I actually quite like this, but the rules issues make it definitely broken as-is. I've some idea for how this might actually be improved, but I'll leave it to other people first.
I think that's the obvious interpretation, probably as a red 1/1, go ahead and make it, I don't think it exists yet :) But I think there may be others :)
Hmm. The rules makes it broken as-is, you say? I can't quite see why that'd be the case... Presumably it would work like planeswalkers: I can declare it as an attacker, attacking your Elvish Piper. Any creatures you control (including that Elvish Piper) can block it as if it were attacking you or your Garruk. If nothing blocks it, it gets to deal combat damage to your Piper without the Piper dealing combat damage back. That all seems to work fine.
If I give it deathtouch and make it unblockable, it'd be able to kill any creature regardless of size or most kinds of defence including hexproof, with the sole exceptions being damage prevention (including protection) and regeneration / indestructibility. But that doesn't seem very abusive, especially compared to Ulvenwald Tracker or Prodigal Pyromancer.
Perhaps the problems come from the fact that the rules don't expect creatures to be attacked? Certainly Norn's Annex won't protect your creatures from this. But that's fine: Ghostly Prison doesn't protect your planeswalkers from anything.
I can't think of anything that breaks too badly. A few rules like 506.3 would need to be updated, but that's no more than other wacky cards get. What am I missing?
I meant it was broken from a design perspective in being unforgiveably ambiguous in "what happens if you want to block with a creature that's being attacked...".
I agree the rules will (I think) handle it, and that it's not too strong.
One of the tweaks I was thinking of was a modern blue Tim "2U. 1/1. Unblockable. ~ can attack creatures," which fixes most of the issues, maybe. Although I'm not sure if green or blue should get creature-ping or not.
Yeah, after I went to bed last night it occurred to me that this card was probably an example of very good design. The more I think about it, the more I'm surprised we haven't done this yet. It seems like a natural extension of the rules of attacking Planeswalkers. Even the corner cases (Can I block the creature attacking my creature with the creature being attacked?) seem easy to resolve (Sure. Why not? You could probably group block as well, with a group that included the originally attacked creature.)
I do like the underlying idea. I think there's a lot of ideas in simple green and red "fight" creatures which will slowly appear in real magic sets. And I think there's some design space in attacking creatures like plainswalkers -- I made a slightly-more-sensible version Island Turtle
But I think Wizards will avoid doing it for real, because it promotes confusion beginners already have with many games where the normal behaviour is to attack creatures, and because there are some strange rules interactions, and because you can get the same effect with fight, or things like Soltari Guerrillas (which is ridiculously good when it's unblockable).
For Challenge # 068.
I actually quite like this, but the rules issues make it definitely broken as-is. I've some idea for how this might actually be improved, but I'll leave it to other people first.
... beyond
:Fight ?
I think that's the obvious interpretation, probably as a red 1/1, go ahead and make it, I don't think it exists yet :) But I think there may be others :)
Ha! At first, I thought this card read:
"Stinging Hornet can't attack creatures."
Personally, I think that's even more of a brain fart. :p
ROFL. Yeah, that would have been better :)
Hmm. The rules makes it broken as-is, you say? I can't quite see why that'd be the case... Presumably it would work like planeswalkers: I can declare it as an attacker, attacking your Elvish Piper. Any creatures you control (including that Elvish Piper) can block it as if it were attacking you or your Garruk. If nothing blocks it, it gets to deal combat damage to your Piper without the Piper dealing combat damage back. That all seems to work fine.
If I give it deathtouch and make it unblockable, it'd be able to kill any creature regardless of size or most kinds of defence including hexproof, with the sole exceptions being damage prevention (including protection) and regeneration / indestructibility. But that doesn't seem very abusive, especially compared to Ulvenwald Tracker or Prodigal Pyromancer.
Perhaps the problems come from the fact that the rules don't expect creatures to be attacked? Certainly Norn's Annex won't protect your creatures from this. But that's fine: Ghostly Prison doesn't protect your planeswalkers from anything.
I can't think of anything that breaks too badly. A few rules like 506.3 would need to be updated, but that's no more than other wacky cards get. What am I missing?
Oh, sorry, I'm being muddled today :(
I meant it was broken from a design perspective in being unforgiveably ambiguous in "what happens if you want to block with a creature that's being attacked...".
I agree the rules will (I think) handle it, and that it's not too strong.
One of the tweaks I was thinking of was a modern blue Tim "2U. 1/1. Unblockable. ~ can attack creatures," which fixes most of the issues, maybe. Although I'm not sure if green or blue should get creature-ping or not.
Yeah, after I went to bed last night it occurred to me that this card was probably an example of very good design. The more I think about it, the more I'm surprised we haven't done this yet. It seems like a natural extension of the rules of attacking Planeswalkers. Even the corner cases (Can I block the creature attacking my creature with the creature being attacked?) seem easy to resolve (Sure. Why not? You could probably group block as well, with a group that included the originally attacked creature.)
Well, thank you :)
I do like the underlying idea. I think there's a lot of ideas in simple green and red "fight" creatures which will slowly appear in real magic sets. And I think there's some design space in attacking creatures like plainswalkers -- I made a slightly-more-sensible version Island Turtle
But I think Wizards will avoid doing it for real, because it promotes confusion beginners already have with many games where the normal behaviour is to attack creatures, and because there are some strange rules interactions, and because you can get the same effect with fight, or things like Soltari Guerrillas (which is ridiculously good when it's unblockable).
But hey, I've been wrong lots before :)