­

Original Card: Aether Storm ­

­
• Changed casting cost from to and made an artifact, because of questionable color pie problems. Really, this card should be Red (for the Punisher mechanic), or Black (loss of life, or creature suppression). But I agree that the card is much more interesting in a blue deck, than in a deck full of creature removal. This seemed like the best solution to me.
­
• Changed name to Aether Stormspike, in part because it's now an artifact, and in part because MTGMaker automatically includes the reminder text for the Storm mechanic when that word is repeated in the text of th card.
­
• Increased damage from 4 to 5. Reasoning is included in this card's comments.
­

This small change is actually pretty sweet. Any non-green deck could potentially want this effect. At least, they could want their opponent not to cast creatures. Even gren miiiiiight want to ramp into having the biggest creatures and then put this down to try to prevent the opponent fromt catching up.

That said, paying 4 life doesn't feel like a very high price, though. 4 mana, 4 damage, and creature spells can be cast again without skipping a beat. I think I'd generally rather have 4 mana and a card, than have 4 life. This card could read as: "Pay 4 life. The person who played this card doesn't get a 4 drop. You do."

What if it cost 1 mana as well, or even 2 mana, 2 life? Then your opponent at the least is getting their "curve out" (if they were otherwise set to curve out successfully) actually disrupted a bit.

­Pillar Tombs of Aku in reverse?

I try to keep these cards as close as I can to the original, while still keeping them competitive. So adding a mana requirement doesn't seem like the right choice... but I could increase the life payment to 5. Five damage for sounds like something even red would pay for... which might mean the card is too good. But there's no guarantee that playing a creature is important, and the card can still be shot down with a Naturalize, so maybe it's fine.

Oh, and as an aside: While the four damage version may not seem that great in one on one matches, it seems pretty reasonable in normal multiplayer. Since no one wants to take the damage, it will end up stalling the creature game for far too long... even if its almost guaranteed to leave the table later. So even if I have to return to 4 damage version, I know the card still has its niches.

An aside aside: This is one nasty card when combined with effects that make artifacts indestructible...