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CardName: Defender of the Arts Cost: 2u Type: Creature - Human Advisor Pow/Tgh: 1/3 Rules Text: {1}, {Q}: Counter target spell an opponent controls that targets an artifact or enchantment you control. Flavour Text: "Wait! Perhaps there is some merit to this idea after all." Set/Rarity: Link's Unplaced Cards Uncommon

Defender of the Arts
{2}{u}
 
 U 
Creature – Human Advisor
{1}, {q}: Counter target spell an opponent controls that targets an artifact or enchantment you control.
"Wait! Perhaps there is some merit to this idea after all."
1/3
Updated on 12 Sep 2013 by Link

History: [-]

2013-09-11 22:14:33: Link created the card Defender of the Arts
2013-09-11 23:25:00: Link edited Defender of the Arts

Goes infinite with Power of Fire/Viridian Longbow/etc etc and any artifact creature. Is that intended? Wizards always included a mana cost alongside {q} on all their {q} cards.

Welllll... it can only untap if there IS such a target ability; and to go infinite usefully something else needs to react to its tap or untap; or zapping your own artifact creature has to be useful (which means using an enchantment or artifactizing one of a handful of creature)... So it's a 3 card combo; which is probably fine. But yeah, it ought to have an activation cost really.

Trying to use it in its obvious way also needs some way to get this to tap. I guess it's pretty tough, so just attacking will work quite often.

Nope. St4ck tr1x. The way it works is:

  • Put one copy of the zap at my Obsianus Golem on the stack. (It copes fine even if the artifact creature has only 1 toughness.) Call this ability Z1.
  • In response, untap this to put an ability on the stack that will counter Z1. Call it C1.
  • In response to that, shoot something useful. Let that resolve if you want; doesn't matter.
  • Before C1 resolves, put another ability on the stack that will counter Z1. May as well call it C2.
  • In response to that, shoot something useful.
  • Untap this again creating C3.
  • Shoot something useful.
  • Etc etc.

I mean, technically it is still a three card combo, but when you have plenty of choices for each of the other two cards, this is pretty dangerous. (The pinging can be granted by Power of Fire, Hermetic Study, Psionic Gift, Viridian Longbow, Arcane Teachings, Heavy Arbalest, Quicksilver Dagger, and that's just off the top of my head; I'm sure there are more. And obviously there are hundreds of artifact creatures or ways to make them.)

As for getting this to tap - yeah, that's the traditional drawback of {q} creatures. It is quite a drawback - I've had to make dangerous attacks with Silkbind Faeries and Gilder Bairn.

You can cut a card out of the engine, too, if you use artifacts and enchantments that can target themselves, like Icy Manipulator. If we could think of an aura or equipment that can do something when tapped infinitely and can target itself, then we've hit a jackpot.

Hm? I'm saying the engine consists of 1) this, 2) any ping Aura/Equipment, and 3) any artifact creature. And that goes infinite. No further engine components required (beyond mana to cast them).

I don't think Icy Manipulator reduces the engine to two parts, because that'd make it just 1) this and 2) Icy, and I don't think that goes infinite.

Searching for jmg's suggested cards turned up also Hypervolt Grasp, Fire Whip, Lightning Prowess and Wolfhunter's Quiver in addition to the ping auras/equipment I remembered.

­Glare of Subdual and Opposition very nearly get there. They'll tap this, and target artifacts, but neither this nor them are artifacts themselves, and they don't target enchantments.

­Manriki-Gusari does let you go infinite with just itself and this, but doesn't achieve anything. You'd need something to trigger off being targeted or becoming [un]tapped.

­Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor lets you target anything, but this isn't a Cephalid. It'd work with Runed Stalactite to tap everything of your opponents' every upkeep though.

It's infinite mana with Earthcraft and anything to target it (such as Naturalize). But Earthcraft is generally broken. It's also infinite mana with Grand Architect and any artifact creature. It's infinite mill with Hair-Strung Koto and anything to target it, or infinite player damage with Kyren Negotiations and anything to target it.

So I don't think there's a two-card combo to achieve anything infinite with this; but three cards where the specification for the third is just "any artifact creature or enchantment creature" will do, which is still pretty risky.

Oh my. This was just a hope that I could make a {q} creature with no mana activation that wouldn't be ethat broken. I actually woke up this morning win the realization that I had gotten that wrong, and now I see that you guys definitely realized the same thing!
This needs a mana cost, as is. Perhaps I could get around that by requiring the spell or activated ability to be one an opponent controls, but that makes the already clunky wording even clunkier.

2013-09-12 15:52:59: Link edited Defender of the Arts

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