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Hello,
I'm a long-time lurker here, and only a mediocre player at best. I recently saw some threads on Touhou and MTG, both interests of mine, and in the midst of a long spate of unproductive activity I've done some design work based on the characters and their spell cards.
To those familiar with MTG and its card design, these are fairly top-down and should be functional from both a design and development perspective. Words in italics in the type lines are strictly for flavor and have no rules meaning. To Touhou players, these are only broad depictions of the actual cards, but the gist of it should come through. I'm using Marisa's Grimoire as a reference, so I'm missing the player-usable bombs. No matter 
Today I'm presenting one of the series' protagonists, Reimu Hakurei of the Hakurei Shrine, playable in all of the main games, and her spell cards.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UuA2I.jpg)
Reimu herself has a laidback and carefree manner, but when something abnormal happens, she goes to investigate. Incidentally, she is often-called the "red-white," and I was happy that these are her colors in MTG's color wheel, as well. She starts off idle, but quickly comes to your defense to bring the beatdown.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6Mnce.jpg)
This spell card makes it real hard for a character with a narrow shot to get in attacks, and it's real easy to over-extend into it. In MTG terms, on-board tricks are kind of mean, but this is something that you are fully intended to play around.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5KIpl.jpg)
Far from being a defensive measure, this is just two approaches to the fundamental goal of killing you: restricting your movement and seeking you out.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/i75JQ.jpg)
The name was too long to fit mana symbols without shrinking the font, so I ended up having to make this a Land >_>. It's a strictly worse Rishadan Port, which means I think the power level is about right .
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/a699Y.jpg)
This is a very variance-dependent card. Sometimes you get caught at a bad angle and simply can't escape. Likewise, sometimes your opponents' deck just isn't aggro, and you'll never be able to cast this. While I would avoid putting a card like this in an actual set, here I think it is acceptable.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/leKvi.jpg)
When I first played Imperishable Night I had no idea what was going on during this card, but it led to me dying. A lot. Enough said.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tzLaT.jpg)
This is a bit of a stretch, I admit, but I feel like this is a very White effect - erase the mistakes of the past and forcefully prevent them from occurring again. It also fits Reimu's philosophy, where all the end-stage bosses end up becoming very friendly. In following games as playable characters, they too go to avert the next set of impending catastrophes :D.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/49SDk.jpg)
Lots and lots of Yin Yang Orbs. Cute kittens not included.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/EEUYC.jpg)
Try and attack, and you die. Try again, and you die. Try something different, and you die. I'm kind of surprised that outside of Guilty Conscience, this effect hasn't been printed before.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/s2tUj.jpg)
Another departure from a strict portrayal, this also echoes the "defeated enemies become friends" theme. I'm not great at costing big spells like this, but I feel like 7 CMC is about right for obscenely one-sided effects :D.
So that's all for now. I will probably be doing these periodically, so please suggest characters for me to do. I've played PCB, IN, MoF, and UFO, and by default I plan on doing Marisa Kirisame next.
Cheers and hope you enjoyed,
Michael
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These look amazing, 5/5 instantly.
I'm no expert on balance but nothing looks blatantly over- or underpowered at least, and color flavors look about right. Reimu herself hoses aggro a little too hard I think, but the 2 big white spells feel very well done.
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United States6531 Posts
5/5, but only if you do Reisen after Marisa. :D
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Good job~ 5/5
What Aeres said!
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You've got two yin yang equipments, I think the second was meant to be something else.
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I like those cards, even if there are glaring balance issues. Yeah, creatures are useless in the grand scheme of things, but a 5/5 for 2 with practically no drawback is OP. ^^
And Fantasy Seal...I somehow think there is a card like that already. Haunting Echoes is similar, but black, then again preventing things is white so I don't know, lol.
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thinking about Duplex Barrier in standard mono red makes me drool.......
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Many of this cards are just ridiculously powerful. RW for a 5/5 with evasion and doublestrike? That's like instantly wining against any mono red and mono green. And with cards like Amulet of Vigor you could win the game in before drop 4. Apart from that, they look awesome.
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Typically, I think Evil Sealing Circle would read
3W, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Exile target attacking creature.
The way it's currently worded, you can exile multiple attackers in one turn. Is that how you meant it to work?
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Some of these are so broken that I want to meet you in person so that I can shake my head disapprovingly, but other than that awesome work.
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You should make a set with the best touhou character ever;
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/touhou/images/8/82/Th075meirin01.jpg)
china~
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Thanks for the support, guys. Despite targeting an admittedly (very) narrow audience, I'm not surprised TL would deliver .
In terms of balance, it isn't practical to balance in a vacuum, or at least without an entire set, but I think I'll stand by most of these, other than upping the cost on Fantasy Seal or making it an enchantment with a static effect so that you can do something about if it resolves. It's definitely far stronger than Haunting Echoes, since that prevents you from drawing dead cards, but this is just adding insult to insult to injury.
