Daily Card Redesign #32: Armageddon

Daily Card Redesign is a daily Magic: The Gathering design exercise where I randomly choose a card for the scenario of it being killed late during its own set's development, and I design a replacement card that uses the same art, is the same color, is the same rarity, and has a name that, alphabetically, keeps it within the same collector number for the set.

The famous Armageddon! Tall order. Here's my replacement card:

I looked at the art carefully and noticed that there's not just ruined lands, but there's dead creatures, too! And look at that barbed wire! I came up with the effect then looked through existing Magic: The Gathering cards to see if there was any such similar effect. Sure enough, I found Braids, Cabal Minion! There's no enchantment like the above, though. 

Since white does things that affects both players (and it plays into the Wrath of God or Day of Judgment type of flavor with white. "God makes destruction happen if He's angry!"), it's all good on a white enchantment.

Ah, notorious Braids. She does what she does with a drawback of being a creature. A Shock can destroy her, for example. An enchantment is harder to destroy. As such, I costed this higher. But how much higher is O.K.? I looked to Sunken Hope, which returns creatures to the hand every turn - not as bad as killing creatures. 

So, I costed it at one more than the five mana that Sunken Hope costs - six mana. Allowing lands and artifacts to also be able to be sacrificed is both a benefit and a drawback - in case the affected player wants to keep his or her creatures - so it doesn't affect the mana cost.

Daily Card Redesign #31: Gargoyle Castle

Daily Card Redesign is a daily Magic: The Gathering design exercise where I randomly choose a card for the scenario of it being killed late during its own set's development, and I design a replacement card that uses the same art, is the same color, is the same rarity, and has a name that, alphabetically, keeps it within the same collector number for the set.

Awesome. Here's my version:

O.K., so this is obviously a haunted house. I had a different version of this card until I realized, at the last minute, that it functioned similarly to Moorland Haunt. Check it out:

Anyway, I figured that any castle with a large gargoyle atop it could be housing ghosts or even have a vampire lord within it. I decided upon the ghosts angle, and the word "Geist" fit perfectly where it needed to be to retain the same collector number.

The condition of having creatures attacking you was a flavor tie-in with disturbing the grounds in which the spirits rest. Like, when you trespass a haunted mansion.

I hope it's not too powerful. Ah, well. It's the thought that counts!

Daily Card Redesign #30: Weaver Cycle

Daily Card Redesign is a daily Magic: The Gathering design exercise where I randomly choose a card for the scenario of it being killed late during its own set's development, and I design a replacement card that uses the same art, is the same color, is the same rarity, and has a name that, alphabetically, keeps it within the same collector number for the set.

Because this is a whole cycle rather than a card, I decided to limit how many elements of the original cycle I would change. I decided to leave the fact that they cost two mana each and are 2/1s and instead focused on a different execution of what this cycle was going for.

Here it is:

I had to change the names of the red and black cards of the cycle to better reflect the abilities they granted. While "Rapid Weaver" sounds better, it would have meant he was really fast at what he does rather than what he does is about rapidity.

I wanted to do away with the fact that black and white granted power and toughness and instead make the whole cycle uniform in granted evergreen creature mechanics (all of these abilities are now currently keywords).

I had to change the red one's haste-granting since the black/green creature wouldn't gain haste, and so the effect would almost always be wrong. I didn't want to change the trigger condition just to keep the ability to grant haste. Luckily, first strike is very red.

Daily Card Redesign #29: Grave Robbers

Daily Card Redesign is a daily Magic: The Gathering design exercise where I randomly choose a card for the scenario of it being killed late during its own set's development, and I design a replacement card that uses the same art, is the same color, is the same rarity, and has a name that, alphabetically, keeps it within the same collector number for the set.

Redesigned card:

I liked the artifact part of the Grave Robbers. I didn't like, however, the gaining of life. And they get rid of the artifacts. Sure, it could be implied they're selling that stuff they find. But you're a powerful planeswalker who is aware of magical items, no? If you dig up magical stuff, you might just want to use it!

