[Question 29] Card Pool Wish-List

[Bardo]

Not sure how well this is going to go over, but I thought we might mix this up...

From ShivanKing's interview with Eldariel (yon).

...Let’s talk about Shards of Alara: there is a specific card that you want to be created...

This is sort of a design question, so it won't appeal to everyone, but what sort(s) of cards would you like to see enter the Legacy environment?

Discussion points (pick and choose):

Are there any particular cards that would push a particular deck or archetype over the "casual cusp" into a serious competitive machine?

Any cards that need to keep anything extant in check?

Any cards that would give your own pet project(s) that 'little something special' to make it/them playable?

Basically, what sort of cards in future sets would be good for Legacy?

Alternately, what sort of cards would you like to see printed?

Bonus. Feel free to bust out Magic Set Editor (MSE) and mock up a card or two. :)

[Nightmare]

[Nihil Credo]

I think there are two kinds of cards that can make the format more interesting:

1) Cards that enable more decks to interact with each other. No-one likes it when your only path to victory is to pray that your opponent mulligans to three; even worse when the result of a game is only dependant on Card X.

Luck is an essential part of Magic, but the stakes for any single roll should not be as high as three tournament points.

2) Cards that allow new decks to exist (duh), specifically by making classic and much-loved archetypes playable once again.

A few ideas for the first category:

- Red or green cards that help against Storm combo decks, and that can ideally be maindecked; something like Gaddock Teeg comes to mind.

- A way for black or red out of an artifact/enchantment based lock - not necessarily a Disenchant, just some sort of Desert Twister would be enough.

- Linear mechanics that don't scoop to a single trump. Goblins in 2008 is a good example, being able to Ringleader/Wort past sweepers, shoot over a Moat, swarm through a Humility or CoP: Red, and even resist Plagues with Kings/Goons/Patrons.

- More combo cards that fit in a reasonable Plan B (usually by being creatures), and therefore produce decks that don't scoop to Extirpate.

For the second:

- Threats in the 4-5 mana range that actually outclass Tarmogoyf most of the time.

- Less WW bears with combat keywords, more WW bears which mess with the opponent.

- A removal spell for Red that can deal with Tarmogoyf.

- A functional reprint of Cloudpost (Vesuva isn't good enough).

Personal wishlist:

- A 3cc or less Enchantment that wins the game *fast* (for Karach)
- Some sort of card selection for mono-white.
- A win condition for MBC on par with Eternal Dragon or Decree of Justice in terms of resiliency and Not Being Dead Before Turn Six.
- The discard equivalent of Shriekmaw (i.e. cheap discard spell that doubles as an actual threat later on). The real one, not that crappy Mournwhelk.

[diffy]

Any cards that need to keep anything extant in check?

I personally think that Counterbalance is pretty retarded, especially with curves getting more and more streamlined to fight Combo and Aggro decks... for sure there's Krosan Grip, but that's a rather narrow answer and you shouldn't be driven to maindeck it - I would therefore enjoy seeing a cycle of cards that are basically the reverse of the Invasion Sorceries which you can play as Instants if you sink more mana into them: Instants which get cheaper if you play them during your mainphase.

Some examples:

Random Bounce 3U
Instant
Patience 2 (if you play ~this~ during your mainphase, ~this~ costs 2 less to play)
Return target non-land permanent to its owners hand.
Draw a card during next turns upkeep.

Random Removal 4B
Instant
Patience 3 (if you play ~this~ during your mainphase, ~this~ costs 3 less to play)
Destroy target creature.
At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay 1B. If you don't you loose the game.

Any cards that would give your own pet project(s) that 'little something special' to make it/them playable?

One of my current favourite pet projects is Survival - not that it's not competitive or anything, it could just be so much better (i.e. less reliant on Survival) if the right cards get printed: one of my biggest problems playing the deck is that you often have a significant amount of one-offs which are situational (Harmonic Sliver, Darkheart Sliver etc.) and suck when you draw into them normally.

