New Rare Creatures?
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Sept. 11, 2014, 11:24 p.m. by wereotter
Something that came to me the other night when seeing how Glory of Warfare modifies your characters differently based off if it's your or an an opponent's turn.
Spirit of Valor
3WW
Spirit - Creature 2/2
Flying
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have vigilance.
As long as it's an opponent's turn, creatures you control have first strike.
Spirit of Knowledge
3BB
Creature - Spirit 2/2
Flying
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have "when this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, that player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard"
As long as it's an opponent's turn, creatures you control have flying.
Spirit of Death
3KK
Creature - Spirit 2/2
Flying
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have lifelink.
As long as it's an opponent's turn, creatures you control have death touch.
Spirit of Rage
3RR
Creature - Spirit 2/2
Flying
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have haste.
You may cast creature and sorcery spells as though they have flash.
Spirit of Nature
3GG
Creature - Spirit 2/2
Flying
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have trample.
As long as it's an opponent's turn, creatures you control have hexproof.
True, but flying is more a blue mechanic than is reach, plus flying is impacted by things like Bower Passage in a way that reach isn't, but reach may be a good one for the green one instead of hexproof if that's too powerful. I admit the flash is a little odd compared to the rest, but I do think that as a red player, being able to cast something like Fireball or Burn at the Stake on someone else's turn would be really handy.
I'm open to suggestions on mechanics to improve them, mostly trying to think of what would be in the color profile of each one. I had also considered for the blue one that creatures defended by them don't untap during their controller's next untap phase, or that they're returned to their owners' hands at the end of combat, but that seemed a bit overpowered when compared to the others.
September 11, 2014 11:57 p.m.
The other red mechanic that just came to mind that might work instead of flash is "if it's an opponent's turn, if a source you control would deal damage to a creature or player, it deals twice that amount instead" but that again seems a bit overpowered compared to the others.
September 12, 2014 midnight
smash10101 says... #5
Why "as long as it's an opponent's turn" rather than "as long as it's not your turn"? There is a little bit of functional difference, in a team game without shared turns, such as star, and it's just a little bit longer and more complicated.
September 12, 2014 12:05 a.m.
No reason, could just as easily be "as long as it's not your turn" however, it would make a difference in prism games. If green has hexproof only on an opponent's turn, for example, that means that it's creatures can be targeted on an ally's turn, same with any spell that impacts only creatures without flying or with flying for blue. It's a minor difference, but I'm not chained to either verbiage over the other.
It also makes a window, come to think of it, in prism matches where you can have one of your creatures fight a black player without dealing with either lifelink or deathtouch. It's really minor, but it does make them potentially less overpowered.
September 12, 2014 12:12 a.m.
smash10101 says... #7
I think it's important to go for simplicity over such a small window of "unbrokenness." You shouldn't be balancing you creatures based on corner cases in a little known, little played casual multiplayer format. Also, consistent with other cards make it much easier to understand your cards.
September 12, 2014 12:19 a.m.
That's fair, like I said, I'm not married to either verbiage for how the abilities switch. I can go with "as long as it's not your turn"
September 12, 2014 12:21 a.m.
I like these designs an awful lot. The flash thing in red is a little weird, but I guess it's in color pie somewhere. Minor, minor thing: Blue is U, Black is B. I was confused when I read the 3KK at first, but then I realized. (In case you're wondering why Blue is U when it's the first one you come to in color wheel order: black is first alphabetically, and L is for land.)
September 12, 2014 12:45 a.m.
Ah, it's the graphic designer in me, K is black in printing and B is blue. It's hardwired into my head. So sorry.
September 12, 2014 12:49 a.m.
derKochXXL says... #11
I like the idea, but flash colour-pie-wise is in green and blue. I believe if you gave the red first strike on defense, white lifelink on defense and black intimidate on offense it would be a little more consistent. Also all abilities but the red flash ability are creature based. I'm trying to think of a second one for blue. Flash would obviously possible, but if you did that I'd limit it to creatures since blue already has a lot of instant action.
