@ningyounk Ok, I kinda scrapped the idea for the GW enchantment, but I wanted to retain the added value for having serran life, so here's my substitute for that card.
I honestly think I did a good job mixing elements from the Green part and White part, so on paper this card would be a 5 drop 6/6 with defender as long as you have serran mana. And if you don't have serran mana you can always tap it for a turn, so next turn you might be able to attack again. What do you say? I genuinely like how this card turned out, after a long time scratching my head to come up with a fine GW concept.
As long as you have N (4?) or more serran life, Faithful of Mossbark can attack as though it didn't have defender and assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power. (Pay 2 serran life: Add one mana of any color.)
@The-DM@SteampunkDragon thanks for the suggestions, I suppose Steampunk's version is more correct, but yeah I definitely have to add the N life minimum. Besides, it would be relatively easy to gather 4 serran life.
@ningyounk Sorry if I'm tempesting you with messages, but here's another shot at the BG card.
I didn't want to make it an Artist because they all have Masterwork, and that's not what I was after. I believe I did a good job with this card, since it's not so powerful by herself, but still gains value from creatures in your graveyard (her "audience", if you may). I'm not very sure about the second effect, but green nymphs usually have an effect that is somewhat related to mana gain or +1/+1 counters or land cards, so I decided to stick with the third option since it's more Green than the first two.
She should be an artist, she's clearly playing an instrument. Artists don't all need to have masterwork, I have never even heard of that until now.
Anyways the card is smart but underpowered. I feel like it needs more self-synergy, like something about the card that would make you want to have those abilities on it specifically.
@SteampunkDragon Go look at all the common cards that we have, on the first page of the thread. If you pay close attention, all the Artist creatures have Masterwork. SO I didn't make it an Artist despite it being clearly fit for it, because of possible confusions.
Wait, I did a mistake: there's an Artist without Masterwork... So I guess I'll reprint it, but what would you add in order to make it "self-synergize"?
Repeatable token creation is really powerful, but at uncommon creating one 1/1 per turn conditionally usually costs around two mana (see Griffin Aerie or Hidden stockpile for instance) so I didn't want to push the mana cost too high, even with the first ability (worth 1 mana, see Ajani's Welcome)
Faithful of Mossbark: I agree the GW uncommon needs to reward you for having serran life more more than we need a big serran life gain spell. I have a few things I'd change about this specific design though:
- The reward in itself (a 6/6 for 5) is reasonable but a bit unexciting, I think.
- "As long as you have serran life" is what we call a "mechanic threshold 1" card which is very useful at common. While it's also fine at uncommon, this single gold uncommon probably wants to push the mechanic a bit more, either by introducing new thresholds (like really good abilities that require you to have a bit more serran life), by allowing you to convert massive amounts of serran life into value, or by scaling proportionally to your serran life with an X effect.
- The ability that lets it deals damage equal to its toughness is weird. Without a toughness-matters theme, I think this would be cleaner as "gets +6/+0".
- For gameplay purpose, it's more interesting if the cards that care about you having serran life only give some to you once, so you have to protect your life total or risk leaving an opening for your opponent. So I'm not a huge fan of the repeatable life gain on this type of design.
Grimwood Lyrist: Overall, this card looks like it's designed with a very specific combo in mind. It has low synergy with the ETB and death triggers of Art cards in your graveyard, which will be abundant, but I'm not sure what activated ability it wants to pick up. I think it could be ok as a side-strategy if we have a specific combo we want to do, but I don't think it fits the play style of a more general BG archetype so it probably wouldn't work as the gold signpost since I don't think it's pushing in the right direction.
On a side note, you can make artists that don't have masterwork, it's ok ^^ We'll make sure there's the right mix of artists once we start distributing the illustrations among the cards.
Serran Grace: I'm not entirely sure if that last ability is supposed to be a replacement effect with "instead" at the end, or if it's just a "whenever" trigger? In any case, the +0/+2 creates a nonbo with the second ability (it reduces the chance it happens), and the 1 serran life feels disconnected from the rest of the card. If it's a replacement effect, I would use indestructible to get less confusing. If it's a "whenever" trigger, it's not strong enough to be a card and needs to be pushed a bit (see Moment of Triumph for instance).
XD I'm sorry but this is *still* not strong enough >.< Here's an example of a common that's strictly better than this, and another example of the power level you'd expect from this slot at uncommon:
Faithful of Mossbark: Giving a creature +X/+0 is called Firebreathing, and it's a mostly red ability. The "Damage calculated by toughness", on the other hand, is a VERY Green/White ability. Some examples are Doran, the Siege Tower and Assault Formation. (Assault Formation is a core card for Dromoka, a GW faction)
The difference is that these two cards are Rare, because they affect all the creatures you control at any time. Faithful of Mossbark is a good uncommon imho, because it gives you a similar effect, and it counterbalances because it gives you a bigger P/T than Doran, but its costs and conditions are steeper, and it's not a global ability.
