Altar of Yawgmoth

[The Atog Lord]

Altar of Yawgmoth
4
Legendary Artifact
Pay 1 life: Regenerate Altar of Yawgmoth.
You cannot lose the game. Your opponents cannot win the game.
If Altar of Yawgmoth leaves play, unless it came into play this turn, you lose the game.
Yawgmoth watches over those who bow before him. But woe to him who is not steadfast in his devotion!

The card's flavor is simple. An Altar to Yawgmoth indicates the player has come under the protection of Yawgmoth. In turn, yawgmoth is going to watch over the player and take care of him. However, if the player lets something happen to Yawgmoth's Altar, Yawgmoth will get pretty upset.
The Indestructible part may or may not be correct. What do you think?
The "unless it came into play this turn" clause is so that you can kill the opponent who has one via the legend rule. Should make the card more interesting.


Shrine to Yawgmoth
3
Legendary Artifact
You cannot lose the game. Your opponents cannot win the game.
If Shrine to Yawgmoth leaves play, unless it came into play this turn, you lose the game.
Yawgmoth watches over those who bow before him. But woe to him who is not steadfast in his devotion!

[Jacob Orlove]

Instead of indestructible, what if it was "pay n life: regenerate"?

[The Atog Lord]

Oooh. Yawgmoth likes cards that make you pay 1 life.

[jcb193]

Looks like a great card to sideboard in if you can win game 1.......

[vartemis]

Altar of Yawgmoth
4
Legendary Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 1 life and remove the top card of your library from the game.  If you do not, destroy ~this~.
You cannot lose the game. Your opponents cannot win the game.
If ~this~ is destroyed, you lose the game.
Who will protect you from the Protector?

Here is my take on it.  Flavorwise, Yawgmoth craves knowledge and infinite life.  In return for his protection, you must feed his need for these. In gaming terms, this means that you cant just sit behind it with a wall of counters and pay life into it.  Even with a built-in regeneration of 1 this is too hard to kill.  You can effectively regenerate it 19 times.  Who runs 19 artifact destruction spells in their deck?  If you want to keep regeneration, I would up it to at least 3 life.  The "may" clause stops gameplay screw ups due to forgetting to fufill a "must" clause.

As for the destroy feature, it should work.  This does mean you can't play one to cause your opponent to lose, but (correct me if I'm wrong) you also wont loose as the legend rule does not count as being destroyed.  It is essentially a sacrifice without the ability to respond once it's in play.

j

[The Atog Lord]

If ~this~ is destroyed, you lose the game.

You don't lose to Sacrifice, Welder, or Legend Rule. I don't think Yawgmoth would be too happy about an Atog snacking on his altar.

[vartemis]

If ~this~ is destroyed, you lose the game.

You don't lose to Sacrifice, Welder, or Legend Rule. I don't think Yawgmoth would be too happy about an Atog snacking on his altar.

Hmnn... how about:

Altar of Yawgmoth
4
Artifact
When ~this~ comes into play, all players sacrifice all permanents with the same name.
At the beginning of your upkeep,  you may pay 1 life and remove the top card of your library from the game. If you do not, sacrifice ~this~.
You cannot lose the game. Your opponents cannot win the game.
If ~this~ leaves play, you lose the game.
Who will protect you from the Protector?

[The Atog Lord]

It looks like you're trying to get around the death-by-legend-rule clause. I included the phrase "unless it came into play this turn" just for that purpose. It self-limits the power of what might be a very strong card. Not every color is going to be too good at dealing with this. And not every format has the resources of Type I. So, what happens when your Mono Black block deck runs into this? Well, it could always counteract this card by running the card itself. If the opponent has the Altar out, and you play your own, you win. It makes the Altar more risky to play, and gives every color an answer to it.

Now, in terms of flavor, it is quite clear to understand what happens. Yawgmoth's favor shifts to your opponent, and he abandons you. Yawgmoth isn't exactly a trustworth individual.

[vartemis]

It looks like you're trying to get around the death-by-legend-rule clause. I included the phrase "unless it came into play this turn" just for that purpose. It self-limits the power of what might be a very strong card. Not every color is going to be too good at dealing with this. And not every format has the resources of Type I. So, what happens when your Mono Black block deck runs into this? Well, it could always counteract this card by running the card itself. If the opponent has the Altar out, and you play your own, you win. It makes the Altar more risky to play, and gives every color an answer to it.

Now, in terms of flavor, it is quite clear to understand what happens. Yawgmoth's favor shifts to your opponent, and he abandons you. Yawgmoth isn't exactly a trustworth individual.

Ok, I will concede, but with a slight Modification   You don't die because Yawgmoth's favor shifts to your opponent (they don't get the altar either), but because there is some kind of bond created by the altar that kills you when broken.  If it was because the favor was shifting, the card should be called "Altar to Yawgmoth" and be worded like I had it.  The version I proposed works better for multiplayer because the most recent version that comes into play stays in play, much like an Enchant World, and the other one(s) are removed from play. I guess I was seeing it different than you are.  You are seeing the altar like some sort of singular relic which would make sense to make it legendary.  I see the altar as something that can be created by anyone with enough skill to conjure up the favor of Yawgmoth.  Enough nitpicking by me hehehe...  How about this:

Altar of Yawgmoth
4
Legendary Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep,  you may pay 1 life and remove the top card of your library from the game. If you do not, sacrifice ~this~.
You cannot lose the game. Your opponents cannot win the game.
If ~this~ leaves play, unless it came into play this turn, you lose the game.
Who will protect you from the Protector?

