Aven Constable (formerly Aven Bureaucrat)

[Ephraim]

Aven Bureaucrat
{W}
Creature -- Bird Magistrate
1/2

Flying
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, if that player controls a red permanent, that player taps an untapped land he or she controls. Then if that player controls a black permanent, that player taps an untapped land he or she controls.

***

I'm not sure I got this templated the right way, but the intent should be clear at least. It will tap down zero, one, or two lands, depending on what colours of permanents a player has. I created this critter because I wanted to get a bit more mileage out of the Magistrate creature type. That plays into white's taxation them and also hits upon the flavour of the creature actually doing something -- in this case, inspecting a player's holdings and taxing them accordingly.

***

Current Wording:

Port Authority

Creature — Bird Magistrate
0/3

Flying
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, if that player controls a red or green permanent, that player taps an untapped land he or she controls. If that player controls a red and a green permanent, that player taps two untapped lands he or she controls instead.

[Bram]

Is the Aven Bureaucrat / [card]Aysen Bureaucrat[/card] pun intentional? I don't think Wizards would do it, since it can be confusing. I agree it's in flavor though. Perhaps a different type of white humanoid 'magic birds' like Gustcloak Bureaucrat? Or possibly a different function, like Aven Inspector or something?

I like the card, by the way. It seems costed appropriately.

[rvs]

Why is it 1/2? Can't it just be 2/1 or 2/2?

[Anusien]

I don't want it to harm only Red and Black - it makes sense for it to be psuedo-symmetrical, say,
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player taps an untapped land they control.  Then if that player controls a red or black permanant, that player taps an untapped land they control.

I think that's a better effect - it feels more bureacratic, because everyone has to jum pthrough the same hoops, but some people get hit by it more.  Then you could probably turn it into a 1W 1/1 or 1/2, which lets it be a much more powerful and flexible creature.

[Matt]

I vote for 2W 1/3

[Ephraim]

RVS, I didn't want this to be an aggressive creature. {W} for a 1/1 flyer with this ability seemed a shade undercosted to me. The smallest cost increase possible to {W} made it a shade overcosted. I compensated by increasing the toughness. Increasing the power may have been overkill.

Matt, {W} for a 1/3 is another feasible course. The other option I was considering was making this a 0/2 for {W}. That way, it can conceivably come down early enough to make a real impact on the game, when facing red and/or black.

Anusien, I'm not sure I like that idea. Sometimes white is purely fair, but every colour in the game gets dedicated colour hosers every now and then. I suppose that they're usually separated into two cards, but I don't think there's anything strictly wrong with having a colour-hosing card that affects both of a colour's enemies.

[Jacob Orlove]

White actually has a history of "hosing" red and black simultaneously, from the various creatures with protection from both colors, to Greater Realm of Preservation and various other enchantments, to Samite Ministration and the like.

This is fine just hosing black and red, and not doing anything to any other colors.

Also, I'd support going to WW in the cost if that'd make this a decent creature (say 1/2 flying)

[Ephraim]

I was trying to avoid WW in the cost. Even though it fits with the flavour of hosing both of white's enemies, I think that in general, there are too many small creatures with WW in the cost and that in particular, our set is overburdened with cards of all colours with CC in the cost.

[Upinthe]

The way this is worded it sounds as if your opponent only taps a land for black if he she already tapped one for red. Is that how this is supposed to work or did you want them seperate?

[Ephraim]

The way this is worded it sounds as if your opponent only taps a land for black if he she already tapped one for red. Is that how this is supposed to work or did you want them seperate?

No. That wasn't the way it's supposed to work. Both are supposed to get checked, whether the first one is there or not. Like I said, the templating is a bit wonky. If anybody has any suggestions that don't involve creating two separate triggered abilities, I'd like to hear them.

[Ephraim]

I changed the flavour from an inspector to a constable, which still fits within the boundaries of Magistrate. I've made it a 0/3 for {W}, which makes it more playable, for the purpose of its ability, while making it an adequate blocker. I've also reworded the ability to be patterned after the Apocalypse sanctuaries.

[Ephraim]

I'm still not satisfied with the flavour I have going here. I don't want this creature to be big into combat, which seems inappropriate for a constable. "Aven Inspector" isn't as polished as I'd like. I'm considering a few other options. I guess I've been reluctant to depart from having the creature's type be made obvious by its name, since I don't have artwork with which to work. Nonetheless, would "Port Authority" be a good name for this? Would it be better off as a blue creature with an analagous ability in that case? I don't suppose there's anything wrong with blue having magistrates too. (Note: I really don't want to make this U/W, so don't suggest that.)

[Jacob Orlove]

Isn't Port Authority a Masques card?

[Bram]

You're thinking of [card]Port Inspector[/card], a pretty darn useless MM common.

[Ephraim]

I decided to go with blue. Not only did it fit better with the name, I realized that although the "taxation" theme goes with white, tapping lands is decidedly blue. I'm pretty sure this card is finished, so I'm going to call for the 24 Hour Clock.

[Bram]

Closed and added.