Duel Decks Starcraft: Remastered: Recent Activity
| Duel Decks Starcraft: Remastered: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Mechanics | FAQ |
Recent updates to Duel Decks Starcraft: Remastered: (Generated at 2025-06-22 00:47:17)
Also, it's Halberdier without the haste. These are all very old cards, though, and power creep has moved forward quite a bit since 2001.
Maybe Kessig Wolf is the best thing to compare this to? Or Viashino Shanktail? I guess there are no perfect analogues.
Haven't had that much of an issue as I recall, but maybe we were just lucky with Mutalisks and Colossus and whatnot. I'll red-flag it and force it into the opening hands of next few games, then check
I think it's probably overpowered in a duel deck, too
Yep, this is strong and would definitely not be acceptable in a draft environment haha
The flip down trigger shouldn't be an activated ability, it should be a special action like morph. I had a brainfart and the reminder text is wrong and misleading.
Switch fulfills two things - allows morph-bluffing, and gives you some incentive to flip a face-up card back down. From a gameplay perspective, switch cards are mixed between those that will punish you if you block them ( Siege Tank, Viking... ) versus those that punish you if you DON'T block them ( Spider Mine, Ghost, Terran Banshee because you want to trade with it.)
DFCs were our first mechanic for Terran, but we play these with physical cards and don't really like the inelegance. DFCs don't also capture the bluffing aspect of cloaking units.
We're aware that the power level of the switch cards are very pushed (see Wraith, which gives red a 3-power flyer for 3, plus other benefits). It is jarring in a normal set, but here it's needed to keep the balance between the three races relatively stable. Red and white are so craptacular at card advantage that we had to push their power levels up in some way.
So to sum yeah we're aware of the design wonkiness of these things, but in practice it plays better than it looks, and in the grand scheme of things the decks are still balanced. :) Definitely would control the power outside this set though.
I understand the point. I guess I didn't think about the power level too much outside the context of this set (self-contained, and this card is a one-off in the duel deck).
Listening to your rationale and remembering the games that this card actually came up, I'm thinking of making the ETB trigger 'target opponent reveals two cards in their hand', which would reduce the power and give it a more interesting strategic layer of when to play the card to get the most use out of it.
Switch is a very fiddly mechanic that isn't actually doing all the things you want it to do. Right now, seems like you want a mechanic that lets you change between two modes (like a SC viking). This card actually doesn't really do that, and leads to massive blowouts on curve. 3 mana 3/4 is honestly pretty big, which is what this card plays out as. 3 mana is so cheap to flip, that you cannot really ever block a face down card early without the risk of just losing out. Take a look at the Khans of tarkir morphs compared to the Time Spiral ones. The ones in TSP tended to be pretty vicious, while khans morphs are considered excellent. This wouldn't normally be a problem, gameplay would show its better to up the switch cost....except for the fact that the switch cost is now also an activated ability later on. Herein lies the problems with this mechanic. You cannot balance the activated ability cost against the unmorph body without making the card look unplayable. My suggestion is simply do away with Switch and make them Double Faced cards. Imagine a card that is (3)(W) 3/3, has (1)(W)(W): Transform into a 2/2 flyer, only activate this ability as a sorcery (double swapping for more damage might seem fun but its not when you invalidate flyers that you payed far more to cast). Now the card is very clear. It is clearly either a 3/3 ground pounder or 2/2 flyer. Both are fairly average on rate, which by split card rules the card punches above cost. Same things go for all the other switch cards. No need to place so much of the complexity budget into hard to grok morph when a DFC will suffice. If you hate DFCs, there is always the "this card gains flying and has base power and toughness 2/2 until end of turn" technology. Like the set btw.
Honestly surprised that there aren't more comments on this card, since it punches way above the power level that it reads. I understand what the designer is going for here; a tap land with a trinket effect on ETB that has deeply resonating flavor notes is a really interesting design, but the problem here is that looking at a player's hand isn't something that should be trivialized. Outside of cards that intrinsically need it to function (target discard and the like), the number of cards that staple on the ability to look at the opponent's hand are actually quite small. This is not a coincidence. The closest parallel that can easily be drawn to this card would be the much maligned Gitaxian Probe, a card that has been banned or restricted in many formats. Go read these ban decisions. The number one cited reason is trivialization of information. This card might not be as excellent in linear combo strategies as it is a tap-land, but in a lot of ways this card is more powerful. First, the opportunity cost on this card is very low. Decks are going to have to play dual lands to fix their mana. A land that simply produces two colors and enters tapped has been playable in many standard formats in the past. Decks in modern (like, say UW control) play lands that ETB tapped from time to time and are happy to do so. Imagine a turn where you have to decide to tap out for Jace, the mindsculptor, or keep open a counterspell. Tough choice, but with this handy land you wanted to play anyway, you now remove that facet of the game. Imagine this card played against you on turn one, after you spend a bunch of time thinking about your sequencing. Imagine you are playing a rogue deck and have this played against you and have your game plan spoiled. This card might feel whatever the first ten times its played against you, but sooner or later you are going to hate it. You will loathe that the opponent always has the answer to what you play, or somehow always seems to be one step ahead. This card is sinister. As a hobbyist designer myself, I really find a lot about this design appealing. Hits all the flavor notes. Feels UW. Great design space of ETB trinket text. That said, I strongly urge reconsideration on this card.
It's Ambush Party, or Shivan Raptor without the drawback
This card is actually really powerful. There are very few cards in the set that can block it alone, and it comes with haste too. In a draft environment this would be so high on the pick list from raw aggro power
Updated art for remaining cards:
Removal of MTG art:
Last remaining MTG art are:
Added Token art
Replace generic Scifi art with actual Starcraft fanart
Improved Art