How would spending less mana to cast a spell overload it?
The spell is overloaded because there isn't enough mana to support it, so it malfunctions. Picture someone trying to carry too much cash inside a too little case, the case crashs and everyone is able to get that cash. The case is overloaded. I know smaller overload costs is not confirmed but since it's the only way to make Overload do something kicker can't do, so i really believe we will see it in RTR.
It's also very elegant way to creat a card that covers multiple grounds at once. It may look like replicate but it's actually far different (and far better!). A exemple:
New Izzet Burn R
Sorcery
Deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
1RR Overload
This card is Shock and mini Slagstorm in the very same card. You used one slot in your deck but got two cards. You got your pin point removal and you got your typical red mass removal. Overload changes the spell place in the color pie (in many cases however it doesn't change enough to change it's color) while Replicate simply increase the spell power level. Overload is non-linear, Replicate is linear.
Proof that Overload changes the place of the spell in the pie:
You can overload Terminate and cast Day of Judgment instead.
Other made up cards that can captalize the twisting power of overload:
Izzet Land Bouncer UR
Instant
Return target land to it's owner hand.
Overload 3UR
(For two mana you have pseudo LD. It gives you one turn of land advantage but doesn't have the potential to truely lock down your opponent like LD commonly does. Overload means armaggedon-like upheaval which is completlty different type of card).
Izzet Failed attempt of Ancestral Recalling 4UU
Instant
Target player draws three cards.
Overload U
(the common cost is like those expansive late game draw engines, such as opportunity. Overloaded this card is strange cantrip that draws you a bunch of cards but let your opponent draw too, eliminating the card advantage. Maybe U is too strong cause it helps too much turn explosive hands on vintage but it's just a made up card lol).
Selesnya Charm WG
Destroy target enchantment.
Put one 1/1 green saproling token on the battlefield.
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn.
Sorry, didn't saw that the holy day/fog above me ! Thats my idea.
It's nuts on limited. Not only a strong card but a fun one.
Looks like WotC is digging the idea of one-sided x burns. It's cool cause it gives more tool for red decks that want to play on midrange. Which is allways nice since red is allways stuck with the same RDW strategies...
Does really helps flashbacks and maybe overload cards. I don't think he will be normaly played on constructed, unless some deck is trying to really cast alot of 1c spells for c.
Niv and Jarad have alt arts. So it's 4 new arts so far:
* Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
* Prophetic Bolt
* Feast or Famine
* Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Quicksilver Dagger and Force Spike problably gotta gain new art too. Maybe Brainstorm. On the Golgari side i think Ghoul Feast will get new art too cause it's so old.
I really like the new Simic. Imo old Simic was too much blue and too little green. Kraaj is like the opposite of what green stands for... A huge ever evolving organism is kind greenish except it is an artificially created organism that will ultimately end all econosystens in the plane. Green idea is that nature should stay alone and be respected, all green guilds should follow this principle until some point.
Still i'm annoyed in such sudden change of style. I mean, the lack of continuity in RAV and this blocks annoys me and this only deepens this feeling. I hope simic story is on the lines of:
"After experment Kraaj most of other guilds agreed to expell/execute all the simic guildmages involved with cytoplastic things and other kinds of mutation spells and experments. Well that was almost every member of the guild. Everything looked terrible for the Simic until some whetever holes started to appear on Ravnica and a outsider race known as merfolk started to show up. The remaining and scattered simics was studying the sinkholes and discovered how they could be used to isolate nature from civilisation. They made a pact with the merfolk, giving the guild to the alien race and asked only they would carry the original simic duty. Thats how the Simic Combine became a host of merfolk and mystics instead of mad scientists".
I think "detachment and holism that provide a kind of separation from the larger urban systems" is the much better approach to the UG theme guild. I think they changed the Simic so much because theres was some overlap between then and the izzet and the izzet is insanely popular.
