The abilities it has are very white. I don't see a specific reason why it should be any other color in its current form. I also like the art and the flavor overall.
However, it is very very strong for its cost. Indestructible makes it nearly impossible for red and green decks to deal with.
Its second ability won't come up very often, because it already flies over most blockers.
Its strong toughness also means that even black's -X/-X spells and abilities have trouble dealing with it. So, for five mana (with only one colored mana, even), you get a strong, evasive, hard-to-kill creature that puts an opponent at full health on a four-turn clock, and chump-blocking it is extra painful. To top it off, it's rare and not legendary.
Since this is specifically a "guard", maybe it would be best to emphasize it as a defensive creature rather than an offensive one? Would it be possible to reduce its power (and maybe toughness so Black can destroy it) and make the second ability work when it blocks instead? So it's just an impenetrable wall rather an unstoppable force. For comparison, consider the Bonehoard Dracosaur from the most recent set. It's a 5-mana 5/5 with flying and first strike, so with similar stats, but it often gets shot down before it can attack. Your card has indestructible, so it's much more difficult to remove. The Dracosaur has other abilities, though, so it's not quite the same thing.
Yeah, well, Demons are usually not white creatures but black or red black/red. Exiling is a white thing, though. Maybe make it black/white and a fallen angel creature or so.
I might have overreacted a little bit, since your card didn't actually have any abilities when it enters/leaves the battlefield that could be abused. Indestructible is strong, but it's not unbeatable.
Still, the card is very dangerous, especially against certain decks. It's still vulnerable against other white decks that can exile it. If it was printed and usable in the Standard format, some players would probably include white removal cards in their decks just to counter it.
@Suleman I think this works a bit better. The defender was so that it wasn't to powerful as an attacker as it it a guard after all. I also bumped up the price by one just to make the card a more even cost. Do you think the changes are better or should I keep the indestructible and just change the price.
I think keeping Indestructible is fine. This version is a little bit weak for its cost. How about this:
Guard Of Agnorfell - 3WW
Creature: Demon Soldier - Rare
Flying, indestructible
Whenever Guard Of Agnorfell blocks a creature with power 2 or less, exile that creature.
4/3
3WW is more difficult to cast than 4W, requiring more investment in white mana, but still only 5 total mana.
4 power is slightly easier for the opponent to take, turning a 4-turn clock into a 5-turn one.
3 toughness means the indestructible Guard still has two weaknesses: Toughness-draining spells and abilities like Virtue Of Persistence and big tramplers that can get their damage through even if they can't kill the Guard.
The Guard is still strong. For example, board-wiping spells that say "Destroy all creatures" or "Deal X damage to all creatures" don't affect it.
Now I'm wondering if "Whenever Guard Of Agnorfell blocks a creature with power 2 or less, exile that creature" could be tweaked a bit. The ability made sense when attacking, because of chump-blocking, but it's less suited for a blocking creature.
I know I was the one who suggested the change, but I'm not sure if it was the right call.
I'm far from an expert, though, so if anyone has other suggestions, go ahead.
@LvB Seems fine, but might be a little underpowered. I feel like it's halfway between uncommon and rare, but not fully rare. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd like feedback on this card. Not gonna tweak it in response since I don't have premium, but feedback is still appreciated.
@kaoz42 I saw your comment on it being meant as a reference to tetration, but it seems more like a Tetra (4) Dragon, considering it has 4 power and tetration grows way faster than any of this dragon's abilities (a*2^n << a↑↑n). That said, why call the second ability "proliferate creatures" when it's closer to "populate creatures" if anything? Moreover, why keyword either of the abilities with reminder text here?
Regarding the power level, Tetrational Dragon seems win-more at best. The ability costs a ton of mana (though it should probably either cost more or have more colored pips in the cost since it's significantly stronger than effects like Rhys the Redeemed), and even with a reasonable storm count this card doesn't seem to accomplish much without powerful creatures to copy. (If you have said powerful creatures though, why play this card?) That's not to say I think anything should be changed about the card, just that I find it unwieldy and can see neither a home for it nor a good reason to play it.
