Hello everyone!!! My name is Matt Pitzer and I like Magic. This basic fact is the main reason I accepted the invitation to write for Bob's blog. I enjoy the game and enjoy putting out crazy ideas for the future, so I hope that you will enjoy my work as well.
This leads me to the idea for my posts, a card a day in an upcoming boo set that will have a consistent theme and hopefully some fun stuff to think about. Things like video games, movies, sports and life in general will hopefully be inspiring the cards I create as well as the writings to go with them. Which leads me to my first idea for a set, a shifted color pie.
As we all know every color in magic has specific ideas behind it - green has big monsters, red has burn, white has protection, black has destruction, blue has manipulation just to name a few. I thought that It would be a fun idea to change that! I want to shift the color pie so that each color is doing things it doesn't normally do. This idea is not unheard of, but besides brief forays into it for a card or two, never has there been such power shifts as I think there ought to be. So here are the first five, one in each color, doing things that have barely been seen in there respective colors:
This one seemed fairly straight forward to me, Blue needs a creature that can actually damage the opponent. A 2/2 haster isn't impossibly powerful, but it is strong enough that I will really hurt the opponent before they most likely have an opportunity to deal with it. Merfolk also seemed like the tribe that wanted this, as it doesn't need to have flying to make sense. The card is very top down, and has a large potential upside while being easy to be stopped with a grizzly bear.
I like pump spells. I really do, especially in limited. Giant growth is absolutely no exception. I thought that black's motif of mostly hurting yourself in order to either clear the way or help the team seemed like a good place to start. Ultimate end all to pump spells this is not, but it definitely has some ramifications in store. Black has never had a ton of flying (Faeries excluded) and I thought the flavor of the card warranted the idea that their power comes from their undead/bloodsucking/anger, so this also seemes like a good place to shift the color wheel with a simple pump spells for creatures on the ground.
So simple, yet so difficult to see. White burn spells, I LOVE IT!!! This is shock, plain and simple, and I am in no way attempting to hide that. The truth is that white could have some powerful burning effects, but the color pie has left them without an acceptable answer to how. Top down, mana=damage spell that I am enjoying just thinking about. Shock was never ground breaking, but it has always been decent so now it gets a burst of sunlight.
Kill spells are fun and have seen play in every format in the history of the game. The sad thing is that Green has never had the opportunity to really hurt the opponents. This card is another simple look at a way that Green could hurt the opponents creatures without them having to be flying. Also has the flavor that a green ramp strategy could still utilize.
Raising dead things is always fun, and red has always had one creature that could do it, a phoenix. I like the idea of a raise dead in a color full of haste and damage. It seems like an easy fit to be able to bring dudes back and attack your opponent to dead in no time. Zombify was good enough when it was legal to see play in Type 2 and this would be no exception to that rule. Not hard to imagine, but a powerful effect that red was yet to be granted in such simple a way.
Thank you so much for looking at these simple yet color-shifted cards that were created. I have never done this before, so if you would comment and tell me how the writing was and how bad/good the cards were, that would be much appreciated!!!
Pitzer
I really like the flavor of the Ashes of the Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteI would really like the rest of these if they didn't feel so off color. The White one is second closest to actually seeing print, as they made something similar in Planar Chaos.
I understand that the point of this was to show some off-color shenanigans, but blue haste feels really, really wrong to me. If you're going to make that card at least have the mana cost be more than what red can pay for it.
Goblin Chariot is 2/2 haste for 2R, at least make the the Merfolk 3U.
I understand, and the haste feels weird to me too, but i think that a 2/2 haste for 2 isn't unreasonable. It is powerful, but not to the point that it would take over a game. I was looking to the idea that it could fit in the right circumstances, but the more I look at it I like it less.
DeleteWhat did you think of the green and black cards? Those were the two that seemed like they fit, at least slightly.
Desert Twister is a good example of the power level we're looking for.
DeleteThe main problem I have with all of these is probably the cost. Other colors can do these things cheaper. Here's what I think they should cost for what they do:
3U, like I said before.
B, and pay 2 life. It'll give it a 1,2,3 feel. 1 mana, 2 life, 3 p/t. Also, let fliers have it too. :)
1W. White having 1 direct damage spell shouldn't break anything, but it has to either cost 1w, or not target players.
3GG, and sorcery. If you have that many lands, you might as well use them.
4R. Otherwise, awesome.
The biggest problem with the Merfolk is that its ability isn't off color it is just worded wrong. Flash often acts as the blue version Haste and makes this card feel less off color and more just a boring Merfolk. Is there something more off color that you could push blue into? When it comes to color bleed, you want to find ways to make it work, not force it in. I think you achieved that with the rest of the cycle. The Merfolk just leaves me wanting more.
ReplyDeleteI do have to say that the white Shock is perfect to me. I have use it before in a set as well. For what it does, it as big as white should have (2 damage) but it does feel white. I'd fight to keep the white shock in a set any day!
I thought of a more black version of the black one. Give the creature +3/+0 and regenerate it. Same effect, more black.
ReplyDeleteI think the merfolk should either cost UU or just be a 2/1. I guess there's nothing wrong with a value bear but in blue I feel it should at least have some downside.
ReplyDeleteI love the flavor of the black spell but I disagree that black don't have a lot of flyers.
The white spell reminds me of sunlance which is a nice white burn spell.
For kill spells I prefer fight in green but I like that it is dependent on the number of lands you control. At instant speed kill spell for 2 mana however is too good, I'd make it 3 mana or sorcery.
A red zombify is kinda cool, but I think bringing a creature back with haste and then having to sacrifice it at end of turn might fit red better.
Just the 50 cents of an anon who stumbled across this blog.