From my custom set, three CCC commons I designed to entice you into drafting monocolor:
Disorienting MirageUUU
Creature - Illusion [COM]
Defender
Whenever Disorienting Mirage blocks a creature, you may switch that creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.
[1/5]
Sirocco ChargerRRR
Creature - Horse [COM]
When Sirocco Charger enters the battlefield, flip a coin. If you win the flip, Sirocco Charger gains haste until end of turn.
[3/3]
Lurking NazhnakGGG
Creature - Crocodile [COM]
Cloak (This permanent can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)
[4/2]
A couple points:
These explicitly don't care about the set's main theme (artifacts) because I want them to make you think about drafting more cards of their respective colors, rather than more artifacts.
Coin flip mechanics are going to constitute a minor set theme, and hence I feel comfortable with a coin flip card or two appearing at common, although they usually do not.
As previously indicated in another thread, I am keywording trollshroud as of this block and calling it cloak, but you can call it whatever you want as far as I care.
It is critically important that I push monocolor draft strategies in this block. Do these cards help do the job?
I like the general idea a lot. The green one is the only one that I think is good enough to really lure people. For RRR Sirocco Charger could easily just have haste and never mind the coin flip.
The red one is actually the one that excites me the most, since 3/3 haste for 3, even conditionally, is really good at common when most people are just setting up their support permanents or durdling around with 1/1s. From a design standpoint, coin flip subtheme is also marginally more interesting than "look we're keywording trollshroud!"
I'm not terribly impressed with the green one since players can get random 2/1 dorks in spades (would Troll Ascetic be half as good if he couldn't regenerate?) and the defender...does a good job of holding off 1/x guys, but who swings with their 1/x guys anyway?
I like the general idea a lot. The green one is the only one that I think is good enough to really lure people. For RRR Sirocco Charger could easily just have haste and never mind the coin flip.
Quote from Jenesis »
I'm not terribly impressed with the green one since players can get random 2/1 dorks in spades (would Troll Ascetic be half as good if he couldn't regenerate?) and the defender...does a good job of holding off 1/x guys, but who swings with their 1/x guys anyway?
Fair. How about:
Disorienting MirageUUU
Creature - Illusion [COM]
Defender
Whenever Disorienting Mirage blocks a creature, you may switch that creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.
The red one is actually the one that excites me the most, since 3/3 haste for 3, even conditionally, is really good at common when most people are just setting up their support permanents or durdling around with 1/1s. From a design standpoint, coin flip subtheme is also marginally more interesting than "look we're keywording trollshroud!"
For RRR you can get a Boggart Ram-Gang, with haste and a bonus. And that actually has a much less restrictive mana cost, so this can be better.
For RRR you can get a Boggart Ram-Gang, with haste and a bonus. And that actually has a much less restrictive mana cost, so this can be better.
Boggart Ram-Gang is also uncommon. I'm not exactly crossing my fingers hoping to get passed three Ram-Gangs in Limited.
I didn't say the Sirocco was a great card; I just said that of the three here, it makes me the most interested in the set's design and seems the most fun to play with.
For RRR you can get a Boggart Ram-Gang, with haste and a bonus. And that actually has a much less restrictive mana cost, so this can be better.
I'm not going to cry if I make a strictly-worse Boggart Ram-Gang. That card is in about the 99th percentile of all creature cards, ever. Not that this is strictly worse than BRG, but a lot of perfectly good cards are approximately worse.
They can't all be zingers!
This card has one purpose: to pull drafters into monored. At common, I think a 3/3 in red for three mana, plus a chance of haste, is not too shabby. That said, if people feel strongly about how it could / should be improved, I will be very happy to listen to that.
To clear away the obvious: I think that going to 4 power (even if I dropped it down to 1 or 2 toughness) is too aggressive, I think that adding another static combat ability (like first strike) without dropping the stats is too powerful, and I think that adding anything else to the coin flip makes it too swingy. Other than those things, I'm open to suggestions.
