Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Experienced in Different Ways
Welcome to another Preview Card! Today, we have a special treat; two preview cards, as well as two preview articles, one from me, and one from Vinh. Vinh will be previewing a rare, and I will be previewing a common. I tried to get an uncommon from Duy, but to no avail... instead, both Vinh and I shared a green uncommon each with each other, but that's for another day. Anyway, without further ado, here are your preview cards/articles, starting with Vinh's:
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Experienced in Different Ways
A creature with level up is often an interesting creature, forcing the player to make decisions. An early creature with level up usually takes a bit of mana to level up, usually making the player unable to cast more spells early on. In some cases, like with Student of Warfare, you get the most out of your mana when you spend WW to level it up on turn 2 and attack with a 3/3 with first strike early on. But what about a creature like Guul Draz Assassin? While you can reach level 2 on that creature on turn 3, it means you'll have to forfeit your plays for turn 2, and probably turn 3 as well.
But what if you didn't have to spend mana to level up? Consider the following abilities:
"Whenever you cast a spell, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME."
"Whenever a creature you control attacks, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME."
Both of these abilities can find their homes in some more aggressive decks - they encourage playing aggressively, and you don't need to spend mana just to level up your creatures. You can play as many creatures as you'd like without needing to slow down your game, and your creatures will level up for you as you go along.
Now consider the following limited preview card here:
1WW
Creature - Human Elemental [Rare]
Whenever CARDNAME deals damage, you may put a level counter on it.
2/2
As a 2/2 however, it's a bit fragile in combat. As you can see, this creature needs to enter the red zone and survive before gaining experience. You need to build around this effect in order to get everything working properly. Luckily there are alternative means of gaining experience; as the preview card shows here, levelling up the old fashioned way is an option too:
This can be attacking as a 5/5 with flying and lifelink (almost like a Baneslayer Angel) as early as turn 4. However, you will need to spend all your mana as with most other level up creatures, and you'll also need to have it attack and survive on turns 2 and 3. Will there be other ways to get this to level up early? Will there be enough repeatable life gain that's viable? Will there be enough proliferating to help? Find out when the set is released!
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Now it’s time for my preview card. I will just tell you how this card came about, and then you guys tell me whether it’s amazing, horrible, or just right.
So anyway, I think this came about when I was testing the Dormant Gomazoa deck, of all decks… but it’s something that can happen with a lot of other decks too. So I remember starting with a hand of 7 cards, and then on first turn I played an island, and then the 1-mana spell, Amulet of Vigor. On turn 2, I played another island, and then the 2-mana spell, Renegade Doppleganger. On turn 3, I played a third island, and then the star of the deck, the 3-mana spell, Dormant Gomazoa.
Because of what I cast on turn 1, Dormant Gomazoa enters the battlefield untapped, and because of what I cast on turn 2, Dormant Gomazoa was the best spell to play on turn 3, so that Renegade Doppleganger can attack for 5 damage in the air, on turn 3, and subsequently Dormant Gomazoa can attack on turn 4. In other words, my mana curve was really good and everything worked out.
So I thought, how else could you reward someone for having a good mana curve? Well, what does it mean to have a good mana curve? It means that you cast a spell every turn. And how do you encourage someone to cast spells every turn? You give them cards… and that’s how this card was born. It started as a two-mana uncommon, but after tweaking and seeing what slots were available, it ended as a 4-mana common, and I think it might still be pretty good, if used correctly. Here it is:
The “curved” stands for “mana curve”, and the “bauble” stands for “thing”. Anyways, so you cast it, and since you cast it that turn, you will draw a card, so it does replace itself, so it has at least that. And since it replaces itself, there’s a good chance that you will draw another spell, or that your hand was already full of spells, and you will be drawing cards for a good long time.
OOH! I just noticed that it combos with my kickerbound cycle, which I previewed earlier! OOH…. That’s cool. Anyways, let me know what you think!
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Experienced in Different Ways
A creature with level up is often an interesting creature, forcing the player to make decisions. An early creature with level up usually takes a bit of mana to level up, usually making the player unable to cast more spells early on. In some cases, like with Student of Warfare, you get the most out of your mana when you spend WW to level it up on turn 2 and attack with a 3/3 with first strike early on. But what about a creature like Guul Draz Assassin? While you can reach level 2 on that creature on turn 3, it means you'll have to forfeit your plays for turn 2, and probably turn 3 as well.
But what if you didn't have to spend mana to level up? Consider the following abilities:
"Whenever you cast a spell, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME."
"Whenever a creature you control attacks, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME."
Both of these abilities can find their homes in some more aggressive decks - they encourage playing aggressively, and you don't need to spend mana just to level up your creatures. You can play as many creatures as you'd like without needing to slow down your game, and your creatures will level up for you as you go along.
Now consider the following limited preview card here:
1WW
Creature - Human Elemental [Rare]
Whenever CARDNAME deals damage, you may put a level counter on it.
2/2
As a 2/2 however, it's a bit fragile in combat. As you can see, this creature needs to enter the red zone and survive before gaining experience. You need to build around this effect in order to get everything working properly. Luckily there are alternative means of gaining experience; as the preview card shows here, levelling up the old fashioned way is an option too:
This can be attacking as a 5/5 with flying and lifelink (almost like a Baneslayer Angel) as early as turn 4. However, you will need to spend all your mana as with most other level up creatures, and you'll also need to have it attack and survive on turns 2 and 3. Will there be other ways to get this to level up early? Will there be enough repeatable life gain that's viable? Will there be enough proliferating to help? Find out when the set is released!
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Now it’s time for my preview card. I will just tell you how this card came about, and then you guys tell me whether it’s amazing, horrible, or just right.
So anyway, I think this came about when I was testing the Dormant Gomazoa deck, of all decks… but it’s something that can happen with a lot of other decks too. So I remember starting with a hand of 7 cards, and then on first turn I played an island, and then the 1-mana spell, Amulet of Vigor. On turn 2, I played another island, and then the 2-mana spell, Renegade Doppleganger. On turn 3, I played a third island, and then the star of the deck, the 3-mana spell, Dormant Gomazoa.
Because of what I cast on turn 1, Dormant Gomazoa enters the battlefield untapped, and because of what I cast on turn 2, Dormant Gomazoa was the best spell to play on turn 3, so that Renegade Doppleganger can attack for 5 damage in the air, on turn 3, and subsequently Dormant Gomazoa can attack on turn 4. In other words, my mana curve was really good and everything worked out.
So I thought, how else could you reward someone for having a good mana curve? Well, what does it mean to have a good mana curve? It means that you cast a spell every turn. And how do you encourage someone to cast spells every turn? You give them cards… and that’s how this card was born. It started as a two-mana uncommon, but after tweaking and seeing what slots were available, it ended as a 4-mana common, and I think it might still be pretty good, if used correctly. Here it is:
The “curved” stands for “mana curve”, and the “bauble” stands for “thing”. Anyways, so you cast it, and since you cast it that turn, you will draw a card, so it does replace itself, so it has at least that. And since it replaces itself, there’s a good chance that you will draw another spell, or that your hand was already full of spells, and you will be drawing cards for a good long time.
OOH! I just noticed that it combos with my kickerbound cycle, which I previewed earlier! OOH…. That’s cool. Anyways, let me know what you think!