New Mirrodin: Recent Activity
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| Mechanics | Skeleton |
Recent updates to New Mirrodin: (Generated at 2025-05-04 19:43:24)
| New Mirrodin: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Mechanics | Skeleton |
Recent updates to New Mirrodin: (Generated at 2025-05-04 19:43:24)
Hmmm.
Hmmm.
I can't tell if this card is good, great or bad. I suppose I'll have to wait for reaction from my fellow designers.
On another strange note, I can't figure out if making this a lair is a good idea or not. Common lands, ala (((Wetlands Den))) wants more lairs to exist. Uncommon lands, ala (((Nantuko Lair))) want fewer lairs to exist. That, and there's not real mechanical reason why this cycle should be of lairs, except for the heavy flavor resonance that the wild creatures of Glornica live in lairs...
I suppose I could reflavor this as belonging to the Mirran pilgrims, though. That would make the Legendary status make sense as well...
Man, let me tell ya, this was a toughie. I'm still not happy with taking Cuombajj Witches ability here, since my first thought is "I don't want this to deal 1 damage or grant -1/-1. I want to see these two colors do something different." But black/red's shared skill set is roughly "burning and destroying things". Outside of that, this would need to be a card that ideally gets played on round 1 (it would be kind of silly if this granted haste, eh?), and likes to play defense. Alternatively, I did think of using Suppress, except the player got to keep one card... but figured that might be too much to convey on a common (It would also be a stretch convincing people that was red. New abilities get some leniency, but it wasn't really in red's skill set to tell people to hold back...). Heck, this is probably too much to convey on a common nowadays. I'm still not thrilled.
@Cymerdown: Well, that's kind of the point I was making. This card just hovers below being abusable. Had it added colored mana, for example, it would probably be better than Lotus Petal, which is one hell of a good card. Some would say broken.
60creatures.dec would certainly use this as a substitute for Tinder Wall: basically all it's used for is ramping into Myr Superion, but in this case the blocker sticks around. Also, it can theoretically be an attacker if Signal Pest is there.
Hmmm... combo with Blasting Station perhaps? Or, hmm. Turn 1 this + leonin scimitar equipped for a 1/3?
Or turn two you could use it to drop 4 mana's worth of equipment onto your one-drop, which might be pretty scary - but isn't really much worse than using any other ritual.
@jmg: One turn earlier than what? Specifically, which ritual is this card replacing that is slower than this card? Every playable ritual I can think of generates at least two mana (well, except for Rite of Flame, but the idea with Rite is that you will typically cast more than one), and this card only nets you 1 mana, and also it's colorless, which is a pretty big deal. Also, the chump blocker is usually going to be worthless, since you are only going to cast your rituals the turn you are going off. If you're going off, you usually don't intend for your opponent to have another attack phase, so the 0/2 body won't matter.
Fascinating. An eye-opening common that's clearly useful but probably doesn't actually break anything. Good job.
I'm not too concerned about it being useful enough. I know plenty of combo decks that would love to go off one turn earlier, and, you know, free chump blocker while we're at it. That almost makes the stats on this card an unfortunate by-product of our Magic times, since it could be cooler, if only it wasn't for the damn deck that abuses it and doesn't really appreciate the bonus creature, the way that a Zoo deck would. Ah, well.
I think the fact that this creature doesn't have any power and it's not an artifact makes it a lot less scary. If it was a 1/1 and/or had Artifact as one of its types, I could see it being pretty broken in some kind of aggro deck or Affinity. Without that, it's the kind of card whose ability wants it to be in an aggressive deck, but its body doesn't match up well for that. I couldn't see spending a card on this body in a Zoo deck, for example. Maybe some sort of equipment deck is where this would find a home?
Pushes the envelope? Yeah. I figured I'd rather run this flag, though, and see what happens, then go for the much milder "Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
It's got a weird vibe to it. In some senses, Simian Spirit Guide is much better, giving you a colored mana, which doesn't need to land, and provides a better body if you don't need the mana. This, however, is an etb creature... which, in theory, is supposed to be better... though constantly bouncing this for the mana boost seems like a waste of resources. If you can cheat it on the field, though, that's quite the boost. Wizards is sorry they ever printed Rite of Flame, but it's easy to imagine how that card could get out of control. I suppose part of the question of whether this card is too good for an environment is "Is there anything substantially good on round 1 in this environment that costs
?"
I don't prefer those asterisk's, but that's a personal choice, and not modern templating. It should look more like a -goyf, so it is now. Also, Bazaar of Wonders seems to agree with you Link. Adverbs are terrible anyhow, and I'm happy to murder them.
