Magic Great Designer Search Test #4

[papa_funk]

Test #4 got released. In it, the designers were randomly assigned 1 cycle each of rare, uncommon and common. At least 1 had to be tight and 1 had to be loose. Then, at most 50 words to talk about each cycle.

I got out my trusty die, and randomly assigned myself instants, creatures and enchantments.

Comments

[elklad]

The commons are nice and simple, but I think that drawback would be very unpopular regardless of its actual impact. Personally, I like Demise and Blink, while Bolt and Mists might be annoying in tempo-oriented decks where the drawback isn't going to make much difference. Growth seems too weak as printed. What if the land came into play untapped, or you could fetch any land?

I really like both the uncommons and the rares, though. I'd rather play with auradons than slivers, for example. (I'm not sure why slivers remain so popular; to me they were worth doing once, but not three times.) Of the rares, Sigil of Humility is my favorite; I like the flavor of one creature enforcing humility on others. I also like that not all Sigils are best played on your strongest creature.

[winterborne]

The commons worry me both from a popularity perspective and with regard to power level. MaRo's beaten the popularity issue to a pulp in his most recent article, so no need to repeat. Regarding power, Rewarding Mists looks utterly disgusting in limited (where Undo and Rushing River are both reasonable first picks). Mists also benefits from having a good chance at forcing discard if used at the end of the opponent's turn, mitigating the drawback of giving the opponent a card. In constructed, all of the Bolt, Mists, and Demise could be very potent in any deck that benefits from giving the opponent cards, tends to strand cards, or beats down too quickly to care about giving up card advantage. That's a lot of different decks, and a lot of potential power problems

[papa_funk]

Yeah, Mists is definitely too good and Growth is too weak. Hard to balance them and keep them in a tight cycle, but that's what Development is for :)

I'm not that worried about the "popularity" thing, since, as you correctly observe, some players will see that as a challenge to turn it into an advantage.

Note, BTW, that Sigil of Opposition doesn't let you tap lands. I'm not insane :)

[sandra_snan]

Alliances had this "reverse-cantrip" theme going as an activated ability on some cards. Didn't go well with players.

The rare cycle is sick. Tap almost any creature to tap most types of permanents? Then again, you'd need three cards in play just to be able to start tapping...