More limited creatures

[Nazdakka]

Some random ideas, these are more cards which haven't been done yet than exciting new mechanics:

Aven Fisher redux
1U
Creature-Bird
Flying
When ~this~ is put into a graveyard from play, draw a card
1/1
(common)

Cunning Turtle
3U
Creature-Turtle
If ~this~ is untapped, it cannot be the target of spells or abilies
2/4
(uncommon)

Midfield General
1W
Creature-Human Solider
Whenerver ~this~ deals damage, gain that much life
Vigilance
1/3
(common/uncommon)

Battering Craghorn's brother
2R
Creature-Beast
First Strike
3/1
(common)

Bear Necessity
4G
Sorcery
Put two 2/2 Bear tokens into play
(uncommon)

Hardy Explorer
1G
Creature-Human Druid
Whenever you play a land, ~this~ gets +1/+1 until the end of turn
1/2
(common)

Quirion Landlover
2G
Creature-Dryad
Whever you play a land, put a +1/+1 counter on ~this~
1/1
(uncommon)

Suberranean Hive
3G
Creature-Insect Lord
Whenever you play a land, put a 1/1 insect token into play
1/3
(Rare)

The top 5 are all pretty normal limited-only cards which come in every set but nobody really cares about for constructed. The second three are a set which I came up with from thinking about how to make a not-quite vanilla creature. That produced Hardy Explorer and the others followed naturally from the underused 'whenever you play a land' trigger. I'll split them off into a new thread if people think they are interesting enough for a separate discussion.

[Nazdakka]

Current wording:


Aven Hatchling
1U
Creature-Bird
Flying
When Aven Hatchling is put into a graveyard from play, draw a card
1/1
(common)

Sapphire-Shell Turtle
3U
Creature-Turtle
If Sapphire-Shell Turtle is untapped, it cannot be the target of spells or abilities
2/4
(uncommon)

Order of the Sacred Stone
2W
Creature-Human Solider
Whenever Order of the Sacred Stone deals damage, gain that much life
Vigilance
1/3
(common/uncommon)

Woodland Summons
3G
Sorcery
Put two 2/2 Bear tokens into play
Don't go down to the woods today.
(uncommon)

Hardy Explorer
1G
Creature-Human Druid
Whenever you play a land, Hardy Explorer gets +1/+1 until the end of turn
1/2
(common)

Arboreal Dryad
2G
Creature-Dryad
Whenever you play a land, put a +1/+1 counter on Arboreal Dryad
1/1
(uncommon/rare)

Subterranean Hive
3G
Creature-Insect Lord
Whenever you play a land, put a 1/1 insect token into play
1/3
(Rare)

[Ephraim]

For the most part I like these. Craghorn's brother, however is strictly better than Sabretooth Tiger, which is a staple of the core sets. I don't think it would do to obsolete it. Midfield General might need to cost 2W -- the spirit link ability isn't typically cheap. On a creature with that kind of toughness, it's actually very formidable, since it discourages people from trying to block the creature early in the game. I particularly like Subterranean Hive. That's a neat sort of card. In general, the three land-trigger cards are pretty good.

[Jacob Orlove]

I like these, although the placeholder names will obviously have to change. I agree with Eph about the craghorn, but the general seems to be on par with something like tallowwisp.

I suspect the hive may be too cheap, since you can get a lot of creatures out of it. Hard to say for sure, though.

[MrZuccinniHead]

Midfield general needs to cost at least one more for sure.  It's solid defense and will gain you at least 1 life a turn while also acting as a psuedo-removal and a large amount of creatures in TMD's set (many are weenies like ChK).

[Nazdakka]

I like these, although the placeholder names will obviously have to change. I agree with Eph about the craghorn, but the general seems to be on par with something like tallowwisp.

I suspect the hive may be too cheap, since you can get a lot of creatures out of it. Hard to say for sure, though.

Craghorn: You're right. I thought Battering Craghorn (the same card, except with morph:1RR) cost 1RR to cast, but it's 2RR. 3R seems reasonable in that case. Possible name: Spitting Firecat, with creature type cat?

