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Recent updates to Xianlu: (Generated at 2025-05-01 11:04:08)
Art Note: Old person hitting sleepy disciple with large stick.
Pretty boring defensive common, IMO. He can think really hard to give himself hexproof, which may prove to be a bit too strong in a set with Bequeath but 1/4s usually aren't very threatening.
Qilin, or Kirin, are replacing Angels this set as the big white flying creature.
Not sure how literally I should flavor bequeath cards.
Think you mean Kor Sky Climber there.
—CF
Functional reprint of Kor Sky Fisher.
Edit: Kor Sky Climber, u rite
Meant to have additional utility in countering reflex spells, but might just be anti-Green. I'm okay with that, I hate Green.
On the text front, I want to call this simply "scorn", but I feel like that word will be used as a spell name someday very soon. Flavor text is mostly worldbuilding right now so its pretty uninspired.
Now that "dotard" isn't just a random word that is used to translate various asian phrases, I feel more comfortable using it. Hoping for "bumpkin" to enter public consciousness next!
This exact design hasn't been done yet but might be in the future. Similar to Preordian and Nagging Thoughts.
Curiosity that works on opponent's creatures too.
to destroy may be a bit too low.
Similar to Teller of Tales, though might be a bit wonky to remember. Helps delay attacks that are made possible by removing Talismans, helps force damage through during your turn or just untap for another blocker on the backswing.
The hard part about Talismans is finding mechanically different ways to soft remove creatures without a gazillion lines of text. This one is Spirit Link but I find its a little too close to the Kiora talisman for my tastes.
This might replace the Green Talisman, or I might make either different. Not too sure yet.
Shoutout to Pillarfield Ox, obviously. Note that while the vanilla stats have been done before numerous times in other colors, it hasnt been done in white which traditionally gets 2/4s for 4 (or 3, recently in Those Who Serve). So the slot is occupied is listed as "good stats" relative to what white usually gets at 4 mana.
A very weakened counterbalance on a stick. Main differences: "noncreature" clause, and you mill the revealed card instead of leaving it on top. I'm debating about removing the "noncreature" clause and changing the counterbalance ability into an activated ability (complete with a mana cost), but that's up to development testing and initial reception.
So the story for this set is going to be a sort of mish-mash of the four classic Chinese novels - Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Dream of the Red Chamber. It's going to follow a group of four main characters that are roughly going to be combined analogues of the main characters (or villains, since Outlaws of the Marsh has a trouble of heroes and is fairly difficult to represent each one individually). In this case, this character is a combination of Tang Sheng from Journey to the West and Zhuge Liang from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
For his card, I wanted a card that represented Zhuge Liang (also called Kongming, who already has a card in MTG's Three Kingdoms set Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon"); someone who is peerless for his strategy that at times relied on mysticism and knowing his own enemy and how they regarded him. So I settled on a Counterbalance variant, which I feel is unique and interesting enough to warrant Mythic rarity as well as reward good planning and top-of-library manipulation, deckbuilding, and knowing your opponent's deck (though in most cases it'll just be random at best).
The other main character "combinations" I have planned are:
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Sun Wukong (Journey to the West) + Guan Yu (Romance of the Three Kingdoms)
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Cao Cao (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) + Four Treacherous Ministers (Outlaws of the Marsh)
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Zhu Bajie (Journey to the West) + Jia Baoyu (Dream of the Red Chamber)
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Sha Wujin (Journey to the West) + Lin Daiyu (Dream of the Red Chamber)
Not that any of you guys care about this stuff, but I'm just noting this down for my own reference later.
You're probably right on the Square stats part; originally I wanted this to give +2/+0 but it felt a little too Red for my tastes. Adjusted to 1/2 +1/+1.
In regards to exiling, since a good portion of the gameplay will involve bringing Bequeath cards back from grave to reuse some bonuses, exiling isn't the way I want to go. There are already perforated cards in place of tokens in every pack; I don't think I particularly need it to exile, especially since I'll need to sacrifice gameplay for it.
If bequeath exiled, it might help with memory issues.
If you really want a much better Borderland Marauder, uncommon is the place to go. And if you want a bequeath attack trigger stat buff at common, square stats are the place to go.
—CF
A nice variant on palace guard.
—CF
Another creature that discourages go-wide plans. Thought about making it "any number of additional creatures" but it's a bit too Fog-like for my tastes.
Heh — Angelsworn Worshipper. Of course, this is even more directly a theme shifted Pterodon Knight. Super reasonable, and a good target for auras.
—CF