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u/chainsawinsect Feb 04 '19
I'm surprised we haven't seen land creatures with "costs" like this (a la actual lands such as [[Rupture Spire]]), and I'm more surprised still that this name hasn't appeared on a real card yet.
This is, essentially, a [[Hill Giant]] that taps for red and consumes your land drop for the turn. I intentionally costed it to be arguably a bit weak because [[Dryad Arbor]] looked weak to me at first and that card has become a veritable force, so I wanted to play it safe. Curious what y'all think of the concept, though.
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u/talen_lee Feb 04 '19
You haven't seen them because they create edge cases for other designs and get weird in even more edge cases of actual play. It's like why we've never seen iteration on [[Panglacial Wurm]], they do things under the hood Wizards aren't wild about.
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u/MTGCardFetcher Feb 04 '19
Panglacial Wurm - (G) (SF) (txt)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call1
u/chainsawinsect Feb 04 '19
That's fair, but can you think of any such edge cases that would apply to this card? Unlike Dryad Arbor it isn't a no mana play for stuff like [[Green Sun's Zenith]] and it doesn't masquerade as a basic land to trick the eye.
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u/MTGCardFetcher Feb 04 '19
Green Sun's Zenith - (G) (SF) (txt)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call1
u/MTGCardFetcher Feb 04 '19
Rupture Spire - (G) (SF) (txt)
Hill Giant - (G) (SF) (txt)
Dryad Arbor - (G) (SF) (txt)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call
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u/RTH0RN Feb 04 '19
With [[Blood Sun]] out, this becomes OP.
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u/chainsawinsect Feb 04 '19
That's one I didn't think of, I'll admit. But if you pay 2R for Blood Sun and use your land drop to play this guy, he's still not hitting the board until turn 4 (maybe turn 3 if you ramp). That's a two card combo that costs 2R and a land drop to get him out... seems pretty similar to just playing him the usual way.
I am ok with that interaction, personally.
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u/GodWithAShotgun Feb 04 '19
It's also worth noting that most ways of preventing the trigger from happening will also turn off fetchlands, which was the primary reason i was concerned.
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u/RTH0RN Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19
It's just the right amount of jank for me to want to brew that on a one way trip to value town.
But if you consider using 3 [[Simian Spirit Guides]] on T1, dropping [[Blood Sun]]], and then this guy? Wow. Talk about broken. /s
EDIT: I didn't think about it, but this would also technically be prevented with a [[Torpor Orb]] ability, which actually might be problematic.
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u/chainsawinsect Feb 04 '19
lol, thanks!
Spirit Guide shenanigans notwithstanding, even if you go full speed and turn 1 Mana Dork, turn 2 Torpor Orb... the payoff from that combo is essentially a 3/3 vanilla on turn 2 (a.k.a. [[Kalonian Tusker]]). I think it's a strong little combo but I don't think it's game-breaking.
Plus, note that all of your opponent's removal spells get [[Sinkhole]] stapled to 'em since he does take your land slot.
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u/RTH0RN Feb 04 '19
Definitely strong. Probably not game-breaking. Thanks for submitting your cool design :)
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u/Brute_zee : Target card becomes Historic playable. Feb 04 '19
This could be fun in a RWx aggro deck alongside [[Tocatli Honor Guard]].
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u/MTGCardFetcher Feb 04 '19
Tocatli Honor Guard - (G) (SF) (txt)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call1
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u/galaspark Feb 04 '19
This could just be a sorcery that makes target Mountain you control a 3/3
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u/chainsawinsect Feb 04 '19
It could. And any creature could in theory be a sorcery that makes a creature token that matches that creature (cf. [[Call of the Conclave]] vs. [[Watchwolf]]).
But there are unique interactions that come from it being a land: it turns your late-game [[Farseek]] top decks into more than just dead draws, it survives an [[Hour of Revelation]], it lets red have access to a creature that taps for mana without breaking the color pie, etc. And that's the design space I was hoping to play around with.
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u/i_shit_my_spacepants Feb 04 '19
Not really - such a thing would be a spell (and thus counterable and targetable like any other spell) and the land it hit wouldn't have summoning sickness. It also wouldn't give you an additional land and wouldn't use up your land drop for the turn. It would need to have some pretty complex text to achieve the actual same effect.
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u/galaspark Feb 04 '19
Well it is different technically but it would be simpler overall to just have it be a sorcery.
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u/monstersabo Feb 04 '19
Dryad Arbor makes me skittish and I feel similarly uncomfortable here. I don't think I know enough to articulate what problems this causes, but I applaud your intent.
Alternatively, I think of [[awaken the ancient]] and I like the idea of "waking up" a mountain. Consider a red mana source that enters tapped and has an activated ability to permanently become a creature. I suppose it would be like the Zendikars Awaken mechanic but without a separate spell.
How would you complete the cycle? An island that's also a turtle has been done, maybe a cloud or elemental? White would be ... A human? Man, that one is tough. Swamp has plenty of options, ooze or fungus could work.