Some obscure creature with an 'comes into play' ability that gives you a choice (like the Vision/Onslaught Charms or the Planeshift Battlemages) will definitely cure this problem by lowering the amount of more or less pure Survival targets you have to play.
I'm thinking of something along these lines:

Al-Yasha GGG
Legendary Creature - Human Prophet 3/4

Echo.
When the Echo cost is paid, put a -1/-1 counter on ~this~.
When ~this~ is put into your graveyard from anywhere, gain 1 life.

When ~this~ comes into play, chose one - destroy target artefact or enchantment or creature with converted mana cost three or less, that artefacts controller gains life equals to the converted mana cost of the permanent destroyed this way; or gain 3 life.

And Ismail and Al-Yasha and Yunus and Lut; and every one We made to excel in the worlds... - Shakir 6:86

Now the cost is rather restrictive so that the card shouldn't be too broken, it is nice and flexible though and does not suck too much on its own - it would greatly benefit Survival.

On a more general note, I'd also like to see more cards that reward playing heavily focused on one colour: cards with multiple coloured manasymbols of a single colour in the cost but with a strong effect making them not easily splashable (think: Necropotence) could mean more incentive for people to not go overboard with the splashes.

Basically, what sort of cards in future sets would be good for Legacy?

Rage of God 1WW
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less.

One sees mankind as drunken, yet the people are sober, but dreadful is the Rage of God - Qur'an 69.47

This would definitely not be over the top in power terms but still give control another boost - those normal Wrath of Gods are just a little bit too slow for Legacy.

You'd then only need something to give non-tribal, non aggro-control, aggro decks (like Zoo or Boros) a right to exist again and you'd be in a healthier format.

Alternately, what sort of cards would you like to see printed?

As far as concepts are concerned, there are several things I'd enjoy seeing:

• I think this was mentioned before: lands with an 'acceleration' option meaning that you can play them even if you already have played a land this turn if you pay a little something.
• More utility lands like the one Nightmare mentioned or the invitationals 'counterspell' land: lands that do something other than producing mana when they are in the game or clogging your hand would limit the amount of games you loose to mana flood but wouldn't bee too broken because you further open yourself to non-basic hate.
• I'd also love to see something like the Sunburst mechanic to make a comeback - rewarding people for playing more colours via powerful spells would at least give you a reason to totally expose yourself to Blood Moon - the multicoloured Planeswalkers could be a first step into this direction.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

WW

[this] comes into play with a [counter] on it.

Whenever [this] deals damage to an opponent, put a [counter] on it.

Remove a counter from [this]: Counter target spell that targets you.

2/2

White weenie needs a little help in its bad match-ups to be viable.

1B

Zombie Minion

All zombie spells you play cost 1 less.

2/2

2B

Zombie Matron

When [this] comes into play, search your library for a zombie card, reveal it, put it into your hand, and shuffle your library.

1/1

I think Zombies are almost a playable tribe, but they curve poorly. They can never match Goblins' speed because I doubt they'll reprint Lackey, and they don't have haste, but if they could be sped up a bit, their superior control options could make them a viable deck.

[Eldariel]

My longtime signature around Wizards included a list of the types of effects that need to be printed. It included:

-White Rules Effects: The easy way to solve white's inability to interact beyond the board. It's the rules colour so give it cards that make rules that allow white to interact with spell-based decks and control in general. Samurai of the Pale Curtain shows that a WW-costing 2/2 has room for 1 combat ability and 1 rules effect. We need more "rules weenies" with a combat ability to keep them maindeckable. Also, more rules-inducing enchantments and spells would be good for white-based control decks.

-White Balance Effects: Balance is broken. We all know it. Balancing Act is a bit too weak - it's only playable in decks with 56 cards chosen specifically to abuse it. Balance-effects that fall somewhere between those should be printed in larger numbers. Balance-effects should be effects that require some thinking into best utilizing them without only being playable only in decks built around them.

The effects shouldn't probably be as comprehensive as Balancing Act nor as specific as Balance, but rather Balance-effects in smaller areas, like only handcards, only certain permanent type and so on. This would open up a lot of design space and give white the means to interact with effects it presently cannot. Maybe ones could even be playable in aggressive white decks.

