Madoka Magi-ka: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Madoka Magi-ka: (Generated at 2025-06-28 08:36:37)
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Page 1 - Older activity
You can tell it's meant to be a spike card; I need to resize my browser window to read all the text.
I really liked changing the first ability (which was admittedly WEAK as several of you pointed out) to a twist on Esperia's ability. The flavor of this card really needs to be "I'm playing head games with my opponent."
Changed the first ability to more closely match Esperia and play head games with the opponent(s).
Reread. Does the same thing I thought it did, which is adds a variable amount of life. That's what I was getting at. If each player draws lands twice in a row, and your opponent is the aggro, you lose, as opposed to just killing their creatures with the spells in your hand. That's a very frustrating problem for many Spikes. That and everyone gaining random life and drawing cards is so very Timmy.
It's not that Spike wouldn't appreciate these things for the reasons you mentioned. It's just that the effect is about as Spike as Elvish Piper is, which is to say that everyone likes Elvish Piper, not just Spike.
Cards that are very Spike, but not so much Johnny or Timmy in Red/White/Blue:
Firebolt, Order of Leitbur and (I'm cheating)Isperia the Inscrutable are three cards that pop off the top of my head.
Firebolt is often marginalized by non-Spikes who don't appreciate over-paying for something a second time. Most Spikes see Firebolt, though, and think "I can squeeze just a little more out of this card, and not waste a spell. Little advantages that I'm willing to pay attention to are cool."
Order of Leitbur could be a Timmy, since it can go big... but I think even Timmy would argue that it costs to much. Spike, on the other hand, appreciates the fact that the card was made cheap, but comes with options that you can pay for when you need them. And Order will always come with a hidden question of "Is it worth pumping this creature, or should I just cast another spell?" Timmy doesn't like that question. He wants both.
Isperia is a 'zany' Spike card, in that it isn't quite good enough for any tournament environment. But Spike will put it in his/her Commander deck for sure. Isperia asks Spike to play mind games with his/her opponents, which is where Spike shines: proving that he/she's smarter than other people. The fact that the card also infers an easy to build around theme (play with flying creatures) helps too. It's just a bit too mundane for most Johnnies to really sink their teeth into, but it's fitting for Spike to launch into an argument as to what the best blue and white flyers of all time are.
All this said, I don't envy you. It's much easier to point at examples of Spike cards than it is to design a Spike Planeswalker from the bottom up. Much easier to just say "These are the problems I see". Designing for Spike, especially while using the Super-Vorthos style Planeswalker cards... I doubt anyone on this website would hit a home run their first time up to bat on that particular challenge.
Not saying that use isn't spiky; just that, well, you're not gonna use it that way. You're going to give them a nasty bomb.
The first one is kinda interesting very occasionally. A good player will be able to spot the very few times potential life gain, or even giving away info about a card in hand, matters. But mostly it's just "Both players draw a card, I gain some life" which is kinda decision free. It does increase complexity, which rewards skilled players more, though. And, as I said, the decision "No, I think I have what I need, and I don't want to let my opponent get an answer; so I'd better use the second ability instead" is very much a skill test.
Still, Zedruuu. Zedruuu wants you to have his freedom from psychographics. (Or, in other words, your attempted aim for the card is massively overshadowed by having "Whee! A gift giver! I love gift givers!" on it. Heck; it was sufficient to stop me complaining about its being a planeswalker.)
Ok, I think some of you need to reread the first ability. The first ability doesn't clash. Each player who chooses to reveal a card puts it into his or her hand (not your hand) and you gain ALL the life. I think this is spikey because a less skilled player WON'T reveal the top card of his or her library because it would mean giving the opponent information and/or life (which a less skilled player wouldn't understand the benefits of card advantage).
I feel the second ability is spikey because it essentially gives your opponent a dead card for two turns that they can't do anything with. During that time you can bluff and play head games with them, leading them to overthink "why did he give me this card? what's his reasoning in doing this? what's his next play?"
If you don't think it's spikey enough, can you help me out and list your favorite red / white / blue spike cards? Thanks.
He's got horns.
Zedruu is a Spike card?
Many Spikes hate clash, since it wins the game through 'chance'. I should point out that that isn't the opinion of all Spikes... just those that like to math everything out. To people like that, the first +1 reads poor, since (assuming this card was in your hand and you've got other things to do with the mana) you'd be stuck in a position where you'd have to choose between your best play, and a random amount of life.
My first thought on the other +1 was similar to Links'. It is Spike. But it's a heck of a lot more Johnny. After all, if I was filling a deck full of 'good stuff', there wouldn't be much of a reason to give my opponent my cards. That second ability really requires a niche deck and/or play... most Spikes, when making decks, would just see the ability, shrug, assuming it isn't for them, and move on.
But, yes, variable Fact or Fiction is about as Spike as they get.
