I think Asylum Warden is an original idea. It makes most sense in a control deck where you want to slow the aggro deck. Would a defender make more sense than an aggressive weenie? Also, would it make most sense as a one-drop since it talks about the first turn and I can't really think of white ramp effects. It's also easy to interact with since it counts as a creature.
It's the general idea of "let the player do what they want." And with that card, you want to play it turn one and attack with it for damage, neither of which you can do, but a one-drop defender would do what it wants, although power level is a thing to consider, of course.
Something like:
Asylem Warden [mana]{W}[/mana}
Creature - Human (Rare)
Defender
As long as its the first, second or third turn of any player, each player's life total can't change, and players can't win or lose the game. (Players can't gain or lose life, and can't pay any amount of life except 0.)
0/3
Seems a bit powerful of course, so maybe it could just be turns one and two?
---
Thanks for the feedback. I'd like to revise my designs rather than just give up on them.
Decision Cycle (common)
Angelic Decision
W
Instant
Target a creature you control. Target opponent chooses one:
* That creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
* You gain 4 life.
Thoughtful Decision
U
Sorcery
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Target opponent chooses one. Place it into your graveyard and the rest into your hand.
Cruel Decision
B
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a creature unless they pay 4 life.
Infernal Decision
R
Instant
Deal 4 damage to target creature unless its controller redirects that damage to him or her.
Bestial Decision
G
Sorcery
Target opponent chooses which enters the battlefield under your control:
* 2/2 green Bear token.
* 2 1/1 green Wolf tokens.
Always critique the previous poster's cards when you post cards here. It's not only good manners, it's the rules.
Ah, sorry. I'm new the thread and didn't actually read the rules. But as you pointed out it would have at least been good manners any way...
Temporal Inversion I liked. It's a cheap way to play a Timewalk effect that seems more fair and had me thinking about a) How powerful is it actually? and b) How can it be best broken? Thinking is a part of what makes strategy game enjoyable, so I can see that this card would be enjoyable to evaluate. I like the general concept of inverting reality and the colours are consistent with the feel of the mechanics. Very out-of-the box. Good job
Decision cycle - These are generally poor designs. Opponent-chooses is an extremely harsh drawback, which is why past punisher cards have been severely undercosted. This cycle has way more minor effects than you'd generally see, and the costing is pretty close or even more than what you'd pay for an effect where you choose. Sacrificial Decision is probably the closest to printable but is probably unfairly backbreaking for causing 5 life loss on turn one.
I'm reading that you didn't like the cards because you felt they were generally underpowered? If they were appropriately powered, would you feel that they were flavourful cards which allowed interaction with your opponent? I ask because this was my intention. Power balance is more of a development decision than a design one and I've not actually shuffled up the cards to play with and test them, which I admit is an important part of design as well.
The fact that you highly value power balance in a design is very useful to me though, because I've been casually designing a card game, so I will be careful to keep the components fairly balanced, somewhere between unplayable and broken.
Thanks for your response as there was no reason why you had to go out of your way to respond. I'll try to think more out-of-the-box and leave my comfort zone of fear of broken cards.
Bit of a Decision Cycle I came up with because why not. Feel free to comment.
Angelic Decision
W
Instant
Target a creature you control. Target opponent chooses one:
* Prevent the next 5 five damage that would be dealt to that creature this turn.
* You gain 5 life.
Thoughtful Decision
2U
Sorcery
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Target opponent separates them into two piles. Put one pile in your hand the rest in your graveyard.
Sacrificial Decision
B
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a creature or loses 5 life.
Infernal Decision
R
Instant
Target opponent deals 3 damage divided between themselves and any number of creatures they control.
Bestial Decision
GGG
Target opponent chooses one:
* You put a green 3/3 Beast token in play.
* You put three 1/1 green Saproling tokens in play.
Should totally build this deck when I have extra cash.
Something like this or a build with Dark Ritual and Putrid Imp. I took out poison because I ran out of cards, but that could easily go in somewhere as well.
Ok, here's a random idea for a new magic variant format. I've not play tested this at all, but maybe somebody would like to comment or even try it out.
TIME SPIRAL
Homebrewed Magic Format
By Jonah Mann
So in the Time Spiral format, you build two decks.
