Card of the Day - Gargut Grunt

Card of the Day - Faceless Saboteur

So I went to Magic Game Day today and got myself a playset of the full art Squelching Leeches.  I realized while brushing my teeth that the Leeches are a lesser version of a card from Future Sight, Korlash, Heir to Blackblade.  Presenting Faceless Saboteur:

This card uses the same basic concept, but in reverse. I chose a card that already exists and made a Grandeur creature with the same stats and ability, and changed the flavor.  Bonus points if you can name the original card without looking it up.  Also, if you don;t remember Espionage, here's the rules text for it:  (Whenever this card would deal damage to a player, that player puts twice that many cards from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard instead.)

Card of the Day - Forgotten Frontier

Card of the Day - Unimaginable Abomination

I can't even put a picture of this on account of it's unimaginable.

Edit:  a few changes.

Card of the Day - Extended Journey

My favorite thing to do with Maximize is to make it useful at different points in the game.  This card does that beautifully.

Card of the Day - Werebear Empath

I changed the wording of Team Up slightly to make it more streamlined.  I think having a team of guys fighting together is cool.  It feels like a cross between Soulbond and Slivers.

Card of the Day - War Tortoise

Armor was done already as Absorb on Lymph Sliver in Future Sight.  The flavor of armor that absorbs damage is something that hasn't been explored much in Magic, but I'd like to change that.  The Armor keyword will go well in a set that also includes Enrage.

EDIT! Changed it to combat damage and messed with his numbers a bit.

Card of the Day - Orzhov Intellectual

Here's an example of a common creature with Outsmart.  The power/toughness on the lower rarites should be low.

Card of the Day - Draconic Illusionist

I like the activated ability on this guy.  It's something that just seems to fit well on a Blue/Red dragon.

Card of the Day - Biosteel Serpent/Discharging Core

I want to preface this post by saying that I did not come up with Scrap myself, but I love the mechanic.  James Bartolotti debuted it in the comments section of a Goblin Artisans article.  That said,

The thing about this is it needs another type of card to make it awesomer. (Is awesomer a word?) Parts should be at all rarites, and there should be at least one that has no mana cost so you can grab it from your sideboard, but can't actually cast it.  That one should not be common, but uncommon is probably fine.  Here's an example of one that you might play in your deck if you don't have many scrappable creatures (or other artifacts?).

The sky's the limit with the types of parts you can have.  I feel like they should all be artifacts, though.   Equipment would be nice.  The one that James suggested was this:

While I feel it could be a bit more splashy, I like the idea here.  This is one you might draft if you've already grabbed one or two guys with Scrap, but it's not playable otherwise (literally).  Let me know what you think about this, and if you have any better ways to implement it, I'll be glad to hear you out.

Card of the Day - Cyberman Assimilator

This is an homage to the great Doctor Who villains.  Is anyone else excited for the new season? Cause I frickin' am!  If you're a constant reader of my blog, you'll notice I've been doing a theme of stealing creatures lately.  I don't know why that is, but I do know that Cyberman Assimilator will make all your opponents creatures belong to you. Eventually.

Card of the Day - Hargan Opportunist

If you don't remember (or never knew), Boost was a mechanic I created while working on speculating the Gatecrash mechanics.  Here is another tricolor card that utilizes what I think is a nice clean mechanic.  If you notice the mana cost, you'll see a three color hybrid.  I could've made it cost 1(r/w)(w/b), but the 1 looks tiny on MSE, and I thought the tricolor hybrid symbol looked cool.

Card of the Day - Brainwreck

I think I need some help here, guys.  I made this an uncommon so it wouldn't show up as much more than two in draft and sealed, but I think it might be overpowered for constructed.   I like that you can target the same creature twice if you really want it gone, or you can target a bunch of guys and make the opponent choose which ones to keep.  As a general rule, punisher cards are bad, and I hope the fact that you can cast a few copies of this at once makes it a better card.

Let me know what you think.

Card of the Day - Idea Burst

Here's the Maximize card draw spell.  Four mana for four cards seems like a lot, but it's a spell you can only cast once per game.  That's part of why Maximize is so cool;  you can get all the copies of a particular card, but you won't be able to cast that spell again this game barring extenuating circumstances.

Card of the Day - Wandering Corpse

The maximize cost on Wandering Corpse is really high!  If you look at the type line, you'll see why.

Card of the Day - Feral Packwolf

Here's an example of maximize on a creature card.  This, to me, is the simplest form of maximize on a creature.  I have a few more creatures with maximize to show you, but we'll start with the basics.

Card of the Day - Jagged Bolt

Maximize is a mechanic that definitely need to be tested to find the right cost.  I started this at 4RR, but deemed it too powerful constructed at that cost.  If anyone has a playgroup that wants to try out these cards, let me know! 


Oh.  Happy Valentimes!

Card of the Day - Unexpected Blessing

I think Maximize might work best in limited formats where certain cards are likely to be picked lower.  If there's ever a small set drafted by itself, i.e. Coldsnap, there could be a place for Maximize in it.  Maximize might even make life gain good.  What's Maximize, you ask? oh, it's this:

You could easily get 4 to 5 copies of this card in a draft. At first glance, it seems similar to Overload, but don't be fooled; Maximize is a powerful tool to thin out unwanted cards and get you closer to your bombs, as well as potentially having a huge impact on the game.

If you happen to have 5 Unexpected Blessings in your draft deck, you will almost always find one in your opening hand. Pulling 5 unwanted cards out of your library while gaining 15 life can be backbreaking.  If you get more than 2 of these, you're looking at a pretty good bargain. 

Don't expect the rest of the Maximize cards to be as dismissed offhandedly as this one.  You'll be lucky to get two of a direct damage Maximizer (see tomorrow's card, Jagged Bolt.)  After all, who's going to draft life gain?

Card of the Day - Ahern Druid/Frigid Priest

Two guys, one piece of art.  They play well together, too.  In other news, I've been posting on this blog for a year now.  Yay!

Card of the Day - Goblin Vanguard

Here's another take on Boost.  This one is kind of a reverse Exalted, where more creatures equals more bonuses.  Someone gave me this idea, but I don't remember who it was.  If it's you, let me know in the comments!