Coven of witches
General forum
Posted on Sept. 14, 2018, 2:34 p.m. by GhostChieftain
I was thinking of brewing a curse themed casual EDH deck, and I thought it would be flavorful to have a bunch of witches for my creature base. Now I realized that witches weren't an actual creature type, but I figured it would basically just be wizards with witch in their names. Upon further looking they are wizards, shamans, clerics, and spellshapers.
What I am wondering is, why not add witch as a creature type and errata a bunch of old witches like they did with the dinosaur tribe in Ixalan?
GhostChieftain says... #3
You make a pretty good point. There are many similarities between witch/wizard (harry potter) or witch/shaman (most rpgs). That being said what is the difference between soldiers and warriors? Or rogues and pirates? They are also quite similar and fill the same role in game. If nothing else, I think the witches should be brought under the roof of one tribe (shaman would have my vote), and the spellslinger tribe should be done away with altogether and be brought into the wizard tribe.
September 14, 2018 3:04 p.m.
I think it's from a flavor perspective, it makes sense why there aren't witches.
I mean, what do witches do that wizards or shamans don't do? Witches aren't always as connected to nature as shamans are always, but they don't always focus on spells from research like wizards.
However, soldiers and warriors differ in how they act. A warrior acts alone in many cases, and soldiers are generally stronger in large groups. There is also a difference between rogues and pirates. While rogues often use the shadows to their advantage, pirates are brazen and fight using methods outside assassinating people or stealing information.
Also, the reason spellshapers are their own group is simply because of how their ability works. You can never make a shellshaper that doesn't discard a card essentially.
September 14, 2018 3:57 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #6
It doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it’s been ten years since vampires turned into a real tribe vs just being big monsters, but at the time people said the same things (parasitic, narrow etc.)
But yeah, my question was more about looking at the differences to see if there would be some real gameplay differences. At the moment Shamans and Wizards do feel like different tribes, just as Druids and Shamans feel different. I feel like the Hags from Eventide would be good examples of witches too, and still there’s no real mechanical identity to tell them apart from any of the other random creature types...
September 14, 2018 6:21 p.m.
What is the benefit of turning a bunch of old creatures into witches? How about making a new creature type? Flavor would be one reason. Maybe if we could find a mechanical niche for them that separates them meaningfully form the other magic using tribals like wizards. Still, cluttering up the design space with tons of tribals will leave lots of players unhappy because the support for the tribe will be spread thin. Just look at the snake + naga controversy. Overall I don't see the point.
MindAblaze says... #2
What’s the different between a witch, a wizard and a shaman?
September 14, 2018 2:38 p.m.