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CardName: Gideon's Simulacrum Cost: 2W Type: Planeswalker Pow/Tgh: /2 Rules Text: [+1] Until end of turn, Gideon's Simulacrumbecomes a 2/2 Human Soldier creature that's still a planeswalker. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to him this turn. [-6] Draw three cards, then put three permanents you control on top of your library. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Multiverse Design Challenge Common |
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For Challenge # 042. See Chandra's Simulacrum for an explanation. I put 3 abilities on Chandra, because I felt a need to keep things complex in their simplicity. Players play planeswalkers for many reasons, but one is the options that they give them. Gideon's first ability is complicated enough, however, so I passed on adding a second option. Again, we're drawing cards as a means of representing 'finding something'.
Ouch, that -6 is painful to yourself! "Draw 3 cards, then Plow Under x 1.5 yourself." I could see myself sitting there quietly praying that my opponent uses that -6, haha
Well... it looks painful (which admittedly isn't a great quality in a common), but actually it's card neutravantage: you're up three down three. It's something like Ovinomancer's drawback, except less so because you can use ETB creatures or whatever. I could see myself using it.
I think I still disagree with the idea that common planeswalkers should have 3 abilities, so I think the 2-ability version here is sensible.
It's the kind of ability that isn't usually too bad in the late late game, where you've got a ton of lands in play. Any time before that, though, you're drawing some cards but losing board presence, and typically cards in the battlefield zone are more important than cards in any other game zone. To say it another way, usually the permanents you put back are going to be lands, so the cards you are drawing are going to be harder to cast. And you're also forced to re-draw the lands, so it's more like you've gotten an advance on those 3 cards to get them immediately, rather than over the course of the next few turns. Yes, you'll occasionally get some ETB value, but most competitive games these days aren't so durdly as to allow for much of that; the creatures have gotten pretty aggressive.
While, I admit, the ability doesn't look too stellar, I think a combination of ETB and shuffling useless lands away makes it more than fair. Really, I was just looking for a way to get white to draw cards, and this seemed the most likely, non-intrusive way.