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CardName: Rattletail Warning Cost: W Type: Instant Pow/Tgh: / Rules Text: The next time a creature an opponent controls attacks this turn, you may deal 5 damage to one of them. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: Cards With No Home None

Rattletail Warning
{w}
 
Instant
The next time a creature an opponent controls attacks this turn, you may deal 5 damage to one of them.
Updated on 14 Jun 2017 by Jack V

History: [-]

2017-06-11 22:53:16: Jack V created and commented on the card Rattletail Warning

So, it's a worse fog? That will likely get cast at the wrong time.

Not really? This is a retaliation-in-advance rather than a Holy Day.

It's a cheaper, but less effective and less white (red tends to do damage with numbers), Immolating Glare with confusing rules on "I attack with these two, which one takes the damage?"

Probably legit; but I'd word it "Destroy target attacking creature with toughness 5 or less" (or, indeed change it to 'power 5 or less' to be a little less blatantly sidestepping the issue that this is a red card in drag.)

I can see using it as Retaliate too though. So maybe "Destroy target blocked creature". Has that been printed? It has! Smite. I'd do that :)

I could add a cantrip?

I think dude's point is that you can't use this after attackers are declared. You have to cast this before attackers are declared; at which point the opponent can choose whether to attack or not.

In other words, it is strictly worse than Holy Day. When you cast Holy Day, you know your opponent can't attack this turn. When you cast this, you give your opponent a choice: either they don't attack this turn, or they attack with stuff and one of them is going to take 5 damage. (Which does't matter if they're attacking with 20 saprolings, or a 6/6 flyer when you have no flyerblockers, or whatever.)

This is squarely in white's colour pie - the large majority of cards that deal damage to attackers need white mana to do so. The problem here isn't the colour pie, it's the power level and the fiddly timing (people will think they can cast this "in response" to attackers being declared). A cantrip would fix the power level, but not the fiddly timing. I guess you could fix the fiddly timing with "Cast ~ only during an opponent's upkeep".

I got sucked into designing instants. Maybe this should be a creature with a sac effect.

Yeah, Alex got my point. You're supposed to cast this before combat, so your opponent just chooses not to attack, unless it doesn't matter that you cast this. The creature with a sac ability would work better, if you mean "Sacrifice: 5 damage to target attacker." Slows down combat considerably, though, since that's often a better deathtouch.

It should also be pointed out that Reciprocate exists. So even if you could cast this after attackers, it would still be worse than a piece of removal that hasn't seen much tournament play.

Personally I despise the damage-based retaliation aspect of white. It already has way too many combat interaction, so white dealing damage in this way feels out of flavor.

Instead I would move this to green to make it more interactive. Green's theme would be ambush, camouflage.

How about an enchantment variant?

> Enchantment
> Whenever one or more creatures attack you, you may have ~ deal 5 damage to one of those creatures. If you do, sacrifice ~.

or

> Enchantment
> Sacrifice ~: ~ deals 5 damage to target attacking creature.

you could also add something like "At the beginning of each opponent's end step, if no creature attacked this turn, sacrifice ~" if you wanted to stick to the original design (no matter what).

That makes sense, but I think I prefer a creature.

I will probably stick with white: it seems to be standard even if some people don't like it. I would have thought the second choice was red; red at least does direct damage. I guess green could have deathtouch+fight.

If I'm designed snakes, there probably should be a deathtouch+fight snake. But if that can hit anything, it's too close to "destroy target creature". And if it only hits attackers it's too close to blocking. Is there a sensible middle ground?

I have no idea what you are looking for here. It would be much easier throw ideas if there were some restrictions.

Ie. If this was in a set, I might ask what is the purpose of the slot this would be designed for. What cmc or color is preferable? Is it soft or hard removal slot? Is this to slow or hasten the limited environment?

However, as this is a random one off, is it entirely flavor designed card (so going for something like Cobra Trap)? Are we looking for something nifty and/or clever (future sight -esque like "exile target creature until its owner is dealt damage")?

Well, I didn't think it through very far, I wanted to design some cards based around a top down theme. This one was about the myth of a rattlesnake's warning.

I'm pretty happy with a white sac creature with a similar effect, I don't think I need anything else. That would probably have a smaller damage. I know that would only work in a minority of sets which want to be slower, but that's ok, that's what you get when you design individual cards.

I was then also considering another card that tried to do deathtouch+fight to capture the idea of a snake's strike. I haven't considered any other restrictions beyond that, except "something that could usually be printed, but something that might only be allowed in a very small number of sets would be ok".

There is Ambush Viper already, which is that kind of effect but merely a bend in my mind.

Odd thing about snake bites is that it makes more sense if the damage comes from having hit the snake, then from having hit you. That's not a common White mechanic, though. Red, Black, or maybe Green.

With some proper flavor, though, I could buy this more. A snake that's very protective of its master. Personally speaking, I'd give it Defender to really nail home the fact that it never leaves your side. Maybe something like:

Rattletail Familiar
­{1}{w}
Creature - Snake
Defender
Sacrifice Rattletail Familiar: Deal 5 damage to target creature that dealt damage to you, or to Rattletail Familiar this turn.
0/2

It's still a color pie bend, but it seems like a reasonable one to me.

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