Karona, Destroyer of Worlds
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Dec. 17, 2019, 9:49 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Karona was stated to be the embodiment of all magic on Dominaria, yet her card was very underwhelming, so I have decided to make a newer version of her, a version that I feel truly depicts her awesome might, as seen, below:
Karona, Destroyer of Worlds Show
Her first two abilities are modified versions of her original incarnation's abilities. This time, a player may choose to gain control of her, but her own shall benefit from them doing so. I also felt that her being able to only affect one specific creature type at a time was ridiculous, so she now can make all creatures more powerful. Her final ability is one that I added to make her feel truly impressive, so I naturally increased her mana cost, as well.
What does everyone else say about this card? How well did I design it?
Scaled-down Karona WUBRG
Legendary creature - God
Haste, indestructible
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player gains control of Karona.
When Karona attacks, choose a creature type. Creatures of that type gain +2/+2 and flying until end of turn.
Karona must attack players other than her owner if possible.
5/5
Making it work with only a single creature type is actually a buff - it means buidling your deck right, you extract the most benefit from her. I added a big benefit at the end for her owner.
December 18, 2019 10:35 a.m. Edited.
Faelix_Drakes says... #4
I'd say get rid of the "Karona must attack players other than her owner if possible."
It's kind of redundant and useless.
You could make it say: "Karona, Destroyer of Worlds, can't target Planeswalkers."
Creatures also don't attack their owner, and they by default always go for your opponent's life.
December 18, 2019 10:50 a.m.
Faelix_Drakes It is not redundant as her owner doesn't change - her controller does. If you own Karona and your opponent takes control of her in a multiplayer format with multiple opponents, you are safe from Karona's carnage as her owner as long as Karona can attack another player than you.
Also "can't target Planeswalkers" should be "Karona cannot attack Planeswalkers." If that's what you were going for.
Boza That scaled down version is actually very scary - an effective 7/7 flying, haste, indestructible by itself for WUBRG, that could potentially grant Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite -levels of buffing AND evasion in combat, even if it might benefit your opponent too. I know WUBRG is a hard casting cost, but that seems like too much good stuff.
December 18, 2019 11:34 a.m.
Karona, False God is one of my all-time favourite cards. Sure, she's terrible, and her ability is prone to backfiring... but she's so wonderfully unique that I fell in love with her when I opened her way back in the day.
First off, let's deal with the biggest problem your card design has--there is just way too much text as proposed. As it stands, you're at 118 words spread across four paragraphs (breaks between paragraphs take up additional space). That's even more wordy than the notoriously lengthy Camouflage 's 98 words across two paragraphs.
Now, onto the main point of trying to fix Karona. Coming from the perspective of someone who plays a casual-oriented Karona Voltron list, I'll talk about my own concerns and suggestions.
To start, Karona has three major problems. The first is that she can easily backfire on you, either by swinging at you as a 5+/5+ or pumping an enemy tribe substantially (which can kill you even of you are using Vow of Wildness to avoid her attacking you). The second problem is that there is little incentive to attack with her unless you're running tribal, other than working together to quickly wrack up your 21 commander damage on someone. Finally, she is really easy to remove--not only is she vulnerable to your classic removal package, she also can be sacrificed when under the control of another player or her controller can willingly charge her into a more powerful/deathtouch blocker.
Your chosen suggestions fix some of these problems--the evasion and widening the boon to all creatures (rather than of a certain type) certainty is a better reason to swing. The free casting further provides an incentive to attack.
However, that means you're using two abilities to solve one of the three problems--that's not exactly ideal. Instead, perhaps:
-
Haste, Indestructible
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At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player untaps Karona, Destroyer of Worlds and gains control of it.
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Whenever Karona attacks, if no creatures are attacking Karona’s owner, creatures you control get +3/+3 until end of turn.
That's not too different from the original, and probably could keep the same mana cost. The anthem effect is a bit more powerful (seeing as it hits all creatures) encouraging using her offensively, but has a built-in protection for her owner. Indestructible makes it harder to kill her through blocking, but still leaves her open to exile and sacrifice effects, so there are still design flaws to build around (since that's kind of what makes her fun!).
December 18, 2019 1 p.m. Edited.
Funkydiscogod - I’d submit that your suggestion destroys the most enjoyable part of playing Karona - being able to play politics and work together to deal lethal commander damage to a player.
Not that it’s a bad design - I think that card seems rather enjoyable. It just doesn’t say Karona to me.
December 18, 2019 6:32 p.m.
Funkydiscogod Not a bad idea, but that rulesbox seems a little off.
If I were to make it I would do something like this:
"Haste, Hexproof
When Karona, Fixed God enters the battlefield, each other player creates a Shadow of Karona, a legendary 5/8 Shadow creature token of all colors.
Whenever Karona or a creature named Shadow of Karona attacks, other creatures that player controls gets +3/+3.
5/8"
This is more clean looking (without all the "if not token then ...") and I added the benefit that the original Karona must be in play for the shadows to have buffing capabilities. They draw their power from the original. It also adds incentive to not try to kill the original, despite the hexproof. There's potential for shenanigans by having multiple players control a copy of a real deal Karona by triggering the buffing per non-shadow Karona on the field. The creature type for the tokens could be avatar if it feels more right than shadow, not too sure about the lore around the lady.
Boza says... #2
She feels OP. At a minimum, if you control only her, you get 10 flying and indestrictible damage every turn, with a free flashback or Omniscience effect. The very first time an opponent gets control of it, Karona is headed for your face and there is no downside to controlling her.
Scale it down a bit, if only to fit it on a card.
December 18, 2019 3:56 a.m.