Seal Magic

[Shadow-Walker]

Seal Magic
1UU
Instant
Counter target spell.  Until end of turn spells cost an additional 1 to play for that spell's controller.


Seems really cool to me as nice way to cost more than counterspell and still be good.  Id like this to have some nice flavor text.  Is that wording correct?

[Shadow-Walker]

Current Wording:

Seal Magic
UU
Instant
As an additional cost to play Seal Magic, discard a card.
Counter target spell.  Until end of turn spells cost an additional 1 to play for that spell's controller.

[Machinus]

What if this cost 1U and the cost increase applied to all players?

[Shadow-Walker]

Not really the flavor I was going for and one of the articles on wizard's site states that they dont print splashable hard counters.

[asmoranomardicodais]

I might change the cost to 2UU. Look at Dismiss and Rewind. It seems that counterspells that counter a spell AND do something spiffy as well are costed at four by wizards.

[Matt]

Well there's also Hinder to consider, but this effect is stronger by far than Hinder. 2UU sounds right.

[asmoranomardicodais]

Well there's also Hinder to consider, but this effect is stronger by far than Hinder. 2UU sounds right.

And hinder doesn't actually get rid of the spell, they can still tutor it back out. Whenever they print cards that actually counter the spell AND net you something related, it is 2UU.

More examples:
Quash
Last Word

[dandan]

I strongly dislike 4CC counterspells, basically they suck (I might exclude Mystic Snake from that).

Couldn't we attempt to keep this at 3cc and therefore usable?

Seal Magic
1UU
Instant
Counter target spell.  Until end of turn spells cost an additional 1 to play

P.S. I imagined a Wizard harassed by numerous black aquatic mammals juggling balls when I saw the name of this card. If CoK has circles of fish, could the art for this one be a wizard circled by seals, that would be 'killer'. (and the weirdest art since Ebon Praetor)

[Shadow-Walker]

Id like to keep this at 3cc if possible, aside from rewind (whose mana cost is deceptive and at times generates mana) 4cc counters dont see any play outside of standard.

[Ephraim]

Unfortunately, I think that this card is sufficiently above the curve for other 3-cc counters (especially those that have seen print recently) that it really can't exist as-is at that cost. You could change it into a soft counter, I supose:


Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays . Until end of turn, spells cost an additional to play.

Not only do both aspects of the spell reflect a common mechanism, the soft counter becomes an interesting decision. Does your opponent pay the knowing that further spells are going to cost him an addtional each or will he let the first spell pass to keep mana open for further spells?

[Shadow-Walker]

I like Dandan's suggestion, is that doable?

[asmoranomardicodais]

I personally like Ephraim's suggestion. If you want a 3cc counter with this ability, Ephraim's idea seems to be the cleanest.

[Shadow-Walker]

Im changing it to:
Seal Magic
UU
Instant
As an additional cost to play Seal Magic, discard a card.
Counter target spell.  Until end of turn spells cost an additional 1 to play for that spell's controller.

Which I feel conveys the great mental/magical effort needed to lock-out the casting of another wizard while maintaining a playable casting cost.  Do you feel this is balanced?

[asmoranomardicodais]

I don't like that fix at all. Your putting a drawback on a counter with an ability we haven't seen before. It should be kept simple and just be that ability, or be ephraim's because in that version both abilities work together to create an interesting effect. I don't feel that discarding a card is very related to this ability at all.

[Matt]

That's a really ugly fix. Might as well put "sacrifice a creature" or something - there's no reason for it.

[Shadow-Walker]

I think that it has far more relevance than "sacrifice a creature", the hand is typically associated with the mind and magic and an additional tax on those faculties seems quite in flavor to me, Force of Will has a similar drawback that I believe fits it perfectly (and very poorly the other alliances pitch cards).  Forbid has a similar buyback cost so there is some history of this being associated with counterspells.  That said, it is certainly not my first choice but I feel the soft counter alters the flavor of the card even further and 4cc counters tend to be terrible.
Also there were few replies refering to Dandan's fix which I was quite in favor of and would gladly take over the discard if it is useable.

[dandan]

I like my suggestion too  I think it is doable.

However, if you made Ephraim's version with 3 additional mana instead of 2, it wouldn't lower the power of the card too much and the extra mana payment does interact nicely with the higher cost of spells for the rest of the turn.

Seal Magic
UU1
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 3 . Until end of turn, spells cost an additional 1 to play.