Temporal Fluctuator
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Nov. 8, 2015, 7:57 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
There are several artifacts in this game that can grant a player extra turns, but nearly all of them are far too complex or difficult to be practical in most situations (Time Sieve is actually quite nice, but it requires colored mana to cast and also sacrificing of permanents to be used).
Therefore, I wish to create an artifact that grants extra turns in a very straightforward and simple manner, without requiring a player to meet any strict conditions, and this is the result of my efforts:
Temporal Fluctuator Show
: take an extra turn after this one. Activate this ability only during your turn, and you cannot activate this ability during extra turns.I chose the name because it sounds cool and also explains what the artifact does. I was contemplating naming it "temporal extender," since that would also be an accurate name, but that did not sound as esoteric, to me. I added the first restrictive clause because nearly all extra turn effects are usable only at sorcery speed, and I added the second restrictive clause to prevent a player from taking infinite extra turns for as long as they had the mana to pay for the artifact's ability.
What does everyone else say about this card? Is it nice? Do you have any suggestions for it?
Yeah, "Take an extra turn" should not be put on an artifact or colorless spell that costs less than 
.
November 8, 2015 8:02 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #4
This is broken for the same reason that Time Vault is broken. Use any Voltaic Key effect and you have infinite turns.
My suggestion is to change the card to say ": Target player gets an extra turn after this one. You can't activate this ability during extra turns."
November 8, 2015 8:04 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
JWiley129: is that a joke, I hope? As useful and powerful as an extra turn is, I cannot imagine any player paying that much mana for it. Yes, I know that Emrakul, the Aeons Torn exists, but that creature grants its controller much more than an extra turn, so it is worth the high mana cost, but an extra turn alone would be worth only half of that, in my mind.
November 8, 2015 8:12 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #6
M a g i c a l H a c k e r:: yes, that is what I meant to write on the card, but I forgot the exact wording. Thank you very much for reminding me of it.
November 8, 2015 8:14 p.m.
mathimus55 says... #7
Watch YouTube videos of Vault/Key combos and you'll realize how stupid broken Extra turns on an artifact are. There are way too many ways to abuse even 5 mana effects like that. Time Warp only costs 5 and people play it despite only being a sorcery and needs extra recursion. And easily recurring effect like an artifact would get broken incredibly fast.
November 8, 2015 8:19 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #8
Well considering you're giving free turn effects to all colors i think a high cost is justified. Maybe 5 is okay. I dunno. 6 seens fair
November 8, 2015 8:20 p.m.
No. Not a joke. There's a reason that Time Vault is banned or restricted in every format. Your card combines with Voltaic Key to say "Pay 
: You win the game".
November 8, 2015 8:20 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
JWiley129: that is simply a clever combination, and should not be punished for being clever. WotC phased out Oblivion Ring in favor of Banishing Light simply because players discovered a clever usage for the ring, and did not want them abusing that card, a decision that I do not like.
However, if you insist on increasing the cost of this card, what about six mana for both casting and activation?
November 8, 2015 8:42 p.m.
You don't understand. This effect should not be put on an artifact, let alone a colorless one.
November 8, 2015 8:44 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #12
JWiley129, so why are you not up in arms with white being able to Memory Jar, green being able to Oblivion Stone, red being able to Ring of Three Wishes, etc.?
Also, Magistrate's Scepter is a colorless artifact that can give you extra turns.
November 8, 2015 8:53 p.m. Edited.
M a g i c a l H a c k e r - I'll tackle each of those cards one at a time.
Memory Jar is busted on its own, so saying "Is it ok for White to access it" is kind of a moot point. It shouldn't have been printed, but it was, and it's busted. That's why it was banned in Standard, banned in Legacy, and Restricted in Vintage.
Oblivion Stone is an appropriately costed Wrath. It's
manato cast, and 
mana to wrath the board. It's one more mana than All Is Dust, but that's also because you can save a permanent by paying 
with O-stone.Ring of Three Wishes is also fair, it's
mana to tutor once, to tutor twice, and 
to tutor three times. But then you're done, outside of shenanigans like Vorel of the Hull Clade.
My complaint isn't that Colorless lets other colors access out-of-color effects, it's that Time Warp should not be put on a colorless artifact where the only requirements is "pay mana and tap". Especially with an easily abusable option in Voltaic Key.
And appealing to the past is no real reason to say why a card can't be made today.
November 8, 2015 8:59 p.m. Edited.
DemonDragonJ says... #14
JWiley129: that is the entire point of artifacts: they can do anything that any color can, but simply at a higher cost. I deliberately intended for this card to give decks of all colors the ability to take extra turns, but at a much higher cost, using Planar Portal and Ring of Three Wishes as models for this card. I can increase the cost of this card even further, but additional additional costs beyond mana costs will defeat the entire purpose of this card, so I cannot add those to it.
November 8, 2015 10:22 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #15
By the way, even with Voltaic Key, the player will be getting only two additional turns, not infinite extra turns, because I added a clause that prevents the fluctuator from being used during extra turns. I got that idea from Medomai the Ageless, who has such a clause to prevent his controller from taking unlimited extra turns. Even when combined with Aurelia, the Warleader (a combo that I fully intend to execute in my red/white/blue EDH deck), he cannot grant unlimited extra turns, so neither can this artifact, either.
November 8, 2015 10:25 p.m.
No, it's not. I'll direct you here as to why this can't happen.
