HMC 4th Printrun Reviews Part IV

 

Prolific Mage

Design 4

Balance 4

Basically just a Thrumming Bird. Proliferate is just a mechanic I love and so I was pre-emptively designing support cards in the hope I one day make something work with it. This was open design space for a nice clean card so I took it. This needs to be a bit more card to get any love in the homemade cube meta presently but with good enough design surrounding proliferate synergy this card might get there. 

Quarry Taskmaster

Design 4

Balance 6

This is the sort of rounded generic design that goes a long way in cube. This is pretty safe, both in terms of tempo and in terms of facing off against removal. It is hard not to get some value out of this. Equally, it is hard to avoid getting utility as well. You can play a card like this anywhere and it will be fine. You can play it with synergy stuff and it will elevate everything. It might sound like I am bigging this up a lot but I am actually not that enamoured by this card. It even does some work as an overlap card that ties some synergies together which is somewhat the holy grail for limited card design. My main issue with this card is how generic it feels. It is just so middle of the road. The design is entirely through the lens "what will make this cube playable" and it shows. There is a sort of inelegance here that you only get when you try and do art and come at it through AI or capitalism. This is that tepid unsatisfactory card that is never bad but also never that good. It is filler but rather than being that good supporting cheap clean filler we find at one and two mana, this is a four mana filler card that just gums up games. This gives loads of minor options which eat into peoples thinking time all the time. It is also good healthy game progression on all the fronts sufficiently that this is generally extending games. It is putting up a fight without being much of a threat. It is refusing to roll over and die while also refusing to put anyone else out of their misery.  Really cards like this should be contained to the three slot where they don't pack quite so much punch and thus don't add quite as much drag to the game. This is a very similar sort of card to Seasoned Pyromancer but at the wrong point on the curve. In isolation there is nothing too wrong with this card, arguably it is helping the format by being a crossover tool, but in practice I need to try and steer clear of making and including cards like this. I overdid modal cards, then I overdid sagas, and now I see I am just hiding that sort of jazz in cards like this.

Ramosian Champion

Design 2

Balance 4

Because rebels went so well when Wizards did it.... I was looking for fun things I could do in white and I have enjoyed trying to fix bad mechanics. Well, let me tell you how hard I failed to fix anything with this little experiment. Easily the fastest selection of cuts I have made to the homemade cube. I drafted them on outing number one and immediately cut them. Normally I at least let other people have a go on busted stuff I plan on cutting if I discover it first but these were so bad and in so many ways. I made rather too many and a lot of them were problematic. This is one of the most reasonable of the rebels. It is one of only a couple I would even consider returning to the cube unchanged. Sadly the rebel mechanic comes as somewhat of a package so the failings of the others are passed onto this. Regardless of how playable this may be, without the appropriate support (neither too weak nor too potent), it cannot receive play. That might well be no bad thing as this is probably just an inherently parasitic and bad mechanic that I should hope to exclude its like from the cube. This particular card is fine because it isn't assured threat or value and is fairly easily answered in tempo efficient ways. It isn't great design. It isn't exciting but at least it isn't directly problematic. Moving on and we shall see some that are...

Ramosian Engineer

Design 3

Balance 4

Another of the better attempts. I like how the powerstone feeds into the ability and how this is clearly one of the weaker cards in isolation but becomes a reasonable support card when you get appropriate pieces. If I somehow manage to fix this little package of recruiting rebel cards then I will certainly look to have one that creates some helpful powerstones and will likely not stray far from this as the design, if at all.

Fighter

Design 2

Balance 2

There needs to be a Savannah Lion within the rebel series and this is it. Not egregious by itself but certainly very dangerous. A reasonable low drop beater that turns into a potent card advantage engine as soon as required. This card kindof does it all just so long as you have playable Rebels to find. As such I need to either tone down the recruitment mechanism entirely or have it be different on different cards. The latter widens the design space but will also tax the players a bit harder and require clear differentiation else there will be loads of little mistakes in game. 

I wanted to mimic cascade as closely as possible as it is a well loved thing to do. The problem is that you know roughly what you are getting rather detracting from the excitement. It is also a little too powerful as it stands. Typically you just work your way up the curve extracting the cheap rebels from your deck and ensuring your most mana efficient. Done like this you are effectively just paying W to draw a card, not to mention adding flash and uncounterable to the thing. The difficulty I am having with working out a fix for the Rebels is that they have to be viewed as a whole. Rather than keeping a card in mind I have to keep a whole load of cards in mind at once, and I am not very good at that! I will try and fix these but they are pretty low priority due to my low expectations, the size of the task, and the high chance that the mechanic is fundamentally flawed to begin with and not worth pursuing!

Ramosian Grappler

Design 1

Balance 2

This one felt wrong in several ways. One I think is just the general unease at the rebels. The other main issue I think is the statline. This just feels wrong as a 1/3. It makes the card more suited to task but that probably isn't too important. The card is mostly supposed to be flavourful rebel filler. Tappers are not the most fun to play against. Especially ones that don't have a mana cost to use. This is the sort of snowball card that can take over a game. Equally it can be one of your weaker hits on the rebel recruitment plan. This should be less robust, or less cost effective. Not to mention having the recruitment mechanic calmed down. It is very possible it just shouldn't be a card at all.

Ramosian Informer

Design 3

Balance 3

A bit too much value here. The fighter was too good because it was pressure into value as and when. This is too good because it is pretty raw value and is reliable on that front. Kill this an you are behind. Don't kill this and you are liable to start falling further behind. I love the flavour on this one so I'll try and keep something resembling this but sadly it will be rather calmer. Perhaps a clue instead of a draw. Perhaps only a single shot recruitment, or otherwise nerfed recruitment.

