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CardName: Iynx Cost: {1}{W}{W} Type: Legendary Creature - Djinn Pow/Tgh: 1/1 Rules Text: Flying, Haste Permanents you control cannot be sacrificed. If Iynx would be discarded, instead it enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters, where X is the number of cards discarded this turn. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Multiverse Design Challenge Rare

Iynx
{1}{w}{w}
 
 R 
Legendary Creature – Djinn
Flying, Haste
Permanents you control cannot be sacrificed.
If Iynx would be discarded, instead it enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters, where X is the number of cards discarded this turn.
1/1
Created on 02 May 2012 by Vitenka

History: [-]

2012-05-02 17:15:47: Vitenka created the card Iynx

For Challenge # 037 Warning, rambling SoC ahead. Mostly written offline before reading other people's posts.

If I'm understanding correctly; the problem here is primarily "Return it to its owners hands" and "Hey, those cards you returned? Discard them" finally setting up for a "And now I have extra turns and beat you to death with my tiny creatures" And a chunk of returning your own stuff so that you don't run out. Oh, and just for added fun, it's got an artifact that gives a counterspell now and a counterspell later. Joy.

The irritating part is the continual "Sweep your board" Attacking the recursion aspect seems least helpful, as the problem is still there, they just need to go through more of their deck to do it (though combining removing the recursion with some milling? maybe)

So it looks to me that the points of attack are...

Directly: Enchantment removal looks like it pretty much cripples the best card he's got. There's plenty of that in any core set though, no real point there. Stopping it hitting the table? Pre-emptive removal? Ditto creature removal to deal with some of the more irritating stuff.

Part of the problem is that the deck can itself recurse if it gets whomped. Stopping that might be valuable.

You could stop it flat with "Permanents you control may not be returned to your hand" Very specific hosing; though slightly harsh against blue removal in general, it could easily be made not worth running except against decks that outright rely on it like this one. ( Ok, jack went with Amblyn Cage to just "Nuke it with a hammer" So let's ignore that for now. ) If I were to go the flicker route, I think I'd go with an enchantment that turns into a creature token and back. Because this deck is weak against enchantments; apart from that damn demon.

Much of its bounce is due to bouncing cheap targets. This can be stopped with a Grip of Chaos which is fantastically silly in and of itself. Doesn't help you against the "Everything is named fred, and fred returns to your hand" mind you. Also the deck has still got the "We all do a symmetrical sacrifice. Then I recurse my stuff." option, but that's not so bad.

Feldon's cane (or is it ashnod's? I forget. Aha! Tormod's Crypt, knew it was something atiquity) to clear out their graveyward before they can recurse would be pretty nice. Hoses a few graveyard recursion strategies, doesn't really harm much else. Mind you, if this is in the set; they'd add it to this deck too...

Another direct hose? "You cannot discard cards" Doesn't hurt anything except a whole chunk of black commons... which isn't good to do. Damn. Does stop a chunk of the strategy fairly well, though the game would still drag out to a draw unless you had a non-creature way to win. Maybe that is the answer? Something he can't bounce that wins quicker than his demon? Doesn't have to normally be very efficient - heck, a Rod of Ruin would do if you can keep the demons at bay Circle of Protection: Black perhaps? Rely on enchantment removal to deal with that one critical card and add something that cares about number of cards in hand? "Ah, you made me draw my boardstate, ok, I shoot you for, um, 18" You'd still discard them later; but everyone except black gets enchantment removal; and black doesn't mind cards in graveyard so much...

Which brings up another problem - this fix, whatever it is, need to be splashable. Either an artifact, or at the very least {x}{?} Depends on the flavour of the stop, I guess.

Sorely SORELY tempted to have something like: "~ gains a charge counter whenever you discard a card. Sacrifice ~: Deal X damage to target creature or player, where X is the number of charge counters on ~" Hoses black discard, powers UP madness.. seems worth a try.

Let's look at what's already been printed in this field:

Things you can discard to before you're forced to discard anyway; Flowstone Sculpture and similar are another option. That's a bad choice,being a creature, though. Lots of other options exist. ­Null Brooch is a pretty big "Damn you, damn you to heck" option. Posisbly too disruptive to, well, every other deck ever, though. Rites of Refusal is a saner version.

