Trappers

[Ephraim]

For starters, I will honestly note that I don't know whether these cards actually work. I am pretty sure that under the current Morph rules, these cards don't, technically, function. In light of trying to expand our boundaries a little bit, I am suggesting that these cards be allowed to pass for the time being, since they require only a few minor modifications to the existing Morph rules to be functional.

Pardic Trapper

Creature – Barbarian Trapper
3/2

Morph (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for .) Whenever an opponent plays a spell or ability while another spell or ability is on the stack, you may reveal a red card from your hand and turn Pardic Trapper face up. If you do, Pardic Trapper deals 5 damage to target creature or player.


Krosan Trapper
{G}
Creature – Druid Trapper
3/3

Morph (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for .) Whenever an opponent plays a spell or ability that targets a creature you control, you may reveal a green card from your hand and turn Krosan Trapper face up. If you do, that creature gets +3/+3 and can't be the target of spells or abilities until the end of your turn.

***

(I would like to note that Krosan Trapper does specify that the ability lasts until the end of your turn. That way, even if your opponent does something to creature on their turn, the spell still gets countered and you get a beefy creature for the attack.)

[Ephraim]

Current Wording:


Pardic Trapper
{3}{R}
Creature -- Barbarian Trapper
3/2

Morph -- Reveal a red card in your hand. Pay this cost only when an opponent plays a spell or ability while another spell or ability is on the stack.

When Pardic Trapper is turned face up, it deals 5 damage to target creature or player


Krosan Trapper
{3}{G}
Creature -- Druid Trapper
3/3

Morph -- Reveal a green card in your hand. Pay this cost only when an opponent plays a spell or ability that targets a creature you control.

When Krosan Trapper is turned face up, target creature gets +3/+3 and can't be the target of spells or abilities until the end of your turn.

[Sanity_XIV]

Minor minor nitpick: Generally I believe that you reveal a card 'in your hand' rather than from your hand. See the cycle of cards in Urza's Destiny: Scent of Nightshade etc.

(Oracle text on Scent of Nightshade: "Reveal any number of black cards in your hand. Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of cards revealed this way.")

[Nibble]

The biggest rules issue I can see is that Morph creatures don't have rules text besides their Morph cost when facedown, but as long as the card implicates well enough that the trigger is supposed to happen when it's facedown, I think it'll be fine. You could theoretically word it

Morph - Reveal a green card in your hand. Play this ability only when a spell or ability an opponent controls targets a creature you control.
When ~this~ is turned face up, target creature you control gets +3/+3 and can't be the target of spells or abilities until end of turn.

I'm actually unsure of just how sound this wording is, but I'm tossing it out there for examination.

As for the abilities themselves, they seem a bit strong, but probably situational enough. I never like cards breaking the fourth wall by referring to rules and the stack, but I think the flavor on Mr. Barbarian is good enough that it's fine.

[Machinus]

5 damage seems like a lot.

[Ephraim]

That number is certainly subject to change. Three would be the minimum for the ability I think. My reasoning was that for every turn in which the Pardic Trapper remains face down, you're losing one damage, relative to the face up state. I didn't want the damage to be so little that a quick cost/benefit analysis would result in it being played face-up most of the time. It is going to be best against blue. Suppose, for the moment, that blue sees play only 1/5 of the time (I know this assumption is weak.) Fudging to allow for the fact that the other colours do, sometimes, play spells and abilities with other items on the stack, I'd still estimate that this will only be applicable one out of every three games.

[Jacob Orlove]

Morph - Reveal a green card in your hand. Play this ability only when a spell or ability an opponent controls targets a creature you control.
When ~this~ is turned face up, target creature you control gets +3/+3 and can't be the target of spells or abilities until end of turn.

That wording should work fine.

[Ephraim]

24 Hour Clock

[Shadow-Walker]

It seems to me that you underestimate how often other colors would trigger the red trap.  I think 5 damage is pushing it but not too terribly.  As an alternative 4 damage with a second, mana morph cost (if you just want to swing) would also make a decent creature.

[Matt]

Morph - Reveal a green card in your hand. Play this ability only when a spell or ability an opponent controls targets a creature you control.
When ~this~ is turned face up, target creature you control gets +3/+3 and can't be the target of spells or abilities until end of turn.

That wording should work fine.

Morph isn't an activated ability though. I don't know if that wording works because you don't "play" morph.

[Jacob Orlove]

Morph is a static ability, but shouldn't that wording still work?

If not, you could try something like "you may pay this cost only when blah blah"

[Ephraim]

If Wizards of the Coast wanted to print Morph creatures that could only be turned face-up in response to a certain condition, would the current wording be a plausible and effective way of doing so? Even if the current rules for Morph make this impossible, I think that this situation merits consideration of a small rules modification.

[Ephraim]

Nobody has replied regarding the wording issue, so I am going to leave these as-is and call for a 24-Hour Clock. I'm going to pretend that everybody loved the suggestion I made in my last post -- that even if these aren't technically within the rules, that they represent an acceptable addendum to existing rules.

[Matt]

If we just wrote "Pay this cost only when" instead of "Play this only ability only when" I think it would work, and not need any rules changes.

[Ephraim]

If we just wrote "Pay this cost only when" instead of "Play this only ability only when" I think it would work, and not need any rules changes.

Done

[Bram]

Closed and added.