[Black Rare] Grapplemaggot

[Nantuko Rice]

Hi, before I start, I'd like to say that I am a noob to this section of the Mana Drain forums. Previously, all that I have done was check the tournament and open type 1 forums. I never realized another section of the forums existed below that (I like 800x600 resolution, ok?). However, I'm a well behaved noob. I read the announcements and the stickies (ok, not every single card). I also checked the black section to make sure this card wasn't already there.

I also noticed there was a lack of removal spells amongst black, and black should reign king of removal IMO   .

Story: I was digging around in the dirt (don't ask) and I saw one of those lawn maggots. Yuck. Just as bad as that old card Takklemaggot. "Hey! Takklemaggot! That was a flavorful card," I said to myself. I then began remembering things that jumped around like Flickering Ward and Licids. "If only they'd print a new takklemaggot to help out the current type 1 metagame... if takklemaggot....."

Grapplemaggot
4B
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature loses all abilities.
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted creature's controller, put a -0/-2 counter on enchanted creature.
When enchanted creature is put into a graveyard, enchanted creature's controller returns grapplemaggot to play from it's owner's graveyard. If grapplemaggot can't enchant a creature, it becomes an enchantment under that player's control with "At the beginning of your upkeep, Grapplemaggot deals 2 damage to you" instead.
It has lived under it's host's skin all this time to survive the brother's war, the ice age, and the apocalypse.

Why? Wizards has been making cards more suited for type 1, why can't we? I feel black has been a bit weak now (I love suicide, come on, you know you guys do too). Black needs a way to help them deal with things such as Dryad, Tog, and Angel.

Help & Comments:
(1) I looked up synonyms for tackle, and couldn't find a very good one, so for now Grapple is being used.
(2) The casting cost is only one black, because I looked under the "Announcement: What the Card Creation Forum needs from YOU" and it said they needed one. However, ideally the casting cost, IMO, should be BBB.
(3) I feel this is a very flavorful card and will bring back nostalgia for us old-schoolers.
(4) I'll look for artwork for this juicy bug if it is accepted.

So ummm.... What do you guys think? To bomb-ish? To good?

EDIT: Good, I got a chance to edit before anyone got to reply. ^.^. I was thinking about the last thing I wrote, power issues. The problem with the old takklemaggot was that it is to slow or it doesn't have the "lose all abilities" clause. So I was thinking it could either be: "Enchanted creature loses all abilities and get -0/-1 counters..." or the creature keeps abilities but gets -0/-2 counters.

Update 7/11/4:

I still think that occasionally, a card using counters other than +1/+1 and charge counters can be used, however, because of those responses, I've come up with the following latest version of Grapplemaggot.

Grapplemaggot
4B or BBB
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature loses all abilities.
Put x delay counters on enchanted creature where X is equal to enchnated creature's toughness.
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted creature's controller, remove a delay counter.
When enchanted creature is put into a graveyard, enchanted creature's controller returns Grapplemaggot to play from it's owner's graveyard. If grapplemaggot can't enchant a creature, it becomes an enchantment under that player's control with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 2 life" instead.

[Squee]

Well, the main problem I see is the -0/-2 counter.  Wizards doesn't use any counters besides +1/+1 or -1/-1 for creatures anymore(in terms of p/t chnaging that is).  

In order for it to work you would need to put -1/-1 counters on the creature during their upkeep instead.  

I think it's power level is fine though you will need to figure out how you want the upkeep minusing to work.

[Jacob Orlove]

Didn't they print a new takklemaggot in odessey block?

[MrZuccinniHead]

Well, the main problem I see is the -0/-2 counter.  Wizards doesn't use any counters besides +1/+1 or -1/-1 for creatures anymore(in terms of p/t chnaging that is).  

In order for it to work you would need to put -1/-1 counters on the creature during their upkeep instead.  

I think it's power level is fine though you will need to figure out how you want the upkeep minusing to work.

You are wrong...see Spirit Shackle.

Two points. First of all DO NOT HIT THE SUBMIT BUTTON MORE THAN ONCE. I just had to delete four of the five copies of this post.

Second, Spirit Shackle is an OLD card. He said "Wizards doesn't use any counters besides +1/+1 or -1/-1 for creatures anymore". Anything from before Mirage is completely irrelevant to any discussion of what Wizards will or will not do.

-Jacob

[Nantuko Rice]

I apologize if they did print a new takklemaggot... I played Magic from Ice Age+ and quit around Urza's Brokeness Set, and then I finally restarted around Onslaught.

About the counters issue... If this is going to be a TMD expansion, I'm sure we could break rules.

-1/-1 counters could also work however... Hmmm... So for an upkeep effect right now we're currently juggling around with:

(1) Lose abilities and -0/-1
(2) Keep abilities and -0/-2
(3) Lose/Keep abilities and -1/-1 counters?

More input from users would be great.

[Jacob Orlove]

About the counters issue... If this is going to be a TMD expansion, I'm sure we could break rules.

The problem is that the rules aren't simply arbitrary--they each exist for a reason, and generally all the reasons are worth following. In the case of counters, they really want to avoid situations where any card has more than one kind of counter on it. Those situations are ripe for confusion and possibly even cheating by misrepresenting the game state. The general rule is that creatures should pretty much only have +1/+1 counters. If you want to reduce something's toughness, put the counters on the enchantment itself--then they can be worth whatever amount you want.

[Matt]

Couple problems with this one. Firstly, the counter types, as mentioned. The way to do this would be something like "upkeep, put an infection counter on Grapplemaggot. Enchanted creature gets -0/-2 for each infection counter on Grapplemaggot."

Secondly, Takklemaggot was WAY too complucated, and so is this. It's not really any more interesting than the original card was, either, though it is more powerful.

Third, "loses all abilities" is a rules NIGHTMARE, even when the power and toughness are defined by whatever's causing the ability-loss (Humble: "loses all abilites and is 0/1"). This doesn't do that, which means it truly does break the rules when put on a Keldon Warlord or similar. So that has to change, no matter what.

[Nantuko Rice]

Well, I found that oddyssey variant of takklemaggot... and I looked at the recent card Screams From Within.

The counters issue I tried to address in my last update of the card and Matt brought up another rules headache... the "loses all abilities" clause.

So... I'm considering letting this one drop but the idea of a parasite is so flavorful and I'd really like to see more flavorful "interactive" cards such as Takklemaggot.

The odyssey version is probably the one that is closest to this one, it's just not very competitive. I'm going to let this drop and hope that Wizards sees this message:

"More flavor please"