Ramosian Martyr

Design 1

Balance 1

This was the biggest mistake of the lot. It would likely still be unreasonable even if it couldn't recruit itself. I thought I was just making a cute little take on Selfless Saviour but no, this is far far worse. The main issue is that this is a one drop and the recruiting mechanic makes it very easy to specifically find this if it is in your deck.  That basically means all your active rebels have two and tap to get protection. It is pretty effective protection too being able to get passed colourless effects and become unblockable through creatures of multiple colours. It is typically a game breaking play either countering their critical removal or forcing through a big swing. So many things about this card need to change for it to be close to viable. It is probably easier to start from scratch and I very much doubt I'll try either. This was such an egregious card that no one is anticipating its return in any form. I would describe this as oppressively not fun.

Ramosian Reinforcements

Design 3

Balance 3

In principle I really like how this fits in with the rebels. Something about the card just failed though. Perhaps it is the way the recruit mechanic makes flash seem a lot less valuable? Perhaps it is just an aesthetic thing and I need to do better art and flavour for the card. More likely the failing is having all of the cards trying to be a thing and a rebel recruiter. This is the problem with cards that are so intrinsically linked - it becomes really hard to clearly focus on the issues with any one card and see what they are and their causes.

Ramosian Scouts

Design 4

Balance 3

In principle I like this too but I think that is mostly just being a big fan of relatively vanailla dorks that come with maps. They just seem to play really nicely. I would prefer this simpler and cheaper and without the recruitment mode, or even the scaling option. It is all just messy and overly redundant value as it stands. The only concern I have with all these changes is that they then just start getting in the design space of the other map dorks I have designed. I like cards to occupy as distinct a design space as possible where no redundancy is demanded. Whatever the result, if I do end up reworking the rebels, there will be a map rebel among them.

Ramosian Tactician 

Design 1

Balance 1

A card highlighting my inability to multitask. Simple spelling mistakes all over the shop! While not as bad as the one drop that gives protection this is certainly a shocker of a card in so many ways. Instantly being able to flop out a ward and lord dork is pretty egregious. It can mess with combat and removal and even if it doesn't, it is still a big or lord enabling you to slap real hard with your rebels. The templating is a massive fail too, all rebels including himself get the ward, the others only get the pump... It didn't need to be worded in such an unclear way that is bound to cause confusion and misplays. There is little right about this card.

Ramosian Warleader

Design 2

Balance 3

Not the most oppressive or worst designed of the rebels but none the less a pretty boring card. I was trying to hit the big fighty top end rebel who should be flashy and exciting. This guy is just annoying. He has annoying abilities but if you don't try and fight him he is just a Hill Giant. This fails as a card in its own right in addition to being part of the greater failure that was my attempt at rebels! Lucky guy. I've missed the mark with this guy so much I don't even have the first inkling of how I might even attempt a fix. I do quite like the easthetic on this one at least... Keep the art and name and rework all the gameplay elements is the fix here it would seem. The property equivalent of knocking the whole thing down and rebuilding something different on the plot of land.

Rebirthing Pods

Design 3 (execution bringing the mark down as conceptually I like the design)

Balance 2

Well, I am starting to get a bit better at making fun cards but I do seem to suck at balancing them. That in turn makes them fun cards for only one of the players.... I have managed to since rework this and get it to a far more reasonable place where the power level is acceptable and where the fun isn't too compromised. This is now sorcery speed and is unable to come back from the bin itself. I think the costs are tweaked as well. It is quite a historically black effect that doesn't feel at all out of place or unreasonable in green. We could go into the various reasons this version  as shown is a card with an undesirable play pattern but it doesn't sound like the best use of time on something so obvious and now also so irrelevant!

Reefer

Design 4

Balance 3

Lots of misses in this printrun! A cute fun little card with niche uses at best. Not entirely sure what happened to the text on this image, the card doesn't have text merging with the stats box! Technically this is a blue Savannah Lions with upside which sounds impressive but ultimately isn't. Blue isn't super weenie tempo and whenever it is it tends to be much more flash creature based. It neither has the muscle or the removal to back up small ground beaters. And the upside here is hard to make useful. It is somewhat at odds with the card. Mostly this is a mana and a card to make a Treasure or a Savannah Lions. Very few decks want both of those things and only do quite extreme decks want either half. This is the sort of thing I can see an Aluren combo deck wanting, not anything you make in cube formats! Perhaps one day I'll use this for something cool but for now this will mostly gather dust in the reserves pile.

Regrown

Design 8

Balance 7

Laughable to think about now but when I first played magic in 1995 Regrowth was held to much the same esteem as Demonic Tutor. They were premium tools you played whenever you could. Regrowth held water in cube in the early days too. The fall off since then however has been shocking. The card is unplayable in cube without combo and hardly good when it is there. Put simply, Regrown was an attempt to make Regrowth a cube viable spell. This is somewhere between a Serum Visions or Consider, and a Regrowth. Early on this is still card quality rather than a dead and narrow card. Later on it increasingly powerful card selection. Critically it is not a targetted spell and so cannot be fizzled with a bit of graveyard interaction. Quality of life spells like card selection effects become unplayable fast when they start having demands or risks of their own. I thought this might be a bit over powered but it turned out great. It probably is a bit good for some real formats and should probably only be surveil 1 if it were ever made real. When it comes to my cube however, with its already high consistency and only limited deck space that it wants to give up on cards that mostly just cycle, then this is pretty spot on. It is card quality that has a little more to offer. It has recently spiked a little in use too, being a good graveyard support tool.

Rigged Route

Design 4

Balance 7

I figured I should make some tribal non-creature stuff for the recruitment novelty. This card is fine, all be it a little dull. It has that Seal of Answer problem but it isn't the most oppressive of those by a long way with plenty of counter play options. It sits in the acceptable part of that spectrum at least. Mostly this just lives and dies with the rebels. It is playable by itself but doesn't have too much in the way of bonus synergy that it offers. It is more that it is sufficiently boring and lacking in good play patterns that ensure a card like this isn't making it in without the whole package. 

