You ever notice how, whenever a character of one gender is dominating a character of a different gender in the art, it's always a female dominating a male? Why don't we ever see the reverse? It's hard to call it equal representation when the representation isn't actually equal.
wouldn't want to cause another ***** storm ala Triumph of Ferocity is my best guess.
Just to clarify for everybody here, my umbrage isn't with Mystical Dispute itself. It's the long-term trend Magic's had of favoring women over men whenever it comes to a conflict between the two even though it's supposed to be giving fair treatment, and seeing yet another example of bias in the art direction just kinda brought me to a boiling point. I wouldn't take issue with this if there were just as many examples of male characters dominating females, but I can't even name five examples from the last five years where the male is dominant in the art. Liliana's Defeat, Chandra's Defeat, Nissa's Defeat, and In Bolas's Clutches are the closest examples I can think of, and then the male in question is a giant elder dragon. I guess you could throw in Captured by the Consulate, but there's also a female soldier taking Pia away.
We don't get anything like Sorin caressing his latest female neckbite victim or Tibalt savoring the pain he's causing to some female knight, it's always some dommy female like Liliana, Kaya, or Vraska who's got some male pinned or otherwise subdued. And any time a female character is being dominated, it's either by another female, some kind of nonhumanoid monster, or even an ambiguous predator altogether. Look, if someone in Wizards is into dominant women, I understand, but please, is it too much to ask for a little more actual equality here?
WEIGHT FORWARD! LEAN INTO HIM! STEADY BOY! STEADY! STEADY WITH THE LANCE! GRIP HER TIGHT! HIT HIM CLEAN!
NO, NO, NO!
HEADS UP!
Can't you remember one blasted thing? Tight grip on the lance. Loosen the saddle. Knees in tight. Weight forward, and stay on target! You keep losing your grip!
You ever notice how, whenever a character of one gender is dominating a character of a different gender in the art, it's always a female dominating a male? Why don't we ever see the reverse? It's hard to call it equal representation when the representation isn't actually equal.
Mod Note: Hey everyone, while we like to foster discussion, there comes a limit to where things get to be overly political or too sensitive. The discussion following this is one of those times.
We've got Shocks and Checks in Standard already. And Theros is our next stop, right? Last time we were there, we got ten duals, the Temples. So, maybe for our next visit...
I was super surprised by the off-hand announcement of all of next year's standard sets, but I'm not complaining. It's nice to see that this thread evolved into a constructive discussion after the doomsayers all belched out their bile on page 1....
Return to Theros:
The set symbol alone promises a focus on the underworld, and I could see the entire set focussing much more on Nyx as well, rather than the hero-vs-monster theme that was around last time. Elspeth in the underworld plotting revenge against the tyrannical Heliod and recruiting unlikely allies (Erebos etc), then herself ascending to godhood to replace Heliod? Yeah, I'm ready for this. Devotion is a given, since it is the mechanical link between the plane's inhabitants and the Gods/Nyx, which are the most prominent feature on Theros. I could see then dropping the enchantment-focus however.
Erebos is Elspeth's enemy, too. Their bargain was that Erebos would get Elspeth if Daxos was allowed to leave the underworld. Problem is, Daxos left as a Returned, which is obviously not what Elspeth intended. Erebos cheated on the deal, and he deserves the Godsend himself. But since the focus is more on the underworld this time, I can see a greater focus on death matters, like maybe a Bestow variant that allows you to cast creature cards from your graveyard as Auras, and a theme of sacrifice in line with the ritual sacrifices often made to deities historically.
Well, at least black has its own mage type now, rather than constantly sharing Cleric, Wizard, Shaman, and Druid with the other colors. I expect to see a Warlock errata for a lot of Witches:
Besides, it wouldn't be the first time Zendikar introduced a tweak on Kicker.
Which is part of the problem.
Bouncing a single land certainly is a tweak on sweep that is much more reasonable.
Your templating is incorrect, btw, because the phrase "this spell was cast for its roil cost" implies an alternative cost, while the reminder text speaks of an additional cost.
Maybe that's the solution though. You could make roil an alternative cost (e. g. Geyser Flame becomes 1R with roil cost 2RR). This has multiple benefits:
You no longer walk straight into kicker territory.
You can make commons that are french vanilla with just roil without a change to the effect just for a pure cost reduction.
You can make cards that have a differently colored roil cost and casting cost.
Even while staying in-color, you could vary color intensity e. g. a devotion friendly casting cost, but a roil cost with only a single colored mana symbol.
You can consider hugely decreased roil costs with fun drawbacks.
As with awaken before an alternative cost is actually preferable in just telling the cost they are actually going to actually pay straight - no moment to calculate that Roil Wave with roil cost needs six mana, if you straight up print the six mana cost.
The option you really lose is going the Volver/Battlemage route and putting multiple roil costs on a single card, but those are actually quite wordy and have some design issues, so I don't know you'd even want that.
