Archester Revival: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Archester Revival: (Generated at 2025-07-01 23:45:48)
| Archester Revival: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Mechanics | Skeleton |
Recent updates to Archester Revival: (Generated at 2025-07-01 23:45:48)
Added to skeleton
I'm not sure black gets land destruction at the same rates as red. Ever since Poison/Drain the well, its land destruction has costed at least 5, even with only minimal bonuses (Desecrated Earth, Maw of the Mire, Polluted Dead, Destroy the Evidence).
Does this HAVE to be a one-drop? I still say a black 2/1 1-drop with upside is not a common card by any definition. It could easily be a 2/2 for
I only realized we had had this conversation before after I'd posted my comment yesterday. We can keep it as it is.
The only time this will "ramp" you is when you either plan on playing multiple spells in a turn, play a tapped land(say with anything similar to Evolving Wilds) or intend to play an Instant during your battle phase.
As for the "overpower at common", this is in a sense a worst Copperhorn Scout. At best I think we need to drop it to a 1/2
Raptor, we already talked about how this granting vigilance to itself was fine since
is secondary in vigilance. It is wholly intentional. I do not see how this having vigilance would be out of the color pie, nor how this is a potential abuse of the card.
I also think this being a value card in multiple limited archetypes to be a great thing to have, not something we should be afraid of. However, if I need to pick only one between untapping a land and untapping a creature, I would choose "untap target creature". Besides, this would be a high pick in draft simply because it is a two drop with upsides. Every green deck will already want it to fill out their curve, and those that are not interested in a two drop bear probably will not be interested in a mana dork that risks its skin by attacking each time it produces another mana.
Lastly, if we keep the untapping land part of the ability, we must be aware that it cannot accelerate a turn 3 4-drop. It cannot mana-fix you by giving you more of a color than you already have to pay for a single
or 
spell. The fact that untapping the land happens during combat means that the player needs to spend some mana before combat on a spell or ability, attack, then plan to pay for another spell or ability after combat. As it goes, the land "ramp" is fairly weak, which is why I think we could keep both on the card.
I think green is second in vigilance, there's not many non-white vigilance cards, but they seem to mostly be green, eg. Tajuru Pathwarden. And untapping for re-use but not as a surprise feels slightly more green to me.
But it's probably doing too much for common. It would be fine at uncommon, or a common could have "untap target land" or "untap target other creature".
Problem there is that that's not a common. Global enchantments are very unusual at common; and they wouldn't be so niche.
Now as an uncommon build-around-me, I like it; and with one or two decent mill cards at common, that becomes a viable strategy (in a colour that can survive long enough to protect itself).
I'm not going to say that it's particularly overpowered but I'd like to point out two things.
First, all of those cards you used as examples are either one-time-use cards or uncommons+.
Second, Legend has a point about this being out of color pie, as it is right now. For example, this card has pseudo-vigilance since it can currently target itself.
I suspect that wasn't intentional but it's just one potential abuse of the card. If we do decide to go with this, I'd suggest changing it to simply target lands. I can see the possibility of having it target another creature as well, but I think we'd be better served by having it do one or the other.
If we go with land, it'll be sought after as a mana dork in the
-centered decks; if we go with Creatures, it'll get snapped up in the 
windup deck. If we have it work in both it'll get snapped up very quickly in limited since everyone in 
will want it.
Legend, I am not sure how you did your search, but I found quite a bit more than just 12, and more than a few are recent. I feel this is pretty deeply rooted in Green's color pie.
The “Untap target creature” cards :
Recent :
Vines of the Recluse,Spidery Grasp,Seedcradle Witch,Savage Surge,Ruthless Instincts,Kiora, Master of the Depths,Dragonscale Boon,Derevi, Empyrial Tactician,Colossal Heroics,Burst of Strength,Bounding Krasis
Old :
Wirewood Symbiote,Seeker of Skybreak,Scryb Ranger,Quirion Ranger,Gerrard's Command,Fyndhorn Brownie,Foxfire
The “Untap all creatures” cards :
Recent :
Quest for Renewal,Prophet of Kruphix,Patron of the Orochi,Murkfiend Liege,Seedborn Muse,,Great Oak Guardian
Old :
Vitalize,Mobilize,Awakening
Of the about 100 cards that untap either a creature or a land, there's 8 that untap target creature and 4 that untap all creatures you control, and 11 of those 12 are old designs.