Seal of Viability

Design 4

Balance 6

Speaking of Seals that don't play well... I am actually yet to try this one out. I feel like it is as close to a balanced Seal of Counterspell as you can get. I have tried a lot of different ones and they were mostly bad, which, in addition to the fundamental notion that "Seal of Answer" cards are pretty bad for enjoyment, really isn't a good place to be. I made this as I felt compelled to "get it right" after so many failed attempts but I am in no rush to play with it. I don't think it will be exotic or exciting. I don't think players will be pleased to see it. It is probably fine, it probably out performs Negate or Mana Leak pretty consistently, but not by a lot. Not enough to edge it to the broken. It is just a little tedious. I don't find it that hard to design countermagic so have never found myself short enough to top up the ratios with this one. I am sure it will get its chance but I can't see myself being excited about that unless I get some cool enchantment synergies working.

Sengir Knight

Design 6

Balance 5

I love an adventure card and those where the adventure feeds into the dork in question are some of my favourite designs. There is certainly a lot I like about this card however there are also some concerns or design inelegancies that limit how high I can rate it and how excited I can be about it. Basically any instant speed X spell that can generate a load of stuff is a concern. By itself it is pretty harmless, it is just the kind of card that winds up limiting your design space. I have since made a load of blood synergy cards in my 5th print run and this dude is now set to jump from being a cute utility filler dork to an absolute support house. He can be  a high tempo play when you discount rate cast him thanks to blood generated elsewhere. Or he can be the wild injection of blood that allows one of your other blood payoff cards to get all abusive, this is the more dangerous aspect of these two now facets but it is a both thing so it is all concerning. All told, the adventure should likely just be a fixed number of blood for a fixed cost. It may even need being made sorcery. This too would help fix any future issues with your various Tolarian Academy and Disciple of the Vault style designs I might create too!

Shockshaper

Design 8

Balance 8

Grim Lavamancer walked an impressively fine line. A true design triumph of a card, one of only a tiny handful of creatures that have lived a long career in magic and have remained playable throughout. Never bad, never broken. I have been chasing that. Lavamancer has done such work that it feels like a red staple. If there are not red dorks that can shoot stuff then it doesn't feel like magic. I have a good few goes so far at the Lavamancer and this is comfortably my favourite. I think I need to word it better, pretty sure there are rules exploits in this but beyond that it functions very nicely, and indeed very like Lavamancer. A little more expensive to offset the greater ease of fuelling. Critically however, easy enough to fuel that it is a viable early tool. Perhaps I should have named him an Advocate in some way as he is very much inspired by that set of cards in Judgement.

Sky Pirate

Design 4

Balance 5

This is better than Swiftspear which probably means it is too good. Turns out committing crimes is exactly what decks that play cards like this are good at. This is robust and a persistent source of evasive damage. It isn't quite broken, there isn't the quality of finishers to capitalize on this kind of one drop beater. Equally it is quite the narrow beater, the Boros builds rarely want it. Gruul isn't touching it. It is really just and Izzet and mono tool. All those factors combine to make this a card I am not thrilled about. The evasive prowess stuff should mostly be contained in blue. The 1/2 prowess + thing one drop is a pretty sweet spot for design but this misses the mark somewhat. Wizards seem to have made the best ones by a good margin thus far and my attempts to replicate fall short.

Small Sticky Head

Design 7

Balance 4

One of those little gizmos that winds up being a great support card in some archetypes. This was made without specific purpose. It felt a bit good if made clean but it also looked unplayable as soon as you raised the mana costs from what they are here. Normally I hate fluffy bells and whistles on cards but the untap penalty somehow seems flavourful here. It rounds off the card nicely and just helps balance it a little better. I have not run this card much in the cube as yet. Partly because I am a little tight on space presently and want to use that space to test more critical cards first, but mostly because this is more of a combo tool than anything else and I have not put much in the way of combo in the cube for this to work with. The high synergy builds might use this well but if that is all that is supporting this it will likely be too narrow a card for cube play. 

Soul Chamber

Design 5

Balance 2

Oops. The search for the balanced Blood Artist is still at large. I felt like I might have cracked it with this one but no, not really. Broadly this felt like a more polar Bastion of Remembrance. Bastion is hard to remove and that makes it one of the best in slot for that kind of deck in other cubes. It is pretty horrific to play against however as it is just this looming clock. This is almost always crewable when you want it to be and all safely unmanned the rest of the time! It is also doubly oppressive being all creatures and not just your own. The crew cost needs increasing else it is in no way a limitation on the card. I am not even sure how much I want a sacrifice synergy for the homemade cube. I was mostly just using actual cubes and archetypes as templates. I have plenty of synergies in black now that I could just drop all the cards exclusively for the Blood Artist style decks. They can be frustrating to play against as well as with. When the cards are hard to get right it is often pointing to a larger problem, such as a dud archetype. I might try a larger dork with a double drain trigger but that is likely where my exploration of this archetype ends.

Soul Vault

Design 8

Balance 7

I think The One Ring is a bit of a shame in that it is partly amazing design. It is then spoiled by being far too pushed for really any format. This was my attempt to steal the good bit of the card and then properly balance it. I feel like I did a pretty good job. There are a lot of card draw tools in the format, black with a lot of those. Most of the black ones come with a life cost and so this is nothing new. I'm not even sure it is the best of the black life for cards cards, but it does seem to be the most fun. Tap draw to draw with no immediate penalty is just so alluring. And when it is three or more cards it feels like such cheats too. You need to win with those extra cards quickly or support the Soul Vault in other ways - typically ways to get it out of play before the tax hits too hard. Unlike many of the card draw tools this needs a helping hand, either lifegain or a way to get it out of play. That or at least archetypal support, say a red deck that is confident it is winning with the influx of cards before the life payment is relevant. You might then think other card draw tools are getting more love, but no. This is just too enticing and thus one of the most played. This is just as fun for you as a One Ring but it is a whole lot more reasonable for everyone else. I don't normally like it when I rip off an existing card so directly but in this case I think mine is a sufficient improvement that I am OK with it. 

