Remember that having this and another land while trying to cast Qasali Pridemage sucks. Late game, though, entering the battlefield tapped is a bit harsh. This may be balanced, but I'm a bit sad that this can potentially frustrate you a lot if you fail to draw your third land.
Creature spells are avoided in decks with few creatures. With this, though, you either go for full colorless or risk not playing anything at all (God forbids this meets a Pacifism, for example).
I think the hybrid symbol isn't that much of an upgrade. But I think that a strictly better Slaughter Cry is totally acceptable. At , I'd consider it unplayable without its adapt cost. :P
Remember it's an uncommon. The 3 toughness might have been unnecessary (remember there's Last Gasp, though). There's Uncontrollable Thirst in common, but I think of it as a "cute combo" rather than a serious threat.
Wow, a universal Graven Cairns. Awesome. ETBT is quite a drawback; is it enough? Possibly not, but clever design nonetheless. Designing nonbasic lands in the spaces around Shimmering Grotto and so on is quite hard.
Wacky. It's like Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, or actually it's very like Grafted Skullcap. I like that the prot-white means it's not easy to hit him with Pacifism or tappers.
This is probably better than Ridgetop Raptor, one of the two original doublestrike creatures. Black would normally get a 4/2 for ; this is better than a 4/3, especially if there's power-pumping equipment in the set. I think I'd have left its toughness at 2
Yowsers. Yes. I don't think +3/+0 should be a common equipment at any cost (well, maybe something like 5 mana). Warlord's Axe shows how much Wizards think a similar effect should cost these days; quite a jump down from Vulshok Battlegear, but that was crazy strong. In a sense this is balanced against Darksteel Axe (lose indestructible, gain +1/+0), but I don't think it is really balanced. If you were changing this, and really wanted it to still be a 1-drop equipment, then I'd make it uncommon and to equip.
For some reason, I didn't want to push the Spark Elemental of the set, apparently, because this started costing . The minor Equipment theme made sense in red, too, so I made on uncommon. This, however, works best when played later in the game, after you've cast Argentum Armor or something. I like this design a lot, even though this + Brainsplitter is probably too much. But I blame the Equipment.
This was Bonesplitter for a while. I liked that Equipment, it was among the best, really. Apparently, I needed one that good. I also didn't like Trusty Machete being uncommon. Even worse, when I made Spirit of War, I wanted there to be a perfect Equipment for turn one. Turned out it was powerful.
If I was changing this, though, I'm not sure what I'd do.
In-block, there's Ghostly Aura, Charged Wanderer, probably a few more. I didn't exactly made a "perfect" combo, but I figured that enough of these could enable something cool, if a bit difficult to pull off.
A worse Skullclamp, sure, but I'm not really ashamed.
A very strong card advantage machine. But a deadly drawback in its last ability.
This started as a 3/4 with protection from white, a mana cost and the current second ability. For some time, dig left the card you chose on top of the library. For various reasons, this was later changed. How could I justify it now, then? It doesn't even make you lose life, and it was as broken as it sounds. Then I came up with the last ability. I tested it, and it was exactly right. If you drop this too soon and it gets answered, you'll probably regret it, but this is a really insane topdeck.
In a world where colors are selfish/proud, what better land than this one? It's actually a bit weak in that it enters tapped (and I didn't want it better than Shimmering Grotto), but this can make your two-color deck actually try to play cards like Paolo's Bodyguard. It's also cool than, unlike cards like Reflecting Pool, two of these don't leave you without colored mana.
The first card with adapt I made. The one that never changed at all. Use it as a not-great-but-usable combat trick in either color, or as a Lava Spike in red. I wanted adapt not to feel just like a cost-reduction effect, and I designed the rest to fit that, but I think this little common was the best one delivering the message.
A reverse Iona, you could say. I decided not to go nuts with this guy, because I imagined that, if played right, the drawback wasn't too harsh. It can hit for a lot, and has tiny but not horrible toughness so that it dies just at the right time.
But if we're talking about insanity, this guy seems really cool first turn with Mishra's Workshop in a monobrown deck.
I was probably a litte too generous with this guy. Large white walls at common are okay. Walls that can also kill a lot of creatures and cost three mana are probably not.
In my defense, the set's power level was really high so cards like this needed to exist. If I was adjusting everything, though, I agree this could be a 1/5 or something more reasonable.
First strike appears mostly in black uncommon because of mirrored knights. I had a picture of a troll with two axes, so I concluded double strike was okay.
While I think the color pie is important (and I think said black knights should be rare), it is true that these kind of "strange" cards exist. Shards of Alara had Goblin Deathraiders, Zendikar had Vampire Hexmage, Mirrodin Besieged has Koth's Courier, etc.
At least I did make sure black didn't get a good double striker like Hearthfire Hobgoblin. Another funny thing is that this set had Florencia, Dark Moonknight as a second black card with double strike, for totally unrelated reasons.
This card changed a lot. At first, it was like a Distress ( 2/2). Often, Hypnotic Specter would be better than that, and Shimian Specter was strictly better. Then it changed to a 2/1 that did the same. And it was better than Hypnotic Specter again. Finally, I chose the Fall (Rise // Fall) effect. I had to increase the cost so it went back to 2/2. I guess I underestimated it (the power level in the set is so high there are better black cards so that could have helped). wouldn't be a bad opportunity to have a 3/3 Specter with the same effect.
"Adapt - You may pay BB instead of ~'s mana cost. If you do, destroy target Forest instead.
Exactly. That's what makes it frustratingly balanced.
Yeah, that's probably fair.
...And if you're trying to cast a two-drop gold card?
