Mosquito Familiar

[dandan]

Mosquito Familiar
1U
Creature - Insect
Flying
When an opponent plays a spell, you may Scry X where X is the number of spells played this turn. Play this ability only once a turn.
0/1

Annoying little bloodsucker feeding off the ideas of others to improve its masters intellect.
Note this is amazing in multiplayer.
Eyes of the Watcher Scries deeper and triggers from your actions, this is a shallow Scry (although you have the option of not Scrying if you want to wait for more spells for a deeper Scry) but doesn't cost you mana. I think it would be too weak if you needed to pay 1 to activate the ability.
I made it a 0/1 rather than a 1/1 as 1/1 fliers typically have a fairly weak ability. In play, this would give you a Soldevi Excavations effect but for no mana but only when an opponent casts a spell. Funnily enough it is superb for finding Stifle in responce to Storm.


Latest wording

Mosquito Familiar
1U
Creature - Insect
Flying
Whenever an opponent plays a spell, you may tap Mosquito Familiar. If it becomes tapped this way, Scry X, where X is the number of spells played this turn.
0/1

Changes
Dandan - back and forth from Scry X once to Scry 1 several times
Laurie Cheers - tapping solution

[Jebus]

I'm not certain you can do this abiltiy like that.  Rather, I don't believe you can make it trigger off that event once.  At least, not with that wording.  There may be a way to do it, but that wording won't suffice.

[dandan]

I'm not sure what the problem is with the wording. To me it looks like there will be one trigger per spell played by an opponent and I can choose if I play the ability when that trigger resolves. I can only play the ability once a turn so I can only play the ability if I haven't chosen to use it before in that turn.

Would it be clearer (if uglier) to make  it

Whenever an opponent plays a spell if you haven't played this ability this turn, you may Scry X where X is the number of spells played this turn.

[stijndon]

Well, I find the first wording to be better, and it works fine. Oh my, a 0/1 that seems to be somewhat useful...

Immagine the art on this thing

[dandan]

Jebus is usually right about rules issues although I admit I can't see the problem. Glad you like the card!

[Jebus]

Well, triggered abilities aren't really "played" so, to use the word "play" in conjunction with a triggered ability is awkward.

Consequently, using the phares "this can trigger only once a turn" is also a little awkward.

I'm not sure how you could reword it to make it clear.

[dandan]

To be honest I thought as currently worded it triggers whenever an opponent plays a spell and when the trigger resolves you may play the Scry ability. I thought the trigger merely gave you the opportunity to play the ability. There are a number of triggered abilities with 'may' and I think it is clear enough to consider a decision to use the 'may' as playing the ability and a decision to not use the ability as not playing the ability.

Opponent plays a spell (Dark Ritual)
Dandan declines opportunity to Scry 1 as he suspects that more spells are coming
Opponent plays a spell (Necropotence)
Dandan 'plays' the ability Scry 2 as now would be a very good time to find a FoW! (tapped out after playing Eyes of the Watcher) Dandan reluctantly pus 2 Dandans on the bottom of his library
Dandan Brainstorms, puts 2 Vexes on the top of his library, removes an Erosion from the game and pays 1 life to FoW the skull
Opponent plays another Ritual
Trigger but our hero no longer has the opportunity to 'play' the ability
Opponent plays YawgWin
Trigger but our hero no longer has the opportunity to 'play' the ability
Trigger but our hero no longer has the opportunity to 'play' the ability
Trigger but our hero no longer has the opportunity to 'play' the ability
Trigger but our hero no longer has the opportunity to 'play' the ability
Trigger but our hero no longer has the opportunity to 'play' the ability
Trigger but our hero no longer has the opportunity to 'play' the ability

[Laurie Cheers]

Whenever an opponent plays a spell, you may put a blood counter on Mosquito Familiar. Remove the counter at end of turn.
Remove all blood counters from Mosquito Familiar: Scry X, where X is the number of counters you removed. Play this ability only once each turn.

[dandan]

Looking at that I think it is cleaner to just have

When an opponent plays a spell, you may Scry 1

This is slightly better in that you can Scry 1 multiple times in a turn but you never get the chance to Scry X. All activations after the first have little to no effect if you chose to keep the card you saw (you could ditch the chosen card if the opponent does something you didn't like!).

I don't think that is a lot stronger than the original and it is a whole lot simpler.

[Cyberpunker]

How about this?

