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

[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.

I like the Auradons. The "this gets +X/+X" ability is a little clunky, but probably worth it to make the cards work. You are right to make them uncommon, as each is on curve even without the upgrade ability.

The rares leave me feeling very conflicted. On the one hand, the fragility of creature enchantments is a nice way to weaken the effects of these powerful past enchantments, and I like that most of the enchantments are themselves powered by creatures, so that having the enchanted creature be unavailable is a nice bit of pain. On the other, some of these are cheaper than the originals - particularly relevant for a denial enchantment like Opposition, where you might lock the opponent out of mana a turn earlier than you ever could have before. My favorite here is the same as elklad's: Humility, where bouncing or killing the host creature mid-combat can wreak such havoc.

[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...