Poison Mosquito Swarm

[A_Outcast]

Poisonous Mosquito Swarm       G/B
Creature - Insect
Flash, flying
When Poisonous Mosquito Swarm attacks, you get two poison counter.
When Poisonous Mosquito Swarm attacks and is unblocked, defending player cannot cast spells until the begining of his or her next upkeep.
You may remove two green and/or black creature cards from your hand instead of paying Poison Mosquito Swarm's mana cost.
0/1


I was bored at work and remember reading about meadbert 's artical and was wondering if it would be possible to make a similar card to Xantid Swarm which could effectivly hate out mana drains and would provide enough bang for the buck that it would be as powerful as Leyline of the Void or Hurkyl's Recall.  I also wanted to make it fit in with the Aztec set that is being worked on here at TMD.

So I wanted to use meadbert's ideas to help me also analyze why this card is good and bad in its own respect.
While yes, it is a direct upgrade to xantid swarm in a way, its also a downgrade in that if it attacks 5 times, you essentially kill yourself.  However it has flash and has the option of being cast for a B instead of a G which is a huge benefit, allowing it to go both into control decks and into non-control decks.

The reason it needs to be viable for the control mirror is in a way double sided.  as meadbert said, the easier it is to hate out a deck, the less powerful it is.  They would easily run multiples in their side to help them with a mirror but lets analyze how effective it is against other decks (using meadbert's analasis method):
Staxx: bad because staxx doesnt play many instants.  many play none so it would be a dead sideboard card.
Combo: While it would be powerful enough to force combo to play its instants before combat (acall and whatnot) its not too intensly powerful in the regard that it doesnt shut combo down.
Ichorid: Irrelevent because ichorid doesnt play instants.
However it would shine in the control mirror because all the post-combat spells you played would be uncounterable.  However other decks would gain a lot by using this card, stopping your opponent from countering your postcombat spells.



Swarm of Mosquitos   {b/g}
Creature - Insect
Flash, flying
Vanishing 5
Whenever Swarm of Mosquitos attacks, you gain four poison counters, and defending player cannot play spells this turn.
0/3

That way you have 2 turns to "go off" in a window of your next 4 turns, which really balances it more i think.

[jro]

The best book review ever written was by the satirist Ambrose Bierce.  The review, in its entirety, read "The covers of this book are too far apart."  In that spirit: The font size of this card is too small.

But then again, since snark doesn't do much to help improve this design: This card does too many things that are complicated and rarely relevant.  Sure, maybe the poison effect would be relevant in a poison-oriented set, but it clearly won't be applicable in most uses of this card.  The alternate casting cost: How many times could a deck that was even (say) 1/3 creatures reliably pay this cost?  And on top of that how often would they want to?  Even the hybrid mana cost seems like just one more thing thrown in, rather than an integral part of the design.

"Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity." Occam's restrictive principle is as good advice for designers as anyone.  Better to have one idea clearly expressed than many ideas mired in a muddle.

[Darkenslight]

What about this as a design?

Swarm of Mosquitoes  {b/g}
Creature - Insect
Flying
Whenever ~ attacks, you gain three poison counters, and defending player cannot play spells this turn.
0/1

It seems to condense everything about the other card into two lines of text (well, more like three, but hey!  :p)

Also, it's very limited use, in the same way Xantid is.

[Matt]

Why is a mosquito giving out poison? Disease isn't the same as poison. What's more, there's no flavor reason this should hurt you and NOT poison whoever you're pointing it at.

If you only want a card to be usable for a set number of turns, there's mechanics for that already. Fading and vanishing come to mind...

Swarm of Phantasms

Creature -- Insect Illusion
0/1
Flying
Vanishing 5
When Swarm of Phantasms attacks, defending player removes a card in his or her hand from the game face-down.
When Swarm of Phantasms leaves play, return each removed card to its owner's hand.

If you Stifle the leaves-play ability, you get to keep those cards gone.

[A_Outcast]

What about this as a design?

Swarm of Mosquitoes  {b/g}
Creature - Insect
Flying
Whenever ~ attacks, you gain three poison counters, and defending player cannot play spells this turn.
0/1

It seems to condense everything about the other card into two lines of text (well, more like three, but hey!  :p)

Also, it's very limited use, in the same way Xantid is.

giving out 3 counters is nice beause it gives you 3 turns to go off, but you get to choose what those 3 turns are to maximize your strength.  as a combo deck that might be too big of a window, i really like the idea.

Why is a mosquito giving out poison? Disease isn't the same as poison. What's more, there's no flavor reason this should hurt you and NOT poison whoever you're pointing it at.

If you only want a card to be usable for a set number of turns, there's mechanics for that already. Fading and vanishing come to mind...

Swarm of Phantasms

Creature -- Insect Illusion
0/1
Flying
Vanishing 5
When Swarm of Phantasms attacks, defending player removes a card in his or her hand from the game face-down.
When Swarm of Phantasms leaves play, return each removed card to its owner's hand.

If you Stifle the leaves-play ability, you get to keep those cards gone.

Ialso really like the vanishing aspect  because that gives you a window for uses not x turns to maximize your damage, which would limit the card in another way.  i dont want it to remove cards (which they would remove a land since they get a choice) because that just feels... weird. 

i think im going to take a bit of use from both cards, both vanishing and attack=> psn counters