Tuesday, May 31, 2011

CCDD 053111—Mashups 2

Cool Card Design of the Day
5/31/2011 - Today is part two of me trying in vain to steal Chah's glory. Check out part one or the posts (1 & 2) that inspired both.

Day two started with Firewild Borderpost and Ancestral Recall:


This is Chromatic Star as a land. I got here because I wanted something that cost a land drop and fixed your mana like Firewild Borderpost but drew you cards like Ancestral Recall. Well, drawing more than one card isn't something we'll see on new lands terribly soon, but I felt like this was a fair and fun card. Powerful, but expensive since you'll be down a land-drop if you play it early.

Next up was Gus and Blisterstick Shaman.


Games that care about things outside of themselves (like previous games) have so far strictly been the territory of the un-sets. Karn, Liberated doesn't break that rule, but he comes close. Close enough to make me wonder if Vengeful Goblin isn't printable.

Next, we've got Leyline of Vitality and Frost Titan.


I went through several iterations of Leyline of Purity, all inspired by Frost Titan's semi-untargetability: "Noncreature spells cost 1 more to cast;" and "Spells and abilities with targets cost 2/G more to cast." Basically, this green leyline should help green do its thing (which is to make fat dudes and swing) without being impeded by meddlesome opponents.

Our final pair is Remedy and Daggerclaw Imp:


This is the only mashup design that even begins to resemble Chah's. It's not news that everyone brings wildly different perspectives and design sensibilities to the table, but it never ceases to fascinate me how different actors can produce such wildly different outputs from the same inputs. This is the exception, but even still, Chah took the Daggerclaw's stats and put them on a white creature doing white things with a traditionally white ability, while I took its stats and put them on a black creature doing black things with a traditionally white ability.

Oh, I forgot I did this one too. Very similar to Chah's +0/+3 guy but more complicated:


Again, if you've got more takes of your own on these same paired inputs, please do share.

1 comment:

  1. Astrological Location might be too hard to play. It should either tap for 1, or allow you to play another land?

    The Leyline is an interesting effect - if global shroud would be granted to all types of permanents you control, it should be a soft type of shroud, like this one is. However, I think it would be too powerful in a combo deck. Also, it is so swingy to have it in your opening hand because in the early turns, it virtually is troll-shroud for everything.

    Scream-Eater might be more black if it had
    B: Regenerate.
    When this is regenerated, gain life equal to the damage removed from it with regeneration.

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