Mana stop

[Freelancer]

Just a card I figured out while I was thinking about a casual mono-U semi land destruction deck (bunch off target land becomes a island, nobody plays islands in my group )...

Mana stop
1U
Enchantment
Tap 2 target lands, those lands do not untap
[flavor text something about a soul freezing]

Any suggestions/idea's?

[Freelancer]

Current version;

Mana stop
2U
Enchant land
Enchanted land does not untap.
[flavor text]

Updates:
Increased cost...
Lowered casting cost, only 1 land, removed tapping land

[Nova442]

Stone rain: 3 mana for 1 land.  This: 2 mana for 2 land.  Undercosted much?

[Freelancer]

Right got the message, it can be removed though...

Increased cost to 3U...that should be better...

[TheWellknownBrownie]

.... Christ. Everything about this is wrong.


First of all, just no in general. Blue does not get land destruction.

Second of all, it has to be written, "When this comes into play, tap up to two target lands. Those lands do not untap during their controller's untap step."

Thirdly, the current average costing for destroying two lands is five mana. That's in Red. The color that's supposed to do LD.



Honestly, I don't see the need to devolve the color wheel.

[Freelancer]

This is technically speaking not ld, also tapping permanents is a very blue thing...

But what do you think about this change:
2U
instant
return two target lands to there owners hand.

It still does the same thing I want, yet it doesn't 'destroy' lands...

[Nova442]

Well it's not really "land d" because as noted it can be removed and the lands will return ala Back to Basics.  Also, the concept of freezing is very very blue.  You could say that blue doesn't get creature destruction but then there are cards like Frozen Solid which the fine people at MTG.com wrote an article about how flavorful and fitting the card was

I think with the proper tweaks it could be ok, mana denial has been in various forms blue just not in the typical pure land destruction sense of red.  Any other opinions on this?

[TheWellknownBrownie]

Those forms are all old. It's effectively LD. I could argue that since sacrifice effects are very Black, a Black card that says

1B
Target player sacrifices an enchantment or artifact of your choice


Would be balanced and in the color wheel, but it's clearly  not.

[Freelancer]

Do you consider bounce not a strictly blue ability? Even if its just bouncing lands. That should mean that boomerang should not be blue or shouldn't bounce lands...

I want to hear other opinions, I just can't follow you...o_0

[Matt]

You might also notice how it's been a long time since they've given blue bounce spells that can bounce lands. Check out Chain of Vapor for instance.

[Nova442]

Is Scourge really that old, TheWellKnownBrownie?  Less than 2 blocks ago, a card that was given its own article as an example of beautiful flavor and design?

I have to disagree.  Freezing things has to be a blue ability, I can't imagine another color fitting that description more.  Tapping down permanents has long been blue in nature, and if it doesn't belong in blue then please tell me where it does belong  

I'm not sure where the bouncing lands fits into the picture, but that seems to have been moved to green (plow under-esque mechanic).  Freezing land solid feels blue to me, though.

[Ephraim]

Why does this have to affect two lands? Create a [card]Dehydration[/card] for lands. In fact, if you compare Dehydration to [card]Unsummon[/card], you get an idea for the relative value of the two effects. This, then, should probably be an enchant land that costs 4 mana. "It's worse than [card]Stone Rain[/card]!" you'll protest. That's true. But red is supposed to do land destruction (and don't give me that bullshit about this not being land destruction.) Dehydration is worse than [card]Dark Banishing[/card]. So what?

Frostline

Enchant Land

Enchanted land doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.

[Nova442]

That's a card far more likely to see print.  We might be able to aggressively cost the card if it's removable and doesn't tap the land before being stuck that way forever.  Getting an extra use out of the land is a big difference.

[KDenz81]

Blue already has some land manipulation spells and abilities.  For instance, Sunder and Early Frost.  Sunder returns all lands to their owners hands'.  A massive bounce.  Then there's Early Frost which costs , is an instant and taps down 3 lands, but it doesn't keep them tapped like this enchantment.
Still, I like it as an Enchantment and would like to see the text be something along these lines.

[Card Name]  {Casting Cost}
Enchantment
"When this comes into play, tap up to two target lands. Those lands do not untap during their controller's untap step."

The CC should be up around or because this is a bit better than Plow Under, which only puts 3 lands ontop of your opponents' library.

[Fall-Titan]

I like ephs idea but tapping down a land seems a lot worse then tapping down a creature. So to keep it with a casting cost of 3U i think you should add a way to bounce it to your hand. Which is also very blue.

Frostline
3U-Enchant Land
Enchanted Land doesnt untap durings its controllers untap phase.
1U: Return Frostline to its owners hand.

Thats very blue. The only other way i see to improve this card yet still keep it at 4 cc is for it to tap the land as it enchants it.

[TheWellknownBrownie]

Early Frost is only a temporary tapping down (we might as well be discussing Twiddle or Ice), and Sunder is from Urza's Saga. We're not talkking about a time period when R&D was at the height of their game.


I like the version Fall-Titan suggested. It keeps much more in flavor with Blue.

[Freelancer]

Okay lets sum this up;

Freezing is a very blue ability
It has to be slightly overcosted
Tapping lands and freezing hasn't been done in a while so it should be a bit overcosted
Bouncing is fine, but bouncing just lands is not fine...

How about this;

2U
Enchant land
Enchanted land doesn't untap

Its worse than stone rain, so it can be costed the same as stone rain (this can also be removed, and it doesn't tap the land)

Its either that or fall titan's suggestion. The second ability isn't really usefull most off the time (only in vintage really, and I don't see this getting any play in vintage. In standard you got no real dangerous lands and paying 6 to enchant a different land isn't going to happen that often). Wich means for now I stick to the version above.