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Mechanics | Aerikal - The Veiled Lands | Skeleton

CardName: Symbol of Hatred Cost: 4BBB Type: Enchantment Pow/Tgh: / Rules Text: Creatures your opponents control get -2/-2. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Aerikal Rare

Symbol of Hatred
{4}{b}{b}{b}
 
 R 
Enchantment
Creatures your opponents control get -2/-2.
Updated on 18 Apr 2013 by Camruth

Code:

History: [-]

2011-01-01 14:28:27: Camruth edited Symbol of Hatred
2013-03-15 09:53:01: Camruth edited Symbol of Hatred

I think this card is confusing. If I have a Vorstclaw out, it will be a 5/5. But it's a 5/5 that doesn't die to the ability, because it will again be 7/7 when the enchantment is gone for the cost.

Yes, most players will be smart enough to understand that, but it's the kind of card people dislike for being so deceitful.

Compare to Curse of Death's Hold. This card is better than Curse in several ways: First of all, this card weakens the opponent's creatures more than the Curse. Also, this card is simply an enchantment, not an aura, so it dodges hexproof and shroud, and affects all opponents simultaneously. On top of that, it has an additional sacrifice ability.

­Curse of Death's Hold was already good enough to see some tournament play (mostly sideboard). I would suggest costing this card at {4}{b}{b}.

The sacrifice was added for if there was something you absolutely had to get rid of and had no other way to do so.

2013-03-16 08:44:39: Camruth edited Symbol of Hatred

Oh, wow, I somehow completely skipped over the cost. While I noted the design mistakes I saw, I have to say that this card is obscenely broken. {5}{b}{b}{b} would be a start.

2013-03-16 23:26:53: Camruth edited Symbol of Hatred

reset to original form

Two Curse of Death's Hold is probably game over. This is insane. I mean. Seriously. Test it. It will make your opponents cry.

I've played against it many times. It's called Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Let me tell ya... all your creatures getting +2/+2 and the fact that this is a 4/7 vigilance creature? Those aren't the parts that makes that card cost 7.

That said, -2/-2 for 6 may just be fair. It sure isn't nice, and no one will like you for playing it... but probably fair none the less. Most people don't pack enchantment destruction like they pack creature destruction. They sure would if this card was legal, though.

you can't get this out any quicker than you could get out 2 Curse of Death's Holds - without acceleration and this mainly hurts weenie decks (white weenie, goblin, elf, etc) sure by turn 6 this is going to help you immensely and may just break any stalemates but testing has shown its not undercosted at {4}{b}{b} so far.

This doesn't mainly hurt weenie decks... it's actually a gigantic hammer on mid-range and value decks. Weenie decks could care less about a 6 cost enchantment. A black-green deck full of Elves, Nekrataals and 4/4 Beasts would be rolled by this card. Similarly, this card wipes a dedicated Exalted deck right off the table.

Like I said, though, at the cost I think that's fair. But it really attack at the heart of most modern Magic archetypes.

Sure, Elesh Norn is probably also game over. xD She's very pushed, especially because you don't really need many other creatures. But she can still be killed, and you only end up with a one-sided Infest. Here, it's much much more impossible.

And, no, this doesn't punish weenie decks. I mean, sure, it just kills them, but so does other six-mana cards. You can still try to accelerate into it against aggro decks that aren't blazing fast.

It punishes midrange decks most of all, but also other decks that rely on creatures. Which could be a control deck that wins with something a little shorter than Frost Titan. Maybe Lingering Souls.

While there are still many archetypes in modern Magic, now most involve creatures, and probably not just one or two.

I'm just no fan of "Because this is an enchantment, it can't be done at this power level." I hate seeing Demystify be 14th pick. Creatures are doing good right now... let's see some enchantments, Wizards!

The thing is, how much worse is this than say Æther Flash?
It costs 2 more and yes, it saps power as well and makes everything smaller as long as its on the battlefield and only hits your opponents but Æther Flash plus any kind of tim or burn can pretty much deal with most mid-range creatures as well.
Would an Æther Flash that cost {4}{r}{r} and only hit creatures of other players be so much worse or so much weaker?
And why can't we have powerful enchantments? they're no worse than some of the crazy artifacts that are out there are they? So Red can't deal with enchantments, so what? every colour is supposed to have its weaknesses.

You said it: This works on creatures already there, the "damage" stays, also affects power. This also kills most midrange creatures with a little help, but it doesn't need to be at the exact moment, etc.

I'm not saying you can't do powerful enchantments. I'm saying that at seven or eight mana, this would be a powerful enchantment. Maybe not apt for Standard, but titans and Elesh Norn have shown that big mana costs can be played if they matter enough. I imagine control decks that use the Mind Stone of the format to "finish" with this. With a lot less pressure, you can just land a second and your opponent will automatically scoop.

Part of this is because it's very, very hard to deal with this. Even in the colors that can get rid of it, the answers are usually very specialized when Oblivion Ring isn't in the format. And I don't want white to have a Vindicate all the time just because people want to push card types that are difficult to get rid of.

Enchantments are difficult to remove, that's fine. Enchantments can be good, that's fine. But I think you are underestimating both the card type and the effect. Without the -5/-5, I think this could be pushed into {4}{b}{b}{b}.

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention that this must be one of the least fun cards of all time. You don't want to push those.

the main problem is what happens you have mulitples in play. elesh norn and night of soul' betrayal are legendary. curse of deaths hold is only half as effective for nearly the same cost. so you have to increase the mana cost by a lot, or have an out. like if 5 creatures died sacrifice this.

2013-04-18 13:27:06: Camruth edited Symbol of Hatred

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