Then I thought about how this doesn't have to be a creature. It shows the act of grave robbing, so this can be an instant or sorcery. Beacon of Unrest and Scrounge both show different black spells that get artifacts from the graveyard. 

Graverobbing here is the pure form of the same effect, with no other twists, etc. This effect hasn't existed yet, in Magic: The Gathering, and it looks like this is a good place to do a spell like this. The name is applicable to any world so that it could be reprinted again in the future.

Daily Card Redesign #28: Power Sink

Daily Card Redesign is a daily Magic: The Gathering design exercise where I randomly choose a card for the scenario of it being killed late during its own set's development, and I design a replacement card that uses the same art, is the same color, is the same rarity, and has a name that, alphabetically, keeps it within the same collector number for the set.

Here's my replacement design:

Again, whenever I replace a card design, I try to mimic how it would have been worded when the original was printed.

This is a counterspell with X in its cost. There's already another one in Alpha in the form of Spell Blast. Counterspell is the spell that counters anything, and Blue Elemental Blast counters specifically red spells as a mirror to Red Elemental Blast. With this in mind, I chose to go with a counterspell that is conditional and dependent upon a certain element to be true, like Essence Scatter is.

Also, for those who don't know, I only choose designs that haven't been done before even up until now, to keep things interesting. Otherwise, I could easily just choose Mana Leak's design, for example.

Lastly, note that the name "Prevent Interruption" is a clever wordplay that doesn't state that you're preventing an interruption - because that usually wouldn't be true since both card types of instants and interruptions exists - but states that you're casting a "prevent" interruption. This means it refers to itself as an Interrupt. 

But it also means that it's preventing an interruption during your turn.

I was too scared to cost this at U. Doesn't matter, though. Development would cost it appropriately.

Daily Card Redesign #27: Shunt

Daily Card Redesign is a daily Magic: The Gathering design exercise where I randomly choose a card for the scenario of it being killed late during its own set's development, and I design a replacement card that uses the same art, is the same color, is the same rarity, and has a name that, alphabetically, keeps it within the same collector number for the set.

God, I love Shunt. Changing the targets of spells and abilities being a blue and red thing is awesome. I still harbor this desire for more Gnomes to exist in Magic: The Gathering and within the blue and red colors so that they can do tricky things like Switcheroo and effects like Shunt's. Though, I do believe it's important that an effect like Shunt's, being widely applicable to your opponent's spells, that this type of effect should stay at rare. Uncommon is a low enough rarity that makes opponents scared of casting their spells as normal, which is not a good feeling and/or behavior to induce in players.

Anyway. Card redesign! Poof:

From the art, it looks like the Vulshok person is in a defensive stance. Because of this, I opted for something that reflected the defensive nature of the situation. That blue magical stuff isn't an offensive thing.

I decided that the Vulshok here is a creature that you've designated for this defensive spell you're doing. However, white is defensive. Red's defense is offense. It threatens.

I thought of the spell Silence. While white would make sure that opponents just can't do it at all to prevent bad things from happening, red would instead give a dirty, menacing look at the opponent saying, "Hey, if you do this, I'm going to hurt you."

Also, having it be sorcery so that it focuses on just your turn is an extension of not being proactive in being defensive like white is with Silence. It's, "Hey, let me do my thing (which is smash your face in), and if you try anything, you're going to hear from me."

I decided NOT to have the wording of the card use "target creature you control" in case the opponent responds to THIS spell and destroys the creature you want to use. Instead, this will ensure that you will likely have a creature you can use, even if the opponent responds by killing just one of your creatures.

It LOOKS like the creature could be scowling, right? The word fits between Savage Beating and Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer. It also depicts the mid-result of the opponent actually having the audacity to cast a spell even after your scowl. Looks like a more "Ah, you're going to get hurt now! I freakin' told you!"