What I'm worried about, is that "Treasures" are a wedge set after all, and here we're given cards really pushing monocolor.
Excellent point. Even Wizards has never put CCC in common. Not even in Torment where one color dominates the set--which is the only way I can see this being viable.
Nope: Morselhoarder, Zombie Outlander. "Strictly better" is a silly term that almost never applies to any real card. Better 99% of the time? Sure. But not all the time.
Quote from Lord of Atlantis »
Excellent point. Even Wizards has never put CCC in common. Not even in Torment where one color dominates the set--which is the only way I can see this being viable.
I will direct you to the discussion at my set page, where this has been / is being discussed. The short version:
This set is missing two colors. The mathematical side-effect of this is that instead of having 32 possible color-combination strategies, you have 8. It also means that each pack is going to have more blue cards, more red cards, and more green cards than a normal pack would have. Therefore, I have both the opportunity and the necessity to increase the number of color-based drafting strategies within each color, not just between the various colors, as is normally the case. That means pushing monocolor draft strategies alongside the two- and three-color strategies that are more typical in Limited.
I know that WotC has not printed any CCC commons. Nobody would draft them in a normal set, because they wouldn't be able to draft enough good cards of a single color to put together a monocolor deck. The way the color distribution works in this set (more cards of each of the set's three colors), drafters will finally be able to do that. So I am giving them these three cards as clear signals of the possibility of going monocolor. These are going to be the only CCC commons in the set. Many other cards I've created for the set - and plan to create - reward monocolor drafting in a less stringent way, but I need these three cards to really hammer the point home, and give players an clear incentive to go monocolor.
And yes, it's a URG wedge set, but my philosophy here is "modestly multicolor" - there's enough multicolor to provide satisfaction (or, that is my intention), but multicolor is not the major set or block theme. The complete absence of two colors per set is the major theme.
My point was that if you're staring across the red zone at an opposing Morselhoarder or Zombie Outlander, you can make the case that you'd rather have the Sirocco Charger than Boggart Ram-Gang. Hence, not strictly better. But your example of Deathmark is a bit cleaner.
About monocolor - fair enough. Can't wait to see the set finished, keep up the good work
Thanks! I have about half of the set's 150 cards designed right now... a good deal more than what I've posted, in fact. And, a big chunk of the remaining cards are common Limited fodder. So, not necessarily easier to design, but also not demanding of too many big new ideas. I'm feeling like it's starting to come together.
If you'd like to add slightly more power to the Charger, what about giving him first strike on the coin flip?
The odds of the opponent having a creature(s) that can trade with the Charger on turn 3 are low enough that it shouldn't be too swingy (and players should be at high enough life that they'd take it regardless), and lategame it can kill creatures that BRG would merely trade with.
Not to start this whole debate again, but "strictly better" is a specific design term used by Wizards R&D. It does not mean the exact literal English definition, because that would prevent any card from being strictly better than any other card because of Booby Trap. Rather, it has the meaning given to it by R&D, which is laid out very briefly in this article http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr65 and more in depth in another article I don't seem able to easily find at the moment. By that definition BRG is in fact strictly better than Sirroco Charger
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Disorienting Mirage UUU
Creature - Illusion [COM]
Defender
Whenever Disorienting Mirage blocks a creature, you may switch that creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.
[1/5]
Creature - Horse [COM]
When Sirocco Charger enters the battlefield, flip a coin. If you win the flip, Sirocco Charger gains haste until end of turn.
[3/3]
Creature - Crocodile [COM]
Cloak (This permanent can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)
[4/2]
A couple points:
I'm not terribly impressed with the green one since players can get random 2/1 dorks in spades (would Troll Ascetic be half as good if he couldn't regenerate?) and the defender...does a good job of holding off 1/x guys, but who swings with their 1/x guys anyway?
Avatar by Numotflame96 of Maelstrom Graphics
Sig banner thanks to DarkNightCavalier of Heroes of the Plane Studios!