I think Tony Stark is U. Xavier is kind WU. Wolverine is RG. I dunno about Nick Fury, he seens to be the douchbag W. Still i'm not Marvel expert hehehe Agree with the rest !
One thing i would ike is a color article about wedge combinations. I"m praying for the day we will have a reverse Alara block !
I agree with your white part, but again, that's two different sides of the same White we are talking about. There are White characters who are altruistic and look towards helping society, and there are also White characters who are striving for "moral perfection". It's possible for those two to overlap, but then it is also possible for those two to be completelty seperate things.
Take this example: on one hand, we have a Cleric who only wants to preserve the community as a whole through promoting altruism versus, on the other hand, a Knight Templar who wants to destroy the ones who are selfish or different in society for the sake of the greater good. One is altruistic and focused on the group, the other is concerned with "moral perfection", and both could be reasonably flavored in White, but they're clearly not the same. MaRo's White was putting his "best foot forward" by showing the part of his philosophy which is the "best".
As for your opinion of Black, it's not invalid. Black can be the color that goes down the path to darkness, but the reason MaRo doesn't want to paint Black as the "villain" or the "immoral" color is, as he said in many articles before, that he doesn't want the conflict between White vs. Black to be one about Good vs. Evil.
You mention that you don't believe Black is evil, and yet you want black to be "immoral, subversive and satirical" without being the color focused on the self. I think that's a big thing to ask, because in order to have the Black you seem to want to have, you need to necessarily paint it as evil. Immorality is defined as the violation of ethics and of law, so I can't personally see how you want a "moral" White against an "immoral" black without it eventually boiling down to Good vs. Evil, which MaRo wants to avoid at all costs. As for being subversive and satirical... that's kind of Red's job, really.
In MaRo's opinion, and I quote:
"Now I get to the part of the column destined to increase my inbox this week. Whenever we talk about White and Black, the issue of good versus evil always comes up. Good versus evil, it is argued, is a time-tested staple of fantasy. In fact, there are those who believe (and count me among “those”) that the fantasy genre is fundamentally about morality. If this is so, how can Magic not have good and evil?
My answer is, it does. Magic has good. Magic has evil. Good and evil square off against one another quite often. My claim is that this conflict is not isolated solely to White and Black. In fact, I believe that the conflict is so key to fantasy that we (being the overseers of the game's flavor) don't have the luxury of limiting it to just two colors."
I think your main issue, italofoca, is that you want White to represent morality and Black to represent immorality. However, in order to keep Magic interesting, we can't have Black always be the villain, nor White always be the hero, which is why MaRo wants these two colors to be deeper than that and often bring about the "light is not good" and "dark is not evil" idea.
You are correct in that, being greedy, selfish or egoistic doesn't automatically mean pacts with demons, raising the dead or causing the suffering of others... and that's precisely MaRo's point. It shouldn't. However, what I like about what MaRo did to the psyche of Black is that it's not evil to be selfish, but that's Blacks defining point.
However, excessive selfishness, and the belief that everyone is just as selfish, leads to paranoia, which leads to a desire for power (enough power to stop others from hurting you while they advance their own selfish causes) which eventually leads to the desire for power at any cost, which leads to the Dark Arts, traditionally depicted as the easiest way to get to power, as long as you are willing to pay the price, which Black is. This "slippery slope" is not exclusive to Black, of course. White can do it to.
White wants moral perfection, which leads to the creation of laws, which if not obeyed leads to stricter enforcing of the law, which, if still not controlled will lead to total despotism (for everyone's own good, of course) or the destruction of anyone who seeks to rebel versus this craving for "moral perfection".