I can agree on the tap effect, but that's basically a placeholder. I wanted it to have some clerical feel honestly, but I'm open to suggestions.
Grimwood Lyrist: I'm not sure wether I'm not understanding your concept for BG, or you're being redundant... Let me explain: For the BG card, you wanted something that makes Graveyard matter, but the Art recursion is UB, so why are you comparing a BG Graveyard card to a UB strategy that fits the UBG wedge? Seriously, I think there is a big case of miscommunication.
On the other hand, I wanted her to have a unique feel, since there are cards that steal keywords, these cards being Soulflayer, as an example (Soulflayer is used in pentacolor decks, by the way, but it was released for BGU decks).
The main difference is HOW the card is affecting the graveyard. I was reluctant to give her the same effect, even if it's just once per turn, because that wouldn't fit the card's concept. Also, I think it fits her role because if you play her, you give activated abilities in the graveyard a big value, it's basically a cheaper Escape (or Flashback), so if anything, the changes I'd make would revolve around her mana cost and the type of abilities that she would gain from the graveyard.
Sorry @LordTachanka123, I got a bit carried away. I'll provide some feeedback right now.
Church's Wrath: I'd make it an instant, if anything. Very white, very simple card, but not very efficient. The drawback puts you in a major disadvantage in the late game: giving cards to your enemy is never a good option, unless you want them to overfill their hand forcing them to discard most of their deck, but you gotta make a whole deck revolving around it, and it's not easy at all. On the other hand, Exile + gaining serran life looks like a nice combo to me. It can fit a midrange/control deck easily.
Serra's Grace: yes. At least 2, maximum of 3 cmc, at least for me. It's not a win condition but it can be a "cheap" way to win a fight or to punish someone for not blocking.
Ingenious Planning: a counterspell which is not an instant is stupidly useless. If you do want it to be a sorcery, consider using a bounce effect instead: "Return X to its owner's hand, then discover", or something like that.
Actor's Passion: I THINK it would fit in a BR suicide aggro, but its cost is very high and basically not worth it after two casts from the graveyard. Of course, this doesn't mean it's a useless card, but the overall price for maximum value is very steep. I'd reduce the mana cost to cast it from the graveyard and make it still counterable since you can potentially spam it.
Actor's Passion: 3R
Sorcery
CARDNAME deals 4 damage minus 1 for each time you've cast this spell to any target.
2R, discard a card, You can play this card from your graveyard.
Enzanari, Serra's Inquisitor: Maybe it's just me, but inquisitors seem more WB than anything. We could potentially have elves, but that depends mostly on the creature chart of the set. I'm avoiding introducing new creature types because most of them are not present in the common cards... Seeing how it's an elf scout, consider this version instead:
When Enzanari enters the battlefield, search your library for a land card, reveal it, then you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
{b}, Sacrifice a creature. Return Enzanari to your hand.
(then add some flavor about her being a voyager looking for new lands to explore, but willing to sacrifice her captives as baits for beasts or scapegoats.)
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Comments
I honestly think I did a good job mixing elements from the Green part and White part, so on paper this card would be a 5 drop 6/6 with defender as long as you have serran mana. And if you don't have serran mana you can always tap it for a turn, so next turn you might be able to attack again. What do you say? I genuinely like how this card turned out, after a long time scratching my head to come up with a fine GW concept.
I like it a lot, too.
here's a few suggestions:
Defender
As long as you have more than N serran life, Faithful of Mossbark loses defender and assigns combat damage equal to it's toughness.
{w}, {t}: You gain 2 serran life.
(Since this is a set, I think serran life would be easier to come by, especially if some one has a serran life deck.)
Defender
As long as you have N (4?) or more serran life, Faithful of Mossbark can attack as though it didn't have defender and assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power. (Pay 2 serran life: Add one mana of any color.)
W, T: You gain 2 serran life.
I didn't want to make it an Artist because they all have Masterwork, and that's not what I was after. I believe I did a good job with this card, since it's not so powerful by herself, but still gains value from creatures in your graveyard (her "audience", if you may). I'm not very sure about the second effect, but green nymphs usually have an effect that is somewhat related to mana gain or +1/+1 counters or land cards, so I decided to stick with the third option since it's more Green than the first two.
Instant
Target creature gets +0/+2 until end of turn. If that creature were to die this turn, you gain 1 serran life.
