Pattern Recognition #86 - Custom Card Critique

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

4 October 2018

1531 views

Good afternoon everyone! Well, it's afternoon when this is published, so I'll roll with that. My name is berryjon, TappedOut.net's resident Old Fogey, and this is, as you may have guessed, Pattern Recognition, wherein I, your most gracious of writers, regale you with tales of Magic the Gathering, it's history, it's design, it's ups and it's downs. Or maybe I'm just leading you into a Fog Bank so I can make my getaway. ;)

Today's article is going to be quite interesting - mostly because I'm going to be jumping from item to item and giving feedback on all of them. You see, for those of you just joining us now, I, for a couple weeks previous, solicited cards created by you, the TappedOut community for my review.

And I got a few, about a dozen or so. Which I can work with.

Now, before I want to get to the cards themselves, (which I know you all want), I want to talk a little about Card Design.

Let me begin by pointing out the single most important factor anyone who has ever actually designed this sort of thing knows;

Nothing works. Only extremely rarely will a card make it through the design and development process intact. And when they do, it's either because the card is so low-key, it's inoffensive. Something like having a 2/2 for with the creature type of Bear.

Rather, cards are designed through an iterative process, where each change (should be) meticulously cataloged, effects predicted and tested, with further changes causing further testing. Whenever you here Wizards mention their FFL, their Future Future League, this is the group of testers assigned to review and test cards by actually playing them - with pens and pencils in hand to make changes on the fly to respond to scenarios and issues that arise.

So, what you're about to see are the cards that were submitted to me in temporal order. That is, first come, first on the chopping block. This is only the first pass, and I will certainly make errors of over-compensation myself, which would in turn be fixed by other people.

This process is not perfect, as anyone who can tell you about the accidental infinite combo of Saheeli Rai and Felidar Guardian that came from Kaladesh. Where the change of a single word - from creature to permanent - caused a massive break in Standard, where this was one of the biggest decks predicted for a while once the combo happened.

Then Felidar Guardian got banned in Standard as part of one of the largest such actions since Mirrordin, and that was that.

Well, enough dawdling. On with the show! Each person will be credited with their name, then their card, then the feedback.

gladiuslucix

Mizzium Jumper Cables -
Enchantment
Whenever you cast a spell, if you didn't cast it from your hand, Mizzium Jumper Cables deals 2 damage to any target.

This first suggestion actually came from the other site I link my articles directly to - SpaceBattles.Com. Here, the author intended this card to synergize with Flashback, Commanders, Eternal Scourge and the then-recently revealed Jump Start mechanic.

Now, Red actually does have a history of using Enchantments to deal damage. My favourite is either Mana Barbs or Citadel of Pain. This isn't new to the game. It's something that Wizards does keep in 's back pocket.

Now, casting from outside of your hand is something that Wizards has taken advantage of with Red, and yes, this does synergize well with the so-called "Impulse Draw" that you can find on cards like Chandra, Torch of Defiance.

The question then is, what does this card represent?

Well, it's a passive benefit to doing something that already does. But the question then becomes, is this too much? This is what playtesting would reveal.

Now, here is what I think right off the bat. That being, this card has some amazing overlap with Burning Vengeance. This card, printed in Innistrad and reprinted in Eternal Masters, is less than Mizzium Jumper Cables and only works from the Graveyard, rather than from non-hand locations.

Now, Burning Vengeance was printed in a set that had a lot to do with Graveyard matters, and so having a card that rewarded Red players for using the mechanic of the set was only natural.

With that in mind, while I don't have a problem with this card, I can only say that this card would probably never see the light of day outside of a Commander product, where it would be in the deck of a plus whatever colours for recursion in order to help enforce the theme. Combo with Zurgo Bellstriker as his Dash cost is explicitly Casting the card, though you are going to drive up his casting cost a lot if you repeatedly do this. And let's not talk about Squee, the Immortal. Or Food Chain.

That it is meant to work with Jump Start (and the points given by my editor) does imply that this was meant to work with Guilds of Ravnica, probably as a Rare. In this case, it becomes more workable in a Limited format, where, like Burning Vengeance,

So yeah, I can see this card in a Commander set, but no where else. It's workable, but putting it into a regular set is just asking for trouble.

Ithyn

Rocky Coastline
Land
: add .
Mountaincycling
Islandcycling

Whelp, this didn't take long.

I knew going into this that cards would fall into three broad categories. The first would be utility cards that would work very well with a specific deck type, such as the preceding Mizzium Jumper Cables. These won't be bad as they aren't bad cards by themselves, but rather they are combo pieces. Which by definition are lesser than the sum of its part.

