[Edit: My apologies Sorrow. Sometimes I just start typing and forget to stop. By the time I got down to the end of my comment (which I had to abruptly stop myself from continuing), I realized that I was writing an article. Most of what's here has more to do with the subject of drawbacks on Magic cards... a subject that I do find interesting, so you got me talking. Feel free to disregard anything in there. I won't be insulted.]
You know, I do like this card, but it does such a great job showing why we don't use cards with drawbacks as much anymore. Some players will never play it, because they wouldn't want the bad stuff to happen, no matter what the good stuff is. Some players will just get a +5/+0 doublestrike on the cheap, because their opponent doesn't play red. In the end, most everyone will be unhappy with it.
That said, this iteration is at least flavorful. I give a lot of points for flavor... it helps give players a reason for why we're doing what we're doing. I like the idea behind cursed artifacts... it's a tough bugger to crack, I know.
The three biggest problems I see with this card right now is:
The ability can only be activated with red mana. That means this card is unfair to 60% of all magic players. The fact that it's fair in the meta-game means nothing to two people who always play by themselves around a kitchen table, one who always plays green and the other who always play blue.
This stops being an equipment when you activate the curse. That's a huge disapointment. To the other 40% of the decks this plays against, this card might as well read "Looks cool, but all your opponent has to do to shut it off is pay , so don't bother."
Too Swingy even when it is fair. I could just block your 7/2 double striker with a 1/1, activate this, then swing on my turn with my team. You'll probably lose. If I couldn't block on my turn, you probably auto-won with your 7/2 double striker. Story cards like this... you want a sense of interaction when playing them. This is "Let's flip a coin and see if I win."
I think the reason why these problems are all adding up is because you're trying to design a rare, and rare cursed equipment is going to come with all this baggage that makes them exciting (like Phyrexian Negator), but not fun to play. Miss your target and you end up with cards that are not fun to play, and are actively bad (Morinfen, for example). The line between the two is tragically difficult to find.
There's certainly plenty of room for goofy and cursed. Roughly everything with the word 'Jinxed' in it is fun (most recently, Jinxed Idol) even when it isn't neccessarily good. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of room for effecient with a drawback, too. An uncommon that's slightly better than a common, but can be turned against you, but you have an escape clause is great.
Ok, so this is now a Medicine Bag, which also gains you a bit of life (but costs two discards instead of one) that can be levelled up by paying voer multiple turns to remove the usage cost?
That's probably fair. I'd class it as a junk-rare; very rarely worth using. But with other tricks to remove counters, maybe occasionally useful?
It is stretching arbitrary regeneration outside of the colours it usually lives in; but as such a high cost, you can probably get away with it.
Mmmm... Frankly, there's no reason for the downside. This costs six. It could probably be ": Regenerate all creatures you control" and no one would flinch.
It's a pity that artifact lands get hammered for how abusive affinity is. Had there been no 'affinity' keyword mechanic stating, roughly, "In this block, some lands produce .", the artifact lands would have been welcome additions to the set.
But, you know, now that I think about it, artifact lands are still nuts with Atog and cards like Cranial Plating, which are fair cards without art.lands around. I guess the take away is that when you add something to a card, deciding that 'because it makes it vulnerable to certain cards that hate it' isn't good enough to make up for whatever bonus you gave it. You still need to take something away.
You're probably not worrying about this, but this cycle is extremely, extremely strong for affinity decks. Fetchable, dual-color artifact lands both eliminates the need for affinity to play mana fixing and also contributes directly to their strategy. By turn two they're playing Thoughtcast for , every time (besides their free frogmites). Don't know if you care at all, but this is probably not printable as is, let alone the 2.0 version.
Also you need to specify the token's stats. Reccommend just copying Storm Crow. But for 4UUU(this plus storm crow) you get 1 + 4 from crow storm + 4 more from crow storm's storm = 9 1/2 fliers.
