Profane, of Sacred vs. Profane

­Challenge # 092

It would be a lot less trouble to write it out: "Whenever ~ attacks, if defending player controls a legendary permanent, that player discards a card." That's exactly what they did with Threshold after all.

Not sure if this couldn't be handled at , especially at uncommon (compare Hand of Cruelty), but although I like the idea, I'm worried about a named mechanic that actually punishes what would probably be a theme of the set!.

Yeah, that was my thought too. Legendary is already a drawback, after all; this mechanic just makes it more so.

i don't understand why it's called Profane. what does that have to with legends?

reading the comments above, maybe go the other way and have him support legends. that is, his ability only works if you control a legend. flavorwise it could be legends' supporters, making a more open theme that is easy to support and to understand.

That would seem like the obvious choice. I'm not sure if Sorrow wants the obvious choice, though.

That said, after spending hours working with the Gatherer rating system, I can tell you narrow application is one of the key ingredients for some of the worst rated cards on Gatherer. People just don't like cards that are good situationaly. For example, there's nothing particularly wrong with Ignite Disorder... and it has the potential to wreck an aggro/tempo white and/or blue deck. Still, it rates 2.397 stars. That's roughly the same rating as Alpha Tyrranax or Angelic Blessing. In other words, limited filler. And that's for a fairly common requirement. Legends might pop heavy in a block, but, outside of EDH, they aren't really a common feature in regular magic.

My suggestion? Assuming Sorrow doesn't want to switch from "Opponent's Legends are bad" to "My Legends are good"? Switch to "Legends are a toggle switch". In other words, if 'Profane' is on, this might gain 'discard a card' but lose Bushido (casting cost would need to be changed, of course.) There's still a benefit, since you're in control of if and when you cast a Legend. It's a tactic that favors some Johnnies and some Spikes. Timmy hates toggles. But the way Blasphemous is now, no player demographic appreciates it, really. Some Spikes, but fewer than you'd imagine. Some uber-Johnnies, but only in tandem with "Make your creature a Legend". ­

I think the key for narrow abilities (especially those that play very little in limited) is to make sure they are on top of desirable ones (here Bushido) with a mostly fair cost, hence why I offered up for it. If the trigger is still attack, but now activates if you have a legend, seems to me a fair cost and will make it a powerful constructed card (being a specter that doesn't need to hit the enemy).

unlike specters, this is blockable and thus killable easily. even in a legends block, i doubt it could trigger enough times to make the opponent fear it.

"unlike specters, this is blockable and thus killable easily." It doesn't need to deal damage to cause discard, only to attack. If you (as opposed to the opponent) need to control a legend before that effect triggers, sounds fair, maybe even pushed to me.