September 12, 2014 2:37 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #12
So, if we only stick to evergreen keywords, here is what we have (according to MTG Salvation Wiki):
- White: Banding, Double Strike, First Strike, Flash, Flying, Lifelink, Plainswalk, Protection, Vigilance
- Blue: Flash, Flying, Hexproof, Islandwalk, Protection, Shroud
- Black: Deathtouch, Fear, First Strike, Intimidate, Lifelink, Regeneration, Swampwalk
- Red: Haste, Double strike, First Strike, Intimidate, Mountainwalk, Trample
- Green: Deathtouch, Flash, Forestwalk, Haste, Hexproof, Reach, Regeneration, Shroud, Trample, Vigilance
(Banding, Fear, and Shroud are denoted as obsolete keywords.)
So here are the keywords I think could be done for each of those:
- White: Indestructible, Protection
- Blue: Flash, Flying
- Black: Deathtouch, Lifelink
- Red: Double Strike
- Green: Hexproof
So we have to get creative with red and green, so here is something that could work. If we give a lot of power to red creatures but when it's not your turn, and a lot of toughness to green creatures when it is, then that should be balanced (relatively). Here are my proposed designs:
Spirit of Valor 
Creature - Spirit
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have protection from black and red.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control have indestructible.
2/2
Spirit of Intuition 
Creature - Spirit
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have flying.
As long it's not your turn, creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield have flash.
2/2
Spirit of Death 
Creature - Spirit
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have lifelink.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control have deathtouch.
2/2
Spirit of Rage 
Creature - Spirit
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have double strike.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control have +5/+0.
2/2
Spirit of Nature 
Creature - Spirit
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have +0/+5.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control have hexproof.
What do you think?
September 12, 2014 10:57 a.m.
I think you make a good point that it's important to stick to the color pie, and I appreciate you pointing out where the proposed red one breaks that. I was mainly thinking about the general speed that is important to red, which is why haste and flash would be nice, but didn't think that was more a blue trait. I like some of your redesign, but they are in some ways more unbalanced as a result, so I'd think something more like:
Spirit of Valor 3WW
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have vigilance.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control have first strike
Spirit of Intuition (or maybe Imagination?) 3UU
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have flying.
As long as it's not your turn, you may cast creature cards from your hand as though they have flash.
Spirit of Death 3BB
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have lifelink.
As long as it's nor your turn, creatures you control have death touch.
Spirit of Rage 3RR
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have haste.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control have double-strike.
Spirit of Nature 3GG
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control have trample.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control have reach.
I like what you suggest for the blue one a lot, and think it fixes what I initially suggested, especially as not every blue deck runs mill, so that may have been less valuable. I do think that giving white indestructible off turn made it a little too much for it's opponents to deal with, and the boosts suggested for red and green are good, but not in flavor with the rest. Maybe this is a better way to add the flavor of each color?
September 12, 2014 11:27 a.m.
lothshteth says... #14
A little unfair that white gets first strike and red gets double strike. Maybe give first strike to red and indestructible to white. I don't think vigilance + indestructible is op at all. Sure sorcery kills can't be used, but it seems fine as the spirit is defensively based anyway.
September 12, 2014 7:21 p.m.
I only hesitate to give white indestructible off turn when I look at it's opponent colors and see that both red and black have limited options to remove indestructible creatures. White has the majority of exile creature spells. Maybe if the verbiage on all if them are "other creatures you control" so the spirits don't effect themselves if there's only one on the field?
September 13, 2014 midnight
lothshteth says... #16
They would just have to use instants. But your suggestion is definitely more fair. If you go that route you should increase their p/t, reduce cc, or dare I say give them all their own keyword.
September 13, 2014 1:48 a.m.
Yeah I can get with that. Probably 2/4 creatures? I'm not sure I see these as creatures people would want to attack with, so making them a little harder to kill would make more sense than boosting up their power.
MagicalHacker says... #2
I like the ideas, but they could use some work. The flying one is basically reach, and there's no reason to have vigilance except on your own turns anyways. Flash is a bit weird too tho.
September 11, 2014 11:29 p.m.