General: He's pretty strong, but it's only usually going to be 1 life a turn. He also won't do very much attacking after about turn 5, and so he's only really good in quite a controlling kind of limited deck - traditional U/W would love him. For more aggressive builds though, he's unlikely to be nearly as useful, as they would never want to waste turn 2 casting such a defensive creature. If this guy was in BoK, I think he'd be about on the level of the damage prevention creatures like Split-Tail Miko - good, but not broken, as there's a big difference in ChK block between 3 and 4 toughness. Of course, if our set has lower toughnesses than ChK block he might need to change. For creature type and name he should probably be a cleric of some kind, inspiration has not come yet for something which sounds good.

Hive: The closest two cards to the Hive I can find are Squirrel Nest, Nut Collector and Honden of Life's Web. Nut Collector is the closest, it's a 1/1 Druid for 5G which puts a squirrel into play each upkeep, and gives all squirrels +2/+2 with threshold. That guy is an arguement to make the Hive 5 mana, but Squirrel Nest is a guarunteed 1/1 each turn for just 1GG + G per squirrel. The Hive isn't even certain to make 1 1/1 a turn, although a turboland-type deck could potentially abuse him heavily. 4G is probably a safer costing, but I would quite like to give him a shove

Bear Necessity: This is a pre-threshold Grizzly Fate without Flashback for a very slightly lower cost - 4G as oppsed to 3GG. I was unsure whether to give it a push by putting it at 2GG, as at the moment it is very close to being strictly worse than Grizzly Fate. At 3G it'd likely be our set's equivalent to Fangren Hunter/Order of the Sacred Bell.

I've also added some provisional names to replace my initial working names, comments would be nice! 

[Nazdakka]

*Bump*

Any further thoughts on these, in particular on the power levels of Hive, General/Order or Summons? Ideas for flavour text and/or alternate names would be welcomed too, I'm rotten at non-silly flavour text

[MrZuccinniHead]

General: He's pretty strong, but it's only usually going to be 1 life a turn. He also won't do very much attacking after about turn 5, and so he's only really good in quite a controlling kind of limited deck - traditional U/W would love him. For more aggressive builds though, he's unlikely to be nearly as useful, as they would never want to waste turn 2 casting such a defensive creature. If this guy was in BoK, I think he'd be about on the level of the damage prevention creatures like Split-Tail Miko - good, but not broken, as there's a big difference in ChK block between 3 and 4 toughness. Of course, if our set has lower toughnesses than ChK block he might need to change. For creature type and name he should probably be a cleric of some kind, inspiration has not come yet for something which sounds good.

Yes, TMD's set is suffering from a lack of beef.  This guy blocks a large portion of the creatures in this set.  He can block most turn 2-3-4 drops and he is only a turn 2 investment that gains at least 1 life a turn and can still block to gain yet another life!

[Nazdakka]

General: He's pretty strong, but it's only usually going to be 1 life a turn. He also won't do very much attacking after about turn 5, and so he's only really good in quite a controlling kind of limited deck - traditional U/W would love him. For more aggressive builds though, he's unlikely to be nearly as useful, as they would never want to waste turn 2 casting such a defensive creature. If this guy was in BoK, I think he'd be about on the level of the damage prevention creatures like Split-Tail Miko - good, but not broken, as there's a big difference in ChK block between 3 and 4 toughness. Of course, if our set has lower toughnesses than ChK block he might need to change. For creature type and name he should probably be a cleric of some kind, inspiration has not come yet for something which sounds good.

Yes, TMD's set is suffering from a lack of beef.  This guy blocks a large portion of the creatures in this set.  He can block most turn 2-3-4 drops and he is only a turn 2 investment that gains at least 1 life a turn and can still block to gain yet another life!

Ok, I've made that change and recosted Woodland summons to 2GG. Anything else, particularly with respect to flavour text/names?

