#maro kida

[bbeeohazardd]

i caved and remade the ref for my Ouran host club oc >_>

[inventors-fair]

Elder Dragon Highlander Full Commentary

ello everyone! here is the commentary that i promised you all yesterday for today and then promptly forgot to format that night which im now rushing to do at 8 in the morning today before classes.

Halikar the Mirage Serpent by @typical-davinci-impersonator

This certainly captures the splashiness of an Elder Dragon but I think that last ability is too much even here. Also, granting all the abilities of broad subsets of creatures to other broad subsets of creatures gets into too funky of rules territory. If I control a Maro and an Enigma Drake, what’s its power, for example?

Kida Vahine by @bergdg

I like how this card, like Piru from modern horizons 2, makes the upkeep sacrifice clause a bit more interesting. How many cards do you need to exile with this before you’re happy with it? I feel like it’s several attacks worth, which makes this less exciting. What if instead this was like, “Whenever you cast a spell from your hand or play a land from your hand, exile the top card of your library.” That has a lot more explosive potential and encourages you to play out your hand since you can refill it when they die.

Nicol Bolas, Escaped by @dabudder

I’m not sure this ability is really what I’d expect from a bolas tbh. A card that encourages you to functionally sacrifice him (since you can either play him *or* your opponent’s thing) just feels really off flavor. This is more minor and nitpicky, but he also probably wants a discard effect; while his cards seem at first glance kinda generically grixis, discarding is His Thing. Bolas’s Touch breaks minds.

Belgarath, Witherbloom Heir by @railway-covidae

Oooh this definitely has the excitement an elder dragon should. Six mana 7/7 flying trample, and a very cool ability. Mayyyybe the numbers are a bit too pushed, but it seems fine if on the upper side of things. I really like this. The mana gate on the ability was a good choice.

Crosis, Endless Hunger by @genericaura

I question the choice to make crosis an elder dragon a little since he’s explicitly of a generation that is *not* elder dragons but the children of them, but I don’t really want to get into the weeds of things, I’m not taking off points for that. I like the last ability as an evolution of the original elder dragon ability, but I do think it might end up a bit more fiddly than fun. Not sure though. I definitely think it should be true hexproof instead of ward though, with that ability. As for the main ability, I’m not convinced it plays well. You were riffing off crosis (and his sibling’s) original abilities that all had a similar color-matters esque effect but I don’t think it’s a great fit for modern design. Even the referencing cycle in time spiral didn’t do it. It has that very hallmark of old magic feel to it where sometimes your opponent is just very screwed over by playing a certain color, the same color as you. And encouraging monocolor on a three color card is just, a bit sketchy, tbh. I think the coolness of seeing new versions of the primevals that fit modern design better outweighs the coolness of the callback. Also, you forgot the power and toughness lol.

Jiskal Cydru by @hypexion

A cycle of elder dragons seems like a great rare place to put 4 color cards, so you’ve got a really enticing concept here. The ability seems a good match for the hype as well. But there’s a few details of the exact execution that seem off. Only being able to cast spells of *exactly* the amount of damage feels far too limiting, “that much or less” would definitely play better, but then that’s a huge increase in power. Maybe simplify to “cast any number with mana value [4 or 5] or less”? I also think you should cut the haste, to give your opponent a better chance to interact before you pop off.

Hydrargyr Solem y @nine-effing-hells

I love the cycle this implies with wedge-colored original-elder style dragons (technically already started with Piru) and I love prowess prowess prowess that’s a very funny bit of text. The death trigger is definitely a good payoff, and honestly I wonder if it can be even bigger. This is really solid though

Kaztur Dovas by @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes

This is really really cool and exciting. Almost too much so. This does too much of the work for you by both reanimating and tutoring to yard. I think this makes games to same-y, in addition to the power. I definitely think this card would be served better by cutting one ability or the other, and my preference would be cutting the tutoring ability.

