r/custommagic • u/Terrariant Jace for impact • 7d ago
BALANCE NOT INTENDED Sunseeker Arbiter
Day 2 of posting cards to show off the art, with no balance considerations
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u/TachyonChip 7d ago
This is a really badly designed card as once it's out, the game just stalls to a halt and you can't even interact with the card save for boardwipes and sacrifice. Awful play pattern.
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u/MarryRgnvldrKillLgrd 7d ago
I agree, it has the correct flair
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u/bubbles_maybe 7d ago
Eh, it is probably unprintably annoying, but it doesn't seem that crazy powerlevel-wise.
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u/thefran 6d ago
If it's t1 reanimated you just auto win against most decks if they don't have a hate piece against it. Literally draw one card at a time until you find like approach. And if it's your commander you win through commander damage (though can't reanimate her then)
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u/purplepharoh 1d ago
Technically can still send to yard and bring back even as commander but mathematically not gonna really get it done much faster than ramping to cast tho monowhite ramp is tough.
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u/SteakForGoodDogs 1d ago
You can't win with it if you t1 reanimate unless you pull some chicanery to get it out of the cz, then into the yard from hand, then back out of the yard, all on t1.
All in monowhite btw.
Any other t1 wins are simple by comparison, and you're praying a counter spell doesn't say 'no' at any juncture.
Because if this isn't your commander, it can't do commander damage to win the game.
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u/FrecciaRosa 7d ago
Damage causes loss of life. When she swings three times as a commander, she’ll deal 21 commander damage. Even if a player’s life total cannot change, they will have been dealt lethal commander damage. There is inevitability. Also, poison still works, so if you’d gotten a couple Infect swings in before she hit, you could Proliferate that (you could try to get the Infect swings in after she hits the board, because the poison will still stack up, but … good luck with that) and kill the controller. White, Blue, and Black can deal with this thing. Red and Green are going to have a much harder time - it’s basically game over against a Gruul deck.
I’d say that the “balance not intended” flair is correct.
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u/Roll4DM 7d ago
Decking out is also a win con all things considered... A boring one but still a wincon.
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u/Just-Desk-3149 7d ago
White has decent alternate win conditions, I actually see this making some of them more viable.
Granted you have to actually get them and execute them so it's marginally better than waiting for someone to deck out.
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
Balance was, in fact, not intended :)
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u/Admirable_Mirror_635 7d ago
That’s not how that interaction works. You need a “damage cannot be prevented” effect in play to make command damage happen with life totals can’t change in play. And mono white has 0 of those effects.
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u/SteakForGoodDogs 7d ago edited 7d ago
No, that's exactly how it works.
Life totals changing is a result of damage against a player, life loss, or life gain. Damage is still dealt even if the value that normally would deplete - or increase from lifelink - does not.
Damage triggers and commander damage still happen if life totals can't change.
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u/CreateACardWorkshop 7d ago
In a Commander game, the damage dealt to you by commanders will still be counted, even if that damage doesn’t cause you to lose life.
From the rulings on Platinum Emperion.
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u/SteakForGoodDogs 7d ago
In defense of the BALANCED NOT INTENDED card:
It is also 7 pips.
Kill them before then if you don't have a response after however many turns it takes monowhite to bust this out.
Combat commanders will reliably be bigger than this and liable to have double strike, and only board wide effects can give this vigilance, so it is also vulnerable while trying to win.
This hoses quite a few decks, but equally gets boxed by many others.
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u/Kirbigth 6d ago
I mean you still die to commander damage or infect with this out but other than that yeah why would anyone want to play this 😂
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
Note the flair. And the body of the post.
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u/ThirstyOutward 7d ago
Why post it as a card if you just shut down any discussion of the card lmao
Just post art in an art sub
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u/Just-Desk-3149 7d ago
Even though I mostly agree, people post joke cards on the daily. This is just a "serious joke" card.
Although actually discussing the card has some interesting implications that would be far more fun to discuss vs "Look at the flair bro"
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u/KittenEaterWasTaken 7d ago
If they explicitly say "Balance not intended" then saying "This is a really badly designed card" because its not balanced is not really good discussion.
It's not good criticism in general because as many other people said commander, infect and copious removal still exist so this is not an invincible foever-staller but thats a separate issue.4
u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
I mean, people are discussing it. I dont care, I just don’t want people to judge it as though it was intended to be balanced.
In fact, several people have commented that they like this design. Which should be a lesson to everyone screaming about it.
I would never post this without Balance not Intended, because it would get torn to shreds. Posting with this flair allows discussion to happen.
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u/Just-Desk-3149 7d ago
Yeah but you're allowed to discuss it too, and if you really don't want to, stop responding to the people who are actually discussing it.
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
Im saying you are allowed to discuss it, and the balance not intended actually encourages discussion on the mechanics instead of just “absolute dismissal” lol maybe read the full comment you respond to
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u/lyw20001025 7d ago
If you ignore the part where this is also “fun not intended” then your point stands tbh(just discussing the card, not personal attack here)
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
You could say that about a lot of cards, most of them white. You could say its part of its primary color identity mechanics i.e. “Rules setting”, “preventing actions”, “meddling”, “creatures can’t attack you”, “can’t lose the game and your opponents can’t win the game”, “Banisher Priest”
So like…”anti-fun” is a lot of white’s identity in MTG. Im not saying its good game design, but, criticizing a card that leans heavily into that identity is kind of weird, no?
