Redesign:
I found out some things about modern core sets, which may also apply to the expert-level expansion sets. Green always has at least one deathtouch card per common and uncommon. It also has at least one Naturalize effect at common and uncommon. Additionally, land destruction has been at a minimum of two throughout the existence of Acidic Slime, which has been every modern core set.
There's so much utility that Acidic Slime is taking care of itself that it's hard to deviate away from the design that already exists. It's so good at doing what it does that it keeps coming back, doing what it does. If we were to have it my way, I'd want to shelve Acidic Slime for a set and come up with other cards that handle the effects of deathtouch and destruction of noncreature artifacts.
There wasn't a lot of wiggle room for what other effects we could put on this card besides the one that already exists. But Bramblecrush exists and still takes care of artifacts, lands, and enchantments - with the added bonus of destroying planeswalkers.
I wanted to keep pushing to further differentiate this from the original design, so I made the effect depend upon the creature having its activated ability activated. Upside: instant-speed removal. Downside, sacrificing the creature. I think this shakes out.
I don't think this design is bad, per se, but it creates situations that are not fun. It is a rattlesnake card more than a reactive/response card:
ReplyDeleteOnce it is on the board your opponent must find a way to deal with it before dropping the permanent he wants to play, making him feel bad for holding it back in his hand until he drops something else you to bait you to blow up...
It is a feeling similar to pernicious deed.
That said, it is difficult to redesign such core green cards, and you take is quite good.
You're right. The challenge for me, in this case, was to fill in the holes that this one single card filled: deathtouch, land destruction, artifact destruction, and enchantment destruction. Looking at the other cards in the set, this guy was pulling a lot of weight, and green in the set would have otherwise been missing a lot without this guy!
DeleteHow else could you redesign this so that it's not an enters-the-battlefield ability? You could have him kill something once he dies, for example. You CAN'T make a slime token that destroys those things with a sorcery/instant because there wasn't a slime token made for the set that exists to make use of .