GJ, blue deck, doing your best impression of Spider Spawning
"Mountain Lair" would be such an awesome type for a land to have. It needs to happen!
The dual lands everyone forgot about.
[Edit: My apologies Sorrow. Sometimes I just start typing and forget to stop. By the time I got down to the end of my comment (which I had to abruptly stop myself from continuing), I realized that I was writing an article. Most of what's here has more to do with the subject of drawbacks on Magic cards... a subject that I do find interesting, so you got me talking. Feel free to disregard anything in there. I won't be insulted.]
You know, I do like this card, but it does such a great job showing why we don't use cards with drawbacks as much anymore. Some players will never play it, because they wouldn't want the bad stuff to happen, no matter what the good stuff is. Some players will just get a +5/+0 doublestrike on the cheap, because their opponent doesn't play red. In the end, most everyone will be unhappy with it.
That said, this iteration is at least flavorful. I give a lot of points for flavor... it helps give players a reason for why we're doing what we're doing. I like the idea behind cursed artifacts... it's a tough bugger to crack, I know.
The three biggest problems I see with this card right now is:
I think the reason why these problems are all adding up is because you're trying to design a rare, and rare cursed equipment is going to come with all this baggage that makes them exciting (like Phyrexian Negator), but not fun to play. Miss your target and you end up with cards that are not fun to play, and are actively bad (Morinfen, for example). The line between the two is tragically difficult to find.
There's certainly plenty of room for goofy and cursed. Roughly everything with the word 'Jinxed' in it is fun (most recently, Jinxed Idol) even when it isn't neccessarily good. I'm pretty sure there's plenty of room for effecient with a drawback, too. An uncommon that's slightly better than a common, but can be turned against you, but you have an escape clause is great.
Ok, so this is now a Medicine Bag, which also gains you a bit of life (but costs two discards instead of one) that can be levelled up by paying
voer multiple turns to remove the usage cost?
That's probably fair. I'd class it as a junk-rare; very rarely worth using. But with other tricks to remove counters, maybe occasionally useful?
It is stretching arbitrary regeneration outside of the colours it usually lives in; but as such a high cost, you can probably get away with it.
I adjusted the cost. My goal with this and Sword of Epic Rage is to emulate cursed items you find in d&d games.
In this instance, the enchantment part is used to show that it's cursed.
This attempt #2 at representing a cursed artifact.
Mmmm... Frankly, there's no reason for the downside. This costs six. It could probably be "
: Regenerate all creatures you control" and no one would flinch.
This is my first attempt at designing a cursed artifact.
This made me laugh :)
It's a pity that artifact lands get hammered for how abusive affinity is. Had there been no 'affinity' keyword mechanic stating, roughly, "In this block, some lands produce
.", the artifact lands would have been welcome additions to the set.
But, you know, now that I think about it, artifact lands are still nuts with Atog and cards like Cranial Plating, which are fair cards without art.lands around. I guess the take away is that when you add something to a card, deciding that 'because it makes it vulnerable to certain cards that hate it' isn't good enough to make up for whatever bonus you gave it. You still need to take something away.
Given the silver border, this card is more of a statement on power creep than it is any serious suggestion for a future take on artifact lands.
You're probably not worrying about this, but this cycle is extremely, extremely strong for affinity decks. Fetchable, dual-color artifact lands both eliminates the need for affinity to play mana fixing and also contributes directly to their strategy. By turn two they're playing Thoughtcast for
, every time (besides their free frogmites). Don't know if you care at all, but this is probably not printable as is, let alone the 2.0 version.
Storm Crow also has flying, btw.
I love it!
Also you need to specify the token's stats. Reccommend just copying Storm Crow. But for 4UUU(this plus storm crow) you get 1 + 4 from crow storm + 4 more from crow storm's storm = 9 1/2 fliers.
GJ, blue deck, doing your best impression of Spider Spawning
Mirrodin's Lumbermill 3.0? It will probably include the line "TAP to add a GREEN or RED spell to the CHAIN."