@Suleman ; Convoke on a multi colored colored is neat. Is the exiling of cards just to put a cost to making "free" 2/2 citizens? That's pretty cool.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was hoping for some input on a pair of commanders centered around the Fight/Bite mechanics.
Moc, Jungle Predator: An interesting idea. This guy makes you want to put a bunch of giant growths in your deck. Wither and lifelink are an interesting touch.
His card draw ability could probably be a bit stronger. The play pattern for this guy is likely to dump your hand after you cast him and try to fight as many creatures as you can. This will leave you with very few cards left, and needing to pay 1 to draw a card means you have to cast fewer spells than you'd like to make use of the effect. Removing the mana cost is probably reasonable, especially considering his cost to stats ratio.
The final ability seems really minor and takes up a lot of space on the card. If it were me I would remove it altogether.
Faux: This guy seems both better than Moc and less interesting. He's essentially a 3-MV kill spell that leaves behind a great brawler who even benefits from additional kill spells. A strong card, but not super interesting in the deckbuilding department. You basically just play this guy along with a bunch of doom blades. But hey, nothing wrong with that I suppose - I just like the idea of spamming giant growths onto Moc.
@hileandr Lol I like both of these, can i take a wild guess your play group has a landfall player? I do like the punishing of greedy players all the same : )
Lysandrox, his ETB is scary with the cleric that reduces white and black costs on cleric spells. I try to adjust for looping personally, but that's just me.
Aquinoxa, no notes, I like it a lot.
-------------------------------------------------------- Moc and Faux are built like precon commanders, ya know? One slower but larger the other aggressive but no recovery. It felt a touch too strong just to have Deathreap Ritual on legs plus other things. The last ability on Moc was to try and get the theming of Black and Green's circle of life and death.
@hileandr Lysandrox seems like a very reasonable card. While its first ability, as a standalone ability, isn't quite as desirable as Tidehollow Sculler's or Elite Spellbinder's, it does fit very well with its other abilities. It's really all about the second ability, which can be quite the hate for impulse draws and cascaded spells. The third ability is just icing, but it's the first ability that takes it from being a purely sideboard card to actually maindeckable. On the whole, this looks like a very anti-burn card because it takes a damage spell out of your opponent's hand and then taxes them to get it back, it hates hard on suspended Rift Bolts, and it may ultimately redirect a burn spell away from you if the opponent wants to be able to cast exiled cards without helping you to stay alive and race them. Lysandrox is also very good at going under and taking cascade cards before they get cast and even if the opponent has a second cascade card, they'll have to deal with the tax on the card they cascade into.
Whoa, take it easy there with Aquinoxa! They already banned Fury in Modern. Is there that much need to hate on affinity, delve, and Tron too? Honestly, the situational second ability isn't even what I'm paying attention to. I just want a two mana, 5-power, menace, lifelink creature attacking on turn three, which is very doable splashing white into monoblack burn or splashing Orzhov into monored burn, especially if your opponent is helping you out with fetch lands and shock lands. This card has massive power if you proactively play into enabling it and the second ability can just shut the door on someone coming back, or even slowing things down, with their own mana-efficient plays. Even as a legend, Aquinoxa is past realistic.
@Jadefire Thanks for the response! I guess I didn't realize how brutal Aquinoxa was until you (and another friend of mine) brought it up. I don't play a lot of constructed so it's good to be reminded about these things.
Perhaps changing the +2/+2 to +1/+1 and/or removing the haste would be good.
Another neat thing about Lysandrox is it combos with Elite Spellbinder in that the card now costs 4 more to cast instead of just 2 (as long as Lysandrox is in play)
@hileandr Lowering the P/T bonus of Aquinoxa would definitely be a step in the right direction. Removing haste is good, but would likely only make a minimal impact. Because Aquinoxa is so cheap, it'll likely already be on the battlefield by the time the bonus kicks in (except in Commander, I suppose). I'd recommend and lowering the P/T bonus to +1/+0 (or +1/+1 at most), because Aquinoxa already has evasion. Alternatively, it could start as a 2/3 for WB and give it a +2/+0 bonus. That still gives you an 8-point life swing whenever it connects, but it's not oppressive sitting across the board from a powered up one because it's vulnerable to a wider ranger of damage-based/toughness-lowering removal.
