Leaking Water Elemental

[Anusien]

One of my favorite blue effects is tapping creatures without flying; the Flood mechanism.  It just seems so interesting to me (I end up finding myself wanting to play with cards like Deluge and Flood), and it rewards you for playing to blue's strengths.  I have an idea for a card, and I really need the art and flavor to help sell it.  The idea is that someone tried to make a water elemental, but it failed and it's leaking in floods.  My original idea was a creature that just taps every turn, but I feel like this version helps sell the flavor better.

Failed Water Elemental - 4UU
Type - Elemental
This comes into play with 5 +1/+1 counters on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a +1/+1 counter from this and tap all creatures without flying.
The problem with water elementals is that when they come apart it causes a flash flood.
0/0

Current Version:

Leaking Water Elemental - 4UU
Type - Elemental
Flying
This comes into play with 5 +1/+1 counters on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a +1/+1 counter from this and tap target creature.
The problem with water elementals is that when they come apart it causes a flash flood.
0/0

[parallax]

I don't see why a water elemental should have flying. Maybe it should tap all other creatures without flying. Alternately, I think this might have good flavor as a Rain Elemental with flying.

This card is also incredibly bad. All it does is tap your own ground creatures so you can't block your opponent's ground creatures. Maybe it should be some sort of activated ability.

Rain Elemental

Creature -- Elemental
2/2
Flying
~This~ comes into play with 2 +1/+1 counters on it.
Remove 2 +1/+1 counters from ~this~: Tap all creatures without flying.

[nietzsche]

I agree that it shouldn't have flying, but everything else seems fine.  make it tap all other creatures and it would be a pretty flavorful card.  Maybe even make it an every upkeep effect to stop your opponent from attacking you as well, but making it die faster.  Another idea would be to make it "at the begginning of each upkeep you may remove a +1/+1 counter" this adds a whole different level of interaction and playability, and makes the 6cc more worthwhile without being broken.

[Anusien]

Made it nonflying and tap all other creatures without flying.  Also updated the number of counters, so it starts as a 5/5 (but it'll attack first as a 4/4).  You all nailed the nail on the head that I think the flavor is coming across well but it's still only on the border of functionality.  Could we make this "Tap all other creatures"?  It's then 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10 damage by itself, which is a bit strong, but that's similar to just being unblockable.

[parallax]

It's unblockable, but makes all your opponent's creatures unblockable and stops your other creatures from attacking, too. I wouldn't worry about it being too strong, as that's one heck of a trade-off. The upkeep ability is mostly drawback, and could be costed as such. As it is, this card is strictly worse than Air Elemental. Not that that's a horrible thing, but you probably push this card a little bit.

I'm probably going to submit Rain Elemental separately, but if you want to use any parts of it, go ahead. I'll try to take it in a different direction so the cards aren't too similar, though.

[nietzsche]

If this is a huge flooding beat, then why does the flooding stop on your opponents turn?  IF the concept is that this thing is flooding, growing weaker with every passing moment but stopping the onslaught in the mean time, why do all of your opponents creatures get to fight through it?  I am thinking something like this:

CARDNAME {COST}
CARDNAME comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it
At the beginning of your upkeep remove a +1/+1 counter from CARDNAME.
All other non-flying creatures can't attack or block.
P/T

This gives it a ton of playability, possibility, and doesn't have any crazed brokenness either.  You are forced to run flying creatures, but still have them out on turn 6 (I think this strong of an ability would have to be around 6 mana).  It turns the game into an interesting situation, and the best part is that this doesn't even have to be a creature in and of itself.  An enchantment fits this flavor as well, and shuts off the potential of an unblockable guy.

[parallax]

Well, if it's a failed experiment, then the fact that it only floods your guy out could be flavorful. And flooding has traditionally always been represented by tapping(no it hasn't), which happens to be a part of blue's color pie, unlike "can't attack or block", which is more white. If you want it to flood both player's creatures, then add either "At the beginning of each upkeep" with a few additional counters, or "those creatures don't untap during their controller's next untap phase".

I think this should be costed and be a 1/0 with four +1/+1 counters. Then, it start out with Water Elemental stats, but because the mage constructing it didn't use enough blue mana, it begins to leak.

[Anusien]

What about if instead of Deluging, it just tapped a single creature (with/without flying) on upkeep?  This also distances it from Rain Elemental (which is an awesome idea, by the way).

[GerryMander]

Couldn't we call this flood elemental?

Failed Water Elemental just seems like a bad name, flavorwise.  Why would a mage cast a Failed Water Elemental? 

[andrewpate]

Agreed.  Unless you want to make it like Molten Sentry, call it "Difficult-to-Cast Water Elemental," and make the other side a vanilla 5/5 or something.  Which isn't a blue card at all.  Should be Flood Elemental, or even make it a Djinn, which would retain the flavor of the flooding as a sort-of drawback.  Possibly Cataract Djinn or something similar.

[Anusien]

Made it tap target creature, which makes it a decent card now, and changed it to "Leaking Water Elemental" (which is still a placeholder, but better expresses the flavor).

[parallax]

How did this get flying again? Maybe it's a boiling water elemental. I think the cost on this can come down as it's now very comparable to Harrier Griffin.

[Anusien]

How did this get flying again? Maybe it's a boiling water elemental. I think the cost on this can come down as it's now very comparable to Harrier Griffin.

Oops, didn't mean to give it back flying.