Prismatic Mirror

[Ephraim]

Prismatic Mirror
{W}{W}
Instant

The next time a source of your choice would deal damage this turn, if you paid for Prismatic Mirror with mana that shares a color with that source, that damage is dealt to that source’s controller instead.

***

I was just browsing through some old, multicoloured instants (looking for Suffocating Blast) and I came upon Reflect Damage. What a neat idea that is and yet because of it being a rare, old card, it certainly won't ever be reprinted. Obviously, that doesn't mean we can't create cards in homage of it. What with Ravnica ushering in a theme of colour matters (although this card would have fit better in the 5-colour scheme of Invasion block, than into the 2-colour scheme of Ravnica) I thought it'd be nice to tinker with a card that cares about the colour of mana you use to cast it. This card nominally discounts Reflect Damage's ability, although one of those 2 generic mana has to be the colour of the source you want to reflect. Mechanically, it would be feasible to make this {W}{W}, but that might be pushing the cost a little bit too much.

***

Current Wording:

Agnate Riposte
{W}{W}
Instant

The next time a source of your choice would deal damage this turn, if you paid for Agnate Riposte with mana that shares a color with that source, that damage is dealt to that source’s controller instead.

[Matt]

It would be neat if you paid for this with {G}{W}{W}, it could reflect 12 damage off a Spiritmonger, or if you paid {B}{G}{G} it could reflect 10 off a Phyrexian Negator. Is there a decent way to template that?

[Jacob Orlove]

This card has serious memory issues. Is there a good solution?

[Ephraim]

It would be neat if you paid for this with {G}{W}{W}, it could reflect 12 damage off a Spiritmonger, or if you paid {B}{G}{G} it could reflect 10 off a Phyrexian Negator. Is there a decent way to template that?

I don't really want to go that far. One, it seems extremely complicated. Two, Reflecting damage more than once seems a little bit too swingy, given that it may be hit-or-miss that the person playing this has the right mana to reflect any particular source in the first place.

This card has serious memory issues. Is there a good solution?

I'm not sure I understand why there are memory issues with this. Sunburst counts the different colours of mana that you used to cast a spell and if MTGSalvation is to be believed, some of the spells in Ravnica call for you to remember the colours of mana used to pay for them. Note that this isn't an activated enchantment. It's an instant. All costs associated with it should be fresh in mind when it resolves, as should the colours associated with whatever damage it's trying to reflect.

[Jacob Orlove]

Oh whoops, I missed that it was an instant. It's fine then.

[Liam-K]

It would be neat if you paid for this with {G}{W}{W}, it could reflect 12 damage off a Spiritmonger, or if you paid {B}{G}{G} it could reflect 10 off a Phyrexian Negator. Is there a decent way to template that?

If you wanted to do that, I think you could word it something like "The next time a source of your choice would deal damage this turn, if you paid for Prismatic Mirror with mana that shares a color with that source, prevent that damage.  For each mana spent to pay for Prismatic Mirror that shares a colour with that source, Prismatic Mirror deals damage equal to the damage prevented to that source's controller."  Not really clean, but you can make out what it means.  Of course, if you happen to take damage from a white source, this wording can do some very unfair things.

[Matt]

Yeah, that wording works, but also yeah, it's too messy. Stick with Eph's.

[JAG]

I agree with Matt, I don't think the added coolness of "reflecting" the damage multiple times is at all worth muddying up the wording. 

I actually agree with Jacob, but about not realizing it was an instant.  The name just doesn't sound "instant-y" to me.  It actually sounds a lot like an artifact that has something to do with reflecting based on colors (so mechanically the name works great, but "mirror" as a noun just seems to imply "permenant").  It would be really cool as an artifact that did the same thing, but obviously at a bit of a cost (since otherwise it'd be either really stupid or ridiculously overcosted).  Maybe like a 4 or 5 CC artifact with "1, Pay 3 life, tap: <ability>". 

Actually I think this is a much more reasonable card as an instant, it just needs to be renamed. 

Oddly, I think it's better at 2WW than at 1WW since at 2WW there is room for bluffing/politics/whatever.  Remember that you don't announce the source until resolution, so you could pay two different colors for the colorless part and your opponent(s) wouldn't know what damage you were redirecting until resolution.  This could be fun in a multiplayer game where your opponents will be attacking each other, hopefully with differently colored creatures.  Then, you get to decide who lives and who dies...

-JM

[Ephraim]

Prismatic Riposte then? Or would this be even better without any adjectives -- just "Riposte?"

[Anusien]

Prismatic Riposte sounds bad and is very hard to say.  I'd go with just 'Riposte'.

[Jacob Orlove]

"Riposte" is too cool a word for such a random damage redirection effect. I'd like to see some adjective there.

[Ephraim]

Possible adjectives:
Prismatic
Photic
Divine
Agnate (Coming from a common source)

Other possible names:
Cropwarden's Aegis
Cropwarden's Surety
Blessed Reflection

For the time being, I'm going to call it Agnate Riposte, because that sounds badass, in my opinion.

[JAG]

It sounds badass, certainly, but also rather unapproachable.  The average player/reader is going to have no clue by the name what a card called "Agnate Riposte" is supposed to do.

I vote for Blessed Reflection, although the reflection is more of a Red kind (i.e. Captain's maneuver) than a pure White kind that would be implied by "Blessed".  I'm not suggesting the card need be gold (Shining Shoal is an example of this kind of monowhite effect).  But I think the name would be better as something like "Prismatic Reflection."

-JM

[Ephraim]

I'm going to keep it as Agnate Riposte. I don't really care if people know what it means or not. Nobody knew what a Hyalopterous Lemure was, either -- not even the guy who was supposed to be drawing it! 24 Hour Clock

[Jacob Orlove]

Probably something like 90% of the people who see Autochthon Wurm won't get that name either. Wizards clearly has no problem with cool, apropos names that sound made-up.

For reference:
Main Entry: au·toch·thon
Pronunciation: o-'täk-th&n
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -thons or au·toch·tho·nes /-th&-"nEz/
Etymology: Greek autochthOn, from aut- + chthOn earth
: one (as a person, plant, or animal) that is autochthonous

Main Entry: au·toch·tho·nous
Pronunciation: o-'täk-th&-n&s
Function: adjective
1 : INDIGENOUS, NATIVE <an autochthonous people>
2 : formed or originating in the place where found <autochthonous rock> <an autochthonous infection>

[Sanity_XIV]

You should take Prismatic Mirror out of the current wording and replace it with the new name.

[Bram]

Closed and added.