Parasitic Earwig (formerly Neuronic Parasite)

[Ephraim]

Neuronic Parasite
{B}
Creature – Insect
2/1

Flying
Whenever Neuronic Parasite deals combat damage to a player, you lose that much life and draw that many cards.

***

Grimmshaw was asking over IRC about a rare creature to help finish off his set. Arakkis and I hammered out this beauty. Grimmshaw ended up going with something similar, but with ties to a keyword mechanic specifically for his set, so we figured there was no sense letting this go to waste.

[Ephraim]

Current Wording:

Parasitic Horror
{1}{B}{B}
Creature – Horror
2/1

Whenever Parasitic Monstrosity deals combat damage to a player, you lose that much life and draw that many cards.

[Jacob Orlove]

This is really, really strong. Does black even get 2-power flyers for 3 mana anymore?

"Neuronic" sounds out of place on a magic card, though.

[Ephraim]

Black does get 2 power fliers for 3 mana. Death's Head Buzzard in Scourge, Dusk Imp in 8th, Ebon Drake in 5th Dawn, Hollow Specter in Legions.

I don't know if Onslaught block or 8th are recent enough examples, though.

[Arakkis]

Personally, I think the name should be Parasite Swarm....

[Matt]

This is like Osyp's invitational card, but better.

[Ephraim]

Which would be more fair: Increase the mana cost to {B}; or decrease the power to 1? (Both?)

Ooh – and I think I found some good flavour for this -- better than either Neuronic Parasite or Parasitic Swarm – Parasitic Earwig. It plays into the old myth that earwigs crawl into people's ears and lay eggs in the brain. *shudder* What a gruesome thought. In case you thought that they're just ground-bound creatures, earwigs can fly, although they rarely do. Good enough for me, since the flavour is just filthy awesome.

[Anusien]

I don't know, "Earwig" seems out of place on a card like this.  I mean, I'm familiar with the term this time, but the flavor is backwards, and I don't see an earwig being on the same power level as a Hypnotic Spectre or a Savannah Lion (in terms of what that 2 power means).

[Ephraim]

The same could probably be said of Mind Maggots, Marker Beetles, Pincher Beetles, and Thornscape Familiar.

[Anusien]

What I mean to say is beyond all that, "Earwig" doesn't sound all that scary.  That aside, you call it Parasitic Earwig but in the card text and the topic title still refer to it by its old name.

[Ephraim]

Maybe I'm just excessively creeped out by earwigs, but especially the thought of one of those little bastards in my ear makes my flesh crawl. I guess I am biased, because I think the name is horrifying. That said, I suppose you're right that it feels like something that should be making an opponent discard rather than helping you draw. If nobody would mind me hearkening back to the days of Mirrodin, I might be able to do something with blinkmoths...

Parasitic Blinkmoth
The lymph of blinkmoths harvested in Mephidross is particularly potent, but is also quite toxic.

[Marco]

I have to admit that I am excessively creeped out by earwigs too. However, that's more of a personal experience. I don't think they'd necessarily be scary in the Magic world.

[MrZuccinniHead]

I like this, but earwigs don't fly.

[Matt]

This is honestly too powerful. I say lose the flying.

[Ephraim]

I'm okay with losing flying. In that case, I'm going to switch from an insect to a horror, because it's a creature type that I really dig. How does "Parasitic Monstrosity" with creature type Horror sound?

[Nibble]

Parasites have typically struck me as stealthy, like the leech or tick that latches onto you unnoticed. Monstrosity kind of goes against that mentality.

However, I think this works pretty well with the card. It's leeching, yes, but it's also pretty blunt. My only concern is that Monstrosity sounds a little bigger than 2/1.

[Godder]

How about a 1/1 with Fear?

[Matt]

How about "Parasitic Horror"?

[Ephraim]

I like Parasitic Horror. It scans better than "Parasitic Monstrosity" although I'm not typically a fan of using the creature type as part of the name.

Which do people think would be more interesting, but still within the appropriate power level for this card: a 2/1 creature with just the card drawing ability or a 1/1 creature with fear and the card drawing ability? I'm tending toward the 2/1 creature without fear, just because this is otherwise drifting too close to Shadowmage Infiltrator.

[Matt]

yeah, screw fear.

[Ephraim]

Okay. This looks as though it is in final form. 24 Hour Clock.

[combo_dude]

Bob Maher's Invitational card (which is coming out in Ravnica) is pretty similar to this - same P/T and same "cards-for-life" mechanic, although it triggers differently. I like the card a lot, I just wanted to know if anyone feels that this is stepping on Maher's toes a little.

[Ephraim]

I don't know who Bob Maher is and I haven't ever seen his invitational card. Any resemblance, therefore, is the result of parallel instances of pure genius.

[Matt]

"Bob Maher's invitational card is in the first standalone set slated for the fall of 2005 - Ravnica: City of Guilds. He ended up submitting a BB 2/1 with the ability 'During each upkeep you reveal the top card of your library and must pay life equal to the card's converted casting cost and put it in your hand.' There have been some tweaks to the card in development, and I am confident the card is better than ever. I've cast it dozens of times, and killed probably almost as many. I hope you enjoy the card as much as we have!"

[Matt]

Closed and added.[/color]