Mosquito Familiar
1U
Creature - Insect
Flying
0: Scry X, where X is the number of spells played this turn. This ability can only be played in response to an opponent's spell and only once each turn.
0/1

Annoying little bloodsucker feeding off the ideas of others to improve its masters intellect.

[dandan]

To be honest I like 'clean' cards uncluttered with rules text. Thinking some more about the Scry X once vs. Scry 1 versions, I know think they are pretty much equal in power or the Scry X version is stronger as X counts your spells too (although you need an opponent to cast a spell in order to actually Scry).
Srying for 2 if someone attempts to counter one of your spells is a lot stronger than Scrying for 1 whilst Scrying for 1 twice if an opponent casts 2 spells in a turn isn't a lot stronger than Scrying for 1 or waiting and possibly Scrying for 2.

I know that the Scry 1 version is a lot more pleasing on the eye.

[Laurie Cheers]

Have you ever played with scry?
Scry 1 is a LOT weaker than scry X. It merely lets you decide whether you like the card on top of your library. If you do, you don't get to see what other options you have, and the later triggers are wasted.

I think the simplest way to do this effect is:
At end of turn, scry X, where X is the number of spells your opponents played this turn.
It doesn't have the guesswork involved in deciding when to activate the ability, but I don't see how that fits the flavour anyway.

Actually, for the flavour it makes sense to say
Whenever Mosquito Familiar attacks and isn't blocked, you may scry X, where X is... something. The number of cards in defending player's hand?

Also, this feels very similar to Inspired Researcher. Could we make it slightly larger - 2/2 perhaps - to give it a different feel?

[dandan]

The card was inspired by Inspired Researcher. I thought about making this suggestion there until I realised that they are complementary cards.
The Researcher orders cards, this sorts the bad stuff out of the way. If you controlled both cards you could Order X cards then Scry 1 almost certainly removing some dross to the bottom of your library. In addition the size (0/1) and Flying add considerable gameplay differences.

I am very aware that Scry 1 is much weaker than Scry 2, indeed I pointed that out. However Scrying now is also stronger than Scrying later as Blue often has card drawing/manipulation effects. In practice you would probably choose to Scry 1 rather than wait and hope for the chance of a Scry 2 or more (barring Dark Ritual or the like).

Your suggestion is a good one although I dislike the time delay. I should point out that my original suggestion started with X = number of spells played this turn, rather than the number of spells played by an opponent (important if we consider a Blue opponent countering your spells).
Your post has highlighted some of the weaknesses of Scry 1 compared to Scry X and I am not sure which version I prefer anymore!!

If there are no rules issues I think the original is the best version.
If there are rules issues, the simple Scry version is preferable.

[Jebus]

You may want to try the original again, but perhaps use a conditional if clause.  That should give the desired effect.

[dandan]

Laurie Cheers and Jebus have persuaded me to go back to Scry X.
Is that wording OK? I am sure it is clear what it is meant to do but I am no rules lawyer.

[Laurie Cheers]

Triggered abilities are never "played".
I guess the simplest wording is:

Whenever an opponent plays a spell, you may tap Mosquito Familiar. If it becomes tapped this way, scry X, where X is the number of spells played this turn.

[dandan]

I can't and won't argue with that. That looks like the easiest solution.
Change made.

[Ephraim]

I think you need to have a clause in there that requires the creature to be untapped.

Whenever an opponent plays a spell, if ~this~ is untapped, you may tap ~this~...

Heck, if you're going to do it that way, why not just give it the ability:

: Scry X, where X is...

[dandan]

Making it a tap ability means that summmoning sickness is a factor plus I don't want you to be able to Scry unless an opponent has played a spell (otherwise it would be far far better than Eyes of the Watcher).

Surely the 'if it becomes tapped in this way' clause is sufficient, if this guy is already tapped he doesn't 'become' tapped.

I think I'd rather go the Scry 1 route than make it a tap:ability.

[Matt]

Well, I find the first wording to be better, and it works fine. Oh my, a 0/1 that seems to be somewhat useful...

Immagine the art on this thing

[dandan]

If the current wording is OK, can I start the 24/72 hour clock?

[Matt]

Oh come on! No one thought my picture was hilarious?

[Jacob Orlove]

Oh come on! No one thought my picture was hilarious?

Oh, it was. I think people just aren't used to going off-topic in this forum.

[dandan]

I thought that mosquito looked familiar

[Matt]

Closed and added.[/color]