The other thing I thought about was:

Altar of Yawgmoth
4
Legendary Artifact
You cannot lose the game. Your opponents cannot win the game.
Pay 1 life: Target player gains control of this.  Any player may play this ability.
A shrine for the Consistently Fickle.

This would give the idea of Yawgmoth basically being fickle to whomever pays the most.  As well, rather than destroying it, you can steal it, which could backfire.  This would also make it interesting for multiplayer, team, and even emperor.  This was just off the top of my head as i was about to hit post.

j

[Machinus]

This card doesn't make sense to me when compared to platinum angel. That card isn't legendary, doesn't kill you if it leaves play, and is a 4/4 flyer, for only three more mana. Yawgmoth can grant more power than an artifact flyer, can't he?

[The Atog Lord]

Perhaps this should cost three then?

[Smmenen]

I think it totally depends on the text.  I think the card text of the version you posted at the start of this thread is too strong.   It's like moat but for the game of magic instead of non flying creatures. 

I think the card is way over powered. 

[vartemis]

Basically we are looking for a different angel.

Altar of Yawgmoth
5
Legendary Artifact
During your upkeep, You win the game.
Pay 1 life and discard a card: Ignore this effect until the end of turn.  Any player may play this ability.
It pulses with stolen life an knowledge.

I'm running on empty for different ways to create a balance card.

j

[Ephraim]

Why do you want to create this card?  I genuinely want to know.  The design space occupied by Platinum Angel is razor thin.  Beyond Platinum Angel, you have various Lich incarnations, which also occupy a narrow design space.  Granted, this is covering new ground, by melding the two design spaces, but overall, I don't think this card does anything so interesting that it merits adding to those spaces.

[The Atog Lord]

This card combines Lich, Platinum Angel, Demonic Consultation, and Solitary Confinement.

The concept of the card is that if you can play and defend it, you win the game. It is cheaper than Platinum Angel, but at the same time puts no pressure on the opponent. In other words, you need to win before the opponent finds an answer. At the same time, it prevents you from losing, like Confinement. Though, Confinement is self-regulating and this won't remove itself from the game; still, if confinement leaves play nothing bad happens, whereas this card ends the game if it leaves play, like Lich. Like Demonic Consultation, it is a card that can be strong, but can also lose its caster the game on hitting the table.

Should the card not have self-protecting properties?

[Godder]

Personally, I think it's funnier if it doesn't protect itself – if the mage is so awesome that Yawgmoth will protect him to this extent, surely the mage can devote himself to protecting the Altar, right?

[The Atog Lord]

You make a very strong argument. Maybe it would be more balanced if Yawgmoth let the wizard handle that.

[Matt]

It should definitely not protect itself. Self-protection is what makes Morphling different from Phantom Monster. It's a huge "ability" to have.

What would be funny is including "When this leaves play, target player gains control of Yawgmoth's Altar." For multiplayer games.

[The Atog Lord]

Matt, is there a clean way to word that multi-player idea?

Yawgmoth will now protect only you and not his Altar. Given this, I've reduced the mana cost to three, since it is much weaker and I don't want a Platinum Angel to be _that_ much better.

[Godder]

If you die, it will leave the game when you do. It would be hilarious with Donate, however...

Something like:

When ~this~ leaves play, return it to play under target player's control.

[The Atog Lord]

Isn't there a multiplayer rule that says that when a player dies, all of the permanents he owns are RFG'd? Or was that just a house rule my friends and I had?

[Godder]

They aren't RFG'd, they leave the game entirely, but yes, something like that.

[dandan]

Yawgmoth would be mightily displeased to see an altar and no action there. Sacrifices and/or wild sexual rituals should be compulsory.

Upkeep - Sacrifice a permanent or Reveal and RFG cards from your library until you hit a card with CMC>0. Pay that much life

(I'd prefer it if it could be worded so the upkeep is considered unpaid if you pay no life if you choose the library option, although having a library of zero is a pretty steep drawback. At the very least it must be clear that you can't reveal and RFG if you have no library)

That covers the sacrifice aspect, the sexual rituals are probably best left for house rules in casual games (particularly multiplayer). (I for one would let the 'formal' upkeep slide if in a 1 on 1 with Beyonce should she offer the alternative upkeep)

[The Atog Lord]

If we give this an upkeep drawback, and perhaps remove the You Lose clause to counter that, then doesn't this just become a colorless Solitary Confinement?

[dandan]

I said nothing about dropping the lose the game clause.

[Jacob Orlove]

I think a sacrifice ability would just be unnecessary clutter, unless it was like "sacrifice something: get something". Even then, that's probably too much for one card, flavor or no.

[Matt]

Altar kinds of implies sacrifice. Maybe this should be Yawgmoth's Shrine.

[Godder]

Particularly given Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar. Making it a Shrine makes a lot of sense with that in mind.

[The Atog Lord]

Name Changed.

CLOCK!

[dandan]

I'd suggest you change the Altar to Shrine in the rules text too (unless you want this to hose Yawgmoth's Altar when we eventually make that bad-ass card)