Let me use an analogy using two characters from a certain novel series (Harry Potter... I hope you are familiar with the series?). Compare Voldemort and Slughorn. In Magic terms, I think they would be both Black when represented as cards (though I can see where you are going at with Blue being the color of greed and commerce, as I can also see Slughorn with a splash of Blue) with Slughorn requiring 3B or 2UB to cast and Voldemort requiring 4BBB to cast, because, while both characters are obviously selfish and ambitious because of their primary character traits, and both have knowledge of the Dark Arts, only one of them was "Black enough" to become the Big Bad of the novels. Voldemort's lust for power to make himself omnipotent and immortal is what makes him pure Black while Slughorn is just Black enough to look out for himself in such a way that it doesn't make him evil for doing so.
If every Black character were "immoral" we'd be hard pressed to make Magic storylines (which involve the fantasy genre, and therefore uses the conflict of good and evil as a storytelling tool, again according to MaRo) anything more than "get rid of the Black character". We can't have that, can we?
I don't huve much time so i will try to put this as short as i can !
About White::
Ok we divided white in two sets, let's call then moral perfection white and altruism white. What i'm trying to say is that moral perfection contains altruism, but altruism does not contain moral perfection. Moral perfection is the bigger, more general set and os it should be the representative of White.
In your own exemple, you have the altruistic cleric. Imo when the cleric is being altruistic he is inside the moral perfecion set too because altruism is a moral virtue for him. The reason why a altruistic person pratice charity is moral. He help others because he thinks thats the moraly right thing to do. The cleric is inside both the white sets (moral perfection and altruism), the knight templar is inside the second one only. Thats why i'm saying morality is in my opnion the general feature that defines white cause it contains all whites possible concepts.
About Black:
I agree withe Evil vs. Good thing but immorality is not evil. You think it is problably because you're inclened to white/green. Imorality is the lack of self contaiment and delight in ridicularzing the self containment of others. Black does not have pleasure in breaking laws (thats more of Red trait) but it has pleasure in breaking morality. Raising the dead, enjoy others pain, enjoying pain yourself, make others crazy, contact evil being just to make others fear you.
Why i classify things that way ? Because for me cards come first and trying to to fit a color philosophy comes later. Pacts with demons and rasing the dead is above everything what defines black. Black is the color of necromancy, vampirism and demonology. If you think those things are evil, then black is evil for you.
Imo the psychological idea behind necromancy, demonology and vampirism is not self interest. Self interest is the driving force of many, many things, like business for exemple. Is Black the color of business ? Hell no. Is self interest is not the driving force of those things, then it's not the philosphy of black because black in all mtg's story are represented by those things.
Black is the color of the moral scandal. Black has fallen angels who are not evil, but just moraly perfect things that sinned. Black is the color that control disease cause it likes the idea of seen it's enemies ruined not only conquered. If the defining trait of black was self interest it would be a color that hoards stuff for itself (draw cards, gain life, get lands) not the color that primary destroy it's opponent (creature removal, discard).
I will use two characters to describe how "imoral but not evil black" exist. First it will be from Harry Potter series as it is a series we both know about. Severus Snape is black. His not a evil character but his first motivations are really black. He was bullied so he learned black arts to be feared. He loved Lilian but didn't loose one a opportunity to hurt her. Later he kind enjoyed to humiliate Harry even through he saved him countless times. He killed his friends without any second toughts when he had to carry his plan. He is not evil but he has the stomach to do imoral things when they are necessary.
Another exemple is modern magic black poster girl, Liliana Vess. Shes not really evil. She doesn't want to destroy/dominate any plane. She doesn't want to just go out and kill people. But shes a certainly a sadistic as every of her flavor texts she is enjoying inflicting pain and killing. Shes a necromancer not because it' necesserely the best way to survive in the multiverse, but because she enjoys see a but of ****ed up bodies serving her.
The same thing could be said about Sorin. His not evil, he has even risked himself to contain the Eldrazi. But his black because he kind enjoy sucking life out of others and killing when needed. Black is about our dark impulses, enjoy things we shouldn't. It's not evil (unless you follow this impulses without regard). When hedonism and morals are in conflict, thats where black is.
