cheap effects, or to impose colour restrictions.

I wonder if it would work to capture the "plan ahead" flavour to prepare a card for free, but with some other restriction like only one a turn, or not being able to play until next turn, or playing multiple cards in LIFO order or FIFO order.

The version in my Code Geass set did have "you can't play this till next turn": the reminder text says something like "On future turns". IIRC it also had a cost to cast it from prepare, so you get colour restrictions apart from the free cycle... yes, Prepare for Ambush and friends are free so it has the fiddly land wording, but Gefjun Disturber and Return on the Other Side and Zero Requiem need the right colours. Modulo a Supply Drop, of course :)

I didn't remember all of it, but my point was, if you get rid of the {2} to exile it, you could get more flexibility in the cost to cast it, and hopefully those other limits mean it still matters of you can predict which ones you need next turn.

Ohh, the {2} to set it up. Gosh. Interesting idea.

I don't think we quite want people to be going "Turn 1, prepare 4 cards, play a 1-drop, go", though, do we?

Hence the suggestion that you could only prepare one card a turn, or some other restriction other than mana payment. I had other ideas but I was just brainstorming them, I didn't have any very certainly.

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