Do remember that Reimu isn't going to be swinging unless either your opponent accepts the consequences, or you're playing some untap effects, which either involves playing a third color or Amulet of Vigor, which is bad on so many levels that if I'm not too worried.
That said, fantasy fantasy card design is no serious business, but I'll definitely try to put more thought into these next time (and avoid silly formatting mistakes, rawr)
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Saying that Reimu relies on you going 3 colors is a mistake. She costs 1 red and 1 white. That does not require you to "go" either of those colors. I see her as an easy splash win condition of a mono-blue or blue-white or blue-red control deck, and as such she is extremely overpowered imo.
Double-strike is ridiculous, and the vigilance means you only have to untap her one time, so just playing her tapped completely stops any aggro from your opponent. SHE IS BROKEN. There is no way around it.
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On July 06 2011 14:02 Lemonwalrus wrote:
Saying that Reimu relies on you going 3 colors is a mistake. She costs 1 red and 1 white. That does not require you to "go" either of those colors. I see her as an easy splash win condition of a mono-blue or blue-white or blue-red control deck, and as such she is extremely overpowered imo.
Double-strike is ridiculous, and the vigilance means you only have to untap her one time, so just playing her tapped completely stops any aggro from your opponent. SHE IS BROKEN. There is no way around it.
considering how she's portrayed in fandom (and the games i guess), that makes sense lol
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On July 06 2011 14:35 ieatkids5 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 06 2011 14:02 Lemonwalrus wrote:
Saying that Reimu relies on you going 3 colors is a mistake. She costs 1 red and 1 white. That does not require you to "go" either of those colors. I see her as an easy splash win condition of a mono-blue or blue-white or blue-red control deck, and as such she is extremely overpowered imo.
Double-strike is ridiculous, and the vigilance means you only have to untap her one time, so just playing her tapped completely stops any aggro from your opponent. SHE IS BROKEN. There is no way around it. considering how she's portrayed in fandom (and the games i guess), that makes sense lol
if thats the case then yukari would break the entire game?
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Lemonwalrus, I'd really prefer not to get into an argument, but you go too far in claiming brokenness. You have solid points, but here's how I think of it:
Is this card bannable? No. It creates no card advantage, can be interacted with, and at best is a legendary two-color Phyrexian Dreadnought that dies to 2 burn spells or most black removal.
Is this card format-warping? Hard to say without a format in mind, but I certainly don't think this is remotely playable in Legacy, and in the current Standard a deck of the type you suggested would still get outraced by Valakut and ignored by Exarch-Twin. Control decks don't want win-cons that can be Dismember'ed, don't have an ETB ability or immediate impact, and mess with your manabase needlessly. Jwar Isle Sphinx and Consecrated Sphinx seem like much better alternatives.
Would R&D ever print a flavor-neutral version of this card? Probably not, I admit. Is it beyond the bounds of acceptable design? I would say no.
Regardless, I will definitely tone down the power level to say, Scars block level, for future cards :D
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it really is too powerful to be printed. it's 2 mana for a 5/5 double strike, flying, and vigilance. the only thing you need is an untap effect, and not even every turn, just once.
why wouldn't it be playable in legacy?
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The kind of deck you're suggesting is simply worse than Stifle-Naught, which sees little tournament play, and its enablers even have utility on their own in dealing with fetchland triggers. What are you using as an untap effect? Twiddle, Amulet of Vigor, Cerulean Wisps, Chain Stasis, Dream's Grip, Teardrop Kami, or Vault Skyward (limiting ourselves to 1CMC to compare with Stifle)?
This will start attacking, at best, a turn after Dreadnought, and it races in similar time. It is more vulnerable to removal, its enablers are worse, and your manabase is going to be much worse. How do you see it played in Legacy?
EDIT: I do agree that it is too powerful to be printed, but that didn't stop them from printing lots of format-warping cards that were never banned, acknowledged as mistakes, and then reprinted (Titans most recently).
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Saying there are answers to something doesn't automatically make it not overpowered. Practically every spell in the game killed Tarmagoyf, and it had no abilities, but it was still almost restricted, and immediately saw play in multiple formats.
Have you ever tried to resolve a kill spell against a mono-blue control deck that already played its win condition? Not too easy, was it?
Heck, Boros Swiftblade was considered one of the best cards available in both standard and extended for some time and it was a 1/2 Doublestrike with the exact same cost and no other abilities. (although granted it wasn't legendary or rare, and it didn't have the tap drawback)
If you put this card into any standard environment I can remember, every deck that wanted to be competitive would either need to incorporate it or alter it's makeup so that it had answers for it. It is a format breaker if I've ever seen one.
I'm not trying to argue either, and I'll stop shitting up your thread if that is what you want, but this card is too easy to play for its power level.
Edit: Although, for what it is worth, I doubt it would make too much of a splash in vintage or legacy because it gets going too slowly, but this card would do worse things to standard and extended than fairies did a few blocks back, and that is saying something.
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I agree with what you're saying. Let's leave it at that
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EPT
