And so it ends. The final challenge - create all the commons for one color in a 180 card expansion set (so 11 cards) and an appropriate rare for the prerelease card
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This is a good theme, and I like the general directions you took it. Card-specific comments:
* Elvish Ploughman: I like this effect, but it doesn't look like there are enough land animators to make it good. Admittedly, we've only seen green commons, but if green - the home of land animation - isn't bringing home the bacon, who is?
* Garner: Pretty good. Just how good depends a lot on how many good non-basics there are in the set, and how often lands get munched. Probably a good skill-tester, then, because of the sensitivity to the overall set, which is always a good thing.
* Llanowar Naturalist: A better Llanowar Elves, eh? That makes me wary, though the bonding ability seems subpar. I'd like this better if the basic body were less good, and the bonding ability were better or cheaper. Also curious if this would be more interesting if the bonding mana were produced no matter what the land was tapped for. Relevant in a set where lands are often tapping to attack.
* Llanowar Symbiote: We played with some similar effects in Twilight, and in general I like very much using type-switching as a way to allow permanents to dodge removal and change roles in the game. However, it's not clear what Plant 0 actually means here: how is it different from simply having an activation cost of 0?
* Mottled Beetle: Well, duh. (Duh is not bad.)
* Return to Earth: Yes, exactly. Is it removal? Dodge? Mana acceleration? Love this stuff. Hope green has at least one forestwalker at uncommon to take further advantage; landwalk should play a significant role in the larger set.
* Unearthed Gardens: Hints at the importance of Stone Rain effects in the set. Stone Rain is the new Mirrodin Shatter! However, seems like it could have been implemented more cleanly as an Aura:
"Unearthed Gardens Enchantment - Aura Enchant land When Unearthed Gardens comes into play, search your library for a basic land and put it into play. When Unearthed Gardens goes to the graveyard from play, return it to play."
Not exactly the same, but probably easier to understand. But I can understand losing a little clarity for the sake of pushing the keyword.
* Unfettered Loamdweller: Lovely interaction with all the ways of creating oddly-named lands. I also like critters that naturally scale in impact as the game goes on, as this does.
* Vernal Awakening: Again, duh. Seems like the card that exemplifies green in this set.
* Groundshaker Behemoth: Pretty nifty. A little scary to bring Cadaverous Bloom back on the back of a 5/5 body, but massive green mana isn't quite as scary as massive black mana, so maybe this is safe. Maybe...
>A little scary to bring Cadaverous Bloom back on the back of a 5/5 body
This is more limiting, as it requires you to discard a land as opposed to a card. Plus, creatures are easier to get rid of.
I'm also not convinced that Bloom was the broken part of that deck. I think it was probably the Squandered Resources. Not that I'm not all for creating scary-looking prerelease cards :)
Heh. I agree with you about Squandered Resources being the real problem in that deck, and had forgotten that Bloom allowed any card to be trashed - big difference. I'm still pretty sure this is an excellent card, rather than just the usual Timmy-tempting prerelease crap (not that this is a bad thing).
* Elvish Ploughman: I like this effect, but it doesn't look like there are enough land animators to make it good. Admittedly, we've only seen green commons, but if green - the home of land animation - isn't bringing home the bacon, who is?
* Garner: Pretty good. Just how good depends a lot on how many good non-basics there are in the set, and how often lands get munched. Probably a good skill-tester, then, because of the sensitivity to the overall set, which is always a good thing.
* Llanowar Naturalist: A better Llanowar Elves, eh? That makes me wary, though the bonding ability seems subpar. I'd like this better if the basic body were less good, and the bonding ability were better or cheaper. Also curious if this would be more interesting if the bonding mana were produced no matter what the land was tapped for. Relevant in a set where lands are often tapping to attack.
* Llanowar Symbiote: We played with some similar effects in Twilight, and in general I like very much using type-switching as a way to allow permanents to dodge removal and change roles in the game. However, it's not clear what Plant 0 actually means here: how is it different from simply having an activation cost of 0?
* Mottled Beetle: Well, duh. (Duh is not bad.)
* Return to Earth: Yes, exactly. Is it removal? Dodge? Mana acceleration? Love this stuff. Hope green has at least one forestwalker at uncommon to take further advantage; landwalk should play a significant role in the larger set.
* Unearthed Gardens: Hints at the importance of Stone Rain effects in the set. Stone Rain is the new Mirrodin Shatter! However, seems like it could have been implemented more cleanly as an Aura:
"Unearthed Gardens
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land
When Unearthed Gardens comes into play, search your library for a basic land and put it into play.
When Unearthed Gardens goes to the graveyard from play, return it to play."
Not exactly the same, but probably easier to understand. But I can understand losing a little clarity for the sake of pushing the keyword.
* Unfettered Loamdweller: Lovely interaction with all the ways of creating oddly-named lands. I also like critters that naturally scale in impact as the game goes on, as this does.
* Vernal Awakening: Again, duh. Seems like the card that exemplifies green in this set.
* Groundshaker Behemoth: Pretty nifty. A little scary to bring Cadaverous Bloom back on the back of a 5/5 body, but massive green mana isn't quite as scary as massive black mana, so maybe this is safe. Maybe...
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This is more limiting, as it requires you to discard a land as opposed to a card. Plus, creatures are easier to get rid of.
I'm also not convinced that Bloom was the broken part of that deck. I think it was probably the Squandered Resources. Not that I'm not all for creating scary-looking prerelease cards :)
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