Homelands Restored: Recent Activity

Missing quote mark in the flavour text.

Even the old version could be used to deny a Necropotence on turn 3. Or something.

Jinx should be simple and flexible, so now it is. Which is a good thing too... these old cards sure like to talk about basic land types.

The only drawback I can see is that Jinx now becomes a great play if you're going second, in an attempt to screw up your opponent's round two play. I don't know... that little hiccup is bound to swing a few games, but it's probably fine. At the very least, I appreciate how this card can make Black Knight a liability in mono-black decks. That's not normally something you have to worry about.

Original Card: Jinx ­

-1/-1 is certainly a lot easier to remember than -0/-1.

*pulls the switch to redirect the train onto the Faerie Line*

I get what was going on with that text. This card is a callback to Ironclaw Orcs (and a little bit of Brassclaw Orcs and Orcish Veteran as well.) The point is that the Orcs couldn't block any creature that could kill them. They're cowards like that (or smart, as the case may be.)

The Homelands card just reads messy, though. If you don't get the narrative, you've got a head-scratcher on your hands. And even when you got that down, you're bound to occasionally forget the extra -1. Better to just say exactly what Ironclaw Orcs say. Cleaner that way.

Extra -1 to power because of power level and/or Melvin reasons. You decide. Making your opponent's creature an Orc? Priceless. ­

Original card: Ironclaw Curse.

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• Changed from -0/-1 to dealing 2 damage to the enchanted creature when it enters the battlefield.
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• Added "Enchanted creature is a red Orc..."
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• Changed from "Enchanted creature can't block creatures with power equal to or greater than the enchanted creature's toughness." to "...can't block."
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Original Card: Joven's Ferrets ­

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• Increased bonus on the attack from +0/+2 to +0/+5. ­
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• Ability triggers on combat damage, not at end of combat. ­
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• Ability now works on the block.
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I made this one early on, and I think back then I was aiming to keep the original rules intact where I could. But you're right, it makes more sense that way. Will switch over.

That's a funky PT. Why not just a 2/2 that gets +0/+1 for each other green creature?

I'd say yes, but I'm just going to go back and do that myself. No need to labor you with more work, Alex. ;)

I've also been wishing for a link to the original cards in the comments. Is it okay if I edit some of the "Changed" comments to add links to the originals?

Good idea Dude. Will do.

Link: You're right. Even with Dude's suggestion, I don't think Aura Flux is in modern blue's color pie. That said, I can't really think of a decent alternative without fundamentally changing the nature of Irini Sengir. I'd sure love to hear a better idea than this one. (Oh, hold it... I could make it a loss of 2 life instead of a payment of . That gives us countering for blue, and loss of life for black. I'm just going to go ahead and credit you with this idea. Thanks Link!)

By the by, I'll be adding links to the original card with the next card. I didn't want to focus on what the card used to look like... but I didn't really think that thought through, either. Kind of a dumb idea, really, telling people the changes, but making them go off site to look at the original...

Try "counter it unless they pay 2." That way it had a blue ability and a black ability.

I wish you would link to the original cards in your first comment, because I'm unfamiliar with most of them and then I have to look them up on Gatherer.

I would say that this is not within the modern color pie.

All this color hate. I hate color hate. But Irini was terrible, and needed an update.

For what it's worth, I changed Irini to blue/black before I even added the Aura Flux to her. Taxing made more sense with a splash of blue (white would have been better, but a white creature hurting white... wouldn't be flavored like Irini.) That Aura Flux could be a disaster... but it really needs to be played against a specific deck to get any mileage.

My biggest regret is that this was a black answer to some enchantments, and I took that away. But... it was a black answer to enchantments. And it didn't really try to solve the problem in a black way. So I'm not that sad...

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Original Card: Irini Sengir ­

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• Changed from uncommon to rare. ­
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• Changed from to . ­
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• Changed text from "White/green enchantments cost more to cast" to "Whenever a white/green enchantment enters the battlefield, each opponent loses two life." ­
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• Increased toughness by +0/+1.
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Edit: Most of the following conversation was about my first idea... an attempt to make Irini blue/black and squeeze the card Aura Flux on her.

I was thinking something a bit more universal, like Brittle Effigy. But I haven't really given it much thought yet. Oddly, I was also thinking of equipment that you could also attach to opponent's creatures... but now doesn't seem like a good time to get experimental.

Oh, I should probably link to Ihsan's Shade from here as well. Ihsan's Shade.

Equipment, maybe?

Artifact removal for something that's 5/5 and can be 6/6 or bigger? That's going to have to be something in the vein of Duplicant or Spine of Ish Sah. Perhaps a tweak on Nevinyrral's Disk, I guess.

You gave me an idea!

I struggled with Ihsan for a while, and frowned at his creature type line. Why is this guy a shade and not have the shade ability? Then I thought to myself "What would Vitenka want me to do?" Sometimes is seems ridiculous how long I spend with some of these cards, when the solution seems so damn obvious after the fact.

Also: It's a pity the order of the abilities don't match the order in the creature type line. But if I was to switch the creature type line, I would end up with a 'Creature - Knight Shade'. Funny, but distracting. Though, it would let me throw a few cards in the time shifted slot like Scent of Nightshade, with a picture of Ihsan. Hold your breath when standing next to him.

Also also: Man, it would suck to be playing a mono-white deck versus this card. I'm going to have to make certain there's some good creature removal in the timeshifted artifact slot...

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Original Card: Ihsan's Shade ­