Friendship is Card Games: Rainbow Falls · 5:39pm Jan 19th, 2014
Well, that was fun. The macro-plot progresses, best pony returns, and griffins continue to be a thing.
(That said, I have seen a very good point regarding Butch Deadlift Big McLargeHuge Stan Johnson Bulk Biceps: Why is somepony who qualified for the Wonderbolts Academy having so much trouble now? The answer, of course, is the demands of the plot and dramatic tension, but in that case, the story shouldn't explicitly reference the episode with which it conflicts.)
In any case, here's a fun exercise for you: there is a card here that will never be printed by Wizards. Not even in an Un-set. See if you can figure out which one:
Eager Cheerleader 2W
Creature — Pony
As Eager Cheerleader enters the battlefield, choose a letter.
Whenever you cast a spell whose name begins with the chosen letter, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
"F for flavor text!"
1/1
Wonderbolt Pit Crew 2W
Creature — Pegasus Advisor
Flying
W, T: Regenerate target creature with flying.
Behind every great flier is a team dedicated to keeping her that way.
1/2
Medical Pizazz 2WW
Instant
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn by sources you don't control. For each 1 damage prevented this way, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
"It's better to look good than to feel good, but nopony said the two were mutually exclusive."
—Rarity, Bearer of Generosity
Triumphant Return 4W
Instant
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Morbid — Put two +1/+1 counters on that creature if a creature died this turn.
"Heroes can be awfully dense. Sometimes they don't even notice dying."
—Ditzy Doo
Attention Grab 1U
Instant
Target creature gets -3/-0 until end of turn and can't be the target of spells or abilities its controller controls this turn.
A pretty face, a suggestive pose, and you might not notice anything else.
Training Accident BB
Instant
If one or more +1/+1 counters would be placed on a creature this turn, that many -1/-1 counters are placed on it instead.
If anything can go wrong, everything might.
Test of Loyalty R
Sorcery
Choose target creature an opponent controls. Clash with that player. If you win, untap that creature. Gain control of it until end of turn. It gains haste until end of turn.
Prestigious as they are, the Equestria Games can bring out the worst in everypony.
Prismatic Resolve 2R
Instant
Target creature gets +X/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn, where X is the number of colors among permanents you control.
The Bearers, in a sense, are their Elements, and it takes little to inspire those virtues in them.
Wind Sprinter 2R
Creature — Pegasus
Flying, haste
"Agility, endurance, quick thinking, they're all important. But sometimes you just need speed."
—Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty
2/1
Bulking Bronco 4R
Creature — Pegasus
Flying
3: Bulking Bronco loses flying until end of turn. Any player may activate this ability.
Pegasus magic can only do so much.
4/4
Pec Pulse 1G
Instant
Multikicker G
Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn and an additional +2/+2 until end of turn for each time Pec Pulse was kicked.
Brown Betty Bombardment XG
Instant
Brown Betty Bombardment deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures with flying.
The earth ponies' most effective pre-Unification anti-air defense strategy could be summarized as "fill the air with pastry."
Rainbow Wig 1
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature is all colors.
Equip 2
"I appreciate the thought, but let's face it: I'm the only one who can make this look good."
—Rainbow Dash, Bearer of Loyalty
Unassailable Shout RG
Sorcery
Spells you cast this turn can't be countered by spells or abilities.
Draw a card.
When pitted against the forces of reason and moderation, volume control is a vice, not a virtue.
I choose all of them. They're all hilarious.
Except the +1/+1 counters to -1/-1 counters thing. I have a Fulminator Mage wither deck that would love that card.
Triumphant Return with its instant speed reanimation seems pretty sick, so that would be my guess I suppose. I don't see anything that's truly gamebreaking though, but I might just not be looking at it right. Care to shed some light?
I'm guessing Training Accident, because they don't like to mix +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters.
I don't really see anything that couldn't be printed.
"Eager Cheerleader" was my first thought but they do plenty of things dealing with card names so this could be done.
"Training Accident" is another good choice, because they don't like to mix counters but since +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters cancel each other out on the same creature they may actually print this one, but, again, they probably wouldn't but there is nothing saying they can't.
There was a question like this on the Great Designer Search 2 where one of the cards trigger off of an ability word, can't remember which one right now. The problem is. "Ability Words" (like Landfall or Blood Rush) are just a group of cards that trigger in a similar way but because they are in italics (like flavor-text) it is not "real" rule text for other cards to "check" for like keywords (like Lifelink and Evolve).
So, not sure which one it is here.
I have two words for you: "Eager Cheeleader"
Also, on Test of Loyalty, I would use "untap that creature and gain control of it" just to cut down on the number of sentences
Pec Pulse and Brown Betty both seem dodgy, but "Test of Loyalty" seems to me to be a game-breaking mechanic somehow. (Granted, it's been ages since I played Magic, but really...)
My initial guess is Triumphant Return, since Morbid being on a white card clashes with the flavor of the ability. And I think the idea behind Morbid is taking advantage of OTHER creatures dying, so being able to target the creature that died seems odd. Combing through the Reserved list atm to see if any of these are reprints from that.
1735077 1735130 1735812 1735999 1736075 1737920 1735999 1737920 1738149
The card I had in mind was Training Accident. It's SOP to use only +1/+1 counters or -1/-1 counter in a given block, because of the wonky interactions between the two. That being said, I admit that it could hypothetically see print in a product like Commander or Planechase. Not likely, but possible. I apologize for that oversight.
For the record, Triumphant Return was originally a reprint of Miraculous Recovery before I double-checked what that did.
Thanks to all of you for the commentary! (Especially you, G S. Pobody's nerfect, after all.
)
1739277 After a short search, it seems a card that deals with both -1/-1 and +1/+1 counters actually exist already, though it is old, and as far as I can tell, the only one of its kind: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3225
1739338
Back in the day, all kinds of crazy crap took place. Like cards that cared about sets. Or had to be physically thrown at the battlefield. Granted, Misfortune isn't quite so primordial, but the point stands.
1739277 Meh, oversight forgiven. I had a fun time looking through old cards anyway.
I don't think anything is more back-in-the-day-crazy than the ante. 'Cause gambling away a two-thousand dollar piece of card stock is the sort of thing you'd probably come to regret later in life.
1739277
Less because of the interactions and more so that it's easier to tell whether that creature with some glass beads piled on it is bigger or smaller than it should be, IIRC.
1739616
They weren't worth $2000 back then!
1739405 The beginning of Magic was pretty weird indeed, I know that. Still, a card 'such as that' was in fact printed by Wizards. Also, several of the sets up to and including Torment from the Odyssey block has both -1/-1 counters and +1/+1 counters in them.
Can you use Medical Pizazz and Triumphant Return on the same creature?
3881740
Certainly. If you have the mana, you can even do both in the same turn; have a creature triumphantly return, block (or attack if it has haste,) then use Medical Pizazz to make it even bigger by preventing the combat damage.