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I am going to Play a casual tournament, need some feedback on cards that will be in the cube ^^
I am sort of new here, but I am hoping that this post is acceptable.
This isn't a WHOLE card set, but it is the cards from my set (Blood of Vardune) that I am going to print and put in the cube we are using for my tournament.
I just want to see if anyone would like to give some feedback on these cards, before I accidently put a broke-azz accident in the competitive card pool...
Thanks!!!
This isn't a WHOLE card set, but it is the cards from my set (Blood of Vardune) that I am going to print and put in the cube we are using for my tournament.
I just want to see if anyone would like to give some feedback on these cards, before I accidently put a broke-azz accident in the competitive card pool...
Thanks!!!
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Frost Reaver isn't using hybrid mana properly. Hybrid mana is such that the card could logically be mono for either color, which is anything but the case for Frost Reaver. It also is way undercosted.
Edict of Asphyxiation does way too much and would quickly become a memory problem with the Subvert happening multiple times in rapid succession. It also is fairly OP.
Maniacal Mists has wording that is slightly off, and also should probably be rare, because what if you gave it to a Hexproof creature? The Illusion downside isn't as bad as people usually think.
Obscene Politics; my only issue with it is the same thing that is with Edict of Asphyxiation: the Subvert mechanic, while interesting, would be a headache if occurring frequently, which it seems like it will be.
Fenrian Enforcer is missing a comma in its ETB and the activated ability is either almost always going to be useless, or is not worded right.
Plague Frenzy is... well... the thing is, that trample + deathtouch is a designing no-no.
(That's all that fit on my notepad page, but I'll provide feedback for the rest of the cards too. I like what you're onto, there's just a few errors that need to be addressed.)
I'm going to go over each of the cards very briefly, outlining any massive issues and generally saying "This seems ok / not ok". I'd like to note that I'm doing this balancing based vaguely around the idea that this is a relatively streamlined cube for some sort of eternal format (modern, legacy or vintage, probably). If that's wrong and this'll be a standard cube or something, you might want to take some of this with a little salt. Also, it's possible that this is a near-all-custom cube you're talking about, but since the power levels of those can be incredibly hard to gauge then I'll leave that in peace. Here goes nothing:
- Ancient Anagram seems fine. It can be theoretically powerful, but as it's easily played around due to the timer, removable even when it hits and awful on a late topdeck then it's certainly not overpowered.
- Frost Reaver's definitely too strong. It's got evasion, haste and deals decent damage while locking out mana, which is always very powerful and helps it stay alive to keep up the disruption. Also, the hybrid mana's not a good idea here as there's no way in hell that this should exist in mono-blue (or at all, but still). Needs significant weakening.
- Edict of Asphyxiation's probably far too good as an incredible mana sink. On a high enough number, your opponent can just end up taking massive damage, loosing their hand and skipping their next turn because untap-stopping can be nuts. It isn't exactly insane, but in a powerful cube with a lot of mana acceleration then it easily outstrips powerful cube cards like Rakdos's Return.
- Maniacal Mists is probably acceptable. Probably.
- Obscene Politics seems a little too good. Once again, mana disruption is powerful, especially in the early game.
- Fenrian Enforcer seems ok. Nice combo with Life From the Loam if that's in the cube (though I'll admit that it doesn't tend to be in the competitive ones I know).
- Plague Frenzy just doesn't seem to fit its colors. That sort of damage-pushing doesn't feel Golgari in identity, resembling Ride Down more than anything else. Probably fine from a purely power perspective in a strong cube, though.
- Purgatory Puppeteer's a strong pusher of damage and board developer. Reminds me of Zealous Conscripts a little. Probably ok, though I can't fully comment without knowing if there are any crazy four drops for it to grab.
- Sazhek seems a little too good as nothing more than an "I -4 immediately to the -X ability in order to cripple my opponent's hand and / or board while pressuring their life total." The fact that it's got further utility in the casting of various removal spells and the like in return for your life total or creating a decent array of chump blockers is icing on the cake. Needs to be weakened.
- Spin Twinner seems okay. Can't be certain without knowing what it's got access to for copying in the cube, but fine in a vacuum.
- Tanuuk seems terrifying in red aggro. Basically a 3/3 haste battlecry with health as well also gives you a 1-turn War Horn on death for three, which is a lot of power in mono-red. Whether it needs weakening depends very heavily on the cube's power level and composition. Your call.
- Tektra generally seems like too much versatility / value. Massive creature (well, in Azorius Control if it's been built right) on turn five for two mana with a timer while also netting life and / or cards with any of your excess mana on optional demand. Certainly needs weakening.
- I'm honestly not sure what to think of Flourishing. Scry 5 seems pretty strong, but I've got no idea how good the mana-adding is without the cube composition. Regardless, it's pretty powerful.
- Tildis seems like a lot of value (Opidian-and-buff for a turn on a turn two play with a 3/3) but the second ability seems like it's often irrelevant and so it's fine in a strong cube.
I'm kind of running out of time before I have to do something else, so I'll just do some snap judgements on the final four:
- Confinement seems acceptable.
- Hysteria seems powerful in aggro, though it's probably okay. It needs to specify "until end of turn" for the +1/+1 on attack buff.
- Infection generates incredibly value. That -2/-2 is often a straight removal of a creature in the cubes I know, and the fact that it then stops graveyard trickery and protects itself and you through the tokens means that it's definitely too good.
- Infusion seems fine, but that final ability is super weird with its card draw. I don't know, maybe it fits some sort of massive-mana-ritual red-blue archetype you've got going, but to my eyes you might as well remove it.
As sort-of-said at the beginning of this thing, these are mostly very brief judgements and more based on approximates than whatever the reality of your cube may prove to be. Thanks.
