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Recent updates to Name That Card: (Generated at 2025-09-07 09:52:05)
| Name That Card: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
Recent updates to Name That Card: (Generated at 2025-09-07 09:52:05)
Ah, yes. That's fair.
That at least could use an intervening if. "T: If there are no counters on ~, it fights another target creature."
You're right about the reminder text. At the very least, this is a rare that presumes that defender tokens probably appeared at common. The reminder text can go on common if it's deemed necessary at all.
As for saying "Activate at sorcery speed" once, that's a good idea. But the second ability still would require "Activate only when there are no counters" which is combined with the sorcery speed line. So the actual number of words shaved off would only be 8, and it would still require a line break. Considering that that would be a functional change that would affect cards like Manriki-Gusari, it probably wouldn't be worth it.
No other keyword counter cards use reminder text for the counters, so you can leave it off this one. This is more experimental, but what if you removed the sorcery restriction from both activated abilities and gave it the static ability "Activate ~'s abilities only any time you could cast a sorcery." I'd try to figure out a Mythos wording, but changing both cost and targeting restriction makes that a tonguetwister
Now removes any counter, and fights if there are no counters of any type. Just trying to cut back on the words. R&D would probably cut out the sorcery restrictions for this reason, unfortunately.
First, I should say, I didn't think of these counters. But I guess I left the door open to use them, so they're fair game.
I like the flavor of all four cards, though I think the Chained Giant flavor is right on point, so I'm giving it to him. The artist really has a lot of work to do to 'sell' this particular story. This card is already at maximum word count... it can't even be a mythic anymore, since mythics need to be easier to digest than this.
Froggychum makes a good point that defender tokens aren't going to be welcomed by a lot of people. So this card is drawbacks stacked ontop of drawbacks. When I used to make my According to Gatherer series, that was a recipe for how you got one star cards. Betray players in as many ways as possible. But the end result of jumping through all these hoops is something the game has yet to do (a creature that can fight every turn. Not counting Ulvenwald Tracker which has a different feel) so I'm hoping this card would be forgiven.
That said, I think defender tokens themselves are super useful on a level akin to poison counters. You could stick them on maybe 40 cards in just one set if you wanted. Here's an example of something that could be in a common cycle.
Tomb Guardians
: Remove a defender counter from ~.
Creature - Illusion
Flying
~ enters the battlefield with a defender counter on it (creatures with defender counters on them can't attack.)
3/2
Done. Five creatures at common designed. A cycle of five at uncommon could follow with bonus abilities. It's about as flexible and simple as landfall. Just give the world a flavor similar to the story in Invasion. "Isolationists must come together to fight a world-shaking threat" is roughly a description of the world of The Lord of the Rings.
Here's another common just to further cement that defender tokens have legs:
Weight of Duty
Sorcery
Put a defender counter on up to two target creatures. (Creatures with defender counters on them can't attack.)
Works for me.
As an aside, I'll say that while I was pleasantly surprised by the -1/+1 counters, I don't think they work well here. Let's say you have a 2/5 NTC #027 with two -1/+1 counters on it. You activate it to fight one of your own creatures. How much damage does it deal? Three. Because it removed a counter. Surprise.
Not that players wouldn't figure that out with a few interactions (maybe), but it's something to remember, and some people are bad at remembering. Had this been -1/-1 counters, maybe it would be easier to remember? Because NTC would need to start off as a 2/1, and how are you expected to not kill your own .... oh, that's right. It becomes a 3/2. It's not a perfect solution, but players are more likely to get it right.
So far, I love the flavor, and I'm not against drawback keywords, i just dunno if there'd be a lot of design room for Defender counters specifically...
but Also, this seems pretty weak, I mean, wait two turns and lose two creatures (even weenies) for what? A 4/3 for
?
It's the original design that makes this card 'not a winner' kind of like jm said... It's pretty interesting, but super weak without editing it (I consider using effect counters to be editing, cause it changes the cards function, not just flavor).
Going off flavor, I'm a big fan of Chained Giant and Slumbering Ironist (love treefolk/ents)... Corpse Slinger is funny, but might be hard to show off without art + flavor text... also a bit too silly for magic, but they've been putting more 'humor' in the game recently, so it's not out of the question
(i like corpse slinger because it feels like something they wouldve printed a long time ago, but maybe thats just me getting nostalgia for an era i was never a part of :shrug:)
Mechanically, i'm a big fan of -1/+1 counters and enrage... Both together would be probably -too- strong... but would be extra playable. Although, don't get me wrong, i'm happy they phased out weird counters like -1/+1 and +2/+2 and etc, they suck, but for this particular card, they are useful... Even -1/-1 counters would be better than non-effect counters (mechanically speaking) imo
This definitely feels like a berzerker!
Defender counters. You send your creatures to catch or sedate it. After N attempts, it finally complies to you. (In fact a strong case for more drawback keywords.)
Chained Giant.
, Remove a defender counter:
:
Creature -- Giant Berserker
Yeah, I loved the Dino flavour. I forgot about enrage!
