Daily Card Redesign #54: Misfortune's Gain

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:

Apparently, white does a lot of destroying in Portal Three Kingdoms. Usually white has its Pacificism-like effect but that can't exist within this set. So, replacing this destroy effect, I did so happily with a tap effect. 

The art was meant to show that there was a death that occurred. From the art, I'm choosing to not focus on the fact that a death happened - I'm focusing on the grieving that occurs. I, at first, wanted to make sure that a creature died in the turn in order for you to be able to tap the creature. But, I decided I was making this too complex to go along with inability to untap. The grieving doesn't have to have a specified cause, but it makes sense that a creature would take a "time out" in order to properly grieve before returning back to do battle.

I originally wanted to do an Excommunicate effect, but blue already had that in Portal Three Kingdoms in the form of Forced Retreat.

Daily Card Redesign #53: Scepter of Empires

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:

This card is part of a triumvirate of artifacts with names ending with "of Empires."

The other cards made creatures for you and manipulated opposing creatures. Got it. Don't do anything that has to do with creatures. The scepter used to deal damage to players. I'm not going to go the easy way out and have the scepter gain you life.

So, I went for looting and drawing a card. I looked to Jalum Tome for costing. Because Crown of Empires costs two mana and Throne of Empires costs four mana, I wanted to keep the Scepter at three mana. Also, similarly, because Throne of Empires costs one mana to activate its ability and the Crown needs two mana for its own ability - I went for a three mana cost. This was perfect since Jalum Tome is identical to this card for looting but costed two. The ability costing three is the drawback for having the potential benefit of drawing a card instead of just looting.

I know it's worded a bit differently from the other cards in regards to the "controlling other artifacts named these, do this instead," but this is happening because I can't say, "Loot, but if you got the goods, draw a card instead." 

Daily Card Redesign #52: Hurloon Minotaur

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:

O.K., so here's what's up with this Innistrad ability word craziness appearing on an Alpha card: I wanted this minotaur to have the ability to enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it if a creature died earlier in the turn. But I couldn't figure out the correct wording for Alpha's time from the other cards without it seeming like it triggered every time a creature died. So, I figured I'd just use the modern wording anyway. Then I also figured I'd go one step further, since I'm already out there, and just slap "Morbid" in front of it.

But this decision for this ability is a legitimate decision - check it out: There's not much to go off of in the art. In fact, the art showing a very normal minotaur is a boon for a vanilla design. But it already started out as a vanilla creature, so I couldn't do that. Then I sought to give it first strike or haste. But there are other Minotaurs in Magic: The Gathering that have first strike or haste.

So, the next thing I did was read the flavor text:

The minotaurs of the Hurloon Mountains are known for their love of battle. They are also known for their hymns to the dead, sung for friend and foe alike. These hymns can last for days, filling the mountain valleys with their low, haunting sounds.

Three things:

1) Hymns to the dead, friend or foe. Thus, keying off of whether ANY creature died this turn. It can't be an ability that can trigger off of multiple deaths since that would make it an uncommon.

2) Love of battle. Since we're counting a creature death as a condition, what benefit do we give? We give the minotaur a benefit that can be used in battle - combat. A +1/+1 counter both does the job and works as an indicator that this benefit has been given.

3) This minotaur is not just any minotaur - it's from the Hurloon Mountains. Since I'm going off of the flavor text, I had to keep the name intact to show that this is a Hurloon-ian doing what Hurloon-ians do: singing hymns to the dead.

Another reason for +1/+1 counters: while it exists in Alpha on two rares and an uncommon - there aren't any at common. One at common where no more than one would be used wouldn't hurt the set too much with complexity, I believe (obviously, it's all right nowadays, but considering its time).

Lastly, since Gray Ogre is a 2R for 2/2 and Hill Giant is a 3R for 3/3 - I had to appropriately cost Hurloon Minotaur with its size (power and toughness) and the +1/+1 counter, which is why it SEEMS overpriced in its mana cost, but is actually fair within its own environment.

Daily Card Redesign #51: Touch of Death

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 originally was going to do a version of Go for the Throat but with the clause that is usually found in Ice Age of "Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep." However, in an environment where there isn't a prevalence of artifact creatures, it would have been too powerful. So, I decided to go for a sorcery speed version. Not as good as Dark Banishing.

Also, it's a flavorful representation - Death is coming for the creature, and the creature is doomed for sure. So, I put the death at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep, too. The card that is drawn can be represented as the "soul" that Death collected from this creature dying.

Boom.

Daily Card Redesign #50: Arrow Volley Trap

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'm not too crazy about the name, but hey.

Instead of looking at the dead bodies after this glow-y treasure thing as your opponent's, you can look at these dead bodies as your own guys and the glow-y treasure thing is bringing somebody back to life. And here we are with the card: "Hah, you shouldn't have killed so many of my men. Now you get to see just one of them come back to life! You fool!" (I say this somewhat sarcastically in terms of believability.)

And now I'm thinking of Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life." Fun fact: I used to listen to this song along with my Linkin Park and Green Day stuff.

Daily Card Redesign #49: Runeclaw Bear

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.

Whoa. The staple 2/2 common green creature of Core Sets. Actually, green has a history of having 2/2s for 1G that do a little something else. This sets it ahead of white and black who also get 2/2s for two mana. Check out this list of 2/2s for two with a little something-something. In fact, in Magic 2013, Runeclaw Bear was ousted by the strictly-better Timberpack Wolf. So, let's do the same.

Redesign:

Because there is a skull underneath the bear's foot, I wanted to have this redesign fight another creature upon it entering the battlefield. But fight hadn't yet been keyworded when Magic 2010 had been released, which would mean a very wordy textbox. I couldn't do that. Also, it may have been a bit too powerful to appear frequently in Limited and perhaps would be an uncommon. Scratch this.

Next, I wanted this bear to be able to do this:

"Tap an untapped Forest you control: Relentless Bear gains reach until end of turn."

Because bears can climb trees. For real. But in Magic 2010, there were already two common Spider cards in green that have reach.

I wanted to have this bear be able to give you a honeycomb of honey upon entering the battlefield, like a Honeycomb Bear or something, which would give you 1 or 2 life. But the art shows a vicious bear totally not doing anything honey related. Better save that design for art depicting a more gentler bear.

I then decided to key in on the "runeclaws" it has, which makes it a magical bear. Magic! Spells! And why not? It replace Grizzly Bears - it should at least have the decency to actually be magically better in some way.

Daily Card Redesign #48: Redwood Treefolk

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:

Seems like such a hack job, no? Actually, no! This is a strategic design. Here's why:

1) There are no common creatures in the Portal set with vigilance. I know that green hadn't yet really established itself as a color with vigilance, but since I already use the future to my disadvantage when redesigning cards, I could also use the other side of that coin and take advantage of how in-color this is.

2) There are no green creatures at a mana cost of six while there are plenty at five. And increasing the mana cost by one just for the ability means I don't have to increase any of the stats the Treefolk has. I'd rather not have a power 4 or a toughness 7 common creature.

I wanted to give this Treefolk reach, but Giant Spider is already at green common, so I didn't want to overload that area. I mean, look, it even looks like this tree is reaching with its third arm! "Reaching Treefolk." So I settled on vigilance.