-White Recursion: White doesn't draw cards. That's a given in white's colour pie. However, white is the natural colour for constant graveyard recursion. I think White needs larger piece of green's constant recursion-abilities, especially creature wise. This would give white control-decks the tools to generate advantage without necessarily drawing cards; at the present, only Eternal Dragon exists.

-Green "Creatures Matter" Effects: Stuff that makes playing non-creatures harder, makes creatures more reliable and generally allows creature-based decks to compete with combo-decks without playing blue or black. Green has a theme of creatures mattering so it could also get 'non-creature counters' as some such.


Faerie Stompy would of course want a 3U 4/4 flyer (or some reasonable groundpounder; blue Juggernaut would be great), preferably vanilla or one with a small drawback (attack every turn? Can't block? Lose 1 life/turn?) - this would be in line with the powerlevel of Mistbind Clique (without Champion, Tap Lands and Flash) and overall, all the Faeries printed in Lorwyn. An XU Control Magic-effect would also be sweet, and some X-costing equipment that's worth playing (just something to fetch with Trinket Mage).


In addition to this, I feel white could use few more solid removal-spells, green could use some effects that do something, red could use non-damage based removal, black could use more artifact-interacting cards and the whole format could use a few more engines like Life from the Loam; spell-based engines are great (and all too rare in my opinion; Life is really the only one I can think of), but enchantments, artifacts and lands would work too. Just more playable engines would be great. Stuff that messes with stuff on the stack is always fun too. I think more should exist; just countering is boring. Remand is a good example of what could be a good way to print stack-manipulating cards.

[freakish777]

Non-Legacy

I hate the non-black clause on most black removal. A card like:

Kill it dead

Rare
Sorcery
Destroy target creature.


I don't think that's over the top, it requires a commitment to the color, and it'd be a sorcery, making it a good card, but not a broken one. I'm sure this would see Standard and maybe even Extended play, but I don't think it'd be able to compete with StP.


Legacy

This will never be printed, but...

Seal of Control

Rare
Enchantment
Sacrifice ~this~: Counter target spell.

I've always wanted a Counterspell seal. It would have to cost or to be Legacy playable, and both of those are strictly better than Cancel, so if it ever does see print, it won't be Legacy playable.


Also an instant speed version of Counsel of Sortami. Again, not seeing print...

[Di]

The only thing I can really ask for is a land similar to Glacial Chasm that deals with being targeted. Something like:

True Believer's Half-Acre
Land
At the beginning of your upkeep, pay 1 life or sacrifice True Believer's Half-Acre.
You can't be the target of spell or abilities.


That card would break Crop Rotation in half. The only other thing I could really ask for is a green answer to combo decks. There was the "green Orim's Chant" thread a while back, and that's pretty much on the ball with what I want.

[Zach Tartell]

Are there any particular cards that would push a particular deck or archetype over the "casual cusp" into a serious competitive machine?

After playing boring prison, TES (shortly) and a couple different Landstill builds I've really begun to get some nerd wood for decks with creatures. I love Survival decks (usually mimicing Di's almost to the card) and had a pretty hilarious run at a revised Volcanic with Goyf Sligh. I would really love to play a non-Goblins creature deck at the next big tournament I go to.

Any cards that need to keep anything extant in check?

Having played in Syracuse almost exclusively I have a big dislike of both Combo and Control - which is to say Bryant Cook (and Nick Wowelko to a smaller extent) and one of three control players: Tariq White, Geoff Smelski, and Adam Barnello (when he was working on TEC). I'd like to see a bunch more cards that could swing the three headed snake (Control eats combo, Combo beats Aggro, Aggro beats control) back toward the creature-dominated area. I'm not so much a fan even of Thresh (sitting around with Counter/Top spoiling your opponent's day isn't my idea of fun), but even that gets me thinking about aggro-based strategies, and thusly really excited.

Any cards that would give your own pet project(s) that 'little something special' to make it/them playable?

The first Legacy deck I built (after Matt Abold suggested that Elf deck that top 8'd GenCon in like 2006) was Rolland Chan's UG madness, and I have to say that I've always liked the general idea of that deck. I'd like to see a not-terrible red Madness-enabler, or a white one (and some new cool white madness card to go with it).