Remember that having this and another land while trying to cast Qasali Pridemage sucks. Late game, though, entering the battlefield tapped is a bit harsh. This may be balanced, but I'm a bit sad that this can potentially frustrate you a lot if you fail to draw your third land.
Over Grafted Skullcap, the triple black kinda justifies the 3/3 body. :P
Creature spells are avoided in decks with few creatures. With this, though, you either go for full colorless or risk not playing anything at all (God forbids this meets a Pacifism, for example).
I think the hybrid symbol isn't that much of an upgrade. But I think that a strictly better Slaughter Cry is totally acceptable. At , I'd consider it unplayable without its adapt cost. :P
Remember it's an uncommon. The 3 toughness might have been unnecessary (remember there's Last Gasp, though). There's Uncontrollable Thirst in common, but I think of it as a "cute combo" rather than a serious threat.
I agree. I, like Wizards during Mirrodin, underestimated Equipment, apparently.
Wow, a universal Graven Cairns. Awesome. ETBT is quite a drawback; is it enough? Possibly not, but clever design nonetheless. Designing nonbasic lands in the spaces around Shimmering Grotto and so on is quite hard.
Wacky. It's like Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, or actually it's very like Grafted Skullcap. I like that the prot-white means it's not easy to hit him with Pacifism or tappers.
Nice indeed. Although I wouldn't call it "not great" given that it's better than Slaughter Cry in two ways.
Reminds me of Grid Monitor (and Steel Golem). Unsurprisingly, this is rather better.
This is probably better than Ridgetop Raptor, one of the two original doublestrike creatures. Black would normally get a 4/2 for ; this is better than a 4/3, especially if there's power-pumping equipment in the set. I think I'd have left its toughness at 2
Yowsers. Yes. I don't think +3/+0 should be a common equipment at any cost (well, maybe something like 5 mana). Warlord's Axe shows how much Wizards think a similar effect should cost these days; quite a jump down from Vulshok Battlegear, but that was crazy strong. In a sense this is balanced against Darksteel Axe (lose indestructible, gain +1/+0), but I don't think it is really balanced. If you were changing this, and really wanted it to still be a 1-drop equipment, then I'd make it uncommon and to equip.
For some reason, I didn't want to push the Spark Elemental of the set, apparently, because this started costing . The minor Equipment theme made sense in red, too, so I made on uncommon. This, however, works best when played later in the game, after you've cast Argentum Armor or something. I like this design a lot, even though this + Brainsplitter is probably too much. But I blame the Equipment.
This was Bonesplitter for a while. I liked that Equipment, it was among the best, really. Apparently, I needed one that good. I also didn't like Trusty Machete being uncommon. Even worse, when I made Spirit of War, I wanted there to be a perfect Equipment for turn one. Turned out it was powerful.
If I was changing this, though, I'm not sure what I'd do.
In-block, there's Ghostly Aura, Charged Wanderer, probably a few more. I didn't exactly made a "perfect" combo, but I figured that enough of these could enable something cool, if a bit difficult to pull off.
A worse Skullclamp, sure, but I'm not really ashamed.
A very strong card advantage machine. But a deadly drawback in its last ability.
This started as a 3/4 with protection from white, a mana cost and the current second ability. For some time, dig left the card you chose on top of the library. For various reasons, this was later changed. How could I justify it now, then? It doesn't even make you lose life, and it was as broken as it sounds. Then I came up with the last ability. I tested it, and it was exactly right. If you drop this too soon and it gets answered, you'll probably regret it, but this is a really insane topdeck.
In a world where colors are selfish/proud, what better land than this one? It's actually a bit weak in that it enters tapped (and I didn't want it better than Shimmering Grotto), but this can make your two-color deck actually try to play cards like Paolo's Bodyguard. It's also cool than, unlike cards like Reflecting Pool, two of these don't leave you without colored mana.
The first card with adapt I made. The one that never changed at all. Use it as a not-great-but-usable combat trick in either color, or as a Lava Spike in red. I wanted adapt not to feel just like a cost-reduction effect, and I designed the rest to fit that, but I think this little common was the best one delivering the message.
A reverse Iona, you could say. I decided not to go nuts with this guy, because I imagined that, if played right, the drawback wasn't too harsh. It can hit for a lot, and has tiny but not horrible toughness so that it dies just at the right time.
But if we're talking about insanity, this guy seems really cool first turn with Mishra's Workshop in a monobrown deck.
I was probably a litte too generous with this guy. Large white walls at common are okay. Walls that can also kill a lot of creatures and cost three mana are probably not.
In my defense, the set's power level was really high so cards like this needed to exist. If I was adjusting everything, though, I agree this could be a 1/5 or something more reasonable.
First strike appears mostly in black uncommon because of mirrored knights. I had a picture of a troll with two axes, so I concluded double strike was okay.
While I think the color pie is important (and I think said black knights should be rare), it is true that these kind of "strange" cards exist. Shards of Alara had Goblin Deathraiders, Zendikar had Vampire Hexmage, Mirrodin Besieged has Koth's Courier, etc.
At least I did make sure black didn't get a good double striker like Hearthfire Hobgoblin. Another funny thing is that this set had Florencia, Dark Moonknight as a second black card with double strike, for totally unrelated reasons.
This card changed a lot. At first, it was like a Distress ( 2/2). Often, Hypnotic Specter would be better than that, and Shimian Specter was strictly better. Then it changed to a 2/1 that did the same. And it was better than Hypnotic Specter again. Finally, I chose the Fall (Rise // Fall) effect. I had to increase the cost so it went back to 2/2. I guess I underestimated it (the power level in the set is so high there are better black cards so that could have helped). wouldn't be a bad opportunity to have a 3/3 Specter with the same effect.