Daily Card Redesign #47: Ogre Taskmaster

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.

Redesign:

I figured that instead of looking at this Ogre with the perspective of him looking away from the Goblins as if he's letting them do all the work; he's actually looking OUT and standing guard while the Goblins carry on with their work. Nothing gets past him if he can help it.

...It's like an semi-indirect "attacks each turn if able." With that said, is this still red?

Daily Card Redesign #46: Hindervines

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.

Oh, snap! My first card from a current set!

Redesign:

I'll level with you - the name is silly. "Impede Stampede" plays into my love of naming things that either rhyme or are alliterations. But, at the same time, it does accurately portray what's going on with the card's effect.

I decided that the vegetation that's suddenly wrapping around these Soldiers are Saprolings. Yes, Gatecrash doesn't have a single Saproling token in it. You might say that they don't belong. But, wait. Return to Ravnica had a card that made Saproling tokens. But only one such card exists - Korozda Guildmage.

Because Saprolings were in this block at all, I thought it'd be fitting that there would be at least one Saproling card in Gatecrash. They were so prevalent last time that it seems strange for them to disappear almost completely this time (though, I do know that 1/1 flying Bird creature tokens kinda take up the 1/1 slot as far as Selesnyans are concerned followed by 2/2 vigilance Knights and 3/3 Centaurs).

I noticed the existence of the card Flash Foliage. I like to think that this card is an homage to that in a way. If I were to choose a different name for my card, I would make sure it did this homage - perhaps "Hindrance Foliage" would have done.

And, yes, I do know that there's the difference that Flash Foliage forces a block to occur while Impede Stampede allows you to not even block at all. I'm aware of this and wanted to allow the defending player to have more flexibility with its Saprolings.

Daily Card Redesign #45: Angelic Blessing

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.

One of my favorite pieces of Magic: The Gathering art. Look, a hummingbird! And an Elf Angel?

Redesign:

I wanted to convey the blessings that an Angel can give, as what seems to be happening in the art. I can't grant protection, because the Portal set doesn't allow that. There's only one card that prevents damage in the set, and I consider that an exception, so I didn't go for preventing damage. Since there are a couple white cards in the set that can't be blocked under certain conditions (whether it's not being able to be blocked by red/black creatures or by creatures with two or more power), I thought I would go with that route.

Since it's a conditional unblockability, I thought it wasn't stepping on the toes of being blue too much. I named it "Angel's Sympathy" to reflect the fact that the Angel identifies with the hummingbird because it flies, too. And an Angel giving sympathy means that the hummingbird, or the creature with flying you choose, won't need to worry about getting hurt - and doesn't get tired. This is why it gains vigilance (besides it being something that white does).

I don't even understand why the card originally granted flying with the art the way it is. Couldn't the hummingbird fly before?

Daily Card Redesign #44: Stinkweed Imp

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.

Redesign:

I didn't see a card in the Ravnica: City of Guilds set that interacted with other dredge cards, so I changed the original deathtouch-y ability to the one you see here.

I initially wanted to have the condition be "from anywhere," but that meant that, while this card is on the battlefield, the board complexity would be higher. And it would make for a too-complex common card.

I put "spite" in its name because it stings the opponent for making you either: A) discard cards; or B) mill (the Dimir do this). Of course, the Golgari mill themselves, but that's the neat dredge gameplay interaction, which is O.K. to be different from the narrative derived from the card's name.

I enjoy that it's in the character of an imp to be spiteful. And whenever possible, I like my names to have alliteration and rhymes.

Daily Card Redesign #43: Stormfront Riders

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.

Redesign:

I saw that there were two guys inside this pod thing being pulled by some vicious-looking Birds. I wondered, "What if those guys just jumped out?" And, thus, the above design was born.

Not being able to return the creature tokens back to the pod racer for +1/+1 counters again reflects the fact that this thing is up in the air and Humans can't just fly back up into the sky. Once they jump out, they're out.

I was bothered by the fact that once both tokens are out onto the battlefield that the creature card itself, which would just be a bunch of flying Birds, would still be a Human type. So, I decided to go out of my way to fix that by adding lines of rules text for flavor reasons which has minimal impact in this environment. Sure, you can yell at me for this.

Daily Card Redesign #42: Kitsune Bonesetter

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.

Redesign:

I noticed that the art depicted an old cleric dude. This reminded me of a favorite card of mine: Venerable Monk. Check him out:

Simple card! Since Monks DO exist within the world of Kamigawa, I wanted to do a Kamigawa take on Venerable Monk. I applied the "cards in hand" theme as a condition for getting the same effect and make this guy one mana cheaper. Done!

Daily Card Redesign #41: Icequake

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.

Holy what-the-heck-is-happening-in-this-art? Well, then. Let's try it.

Redesign:

The previous incarnation of this card with destroying lands then checking to see if they were snow-covered made me think about how else I can take advantage of a land's snow-ness. Perhaps the snow just fell of the land and onto a creature (though, it seems more appropriate on a Mountain rather than on a Swamp, for snow to fall off and then land on a living thing and kill it - keep that in mind for the next snow block!)!

I decided to just say, "Screw it." to trying to keep with how this would have been worded back then. So, in case you decide to point that it.

I didn't put "untapped" for the Swamp that enters the battlefield because I figured that leaving four mana untapped for destroying a creature compared to Murder's three converted mana cost was enough of a cost that it's fine if you get one untapped Swamp. Go have fun with that, player.