Since plenty of feedback has been done on the previous cards without any new card being posted, I think I'll just post my next card without granting feedback of my own. No offense. I know that that reminder text is unneccesary, but I felt the need to clarify my intentions.
So this card is basically indestructible since all damage is prevented and it cant be targeted by opponent spells. But, even better it can make yourself also immune to damage by using its tap ability.
That together with its many other keywords makes it way too powerful for a 6 mana creature. So either increase mana cost by a lot or remove some of its abilities. But as it is now it is way too strong.
@bramboy99 in the future please remember to give feedback on prior cards before posting your own for review. That said, here's a brief look at your cards. (I've glossed over a host of wording and formatting issues since you seem wholly unconcerned with your designs looking realistic.)
Ishi Kami ~ The source of the damage for the Rock Throw ability is undefined, and while green used to get abilities like Shake the Earth, that has long since been shifted into blue. Also, making the second ability a combat damage trigger instead of an attack trigger like many similar cards has also vastly weakened it considering the card doesn't have trample or any other way to push damage through.
Aura of Negation ~ This card is absurdly powerful, particularly when combined with effects like Jin Gitaxias, Core Augur or Baral + Teferi's Ageless Insight. Having the abilities be available to everyone doesn't really matter when the first ability can be used to counter both of them, and the player using this will be certain to maintain a high card count to keep their opponent(s) from doing anything.
Extinguish to Kindle ~ Why on earth is this mono-red? Exiling spells is firmly in blue's wheelhouse, so it would make more sense if this was UUR (maybe you could get away with URR, but it would probably be better as UBR in that case).
Thought Swap ~ This is rather situational, even for decks that focus on playing their opponents' cards. Why give your opponent access to even one of your cards when there's plenty of cards that allow you to unilaterally steal theirs?
Dubbeling Portal ~ This seems alright considering Helm of the Host exists, though it's probably too easy to circumvent the copy counter restriction, particularly for white and/or blue decks.
@cadstar369 Sorry i thought i did favorite them; i'll leave some feedback today. Thanks for the feedback though, as you pointed out there are some bad formatting and style issues (especially Aura of Negation's last ability). they're ment as drafts/idea's and feedback makes sure i can iron the cards out. once again, thanks.
Extinguish to rekindle is red as i had envisioned it as a timespiral card (breaking the color pie) that made the counterspell inpulsive by (likely) making you play the exiled card the next turn. But it could just as well be UUU or a combination of the 2.
Thought Swap is indeed not that good: it's ment to be played with cards like thoughtseize. you having the information whilst your opponent has not.
@kaoz42 Sorry, thought i did, my bad and favorite now .
@cadstar369 Firestorm pollen seems like a solid commander/sideboard card. Personally dislike the wither effect since the card makes sure damage goes through yet your creatures won't deal damage to other creatures anymore, making it feel anti-synergistic. It's also a bit on the cheap side as all 3 static abilities are good but wither for all your creatures seems really good for just 2 mana. (small thing: you missed the c in the second control). Hope it helps.
@LvB Love the snail, it's counter removal ability seems strong with proliferate, but with the mana investment of 4+2x per counter it's by far not overpowered. strong stats for a azorius uncommon and would shine in draft.
@Astrophibian it would be appreciated if you explained your opinion; you've provided no information to serve as a basis upon which a reader can accept/reject your thoughts.
@bramboy99 damage dealt by sources with wither is still damage, it just takes the form of -1/-1 counters, so such damage sources are affected by both effects that mess with damage and effects that mess with -1/-1 counters (not sure if this changes your evaluation).
Regarding Thought Swap, it's really only strong in combination with cards like Telepathy or if you have no cards in hand, since effects like Thoughseize don't really provide much information considering you won't see their hand while selecting a card for Thought Swap (and if you're already playing cards like Thoughtseize you probably don't want to risk leaving a good card in their hand anyway).
