Ceremonial Dagger Cycle - Horzatl/Quicatl

[Anusien]

The flavor of this card is pretty straight-forward: these are the ritualistic dagger the priests use for the human sacrifice to their gods.   One is aligned to Horzatl and the other to Quiacatl.  I'm trying to work a good set of abilities that do anything along the range of:
*) Make abilities cheaper on the creature that equips them
*) Add a sacrifice a creature: get an ability from the god
*) Punish someone from the other color that uses them
*) Power up the wielder versus creatures on the other side

I'm giving it a high casting cost but a low equip cost because I want this to be powerful, but once it's down I really want it to affect the game state.

Horzatl's Sacrificial Dagger

Artifact
Horzatl's Sacrificial Dagger can be attached only to a red or white creature.
Equipped creature has , pay 2 life: Remove X poison counters and equipped creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn.
Equip

Quicatl's Sacrificial Dagger

Artifact
Quicatl's Sacrificial Dagger can be attached only to a green or black creature.
Equipped creature has , sacrifice a creature: Creatures you control get +2/+2 and If this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, that opponent gets a posion counter until end of turn.
Equip

Current wording:
Horzatl's Ceremonial Dagger

Artifact
Horzatl's Ceremonial Dagger can be attached only to a red or white creature.
Equipped creature has , pay 2 life: Remove a poison counter from yourself.  Equipped creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Equip

Quicatl's Ceremonial Dagger

Artifact
Quicatl's Ceremonial Dagger can be attached only to a green or black creature.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to an opponent, you may sacrifice a creature.  If you do, that opponent gets 2 poison counters.
Equip

Changes: 1) Fixed the wording slightly on Quicatl's ability.  The point is until end of turn, your creatures power up and if they hit the other guy he gets a poison counter.  The counters aren't supposed to be until end of turn - is there a better wording?
2) Changed the name to ceremonial daggers.  Added art directions.  Made Horzatl's dagger follow Eph's advice.  Changed Quicatl's dagger to require a sacrifice on hit (so it will not take away 2 creatures).  Thinking about adding some sort of drawback to Quicatl's if you don't sacrifice - more flavor but less useful and more cluttered.
3) Fixed the text so it actually has the same cardname as the card.

[Jacob Orlove]

"that opponent gets a poison counter until end of turn"? I think you might want to work on your templating there.

[Ephraim]

You and I discussed this card in the IRC channel, Anusien, but I figured that I would record some of my comments here for posterity.

I think that the red/white one is very powerful in the poison-rich environment that we've been fostering. For an investment of mana and a small life payment, you can rid yourself of poison counters very quickly and get a benefit besides! Of course, the wording is ambiguous. You could mean that you're removing a poison counter from an opponent to get this effect, in which case, I think it's more fair. Otherwise, I think the payment needs to be higher. Something like ", pay 2 life, remove a poison counter from yourself: Equipped creature gets +1/+0 (or even +1/+1) until end of turn." woud be fair. That is very similar in effect to firebreathing. You're paying for the +1/+0 benefit and 2 life to get rid of the poison counter, which is a fair trade. I also mentioned to you that I don't think it should be a sacrificial dagger since 1. red and white aren't big on sacrifices and 2. there's nothing sacrificial about what the card does.

The black/green one is trying to do far too much. Not only does it clutter the card, but it also reduces the impact of what it's trying to do. It is, furthermore, much to powerful. In the environment we're developing, it shouldn't be that easy to dole out poison counters. I think that a creature sacrifice and a little bit of mana are a very nominal cost for the benefit of +2/+2 to everything and the ability to dish out poison counters. In addition, the +2/+2 bonus and the poison counter bonus are at odds with one another. Chances are, you're going to kill by damage much faster than you'd kill with poison counters. I think this card would be best if it focused on the poison counter ability, but in a much weaker way. For example, having the equipped creature gain, "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may sacririce it. If you do, that player gains that many poison counters" might be more appropriate, if you were to increase the equip cost to or more.

[Anusien]

I changed it up a little.  I really think these ought to be made in some sort, and the flavor is awesome; the only problem is the mechanic.

[Jacob Orlove]

These are better now, I think.

[Anusien]

*bump* I don't feel confident in these to clock it yet, and I don't think enough people have taken a look yet.  I really want feedback.

[Anusien]

24 hour clock?

[Matt]

Horzatl's Ceremonial Dagger

Artifact
Horzatl's Sacrificial Dagger can...

[Anusien]

I thought I clocked and added this but apparently I didn't.  Fixed bold tags.
24 hour clock

[Matt]

Closed and added.[/color]