Daily Card Redesign #89: Zhalfirin Crusader

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. 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:

The original design was cool, but it doesn't make sense given the art. The Knight is only blocking the spell, or perhaps absorbing it through his sword. There isn't any ricochet happening, unless that sword charges up over time and unleashes it power. Which doesn't seem to be the case.

So I gave him hexproof. Because he, as a sentient and intelligent person, wouldn't try to block spells or abilities that grant him more power/functionality. Nay, he would let it happen. Thus, hexproof instead of shroud.

Daily Card Redesign #88: Quicksilver Geyser

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. 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:

So. That name amuses me. I love when there's an organic way to refer to a seemingly-arbitrary chosen number. The word "pair" and other such words referring to a "couple" of things, which comes in handy for flavor when you're designing cards.

There's never been a spell like this one, and this would be the set to do it. I figure that, within the art, the creature in the foreground is getting the brunt of this magical spray of nonexistence-induction while the one in the background suffers "splash damage."

Daily Card Redesign #87: Predatory Urge

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. 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:

Another entry in green's Chord of Calling and Green Sun's Zenith portfolio.

Daily Card Redesign #86: Marhault Elsdragon

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. 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:

Boom. I took his name literally. A non-flying version of Dragonstalker! But, really, it's all in his name! "Hault" and "Dragon" are both words in the name.

Daily Card Redesign #85: Snake Basket

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. 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:

9 lines of text is supposed to be O.K. for a rare! The idea here is that there's a basket of Snakes you don't know the number of inside. Instead of using X to define that number, I'm letting a random number generator (revealed nonland card's converted mana cost) define that. And the flavor is that you put a basket in the way of the source that would have otherwise hit you - and then the basket breaks open with Snakes.

Daily Card Redesign #84: Noggin Whack

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. 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.

Island? It's broken! It makes blue mana! Here's a redesign:

There. That's better.

In seriousness, I need to click on the Random Card button in Gatherer, Wizards of the Coast's card search database, again. *click*

Redesign:

This feels more flavorful to me. When you get hit in the head with a brick, especially with a fish tied to it, you're bound to suffer a minor concussion and forget something. Also, that would hurt very much. 1 damage! Usually, black does "lose 1 life" instead of "deal 1 damage," but changing it to do damage wouldn't be too crazy for the purposes of this card.

Also, the original design had you pick and choose which cards to discard. That didn't feel right considering you're throwing a brick! An unsophisticated attack means an unsophisticated result.

Daily Card Redesign #83: Martyr's Cause

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. 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 led me to see an interesting history of Magic: The Gathering cards with "Martyr" in its name. This Martyr's Cause original design is along the lines we want, and there's already been an instant called Martyrdom that does this same general ...well, martyrdom. But there hasn't been an Aura that makes any creature you want into a martyr.

And, thus, Martyrize was born.

Note: I followed the templating from the totem armor keyword, as you can see from Felidar Umbra. Removing the damage is important, since the creature you're protecting may not necessarily be dying from a spell effect. If you don't put that clause in, then the creature would just die right away, anyway, because the damage would remain marked on the creature for the rest of the whole turn and state-based effects check that if a creature has "lethal damage," it dies!

With the way I wanted to design this card, I couldn't put "regenerate" without it being weird in that I am replacing the destruction with a sacrifice, thus, removing the need the regenerate - EXCEPT in the case of dying to damage. The only part of regeneration that would be useful would be removing the damage. Thus, that's why the totem armor route is taken and removing damage is explicitly written.

Daily Card Redesign #82: Portal 2nd Age Common Counterspells

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. 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.

There are two printed card types for spells for Portal Second Age: creatures and sorceries. From this, two common counterspells were designed: one that counters creatures, and the other that counters sorceries. This dichotomy is something that's commonly used for common counterspell design, especially within Core Sets. So, because it's a pair that live without each other, I'm redesigning Extinguish as well. This is Extinguish:

Redesign:

I couldn't think of a satisfactory name for Extinguish that falls between Exhaustion and Eye Spy alphabetically that matches the "spells not the first cast in a turn." Since only creatures and sorceries exist, the only card types that Portal Second Age cares about are those two types. Which is excellent, since it naturally makes the above cards weaker, in case they were ever a bit more powerful.

The challenge here was to find a dichotomy of common counterspells that could be done for Portal Second Age. I couldn't reference "permanents" since the only permanent is creature. I couldn't do converted mana costs ("X or less" and "X or more") since that term is too advanced. I felt weird to include reprints of Gainsay and Frazzle, so I didn't (in retrospect, I could have referenced just sorceries and creatures to make these Portal Second Age version different).

So I took a cue from Second Guess and made a couple counterspells that care whether the spell was the first cast in a turn or if it was second, third, etc. The caveat to why these can exist is that, while within the vaccuum of Portal Second Age the above might be powerful, the restriction of sorcery or creature is quite restricting outside of the Portal Second Age environment. This is fantastic! Done.

There really should be two spells that exist in Magic: The Gathering that does:

"Counter target spell that's the first cast this turn."

"Counter target spell that's not the first cast this turn."

Costs may vary. For example, the "NOT first cast" conditional counter can cost 2U (so that it's not strictly better than Second Guess).

Lastly, take note: The name "First Not Last" refers to both about when something occurred and whether something was able to last. The title is saying that "First does not last." (which is why it counters something that was the first cast in a turn) in addition to "It's first but not last!"