The -X is very skill dependent; the "Which is better, between those two +1s" is also an interesting skill test sometimes. (Assuming you don't just pack your deck with bad things to force onto people; which, um, you will.)
Still, Zedruu approves of this card, and wants you to have it. And Zedruu the Greathearted is quite spiky. And moderately goaty.
And here is as good a place as any to mention that I saw a bumper sticker, with a picture of a giraffe, saying "Moo" and the text "This is a goat".
I don't know. Life gain, drawing your opponents cards, and giving away your permanents don't seem very Spike to me. This seems more Johnny.
I designed this card with the intent of making something super-spikey. A card that would enable its owner to play head games with his opponent. A card that would be more powerful in the hands of the better player. What do you think?
Um; why not just grant that other creature flying? Isn't that the same thing?
Still, if you need this ability on more than a couple of creatures (that is, the cannot be blocked part without the able to block part) then I suggest keywording it, and granting them that keyword.
Anyway; I think the templating is fine. But gatherer is down, so I can't check.
I need a little help on this card's templating. How should I phrase this card's text that grants a keyword and another non-keyworded ability that requires quotes? Did I get it right or is there a cleaner/established way to word this?
I'm not sure anything is balanced. While losing life is practically always a lose condition; an opponent gaining life isn't. There are plenty of ways to win other than dealing damage.
Saying that; if any colour were to have it, red is the safest - red rarely mills or poisons.
So; would I steal a creature for giving them 3 life? Well - yeah. Even if all I do is hit them with it, it's sure to be more than 3 damage if it's a creature worth stealing in the first place. Any imaginable other creature I might steal (tipping the balance in combat, getting rid of a utility creature) is better.
Is it worth 3 normal mana and a card too? Well, usually that's an interesting question.
You certainly wouldn't want to go round replacing every mana with this symbol - but it CAN be balanced, at any value; by tweaking the rest of the card's power level. Mana is sadly non-linear.
Three sounds like a good guess to me; I'd start there, play it a bit, see if it needed tweaking upwards.
I call it "love mana" the opposite of Phyrexian mana.
Two things. Can someone confirm for me that I've worded the reminder text correctly? It's important that it doesn't target an opponent because that will cause problems.
Second, what's an amount of life to give an opponent that balances against avoiding having to pay a colored mana? I think 2 life (which would be the mirror opposite of Phyrexian mana) isn't enough. Can someone who has confidence as a developer give me their opinion as to whether or not 3 life is balanced?
As far as I can tell this is exactly Entwine, just with the costs reversed. And while the first mode goes great with the second, and the first mode goes great with the third, the combination of all three has quite some anti-synergy.
Well, if I formatted it your way, I'd need a different name for the mechanic, because then you're not forgetting... you're... remembering? Well, this set already has an ability called Memory, so I don't want to use "remember."
Also the last mode you can choose gives you the opportunity to pump up something big and then gain a bunch of life off of it. I thought it had a nice cohesion. I also wanted each mode to not necessarily be something you'd always want to do in order to make the forget ability more attractive.
Huh. I think I'd prefer this the other way round (lower cmc in top right, higher 'do as many as you like all' alt cost) but this is kinda flavoury and nifty.
That third one feels out of place in "Rar, make something big and stompy" though
Does this mechanic work, or does the reminder text for Forget need a little more meat?
I'm still wondering if there's a cleaner way to word the reminder text... I say "creature" four times in the reminder text and it gets a little monotonous.
Maybe I could cut it down to two if I worded it like this.
(When this enters the battlefield, you may reveal a Human and/or Rogue creature card in your hand and put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature paired with this permanent.)
But that also doesn't exactly have a nice ring to it, either. I'll look at other abilities and see how they're worded, but some help would be appreciated. Or is this really the only way to word it?
I should note I also do enjoy this kind of bi-tribal effect. I enjoyed the deckbuilding questions that Lorwyn-Morningtide offered, along the lines of "I play the Kithkin Soldiers that care about Kithkin and the Kithkin Soldiers that care about Soldiers... I'll probably play the really good Kithkin Wizard, and the two Merfolk Soldiers that cares about Soldiers as well... but then do I play that really good Merfolk Wizard that cares about Merfolk and Wizards?"
@Alex: I was just throwing casting costs together without much research as to what this actually would enable. I was more concerned with the ability working before I worried about anything else. Thanks for doing some research on that for me by the way. I guess since I have a thumbs up, I can start fine-tuning the power level, eh?
Nice. I like the idea of reusing soulbond technology. I think this looks like it'll all work.
Do note that this is getting 3 power for
, and when you discard a card it's bypassing the mana cost; I'd be quite happy to get Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer, Nearheath Stalker or Commander Greven il-Vec for 2 mana plus a loot; or Wandering Traveler without needing the fiddly colours of mana to cast it. With a turn 1 Hapless Researcher, this lets me swing with Eron the Relentless on turn 2. Is that the use you had in mind?