HMC 4th Printrun Reviews Part III

 

Juvenile Offender

Design 5

Balance 6

This is a bit more interesting than a lot of one drops designed for beating face. This is narrower than most needing some degree of support to be interesting. The scaling is indeed interesting, this can grow pretty fast and can even become a relevant top deck even in the late game. This can also be a 1/1 embarrassment. I don't love that polarity. It is also a bit of a snowball card, make this turn one and then  answer everything they have with crime and this will do critical damage pretty quickly and start dodging some removal and winning most combats. I like that this makes you consider your design a bit, and I like that it is a little bit more interesting and involved than many other pure combat focused one drops, however I am not sure that offsets the polarity and snowball potential of the card. 

Knowledge Power Conduit

Design 8

Balance 6

This is a really aspirational card. It is huge amounts of fun getting it going but it is hard to not die getting there, and then to put it to good use. This is very middle management sort of affair needing both support and payoff. Normally really no nos in limited settings. The thing is, this is just such an alluring card. Like moths to a flame, this pulls the nerd in. This card is fun, it is one of the most fun cards I have designed and so I'll be damned if it being a bit narrow is getting in the way of my good time! I did probably also cock up the design a bit. Copies are a bit hard to answer, and messy, and so it should probably be a counters on the card mechanism to give a bit more counter play. I am torn though, I like the costing on this and part of me thinks this card needs all the help it can get. I am certainly going to test other versions of this card. Just because something isn't a problem doesn't mean we can't make it better! That is obviously not a luxury wizards can so easily afford, nor is it without mental and financial cost for me to do so, but I think in the case of a card with this much promise it is worth trying to get it closer to right. Especially if I can already point out some potential design issue...

Knuck Fuckle

Design 7

Balance 8

I just had some random effects I wanted to see on cards and so threw a couple of unrelated ones on this dork. This was just a bit of fishing, I wanted to see what would come of a card like this. All told it has worked out pretty well. Played loads but never oppressive or anything. There are plenty of places happy with a card like this and you are typically happy playing it for just one of the abilities. Broadly a design win as it is fun, it makes you want to build with it and play it and it does this without offending opponents or being out of whack on power level. I don't mind if a card is aimless or ambiguous in what it is trying to do if the card is fun and compelling. I thought this was a silly tester card and so named it accordingly, now it seems like it is a real card and so I have renamed it Nick Bottom for a cleaner, more youth friendly cube.

Krushok

Design 6

Balance 6

This is my attempt to fix Overrun. My +2/+0 and trample dork at six mana was one of the best win conditions in the format. It seemed weak compared to both Overrun and Craterhoof and yet it was one of the big name cards. I didn't think it was reasonable to nerf it any further and so I thought I would dabble in scaling it down. This little dork might be cheaper but it gives a window to react in thus keeping this rather calmer. As yet this has not partaken in an alpha-strike. That is probably a good thing but it might also mean this card is either bad or under tuned. Bad seems unlikely, but boring is certainly a possibility. Jury still out on this one. 

Legendspeaker

Design 8

Balance 6

Big fan of this one. Convoke is one of my favourite mechanics and being able to give it to stuff without it is always a tantalizing possibility. My interest is always piqued when you can stick a cost reduction effect on other spells. I spent time trying to break Mycosynth Golem! This isn't too much of a limited card as it fails to stand alone that well nor offer than much raw power. I have no idea what sort of shell you want this in nor how many historic cards you are looking to have before this is exciting. Cards like this take a while to come out of their shell. Once players have worked out how and where it goes I'll be better able to appraise this one. It is probably too narrow for limited play but might one day suddently become really powerful should sufficient support exist in the meta. Indeed, this is the sort of card that could just be a bit broken in the right sort of combo deck. Due to how my I like it I shall very much give this every chance to succeed. Hopefully it will do so without resorting to combo. I might also toss a bit more stats this guys way to make him a bit more generally playable in a limited setting if the support is not forthcoming. I want this guy to succeed.

Lifeforce Weaver

Design 8

Balance 6

A take on Llanowar Elf. Much more relevant in combat and even able to burst output more mana like a Wall of Roots. Worse however in that without ways to evolve this guy he does nothing. He is like the Arbor Elf of the set. Mostly comparable to a more standard elf, sometimes a bit of a wiff, and sometimes a bit better. This guy plays OK, if slightly more polar than other cheap mana dorks. What he does well compared to other ramp is being interesting and different. That goes pretty far in an otherwise fairly samey group of cards. There are also some cool counter synergies on the go with this one which is always fun. 

Litter

Design 4

Balance 4

I had been liking the way in which vehicle which came with their own crew played so I tried to distil that into the purest and cheapest useful form. Mostly I think I failed in that endeavour. This just isn't tempting enough, it is low power, low scaling  and super low excitement. You would only play this in an aggressive deck and even then, only really to make up the numbers, to bolster artifact synergy, or to lower exposure to mass removal. All of these things can be done with more powerful or exciting cards and so they typically are. I expect to be cutting this soon and not looking back. Just not offering enough of an experience to merit the slot. 

Little Fat Goblin

Design 5

Balance 4

I'm not entirely sure what this was about. It just sort of happened and it seemed reasonable, if somewhat aimless, and so I printed it. It hasn't done anything of note yet, but I have just dropped a whole food synergy thing in the fifth print run so it might well start to do something. A relatively low power, and somewhat niche support card.

