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Original Card: Coral Reef ­

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• Moved from common to uncommon.
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• Increased cost from to .
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• Changed all counters to +1/+1 counters. ­
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• Reduced the number of counters produced by sacrificing a land from two to one. ­
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• Removed the activation in the third ability. ­
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• Added sorcery speed to last ability, to prevent awkward combat tricks on a common that should be NWO.
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Edit: In the following conversation, I made Coral Reef a creature. Later, I decided to make it an enchantment. ­

What a crazy mess of changes, huh? Coral Reef needs a lot of help... there's a good top-down idea in there, but it's buried underneath a card that's so bad, that few people take the time to figure that flavor out.

Anyhow, I stole a bit of Vigean Hydropon tech to give this card the correct type (Coral Reefs are alive. But they aren't going to block much, being under the water and all.) I was going to remove the 'only blue creatures can get the counters' restriction, but then I realized that the blue creatures fetch the counters because they can swim.

I don't make these cards on the same computer that I put these cards online (Chromebook doesn't run MTGMaker. Or anything else for that matter.) so I have a bunch of changes that need to be made. Specifically: ­

There is precedent for noncreatures having +1/+1 counters - Llanowar Reborn and Afiya Grove, and sortof Raging Ravine - so you might be able to eliminate four of your bullets plus your Fling worries by keeping this as an enchantment, in the mould of Afiya Grove.

Hey, check out Afiya Grove! I haven't seen that card in ages!

I didn't change to creature because of the +1/+1 counters, though. It's just a happy accident. Alternatively, I suppose I could change the name, like with Clockwork Gnomes and Aliban's Tower to match the card.

I guess if I want this to be a common, I need to remove the 'sacrifice an Island' part anyway. It's just an extra piece... it doesn't make it a better all around card. Doing that, this should be fine at common, and accidentally solve the Fling issue that no longer exists.

Whether this should be a creature or an enchantment, though... hmm... Coral Reefs are alive. Creatures pop at common more than enchantments do. But there's nothing wrong with putting an enchantment that interacts with your creatures at common, and the name could always be changed. Hmm... enchantment is probably the path of least resistance. It's really hard trying to stop myself from being clever when I do this, you know?

Clockwork coral?

I really don't think there's anything wrong with having something technically-alive be an enchantment. I'm sure there have been enchantments with names that are the name of a creature before. Elephant Guide / Griffin Guide are one example; Root Maze, perhaps, or Gutter Grime or Lurking Predators.

I changed Coral Reef back to an enchantment. Still bugs me, but I got to admit that it simplifies the card greatly. That, and I've got a soft spot for common non-aura enchantments, anyway.

Also, I reverted back to requiring blue creatures. I don't like doubling down on a card, requiring both islands and blue creatures. But I got to admit, it's flavorful. I wish the artwork showed what was going on, though (and it doesn't hurt that it makes blue creatures more valuable.) I tried finding some art of a Merfolk crafting weaponry out of coral... but that's a rather specific request.

Finally, I played games to make the last ability roughly work at sorcery speed, when I should have just made the last ability work at sorcery speed. So it does that now. I don't need players not attacking because they don't know how many creatures are getting what counters, when.

I wonder if you could save space by increasing the number of +1/+1 counters per island and removing the ETB counters? That's a bigger change I don't really like but would simplify the effect.

Or, this is probably a more drastic change than you would like, but +1/+1 counters aren't clearly a coral-reef thing. Maybe something more clearly diving related might be "Tap an untapped blue creature you control, remove a counter from ~: put the bottom card of your library into your hand". Or "...put the bottom card of your library into your hand, then discard a card"?

Well, I'd rather not move away from the intent of the card if I don't have to, and there doesn't seem to be any real reason to move away from the +1/+1 counters. Trust me, I've got cards in the file I hate more and can't change their core ability. Daughter of Autumn is killing me, Smalls.

Coral Reef did originally say 'polyp counters'. I could put those back on, but I don't really think it adds to the flavor, really. Or, to be more precise, I don't think the word 'polyp' translates to 'weapon' any better than '+1/+1' does.

As for removing the ETB... hmm... you're right that that's a possibility. I don't really like it either, to be honest. And I think the card would stop being a common if we did that, too (you would only ever want to play one of them.) Alternatively, I could just remove the 'sacrifice an Island' line. The card doesn't need it... I've mostly kept it because it was on the original card. But honestly? How many people know what the original Coral Reef does? The crumbum's a common, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone bust one out. I don't think anyone would notice if I removed that line, and it would probably be a better card because of it... ­

sigh. I really like this card at common. But as I'm filling in blue common slots, I find I need one more slot to stick in the basics. And even then, I'm still having problems.