This time, I'm trying out writing a post where I present my finished replacement card first then talk about why I did what I did. This is instead of my usual "stream of consciousness" style of writing where I put down words as I think - which isn't really the best thing for readers to consume, I admit.
So, here's the card!
The original card is not part of a cycle, so I was free to change the card to something else.
Magic: The Gathering has various Auras that call out "Artifact" in its name like Steal Artifact, Curse Artifact, Animate Artifact, or Warp Artifact; but there hasn't been a Bless Artifact. That name should exist as a Magic card in the future. I didn't choose "Blessed Artifact" because that would mean the card is actually an artifact that is blessed. Also, it would break the wording convention like with Steal Artifact.
I made sure that the artifact granted the controller life instead of just you so that it doesn't feel like you're sapping life off of an opponent's artifact. The opponent would feel like the artifact is cursed or is betraying or a burden. Nay, whoever has the artifact experiences its blessed nature.
In the art, the goblet represents the artifact, and the radius of bright colors emanating from the goblet is an expression of it being blessed.
What do you think? Is this blog post a better format than how I have written these in the past? It's shorter, and more digestable; and for the folks that prefer to cut to the chase to the finished product, the redesigned card is near the top of the blog post.
Let me know! Thanks!
My general style is short and sweet, so I prefer the less wordy approach.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate the tighter focus, card --> redesign very close to each other.
ReplyDeleteAs for the card, the text itself is fine, and fits on a modern card with no problems either powerwise or themewise, but I don't think it would have been printed in Ice Age.
First of all, lifegain was much less powerful then. A life a turn was 2 mana (Fountain of Youth), or 1 mana whenever you cast a spell of the associated color (Wooden Sphere et al)
Second of all, artifacts were feared heavily in Ice Age, and were not something people blessed. The ice age was the fallout from the Brothers' War, a war of artificers. "Blessing" an artifact in Ice Age time would probably mean consecrating it so it could not do whatever it originally did.
Otherwise the flavor matches the art very well, but I can't really see it in Ice Age as it sits. I could see something like:
Bless Artifact
2WW
Enchant Artifact
Enchanted artifact's activated abilities can't be activated. If enchanted artifact is a creature, it can't attack or block.
At the beginning of your upkeep you may pay W. If you do, gain 1 life.
Seems more like an uncommon card since it's doing two continuous separate things - binding down an artifact and giving you the opportunity for life every turn.
DeleteHowever, with your explanation of how artifacts were like, my version of Bless Artifact would be out of place in Ice Age while yours is more in line with the flavor.
But this would certainly be odd among most other sets, right? In Mirrodin, blessing it would not disable it and then give you life. So what I'm saying is that I'd like to then reserve the "Bless Artifact" name for another time and use a different name for your version - which might be odd considering your design was a top-down one from the name "Bless Artifact."
Yep. Just commenting and throwing out ideas. I'm not even sure if a Faith's Fetters would be a good call in Ice Age, considering that Arresting/Pacifying was not white until...Serra Bestiary? I think? I would have to look.
ReplyDeleteAnd rarity meant less way back in the day relative to complexity, check out the common Balduvian Shaman in Ice Age: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2495 (Which is one of the cards that has created the modern motive for less complex commons.)
And yeah, this would be super weird in most sets. And it does mine the "simple name" space pretty hard, which is one of the more limited areas of Magic design, I agree.