Loose Moss Walker

Design 3

Balance 4

Another card to come into being just because I want to toy with mechanics and find out how they work. In red this would see play, perhaps in white too. Cheap efficient beaters are the name of their game. In green this is just small and shit. It didn't tell me anything about last strike. If a stompy archetype ever presents itself cards like this will go in it but that is pretty unlikely. Stompy rarely performs in a constructed setting for one. Secondly green doesn't need a different thing to do, especially when it will do it less well and less interestingly than other colours already doing it. Colour shifting this to one of those colours is probably a little overly dangerous and so I'll sac this off and learn about last strike in other ways. 

Lord Baron Sengir IV

Design 3

Balance 2

I shit the bed here. This is basically indestructible, and you aint racing it either. You need to be a supremely long way ahead, able to win around this, or have specific answers to it else you were just done for. I have revised this down to 3/3 base stats and a need to sac 3 Blood to get the perks. I want a big flashy Blood payoff vampire legend and was happy with the concept of this, just not the execution. Hopefully I won't uncover other design flaws once the balance issues are addressed. 

Merchant Ship

Design 4

Balance 6

Top down design mostly aimed at upcycling this art and trying to create a flavour that was also playable. It did get play and was interesting and well balanced. Despite that the card feels off. It is blue ramp and life gain. It is a human boat? A skulky boat? It doesn't quite feel like a magic card. Off in just a few too many ways and thus ultimately a dead end design and an early retirement. 

Merfolk Trade

Design 6

Balance 5

I had a lot of wiggle room to toy with tutor effects as they are far weaker in limited than any other setting, especially ones without combo decks. Demonic Tutor gets almost no love in my unpowered cube nor has it done for quite a long time despite it being a pretty premium card in the powered cube. I like tutors in principle for the consistency they can offer. I had designed a cycle of Vampiric Tutor style cards that found a basic land or any card of that colour. I only printed the black to test as I figured they would not be too popular. The card disadvantage never felt worth the utility. Next test, to see if that same template works when served up in Demonic Tutor form. This is a much more significant tempo hit but saves you the card. Overall this is better suited to most limited environments, and mine being relatively slow is not going to punish you too hard for using this. Even so, it is not a popular card despite pretty substantial power level. While this isn't getting too much love yet I think as the format matures and either more synergies are added, or simply uncovered, this will appeal ever more. Also, if I ever add in actual combo cards and decks then there is a good chance this moves right to a top tier spell. 

Mill Wheel

Design 3

Balance 2

Preemptive design. I felt like I needed a cheap generic mill effect. No specific reason. This is a bit limp to be a threat or a support card. It also kindof has to be too bad as a threat such as this is not the kind of game play we are encouraging. I haven't even put this in the cube, there is no point, it would just be taking up space. I just wanted to have it ready to go when for whatever reason a cheap little mill rock was needed. This card just feels like it should exist. A Plutonic magic card of sorts like Giant Growth, Counterspell, Wrath of God, Stone Rain, Rampant Growth, etc.

Monastery Instructor

Design 8

Balance 7

I feel like this has been a hit. It is quite flashy and exciting with some real nice upside. It is also a nice scaling synergy card with a pretty reasonable floor. Throw on top of that some interesting game interactions and mechanical tensions and you have a pretty involved one drop for not much mana, text, or noise. This has yet to own a game all by itself but it has seen plenty of play, and even tossed out the odd counter here and there!

Mounted Ballista

Design 3

Balance 4

The hardest design challenge might be to make Gather the Towns folk fun... This certainly didn't hit the mark. This is a little bit too top down. It is also way too loaded in the EtB effect resulting in a card with a lot of text hanging around further clogging up the game without doing much of much. This fails more on feel than anything else. You make this you wanna shoot shit in the face, not do nothing with some lame 1/1s. For this flavour to work as a card it needs a whole mechanical reworking to feel like a big shooty weapon. 

Mr Tickle

Design 3

Balance 7

Occasionally your creative endeavours are just a good release valve for things like naughtiness or silliness. That is happening here. Not entirely sure I realized it at the time either. This is flavourful but it isn't the right flavour for my tribute to magic. This is all a bit adult and seedy. I want to be able to play with anyone and this isn't a card for that. I'll be cutting this and moving on. I do like the ability to negate ward effects but I am sure I can find better vessels for that. This card works in a vacuum but put it with the rest of the cube and it stands out in a way that makes me want to cut it.

Mushroom Soldier

Design 5

Balance 6

 

A silly tribute to Infected Mushroom and a vessel to explore the mechanic. The problem with infect is that it was very linear, parasitic, and polar. Especially in draft formats. The intent here was to solve those issues. While I think I have done that here in a cute way I did it on a boring and unrequired card. No green mage wants an efficient little beater. Scale this up a bit in size or add a stompy archetype to green and this is interesting. Equally you could probably play this in an infect deck if there were such a thing within my homemade meta. I like the way you could potentially set this up to one shot a player with the right buffs or use it as a wither dork in combat to help tackle a problem dork. I really like that the opponent can use it to fog normal damage they might take to the face. In comic fail fashion I feel as if I did one of the best implementations of a bad mechanic, and then managed to dump that on a near unplayable card! I may try and reuse this solution later down the line, and if I do I'll make sure to put it on a playable creature!

Paladin

Design 4

Balance 7

Painfully boring. I have been trying to make an interesting and relevant iteration of a Samite Healer but have thus far failed. This was an attempt to see if scaling the card up a bit, and thus giving it a bit of threat, was of any help. As yet this has not tempted anyone into playing it. I think it is more a case of dodging the draft rather than being ineligible so to speak. I think if this were presented at a time white weenie was being played it would often make the cut, that just doesn't seem to have happened yet. Largely because white is real dull and consequently not played as often as it otherwise might. This bear with bells is doing nothing to help entice you to play white sadly. It might ultimately be a playable Samite Healer but I am pretty sure the quest to find a fun or interesting one is still very much underway. 

