Ancient Starcaster
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Posted on Aug. 10, 2015, 3:38 a.m. by 2npii
Ancient Starcaster - 1RR
Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever ~ enters the battlefield or you cast a red instant or sorcery spell, put a colorless artifact token named Meteor Shard onto the battlefield with "When Meteor Shard enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player."
Tap two untapped Meteor Shards you control: Add R to your mana pool.
1/3
It's a bit wordy, but the idea is that the guy attacks with meteors, then can use them for mana.
There are loads of little changes that could be made; the artifact generation could be a tap effect and then you can untap him when you cast a red instant or sorcery (a bit like the new Chandra), the mana production could also require tapping and could require you to sacrifice the Meteor Shards, the number required for mana production could be varied, his P/T could be varied ect., but this version illustrates the concept.
Any thoughts?
Yeah, I didn't put a huge amount of thought into it's P/T. I either wanted it to have a power of one, ie it's regular attack is as powerful as the meteor ability, or it's power to be zero and it's ability requires it to tap, ie it literally attacks with meteors. I already had the wording as is so I gave it one power, then just gave it a toughness that didn't give it the same stats as Swiftspear :P
Here's a version that incorporates the second idea;
Ancient Starcaster - RR
Creature - Human Wizard
Whenever you cast a red instant or sorcery spell, untap ~.
T: Put a colorless artifact token named Meteor Shard onto the battlefield with "When Meteor Shard enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player."
Tap three untapped Meteor Shards you control: Add R to your mana pool.
0/2
I've cut the cost by 1 because it no longer has the ETB clause (maybe it could have haste, but that would really clutter the text box!).
Although maybe I'm thinking too much and the original would be fine with the reduced P/T and the extra token required for mana? I guess testing would be required to know for sure!
August 10, 2015 6:53 a.m.
As FAMOUSWATERMELON suggested I would down the p/t to 0/2 and the cmc to 
I would, however, change the wording to :
Whenever you cast a red instant or sorcery spell, untap ~
: Deal 1 damage to target creature of player and put a colorless artifact token named Meteor Shard onto the battlefield with "Tap three untapped Meteor Shards you control: Add R to your mana pool."
August 10, 2015 8:05 a.m.
the.beanpole says... #5
It might be cleaner to have a second activated ability on the creature itself to tap for the mana, though that would take away the usefulness of the shards if he dies. I also think the damage text should be on the token to solidify the flavor of him dropping meteors on his enemies. It also turns his damage into a colorless source, which also allows him to hit creatures with pro-red:
0/2
Whenever you cast a red instant or sorcery, untap ~
: Put a colorless artifact token named Meteor Shard onto the battlefield with "When Meteor Shard enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player"
Tap three untapped Meteor Shards you control: Add to your mana pool
August 10, 2015 8:52 a.m.
That would be a more conventional wording (Brion Stoutarm springs to mind) but those changes alter the flavor. Maybe I've been messing with Unity too much, but the way I'm thinking about it is that the mage is creating an object and then that object is damaging the target as opposed to the mage creating an object and damaging the target in the process.
For example, what do you expect to happen if you're running doubling season? I feel like the extra token should also do damage, in which case the damage must be caused by meteor and not by the mage. However, maybe that depends more on doubling season's flavor/ function. Does the extra meteor form mid air, or after impact? If it does form in the air, does the mage have the power to control that too (I would answer "yes" in this case)?
The second change also has flavor implications. As it stands, this is a kind of Heritage Druid effect; the mage is creating the mana for the player/ planewalker to use. Your suggestion has the player accessing the mana from the meteors themselves, much like Meteorite. However, what if you have 4 meteor shards out and you activate the ability of one by tapping the other 3? The untapped meteor shard hasn't actually done anything, it's just been used as a reference to an ability held by all meteor shards. Practically that's fine, but I don't like it from a flavor perspective. However from a more practical perspective your suggestion does give the shards purpose after the mage eats a Shock!
TL;DR - Those changes in wording have flavor implications that don't sit well with me, but result in more conventionally worded effects.
I'd be interested to hear anything else you have to say on the matter. Thanks for your input; you've made me think a lot and it's been very interesting!
August 10, 2015 9:39 a.m.
the.beanpole - Great minds think alike, eh ;)
I've thought a bit more about the differences between this and, for example, Brion Stoutarm and why I don't think the same wording works for both. With Stoutarm, you're throwing a creature at the opponent, but because the thrown creature is (I can only assume) somewhat passive in the process you would never consider the thrown creature to be the one doing the damage. However an object, eg a meteor, can't be active or passive in the same way... I thought this was a good explanation until I wrote it down, but now I'm thinking "What if Stoutarm was throwing the meteor; would the fact that it's not a creature matter (from a flavor perspective, obviously it matters to the rules!)?"...
... Okay, so what's the difference between Lightning Bolt and Meteorite? Ignoring mana cost and the amount of damage, we have a spell that makes a thing, then the thing damages a target. Then, in the case of Bolt, the thing dissapears, but with Meteorite we're left with something. So if we think about it this way, the the mage is casting a spell, the spell deals damage, then leaves something behind.
Consider Rakdos Ickspitter. It's tap effect effectively casts a spell (something like Magma Spray I guess), but because there's no object left behind, instead of the spell dealing damage we say that the creature dealt the damage. However my mage up there is effectively casting an artifact spell so, since a tangible game object is created as a result, it makes more sense to think of that object to be dealing the damage!..
TL;DR - It's probably not that interesting :P
August 10, 2015 10:06 a.m.
the.beanpole says... #9
The difference between Brion Stoutarm and your Ancient Starcaster is that Brion is using his own muscle to cause harm to his enemy via thrown object. Starcaster is just summoning a hunk of rock into being somewhere in the stratosphere. Gravity is doing the work for him. Inversely, if Brion were to throw Meteor Shards, the damage still ought to come from him. Unless he is throwing them from orbit. Then it will create a Crater Emblem with: Remove the sun from the game for 1000 years. Only cards from the Ice Age or Coldsnap expansions may be played. All lands become snow lands. Destroy all dinosaurs.
I think the flavor is great, and that you're exactly right. The difference between your Starcaster and Lightning Bolt or Rakdos Ickspitter is that the latter are transient effects. Rakdos Ickspitter could have created an ooze token named "ick" that dealt damage and then did nothing for the rest of the game, but the flavor feels like it's highly acidic spittle ought to do its damage and then dilute and do nothing afterwards.
August 10, 2015 12:07 p.m.
the.beanpole says... #10
P.S. gravity being the driving factor for the Meteor Shards makes sense as a colorless source of damage. You know. 'Cause Urza created the artifact that makes gravity happen.
August 10, 2015 12:10 p.m.
hmmm. You could alter the flavor a bit more, to include Meteorite.
Something like:
Whenever you cast a red instant or sorcery, untap ~
Whenever a Meteorite comes into play ~ deals one damage to target creature or player
: Put a colorless Meteorite artifact token onto the battlefield
Tap three untapped Meteorites you control: Add to your mana pool
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #2
It's interesting. I think that the mage could be a bit weaker though (0/2) and that perhaps you should make it three meteors to create mana because some storm-like strategy could take advantage of this. I like the flavor though.
August 10, 2015 6:14 a.m.