Ugin, Seeker of the Unseen// Ugin, Father of Tarkir by @fractured-infinity

I’m very glad someone made an Ugin parallel to bolas’s card from m19 like people were wanting. The front side seems very strong but prooobably okay? I do think this may be a bit too focused on manifesting though; it’s all just variations on ways to do more or less the same thing; I’m especially worried with how the +2 is largely a similar effect to the combat damage of the front, so you’re basically getting the same effect every turn as the front except this time without attached damage. I do really like the 0 ability both as a morph/manifest payoff and a flavorful effect for ugin.

Hetman Roghar by @marrinara-sauce

This definitely isn’t really what i was looking for and I think you knew that, but like i said before, im not gonna be picky. This is clearly a signpost uncommon meant for limited, but I worry about how board-stally it is there, since you can keep all the citizens and peasants you presumably have lying around to keep indestructibly chump-blocking pretty easily. Has those issues as a commander too, to a degree, but the pains of that are definitely lessened since commander is far less about combat tempo.

Draugki, Immersturm Tyrant by @deg99

What an incredible typeline. I think I’m in love. “Elder Vampire Dragon”, that’s cool as hell. As for the mechanics, I’m a little less enamored. My main issue is that it’s very easy to exile lots of cards from a graveyard at once, and this just gives you tons and tons of value for that. I’d suggest a once-per-turn limitation on the abilities, but I don’t think there’s room for that. Maybe “one or more” does the job?

Dromoka of the Abzan by @bread-into-toast

Fascinating flavor here, I’m intrigued. This is a very abzan dragon though, I quite like it. Go wide, +1/+1 counter synergy, reanimation. All very abzan. In the event something wild happens lorewise, I could see this card existing. 

Pizoondertanx by @wolkemesser

I think this is just a bit too noninteractive. The flash means you can take your opponent when they least expect it, the static ability will randomly hose some kinds of decks even without the stun counters, the ward makes it hard to get rid of that static, and even if they do they still have to wait a bit for their creatures. I think any of these on their own could be okay, but altogether it just seems like too much.

Wrestare, the Typhone King by @snugz

Okay first of all, killer title. “The typhoon king”, just excellent. Powerlevel wise this could safelyjust be a full-on future sight without any limitations. But to keep it as a flying-matters card, I think this definitely needs something more going on. I’m not quite sure what though

Cantros Vel by @batatafilosofal

As I said in my commentary in the other 4 color card, I think a cycle of elder dragons is a rare good opportunity for a 4 color cycle, so I’m a big fan of the concept. I’m intrigued by greenless mind-control matters, though I’m not sure about mixing it with an Aura matters effect. It feels like it would lead to a kind of confused deck. The alternative is going full in on auras, and just using the second effect as a payoff for the first- and on second thought that probably is the main way of playing- but a 4 color enchantment matters card that excludes green feels… odd.

Tayus the Nostalgic by @curiooftheheart

I like how this, like Piru, plays around with the upkeep sacrifice trigger. The payoff is definitely far less than Piru’s though and I think you made two good choices to balance that out: 1 making it trigger on etb and 2 giving this haste. I like this.

Ugin by @horsecrash

I feel like this card just doesn’t go big enough, to be honest. Like look at how big Piru goes. Ugin’s death trigger is just really specific’ you really need the time to build it up with his manifest ability. But an 8 mana card that asks for continued payment shouldn’t really need that kind of work put into it.

Valustix, Celebrity Chef by @stupidstupidratcreatures

Oooh interesting. This is an odd one. Being able to turn tokens into bursts of mana is scary, but only being able to use it on activated abilities probably more than balances it out. Now it’s more of sac two foods: You gain 3 life. This seems like a well-constructed engine kind of design: it enters the battlefield to give you some resources, then gives some alternate uses for those resources. As a minor note, I might tweak the ETB effect to be “each time you’ve cast a commander from the command zone”, not just this exclusively. And having the second activated ability require tapping but not the first feels slightly odd.

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saturday lunch

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the kidas

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the kidas: dining/family room