Doppelganger Decoy

[JAG]

At Limbo's suggestion, I offer this up for discussion:

Doppelganger Decoy
1UUU
Legendary Creature - Decoy
Defender, Doppelganger Decoy is Indestructible.
As <this> comes into play, choose a player and put X life counters on <this> where X is the player's life total.
Whenever damage would be dealt to you or <this>, put that many -1/-1 counters on <this> instead.
Whenever <this> leaves play, you gain X life.
You can't lose the game for having 0 or less life.
0/X

This card is basically a decoy of yourself that you put on the field to distract opposing creatures and divert them from you.  It basically substitutes for you, blocking your opponent's attacks until it dies.  It also protects you from taking damage as long as it's still around.

-JM

[JAG]

Current Wording Post:

Doppelganger Decoy
2WU
Legendary Creature - Decoy
Doppelganger Decoy is Indestructible.
<This> can't attack or block.
As <this> comes into play, put X +1/+1 counters on <this> where X is your life total.
If damage would be dealt to you or <this>, remove that many life counters from <this> instead.
You can't lose the game for having 0 or less life.
0/X

edits: remove the -1/-1 counters, remove the life gain, stole some of Bluejay's wording, made the card UW
-JM

[Jacob Orlove]

This puts two different kinds of counters on itself? That's a bad plan.

[Matt]

This is needlessly complex, and doesn't really go anywhere [card]Soul Echo[/card] didn't go. For that matter it probably shouldn't be blue.

[JAG]

I think blue has the "clone" flavor locked up, although usually its with creatures, not players.  I could see it being UW.

As for the 2 counters, the life gain aspect is pretty random, I agree.  It was the easiest way, memory wise, that I could think of to set it's toughness to your life total.  But, i do see an easy fix to it.

as for not covering territory Soul Echo didn't, I'd have to say I disagree.  Soul Echo was very expensive to keep for a long period of time, and it gave your opponent many more choices.  The complexity on the card is sadly somewhat necessary to create a "copy" of a player.  It essentially serves as a second life total.

-JM

[Jacob Orlove]

Basically, this reads "gain X life, where X is target player's life total". I don't see how that, or being indestructible (a darksteel/divine ability thus far) is just blue.

[BlueJay]

I really like the flavor of the card though, how about?

Doppelganger Decoy
1UUU
Legendary Creature - Decoy
~this~ can’t be the target of spells or abilities
~this~ can’t attack or block.
~this~ comes into play with X +1/+1 counters where X is your life total.
For each one damage that would be dealt to you,  remove a +1/+1 counter from ~this~ instead.
0/0


But it does have the feel of creating a simulacrum of a player.
As for explanations, "~this~ can’t attack or block." is there to stop the combo with rolling stones and the "~this~ can’t be the target of spells or abilities" for a player simulacrum not to die of a Terror or Dark Banishing, though it can still die of sweep effects (it is a creature after all).
The cost isn't anywhere near final (it should probably be white). Though i feel this version is too wordy.
What do you think?

[neppy]

Beacon of Immortality does almost the same thing minus the wrath interaction.  Its definitely white too.

[JAG]

I like bluejay's fix, which fixed several of the issues that I tried to.  The original was indestructible simply b/c it didn't seem right for a clone of a player to be killable with Terror, Terminate, etc.  It had Defender so it couldn't attack (which players can't do) and it had 0 power just in case it lost Defender.  Overall I think Bluejay hit upon most of the issues with the card.

re: neppy: It does not do anything like Beacon of Immortality.  Please read current wording post.

re: Orlove: I neglected to mention that i fixed the 2 counters issue at the same time as I removed the "gain x life" ability.  I also explain in this post why it was indestructible.

I'm going to make this 2UW since I agree it does seem to have white flavor (Worship, etc).

-JM

[Jacob Orlove]

This IS lifegain, though. Let's compare:

You play beacon: your life total goes from 20 to 40.
You take 20 damage: you're now at 20.

You play this: your life total is still 20, but you have a 20 point buffer. Effective life total: 40
You take 20 damage: you're now at 20.

How is that not lifegain?

[Matt]

Anything designed to protect yourself is inherently white by default (white needs all the mechanics it can get!). And like I said, this card is basically Soul Echo - no, the mechanics aren't the same, but the flavor of creating this body double to stand in for you is totally the same.

[Anusien]

Nevermind that all the Bodyguards a la Veteran Bodyguard are White, as is Personal Incarnation and alternate loss conditions like Transcendence are also White.  If you turned the person into a Doppleganger a la Form of the Squirrel or Form of the Dragon (and by the way: NO) I could see it being Blue, but simply cloning a player is very definitely White.  And I'd flavor it as a body double along the lines of Queen Amidala's body doubles, but make the copy weaker than the player.

Something like this:
Body Double - 5WW
Creature - Bodyguard
Defender
Body Double comes into play with X +1/+1 counters, where X is half your life, rounded down.
If Body Double has no +1/+1 counters, sacrifice it.
If damage would be dealt to Body Double, prevent that damage. Remove a +1/+1 counter from Phantom Nomad.
All damage that would be dealt to you by unblocked creatures is dealt to Body Double instead.
0/0

[JAG]

I understand the concept of a bodyguard/protection as being white, but cloning is a blue ability (see, well, Clone.  Vesuvian Doppelganger is the same type of thing).  I can accept it as a UW card, but I simply don't feel that cloning a player is a mono-white ability.

I actually think the Body Double version is stronger than the current wording, simply b/c of the Rolling Stones combo as well as the fact that it's much, much harder to kill.  If you were at 15, it would take 15 INSTANCES of damage to kill it, rather than 15 points.  15 points of damage is much easier to dish out than hitting someone/thing 15 times. 

-JM

[Ephraim]

JAG, you're falling into a trap that everybody falls into now and then. You've taken an idea that mechanically is white, attached it to a flavour that is blue, and you're trying to insist that the card should therefore be blue in execution. Unfortunately, mechanics trump flavour 99% of the time. If you're using a white mechanic, which you are, then this can't be a blue card. If you must use the cloning flavour, then you'll have to come up with a different mechanic that allows this card to be blue.

[Anusien]

My flavor isn't cloning - it's a boby double.  Royalty often use them, and that's very white in flavor.  The idea is I go hide, and I have this decoy take the hits for me.

The issue I see with my version is that it's very wordy and has a lot of text.