­Pitchstone Wall is quite amusing; but would just be "Well, we'll return that one first"

­Azorius Æthermage has another way of countering this I was thinking of; but again, he's a creature so he'd go first. The sweep mechanic doens't seem useful. Stormfront Riders maybe? Warped Devotion; no wait, that's what started this mess... (Only you reprinted it even cheaper? Why did you bother?)

I'm still thinking Grip of Chaos though. Still want something to deal with "You've all got the same name" and "Nuke everything that has the same name" though.

Hah! Dodecapod and Sand Golem do some wondferful "Oh, you made me draw it and discard it? It comes back bigger." stuff. Fairly specific hosing there; and when it comes back, Dodecapod is bigger than his demon, just for kicks. though he can still try and lock it down since it lacks haste. Still, assuming haste exists in set this should be fine. So there we go. Add those to the set; and if players are worried they can run those and some equipment just for added kicks. They're not THAT bad even if you have to cast them.

Looking for existing cards Echoing Courage, Cylian Sunsinger makes giving stuff the same name; which are great since woozle is likely to be around well before the board sweeper the opponent wants to pair with it. Evil Twin just blatantly wants to go in the deck we're trying to stop (though it works as an ok defence) - I think this the the 'can you guess the card' card. Maybe Eye of Singularity or Maelstrom Pulse as yet another woozle sweeper? Yick. Ewww Sever the Bloodline in case returnin-to-hand-then-sdiscard isn't evil enough; howsabout some exile?

Heh, here we go: Winnow. Blow up the woozle, because there are many things named woozle. Also useful in normal decks for general "Oh, not another flaming dragon" moments; whilst not being particularly unbalancing removal (So.. I beat you to detah with the first one, k?) Also, presumably, we do want woozles to sometimes be fun; and this card pairs with it well on the offense too.

And I think a nice legendary with a "If you discard me, I punish you." where the 'you' is whoever made you do it. Nah, too fiddly; this is core set. Probably white or green. As white, it's a flyer, as green it's be a spider with reach instead. Could be black, too. Black gets hasty flyers, and madness is kinda black's thing (which would work well if I had some kind of +1/+1 per discard this turn, my original madness inspired idea)

If Webbed Woozle + Legendary creature works like Wrath of God, then this (along with other cheap legends) is a pretty good defence. Otherwise, I do still need something to deal with the "Everything has the same name. Boom." sweepers. Well, the artifacts being bigger than 2/2 is a good start. Echoing truth is still annoying.

Ohhhh geeze. I only just really took in the lands. We've got woozle protection, reucursion of the damned artifacts (both the tapstick and the counterpot) AND of your creatures if you need it. Oppponents graveyard recursion is more important than I realised; especially when compared with the demon of sacrificing stuff. I'm tempted to suggest the Pressed Centaur Clan for the demon. Ok, thinking inside the box: "Permanents you control cannot be sacrificed". Now he's just a 4/4 flyer; and we have a creature to hang it on. Recursion of the artifacts and creatures is a worry. If that's still too strong then it's not just THIS deck it's powering up, but everything - and I really think some kind of "Oh no you don't" hoser becomes appropriate. I pick Tormod's Crypt, but I'm tempted to suggest land destruction would be enough to take care of it. The big bang sorcery recursion? Well, it doesn't do it often; and if the demon is nerfed I don't care all that much.

Iynx ­{1}{w}{w} Legendary Creature - Djinn Flying, Haste Permanents you control cannot be sacrificed. If ~ would be discarded, instead it ETBs. 1/1

So there's my answer. This legend, and reprint Winnow, Dodecapod, Tormod's Crypt and Grip of Chaos (or something like them). The set also wnats non-basic land destruction, artifact destruction and enchantment removal; but don't they all?

Ok; from another approach. We just want to kill this deck. Not nerf it; beat it. Preferably in a deck that is itself beaten by other forms of deck. ... Not gone anywhere down this yet.

Nice find on Dodecapod. I was already thinking of that and Wilt-Leaf Liege, although the Liege isn't exactly Core Set-friendly. Obstinate Baloth would be, though. Perhaps Quagnoth too?

Good idea to couple it with the Tajuru Preserver / Sigarda, Host of Herons ability though. It is somewhat blatantly a hoser, but that's fine given the circumstances. It is of course counterable, but Boney Control doesn't actually have very much countermagic in it; just the four Counter Ball and the ways to recur it.

­Tormod's Crypt is the most splashable graveyard recursion, but Relic of Progenitus is probably a bit better, and just as Core Set-table (although probably bumped up to uncommon).