I actually like MaRo's take on Black. At it's best, it's essentially fundamentalist Buddhism (not Zen Buddhism or the ascetic kind of Buddhism, but Buddhism at it's core, the way the Awakened One originally taught it) which, when pushed to the extreme, simply becomes "looking out for number one", then paranoid, and then eventually capitalizing on the weaknesses of others. (Whenever any color is pushed to its logical extreme, it verges on becoming unhealthy or even morally iffy... but Black is not evil in its own eyes. It just thinks everyone should think about themselves alone.)
As for White, remember that its idea of "good" is "the good of all", weak and strong alike. White champions the weak (which of course ticks Black off) and thus leads to the philosophies of altruism, law, religion, and putting others before the self.
The kind of morality you described (choosing to help on a case-to-case basis based on your own individual experience instead of weighing morality on the basis of the effects on a third party) is more White-Red or Black than pure White. White wants to believe in an absolute right and wrong. White believes that stealing is bad all the time (Lawful Good). Even if it's stealing from the rich and giving to the poor (Which is Neutral or Chaotic Good, and slides to White-Red) and of course, Black mocks this by saying "absolute because White made it".
In philosophical terms, White embraces (depending on the flavor) either Deontoloy (the idea that an act can always be considered morally right or wrong regardless of context) or Utalitarianism (the most good for the most number of people) or Socialism (the idea that everyone can be equal).
Remember, those articles are "subjective", and certainly do not cover or explain ALL of the motivations of a single color, and are just meant to be how each color justifies its belief system in what it feels is the most positive light. Black, being the pessimist it is, is naturally darker than the others.
I'd personally like to hear White-Red (which is "modern" Buddhism, as in the religion and not the philosophy; note that these are also the colors of "meditation", which is an organized, spiritual-religious experience which involves listening to one's emotions, and clearly within W-R-G... and why Ajani meditates) on how it handles taking morality on its gut feeling on what is right and how it bends rules and moral "absolutes" to do so. Which is why I feel we still need the new articles.
But I'd like to hear what you think of White and Black, if you would care to share.
I agree with everything you said, in White' case i'm being really picky. Let me try to explain:
I think altruism is part of White but not it's main goal. As i see it White is about building a moraly correct civilisation and altruism is part of it but do not defines it. White dreams about a world without hunger and poorverty but will not step in someone's right to fix that. He thinks being moraly consistent (the right goal does not justify the wrong means) is more important then fixing the issues.
When answering the questions i believe White was too concerned about fixing the world and society problems instead of searching for moral perfection.
About Black i'm bit angered. I just don't see the connection between greed, lust and self interest and necromancy/black magic. Greedy people normaly thinks about confort and enjoying life instead of getting obssessed by death non ?
To me Black is primary the 'dark' color. It's not about amorality (seeking pleasure without minding the moral consequencies, which is closer to egoism). It's about imorality. Black does not raise dead because it's the most effiencty way to reach it's goal. He does it for the pleasury of dealing with the dead.
So Black to me is not being greedy and individualistic. It's more about enjoying the sensation of doing things others can't fathom. People don't make pacts with the devil in order to get rich. Studying finance is surely a better way to get rich. The appeal of dark deeds is not efficiency, it's the scandal. Still I don't think Black is evil. But it's subversive and satirical.
Imo greed and self interest are Blue characteristic as it is the color of commerce and enrichment. Blue doesn't mind the others when seeking it's goals. Black kind like when someone is screwed in the process of seeking it's goals.
The spell is overloaded because there isn't enough mana to support it, so it malfunctions. Picture someone trying to carry too much cash inside a too little case, the case crashs and everyone is able to get that cash. The case is overloaded. I know smaller overload costs is not confirmed but since it's the only way to make Overload do something kicker can't do, so i really believe we will see it in RTR.
