Magic 20XX: Recent Activity

Recent updates to Magic 20XX: (Generated at 2024-05-19 11:42:56)

2013-07-04 01:54:54: jmgariepy created the card Evanesce
2013-07-04 01:53:19: jmgariepy edited Frozen Delta
2013-07-04 01:53:07: jmgariepy edited Frozen Pinehills
2013-07-04 01:52:56: jmgariepy edited Frozen Heaths
2013-07-04 01:52:47: jmgariepy edited Frozen Tar Pits
2013-07-04 01:52:25: jmgariepy edited Frozen Gardens
2013-06-21 03:21:36: jmgariepy commented on Frozen Delta

For what it's worth, I really liked what was going on with the Rare land cycle's design, since it solved a number of rare land problems that have bugged me. The frozen cycle:
Can be used to add colored mana on turn one, which is kind of rare, as far as the other dual-lands are concerned.
Fixes the Cinder Marsh cycle from Tempest. I always liked the idea of them... but the lands are too weak for most player to run. The Champions team liked the idea of them too, and roughly reprinted them in an uncommon cycle ala Cloudcrest Lake.
Got rid of the Mirrodin's Core problem, where you keep adding counters to the card because... you know... maybe you'll need them? But after counter number 7, you start to really resent this card, who forces you to do this busy work every turn, because you have Magical OCD.
The result reads a little clunky, but it features everything I wanted it to feature (and became Snow Lands as an after thought).

It sure is a shame the card turned out to be a poor design.

I realized this the first time I drafted one and began to play with it. Since the land is very good, you want to have 4x in your two-color deck, and 12x in your tri-color deck. But, the way the card is built, you have to keep monkeying with the counters. You can't spend unless you remove a counter which was added to the card, by spending or . Tap, counter goes on. Tap counter comes off. Tap counter goes on. That's just too many little actions. It's like designing a land that makes you shuffle your deck every turn.

It makes a perfectly fine one-of artifact, but this card needs to change. I suppose I have one of two options:

1). Move "Remove an ice counter from ~" from the cost. Add the word 'may' to it, and make it part of the resolution. This way, you can tap the thing for colorless at any time, reducing the amount of times you need to monkey with this card.

2). Accept that this isn't as cool as I thought it first was, and design a new land... which is probably the better option. There's a ton of rare land design space out there. It just doesn't seem worth it to fix a land that looks great, but plays annoying.