Name doesn't seem quite right. I do like mana rocks with other effects like this though. This one feels a little weaker than the other two, but still useful often enough anyway.
Whoa. Cast a card from your library every turn. Quite a recipe for "I win", but not absolutely immediately, and that may be fine given this is a 5-colour mythic (and thus the colour constraint probably matters a bit more than it initially looks like it would).
@jmg: Yeah, I like the idea too, even if it doesn't work out in reality. Of course, the balance can vary in both directions, eg. Darksteel Relic->Darksteel Citadel ought to be weak but is surprisingly strong :)
@Vitenka: Hm, that might actually work. It might have to be "1, T: Target creature gets +1/+1. Play only as a sorcery" instead of actually equipping, but it would be interesting to see effects bigger than the Zendikar ETB lands but smaller than Gavony Township
So am I the only person who thought Vanquish felt off-color? Smite and Rebuke make sense to me for white, which tends to have defensive removal, but to me killing off defending creatures seems much more at home in a (flavor-wise) aggressive color like red.
The other consideration was that in this block red has very few answers for creatures with high toughness, even more so than normal; and this is especially problematic because there are so many in the format (both large Nightmares and white/blue defensive creatures). Notably, Ignite from Within (which is the main Zaberoth removal spell) can't deal with the T>P guys either. So, this card.
Given how little precedent there is for destroying blocking creatures (four cards?), I guess this is my own little push for the ability going to red.
I think hellbent is a much more restrictive condition than most people think. As a result, it requires upsides that at first glance, yes, usually seem oppressive; but I seem to remember Wizards has stated that most of the upsides printed on Rakdos cards simply weren't good enough to be worth having no hand.
In this set, we tried to make up for that drawback in two ways. First, of course, we scaled up the power; but there's also an inherent interaction with psyche, where having a permanent to sink draws into will hopefully mitigate the disadvantage of being in topdeck mode.
Half a Blightning should be much less powerful (and certainly not usually worth a card) than a full Blightning, and I think the bleed is reasonably justified flavor- and set-wise.
I've found that control effects seem to be getting rarer; Wizards might have picked up on the fact that they're unpopular to play against. Anyways, any control effect is still pretty good even if it's overcosted, and I'm fine with this particular one being more on the mediocre side.
I think it fits better in blue here for a couple of reasons:
While red is the color of fast mana, it is not really the color of permanent mana acceleration, which this is.
There are a couple more redouble cards in blue than in red, which was meant to be one of the "hidden" interaction this card had (allows you to actually hit the expensive extra costs for redouble). Prodigy also doesn't help much with casting Arc Flame.
Basically, this is the blue version of Somberwald Sage. It was originally just , but just felt a little underwhelming. Does seem pretty powerful with any of the Pulses, but if someone manages to assemble that in Limited it feels like it'd be a source of sweet stories anyway.
This is meant as part of a common "cycle" of cheap cantrips. The idea is to provide an extra set of instant and/or cheap psyche enablers, since in Zaberoth most (not all, but most) of the cantrips cost a fair amount, or were sorcery speed.
Soothing Word may not be very good on its own, but cast an Angelic Aspirant with one mana up and suddenly it's something people have to play around - not for the incidental lifegain, but because an extra card draw is much more dangerous in this format.
The ultimate goal is for this card (and others like it - see Utter Rage) to not just be playable but actively important in properly built psyche decks.
Agreed. From now on, I'd like to believe that for every 1-mana artifacts, there's a land that has that ability and produces colorless mana. Oh, reality, how you always get in the way.
Um.
Tonight's DGM previews have Blood Scrivener and Sire of Insanity stepping all over my toes, apparently.
type change
I think there are more than a couple Nightmares that I would want to see coming...
(not averse to a name change)
Name doesn't seem quite right. I do like mana rocks with other effects like this though. This one feels a little weaker than the other two, but still useful often enough anyway.
Whoa. Cast a card from your library every turn. Quite a recipe for "I win", but not absolutely immediately, and that may be fine given this is a 5-colour mythic (and thus the colour constraint probably matters a bit more than it initially looks like it would).
@jmg: Yeah, I like the idea too, even if it doesn't work out in reality. Of course, the balance can vary in both directions, eg. Darksteel Relic->Darksteel Citadel ought to be weak but is surprisingly strong :)
@Vitenka: Hm, that might actually work. It might have to be "1, T: Target creature gets +1/+1. Play only as a sorcery" instead of actually equipping, but it would be interesting to see effects bigger than the Zendikar ETB lands but smaller than Gavony Township
D'oh, yes, Prophetic Prism is the other thing you can pay
to add to Mana Cylix :)
Make it "Deal a tonne of damage to target blocking creature" and you've got a deal.
So am I the only person who thought Vanquish felt off-color? Smite and Rebuke make sense to me for white, which tends to have defensive removal, but to me killing off defending creatures seems much more at home in a (flavor-wise) aggressive color like red.
The other consideration was that in this block red has very few answers for creatures with high toughness, even more so than normal; and this is especially problematic because there are so many in the format (both large Nightmares and white/blue defensive creatures). Notably, Ignite from Within (which is the main Zaberoth removal spell) can't deal with the T>P guys either. So, this card.
Given how little precedent there is for destroying blocking creatures (four cards?), I guess this is my own little push for the ability going to red.
Yeah, we pretty much intended for this to be the most broken topdeck possible, as well as the best mythic in the set.
I think hellbent is a much more restrictive condition than most people think. As a result, it requires upsides that at first glance, yes, usually seem oppressive; but I seem to remember Wizards has stated that most of the upsides printed on Rakdos cards simply weren't good enough to be worth having no hand.
In this set, we tried to make up for that drawback in two ways. First, of course, we scaled up the power; but there's also an inherent interaction with psyche, where having a permanent to sink draws into will hopefully mitigate the disadvantage of being in topdeck mode.
Half a Blightning should be much less powerful (and certainly not usually worth a card) than a full Blightning, and I think the bleed is reasonably justified flavor- and set-wise.
I've found that control effects seem to be getting rarer; Wizards might have picked up on the fact that they're unpopular to play against. Anyways, any control effect is still pretty good even if it's overcosted, and I'm fine with this particular one being more on the mediocre side.
At least I had the presence of mind to put it at rare :P
Yeah, this isn't meant to be particularly good. It's intended as a mediocre, expensive discard outlet for hellbent decks that really need one.
At least it's on a land, so it doesn't take up a spell slot in deck construction.
I think it fits better in blue here for a couple of reasons:
Basically, this is the blue version of Somberwald Sage. It was originally just
, but just felt a little underwhelming. Does seem pretty powerful with any of the Pulses, but if someone manages to assemble that in Limited it feels like it'd be a source of sweet stories anyway.
This is meant as part of a common "cycle" of cheap cantrips. The idea is to provide an extra set of instant and/or cheap psyche enablers, since in Zaberoth most (not all, but most) of the cantrips cost a fair amount, or were sorcery speed.
Soothing Word may not be very good on its own, but cast an Angelic Aspirant with one mana up and suddenly it's something people have to play around - not for the incidental lifegain, but because an extra card draw is much more dangerous in this format.
The ultimate goal is for this card (and others like it - see Utter Rage) to not just be playable but actively important in properly built psyche decks.
You're going to make a Leonin Scimitar-land! Yay!
Agreed. From now on, I'd like to believe that for every 1-mana artifacts, there's a land that has that ability and produces colorless mana. Oh, reality, how you always get in the way.