First is a 60-card singleton 'main' deck. This could follow Legacy rules, but for financial (not thematic) reasons, Modern rules could optionally be observed.
Any of the shifted card list can not be placed into the 60-card main deck.
If you would draw a card (after opening hands), you may choose to 'shift' or draw a card from your 15-card 'time spiral' deck instead. If a shifted card would go to the graveyard, exile it instead. If there are no cards left in your 'time spiral' deck, you may not choose to shift a card from it.
Otherwise normal Magic rules apply.
Sort of inspired somewhat by Commander (aka EDH).
Any thoughts? Sound fun? Sound broken? Suggestion for improvements? Deck lists?
Land
Common
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
When ~ enters the battlefield, add one mana of any colour to your mana pool.
T: W
Sacrificial Decision
B
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a creature or loses 5 life.
In M19 appeared Demanding Dragon which has the effect slapped on to a dragon.
EDIT: I realise it was unclear in my wording that the opponent gets the choice, but I revised it to this in another post:
Cruel Decision
B
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a creature unless they pay 4 life.
rare
W
Sorcery
If you can see anyone eating a banana, you win the game.
Draw a card.
ART: A 21 year old guy in a hoodie standing in the corner of a room, casually gnawing on a banana.
It's the general idea of "let the player do what they want." And with that card, you want to play it turn one and attack with it for damage, neither of which you can do, but a one-drop defender would do what it wants, although power level is a thing to consider, of course.
Something like:
Asylem Warden [mana]{W}[/mana}
Creature - Human (Rare)
Defender
As long as its the first, second or third turn of any player, each player's life total can't change, and players can't win or lose the game. (Players can't gain or lose life, and can't pay any amount of life except 0.)
0/3
Seems a bit powerful of course, so maybe it could just be turns one and two?
---
Thanks for the feedback. I'd like to revise my designs rather than just give up on them.
Decision Cycle (common)
Angelic Decision
W
Instant
Target a creature you control. Target opponent chooses one:
* That creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
* You gain 4 life.
Thoughtful Decision
U
Sorcery
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Target opponent chooses one. Place it into your graveyard and the rest into your hand.
Cruel Decision
B
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a creature unless they pay 4 life.
Infernal Decision
R
Instant
Deal 4 damage to target creature unless its controller redirects that damage to him or her.
Bestial Decision
G
Sorcery
Target opponent chooses which enters the battlefield under your control:
* 2/2 green Bear token.
* 2 1/1 green Wolf tokens.
Ah, sorry. I'm new the thread and didn't actually read the rules. But as you pointed out it would have at least been good manners any way...
Temporal Inversion I liked. It's a cheap way to play a Timewalk effect that seems more fair and had me thinking about a) How powerful is it actually? and b) How can it be best broken? Thinking is a part of what makes strategy game enjoyable, so I can see that this card would be enjoyable to evaluate. I like the general concept of inverting reality and the colours are consistent with the feel of the mechanics. Very out-of-the box. Good job
I'm reading that you didn't like the cards because you felt they were generally underpowered? If they were appropriately powered, would you feel that they were flavourful cards which allowed interaction with your opponent? I ask because this was my intention. Power balance is more of a development decision than a design one and I've not actually shuffled up the cards to play with and test them, which I admit is an important part of design as well.
The fact that you highly value power balance in a design is very useful to me though, because I've been casually designing a card game, so I will be careful to keep the components fairly balanced, somewhere between unplayable and broken.
Thanks for your response as there was no reason why you had to go out of your way to respond. I'll try to think more out-of-the-box and leave my comfort zone of fear of broken cards.
Angelic Decision
W
Instant
Target a creature you control. Target opponent chooses one:
* Prevent the next 5 five damage that would be dealt to that creature this turn.
* You gain 5 life.
Thoughtful Decision
2U
Sorcery
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Target opponent separates them into two piles. Put one pile in your hand the rest in your graveyard.
Sacrificial Decision
B
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a creature or loses 5 life.
Infernal Decision
R
Instant
Target opponent deals 3 damage divided between themselves and any number of creatures they control.
Bestial Decision
GGG
Target opponent chooses one:
* You put a green 3/3 Beast token in play.
* You put three 1/1 green Saproling tokens in play.