Basically, what sort of cards in future sets would be good for Legacy?

Alternately, what sort of cards would you like to see printed?

I have to agree with whomever said that more "LFTL-like" engines would rock. Also, I really enjoy keywords (Grandeur comes to mind immediatly - the ability to play multiple Legends and then do something with extra copies that you inevetably draw is an excellent mechanic), and cycles of cards. I did some pretty fancy (and over powered) mock-ups here.


Bonus. Feel free to bust out Magic Set Editor (MSE) and mock up a card or two. :)[/QUOTE]

Don't mind if I already did:

First, a set of Grandeur lands:






Thoughts:

• Sorry for the pictures. I'm home for the weekend, and that's all mom had on the family computer (I'm too lazy to get real nice ones off the internet)
• Also, doing one or two on the new editor and the rest on the old might be an eyesore. I'm sure you folks will forgive me.
• White feels way too overpowered to me. A free, uncounterable Gilded Light might break combo in half (or just make them go for Warrens). Orrigionally a Disenchant, then an Orim's Chant unless any player payed 2, I settled on the Gilded Light, 'cause, seriously, these will never happen.
• Chandra's Boudior seemed pretty normal for Red. Maybe it would be less broken if it were two damage to each player, or sorcery speed, or if you payed a red while doing it. I didn't want to mess up my already shaky understanding of Grandeur, so I didn't do the latter.
• Green always gets the shaft. I was going to have it be "target creature gets +4/+4," but I thought the possible acceleration would be a little better. I would consider changing it from GG to two mana of any color, though.
• I figured "target player discards a card" was fair enough, since it's not "you choose" and is just a 1-for-1. It's my understanding that you can't win a game with 1-for-1's.
• Blue always gets the broken stuff. I really wanted to just do a "2UU, Discard this card: Counter target spell" like that one pro was going to do for his invitational card in that competitition that Menindian was in, but Grandeur is just a way cooler word.

This is my thought for the Madness Enabler (who is probably too broken, but I didn't want to put a mana cost or tapping on, 'cause then Jaya Ballard, Task Mage would just be better):


Man, that guy in the picture is handsome. I'd take him out for a nice steak dinner.

For white, thinking back to Ravnica's cycle of Elephants who slowed opponents down, I came up with this dude. I think they symetry of it would be enough of a drawback that it isn't too fevered a dream:


Mono-Green has had virtually 0 help at being competitive (save the Kavu Cure deck, or Berserk stompy decks), 'cause it's players usually just scoop it up to combo decks and go grab a slice of pizza. I had other thoughts:

That's probably not enough of a draw back, but we'll never see it printed so I don't see the issue.

Black (and DIF's earlier post about bringing back good charms) made me come up with this boy. Orrigionally I had made it cost 2B, but tacked on the extra B when I realized that it would be playable turn 1 for a swing of 4 cards in hand (really fewer, if you figure in the swamp and ritual, but you know what I'm thinking):

The command cycle was sexy, and the "choose two" really made me think about how awesomely good it could be in the future if they were to reprint something like that. I didn't work up any others (damn this 11 picture limit), but I'd gladly speculate at a later date.

Ah, blue, you ridiculously good ass hat. How every color longs to be thee:

I just thought about how sexy a pitch stifle would be, then tried to tone it back to an "every deck in the format wouldn't be playing this" power level.

I worked up a win condition for Enchantress that was just too overpowered (and that's coming from the guy who made the previous ten cards) to the point that I'm a little too embarrassed to show it off. I might work up a split card or something and toss that in later.

Essentially, I really dig new things. Split cards, flipping cards (to a smaller extent), and keywords really get me excited about new sets. Just give me some more words like Delve, Grandeur, and Evoke and I'll be happy all day.

[MattH]

Distress Signal

Instant
Play Distress Signal only when a permanent you control is the target of a spell or ability controlled by an opponent.
Put a permanent from your hand into play.