Whoops, I forgot to change the templating on Geyser Flame. Corrected.
I actually started out with an alternate cost, but I felt "if this spell's roil cost was paid" was breezier than "if this spell was cast for its roil cost". Plus I thought it would be charming to have a throwback to Kicker since Kicker made its big return on Zendikar, only now it's Kicker with flavor. But I'll try the alternate cost route.
Roil Wave2UU
Sorcery
Roil 3UUU(Rather than pay this card's mana cost, you may pay 3UUU and return a land you control to its owner's hand.)
Return all creatures with power 3 or less to their owners' hands. If this spell was cast for its roil cost, instead put all creatures with power 3 or less on top of their owners' libraries.
Lava Geyser1R
Sorcery
Roil 2RR(Rather than pay this card's mana cost, you may pay 2RR and return a land you control to its owner's hand.)
~ deals 3 damage to any target. If this spell was cast for its roil cost, it deals 5 damage to that target instead.
Speaking of french vanilla, I like the idea of creatures with Roil benefits that are otherwise vanilla, like maybe a green bear that enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it if it was cast for its roil cost.
Turntimber Elemental1G
Creature - Elemental
Roil 2GG(Rather than pay this card's mana cost, you may pay 2GG and return a land you control to its owner's hand.)
If this spell was cast for its roil cost, ~ enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2
And yet Liliana's Caress was a-ok...
Just to clarify for everybody here, my umbrage isn't with Mystical Dispute itself. It's the long-term trend Magic's had of favoring women over men whenever it comes to a conflict between the two even though it's supposed to be giving fair treatment, and seeing yet another example of bias in the art direction just kinda brought me to a boiling point. I wouldn't take issue with this if there were just as many examples of male characters dominating females, but I can't even name five examples from the last five years where the male is dominant in the art. Liliana's Defeat, Chandra's Defeat, Nissa's Defeat, and In Bolas's Clutches are the closest examples I can think of, and then the male in question is a giant elder dragon. I guess you could throw in Captured by the Consulate, but there's also a female soldier taking Pia away.
We don't get anything like Sorin caressing his latest female neckbite victim or Tibalt savoring the pain he's causing to some female knight, it's always some dommy female like Liliana, Kaya, or Vraska who's got some male pinned or otherwise subdued. And any time a female character is being dominated, it's either by another female, some kind of nonhumanoid monster, or even an ambiguous predator altogether. Look, if someone in Wizards is into dominant women, I understand, but please, is it too much to ask for a little more actual equality here?
WEIGHT FORWARD! LEAN INTO HIM! STEADY BOY! STEADY! STEADY WITH THE LANCE! GRIP HER TIGHT! HIT HIM CLEAN!
NO, NO, NO!
HEADS UP!
Can't you remember one blasted thing? Tight grip on the lance. Loosen the saddle. Knees in tight. Weight forward, and stay on target! You keep losing your grip!
Mod Note: Hey everyone, while we like to foster discussion, there comes a limit to where things get to be overly political or too sensitive. The discussion following this is one of those times.
Erebos is Elspeth's enemy, too. Their bargain was that Erebos would get Elspeth if Daxos was allowed to leave the underworld. Problem is, Daxos left as a Returned, which is obviously not what Elspeth intended. Erebos cheated on the deal, and he deserves the Godsend himself. But since the focus is more on the underworld this time, I can see a greater focus on death matters, like maybe a Bestow variant that allows you to cast creature cards from your graveyard as Auras, and a theme of sacrifice in line with the ritual sacrifices often made to deities historically.
*Sigil Captain shifts uncomfortably*
Whoops, I forgot to change the templating on Geyser Flame. Corrected.
I actually started out with an alternate cost, but I felt "if this spell's roil cost was paid" was breezier than "if this spell was cast for its roil cost". Plus I thought it would be charming to have a throwback to Kicker since Kicker made its big return on Zendikar, only now it's Kicker with flavor. But I'll try the alternate cost route.
Roil Wave 2UU
Sorcery
Roil 3UUU (Rather than pay this card's mana cost, you may pay 3UUU and return a land you control to its owner's hand.)
Return all creatures with power 3 or less to their owners' hands. If this spell was cast for its roil cost, instead put all creatures with power 3 or less on top of their owners' libraries.
Lava Geyser 1R
Sorcery
Roil 2RR (Rather than pay this card's mana cost, you may pay 2RR and return a land you control to its owner's hand.)
~ deals 3 damage to any target. If this spell was cast for its roil cost, it deals 5 damage to that target instead.
Speaking of french vanilla, I like the idea of creatures with Roil benefits that are otherwise vanilla, like maybe a green bear that enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it if it was cast for its roil cost.
Turntimber Elemental 1G
Creature - Elemental
Roil 2GG (Rather than pay this card's mana cost, you may pay 2GG and return a land you control to its owner's hand.)
If this spell was cast for its roil cost, ~ enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2