CardName: Holy Favor
Cost: W
Type: Enchantment - Aura
Pow/Tgh: /
Rules Text: Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1.
At end of turn, return Holy Favor to its owner's hand.
Flavour Text:
Set/Rarity: Mashup: the Gathering Workbench Common
Holy Favor
C
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1.
At end of turn, return Holy Favor to its owner's hand.
Random generator gave me Unholy Strength and Plains. Funny. That color shifts Unholy Strength to White, giving me...
Hmm...
Well, I've been hoping one of these cards would result in a straight reprint one of these days. And this one is a clear line-up for Holy Strength. The problem is that Holy Strength isn't very good. I probably wouldn't reprint it in any set, unless it just happened to be a perfect choice (maybe a set with a lot of morph. Any small bump there is good.)
But... +2/+1 with no further restriction just seems wrong. White's been dancing around this for a while now. It's not over-powered or anything... it's just that more power than toughness for no specific reason isn't what white does.
I went through a lot of ideas here. Here's a quick list of the better ones:
Enchanted creature becomes a 2/1 white soldier. Neat. But it would make more sense for white to make a creature a 1/1, and, since that spell doesn't exist yet, this card feels odd.
An instant with "Target creature gains +2/+1". Why? Well, that's the original text of Unholy Strength, before auras were more rigidly templated. It's a cute idea, but it requires explanation. I figured it was better to go with an idea that didn't necessitate an explination.
"When ~ enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Enchanted creature gets +0/+1." I like it. But that's an evolution of Holy Strength, not a color shift of Unholy Strength.
While white isn't too big on power greater than toughness, it seems to be okay with the idea of granting extra power to creatures who are already attacking (Or, at least that sounds right to me.) So now it does that. You don't get it on defense, and you need to keep casting it, which are negatives, but you can keep bouncing the aura between creatures, and it won't be hit by Tranquility which are positives.
This isn't perfect, I know. But I'm not sure there's a perfect answer, short of just letting this be Holy Strength, or White Unholy Strength.
Random generator gave me Unholy Strength and Plains. Funny. That color shifts Unholy Strength to White, giving me...
Hmm...
Well, I've been hoping one of these cards would result in a straight reprint one of these days. And this one is a clear line-up for Holy Strength. The problem is that Holy Strength isn't very good. I probably wouldn't reprint it in any set, unless it just happened to be a perfect choice (maybe a set with a lot of morph. Any small bump there is good.)
But... +2/+1 with no further restriction just seems wrong. White's been dancing around this for a while now. It's not over-powered or anything... it's just that more power than toughness for no specific reason isn't what white does.
I went through a lot of ideas here. Here's a quick list of the better ones:
While white isn't too big on power greater than toughness, it seems to be okay with the idea of granting extra power to creatures who are already attacking (Or, at least that sounds right to me.) So now it does that. You don't get it on defense, and you need to keep casting it, which are negatives, but you can keep bouncing the aura between creatures, and it won't be hit by Tranquility which are positives.
This isn't perfect, I know. But I'm not sure there's a perfect answer, short of just letting this be Holy Strength, or White Unholy Strength.
Yeah, white can do this, I'd say. You refer to things like Rally the Peasants or Inspired Charge. This is curiously reminiscent of other red cards like Mark of Fury or Viashino Sandscout. But nonetheless a fair colourshift of Unholy Strength.