Monday, April 10, 2017

Elder Dragon redesigns

The Elder Dragons are not very good cards. How about a redesign?
  1. They should be mostly aimed at Elder Dragon Highlander, so they should do well with multiplayer / casual.
  2. Elder Dragons should be big and cool.
  3. They should be different from normal creatures in some way.
  4. Elder Dragons are not Planeswalkers.
What I ended up doing:
  • These are all creatures with loyalty counters on them. At any given time, their toughness is equal to the number of loyalty counters on them, and they each ETB with 7 loyalty counters on them. Loyalty abilities work the way they do on Planeswalkers (once per turn at sorcery speed).
  • Flavorfully, Elder Dragons are hunting planeswalkers; they're happy to stick around and help you out if their particular form of mayhem is happening, but they're happy no matter who gets hurt.
  • Each one has abilities that call back to particular cards -- they can cast ancient (and hence more powerful) forms of well-known effects.
  • The most powerful ability can't be triggered right away, but shouldn't be too hard to get. (This seemed important for Commander, where they can be re-cast each turn after you hit 7 mana.)
  • These have terrible names, but part of the exercise is not changing the names. Oh well!
The cards:

Arcades Sabboth: can cast improved versions of Biomass Mutation or Wrath of God. Cares about artifacts, enchantments, or lands being bounced or destroyed.



Chromium: can cast improved Castigate or Time Walk + Ancestral Recall. Cares about spells that cause life-drain mostly; I'm not totally happy with this trigger.



Nicol Bolas: can cast a better Reanimate or a goofy ability that lets you make two players attack each other in multiplayer (for Bolas, his character is so well-defined that I felt like I needed to hit it). Cares about death and discard.



Palladia-Mors: can cast double Lightning Helix or a souped-up Overrun. Cares about big creatures fighting.



Vaevictis Asmadi: can cast double Maelstrom Pulse or Channel Fireball! Cares about players getting hit hard or drained for life.

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