[Matt]

Woodland Summons shoudl either be 3G-sorcery or 4G-instant. Right now it's only just better than Durkwood Boars.

The Hatchling is kind of boring but not actually bad.

Firecat is just a straight-up reprint of at least one existing card (Halberdier).

The Dryad is probably a little strong for an uncommon.

The rest look fine.

[Nazdakka]

Summons: 3G Sorcery it is then.

Firecat: Whoops, I forgot Halderdier. Scrub that one then, if we want Halderdier we can reprint it anyway.

Dryad: Well, we can sort that out in development. If it's too good for uncommon we can either make it more Green-intensive or upgrade it to rare.

[Jacob Orlove]

The Dryad reminds me of [card]Chlorophant[/card], except instead of the threshold ability, it has synergy with turboland type stuff. It might need to go up to 1GG and rare.

How does Woodland Summons compare with Sosuke's Summons? Right now I think it's a bit undercosted. Maybe 2GG?

[Nazdakka]

The Dryad reminds me of [card]Chlorophant[/card], except instead of the threshold ability, it has synergy with turboland type stuff. It might need to go up to 1GG and rare.

I'd rather not do that, as Chlorophant is a bad card and its abilities let it grow quite a bit faster than the Dryad. Forgotten Ancient is another card with a similar ability which is quite a bit more powerful. There's nothing wrong with a few good uncommons for limited, and given that even if you don't miss a land-drop Dryad won't match Fangren Hunter's p/t until turn 7, I feel it's quite inoffensive.

How does Woodland Summons compare with Sosuke's Summons? Right now I think it's a bit undercosted. Maybe 2GG?

I don't think Sosuke's Summons is a good comparision - it's got a really good buyback ability which adds to the cost. IMO Raise the Alarm is more appropriate, as it's a vanilla spell which just makes guys. Using that comparision, Woodland Summons seems fair as is, particularly as it can't be used at instant speed for an ambush.

[MrZuccinniHead]

General: He's pretty strong, but it's only usually going to be 1 life a turn. He also won't do very much attacking after about turn 5, and so he's only really good in quite a controlling kind of limited deck - traditional U/W would love him. For more aggressive builds though, he's unlikely to be nearly as useful, as they would never want to waste turn 2 casting such a defensive creature. If this guy was in BoK, I think he'd be about on the level of the damage prevention creatures like Split-Tail Miko - good, but not broken, as there's a big difference in ChK block between 3 and 4 toughness. Of course, if our set has lower toughnesses than ChK block he might need to change. For creature type and name he should probably be a cleric of some kind, inspiration has not come yet for something which sounds good.

Yes, TMD's set is suffering from a lack of beef.  This guy blocks a large portion of the creatures in this set.  He can block most turn 2-3-4 drops and he is only a turn 2 investment that gains at least 1 life a turn and can still block to gain yet another life!

Ok, I've made that change and recosted Woodland summons to 2GG. Anything else, particularly with respect to flavour text/names?

I think u misunderstood me.  I thought summons was fine, but Order of the Sacred Stone was the problem card.

[Nazdakka]

Yes, TMD's set is suffering from a lack of beef.  This guy blocks a large portion of the creatures in this set.  He can block most turn 2-3-4 drops and he is only a turn 2 investment that gains at least 1 life a turn and can still block to gain yet another life!

Ok, I've made that change and recosted Woodland summons to 2GG. Anything else, particularly with respect to flavour text/names?

I think u misunderstood me.  I thought summons was fine, but Order of the Sacred Stone was the problem card.

What I said was a bit ambiguous - the change to Summons was nothing to do with what you said, 'that change' referred to the Order and not to Summons.

Unless anyone has some good flavour text, I'm going to say...

*Clock*

[Jacob Orlove]

A few flavor issues:

"Order of the Sacred Stone" sounds a lot like "Order of the Sacred Bell".
The flavor text on summons is awful.
"Arboreal" means "of or living in trees", which is already somewhat redundant for dryads, but doesn't have anything to do with the land bonus.