Venser's Helm

[DubDub]

Initial wording:

Venser's Helm -  
Legendary Artifact
The first spell you cast each turn you may cast as if it had flash.
When I brought the ore into the Blind Eternies it reacted violently, propelling me at speeds I had never before thought possible.  I was compelled to make a helm from it, a decision I sometimes regret.
- Venser, to Garruk

Current wording:

Venser's Helm -  
Legendary Artifact
The first spell you cast each turn you may cast as though it had flash.
When I brought the ore into the Blind Eternies it reacted violently, propelling me at speeds I had never before thought possible.  I was compelled to make a helm from it, a decision I sometimes regret.
- Venser, to Garruk

[Delha]

Did you mean creature, or did you mean ALL spells? If it's the latter, this is absurdly good. It's like a Leyline of Anticipation without the traditional Leyline problem.

Even if it's just creatures, this still probably needs to have a mana cost.

[Norm4eva]

If this is meant to be a cycle - as I notice two Helms being posted already - this should probably get merged.

Also, the implications of both of them are too much color pie destruction for my taste.  It's one thing to pack four Leylines in an off-color deck; that's four cards you can never cast and will always be terrible draws.  Making these cost 0 makes the access way too high - you're telling me that it's okay for every deck in Magic to have a means of giving their first spells of each turn Flash?  Every color, every archetype only has to draw this, at some point, to make it so?  I think that's bad.  It's okay for artifacts to enable 'off-color' things, but generally I don't think this kind of effect should be free to everyone.

[Delha]

In fairness, the effect is already available in artifact form via Vedalken Orrery, though we clearly agree that this is undercosted.

[Norm4eva]

In fairness, the effect is already available in artifact form via Vedalken Orrery, though we clearly agree that this is undercosted.

Yeah, but I guess I lump in "paying a fair cost" with maintaining the color pie.  Compare Essence Drain to Lightning Helix; the effect is virtually identical, only Black pays  for a Sorcery where Boros pays  for an Instant.

It's been discussed before in so many words, but really all the colors have aspects of the others in them - so long as the cost is high enough, even Green will destroy a permanent (Desert Twister, Beast Within) and Red can bounce or tuck things (Stingscourger, Chaos Warp), the examples could go on.  I feel like this applies to artifacts too; Venser's Helm isn't inherently bad or broken, it just isn't setting the right price to enable everyone to play with that effect.  I'd cost it at about 2.5 personally...

[DubDub]

Did you mean creature, or did you mean ALL spells? If it's the latter, this is absurdly good. It's like a Leyline of Anticipation without the traditional Leyline problem.

Even if it's just creatures, this still probably needs to have a mana cost.

This is not meant to be limited to creature spells (or any other spell type), since Venser's creature and planeswalker cards are not focused on one type like Garruk's.  Please note that only the first spell you cast each turn can be cast with flash, unlike Anticipation which gives all spells you control flash (or, more accurately, they behave as if they have flash for the purposes of being cast).

If this is meant to be a cycle - as I notice two Helms being posted already - this should probably get merged.

Also, the implications of both of them are too much color pie destruction for my taste.  It's one thing to pack four Leylines in an off-color deck; that's four cards you can never cast and will always be terrible draws.  Making these cost 0 makes the access way too high - you're telling me that it's okay for every deck in Magic to have a means of giving their first spells of each turn Flash?  Every color, every archetype only has to draw this, at some point, to make it so?  I think that's bad.  It's okay for artifacts to enable 'off-color' things, but generally I don't think this kind of effect should be free to everyone.

I don't have ideas for a cycle, although the two posted are clearly related.  The card text I wanted first and I added flavor around them.  I tried to imagine a conversation between the two walkers, who share little in common except that they both wear helms.  I can see why giving mono-green stompy decks free flashes would be stretching the color pie too far.

Considering how much lower the power level on this is relative to Orrery I've recosted it a bit above  .  Note a slight change in wording as well as I took another look at Leyline of Anticipation/ Vedalken Orrery.

[Delha]

No complaints about the new cost of  , seems fine to me.

Sorry if I'm just overlooking it, but I'm not seeing the rewording of the rules text. Maybe something like the below?

You may cast your first nonland card of each turn as though it had flash.

[DubDub]

The change was from "as if it had flash" to "as though it had flash", which matches Anticipation/Orrery.

Not sure about the distinction between 'non-land card' and 'spell'.  Do Anticipation/Orrery not allow you to cast spell copies at instant speed (because they're not cards)?  Is 'non-land card' on Orrery/Anticipation a holdover from when both lands and spells were 'play'ed, because now we just use 'cast' for spells.  I'm trying to think of a situation where you would be casting, as your first spell of a turn, a copy of a spell.  None come quickly to mind.  Plus, for there to be a disagreement I think you'd have to normally be limited to casting the copy at Sorcery speed where Venser's Helm allows you to cast it at instant speed.

[Delha]

Ah, I see. Sorry about that.

As far as I know, everything printed thus far that allows you to cast a copied object does so by saying "copy blahblah card". The first things that came to mind for me were Isochron Scepter and Spellweaver Helix.

Abilities that create copies then allow you to play those copies as part of the resolution already ignore timing restrictions (eg. Panoptic Mirror). Alternately, copies are put directly onto the stack with makes the whole issue of timing moot.

I could theoretically see a problem arising if a card created copies then allowed you to play the copy until EOT (say a hybrid between Scepter and Desire), but I don't believe anything like that exists, and I don't think WOTC will print one. I beleive they tend to dislike forcing people to remember game objects with no physical representation, which is exactly what this would do. I'd imagine any time they're shooting for that kind of effect, they'll handle it exactly like Desire: via exiled cards that you can play for a set timeframe.