Penumbra Unicorn

Design 7

Balance 7

I wouldn't have done this but I stumbled upon the art and it compelled me. This is a very suitable card. The power and flavour are on point for a gold card and I like the way it marries up with the art. While this is broadly a win as a magic card it is rather less so when it comes to cube play. This isn't super fun to play with or against being rather polar, a kind of brutal Kitchen Finks against aggro decks and mostly just a low impact bear against the bigger lists. It jusut does its thing and that is either great or rather minor. Further to that the card just isn't what I want from my gold. This is curve filler and hedging, or perhaps lifegain support. It is not a flashy signal card or thing to splash. This is not the sort of gold card worth using up valuable cube space on. So while it is a fine placeholder card I will endeavour to make something better. 

Piaranya

Design 3

Balance 2

This is a top down card design gifted to us via another Andrea Mengucci mispronunciation. I wanted to try and replicate the effect of a shoal and I am pretty happy with the flavour of the card. Sadly it fails on the mechanical side repeatedly. Firstly this is too good, you can easily gum up the board with it cheaply and take control of the game with little risk or cost. I have doubled the offspring cost, such was the extent of the overpowering! It is certainly a much more reasonable card with the changes as far as power level goes. Sadly it won't fix the other issues. The play pattern is never going to be great as first strike isn't a great mechanic. The nature of the card ensures you are using it to play defence and first strike blockers are tedious. There is a real Ophiomancer vibe to this card. And that right there is the final problem. Blue shouldn't have effective low risk board control dorks like this. We are at a bit of an impasse as the flavour of the card is on point for the colour and the mechanics are on point for the flavour but the mechanics and the colour do not mesh. The only real fix for such things is to down power it sufficiently that it isn't problematic. That might mean going to something as wild as offspring 3! At that point the card probably just doesn't see play, and that might be for the best. I guess it won't be too long to wait now for Universes Beyond - Waterworld edition after which I can just colourshift this out of blue to make it more reasonable!

Power Lich 

Design 7

Balance 2

Love the design concept on this one but I did rather overshoot with the power level. This isn't reasonable at three mana and it remains pretty unreasonable at four 4 mana as well! It is just a bit too sticky for a card that offers both ongoing value and some reasonable board control. I probably need to up the life cost to two per counter removed. Really put some pressure on those card draws and deaths.

HMC 4th Printrun Reviews Part II

 

Explosive Dissent

Design 8

Balance 8

Plot is a great mechanic and so I was keen to dump it on a bunch of things and explore it a bit more fully. Here we have a kind of quirky back to front Seal of Fire type card. Hold it in hand and retain instant speed and hidden information trickery. Or pay the plot cost and deploy this now for potential mana efficiency and big blow out turns. This is a very simple card that has a huge amount of play to it. I felt all clever finding ways to make plot interesting without even altering the cost. It feels on point flavour wise too. There is little that pleases me more than a simple core spell with a single line of text that is made dynamic an interesting by the addition of a single keyword mechanic. This looks clean and simple, and to any who have played with plot it is, yet it masks quite a deep and involved card. A card like this is a real skill tester but it does so without being inaccessible to newer and weaker players.

Bat Wrangler

Design 3

Balance 4

There needs to be enough stuff for synergies to work and so I cobbled together a couple of extra security Blood cards. A kind of extra padding to help it pan out. Most of the Blood cards were self contained in that if they used Blood in some way they tended to also provide some. Not the case here, this is pure payoff without any support. It is not the worst should you not have Blood at the time but you are never playing this if you don't have decent Blood generation effects. This card has very much lived upto being a boring filler card in that it has done very little of note and seen little play. A pure payoff card wants to be more powerful or at least flashier. A card this dull should be pure support, or self supporting. Nothing too awfully wrong here but we can and should do better! I think I will try an embellish this card a little to make it more interesting and self contained while also hopefully taking a little off the top end. There are also now a few too many ways you can drop this down and make an army of bats out of nowhere to steal the game. I need to put a safety value on the potential flow of Bats given the ease with which one can now accrue Blood. A not insignificant list of necessary changes to be made on this one!

Fishwhispers 

Design 4

Balance 3

The best thing about this card is the name. As far as play goes this is a bit of a flop. Shame as this is two great things combined - drawing cards and convoke (I like most cost reduction mechanics but most are also a bit broken, convoke is the fairest of them and thus probably the best). I forgot a core tenant of card draw - you want it reliable and unconditional. As soon as it gets awkward it just doesn't feel worth it. Yes, this is fairly well costed but convoke is also after something blue isn't great at. As a white card this would be pretty delightful. It could probably even be a white sorcery and it would get action. In blue where dorks are harder to have, card draw is abundant, and tempo loss can be fatal, Fishwhispers just isn't getting it done. A shame but this one probably has to go. It might still be good in a blue weenie constructed deck but as yet that is a bit too corner for limited play. I have heard directors of films talking about how they often have to cut their favourite scenes from films and I didn't really appreciate it fully. This card, my love of it and my knowing that it isn't right for the format, helps me understand the plight of the director and their pain in cutting treasured scenes.

Flaming Rain

Design 4

Balance 3

Oddly this arose out of me wanting more mass artifact removal options in the format. Obviously those kinds of thing want to be somewhat modal in cube but I went a bit far here. This card is simply too versatile and too powerful. It is less of a Meltdown and more of a Fireball / Starstorm combo card. Finishing blow or Wrath is a lot. And then I didn't even cost it properly. Absolutely it should be some mana to escalate, and it probably should really be XRR to play in the first place. Mostly I think we need to find another X mode and either combine or remove one of the creature/player damage modes. I am being a little speculative here as this is more towards the midrange and control end of the spectrum and as such has seen a little less play than some of the other new cards. Although the card seems over-tuned, the jury is still out for now. I don't hate the card in principle, indeed I quite like the way I snuck a Meltdown into the format, it just needs to be more sensible and appropriate in power level. Such versatility and such scaling result in a card with real game ending potential on too many fronts for too little cost...

