Madoka Magi-ka: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Madoka Magi-ka: (Generated at 2025-06-28 17:31:40)
| Madoka Magi-ka: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Mechanics |
Recent updates to Madoka Magi-ka: (Generated at 2025-06-28 17:31:40)
Milling's been done too: Book Burning.
And I don't really like lifegain or enchantment destruction. Why not reprint Breaking Point? Red punisher Wrath!
I don't see why you need something that "feels very non-red". If it feels non-red, it probably shouldn't be red. The tricky thing is to find something that does feel red, but hasn't technically been in red's pie before.
Skullscorch was discard, so that's technically been done.
I actually like damage prevention. "Opponent choose one - Prevent all damage, or they take an amount of damage equal to the damage spells and abilities they control would deal this turn" or something like that. Unfortunately, it's a bit silly to pair this up right next to life gain. Looks like you're leading to something that you aren't.
Alternatively, you could just do red punishes into red. Unless a player takes six damage, deal six damage to all creatures that player controls. Act of Treason seems like a flavorful punisher card to evoke as well. Don't know if that's what you're looking for, though.
You already did lifegain.
And red already stole card draw and creature control from blue; always has had evasion and creature boosting.
Milling? (I set fire to your library!) Card discard? (I set fire to your mind!) Alternate win conditions? (I set fire to your comprules!) Damage prevention or other creature protections? (I set fire to your fire!)
Always had land destruction, also artifacts... Never got enchantment destruction I don't think? Doesn't really do library manipulation...
Probably most of those shouldn't be pushed into, though.
I just need to do better gatherer searches before I design a card and claim that it's pushing fantastic new territory. =P
So...any suggestions for a punisher card that feels very non-red and pushes into new territory?
The funny thing is, I can't remember Dash Hopes being used in a serious tournament deck. Dash Hopes was especially innocuous, presenting a low pick in draft. Still it runs it at 4.000 stars on Gatherer, so maybe it is all that and chips. I'm pretty sure making it cost red means it's a better card (though it comes with the occasional I was trying to stop red direct damage, but it looks like I stopped a counterspell, on a rare occasion).
I remember Molten Influence having a bit more play, but that was back in a time when Psychatog was the deck to beat, and that deck was, like 32 Instants and Sorceries plus four Psychatogs. It's currently sporting 3.729 stars, which you can take however you want.
Never mind Dash Hopes, what about Molten Influence?
Suggest:
Memory — Counter target spell unless there are fewer than five cards in exile and the spells controller pays
.
I need some formatting help with this card's memory ability. As it is now, it doesn't sound right, but I don't think there's another card that's close enough to this to template off of.
I think for a rare 5 damage are appropriate, it's less than two lightning bolts. But it depends if you want it to counter or deal damage...
prolly drop the damage to 3
I'm wondering then, if red would prefer to word it:
"Deal 5 damage to caster of target spell, unless that player chooses to counter that spell."
I mean; it's functionally identical - but red is saying, up front "You cast a spell, so now I get to hurt you. But here, have a get-out clause"
I still think 5 is too much, personally. But I guess there's only a fine line between "powerful enough to be competitive" and "overpowered" and maybe that's where wizards say it is.
I don't mind red getting thematically appropriate countering; I just compare it to the paltry state of most of reds modern direct-burn spells and think "A little bit too good"
@Vitenka Yeah, I knew about Dash Hopes. I like punisher better in red personally. But it would be good to try and change the flavor of a punisher counterspell a little methinks.
Yeah; that's even more unbelievably out of colour. But planeshift did that sort of thing ;)
I wonder what everyone's response will be when I remind them that Dash Hopes exists. And its a common (albeit, a Planar Chaos 'planeshifted' common).
I have no idea where that lives. But it would feel more natural worded as something like "Deal 5 damage to target creature unless its controller takes chooses to take the damage instead" which is massively different flavour.
I do like it as it is (and realise that the 'counter my own spell' cheese doesn't work, since, the opponent just says "uh, um, ok, go ahead, it's countered" unless you're playing a VERY strange deck or they fear that you might be.)
@Vitenka How about changing it to counter noncreature spells? What do you think that would do to the card?
This can also be interpreted as an interesting downside on a seriously efficient damage spell. If the opponent is on 4 life, but controls the board; they may not cast anything.
So you can just counter your own spell. I'd suggest flavour reasons might want to prevent that from working, but it messes up nice clean wording.
I do think I like this; though I might also argue that 5 damage is a bit much - it makes it a bit too firm a counter.
If you look to Want Some? you'll see I very much enjoy designing punisher cards. How could I design the ultimate off-color red punisher card without making a red counterspell?
Changed the name and the card text so it's not a strictly better Grim Harvest anymore.
@Vitenka lol You'd understand if you've watched the anime. The bad guys/bad girls are a little trippy. Based on your reaction I think I've adequately captured that flavor.
Nice contrast there between a perfectly sensible and sane and reasonably costs white token maker; and... WHAT?!
Ugh, I just realized this is basically a much better version of Grim Harvest so I gotta change it to some other effect.
I love Odyssey for those exact reasons too. Odyssey, however, is generally considered by Wizards staff to be a mistake. A lot of people hate it for the exact reason why we love it.
I'm not saying you shouldn't work with mechanics inspired by Odyssey. Far from it. I'm rather interested in what you have. I just wanted to give a general warning, since you're probably going to see a lot of complaints similar to Dude's complaint up there, from a lot of different people.
My best advice is to make sure you know your audience. Some of the worst designed Magic cards in existance stem from the fact that they weren't intended for anyone. It was just assumed that someone would like the card, so it was printed. But no one appreciated the card, and the entire game was made worse for it. If, however, you're desinging a card with a specific audience in mind... even just people who think the way you do... then you can't go wrong.