Watchman's Seal

Enchantment
When Watchman's Seal comes into play, name a card other than a basic land and remove a nonland card in your hand from the game face-down.
When an opponent plays the named card, you may sacrifice Watchman's Seal and put the removed card on the stack.

-These seem fun, and definitely gives white some "don't fuck with me or else" spells. Not sure if they're legacy-playable though.

Arrogant Zealot
1
Creature -- Cleric
5/5
Arrogant Zealot can only be played if you have exactly 20 life.
"The soul of a civilization is its religion, and it dies with its faith." -Will Durant

-The white Negator. I didn't want to make it 2W to avoid the Tarmogoyf problem (splashing too easily just makes it a blue card).

Regain

Sorcery
Discard a card. Return target card from your graveyard to your hand.

-I like little utility cards like this. This could see some Gifts Ungiven play. Note that if it's the last card in your hand, it has no drawback, which is a fine hoop to jump through to get a cheap Regrowth.


Freakazoid!

Creature - Elemental
1/1
When ~this~ comes into play, it deals 1 damage to target creature.

-It largely obsoletes that guy from Ravnica. I don't care about that guy from Ravnica. This card would be cool for Survival, like a Fanatic that can stick around and be replayed via Tradewind or whatever.


Moonlit Landscape
Land
Moonlit landscape counts as all basic land types.
If tapped for mana, Moonlit Landscape produces colorless mana instead of any other type.

-This card is subtle but awesome. It's fetchable, which is huge. Having it in play doesn't help your color, but it does activate all the uncommon Judgment Incarnations (which is decent with Survival), lets you get landwalked by anything, and most interestingly, instantly gives you full-power Domain spells.

-The name even works as a shout-out to Pale Moon.


White Lotus

Artifact
{T}, sacrifice White Lotus: add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. You can't use this mana to play spells.

-I have no particular use for this in mind, but it seems like something that someday could be useful. It gives morph creatures a better shot at seeing play, it can activate Deed and Survival. It goes infinite with Salvagers without making you discard your hand (so some kind of blue Salvagers deck could exist) but spending the mana is difficult. It's hard to see what this might break, since it can't really be used in storm combo, and isn't very good in Belcher (which is half a storm deck).

-I would like to see freaking Grim Tutor reprinted. Compare it to Diabolic Tutor, it's completely harmless in formats without Dark Ritual.

-Some kind of red card that has an effect when milled, a la Gaea's Blessing and Narcomeba, would be cool. Something like:

Blessing of Fire
1
Sorcery
Blessing of Fire deals 2 damage to target creature.
When Blessing of Fire is put into your graveyard from your library, it deals 2 damage to target player.

It doesn't have to be exactly those abilities, but it should be generically useful.

-A new way to cheat artifacts into play from the graveyard, faster than Argivian Restoration and not as costly as Trash for Treasure. Go figure on how to balance that, but I don't want my artifact deck to RELY on Welder.

-Some decent 1cc black removal. Ghastly Demise would have worked if not for the "nonblack" clause.

-cards with good effect that can be flashbacked cheaply. I want to break Quiet Speculation. Also Intuition, and possibly Gifts Ungiven.

-reprint Land Grant with split second and make it only able to find basic forests. A nice toy for mono-green.

[Nightmare]

Congrats on winning this thread! - Bardo

[herbig]

I concur. Damn those would be amazing.

Something like:

Fluster
U
You may reveal an Island card in your hand rather than pay Fluster's mana cost.
Counter target triggered ability.

[Pinder]

Originally I was going to think of some decent cards, but everyone covered what I was going to talk about anyway. I do, however, have a few cards I wish they'd print for this little pet deck me and my friends have...



This is what they should have done in the first place.



See? You can make a Sliver Ringleader that isn't too broken....



This guy is probably a little too good, though. He's basically a 1 mana Eladamri's Call that's in your main color, pitches to Force, can be Vialed in, and chump blocks. But I can dream, can't I?

[Zach Tartell]

Ok, there hasn't been another question for too long, and I was looking for a passtime that would avoid me sweating more than the 80 degree, 79% humidity of Oswego makes me do sitting down.