There's some good stuff here. On one hand, I'm a bit sorry I made this challenge so tough, since Boney Control has players coming and going. On the other hand, responses like this, where designers really have to work to get a good answer, feel better than "Well, here's you're simple answer. Just do X." When we're done, I'll need to ask people if this was too much, or just right.

By the way, you trigger the 'guess the card I'm thinking of', except it wasn't Evil Twin (as good an answer that seems. It's true, it would probably make Boney even better). I made boney, sat back, and realized that Cylian Sunsinger seemed custom built to attack boney, even running the exact three opposite colors. Having realized that, I almost wanted to cut back on the "changing creature names" theme and make them all variants of the Woozle ability, but it was a little too late. I certainly don't think it's 'the answer', but, if I was a designer in Magic2017, I'd drop the Sunsinger right in the file. It's good for a core set, and doesn't even look like an answer card to Boney... it just happens to disrupt the Woozle, potentially causing 13 damage on round 3 (Singer, 2 Elves, Removal after activation).

For more on why I didn't just reprint Warped Devotion, see Creaky Bones. The more I think of it, the more I should have gone with {1}{b}. But, you know, I was making a deck of abusive cards from scratch without outside opinion. It's tough to figure out what's fair and what's unfair when the point is to be a little unfair.

Just right; I loved this.

Hah; now I have another elegant solution.

­Blood Moon. Boney Control has no basic land ;)

Ok, assuming the existence of that and the opponent is smart enough to run swamp and island instead of duals, the basic theory is that most of the problem is the opponent being able to avoid all his stuff getting hit too - and it's the lands doing this. Blood moon largely fixes the woozle, by making it symmetric and relying on red being better aggro. Cowardice is still a problem, but he's only running one of that, and anyway, I can play RW or RG and have some enchantment removal if it's only the one card I'm worried about. Some Shatter to take care of the tapstick and or the counterpot and bobs your uncle. Flavour with goblins and dragons to taste.

One card fix, and not tricolour evil either. (Though I still like Grip of Chaos as an answer to Cowardice.)

I'm not convinced by Cylian Sunsinger. It means that if the Woozle's out, you have Overrun on a stick, sure... without trample, at the cost of 3 mana in fiddly colours, and to all your opponent's creatures too. And it's massively hosed by Epitaph Scriber and Fen of Lies. "In response to the Sunsinger ability, change its name, so that all creatures with the name Abu Ja'far get +3/+3." I mean, okay, a Stonewood Invoker still isn't awful, but the mana is very fiddly.

Also that tricolour activated ability makes me definitely doubt that the Sunsinger is Core Set-appropriate. Activations like that feel like they've only been in the middle sets of gold blocks like Planeshift and Conflux.

As for your ideal sequence of t1 elf, t2 Sunsinger+elf, t3 removal+activate... I don't know what kind of "Elves" you're hoping to run that cost 1 mana and can let you spend {w}{g}{r} plus cast a removal spell that'll take out a Woozle on turn 3 while still attacking with them. One can be Noble Hierarch, sortof, but then you don't get the extra +3/+3...

The new "Elf" in Innistrad comes to mind as well. It isn't important, though. I realized how awesome having the Sunsinger in the same block as this madness was, more than I noticed how good the Sunsinger was at tackling boney. It isn't. It is nice to have kicking around, though, messing up boney's strategies. I must admit, though, that I forgot that it would be boosting your opponent's creatures. That's a bugger.

­Blood Moon is an excellent suggestion. Boney could move away from all the duals, but it would be very hard to cast the two {u}{u} creatures, it would also cut into its specialty non-basic lands. Tsabo's Web also occurred to me, being an old answer to the same problem. The only real problem, as I can see, with these two cards is that if there are that many specialty non-basic lands in Boney, then there were probably a lot printed in Standard. You kind of hose a lot of strategies with Blood Moon. Still, Wizards did something similar when they banned the artifact lands, punishing every deck that used them, broken or not. Sometimes it's the right call.

­Blood moon is from the dark! You don't get very much older than that. Certainly invasion isn't. And blood moon, even in the presence of the true dual lands, isn't always that great.

­Blood Moon was reprinted in Core Sets a couple of times as a deliberate hoser option. And it does tend to hose tournament manabases to an excessive extent; most tournament decks will play 0 basic lands if they can get away with it.

That, and Magus of the Moon, which is sometimes a better card, and sometimes not. This deck, not.

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