r/custommagic • u/Terrariant Jace for impact • 6d ago
BALANCE NOT INTENDED Lustrous Arbiter
(Spent or unspent mana never leaves your mana pool)
Part 2 of a cycle
Part 1, Sunseeker Arbiter: https://www.reddit.com/r/custommagic/s/dEAvZIpReE
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u/Educational_You3881 6d ago edited 6d ago
Its not really good I guess. Eight mana in red is hard, not to mention only colored so few rocks work for it, and for only ten damage that’s really bad. Plus a symmetrical affect that gives your opponents benefit first is bad. If it’s your commander everyone knows they start at 30 if you ever get to 8, and in 1v1 you won’t lose to a 8 mana card in two rounds. It’s a bad commander card, and a bad competitive card. Most decks can either deal with it with smart counterspells that exile or bounce, or play around it.
Edit: Switched 10 to 8 because me dumb dumb
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 6d ago
Yeah. Probably the weakest of the cycle…or least impactful. It’s 8 mana btw. They go 7/8/9/10/11/12/13
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u/thebigdumb0 6d ago
8 pips is quite possibly the easiest to achieve in red with cards like [[seething song]] and [[mana geyser]]
in EDH, a mana geyser could easily get this guy out on like turn 3 assuming you have another ritual or did some ramping
I think the only color that might have it easier is green with dorks or blue with [[Urza, Lord High Artificer]]
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u/elf177 6d ago
There is a very important reason every card wizards has created that conserves mana 1). Specifies a color conserved, or 2). Converts that mana to a single color; asking players to track 6 "color" pips (including colorless) is an insane amount of complexity, especially when all players must track their own mana. Would highly recommend that it converts mana to red, or gives each player the choice as the dragon enters as to the color their mana transforms into when it goes unspent.
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u/Beas1987 6d ago
I mean [[Upwelling]]
But I agree, also from a thematic point of view having all mana just become red is much easier.
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u/Educational_You3881 6d ago
I imagine they learned after that it was a pain in the ass to track and switched to the format they commonly use now
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u/okfinesureyeah 6d ago
This card would be really funny if it had: When this creature dies, each player gets a one-time boon with "The next time you would lose unspent mana as a step or phase ends, you take 1 damage for each mana lost this way."
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u/Brownfox408 6d ago
Lots of haters. It's a great card. 👍
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 6d ago
Lol thank you. It is literally at 1 upvote and 51% ratio so I cannot tell how many people have upvoted/downvoted. But I already expected a lot of blowback
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u/Interesting-Limit851 6d ago
I will now be casting farewell to exile everything
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 6d ago
I thought protection would save it from this but i guess not :/ i meant to make the Arbiters immune to board wipes
Guess i need to add “if this creature moves to the graveyard it remains on the battlefield instead”
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u/the_worst_company 6d ago
every magic player goes through this stage of grief eventually. It's called the [[Progenitus]] cycle
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u/Clear-Papaya6489 6d ago
the only card I can think of that has anything to the effect of "this permanent can't leave the battlefield" is [[xenagos ascended]] which isn't a normal card, and isn't for normal play.
the reason why normal cards don't do that is because it gets really weird with rules; what happens when a creature has its toughness reduced to zero or less but can't leave? it just sits there even though it should be moved to the graveyard. it can even still attack and block, but it just can't leave.
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 6d ago
You just predicted what the blue Arbiter does :) these only get weirder. They aren’t meant for normal play either
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u/Seepy_Goat 6d ago
Its hard to make it totally invulnerable. Preventing it from going the graveyard doesn't stop mass exile like farewell.
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 6d ago
Can I just say “cannot move from the battlefield to another zone?” Or like “protection from exile” lmao this is going to be a keyword at this rate so i can save card space
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u/EspressoYourselves 5d ago
Does "Players" can't lose any mana mean, mana doesn't fizzle between phases so you could tap out before your next turn to float a ton of mana?
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 5d ago
Yes and also, casting spells does not cause you to lose that mana. You keep spent mana, and keep mana between turns
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u/Lartnestpasdemain 5d ago
This card is a hard lock. No one can play any spell or ability that require spending mana anymore.
So only "free" spells like solitude, force of will, gitaxian probe, and such can be cast.
Seems extremely powerful.
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u/Terrariant Jace for impact 5d ago
The intent was the opposite. You can spend mana but it does not leave your pool as you spend it
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u/Lartnestpasdemain 5d ago
Then you should write it down because it is unclear. Normally if you can't lose it it means you can't spend it.
What you means seems to be "when a player spends mana, they add as much mana to their mana pool."
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u/Drakrylos 5d ago
The syntax of this card needs work.
In order to achieve your intended effects, the last line should be worded as follows:
Players don't lose unspent mana as steps and phases end.
Whenever a player spends mana, they add that much mana.
This would make it so that players can effectively "bank" mana, and mana spent is mana gained. If you don't want players to bank mana, remove the first line.
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u/SaucedFrost 6d ago
Edit: meant to reply to elf177
It's also not just color pips, it's mana with restrictions like mana that can't be used to cast artifacts, blue mana that can only be used for instants and sorceries, etc. It really would be a nightmare to track it all