This version feels better. Shouldn't "differently named lands" say "lands with different names?"
I agree with dude1818, this version feels a bit cleaner and easier to use. I liked where you were going with this card, I just wasn't a big fan of that particular implementation. I love cards that push deck builders in new directions to use them efficiently, though, and this card does that. Great design! :)
Even though the current implementation seems similar to the legendary lands version, I like this a lot more. A large part of it is that while the other version punished playing multiples of a land, this rewards playing singleton lands. Though the result is similar, one way is feel-good and the other is feel-bad.
Since the base P/T is 0/0, couldn't the first ability merely say "~'s power and toughness are each equal to the number of differently named land you control."?
Woah. Lot's of opinions. I don't know if the card is doing something right or not, but it certainly hit a nerve.
@Chris: I figure 'landwalk' is a bit like 'Protection from Everything'. It sounds ridiculous when it doesn't exist, but, once it does exist, it becomes a part of the game, and people don't question it anymore. I figure that Wizards is just looking for the right creature to put that on. It obviously would only get once per decade or so...
@Dude: Well, the fact that this is Mythic kind of excludes it from limited... that would be the point of making it mythic or rare. But I get what you're saying about "Lands you control are Legendary" being on a Mythic Rare. Mythic Rares don't normally come with downsides... except the fact that they are often Legendary... which, I'm not using as an argument here... I just think that's kind of weird.
@Jack and Cymerdown: Well, actually, I was thinking top down (This is a creature that explores new lands for a world he's never seen. Each new location he finds is Legendary... even finding a Plains to him would be a unique location.), but I can see how difficult it is to relay my top down design without being able to change his name, or give him appropriate flavor text. When other players can't see where I'm coming from, yeah, "You control Legendary Lands" is a mechanical setback.
I do find it strange, though, that no one came back to me with "This card is way too good. A 4/4 for
? That gets better as the game moves along? And the only thing I have to do is cut 5 Forests out of my commander deck and replace them with non-basics that do the same thing? Absurd." I guess that goes a long way to show how much people just don't like drawbacks, even interesting and evocative ones that ask you to find a way to build around them, and give you a great reward (It also probably shows how little people want to mess around with their mana bases. Only a subset of Magic players would have fun making a list of the 23 non-basic lands they control that will hit the deck, I suppose).
That negative response made me bop back this card from Mythic to Rare again. Even in the Differently named lands model, it's still a build-around-me, and I guess cards you build around aren't Mythic. When you draft a Mythic, like Dude pointed out, you're supposed to windmill slam it into your deck. I don't think I like that personally, but I know the majority Magic players expect it. Who am I to argue?
I also cleaned up the regeneration clause so that it's just simple regen again, without number of lands counting. I got a little too wrapped in cleverness.
I think I prefer Legendary Lands more, since it is cleaner, fits the feel of New Mirrodin (which is already full of Legends) better, and is a tougher challenge, and therefore grants a greater reward. That being said, I prefer my cards to be liked and (in theory) played. Well, that, and Cymerdown does make a good point with the opponent controlling the same land I do... that's very icky. Switching back to "differently named lands".
Anyway, this card feels a little bit "mechanicy" instead of being top-down. For example, what about this guy makes it so that your lands become legends? How does he exactly make it so that your Basic Island becomes the uniquest Basic Island in the world such that it is spoke of in minstrel tales? It feels like the whole Legendary business is put in there to achieve a game state effect rather than fitting the card, and I try to avoid things like that when I can.
Oh, ok, I found the answer to my own question:
> 704.5k If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are on the battlefield, all are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.” If only one of those permanents is legendary, this rule doesn’t apply.
BTW, what even happens if a Legendary and another card with the same types and subtypes exist on the battlefield at the same time? Like, what happens if I control a Legendary Basic Land - Island, and my opponent controls a Basic Land - Island? Nothing?
I feel he might as well say "each differently named land". That obviously rewards a diverse land base. Does he really gain anything by being unplayable in any non-dedicated deck?
I think giving him landwalk is very funny (and green), but I'm not sure if he'd be printed like that. I guess maybe.
Especially at mythic, I feel the regen and evasion abilities could do with being a bit less wordy, perhaps making regeneration on all the time, or going back to giving them both a cost in tapping lands. (If you stick with "legendary", just giving them a colourless mana cost would work.)
In Limited, it probably says "When ~ enters the battlefield, sacrifice all lands you control." I don't think a mostly downside ability should be mythic. What if it said "Nonbasic lands are legendary"?