I really like this. I think the wording could use a bit of work but I really like the flavor. I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this in a return to Theros.
They cost like $2 each. I'd say they are fine for a commander deck. Honestly if you want these to play with outside the precons just buy singles.
I've tested in 3 color decks and they are hardly effectively dual lands. Early in the game you need fixing so you tend to play non-basics. This means these will come into play tapped most of the time in the beginning of the game. Later in the game when you have plenty of mana fixing in place they could come into play untapped when it doesn't really matter.
That doesn't change the fact that these lands are standard legal. I wouldn't want standard players buying up commander decks because they have standard staples in them, and while not everyone would do that, some would.
Also, only the ally Battle lands exist. That fact alone leads only to one of two frustrating situations:
1. They reprint the ally lands and everyone gets frustrated because they didn't just print the enemy versions instead and complete the cycle.
2. They print the enemy lands to complete the cycle, but the end up being inherently more expensive because at the moment they're only available in a product with MSRP $34.99, which ends up making people frustrated anyway.
My point here is that putting rare dual lands into a commander product is pretty much always a bad idea because it leads to less availability, price gouges, or disappointment. Making worse, but still desirable duals specifically for this product avoids a lot of that downside.
Yeah, but there's really not much reason to make another dual land that is strictly worse when these exist. These won't cause people to buy up tons of them to strip them of the lands. They will just be decent budget options.
The purpose of these is making fetchable lands that won't ramp up the price of the product by an arm and a leg. Battle lands are effectively dual lands in many commander decks, not to mention they are standard legal and rare.
Commander precons are targeted towards beginners and casual players. They've made mistakes in the past of putting over-valued cards into these decks before, resulting in more enfranchised players scooping them up before the target audience even gets a chance at them, and in the process, ramping up there price to unreasonable amounts.
I get that they are supposed to be generally attractive to most players, but putting rare dual lands in these products will likely result in a frustratingly low availability. I think a cycle of uncommon, fetchable taplands would get the job done just fine. Heck, I would even want to pick them up anyway, because the more fetchable mana fixers, the better. Especially when they're cheaper.
So yes, there are advantages to having strictly-worse land cycles in these products.
Sirena, Scourge of LegendBB
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Enchantments you control have exalted.
~ can't be blocked except by X or more creatures where X is the number of enchantments you control.
2/2
next: something with a really obscure and narrow strategy
I think completing the Krosan Verge lands while adding a new cycle of lands (ex: "Plains Island, etb tapped") would probably be best. That way, the new lands wouldn't be super expensive and they can be searched out for optimal mana fixing.
It is my understanding that the only color allowed to have regular access to countermagic is blue, and the only other color in recent years that's had access to minor countermagic has been white, and white has only ever had soft counters.
Given that, I would suggest something along the lines of this:
Restart(W/U)(W/U)
Instant (U)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays its mana cost.
Ishkanah, Grafwidow4G
Legendary Creature - Spider
Flash, reach
You may cast Spider spells as though they had flash.
Whenever ~ or another Spider enters the battlefield under your control, prevent all combat damage targetattacking creature would deal this turn. 6B: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Create X 1/2 green Spider creature tokens with reach where X is that creature's toughness.
3/5
I wanted to keep the theme of Ishkanah having the same costs as Spider Spawning, but I thought the second ability was pretty weak on the one we got.
Spider's Web1G
Enchantment
Sacrifice ~: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by non-Spider creatures.
Tap three Spiders you control: Return ~ from your graveyard to your hand. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
This one is just top-down, fun Spider tribal stuff. Repeatable fogs are tricky, so I purposefully made it pretty hard to abuse.
Also, I found out after I designed it that Spider's Web would actually also help delerium, so I'm pretty sad it wasn't made
I chose Tajik because his character fit, but the actual effect matters more to me.
Tajik, Squad Leader1RW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
First strike
At the beginning of the first postcombat main phase on each of your turns, if ~ didn't attack this turn, you may start an additional combat phase after this one, followed by an additional main phase. If you do, ~ attacks this combat if able.
2/2
Basically, it's supposed to split up combat so that you can attack with different sets of creatures at a time. It also rewards creatures that have vigilance or can untap.
Thoughts?
Edit: fixed to prevent Pacifism combos. (was "At the beginning of each post combat main phase on your turn...")
Ajani, the TinyW
Planeswalker - Ajani
Loyalty 2
+1: Untap up to one target creature.
-2: Create a 2/1 Cat creature token.
-6: Your life total becomes your starting life total.
Next: Choose a creature in the art of a modern staple and make a planeswalker for it.
I feel like Crazed Tutor should be "Discard a card. If you do...", but I see why you'd want it the other way.