Flooded Forrest

Design 6

Balance 6

Some more toying around with lands that can tap for extra. I made a Golgari one to start with that always tapped for two but entered tapped and exerted, a bit more like the mono red one. It was a touch too good but only a touch and only in some ways. To my great surprise it wasn't simply broken, it was just a little clunky and in need of some tidying up. I had also committed the sin of calling it a forest but not giving it that type. So I remade it but wanted to make it less of an anomaly so added this flavourful Simic clone of the land. Being tutorable is dangerous, and probably a design mistake but otherwise these are playing very reasonably. They allow for some burst mana but offer no actual mana advantage over a normal land. They also offer some quirky scaling with land untap effects which I am a fan of. All a bit close to the mark when it comes to dangerous but so far all is well. As is so often the case with lands, there isn't much room between broken and marginal where they can earn cube slots. At least these can argue themselves a case by virtue of being fixing. Ultimately I suspect they will get cut, if not for space reasons, then for those of asymmetry. I am not looking to do a cycle of these. I like them but I don't rate them enough to consider them good cube cards. Cool magic cards but not something that enhances a cube meta enough (while also potentially adding risk). So, homemade constructed the place this might find its forever home! Would that such things ever become an actual thing.

Foxfire

Design 6

Balance 6

A product of me liking and wanting to explore the gift mechanic. This is a generic card quality come mill tool in green made slightly interesting with the gift. There wasn't loads of demand on cards like this, mill support or card quality, however the addition of a bunch of graveyard matters cards in the 5th printrun has given this a boost. Comically that in turn has weakened the gift mode yet further. There is some interesting tensions at play here. Your 2nd card is a selected one so it should be of higher quality than the random one you give away, however it will be rather worse than the first card you get from this as standard and thus overall you are pulling less far ahead. If you want to fill up the bin however giving up that gift results in one fewer cards in the bin as well! I could probably make this instant and it would be fine. It is not something green can leverage really. I have a fair number of two drop self mill card quality effects kicking around in the cube, so far it has not seemed like too much but it is something I'll be keeping an eye on.

Giant Saltdune Slug

Design 3

Balance 5

Mechanically this feels like a real card but I don't much like it. It plays OK and is somewhat on point but that doesn't do anything for my affections towards it. It was designed at a time I wanted more Disenchant options and it fulfils that brief. There is just something a bit off about the card. High toughness deathtouch creatures are a little tedious in general so I will be happy to cull this as soon as required. It is sufficiently unappealing that I have no desire to try and fix whatever is wrong with this one.

Grave Robbing

Design 8

Balance 6

Malevolent Rumble is the inspiration for this one. I am a huge fan of how this card came out, it feels like Rumble is based on this card the flavour is so on point! This is a lovely little tool and sees a bunch of play. It feels good to cast and doesn't feel oppressive when an opponent casts it. I expect it to be getting a lot better with more graveyard matters cards coming to the format. Hopefully not too much so as I don't want to have to cull or nerf it! A high concentration of one mana cycling dorks makes this quite reliable and versatile even in the more creature light decks. Cycle some dork turn one and fire this off safely turn two knowing at worst you are getting the cycler back is a great line that sets you up for the next couple of turns as well as one reasonably can. This is good enough to see play in most decks as a bit of generic support, while also being one of your most desirable support options when doing the graveyard archetype.

Gravecaster Mage

Design 8

Balance 8

I wonder what inspired this one? As is often the case when I riff on those flagship magic cards, you wind up with a decent card. This is good in all the same sorts of ways Snapcaster Mage is good, but is pleasantly different in a bunch of ways that gets the brain to sink its teeth in. Mostly this is worse than Snappy as cheap spells are impactful and cheap dorks, especially when we are looking at one attack and one EtB trigger only, are not. Gravecaster Mage is a house late game when you can recur something like a Titan and get a really relevant swing and a bunch of bonus high value triggers. It is however hard to do anything too scary for less than five total mana with this guy. Regardless, this is an interesting, flexible, and scalable card with some cool synergies on the go. The power level is on point too. One of the coolest things about this one is that unearth is not a cast and so you can use mana from Powerstone tokens on it, of which I have a fair few knocking about in the format!

Greenhouses

Design 6

Balance 8

This is not a very exciting card but it fulfils the brief I had in mind for it. I have been culling some of the less appropriate acceleration and needed to have replacements. This is uncomplicated, reasonably appropriate and flavourful, and all while staying firmly between the limits of playable and broken. It is basically a Utopia Sprawl that is less narrow but pays for that a little with lower tempo. I don't love the logistics of having things on my land but I can handle it. It does at least make the untap land effects a lot more interesting! This will certainly be something I look to ultimately replace with a more exciting iteration with comparable mechanical suitability but it is a very real possibility no such thing comes to pass.

Hatchery

Design 7

Balance 9

More green ramp. Essentially this is Rampant Growth or a kind of Natural Connection / Harrow affair. Either pay 3 at instant speed, or 2 at sorcery. As the land comes in untapped the plot delay doesn't stop this from ramping you to 4 in the same way a Rampant Growth would. The trick here is simply getting a lot more card out of the card with the very simple addition of the plot. It isn't overly cluttered and it certainly isn't over powered. It just performs the support role of two different sorts of cards. It lets you have a narrower effect represented without it consuming valuable cube slots. Basically only blue decks wanting to hold up interaction really care about instant speed ramp but they are willing to pay a little more for that privilege. This card services those players very nicely. Much as I am a fan of what this card does and the elegant way it does it I lay most of the credit at the feet of plot which is just a fantastic mechanism. You do not want all the cards in a cube to be sexy flashy ones. What you do want is for the ones that are not flashy to be clean and elegant and efficient like this hard working little card. 