Purgatory Puppeteer doesn't feel Black-Red, and the red aspects all feel token, and like the don't belong on this creature. That aside, the phrasing of the ability is fairly off and my attempt to phrase it properly caused me to give up and write this instead, but what I can say is that the parenthesis should go at the end, but I also can say that the name "Blightlink" doesn't make much sense given what it does. Also Demons don't get secondary subtypes.
I figured it easiest to just try to reword Sazhek, instead of mentioning everything I noticed.
Sazhek, the Shadowfrost | 3BB
Legendary Planeswalker - Sazhek | Mythic
+1: Pay X Life: Copy target black instant or sorcery card in your graveyard with converted mana cost X. Exile that card.
-X: Each player loses X life and discards X cards. Whenever a player cannot discard a card this way, that player sacrifices a permanent.
-3: Create three 1/1 black Shadow creature tokens with menace and lifelink.
4
He feels all over the place, but let's point out some of the changes. "The" is now lowercase, as is the case with the word the in titles. You left out the type "Legendary", which should be there, seeing as he has a name. Additional costs to planeswalker abilities just feels wrong, but should be phrased as normal, and not as a statement. The +1 is also a color pie break, FYI. The X should go before the -3. For reference of such, see the card Chandra Nalaar. Speaking of the -3, it feels out of place, the rest of the card is feasting off of the graveyard and synergy with discards, but then you create tokens that inexplicably have menace and lifelink. I just don't get what it is doing in this card.
Spin Twinner should probably cost {1} more, seeing as it currently is just better than the other cards that do more or less the same thing. It also can easily be used in infinite combos, but that's just a flaw with it being able to copy itself.
Tanuuk has only minor errors. It has the wrong frame, but so do all of the legendaries. There should actually be a semicolon between the keywords haste and warmonger, seeing as one has reminder text. Warmonger also feels very specific, and like it shouldn't be keyworded, rather, just making it another ability. I don't understand the clause "If you do", seeing as there us no choice in Tanuuk getting exiled upon death. There is a missing quotation mark at the end, too. All and all, he's rather balanced and an interesting mythic rare card.
That's all the time I have to review. I'm sure someone will complete what I started eventually. Great work and interesting concepts!
@ Ranshi and MemoryHead: I have been staring at these cards for a long time, and as such I feel like my Bias is so strong that I am ignoring suuuuper obvious problems. (Like, I noticed: Edict of Asph. vs Liliana's Indignation https://scryfall.com/card/soi/120/lilianas-indignation Yeah....)
This is great feedback. Thank you guys! I will try to do some reworks.
Couple other points:
Subvert was a top-down mechanic because of the storyline. I needed something that would show that there were forces "behind the curtain" that were trying to undermine/control people. However, after now thinking about how easy it would be to forget to subvert, or when you have multiple instances.... I think the whole mechanic needs to be scrapped/reworked.... hmmm....
Alos, Ranshi, I tried to put the Soul of Tsundu after it's daddy, but it seems to have re-ordered the pics during attachment. Apologies!!
In general, if I am not responding to certain comments, it probably means because I 100% agree with ya'll.
@Ranshi:
-With Ancient Anagram, if there is nothing to exile, the ability just fizzles. And then you have a pointless enchantment on the table.
-Fenrian Enforcer's activated ability goes along with the "Quake" mechanic. Spell's with Quake would allow you to fill your hand with lands... If you were, say, drafting the set.
-Plague Frenzy is a card I have just always wanted to have. I can see why it's a no-no to put them together... but WotC does seem to break their own design rules a fair bit.... so I thought I could too?
-Sazhek: You said "Additional costs to planeswalker abilities just feels wrong, but should be phrased as normal, and not as a statement." Could you throw me an example of what the "normal" phrasing is?
Also Ranshi, thank you for the formatting input. The one thing is that I am using the "MTG set editor" program. It is from a couple of years ago where the frames were a bit different.
@MemoryHead: I am going to edit my original post, but when I think about fixing/chaning these cards, I want to think about how they would fit into a constructed format, like standard etc.
-Sazhek: Hmm, how did I not think about that?! (Casting it an using the -X right away...) I need to rethink this ability...
-Tildis: I just wanted to try and create an ability that let you snag a card while you search/look at cards because of a different ability... more just from a design interest standpoint.
Again,
Thank a lot guys!! This is all very helpful.
EDITS:
1st - The art I have used for these cards is pulled from the internet at random. I do not own any rights to these artworks. I also tried to find the actual artists and credit them in the card illustrator field, but this turned out to be very time consuming and difficult... so I just put random junk in the illustrator fields. No disrespect to the actual Artists!
2nd - If anyone wants to give feedback, try to think of these cards as part of a full set with other cards that have similar themes and using the same mechanics. Also, think of them as if they were being released into standard, or otherwise were available for constructed play.
Thank you all who take the time! I really appreciate everyone's thoughts
Also, if you can't find artists, please just leave the box empty or put "unknown" in there or something. It can cause genuine confusion (because the names some people operate under for art etc. on the internet can sometimes be pretty crazy) and while it isn't actually miscrediting, it runs a little too close for my liking.
Also also, a few artists that you don't seem to have the credit for:
- Vaettir of Hysteria's artist is Alexander Nanitchkov.
- Plague Frenzy's art is by Stephen Somers.
- Irina Nordsol Kuzmina did the art for Tektra, Clandestine Sphinx.
As for Balance levels I will clarify (for myself as much as ya'll). My "Cube" is anything but. It's a stack of maybe 2000 cards that we just casual draft out of. The cards in there are mostly just the good cards out of numerous drafts over the years, though I have tried my best to keep color ratios at least close to even. So I guess, I am thinking about balancing in regard to drafting a standard-legal set?
Hmm... they're all rares though....
Well you have the information now at least!