I'm not saying this card breaks the game by any stretch, but that we should at least maintain the illusion of the color pie where possible (and it's possible here), especially in a set that is already bleeding into colorless.
I also think this card poses unfun tension and would be a better all around, feel good card if it just Vitalized when it etb.
I admit Tormenting Voice is not really useful at 6 mana. The ability should be changed to make it an interesting split card, to allow the play of sacrificing the 5/4 for its effect. How about Blood feud?
"When ~ exploits a creature, target creature fights another target creature"
It might not be common anymore though.
@Alex, We could also design another common to support the theme
to your mana pool
Mill build around me
Enchantment
Whenever a card is put from an opponent's library into his or her graveyard, add
Problems?? (˚u˚ )
I guess not? Which one would you rather keep? a
mana 2/2 first strike or a 
mana 2/2 prowess?
Yes. I think we were agreed that there would be no thopter-specific tribal, and that instead the thopter generals would buff all artifact creatures you control. A Captive flame would be the best template here.
I think producing 3 tokens is fine even at common since they are quite conditional. If you put it on one of your creatures and attack with it, your opponent has control over when and how the gremlins pop up by deciding the blocks. If you put it on your opponent's creature, they still have control over whether to put that creature at risk or not. The only time you are completely in control of the gremlins is when you play an exploit deck that sacrifices your own creatures, and in that case, this serves as a nice yet not too powerful reward.
Legend, I would argue that you cannot generalize "Archester does not need monocular bleeds". Each individual bleed must be considered individually to see if the benefits outweigh the risks and damages to the color pie.
If the wording is such a problem, we can simply change it to "untap target creature or land you control", and then it definitely becomes a green ability. Green has about 100 cards that untap either a creature or a land, and the functionality is just about the same as "untap target permanent". Sure it can no longer untap non-creature artifacts, but for the needs this card tries to fill, in the themes of Windup, Ramp and Aggro, that loss is irrelevant.
What I meant to say was, exploit is already a Spiky feel-bad mechanic. And this card in particular is exceptionally so because it has two feel-bad mechanics on a lame body. grimGrendel is probably right here - make it a 5/4.
Considering Phyrexian Gremlins, "enchant artifact" was my first inclination (and may still be the best choice).
I just thought "enchant permanent" would be better for limited play.
The flavor is as good as Murder Investigation imo, but maybe three tokens is too many for common.
Note that I don't think this is too strong, just that it isn't green. imo Archester will have enough bleeds due to two-brid mana costs. it doesn't need monocolor bleeds as well.
Oh I totally misread the draw two. So the power level isn't as bad
as I thought, but it's still feels quite bad for common.
i guess spike needs his cards too though.
I've won an entire draft with mill in Limited. But that was in Ravnica, where milling was one of the two primary strategies of the Dimir guild. In other words, where there was sufficient support for it. One common card is not "support". Well, unless that common is Tome Scour or similar. I think the 6 mana cost makes sufficient difference that the rogue Tome Scour deck would definitely not find an equivalent here.
Er... Vulturous Aven? Really? I don't see the similarity.
I like the 5/4 for
option, though it'll feel really bad when you need to exploit itself to get a 6-mana Tormenting Voice.
I think you wanted spaces instead of the asterisks :) Legend can't edit their comments though because they're not signed in. When someone makes a comment without being signed in, I'm the only one who can edit it. I've fixed it for you.
Are the Gremlins popping out of the dying creature chestburster style? I must be missing the flavor here. If it was an artifact I'd see the flavor but then it'd be a red card not a black one.