It's also very elegant way to creat a card that covers multiple grounds at once. It may look like replicate but it's actually far different (and far better!). A exemple:
New Izzet Burn R
Sorcery
Deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
1RR Overload
This card is Shock and mini Slagstorm in the very same card. You used one slot in your deck but got two cards. You got your pin point removal and you got your typical red mass removal. Overload changes the spell place in the color pie (in many cases however it doesn't change enough to change it's color) while Replicate simply increase the spell power level. Overload is non-linear, Replicate is linear.
Proof that Overload changes the place of the spell in the pie:
You can overload Terminate and cast Day of Judgment instead.
Other made up cards that can captalize the twisting power of overload:
Izzet Land Bouncer UR
Instant
Return target land to it's owner hand.
Overload 3UR
(For two mana you have pseudo LD. It gives you one turn of land advantage but doesn't have the potential to truely lock down your opponent like LD commonly does. Overload means armaggedon-like upheaval which is completlty different type of card).
Izzet Failed attempt of Ancestral Recalling 4UU
Instant
Target player draws three cards.
Overload U
(the common cost is like those expansive late game draw engines, such as opportunity. Overloaded this card is strange cantrip that draws you a bunch of cards but let your opponent draw too, eliminating the card advantage. Maybe U is too strong cause it helps too much turn explosive hands on vintage but it's just a made up card lol).
Destroy target enchantment.
Put one 1/1 green saproling token on the battlefield.
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn.
Sorry, didn't saw that the holy day/fog above me ! Thats my idea.
Looks like WotC is digging the idea of one-sided x burns. It's cool cause it gives more tool for red decks that want to play on midrange. Which is allways nice since red is allways stuck with the same RDW strategies...
* Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
* Prophetic Bolt
* Feast or Famine
* Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Quicksilver Dagger and Force Spike problably gotta gain new art too. Maybe Brainstorm. On the Golgari side i think Ghoul Feast will get new art too cause it's so old.
I wish Fire/Ice and Life/Death got new arts =[
Still i'm annoyed in such sudden change of style. I mean, the lack of continuity in RAV and this blocks annoys me and this only deepens this feeling. I hope simic story is on the lines of:
"After experment Kraaj most of other guilds agreed to expell/execute all the simic guildmages involved with cytoplastic things and other kinds of mutation spells and experments. Well that was almost every member of the guild. Everything looked terrible for the Simic until some whetever holes started to appear on Ravnica and a outsider race known as merfolk started to show up. The remaining and scattered simics was studying the sinkholes and discovered how they could be used to isolate nature from civilisation. They made a pact with the merfolk, giving the guild to the alien race and asked only they would carry the original simic duty. Thats how the Simic Combine became a host of merfolk and mystics instead of mad scientists".
I think "detachment and holism that provide a kind of separation from the larger urban systems" is the much better approach to the UG theme guild. I think they changed the Simic so much because theres was some overlap between then and the izzet and the izzet is insanely popular.
1/1 saprolings
2/2 wolves
3/3 beasts
6/6 wurms
I think 4/4 flying angels would be nice too but theres no sign of selesnyan angels =/
One thing i would ike is a color article about wedge combinations. I"m praying for the day we will have a reverse Alara block !
I don't huve much time so i will try to put this as short as i can !
About White::
Ok we divided white in two sets, let's call then moral perfection white and altruism white. What i'm trying to say is that moral perfection contains altruism, but altruism does not contain moral perfection. Moral perfection is the bigger, more general set and os it should be the representative of White.
In your own exemple, you have the altruistic cleric. Imo when the cleric is being altruistic he is inside the moral perfecion set too because altruism is a moral virtue for him. The reason why a altruistic person pratice charity is moral. He help others because he thinks thats the moraly right thing to do. The cleric is inside both the white sets (moral perfection and altruism), the knight templar is inside the second one only. Thats why i'm saying morality is in my opnion the general feature that defines white cause it contains all whites possible concepts.