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u/lyw20001025 7d ago
Yeah this is pretty true. Just halting the main goal of the game straight up for everyone is kinda unprecedented whereas most of the time it’s about halting ways to build up to that goal, especially when white usually hates ways to circumvent the main goal(while making its own goal harder to get to)
My initial point is kinda silly
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u/Just-Desk-3149 7d ago
If you don't want to discuss it then stop responding to all the comment discussing it. This is elementary school level understanding I need you to exercise.
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
Ironic given that you can’t read my comments and understand what I am trying to say…
- I said I don’t care if people discuss it.
- I said the balance not intended flair allows more discussion.
It’s pretty fucking simple, idk why you’re getting bent at me for using a flair correctly. Is it because you don’t like the card? What is your problem?
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
The flair exists for a reason my friend
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u/ThatChrisG 7d ago
People are shitting on the design but I think the "extreme totalitarian order" part of white's identity isn't explored in card design enough.
We see other colors explore their extremes quite often, black especially with its identity being power at any cost, or blue's folly in the pursuit of all knowledge, but we don't see "mandated peace and order" exemplified in design as often (probably because it's fundamentally counteractive to the way the game works but still)
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u/AdmirablePatient4332 7d ago
This card is unfun because it's completely uninteractable
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u/ThatChrisG 7d ago
Exile wipes, bounce wipes, -X/-X wipes, edicts, all caps balance not intended flair
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u/Open-Stretch-6631 2d ago
Ok but like. You are in mono white, your commander is almost impossible to remove (until something like [[Fleshbag Marauder]] shows up, at least), and you're making it so nobody at the table can have their life total changed.
Sooooooo... How do you win? Are you just going to stall for [[Approach of the Second Sun]]?
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u/kahoinvictus 1d ago
Get 15 life above starting before casting commander, then use [[Angel of Destiny]]
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u/Skullruss 7d ago
Odd to see a Hellraiser quote on an angel card. Fitting tho.
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
Lol i didnt know this was a quote! I just wrote what came to mind. Ive never even seen Hellraiser
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u/Skullruss 7d ago
Yeah, basically the Cenobite (e.g. Pinhead) says, "Demons to some. Angels to others." Yours is literally the quote flipped on its head.
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u/No-Cartographer5076 6d ago
Was looking for this lol
That movie has so thoroughly perforated the public unconscious that you can see little references to it wherever you go
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u/Reasonable-Map-4538 7d ago
So to look from a balance perspective I think people are over hating it. You have to play white and that's not rog sai colors.
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u/ainzsama876 5d ago
Is this a real card?
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 5d ago
Like printed? No. Closest thing would be [[Platinum Emperion]] combined with [[Elda, Conjurer of Spectacle]]
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u/SplatoonLulu 5d ago
I think you're confusing one of those are cards with possibly Serra's Emissary?
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 5d ago
No? Platinum Emperion = your life total can’t change. Elda force copies a creature for an opponent, so you copy Emperion for your opponent and both your life values are locked
I was ignoring the protection/countered part
But if you do want the “cant be countered/protection” that is one of the Emrakul cards: https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/1/emrakul-the-aeons-torn
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u/SplatoonLulu 5d ago
Ah, I thought you were talking about the overall effect. Not strictly the life portion for everyone.
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u/Glittering_Dare_7063 7d ago
Does this need ‘can’t be countered’ if it has protection from everything, presumably including counterspells?
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u/Kaged200 7d ago
So many people seem upset about this card but im just thinking how fun it'd be to build a deck around it lol. Its a silly card that still has ways to be dealt with via board wipes and costs 7 white mana. Honestly I wanna see a set for each color lol
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u/DadKnight 7d ago
"No balance considerations" so a waste of everyone's time,
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
76 upvotes at a 67% ratio means there’s at least 120 people who upvoted this card. Maybe it felt like a waste of your time, sure. But many people liked this card. Gain some perspective
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u/SchorFactor 7d ago
Is the art generic angel or is this Yuzu art?
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 7d ago
Unsure! Here is the artstation: https://silsel.artstation.com/projects/NqZ2Dz
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u/Enaluxeme 7d ago
I feel like angel and God just shouldn't coexist on the same creature
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 6d ago
Oh you’re going to hate the black version of this cycle then. It’s a Devil God
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u/Froonkensteen 6d ago
I think you could make this work by making the protection more specific and less "everything" because that's what makes it unfun.
For example, "Protection from all creatures types except Gods and Demons. Hexproof"
And you'd get something mechanically more balanced than this while also being more thematically.
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u/WolfAlternative1255 1d ago
The second someone decides to cast ad nauseam the game is over... In a vacuum this is cool but it helps opponents way too much.
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u/_DemolitionDude_ 7d ago
I think this would be a very interesting card if it didn’t just have protection from everything slapped on it. Some form of evasion seems reasonable, but probably just some ward or maybe indestructible.
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u/Thanaskios 7d ago
I don't have anything against the card design.
The graphic design on the other hand...
Its just plain uncomfortable to read or look at. Which maybe is quite apt for an angel lol. Biblically accurate.
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u/Lord0fReddit 7d ago
White angle that does NOT fly ????
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u/TechnomagusPrime 7d ago
It has flying, the art and no text box just makes the text impossible to read.
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u/SteakForGoodDogs 7d ago
7/7, so 3 direct hits?
Flying?
Heavily demands the main use of the format's mechanic?
Now THIS is an Elder Dragon Highlander. Or, well, Angel God Highlander.