.... five red themes. Functional card, just - the set seems overstretched now.
Also confusing combination of abilities thematically. Whenever a new meteorite lands, it goes looking for forests?
Regardless, a 4/2 for 3 is shiny and efficient, even disregarding being unblockable against green. Odd bit of colour-hate there, since you're previously had some off-colour activations showing colour-love instead.
Huh. nice. But, wow - "Land destruction" as a build-around? That's not usually a fun environment to end up in.
And, uh, by my count; that's four major themes for red, so far. Is this set a thousand cards big? If not, you might wanna cut down, and focus in a little on fewer of them.
Mmm.. 'free' cards can get dangerous. This one is probably fine. I think that I like the tension between destroying the good land and getting the mana. But I'd also want to see in playtest if anyone ever chooses the mana.
Also, this is the iconic black Sengir ability. While it's certainly flavourful (flavour text: Omnomnomnomnom) that's just a touch too ebil.
And finally - this creature feels like a newbie trap. Newbie thinks: 4 power, then 5 then 6! And actually, it's "2 toughness; um, it's gonna get chumped to death, isn't it?"
Still, perfectly reasonable mechanically. It just ought to be black.
But it was better than this, because you only cared about
hitting a threshold, and then it turned on. This one, you have to check both yours, and your opponents, every time you need to evaluate it.
Eh, maybe it'll play well. But I fear the board complexity it brings. Especially with every power changing instant and ability causing it to change.
Apex wants to feel like "Yay! Big creatures! Swing! Smash!" but written this way, ends up in actuarial tables.
If one player is using Apex and the other is playing, I dunno, Blue - it'll be fine. But if two Apex players sit at a table, well, you're gonna spend a lot of time counting and re-counting - and if they wanted to do that, they'd be playing blue.
So yeah, I'd much rather see something either much easier to count, or counted much more rarely. Maybe Apex should only turn on in upkeep?
(This permanent enters the battlefield with 2 breeding counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a breeding counter from it.)
Argh. Pocket Raptors! Flee!
Breeding seems oddly in tension with your other red mechanics - this one you want to not attack with the turn after it comes into play, so that you get its brood.
Still, a bit of tension is good, as is having more than one way to play. I'm not sure 'token making' can really appear on enough cards to warrant a keyword, though. And if it isn't always token making, it should probably be something other than 'breeding'.
You don't like Apex? Sad :/
Might be confusing to newbies when to check for it, but it's the same as with cards that have Metalcraft or Threshold etc. Check on casting and resolution, there is no timing involved in the Apex buff, you either have it when the creature gets burned or not.
"Then" should change it, it's a clear divider in MTG syntax. But it would not make sense to use it, cause there is no time restriction to any ability. Gonna make it 2 sentences.
Yep, that's a reprint. We took inspiration from the Muraganda lore which feature a group called scarwitches, and thought that this enchantment fits them due to the flavour.
With regards to the other witches, yeah that's a bit of a fail, but the witches so far spoiled are supposed to be not that powerful, hence why they can't kill a hurt creature, only weaken it further. Witch Fatale pays hommage to Witch's Mist, she ist just not good enough (yet).
Yeah, the set has been sleeping for a while, so some of the cards became obsolete or just don't function anymore. Thanks for info!
It was supposed to be like Murder with a not that hard to fulfill casting cost and it also kills regenerators, but that's pointless now.
Gonna make it into a straight up killspell.
@Vitenka: Apex is like Formidable except that it counts power instead of toughness and cares if your combined power is higher than anybody else's creatures. It's super swingy but I like it very much, it's also the reason why there are p/t switch and -1/-1 UEOT abilities in this set, to combat that ability.
With both the mana restriction and the increase in casting cost, this does seem like a rather large downgrade from Murder, especially since not that many creatures regenerate anymore.
Alternate flavour text:
Amaaaazing blaze, how sweet, the fire / that burns the weak so freeeee....
Ok, ok, amusement at name over. Don't like apex, but this is a perfectly good use for it. Though it's a surprisingly good common-burn for a modern environment. Definitley encourages red to play a mix of creatures and burn; which is nice.
But as a common, does seem likely to confuse as to exactly when you check apex. Because the temptation will be to do so after killing the creature, and I'm pretty sure that is wrong.
The cross colour activations are because of the colour combination, gonna add them to the main page as soon as I have the time. It's basically shard based with the mechanics spread over them, like Khans, but not that many golden cards.
The activation beyond death is a valid concern, didn't see that, but since it costs I'm ok with that.
.... five red themes. Functional card, just - the set seems overstretched now.
Also confusing combination of abilities thematically. Whenever a new meteorite lands, it goes looking for forests?
Regardless, a 4/2 for 3 is shiny and efficient, even disregarding being unblockable against green. Odd bit of colour-hate there, since you're previously had some off-colour activations showing colour-love instead.
Huh. nice. But, wow - "Land destruction" as a build-around? That's not usually a fun environment to end up in.
