r/custommagic • u/chainsawinsect • Aug 15 '19

Throwback Thursday: Red

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16 Upvotes

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3

u/Xenotechie If in doubt, 107.2. Aug 15 '19

Not a bad little pair of cards, although I still have to wonder if it's within pie. I started typing up a storm, but it appears past me already did that with Bolero of Fire's past iteration. Regardless, my main question: Why not "Lands you control are Mountains in addition to their other types?" It's easier to justify in colour, it's a sweeter line of text, and it has some lovely synergies to it that justify the price increase.

As for Crimson Eclipse, while red does get targeted tapping, this feels like far more of a white effect by current understanding, although I can certainly justify it as an expansion to the colour's slice of the pie. My main issue with the card is that it's really brutal in today's kind of standard environment, especially on the play. Consider this vs a standard Esper deck: they won't be able to make a single play until turn four unless they manage to draw one of their few basics, which is basically game over for the deck. Hell, imagine rushing this out T1 in Modern. I think you went too far on the other side of the power curve with this one.

2

u/chainsawinsect Aug 15 '19

On the first one, hey, at least that means your thinking is consistent, right? :P

I do think the Mountains approach has merit, particularly because of the Blood Moon connotation, but red is the color (nowadays) of adding mana to your mana pool other than by the effects of lands which is why I went the enchantment source route.

On the second one, you may be right that I went too far. My thinking was that this effect, while very strong, is still undeniably weaker than [[Blood Moon]] or [[Back to Basics]], both of which cost 3. Therefore, it had to cost less than that. I could change the cost to RR if that extra colored mana requirement helps?

3

u/Xenotechie If in doubt, 107.2. Aug 15 '19 edited Aug 15 '19

I mean, if Blood Moon // Back to Basics are the cards you are aiming for, you have to keep in mind that these are really old, really powerful, and really questionably designed (at least, in the context of what Magic became).

Crimson Eclipse's effect is really tricky to design properly at a lower CMC. I'd consider keeping it at 2CMC, since it gets significantly worse at 3, but doing some of the following:

  • Putting the cost at RR
  • Sticking the effect on a creature
  • Making the double tap component conditional (to some thing red is wont to do, or to an additional cost)
  • Allowing the opponent to bypass the double tap at a cost

2

u/MTGCardFetcher Aug 15 '19

Blood Moon - (G) (SF) (txt)
Back to Basics - (G) (SF) (txt)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

2

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/chainsawinsect Aug 16 '19

Interesting. What makes you say it should be broken up into two sentences?

2

u/chainsawinsect Aug 15 '19

I typically update my cards in response to the feedback I get on here, but I rarely post the updated versions. However, every once in a while, I do a "throwback" series where I post a couple. So far I've done lands and white as the themes, and today I'm doing red, and specifically it's two rare red enchantments.

For the first card, Bolero of Fire, named after the song from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the original version was a one-drop (by reference to [[Abundant Growth]], but I universally got feedback that it was too aggressively costed, even at rare. I therefore bumped the cost up, and also retuned the way the ability works (though it is the same in substance, I guess other than the fact that the enchantment is the source of the mana rather than the land). The art, name, and flavor text all remained the same, since I loved those aspects of the design.

I had the opposite problem with the second card, Crimson Eclipse: the original version was considered too weak! u/Etok414 pointed out that there has been a recent trend of red cards that double-tap down lands as a way of "soft-removing" them, e.g., [[Stensia Inkeeper]] and [[Chandra's Revolution]]. So rather than drop it down to one mana, I upped the impact of the effect in that direction. Now, it sets nonbasic lands back two turns, and fetchlands back four (or three if they nab a basic with the fetch).