About Black:
I agree withe Evil vs. Good thing but immorality is not evil. You think it is problably because you're inclened to white/green. Imorality is the lack of self contaiment and delight in ridicularzing the self containment of others. Black does not have pleasure in breaking laws (thats more of Red trait) but it has pleasure in breaking morality. Raising the dead, enjoy others pain, enjoying pain yourself, make others crazy, contact evil being just to make others fear you.
Why i classify things that way ? Because for me cards come first and trying to to fit a color philosophy comes later. Pacts with demons and rasing the dead is above everything what defines black. Black is the color of necromancy, vampirism and demonology. If you think those things are evil, then black is evil for you.
Imo the psychological idea behind necromancy, demonology and vampirism is not self interest. Self interest is the driving force of many, many things, like business for exemple. Is Black the color of business ? Hell no. Is self interest is not the driving force of those things, then it's not the philosphy of black because black in all mtg's story are represented by those things.
Black is the color of the moral scandal. Black has fallen angels who are not evil, but just moraly perfect things that sinned. Black is the color that control disease cause it likes the idea of seen it's enemies ruined not only conquered. If the defining trait of black was self interest it would be a color that hoards stuff for itself (draw cards, gain life, get lands) not the color that primary destroy it's opponent (creature removal, discard).
I will use two characters to describe how "imoral but not evil black" exist. First it will be from Harry Potter series as it is a series we both know about. Severus Snape is black. His not a evil character but his first motivations are really black. He was bullied so he learned black arts to be feared. He loved Lilian but didn't loose one a opportunity to hurt her. Later he kind enjoyed to humiliate Harry even through he saved him countless times. He killed his friends without any second toughts when he had to carry his plan. He is not evil but he has the stomach to do imoral things when they are necessary.
Another exemple is modern magic black poster girl, Liliana Vess. Shes not really evil. She doesn't want to destroy/dominate any plane. She doesn't want to just go out and kill people. But shes a certainly a sadistic as every of her flavor texts she is enjoying inflicting pain and killing. Shes a necromancer not because it' necesserely the best way to survive in the multiverse, but because she enjoys see a but of ****ed up bodies serving her.
The same thing could be said about Sorin. His not evil, he has even risked himself to contain the Eldrazi. But his black because he kind enjoy sucking life out of others and killing when needed. Black is about our dark impulses, enjoy things we shouldn't. It's not evil (unless you follow this impulses without regard). When hedonism and morals are in conflict, thats where black is.
I agree with everything you said, in White' case i'm being really picky. Let me try to explain:
I think altruism is part of White but not it's main goal. As i see it White is about building a moraly correct civilisation and altruism is part of it but do not defines it. White dreams about a world without hunger and poorverty but will not step in someone's right to fix that. He thinks being moraly consistent (the right goal does not justify the wrong means) is more important then fixing the issues.
When answering the questions i believe White was too concerned about fixing the world and society problems instead of searching for moral perfection.
About Black i'm bit angered. I just don't see the connection between greed, lust and self interest and necromancy/black magic. Greedy people normaly thinks about confort and enjoying life instead of getting obssessed by death non ?
To me Black is primary the 'dark' color. It's not about amorality (seeking pleasure without minding the moral consequencies, which is closer to egoism). It's about imorality. Black does not raise dead because it's the most effiencty way to reach it's goal. He does it for the pleasury of dealing with the dead.
So Black to me is not being greedy and individualistic. It's more about enjoying the sensation of doing things others can't fathom. People don't make pacts with the devil in order to get rich. Studying finance is surely a better way to get rich. The appeal of dark deeds is not efficiency, it's the scandal. Still I don't think Black is evil. But it's subversive and satirical.
Imo greed and self interest are Blue characteristic as it is the color of commerce and enrichment. Blue doesn't mind the others when seeking it's goals. Black kind like when someone is screwed in the process of seeking it's goals.
I problem with this spell is the similarity with phyrexian mana... But i would like this kind of effect, even through they are "dangerous".