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GDS3 Booster Pack Challenge: But for Cardsmiths!
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Comments
Here are my comments on your entries:
Salvager Artist
Great common. It plays well with both the artifact theme and revolt. Not much to say here this, is a really solid design.
Renegade Reinforcement
I think the delta between the regular effect and the revolt effect is really high. If you don’t have revolt, you likely don’t want this card in your deck but if you do it is one of your best cards. Typically, this is not too desirable at common. I would suggest switching the effects (so the revolt ability is the counters and the regular ability is the fight), changing the cost to 2G or 1G , and making it get only 1 counter for revolt. There are probably a bunch of different number changes you can make to this card, but I think the first step is switching the effects to lower the variance.
Creaky Owl
I like this design in the context of the set’s limited archetypes. This is one of those designs that fits perfectly in this set but in another set would look really weird. Great job!
Gideon’s Embrace
First off, great flavor! Second, this is a nice card in that it interacts favorably with vehicles by saving them from dying to double blocks (which is common) and also untapping them to block. This is balanced by it being a 3 mana combat trick that doesn’t increase power, which means you likely don’t want this in a lot of decks and won’t play more than 1. Both of these things actually work towards the card being a strong design, so once again, nice job!
Consulate Consultant
I love how tricky this card is, and how it feels really blue. The fact that it can use a vehicle to improvise itself, untap that vehicle, then crew the vehicle (if it is Crew 2 or less) itself is really cool. My only suggestion would be to change the text to “target artifact or creature”, since that phrasing is used on a number of cards in Kaladesh block and likely plays out the same 99% of the time. Awesome design!
Threatening Entrace
Another card that really fits well in the context of the set. A one mana revolt enabler that rewards heavy artifact decks? Sign me up. Excellent design!
Confiscation Team
This is a good catch, as WOTC has stated that they actively decided not to make any cards that removed energy, but as evidenced by Kaladesh block bannings, probably should have. One minor suggestion is to make the ability remove 3 energy, because I don’t think I will sideboard this in against the energy decks for just 2 energy. I also like that you correctly identified that this effect is in white.
Beaming Telescope
To reference KTK, this card fills the same slot as Lens of Clarity…except it actually has some uses. First off, 3 energy is worth something in the right deck, and being a one mana artifact card in an environment with artifact payoff and improvise is also worth something. Together, they add up so that most people will overlook this card but it might have a place in some archetypes when most players would dismiss it because it looks unplayable. This is a really subtle design and I love how you gave a card with no value on the face of it a chance to (potentially—it is probably still weak) prove itself.
Rooftops Funambulist
This is another nice, clean design. I like how you identified that ‘daunt’ was being used in Kaladesh block and made a card wit it. My only criticism is that it probably shouldn’t be a 3-mana 3/2, as that is too similar to Ghirapur Guide from KLD. Another combination of stats/cost, and this is a good common.
Ragavan’s Hack
This card is very flavorful. It is, however quite similar to Siege Modification from AER, so I might consider changing some numbers around to differentiate it (similar to my comment of Rooftops Funambulist). Unfortunately, the destroy trigger is a straight up color pie break in red because this can go on your opponent’s creatures. If it could only go on your creatures, I like it, but unconditional (if delayed) destroy effects are not allowed in red.
Recruiting Skyraider
I am torn on this card. At its base, it is a 4-mana 3/5 flyer with crew 2, which is strong but not a bomb. My issue is that the “crewed by 3 creatures ability” is kind of a trap in two ways. 1) Players don’t always realize that creatures that have already been crewed can be crewed again for no additional effect. The fact that this card spells out a reward helps, but it still makes feel-bad moments. 2) The threat of activation on this card is so strong that it doesn’t encourage interaction. Once you have three creatures that can crew this, it attacks and the opponent can’t really block to try to kill it because you will just give it double strike, and if they don’t block they likely get hit for 6 points. This kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t gameplay isn’t too desirable. All in all, I like the “multi-crew” space you are playing in, I just think that this card creates an unhealthy play pattern with the execution of it.
Secretary of the Archives
This card screams combo, particularly because the body is so weak so why else would you play it? I understand that you are playing into the minor mill theme with this card, but in limited I feel as if it is so weak stats-wise and unlikely to mill enough cards to matter since a lot of the artifacts in KLD/AER don’t have tap abilities and aren’t creatures (and sometimes the creatures can’t even attack). This definitely plays best with Improvise, but overall I think it is more of a build-around that ends up being a trap than anything. Putting a build-around at uncommon like this is saying “draft ____ type of deck” and I just don’t think this deck will come together ever. If you don’t have enough improvise, this is a complete blank. That being said, I think with some tweaking this could be improved, I am just not sure what that is right now.
Oxymoronic Accelerator
I like a few things about this card. 1) That you went for a cool Johnny artifact in the cool Johnny artifact block. 2) That you made this card have text aside from its “Gemstone Caverns” ability—3 mana for a mana rock is at least a card, albeit a weak one. 3) That you attempted to make a drawback for getting it for free by giving your opponent an extra resource in exchange for your extra resource. 4) That you made it legendary—this would have been nasty if you could put multiples on the battlefield at once. All this being said, I think it has two major problems that greatly eclipse its strengths. 1) Its power level is so dependent on play/draw that in constructed, once I know you are playing this deck, I will always draw first so that my opponent who is playing this card can’t gain the ability. Giving even more emphasis to play/draw is typically not a good subgame to have, especially for a card that looks to be slated for constructed. 2) One mana is WAY more powerful than giving your opponent an extra card. Having a free (colorless) mox on turn one is just too powerful for standard. This card feels like a chrome mox that, instead of costing you a card gives you opponent a card and only works 50% of games. The power level on this card is through the roof and it is just broken. I think this card is really cool, it is just way, way too strong.
OVERALL COMMENTS
Overall, this was a really strong pack. All your card were assigned the correct rarity, which is impressive. I loved or liked all of your commons, and since common is the hardest rarity to design for you should be proud because you did an amazing job. As for your uncommons, I liked the concepts you put out but the executions had some problems. With a few minor tweaks, they could be great. As for your mythic, I appreciate that you took a risk with an extremely powerful card, but in my opinion it is way too strong.
All things considered, this felt like a pack of AER and you did incredibly well!
Thanks for taking the time to review my pack! You have an excellent eye for details and your comments made a lot of sense
In particular, I was aware when making Oxymoronic Accelerator that it was a very dangerous design space to play with as it could be unfun and/or broken. I tried my best to make it as close to a point where I couldn't tell if it was garbage or broken as I could, I'm still unsure what it is and it would certainly require a lot of playtesting to consider it safe. As I wanted a flashy Johnny artifact to wrap up my pack, I rolled with it but I probably wouldn't take the risk to put that in an actual set if I were in charge of it myself xD