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MAGIC'S WORST CARDS MAKEOVER CONTEST!! **Circuit Challenge**
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I haven't used mtgcardsmith in like 2 years and forgot how to make it so it shows the card instead of the link, if someone could remind me it would be greatly appreciated!
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/complete/full/2019/4/20/1555820117986784.png
old avizoa: https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4481
Avizoa is now a fragile, but moderately playable control lock piece.
When reworking Bargain, I wanted to make a card that despite being more viable was still a deliberately bad deal of lifegain for card advantage, as with the original. Usually, the only times people make deliberately bad deals is out of desperation, when they have to hope that the short term gain will be enough to stabilize their position, and deal with the resulting cost however and whenever they can. With this in mind, I raised the card to Instant speed and added a delay to the card advantage, encouraging its use in emergency situations.
There were a few reasons for making the cost variable. First and foremost, letting the player set the price helps reinforce the theme of haggling and making a deal. The halving and rounding makes the resulting math just a tad more complicated than normal, but that is partially by design - you know you're making a generally unfavorable deal, but it's much harder to calculate exactly how much or little you can get away with. The way the card is set up objectively favors higher investment in stages (which, again, lends thematically to the idea that such deals favor the prepared over the desperate) - playing it with X=4 is strictly better than playing it with X=3, for instance - potentially leading to a bit of sunk cost mentality. Sure you gain 4 more life and delay the extra cards by an extra turn, but would that extra mana better spent on another spell this turn? Do you combo it with another card during your own turn, or do you save it (and the mana for it) to play on your opponent's turn to play it after their draw step? Will you be able to win the game outright before the card advantage even becomes a factor?
Furthermore, I wanted to design a card that had some added versatility in combo decks. The sheer amount of lifegain enabled by higher mana investment is nothing to scoff at, making it useful as either a stall tactic or as a setup for Life-intensive win conditions. It also plays well with cards that specifically skip an opponent's draw step.
The hag theme came pretty naturally as a result of the haggle pun, as well as from the old trope of people making desperate and unfavorable deals with the fae. Meanwhile, the flavor text - aside from being a subversion of a common phrase - manages to neatly encapsulate a double meaning, both of which are reinforced by the choice of artwork.
Not to burst your bubble but that card seems worse than the original
Pretty obvious which card I'm remaking.
A lot of the mercenaries had the ability to search their library for more mercenaries and other creatures, so this is meant to counter that while still being a wider sideboard card.
My first is of Mudhole.
Second is of Bargain.
Third is of Carnival of Souls
I'm going to do more and put them here...
Seems like it covers the effects originally intended for One with Nothing. I tried to cover any loopholes to abuse it, but there's probably still some wacky ways to do it.