November 8, 2015 10:26 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #17
JWiley129: in that case, how do you explain Strip Mine, Steel Hellkite, Wurmcoil Engine, Scour from Existence, or the eldrazi? All of those cards have effects that are normally associated with a specific color or combination of colors, but are colorless.
November 8, 2015 10:31 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #18
No. Mana for repeatable extra turns has been a losing idea ever since MTG was first created. Even with the restrictive clauses, someone gets two turns instead of one as soon as he/she hits mana. That's basically an automatic win for every single archetype I can imagine.
November 8, 2015 10:34 p.m. Edited.
DemonDragonJ says... #19
FAMOUSWATERMELON: what about paying life as an additional cost, or perhaps even using Phyrexian mana? I wish for this card to use a resource that any deck can be reasonably expected to have.
November 8, 2015 10:38 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #20
I would say something like discard your hand or pay some fraction of your life total.
November 8, 2015 10:39 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #21
maybe it would be better if part of the activation cost involved exiling it
November 8, 2015 10:41 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #22
I think you have an interesting point, but what is the reason that the particular effect should not be available at a high mana cost to each color? Medomai the Ageless basically doubles turns, so something costing almost twice as much without dealing damage that does the same thing seems like a fair trade off for it being colorless.
November 8, 2015 10:41 p.m.
Are you trying to take this debate to other threads? Stay on topic or don't at all.
- Strip Mine is a mistake. There's a reason it hasn't been reprinted.
- Steel Hellkite is fine as a 5/5 flier for , but it was printed during Scars block, which had to follow Zendikar block when Magic was at the height of its power creep.
- Wurmcoil Engine is also fine, since it's a one-off creature. And same goes for it as Steel Hellkite. It was made b/c during that standard every 6 drop had to compete against the Titans, which were oppressive during their time in Standard.
- Scour from Existence is also fine because it's a one-off spell and costs the same as Karn Liberated. And Karn is allowed to do it twice because he's a planeswalker and a mythic which allows for a higher power level.
- And I never said that other colors can't go into the colorless cards to do things outside of color pie. I said that there are effects that can't and shouldn't be put into colorless. Learn the distinction.
November 8, 2015 10:42 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #24
FAMOUSWATERMELON: now that I can agree with, because any deck could theoretically be willing to make such sacrifices, and there are ways to take advantage of expending such resources. However, it currently is late at night, where I am, so I shall return to this thread, at a later time, to further modify this card.
November 8, 2015 10:42 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #25
Here is my newest version of the card:
Temporal Fluctuator Show
November 10, 2015 10:08 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #26
So now it only costs 3 mana, + 3 and some life for an extra turn. Not really seeing the improvement.
November 10, 2015 10:47 p.m.
Phyrexian mana has the same restriction as artifacts, it should be a thing that only colorless can do. Sure you've made it easier for Blue decks to use it, but it's still fundamentally broken.
November 10, 2015 11:02 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #28
FAMOUSWATERMELON, JWiley129: in that case, what do you recommend that I do take make it balanced while still maintaining the spirit of the idea of it being able to fit in any deck?
November 11, 2015 10:13 p.m.
That's the point I'm trying to make. You can't make it balanced and let it be usable in any deck. The basic idea of this card is untenable.
November 11, 2015 10:19 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #30
Make both the cost and activation cost 
and give it another drawback like discarding your hand or sacrificing X permanents. At that point, it might be a bit of an overkill though.
November 11, 2015 10:27 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #31
JWiley129: both Planar Portal and Ring of Three Wishes make an effect that is normally limited to a specific color available to any color, so I see no reason why I cannot do the same for extra turns, as well.
November 11, 2015 11:07 p.m.
Tutoring is fine. Extra Turns is not. That is the distinction you're now missing.
November 11, 2015 11:14 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #33
JWiley129, blue already has so many amazingly-useful abilities (card drawing, counterspells, and returning permanents to their owners' hands), so why cannot extra turns be shared with other colors? What makes extra turns so overpowered in other colors? I know that every color has its own unique abilities, but extra turns are among the most powerful of all effects, and it seems to be making blue too powerful if it is the only color that has them.
Also, why are you practically the only user who is responding to this thread? This thread is now more of a back-and-forth dialogue between you and me than it is an actual discussion of the card that I have created.
November 12, 2015 8:58 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #34
I disagree JWiley129. If it's costed for both effects, the only format you'll be able to play it in is EDH and Modern/Legacy Tron/8-post. In Tron, this thing will only come out around T4 and will take the entire next turn to activate, which in itself isn't so bad, but I would be more scared of a T3 Karn or T4 Ugin, because both of those are GG that early. In 12-post, you can get out a T2 Spaghetti, why bother with an extra turn or two. And in EDH, there are waaaay better things you can do with mana. I think it's fine as is.
November 12, 2015 9:04 p.m.
I think I've made my statement clear. "Artifacts and colorless shouldn't get extra turn effects." You can disagree if you want, but I think most people would agree with me.
DemonDragonJ - That's not how color weaknesses work. Every color gets weaknesses, and extra turns are something that not every color needs access to. Also, I might be the only one responding b/c no one else cares? Which is totally fine. You can't get everyone into your threads.
November 12, 2015 9:08 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #36
JWiley129, in that case, it seems that we have reached an impasse, and there is no need to discuss this subject further. Neither of us is willing to concede to the other, so I feel that continuing to keep this thread active would be a waste of time and effort.
VampireArmy says... #2
So Time Vault except more mana but still just as broken?
November 8, 2015 8 p.m.