As for Extinguish to Kindle, it doesn't really make sense as a Time Spiral style card since it's not trying to put a blue effect on a red card, but only a partially blue effect on a red card. If you wanted to go full Time Spiral colorshift, you'd need to remove the time restriction on casting the exiled card (since a blue card wouldn't have such a restriction). Alternatively, you could push it toward being just a red card by making it a normal counterspell that exiles and has the rest of the effect upon successfully countering a spell (red does have some funky counterspells, just no direct spell exiling as far as I'm aware).
@cadstar369 Sorry. I guess I thought it was obvious. Disabling opponent lifegain, making your creatures basically unblockable *and* giving all of these creatures wither on a 2 drop is alot. It's not even legendary.
These are a couple examples I found of legendary enchantments. One being the same cost as yours but the abilities are not at overpowered due to a drawback, if even a small one there is a balance being made. The other one is a great way to create a situational ability but it's only one. You have three abilities that are massive with no drawbacks. For 2 mana. That's alot.
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So, for five mana (with only one colored mana, even), you get a strong, evasive, hard-to-kill creature that puts an opponent at full health on a four-turn clock, and chump-blocking it is extra painful. To top it off, it's rare and not legendary.
For comparison, consider the Bonehoard Dracosaur from the most recent set. It's a 5-mana 5/5 with flying and first strike, so with similar stats, but it often gets shot down before it can attack. Your card has indestructible, so it's much more difficult to remove. The Dracosaur has other abilities, though, so it's not quite the same thing.
@Suleman I think this works a bit better. The defender was so that it wasn't to powerful as an attacker as it it a guard after all. I also bumped up the price by one just to make the card a more even cost. Do you think the changes are better or should I keep the indestructible and just change the price.
Seems fine, but might be a little underpowered. I feel like it's halfway between uncommon and rare, but not fully rare.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd like feedback on this card. Not gonna tweak it in response since I don't have premium, but feedback is still appreciated.
Regarding the power level, Tetrational Dragon seems win-more at best. The ability costs a ton of mana (though it should probably either cost more or have more colored pips in the cost since it's significantly stronger than effects like Rhys the Redeemed), and even with a reasonable storm count this card doesn't seem to accomplish much without powerful creatures to copy. (If you have said powerful creatures though, why play this card?) That's not to say I think anything should be changed about the card, just that I find it unwieldy and can see neither a home for it nor a good reason to play it.
Yeah, obviously tetration grows waaaaayyyyy faster, but I just thought it sounded better.
Convoke on a multi colored colored is neat. Is the exiling of cards just to put a cost to making "free" 2/2 citizens? That's pretty cool.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was hoping for some input on a pair of commanders centered around the Fight/Bite mechanics.
Moc, Jungle Predator:
An interesting idea. This guy makes you want to put a bunch of giant growths in your deck. Wither and lifelink are an interesting touch.
His card draw ability could probably be a bit stronger. The play pattern for this guy is likely to dump your hand after you cast him and try to fight as many creatures as you can. This will leave you with very few cards left, and needing to pay 1 to draw a card means you have to cast fewer spells than you'd like to make use of the effect. Removing the mana cost is probably reasonable, especially considering his cost to stats ratio.
The final ability seems really minor and takes up a lot of space on the card. If it were me I would remove it altogether.
Faux:
This guy seems both better than Moc and less interesting. He's essentially a 3-MV kill spell that leaves behind a great brawler who even benefits from additional kill spells. A strong card, but not super interesting in the deckbuilding department. You basically just play this guy along with a bunch of doom blades. But hey, nothing wrong with that I suppose - I just like the idea of spamming giant growths onto Moc.
I've been on a W/B kick lately. Here's a couple:
Lol I like both of these, can i take a wild guess your play group has a landfall player? I do like the punishing of greedy players all the same : )
Lysandrox, his ETB is scary with the cleric that reduces white and black costs on cleric spells. I try to adjust for looping personally, but that's just me.
Aquinoxa, no notes, I like it a lot.
--------------------------------------------------------
Moc and Faux are built like precon commanders, ya know? One slower but larger the other aggressive but no recovery. It felt a touch too strong just to have Deathreap Ritual on legs plus other things. The last ability on Moc was to try and get the theming of Black and Green's circle of life and death.