She should be an artist, she's clearly playing an instrument. Artists don't all need to have masterwork, I have never even heard of that until now.
Anyways the card is smart but underpowered. I feel like it needs more self-synergy, like something about the card that would make you want to have those abilities on it specifically.
On a side note, you can make artists that don't have masterwork, it's ok ^^ We'll make sure there's the right mix of artists once we start distributing the illustrations among the cards.
Instant
Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn.
Sorcery
Exile target creature. It's owner draws a card.
Instant
Target creature gets double strike and indestructible until end of turn.
Should I push the cmc?
Sorcery
Counter target spell.
Discover
This one is based off of Neutralize
Sorcery
CARDNAME deals 4 damage minus 1 for each time you've cast this spell to any target.
You may cast CARDNAME from your graveyard by discarding a card. If you do, it can't be countered.
Legendary Creature-Elf Scout
When Enzanari enters the battlefield, search your library for a land card, reveal it, then you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
Sacrifice an art:Return Enzanari to your hand.
Good point!
Faithful of Mossbark: Giving a creature +X/+0 is called Firebreathing, and it's a mostly red ability. The "Damage calculated by toughness", on the other hand, is a VERY Green/White ability. Some examples are Doran, the Siege Tower and Assault Formation. (Assault Formation is a core card for Dromoka, a GW faction)
The difference is that these two cards are Rare, because they affect all the creatures you control at any time. Faithful of Mossbark is a good uncommon imho, because it gives you a similar effect, and it counterbalances because it gives you a bigger P/T than Doran, but its costs and conditions are steeper, and it's not a global ability.
I can agree on the tap effect, but that's basically a placeholder. I wanted it to have some clerical feel honestly, but I'm open to suggestions.
Grimwood Lyrist: I'm not sure wether I'm not understanding your concept for BG, or you're being redundant... Let me explain: For the BG card, you wanted something that makes Graveyard matter, but the Art recursion is UB, so why are you comparing a BG Graveyard card to a UB strategy that fits the UBG wedge? Seriously, I think there is a big case of miscommunication.
On the other hand, I wanted her to have a unique feel, since there are cards that steal keywords, these cards being Soulflayer, as an example (Soulflayer is used in pentacolor decks, by the way, but it was released for BGU decks).
The main difference is HOW the card is affecting the graveyard. I was reluctant to give her the same effect, even if it's just once per turn, because that wouldn't fit the card's concept. Also, I think it fits her role because if you play her, you give activated abilities in the graveyard a big value, it's basically a cheaper Escape (or Flashback), so if anything, the changes I'd make would revolve around her mana cost and the type of abilities that she would gain from the graveyard.
Church's Wrath: I'd make it an instant, if anything. Very white, very simple card, but not very efficient. The drawback puts you in a major disadvantage in the late game: giving cards to your enemy is never a good option, unless you want them to overfill their hand forcing them to discard most of their deck, but you gotta make a whole deck revolving around it, and it's not easy at all. On the other hand, Exile + gaining serran life looks like a nice combo to me. It can fit a midrange/control deck easily.
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Serra's Grace: yes. At least 2, maximum of 3 cmc, at least for me. It's not a win condition but it can be a "cheap" way to win a fight or to punish someone for not blocking.
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Ingenious Planning: a counterspell which is not an instant is stupidly useless. If you do want it to be a sorcery, consider using a bounce effect instead: "Return X to its owner's hand, then discover", or something like that.
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Actor's Passion: I THINK it would fit in a BR suicide aggro, but its cost is very high and basically not worth it after two casts from the graveyard. Of course, this doesn't mean it's a useless card, but the overall price for maximum value is very steep. I'd reduce the mana cost to cast it from the graveyard and make it still counterable since you can potentially spam it.
Actor's Passion: 3R
Sorcery
CARDNAME deals 4 damage minus 1 for each time you've cast this spell to any target.
2R, discard a card, You can play this card from your graveyard.
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Enzanari, Serra's Inquisitor: Maybe it's just me, but inquisitors seem more WB than anything. We could potentially have elves, but that depends mostly on the creature chart of the set. I'm avoiding introducing new creature types because most of them are not present in the common cards... Seeing how it's an elf scout, consider this version instead:
Enzanari, Ruthless Voyager (2)(B)(G)
Legendary Creature - Elf (or human, maybe) Pirate
When Enzanari enters the battlefield, search your library for a land card, reveal it, then you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
{b}, Sacrifice a creature. Return Enzanari to your hand.
(then add some flavor about her being a voyager looking for new lands to explore, but willing to sacrifice her captives as baits for beasts or scapegoats.)