Instant/Sorcery-Related Enchantments
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Jan. 4, 2017, 5:16 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have been hoping for some time that there shall eventually be an instant/sorcery-focused block, so here are several enchantment cards that I devised that relate to instants and sorceries for such a block, one for each color.
Arcane Genesis Show
I was contemplating having this card instead give a creature +X/+X until of end of turn, but that would require its controller to have a creature on the battlefield, and I wished for it to be self-sufficient, as is every other card in this cycle.
Arcane Rejuvenation Show
This is the most simple and straightforward of the cycle, and its effect has the least impact on the state of the game, so for that reason, it has the least color-heavy mana cost of all the enchantments.
Incendiary Enhancement Show
This is another very straightforward card, with a slightly more color-heavy cost because of its greater offensive capacity.
Name to be Determined Show
This was the most difficult card of the cycle to design, because I knew that I wished for it to involve drawing cards, but I needed to keep it from being too powerful, so I added the mana cost the ability, taking inspiration from the ability of Well of Lost Dreams. Because of its power, this card has a more color-heavy casting cost; I was considering having it cost 5 mana, but I decided that it would take too long to cast, and instead had it cost three mana of its color. Thus far, this is the only card in the cycle for which I do not have a name, so any suggestions for a name would be much appreciated.
Greater Sangromancy Show
This is the only card in the cycle to not have an ability that triggers from an instant or sorcery spell being cast; instead, it allows a player to cast a spell by paying life instead of mana. As with the above card, this card has a very color-heavy cost to balance its power.
What does everyone think of these cards? How well did I do with them?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
Eiti3, having a mana cost for greater sangromancy's ability would defeat the purpose of the card, so there must be another way to balance its power. What if the ability could be used only once per turn? And should I simply increase the mana costs of the other four, as well?
January 5, 2017 8:58 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #4
Arcane Genesis is basically a better Metallurgic Summonings (or at the very least, similar to Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder without a downside), so I think a good starting cmc in terms of balance would be 6. That seems boringly expensive, so I think if it made one X/X, it could drop to a cmc of 4.
For the purpose of symmetry, I think each card could have a mana cost of 2MM (M is used to refer to the corresponding color of the cycle), and Arcane Rejuvenation would not be underpowered at the mana cost of .
Of all the triggered abilities, the one from the red one (suggested name: Arcane Ignition) is by far the most powerful. Being able to full the role of defense by killing creatures and offense by damaging players makes this way to powerful for even the cost of . The simplest way to tone it down while still keeping it well inside the realm of red is to replace the word "player" with "planeswalker" at the increased cost.
The blue one (suggested name: Arcane Augury) has both the problem of being the only that can provide multiple cards of card advantage (the same problem faced by Ancestral Recall in its cycle) and the problem of costing additional mana to trigger, which deincentivizes casting big spells. The best solution I think is making the effect just "Scry X, where X is the spell's converted mana cost," which seems balanced to me at , since it doesn't impact the board or your hand at all.
Lastly, the black one (Suggested name: Arcane Plague) needs to go back to square one, both because it's basically the broken Channel, and because it's not adequately in the cycle. My fix would to make it look like the rest of the cycle and make the effect "Put a -1/-1 counter on each creature you don't control with converted mana cost X. "
In conclusion, here are what I suggest this cycle should look like:
Arcane Rejuvenation
Enchantment
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may gain X life, where X is that spell's converted mana cost.
Arcane Augury
Enchantment
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may scry X, where X is that spell's converted mana cost.
Arcane Contamination
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a -1/-1 on each creature you don't control with converted mana cost X, where X is that spell's converted mana cost.
Arcane Ignition
Enchantment
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Arcane Ignition deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker, where X is that spell's converted mana cost.
Arcane Genesis
Enchantment
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, create a green X/X Elemental creature token, where X is that spell's converted mana cost.
January 5, 2017 2:51 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
MagicalHacker, I really like your ideas, except that I fail to see why the red one should not be allowed to target players; what is wrong with being able to deal damage directly to players? Also, your idea for the black card requires that an opponent have creatures, which prevents it from being self-sufficient. What if I had it make a player lose life, or would that make it too similar to the red enchantment?
Also, is there truly no way to make paying life for a spell balanced? I thought that I had a really awesome idea when I conceived it, so I am displeased to learn that it is too powerful.
January 5, 2017 5:50 p.m.
My last attempt to balance it.
Arcane Sangromancy
Enchantment
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay X life and discard X cards. If you do, you may cast an instant or sorcery with converted mana cost X or less from your hand without paying its mana cost.
Not sure how that looks, or if it would need another limiter, but I think it has potential and is clear risk/reward card. It can sustain itself if you run instants/sorceries that draw cards. Not many in black, but hey. I tried.
January 5, 2017 6:05 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
Eiti3, that is not a bad idea, but it requires simply too much payment to gain a benefit, so I shall pursue a different idea for that color.
Arcane Genesis Show
I increased the mana cost to equal that of Metallurgic Summonings, but without the second ability, so I believe that it is balanced in creating multiple tokens rather than a single token.
Arcane Rejuvenation Show
I increased the cost of this card, as MagicalHacker suggested.
Arcane Ignition Show
I like MagicalHacker's suggestion of all the cards' names starting with the word "arcane," so I am following that idea, although I still believe that it is perfectly acceptable for it to be able to target players.
Arcane Augury Show
MH's suggestion here made perfect sense, so I followed it.
Arcane Contamination, version 1 Show
Arcane Contamination, version 2 Show
I made two versions of this card, because I could not decide which ability I wished for it to have. Having the card cause life loss would make it overlap with arcane ignition, so I used different iconic abilities of black, instead.
What does everyone else say about these cards, now? Are they more balanced, I hope?
January 5, 2017 6:33 p.m.
I'd say the black ones are still pretty powerful. Also, the point MH was going for was not only the cycle having the same name, but the same CMC as well. Maybe I'm just weird, but I'd rather fit Arcane Genesis to the rest of the cycle than raise it to the cost of a similar card.
January 5, 2017 6:48 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #9
Eiti3, in that case, how can I keep arcane genesis balanced for 4 mana? I could have it generate only one token, but I chose multiple tokens because that is more creatures with which the other players must contend.
Eiti3 says... #2
Greater Sangromancy
"Pay X life: you may cast an instant or sorcery card with converted mana cost X or less from your hand this turn without paying its mana cost."
I can think of 20 ways I can break that within the first second. That needs an extra limiter of (+ cast ~ with twice converted cost X?) or "You may activate this ability only once each turn" or Pay X life: next ~ you cast costs X less.
The others seem a wee bit too good for their casting cost, but otherwise decent. And all I want to do is say one word for you to consider when making instant/sorcery based triggers: Storm - where there's a will, there's a way.
January 5, 2017 12:45 a.m. Edited.