1 Tilonalli's Summoner
1 Goblin Trailblazer
4 Sun-Collared Raptor
1 Raptor Companion
3 Frilled Deathspitter
2 Bonded Horncrest
4 Orazca Raptor
1 Shining Aerosaur
1 Stampeding Horncrest
1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
1 Bombard
2 Dinosaur Stampede
1 Form of the Dinosaur
1 Stone Quarry
8 Mountain
8 Plains
1 Dead Man's Chest
2 Snubhorn Sentry
2 Cleansing Ray
1 River Darter
1 Gruesome Fate
1 Sea Legs
1 Hijack
1 Nest Robber
1 Rummaging Goblin
1 Demystify
1 Prying Blade
1 Storm Sculptor
1 Looming Altisaur
1 Cancel
1 Headwater Sentries
4 Putrid Imp
4 Olivia's Dragoon
Win Con
4 Eldrazi Devastator
4 Ulumog's Crusher
4 Dragon Breath
4 Exhume
4 Shred Memory
Defence
4 Duress
Mana
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Street Wraith
Land
12 Swamp
All you need is a Lotus Petal or Simian Spirit Guide and a Dragon Breath to make this a turn-oner like the previous.
Should totally build this deck when I have extra cash.
Something like this or a build with Dark Ritual and Putrid Imp. I took out poison because I ran out of cards, but that could easily go in somewhere as well.
4 Careful Study
4 Faithless Looting
Win Con
4 Ulamogs' Crusher
4 Eldrazi Devastator
3 Dragon Breath
4 Exhume
4 Muddle the Mixture
Mana
4 Lotus Petal
Cycle
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Bog Wraiths
4 Manamorphose
6 Mountain
6 Island
5 Swamp
Instead of crusher, you could use Chained Throatseeker 5-power infect and not have to fling. [EDIT: Wait, it can't attack yet.]
Or give Ulamog's Crusher a Phyresis [EDIT: or Tainted Strike] for infect on turn three, and use Mutagenic growth or Giant Growth etc for 10 poison. You don't even need to give it haste.
[
EDIT AGAIN: This is theoretical turn 2 win with Dragon Breath.- no it isn't][EDIT SOME MORE: More creatures are Eldrazi Devastator and Ancient Brontodon.]
Or Manamorphose.
Turn one:
Forest
Virulent Sliver
Turn two:
Second Virulent Sliver
Attack for 2 poison
Land
Any 1-drop sliver (eg Gemhide Sliver)
Turn three:
Land
Any hastey sliver (eg Heart Sliver)
Attack for 8 poison
gg
Any other theoretical turn three wins you can come up with?
There was a thread with a turn 2 win, but that seems rarer.
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Terminate
4 Gurmag Angler
3 Chittering Rats
3 Chainer's Edict
3 Duress
1 Bonesplitter
9 Swamp
9 Mountain
2 Rolling Thunder
3 Slash Panther
4 Bloodfell Caves
3 Dauthi Mercenary
2 Electrickery
2 Violent Impact
2 Bonesplitter
4 Burst Lightning
2 Electrickery
1 Duress
1 Slash Panther
1 Dauthi Mercenary
2 Rolling Thunder
My current list is quite consistent in practice and can win in the queues.
This is a budget list (a few tix). Pyroblast would be great though.
There are other cards that could go in like black card draw.
TIME SPIRAL
Homebrewed Magic Format
By Jonah Mann
So in the Time Spiral format, you build two decks.
First is a 60-card singleton 'main' deck. This could follow Legacy rules, but for financial (not thematic) reasons, Modern rules could optionally be observed.
Second is a 15-card singleton 'time spiral' deck containing only Time Spiral block's 247 'shifted' cards. Timeshifted, planeshifted and futureshifted.
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Time_Spiral/Timeshifted
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Planar_Chaos/Trivia#Timeshifted_references
https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Future_Sight/Trivia#Futureshifted
Any of the shifted card list can not be placed into the 60-card main deck.
If you would draw a card (after opening hands), you may choose to 'shift' or draw a card from your 15-card 'time spiral' deck instead. If a shifted card would go to the graveyard, exile it instead. If there are no cards left in your 'time spiral' deck, you may not choose to shift a card from it.
Otherwise normal Magic rules apply.
Sort of inspired somewhat by Commander (aka EDH).
Any thoughts? Sound fun? Sound broken? Suggestion for improvements? Deck lists?
Cheers.