This is the actual wording of Machina Serpent. (I had to hide the keyword before.) Forged was created when I was attempting to find another colorless keyword for a set I was working on. Machina Serpent shows off both abilities quite well. When I was creating cards for these keywords, there seemed to be a large number of creatures that could have either ability, for example:
The Unaligned drone needs 2 colorless mana to be cast. The Forged one is more powerful because you have more options on how to cast it. You can cast it as a 1/1 if you have no colorless, or a 2/2 if you only have one Power Plant out.
Here's another example:
Although these cards are fundamentally different, you can see the overlap. Now that we've seen what they can do the same, let's look at the differences.
Both of these guys get really mean when cast with colorless mana, but can also be put out quite early if you're paying with colored mana.
While not necessarily a Forged enabler, this little beaut can help get your Forged guys even bigger than they could get on their own, while simultaneously helping to cast guys you shouldn't be able to otherwise.
-Olaf
Edit: New templating on Mana Scrubber, taken from Fist of Suns. Fixed templating on Stoic Automental.
Some really interesting designs. I like Forge better as it give more options while still encouraging colorless mana. Unaligned will make player not want to play colors at all, which could make an entire block worthless in standard.
ReplyDeleteI really like the use of 2/U and 2/R in casting costs. I never once paid more than 3 for a Flame Javelin. With Forge I actually would want to. The added choices makes for better play.
A couple template issues. Unaligned and Forge are redundant on Machina Serpent. Because of Forge, if a player did pay colored mana for X, nothing would happen. With no mana burn, Unaligned does nothing. Note, this is only because the card costs X.
Stoic Automental has an ability that doesn't activate with the rules. It needs to be written as a triggered ability with a "when" (or in this case a whenever) at the beginning:
"Whenever a creature blocks or becomes blocked by Stoic Automental, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step."
Lastly, the X+2 in Mana Scrubber needs to be X2 in Magic mana bubbles. It also need a slight word change:
"You may pay X2 rather than paying creature spells' mana costs, where X is the converted mana cost of that card."
Fixed two of the three. Left Machina Serpent. I know it's redundant, but I like having both keywords on one card.
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