The second were going to be joke cards. These weren't serious submissions, but rather something that would be fun to play, or not fun at all and just there because people wanted to see my reaction.

Lastly are the cards that are over-powered. Through means subtle, blatant and innocuous, these are the cards that would take other cards, and make then completely irrelevant.

Ladies and Gentlemen of TappedOut.Net, I present to you better Fetch Lands.

Let me list the ways in which this card is better. First, Rocky Coastline can actually tap for mana. Yes, it's merely , but it's still better than Fetches, or Evolving Wilds or even Terramorphic Expanse. Each of those cannot produce mana on their own, their only purpose is to get other lands out of your deck.

Second, and this is the most important thing here, Cycling is better. Fetch Lands work by playing the land, then activating the ability (including paying the life cost) and then getting your new land.

When you Mountiancycle this card, you discard the card, then search your library for a Mountain and put it into your library. Same with Islandcycling, except for an Island. I cannot begin to describe how much better this works. Cycling in this case only costs a single mana, and not even one life, and doesn't even require playing a land - meaning you can set up your land drops even better.

In addition, Cycling, thanks to Amonkhet and Hour of Devestation, you get cards like Cunning Survivor, Flameblade Adept, or even older cards like Lightning Rift. All cards that cause you to gain some small benefit for cycling a card.

Yes, there is a mana cost, but it is minuscule. A single mana or a single point of life when you compare the idea of the Fetch or the Cycler. And if Phyrexian Mana is any indication, it's 2 life per point of mana.

Now, please excuse me while I go wash my mouth out with lye for actually using something from New Phyrexia in a positive light.

There is one way for me to see this card as a real one, and that is to add the word "Basic" in front of the two Cycling abilities. Like Ash Barrens. This will keep the manafixing without going completely overboard on the opportunity costs involved.

My editor disagrees though, thinking this card is more along the lines of Rocky Tar Pit, in that it can slow down a player, but I disagree. I can cycle on my opponent's turn if I haven't needed to spend that mana on something else. Then he would point to the life payment for a Fetch, and the two of us would have to stay disagreeing.

Mig-El

Leftraru, Indomitable Cacique

Legendary Creature - Human Berserker
Humans you control have Haste and Hexproof
3/1

As an interesting Tribal Commander, Mig-El's suggestion implies that he wants this to serve as a 'Lieutenant' to Kaalia of the Vast.

Except, you know, for the near total lack of synergy.

Well, but for putting Hexproof on Kaalia of the Vast, which protects her from everything, and allowing her to attack on the turn she comes into play, allowing her ability to activate.

But that's only because she's human.

Tribal Commanders are very hard to design even at the best of times, and this particular example doesn't do its tribe any favours.

Humans are everywhere. You won't find a colour without them. It's something that Wizards recognizes as part of our collective psyche. That being said, however, the idea of Mardu Humans isn't that bad of one. With the tribal support that has come from Ahn-Crop Captain, Chief of the Edge and Chief of the Scale in recent years, I honestly see this card fitting in as a Commander on its own merits.

Now, there are still problems with this card. Wizards no longer wants Lord-type creatures to affect themselves. This particular example would have Haste and Hexproof innately, while granting other Humans the same.

I also have concerns with the abilities granted. Hexproof is powerful, and getting it on your Tribe for a converted casting cost of is, frankly, ridiculous. Yes, it's in White, but it also tends to be paired up with Green.

And I don't buy the idea that having three different mana symbols in the casting cost will slow this guy down one bit. I remember Siege Rhino's domination of Standard, thank you very much. Mana costs that are 'hard', really aren't.

I just grin and smile at how Wizards thinks that the new Niv-Mizzet's casting cost of is actually some kind of hindrance when we're in a Standard Rotation of perfect Mana thanks to Shock and Checklands.

But as for the creature himself? Herself? Hirself? Well, I like it. It's a very simple aggro commander. I would drop the Hexproof for other Humans for the most part, but other than that, I do like it. It's not spectacular, nor is it completely overpowered. It does what it does straight and true, and you can't go wrong with that.

Alternately, perhaps you can go full bore on the Commander's Lieutenant thing, and instead have this card read: "Your Commander has Haste and Hexproof." This will allow this card to protect itself if it's your commander, or you can go back to Kaalia of the Vast and protect her at the cost of not protecting this creature directly.

You know, I'm running out of space here, so join me mext week when I keep looking at other cards you've all submitted to me.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!