Hunter's Mark

Design 3

Balance 2

In a vague sort of irony this is quite the miss. I wish I could talk about why but I can't even do that as I have fully failed to temp anyone into playing this card. I thought I was designing an interesting and flavour appropriate green removal tool. Seemingly this is too weak, or too conditional, or both. I might have gotten away with it had I made a more sensible recover cost. Perhaps it is a life payment or some collect evidence style thing so you can recover even when tapped out. Perhaps it shouldn't even be recover and should be retrace or escape instead. I'm not sure if I am going to bother trying to rework this given how far it missed the mark and consequently how little I have to go on directing me as to improvements. 

Hurloon Anthem

Design 5

Balance 7

This card has a couple of issues with it despite being clean and simple and even pretty on point for power. The first is pretty simple and that is that the card is not very easily interacted with. That can make it very oppressive to play against. When you know you have little to no answers for it and you have to play the rest of the game fighting at a huge disadvantage. It is not a terminal issue but for me to overlook it the card would have to be an absolute banger and it isn't that. I am going to try and reduce the cost of the card to three and give it fading. Probably that doesn't help too much with the design issues and just reduces the playability but it is certainly worth experimenting. The other subtle issue faced by this card is that it is a super clean card. Any card that is just one thing and the cheapest you can reasonably make that thing will win up going "out of tune" with the format far quicker than other cards. While I presently think this is on point for power level it wouldn't take too much in the way of things like flip Chandra and Goblin Sharpshooter in the format to make this a problem. It is the kind of card that limits design space without offering enough fun in return for doing so. Not for those playing against it at least! 

Hurloon Bloodkeeper

Design 7

Balance 7

I love this art and wanted to give it the mechanical backing to make it playable. When upcycling cards as directly as this I find it best to keep as much intact as possible, especially when it was a pretty vanilla dork. I vaguely modelled it on Seasoned Pyromancer. They do a lot of the same sorts of things and fulfil the same sorts of role, and that is a versatile and safe mid mana play. It would likely benefit from being less red mana intense but I backed myself into a bit of a corner there. At least it means the card can get away with being a little more on the powerful side of things. As a stand alone this is good. With a means to sac artifacts it is a bit better, and with the fairly heavy blood synergy  have added to Rakdos in the recent 5th print run I suspect it will be down right spicy! A power level more worthy of the art.

Inn

Design 7

Balance 8

Although it doesn't look like it this card is virtually identical to any of the many, typically four mana enchantments in red that provide value in the same guise. This has some subtle perks over most in that you can break up the cost and you can often get value out of it the turn you play it when you use it off curve. Artifacts are a bit easier to answer than enchantments but this is none the less a very strong card advantage engine for any proactive deck. Really the only time this isn't decent is when you are playing counter magic and/or other highly situational reactive stuff - which typically isn't great! Decent flavourful and on point value engine for red. The only real gripe I have with this is that it feels a bit messy when it is on a land. I think that is just me though. Stuff on lands is just a bit messy and confusing.

Into the Light

Design 1

Balance 2

This is problematic. It is basically a Seal of Wrath, and an unremovable one at that. There are several reasons this card is problematic. Firstly it isn't fun. The opponent sees it and it makes the game quite stale and depressing. Secondly it can lead to some wild swings that are just a bit unreasonable. You can clear the board, deploy something of your own and have some counter magic still up with ease using cards like this which isn't fun and is over powered. There are two ways a card like this could be made acceptable. One is just rifling up the costs on the card, likely by around three total mana... a bit of a testament to how wrong I got this one. Certainly a 3 mana hike having both modes at 6 mana would make the card a little under powered, or at least I hope it would, but that is the right way to do things on cards with poor play patterns. The other option for a fix would be to make it quite a situational removal effect, such as all tapped creatures. That would give a bit more interesting counter play. You might even be able to lop a bit of mana of a cost with that power lowering change. I am not even sure if I want to try either such is the extent of this cards failing! Plot is a great mechanic but that doesn't stop you from being able to totally cock it up and use it to ruin cards. Most of my plot cards have been good. This has not.  

Jackal

Design 4

Balance 7

This card is a very simple attempt to speed up games. Stuff was a all a bit slow. To speed up games you need better threats. There are lots of ways threats can be better but this is a pretty pure and obvious way. More power. Jackal Pup was the first successful red Savannah Lions card, it was wizards pushing out the boat to advance threats. It felt fitting to copy their "drawback" for the grown up Jackal. This being such a pure way to push things, both at one end of the curve and in being a power boost on a card that was just about high power/low cost in the first place. This is a 50% buff on good cheap direct card. This is Shock to Lightning Bolt difference. Just being a pretty vanilla dork with low toughness and low late game relevance does render this card incredibly safe. The only time it ever gets too problematic is when the opponents answers are all easily burned out the way dorks and you made this early. If you get three hits in with this, ideally deploying something else cheap and aggressive then you are probably winning that one! So yes, this card is playable and reasonably well balanced. The aggressive decks want it and the others don't so it is a bit boring and a bit narrow. It also doesn't do what you want in the best way possible, even if it is still doing what you want! This is speeding up the average game by providing a few very short games where this got out of hand. The addition of this card is a bit polar. It stretches out the arms of the bell curve rather than flattening down the middle. Regardless, this card is ripe for the cutting even if it is doing fine enough work. Where it might not be the perfect card mechanically it is an absolute peach aesthetically which will give it some extra staying power in the cube.