To look at the types of creatures that red normally offers for bigger dudes, there is one that just seems to fit the bill. DRAGONS!!!! Dragons are mythical and powerful creatures that fly, light things on fire and destroy your face. Magic has made a lot of dragons! I did not want to use a normal ability, like average firebreathing. That being said, it has to have flying. Dragons fly, plain and simple. So I have no choice but to let the big dude soar.
I want it to have a sweet static ability that makes it game altering when it enters the battlefield, therefore, if it dies, it may have already done something. This is where I have a big problem with big creatures, they just die to doom blade and you wasted a turn to do nothing. I want all my guys to have been so powerful that it will honestly alter the game state, even if the opponent is holding a removal spell. So here is what I got for a dragon :
Just don't piss him off!
This guy seems fun to me. His cost is big, he is powerfulm and has acceptable abilities. Lets examine each piece by piece.
First up is mana cost, 7. I was going through 6-9 and felt that at 6, he was just to god-like. 8 and 9 felt like they were too much. 7 is cheap for an effect this powerful that comes with a big body, but he dies to a removal spell and hurts your guys too. 7 seems fair, whether it is for the hurting the board or for the 5/5 flyer.
5/5 is not unfeasible to chump for a few turns, or even kill. It is a 4 turn clock, so you have time to find an answer and it hoses its own creatures, so it is not a permanently destructive state.
Finally we get to the powerful static ability that I wanted. It explains itself. I wanted a a feeling of conquering, and this felt best. It conquers the entire battlefield, and can survey the troops to do what it wants with them.
Finally we arrive at the pseudo-firebreathing. Sacrificing creatures, that are already hurt, to help you on an alpha strike seems reasonable to me. It will kill you if it is left unchecked, but it is not that difficult to kill and should not be a problem in most cases. Let me know how you think it is!!!!
Pitzer
I think for a seven cost creature, the passive could be a little stronger. I think making it just your opponents non-flyers get -1/-1. It also makes your dudes better for his sacrificial fire breathing, as they no longer have a -1 power.
ReplyDeleteI thought of that, but I really do not want all my creatures to be ridiculously powerful. I made him a rare for that reason. The drawback was placed on there to be a uniform effect that could be used to help or hurt you, so playing it adds the question if you should or not. I wanted a little more of a skill card than a play and win dragon.
DeletePower level wise with current creatures, you could print a vanilla 5/5 flying dragon, at rare, for 3RR; or a 5/5 flier + slightly relevant ability for 3RR or 2RRR at mythic. Yours adds 2 extra mana for a universal -1/-1, and a fire breathing that eats up card advantage and can easily end up 2 or 3 for 1ing you. Making it a -1/-1 for just your opponent's non fliers would actually balance out the mana cost, since currently your abilities aren't worth the 2 extra mana.
DeleteAnother interesting take on the concept, might be to scrap the all the abilities (except flying) and give it R: Non-flying creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.
Flavorfully, it would be breathing fire over everything it had conquered, killing many and burning (weakening) others.