divisible life ideas

D

Doombringer

Guest
ideas for a type of card

creature essence
lose 1 life, put a cheatless counter on CARDNAME: put a 1/1 token into play
remove a cheatless counter, sacrifice a token: gain 1 life

I had this idea sitting around for a while, the reason for the "cheatless" counters was so that you can't sac more tokens than you created with the card. I think this would be white

mana essence
lose 1 life, put a cheatless counter on CARDNAME: add one mana of any color to your mana pool
(1) remove a cheatless counter: gain one life

the same idea, different resource, it would be green


pain essence
lose 1 life, put a cheatless counter on CARDNAME: deal 1 damage to target player
target opponent gains 1 life, remove a cheatless counter: gain 1 life,

I dont think this idea would work, it'd be too easy to put both life totals at 2 then shock them. No shock needed if they have less life than you for any reason(I wouldn't use that city of brass if I were you, hehehehe. . . )
I don't have particularily good ideas for blue or black either, mostly just lose a life, draw a card, discard a card, get a life, and lose a life opponent discards, opponent draws, gain a life

I think the pics of these would have mages with essence coming out of them, ie white fairies, green mist, red lightning.

the only ones I think would actually work without being broken are the white and maybe green one. Any ideas for better titles or mechanics?
 
R

Rooser

Guest
Yeah, I don't think you realize how good those are, even with the cheatless counter thing. Especially the creature one.

Opponent: I'll attack with a 4/4 and a 7/7!
You: I'll pay 11 life, get 11 dudes, block and killl both your creatures, then while damage is on the stack I'll sac them all and regain the life I lost.

Then, later in the game, once you have control, you can just put out a bunch of guys and start swinging. And you never have to worry about the risk of paying life because in response to anything you can just get it all back.

It's an instant army of chump blockers, and in response to any mass removal you can just sac 'em for life and he put 'em back into play.

You realize that all these cards are petty much risk free?

Too strong.
 
D

Doombringer

Guest
Your right, any way to make them less broken?

EDIT: just got one for the white card: you've gotta pay one mana to use each effect.
 
R

Rooser

Guest
Frankly, I think just not giving them the ability to "take it back" is pretty good fix. However, even then I think all four other ideas are probably too strong still. Pay a life to draw a card? Been done twice and been restricted in Type 1 twice. It's too strong an effect, at any price. Payaa life for a mana: that's also been done - and restricted - though I suppose if you priced it high enough it might not be broken. Pay a life for damage, with no mana cost, that's dangerous, and it has sort of been done with Hatred. Straight up it's too good because if you're ahead by even one point of life then you can just end the game. And discarding, even at sorcery speed ... anything that keeps your opponent's hand empty is very strong.
 
D

Doombringer

Guest
I really want the essence of the white ones effect to remain, so:

Creature essence
W, lose 2 life: put a 1/1 spirit token into play.
W,sac. a spirit token: gain one life. this ability may only be played like a sorcery

Now it can still be used to chump block a krosan cloudscraper, but at the expense of 1 life even if you find a way to get it to survive. AND you cant take it back right after damage is on the stack, AND you probably cant kill that cloudscraper with 13 tokens because it would cost too much. Is it fixed enough yet?
 
N

NorrYtt

Guest
You have to be very careful with zero mana abilities that simply convert resources. Just look at Arcbound Ravager (permanents -> damage), Wild Mongrel (cards in hand -> damage) and Psychatog (cards in hand and 'yard -> damage). These kinds of cards are among the most powerful cards ever printed when you get to Yawgmoth's Bargain (life -> cards in hand).

1 for 1 is not enough. A good formula to use is 2 for 1.

Gemstone Array stores mana but you pay 2 for every 1 mana you get back. I costs 4 to start, but you also get back any color you want.

Skeletal Scrying is perfect. You pay X life and X mana, plus a contingency on having cards in your graveyard. In return you get an instant spell with just B to start, and best of all it's bounded by your graveyard so things don't get stupid out of hand like Stroke of Geniusing your opponent for 69.
 
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