Impose Order (now Sapience)

[Ephraim]

Impose Order

Instant

Choose one -- Return target red or green permanent to its owner's hand; or counter target red or green spell.

Entwine (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost)

***

My initial idea for this card was just the counterspell portion of the card, with a casting cost of . It didn't seem particularly powerful though, and I'm not altogether fond of making cards into cantrips, just to make up for them being bad cards. By adding the second possibility and the entwine, I think/hope I created a card that can also deal with existing threats or, with a substantial investment of mana ({U} is hardly cheap!), give a good, swift kick to the opponent's tempo.

***

Current Wording:

Sapience
{U}
Instant

Choose one -- Return target red or green permanent to its owner's hand; or counter target red or green spell.

Entwine (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost)

Chaos allows no order. Instinct denies all thought. Put aside your passions or be ruled by them.

[Ocifer]

Beautiful. I couldn't have made it better myself.

Simple, elegant and fills a niche.

[Jacob Orlove]

Impose Order sounds ridiculously white.

[Ephraim]

Jacob, you noticed that faster than I hoped anybody would. You're right though, the name's going to need to be changed. I'm open to suggestions. I wanted something that would be indicative of an orderly intelligence establishing control over chaos and instinct.

I may have some more ideas after work, tonight, but my creative juices are sluggish, right now.

[Matt]

This is really strong - at the top of the power curve - but not yet TOO strong. I like it. Name's gotta go, though.

[Ephraim]

Damn Isochron Scepter. I always forget about it...Right now this is "aggresively" costed, but, as with anything else, put it on a stick, and its strength grows considerably. I think I'm going to change the casting cost to and the entwine cost to . It's not nearly as good then, I think, but I want to make a solid, useful card - not a card just waiting to be broken by Scepter.

As for the name, how do people feel about Concerted Denial with the flavour text (If there is room for any) Chaos allows no order. Instinct denies all thought. Put aside your passions or be ruled by them.

[Matt]

That's a great flavor text, but the name is still bad.

[Ephraim]

Possible Names:

Reasoned Dismissal
Thoughtful Rejection
Rebuttal
Wise Rebuttal
Thoughtful Rebuttal
<insert synonym for Sagacious> Rebuttal

Also, feedback on the suggestion to increase the casting cost/decrease the entwine cost?

[brendan]

I like it better at 1U/1U. It's not like its stronger than impulse or ak or mana drain on a stick.

[Ephraim]

I disagree, Brendan. Situationally, it is vastly better than any of those. In some situations, it serves as both a Counterspell and a Boomerang, all on the same stick. If I'm not mistaken, you can still pay the entwine cost, when you play it off the Scepter, so it doesn't lose any functionality. Blue's powerful enough without being able to hose out red or green decks that use permaments and/or spells (all of them, naturally!)

[rvs]

Let's not forget this only works on green and red, and mana drain works on everything. I'd say it's costed right to be playable and pretty good.

[Matt]

It's like two Elemental Blasts in one. I'd say that's pretty damn strong.

[GerryMander]

what aboot Artifical Justice? Then you can bust out with the sweet flava text like:

Evolution or extinction.


also, to help balance the card out, maybe up the entwine cost to

[Ephraim]

I thought that Gerrymander's solution had merit - if it costs {U} to use both abilities, the card is considerably more balanced. However, I foresee that this card will be most often used without the entwine cost, since the conditions for the entwine to be used are somewhat rarer than the conditions for either half to be useful. Thus, I've made the casting cost {U}. It's a very blue-flavoured card (It counters and bounces and affects only blue's enemies), so making it less splashable is perfectly reasonable, to me.

[Ephraim]

30 minutes early, but whatever. 24 Hour Clock.

[Jacob Orlove]

I don't really like the name, but maybe that's just me.

[Ephraim]

The name is not fantastic, but I received no suggestions, so I chose from the list myself. Unless you think there's a better combination of the two ideas (wise and retort), I'm going to stick with this.

[Jacob Orlove]

I think that combination may not be the way to go here.

What about "Instinct Trap"?

[Ephraim]

That sounds pretty cheesy to me, and furthermore, really only addresses the 'green' aspect of the card. Since I mention both 'instinct' and 'chaos' as the "enemies" in the flavour text, if the name is going to contain one, it must somehow contain the other.

[Jacob Orlove]

That's what I get for not keeping up with the flavor text. Yeah, that suggestion won't work.

The current name just doesn't feel like a bounce spell to me, though.

[Ephraim]

I suppose that's true. How about 'Sapient Resolution' or just 'Sapience'

[Matt]

Eugh. So far every suggestion has been horrible. X_X

What about Condescend? Contempuous Judgement (playing off the flavor text)? These are a little better, but still not great.

[Ephraim]

I changed it to Sapience, which is the first name to come up that I've really liked. Unless there's strong objections to it, with accompanying suggestions, that'll be it.

[GerryMander]

i would prefer a casting cost of and an entwine cost of because this can really devestate a red or green player, but mebby that is just me.

that is a kickass name.

[Jacob Orlove]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the only commonly used meaning of Sapient is:

3.  Anthrop. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of modern man, Homo sapiens.

That doesn't quite fit here. [/i]

[Ephraim]

Webster's 10th Edition Collegiate dictionary defines it as: wisdom, sagacity

sapiens (with an s) is defined as of or relating to human beings

furthermore, sapient (adj.) is defined as posessing or expressing great sagacity.

Those are exactly the sorts of traits I wanted this card to convey.

@GerryMander:

I'm going to leave it at {U}/{3}. It's stronger, because it can be put on a stick, but I'm tired of pussyfooting around Isochron Scepter. If the stick didn't exist, this would be fine as /{1}{U}. I've already increased the total casting + entwine cost and made the bare casting cost harder to shoulder. I think that the power level and the impact of Isochron Scepter is a mistake, but I don't think it's going to do any good to quit designing aggressively costed instants, because of it.

[GerryMander]

well... at least it is {U} so it isn't splashable...

[Ephraim]

It looks like this card has settled down again, so 24 Hour Clock

[Jacob Orlove]

Okay, this time I looked up Sapience (rather than sapient), and the OED gave me a bunch of obsolete definitions (ie ones that are no longer in use), as well as one where it is used ironically, and one where it means great religious knowledge.

[Ephraim]

I know that the word is archaic, but it still means what it means. We're called Homo Sapiens because it means 'Wise Human', just as Homo Habilus was the 'Handy Human'. I'm not sure why the O.E.D. isn't giving you a good definition, but my Webster's Collegiate and dictionary.com both give perfectly sound definitions of the word that suit this card well.