First on the docket: most of a cycle of new charms:





The blue is pretty solid, I think. I'm pretty sure most blue-brand control would run it, since it could bounce a Goyf (or Counterbalance or Moat or Back to Basics or whatever), let you pick up a couple new cards, or counter a spell. In fact, it would probably go in Thresh (or at least I'd be jonesing to fit it in myself over Predict or what have you). Printability: Slim-to-none. Certainly not with 1 blue in the cost, or as an instant (dropping the counter ability), or any permanent.

The red one is almost boring. Destroying a Mishra's Factory is kind of cool, but for 3 damage there are way better burn spells, and not blocking seems like a Limited concern. Printability: Wizards seems kind of wary about printing instant speed land destruction (I'm pretty sure just one part of Who/What/When/Where/Why, Fissure, and Rain of Rust off the top of my head), but it's a boring card. I'd say it's do-able, if not a bit unlikely.

I love me some green spells. I could probably bump it down from 1GG to 2G (or 1G, while I'm wishing), but I originally had it at "Choose two" with the destroy target artifact or enchantment split up and 7 cards instead of 5. I feel like this is pretty balanced (instant speed Commune with nature, expensive Naturalize, bad Giant Growth), so something along its ilk might be printed some day. Also, the chick in the picture isn't half bad looking.

The white charm goes along with my "I hate losing to combo" motif. Or, rather, starts it. I figure an expensive Condemn, more cost-restrictive Gilded Light and double-W instant speed Mine Excavation isn't that scary for any format that isn't Legacy (since UW fish in Vintage doesn't bother trying to get WW and there is almost no combo in other formats). Again, do-able, but improbable.

This next one is a shout-out to Chris "Banned" Coppola. Whose last name always reminds me of cupolos, those things on top of buildings or on piers. Anyway, he talked about a land that was of all land types, in order to make it fetchable always, but that would tap for colorless, to make it not broken.

Name needs some work, but I'm happy with it overall.

I was throwing some anti-combo hate into my EDH deck the other day, and found my Ichneumon Druid. Then I was like, "dude, if only it was instant or sorcery!" Of course that'd never happen, but why not a functional re-print?


Totally ganked from Der_imaginäre_Freund. I tried to make it less, "Oh, shit, that card is amazing" and more, "yeah, I could see myself playing that, maybe."


Thinking about putting together a Rock deck with that new liege made me think about cool cards that aren't blue. This is what I came up with (again, I tried to make it balanced yet still playable):

The art is what I got when I googled Zombie Rogue, and I thought the picture was pretty badass, so I switched the name from some trashy thing to GOlgari Gangsta. I didn't feel black enough to spell it with an 'h,' though.

Everyone forgets artifacts! I started to think about how everyone whines about how terrible Smokestack is in Legacy (because you have to wait like 6 turns before it does anything relevant), then decided I'd take a whack at improving the Stax genera:

I googled "Industrial Revolution" to get the art, and thought it was so awesome that I replaced it with Grozoth for my background right now.

I started to play Dragon Stompy like six weeks ago, then gave it up for a while because it's too inconsistent. So I made this to help out:

It's playable in a couple archtypes, has freaking sweet art, and isn't too broken (since Dragon Stompy might have issues getting only 1R frequently). I don't think it'd ever happen, but it'd be totally cool if it did.

Originally "Gerrard's Ultimatum" I had to switch the name when the only good picture I could find included a chick:

Again, pretty savage as far as the power level goes, but your opponent doesn't have to play spells, and you slow it down if you do, and it beats Storm Combo dead. Gives plenty of time to be answered and such. I really wish this were printed.

[MattH]

This next one is a shout-out to Chris "Banned" Coppola. Whose last name always reminds me of cupolos, those things on top of buildings or on piers. Anyway, he talked about a land that was of all land types, in order to make it fetchable always, but that would tap for colorless, to make it not broken.
[img]
Name needs some work, but I'm happy with it overall.

Hahaha!

Moonlit Landscape
Land
Moonlit landscape counts as all basic land types.
If tapped for mana, Moonlit Landscape produces colorless mana instead of any other type.