Watermarks or a top-corner symbol would've been nice, but they would've also had to come up with iconography for each shard--something difficult as they weren't organizations, but places. I realize that the latest comment is two years old and so it's really easy to point this out, but the best solution would've been to run prereleases similar to Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash. Fortunately Wizards did learn a few things.
That aside, I really did love Alara (and to be clear with that I mean the first set, only the first set). The concept of worlds in which the colors we take for granted simply do not exist was fantastically novel, and as far as I can tell is the most frequently revisited theme among fan-designers. For the block as a whole, I choose lack of block clarity and focus as a ruining factor more than its timing. Conflux was a monumental disappointment--we're here for worlds without certain colors. Now you're mashing everything together rather than giving the shards depth. Gee, thanks guys.
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- Rusty Keyes
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Member for 16 years and 5 months
Last active Fri, Jan, 3 2020 17:11:42
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I like the mechanic. It would use a different word though... decimating means to reduce by a factor of 1/10, as in Decimator Web. I too am sad that "devour" couldn't be used here.
I also agree that Dream Crafter is too much. One card I've been working on lately lets you discard a card to make a token that has you draw a card when it dies. That might be a little more fair while still technically retaining card advantage.
While sunburst's wording does change based on what it's on, I don't think the same applies to fight. It's easy to understand and accept charge counters as the non-creature version of +1/+1 counters, but there's a much larger difference between a creature's power and a player's life total, which is more akin to toughness. I'm sure there are numerous more technical reasons why fight shouldn't work this way, but that seems like the biggest one to me.
The card itself is just too much. First, if you want to scale this off of Ball Lightning or Arc Runner, the logical conclusion is that you would get roughly 10 power out of this. Taking away trample doesn't do a whole lot; it can still be easily exploited by Brion Stoutarm or hit with a Distortion Strike. Yeah, those aren't monored cards, but it's not surprising to think this kind of deck would also run a few copies of Pyretic Ritual, too. If anything, this is a Johnny card.
Lotus Cobra is the obvious answer to that problem.
I've also thought of pairing the Cobra with Savage Silhouette, then using Day of Judgement. Since you'll have access to red, it's also worth considering playing Zektar Shrine, Goblin Bushwhacker, then maybe some Bloodghasts...
But yeah. Lotus Cobra. What's up with all of this Extended stuff?