And, uh, by my count; that's four major themes for red, so far. Is this set a thousand cards big? If not, you might wanna cut down, and focus in a little on fewer of them.
Mmm.. 'free' cards can get dangerous. This one is probably fine. I think that I like the tension between destroying the good land and getting the mana. But I'd also want to see in playtest if anyone ever chooses the mana.
Red has three in-set mechanics? Overkill much?
Also, this is the iconic black Sengir ability. While it's certainly flavourful (flavour text: Omnomnomnomnom) that's just a touch too ebil.
And finally - this creature feels like a newbie trap. Newbie thinks: 4 power, then 5 then 6! And actually, it's "2 toughness; um, it's gonna get chumped to death, isn't it?"
Still, perfectly reasonable mechanically. It just ought to be black.
I put more explanation of my Apex dislike on Burst of Power. It's certainly salvagable, but as written now, its implementation is problematic.
Ok, this is very much more reasonable now. (But youchie, flat creature removal at common. Draft black, or at least splash it, people!)
And formidable was also a sucky mechanic :)
But it was better than this, because you only cared about hitting a threshold, and then it turned on. This one, you have to check both yours, and your opponents, every time you need to evaluate it.
Eh, maybe it'll play well. But I fear the board complexity it brings. Especially with every power changing instant and ability causing it to change.
Apex wants to feel like "Yay! Big creatures! Swing! Smash!" but written this way, ends up in actuarial tables.
If one player is using Apex and the other is playing, I dunno, Blue - it'll be fine. But if two Apex players sit at a table, well, you're gonna spend a lot of time counting and re-counting - and if they wanted to do that, they'd be playing blue.
So yeah, I'd much rather see something either much easier to count, or counted much more rarely. Maybe Apex should only turn on in upkeep?
(This permanent enters the battlefield with 2 breeding counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a breeding counter from it.)
Argh. Pocket Raptors! Flee!
Breeding seems oddly in tension with your other red mechanics - this one you want to not attack with the turn after it comes into play, so that you get its brood.
Still, a bit of tension is good, as is having more than one way to play. I'm not sure 'token making' can really appear on enough cards to warrant a keyword, though. And if it isn't always token making, it should probably be something other than 'breeding'.
You don't like Apex? Sad :/ Might be confusing to newbies when to check for it, but it's the same as with cards that have Metalcraft or Threshold etc. Check on casting and resolution, there is no timing involved in the Apex buff, you either have it when the creature gets burned or not.
Changed the ability into 2 sentences to avoid confusion, thanks for the input!
"Then" should change it, it's a clear divider in MTG syntax. But it would not make sense to use it, cause there is no time restriction to any ability. Gonna make it 2 sentences.
Yep, that's a reprint. We took inspiration from the Muraganda lore which feature a group called scarwitches, and thought that this enchantment fits them due to the flavour.
With regards to the other witches, yeah that's a bit of a fail, but the witches so far spoiled are supposed to be not that powerful, hence why they can't kill a hurt creature, only weaken it further. Witch Fatale pays hommage to Witch's Mist, she ist just not good enough (yet).
Changed cost from 2BB into 2B, removed "can't be regenerated"
Yeah, the set has been sleeping for a while, so some of the cards became obsolete or just don't function anymore. Thanks for info! It was supposed to be like Murder with a not that hard to fulfill casting cost and it also kills regenerators, but that's pointless now. Gonna make it into a
straight up killspell.
@Vitenka: Apex is like Formidable except that it counts power instead of toughness and cares if your combined power is higher than anybody else's creatures. It's super swingy but I like it very much, it's also the reason why there are p/t switch and -1/-1 UEOT abilities in this set, to combat that ability.
With both the mana restriction and the increase in casting cost, this does seem like a rather large downgrade from Murder, especially since not that many creatures regenerate anymore.
Huh. That's... probably the right power level for black creature kill nowadays, sadly.
By which I mean it's a horrible card that I wouldn't ever want to play. But is actually probably about right. Yick.
Unusual to have an enchantment tap. Not unheard of (duh, for example Witch's Mist itself), but unusual.
Would a functional reprint suit better?
Also... the other witches I have seen won't actually trigger this; which seems like a bit of a flavour miss.
Alternate flavour text: Amaaaazing blaze, how sweet, the fire / that burns the weak so freeeee....
Ok, ok, amusement at name over. Don't like apex, but this is a perfectly good use for it. Though it's a surprisingly good common-burn for a modern environment. Definitley encourages red to play a mix of creatures and burn; which is nice.
But as a common, does seem likely to confuse as to exactly when you check apex. Because the temptation will be to do so after killing the creature, and I'm pretty sure that is wrong.
The cross colour activations are because of the colour combination, gonna add them to the main page as soon as I have the time. It's basically shard based with the mechanics spread over them, like Khans, but not that many golden cards.
The activation beyond death is a valid concern, didn't see that, but since it costs
I'm ok with that.