Fair. How about:
Creature - Illusion [COM]
Defender
Whenever Disorienting Mirage blocks a creature, you may switch that creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.
[2/5]
For RRR you can get a Boggart Ram-Gang, with haste and a bonus. And that actually has a much less restrictive mana cost, so this can be better.
Boggart Ram-Gang is also uncommon. I'm not exactly crossing my fingers hoping to get passed three Ram-Gangs in Limited.
I didn't say the Sirocco was a great card; I just said that of the three here, it makes me the most interested in the set's design and seems the most fun to play with.
Avatar by Numotflame96 of Maelstrom Graphics
Sig banner thanks to DarkNightCavalier of Heroes of the Plane Studios!
I'm not going to cry if I make a strictly-worse Boggart Ram-Gang. That card is in about the 99th percentile of all creature cards, ever. Not that this is strictly worse than BRG, but a lot of perfectly good cards are approximately worse.
They can't all be zingers!
This card has one purpose: to pull drafters into monored. At common, I think a 3/3 in red for three mana, plus a chance of haste, is not too shabby. That said, if people feel strongly about how it could / should be improved, I will be very happy to listen to that.
To clear away the obvious: I think that going to 4 power (even if I dropped it down to 1 or 2 toughness) is too aggressive, I think that adding another static combat ability (like first strike) without dropping the stats is too powerful, and I think that adding anything else to the coin flip makes it too swingy. Other than those things, I'm open to suggestions.
Why? Is there room? Does this dilute the identity and focus of the set/block? Is it easy to get screwed if you choose monocolor early?
Excellent point. Even Wizards has never put CCC in common. Not even in Torment where one color dominates the set--which is the only way I can see this being viable.
........................
Nope: Morselhoarder, Zombie Outlander. "Strictly better" is a silly term that almost never applies to any real card. Better 99% of the time? Sure. But not all the time.
I will direct you to the discussion at my set page, where this has been / is being discussed. The short version:
This set is missing two colors. The mathematical side-effect of this is that instead of having 32 possible color-combination strategies, you have 8. It also means that each pack is going to have more blue cards, more red cards, and more green cards than a normal pack would have. Therefore, I have both the opportunity and the necessity to increase the number of color-based drafting strategies within each color, not just between the various colors, as is normally the case. That means pushing monocolor draft strategies alongside the two- and three-color strategies that are more typical in Limited.
I know that WotC has not printed any CCC commons. Nobody would draft them in a normal set, because they wouldn't be able to draft enough good cards of a single color to put together a monocolor deck. The way the color distribution works in this set (more cards of each of the set's three colors), drafters will finally be able to do that. So I am giving them these three cards as clear signals of the possibility of going monocolor. These are going to be the only CCC commons in the set. Many other cards I've created for the set - and plan to create - reward monocolor drafting in a less stringent way, but I need these three cards to really hammer the point home, and give players an clear incentive to go monocolor.
And yes, it's a URG wedge set, but my philosophy here is "modestly multicolor" - there's enough multicolor to provide satisfaction (or, that is my intention), but multicolor is not the major set or block theme. The complete absence of two colors per set is the major theme.
My point was that if you're staring across the red zone at an opposing Morselhoarder or Zombie Outlander, you can make the case that you'd rather have the Sirocco Charger than Boggart Ram-Gang. Hence, not strictly better. But your example of Deathmark is a bit cleaner.
Thanks! I have about half of the set's 150 cards designed right now... a good deal more than what I've posted, in fact. And, a big chunk of the remaining cards are common Limited fodder. So, not necessarily easier to design, but also not demanding of too many big new ideas. I'm feeling like it's starting to come together.
The odds of the opponent having a creature(s) that can trade with the Charger on turn 3 are low enough that it shouldn't be too swingy (and players should be at high enough life that they'd take it regardless), and lategame it can kill creatures that BRG would merely trade with.
Avatar by Numotflame96 of Maelstrom Graphics
Sig banner thanks to DarkNightCavalier of Heroes of the Plane Studios!
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