The others are pretty neat, and I'm tempted to steal a few for my shards set because some enable my grixis keyword, Antagonize (Whenever an opponent becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.) But I wouldn't do that without permission and credit. Still, very fun stuff.
For Changeover, I've thought about using an effect like this in similar ways (controlling other players during your turn), but I always seem to find a reason not to do it. Most of the time is that, during your turn, the applications of an effect are just so limited, it never seems to be worth a whole card. I feel like you'd run into the same problem with yours, but idk. neat design though.
The question came to my mind, what will the back look like? Pack tokens have pretty ugly backs, not worthy of a special tool promotional token IMO. But I figure they have gotten away from using authentic MTG backs like my PR Marit-Lage. Double-sided seems like the perfect solution.
They have used the normal card back on tokens in box-sets before, like the saproling in Izzet vs Golgari. Otherwise, they usually use the other side for another token or emblem or something like that.
Also, only the ally Battle lands exist. That fact alone leads only to one of two frustrating situations:
1. They reprint the ally lands and everyone gets frustrated because they didn't just print the enemy versions instead and complete the cycle.
2. They print the enemy lands to complete the cycle, but the end up being inherently more expensive because at the moment they're only available in a product with MSRP $34.99, which ends up making people frustrated anyway.
My point here is that putting rare dual lands into a commander product is pretty much always a bad idea because it leads to less availability, price gouges, or disappointment. Making worse, but still desirable duals specifically for this product avoids a lot of that downside.
Commander precons are targeted towards beginners and casual players. They've made mistakes in the past of putting over-valued cards into these decks before, resulting in more enfranchised players scooping them up before the target audience even gets a chance at them, and in the process, ramping up there price to unreasonable amounts.
I get that they are supposed to be generally attractive to most players, but putting rare dual lands in these products will likely result in a frustratingly low availability. I think a cycle of uncommon, fetchable taplands would get the job done just fine. Heck, I would even want to pick them up anyway, because the more fetchable mana fixers, the better. Especially when they're cheaper.
So yes, there are advantages to having strictly-worse land cycles in these products.
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Enchantments you control have exalted.
~ can't be blocked except by X or more creatures where X is the number of enchantments you control.
2/2
next: something with a really obscure and narrow strategy
Maybe, or perhaps a functional flashback ability like this:
"Tap three untapped creatures you control: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt by non-Spider creatures this turn."
Given that, I would suggest something along the lines of this:
Restart (W/U)(W/U)
Instant (U)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays its mana cost.
Legendary Creature - Spider
Flash, reach
You may cast Spider spells as though they had flash.
Whenever ~ or another Spider enters the battlefield under your control, prevent all combat damage targetattacking creature would deal this turn.
6B: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Create X 1/2 green Spider creature tokens with reach where X is that creature's toughness.
3/5
I wanted to keep the theme of Ishkanah having the same costs as Spider Spawning, but I thought the second ability was pretty weak on the one we got.
Spider's Web 1G
Enchantment
Sacrifice ~: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by non-Spider creatures.
Tap three Spiders you control: Return ~ from your graveyard to your hand. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
This one is just top-down, fun Spider tribal stuff. Repeatable fogs are tricky, so I purposefully made it pretty hard to abuse.
Also, I found out after I designed it that Spider's Web would actually also help delerium, so I'm pretty sad it wasn't made
Changing to "At the beginning of your first postcombat main phase each turn..."
Also, thanks guys
Tajik, Squad Leader 1RW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
First strike
At the beginning of the first postcombat main phase on each of your turns, if ~ didn't attack this turn, you may start an additional combat phase after this one, followed by an additional main phase. If you do, ~ attacks this combat if able.
2/2
Basically, it's supposed to split up combat so that you can attack with different sets of creatures at a time. It also rewards creatures that have vigilance or can untap.
Thoughts?
Edit: fixed to prevent Pacifism combos. (was "At the beginning of each post combat main phase on your turn...")
Planeswalker - Ajani
Loyalty 2
+1: Untap up to one target creature.
-2: Create a 2/1 Cat creature token.
-6: Your life total becomes your starting life total.
Next: Choose a creature in the art of a modern staple and make a planeswalker for it.
The others are pretty neat, and I'm tempted to steal a few for my shards set because some enable my grixis keyword, Antagonize (Whenever an opponent becomes the target of a spell or ability you control, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.) But I wouldn't do that without permission and credit. Still, very fun stuff.
For Changeover, I've thought about using an effect like this in similar ways (controlling other players during your turn), but I always seem to find a reason not to do it. Most of the time is that, during your turn, the applications of an effect are just so limited, it never seems to be worth a whole card. I feel like you'd run into the same problem with yours, but idk. neat design though.