You're first suggestion fixes most my issues with this card, and you did it by using -1/+1 counters! Wild times....
Although I don't think jm was looking for effect counters, i like your first card so much it has my vote.
i still love dinos tho
Corpse Slinger 2RR
, Remove:
Creature - Ogre Warrior
Ammunition Counters
Why might it need to attack your stuff first? To have something to attack with! :) I don't know how often it actually will, but I tried to steer the flavour towards "you can just attack with it, but if you have any creatures you don't need lying about, you can use them to power it up instead".
We'e allowed complicated counters again nowadays, right? :)
Slumbering Ironfist 1G
, 
, ...: ...
: ...
NTC #027 enters the battlefield with two -1/+1
Creature - Treefolk Berskerer
4/3
I really wasn't sure what worked best. I reckoned having a wall-ish ceature gave the fight the most chances to be usable, and tried to cost it so it would be ok as a rare wall, but also worthwhile taking the counters off. And giving a reward for each counter alone makes it more worthwhile to do so too.
I picked green because of the wall-ish beginning, and red for the first fight because fighting your OWN stuff seemed more red than G.
I will try and make a genuine no-effect counter version too.
This is different than how the challenge usually works... not a huge fan of it, but it's not bad to change pace.
As for the card, it could probably only be strong in an enrage deck? even, then, i might not play it over other cards.
I think this card would be cool as a
Dinosaur called Rampaging Spikehorn or another similar name (there are close to infinite choices that sound cool, imo).
I don't really care what you call the counters, because they are just for a single card...
as long as you don't call them trample or +1/+1 and suddenly you are hurting your guys more and punching yourself in the face (i don't know if you can deal excess damage... to yourself... wait, fighting doesn't even count as attack/block, so it wouldn't matter. which makes it less funny and even more pointless)
This is unfortunate that it is so large, really not an efficient way to trigger enrage... useful when you actually fight with it though, so i guess it's similar to an additional cost of:
sacrifice two creatures AND dormant(ish) for 2 turns.
I guess you could just call it Rampage counters, but IIRC that's an outdated keyword... so maybe just Rage counters, is fine. That's actually pretty cool
I sounded a bit... something... in this post, but I actually like the card i've come up with. As for NTC 027, I'm wondering what other people come up with. This probably fits best into
regardless
There's a lot of question marks on this card. What we do know is that NTC #027 has to fight two of your creatures before it goes on to fight your opponent's creatures. Fighting every turn is super-powerful, so it's probably worth the wait... though that does drop your shields, and/or it might be tactically better to start smashing right now...
All those restrictions made me not want to make this a rare. But it's clearly over the top and a little wordy, so it's a rare. Probably one that won't see print, though. Can't win them all.
Also, I didn't put in a casting cost because whether its color is red, green, or maybe even an artifact creature may affect the cost. Better to just presume it's efficient and move on.
I like 'Band of Brothers'. But it doesn't do a good job explaining that this could all end up on one creature. Tetraboon is awesome. But maybe we'll save that name for an artifact.
I'm giving this with Jack with Blessing of the Archangels. Though, once again, any of these names would be good.
Oh, and I also increased the punch to +2/+1, because I figured it didn't do enough for
... considering I probably could have just tapped three creatures for that cost instead.
(((NTC #027))) in a couple of days!
i don't normally make two posts, but others have done it before, so clearly it's acceptable:
What about instead of four horseman of the apocalypse, we call this card the opposite, "Archons of Redemption" or "Archons of the Rapture" but I like the former more.
I like all of these choices, I think some of them sound like they belong on cards of a higher rarity than common, tho...
Also because i love silly words: Tetraboon
Oh, I hadn't seen the angel connection. Maybe "Blessing of the Archangels" to play up the four theme?
Huh. Well, I mean - on the one hand, this is all obviously angel abilities. On the other... if you don't split them up - your creature sails forwards, punches your opponent in the flying, and then sits there saying "Wasn't me guvnor". So something like a spirit form attack? Huh. Astral Projection Hasn't been used. And Astral Steel shows that they were thinking in that way. I don't want to use up that name though, not for something that isn't a perfect match. Let's go with Astral Blessings. Because Blessing is a thing white does. And plural because it is then also more obvious that you can spread it around.
... I want to give it the dev-name of "Flying Soul Punch" though.
Hmm... what about 'Superior Squadron'?
Not much of a combat trick given it's a sorcery. Being sorcery is of course sensible given the vigilance.
This to me feels like a dungeon crawling party all working together using their different talents. So how about "Adventurers' Skills".
Chimera Powder.
Band of Brothers. [Art: Four very very different warriors standing side by side]
Heckuva combat trick.
Seraphim's Blessings
Welcome back to Name That Card! This week we have a sorcery that can give a creature +1/+1, flying, first strike, and vigilance for a turn. Or you can spread the bonus and these abilities around among four creatures. Mix and match. But what is this spell called?