Whoa, take it easy there with Aquinoxa! They already banned Fury in Modern. Is there that much need to hate on affinity, delve, and Tron too? Honestly, the situational second ability isn't even what I'm paying attention to. I just want a two mana, 5-power, menace, lifelink creature attacking on turn three, which is very doable splashing white into monoblack burn or splashing Orzhov into monored burn, especially if your opponent is helping you out with fetch lands and shock lands. This card has massive power if you proactively play into enabling it and the second ability can just shut the door on someone coming back, or even slowing things down, with their own mana-efficient plays. Even as a legend, Aquinoxa is past realistic.
Thanks for the response! I guess I didn't realize how brutal Aquinoxa was until you (and another friend of mine) brought it up. I don't play a lot of constructed so it's good to be reminded about these things.
Perhaps changing the +2/+2 to +1/+1 and/or removing the haste would be good.
Another neat thing about Lysandrox is it combos with Elite Spellbinder in that the card now costs 4 more to cast instead of just 2 (as long as Lysandrox is in play)
I know that that reminder text is unneccesary, but I felt the need to clarify my intentions.
You have to comment or favorite the previous card to be able to receive feedback on yours.
Ishi Kami ~ The source of the damage for the Rock Throw ability is undefined, and while green used to get abilities like Shake the Earth, that has long since been shifted into blue. Also, making the second ability a combat damage trigger instead of an attack trigger like many similar cards has also vastly weakened it considering the card doesn't have trample or any other way to push damage through.
Aura of Negation ~ This card is absurdly powerful, particularly when combined with effects like Jin Gitaxias, Core Augur or Baral + Teferi's Ageless Insight. Having the abilities be available to everyone doesn't really matter when the first ability can be used to counter both of them, and the player using this will be certain to maintain a high card count to keep their opponent(s) from doing anything.
Extinguish to Kindle ~ Why on earth is this mono-red? Exiling spells is firmly in blue's wheelhouse, so it would make more sense if this was UUR (maybe you could get away with URR, but it would probably be better as UBR in that case).
Thought Swap ~ This is rather situational, even for decks that focus on playing their opponents' cards. Why give your opponent access to even one of your cards when there's plenty of cards that allow you to unilaterally steal theirs?
Dubbeling Portal ~ This seems alright considering Helm of the Host exists, though it's probably too easy to circumvent the copy counter restriction, particularly for white and/or blue decks.
~~~
I'd appreciate feedback on this card:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/jaeh-pastor-verdant-adept
Life denying/can't prevent damage/all sources you control have wither 1 on a 2 cast seems a bit OP.
The last ability is missing the "c" in control. I do like the last ability.
Maybe a mechanic that each turn the player can pay XYZ to activate one of those abilities during their turn?
What if green had some?
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/herf-maplegrove-tyrant
@bramboy99 damage dealt by sources with wither is still damage, it just takes the form of -1/-1 counters, so such damage sources are affected by both effects that mess with damage and effects that mess with -1/-1 counters (not sure if this changes your evaluation).
Regarding Thought Swap, it's really only strong in combination with cards like Telepathy or if you have no cards in hand, since effects like Thoughseize don't really provide much information considering you won't see their hand while selecting a card for Thought Swap (and if you're already playing cards like Thoughtseize you probably don't want to risk leaving a good card in their hand anyway).
As for Extinguish to Kindle, it doesn't really make sense as a Time Spiral style card since it's not trying to put a blue effect on a red card, but only a partially blue effect on a red card. If you wanted to go full Time Spiral colorshift, you'd need to remove the time restriction on casting the exiled card (since a blue card wouldn't have such a restriction). Alternatively, you could push it toward being just a red card by making it a normal counterspell that exiles and has the rest of the effect upon successfully countering a spell (red does have some funky counterspells, just no direct spell exiling as far as I'm aware).
Sorry. I guess I thought it was obvious.
Disabling opponent lifegain, making your creatures basically unblockable *and* giving all of these creatures wither on a 2 drop is alot. It's not even legendary.
These are a couple examples I found of legendary enchantments. One being the same cost as yours but the abilities are not at overpowered due to a drawback, if even a small one there is a balance being made.
The other one is a great way to create a situational ability but it's only one.
You have three abilities that are massive with no drawbacks. For 2 mana. That's alot.