All right, Lord Arcturus (sp) has joined and will be testing the Control Workshop build.  Also, I need everyone's e-mail adresses, so PM me them.

I use AIM and MWS, but I don't think it matters much.  Can we have a list of people?

I'd actually be interested in this, but my noobness could keep me from being very useful. :lol: I would enjoy doing something like this, though.

My question is, is there any deck that can consistently beat stax and/or slaver?  I mean ANYTHING, even something tailor-made for it.  It's ridiculously powerful, I think we all agree, but it seems to be able to often pull off the "oops, I win" hands; I mean, what can really deal with turn 1 3sphere on a regular basis?.  The only thing that could have a good winning percentage would be something ridiculous like burn w/ 4 Crash and other crap.

No, it doesn't.  They still get to play a SCG/Warchief/whatever, just only one of them.  Read Desert again.

The thing that can make stompy somewhat better is to add white.  This is basically for 2 cards: StP and Wax/Wane.  This was discussed in an earlier topic, if you want to look at it:

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16293

If I make it damage oriented, then this cards becomes worthless (Tendrils, anyone?)  How about wording it as:

Until end of turn, if a spell or effect an opponent controls would reduce your life to less than 1, it reduces it to 1 instead.

Creatures can't attack you until end of turn.

A bit more wordy, but eliminates loopholes.

forgot about making it instant.  I think I originally wanted it that way, as it's otherwise useless.

Here's the consensus I'm getting:

Deliverance
3WW
Sorcery

You may remove a white card in your hand and another card in your hand from the game instead of paying Deliverance's casting cost.

Until end of turn, any loss of life that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.

Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil.
-Matthew 6:13

I don't want to add something to stop decking, because then it becomes really broken to kill combo, while here it is solid, to say the least.  Comments?  I know this isn't one of the required cards for the set, but should I put it up for consideration?

hmmm...all the good names are taken! (Saving Grace, Divine Intervention, etc.)  Then how about

Deliverance
1WW
Sorcery

Until end of turn, any loss of life that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.

Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil.
           -Matthew 6:13

It adds a more religious aspect, but it fits the card.  Would it be considered to bring back ACC, but with removing 2 white cards?  It just seems a little too slow to have something like 1WW, and stuff like 2W makes it not quite the same, as it's splashable.  Thoughts?

My problem with that is the card becomes practically useless.  This doesn't do much against creatures unless you have WoG or something similar in hand.  Combo decks would ignore it (TPS, Draw7, etc.) which is one of the main possibilities of it being useful.  The drawback of ACC is big enough, in my opinion, to limit its brokenness, while still saving your butt.

edit: clarity

Saving Grace
4WW

You may remove two cards in your hand from the game instead of paying <card>'s mana cost.

Until end of turn, any loss of life that would reduce your life to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.

While there's life, there's hope

I kept thinking that this type of ability would be very interesting, so I tried to make it decently costed.  However, for it to have any playability, it had to have an ACC, which is very great due to the game-saving effects of the spell.  It seemed like a very interesting way to use such an effect, and fits white perfectly.  Comments or criticisms?

edit: current version:

Deliverance
3WW
Instant

You may remove a white card in your hand and another card in your hand from the game instead of paying Deliverance's casting cost.

Until end of turn, any loss of life that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.

Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil.
-Matthew 6:13