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Hello everyone!
I'm back with a few more cards, but first I'd like to do some rambling, ie, actual blogging :3. I'm a Canadian-born Chinese who grew up in America, and I've always felt a sense of duty to help those in China who weren't lucky enough to have parents who earned the right to study overseas in the 80s - no small feat when diplomatic relations with the West weren't fully normalized. For the last three years, I've been working with an NGO called PEER China, www.peerchina.org, which is comprised of Chinese college students, either studying abroad or domestically, who spend a month of their summer vacation traveling to rural Chinese towns and teaching at local high schools.
We focus on critical thinking and independence, collaboration, liberal arts education, and service learning. The curriculum focuses on English, seminar-style classes, field work and research, and team-based competitions. The group is extremely dedicated, with activities from nine to nine plus overtime, and it is truly a joy and pleasure to work with the local students, teachers, and administrators. We have expanded to five sites, eighty volunteers, and nearly a thousand students and alumni over the last four years. I am currently the deputy director of operations at the Chengbu site, and we're currently at Beijing University holding an orientation and training session for this year's volunteers.
My work with PEER has taught me much of humility and pride. It humbles me to see students in such disadvantaged conditions striving and determined to improve themselves, and I take pride in the work we do and in the visible improvements made in such a short time. The local principal has told me every year that while we touch the students' lives for only three weeks, the impact lasts a lifetime. I personally feel that there is much that we could all do in service to our communities, whether ethnic, adopted, or online. Think of what could be done. Then do it  .
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And now for some Magic! After taking into consideration the feedback from last time (please keep it up!), I decided to scale back the power levels going forward to something more in line with the most recent sets, but that doesn't mean that the designs will be any less fun :D.
Today we have Marisa Kirisame, another mainstay of the franchise and longtime rival, then playable character. Marisa is one of four magicians, and while the others more or less inherited the rank, she had to work hard for it. Mostly, of course, by flagrantly stealing from her enemies (and friends). Many of her trademark spells were first used against her. Marisa is emphatically black in MTG terms, though fans love to portray her with a more compassionate side.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZmCNw.jpg)
+ Show Spoiler [Old version, incorrectly formatted] +
By the PC games, Marisa has a bit of a reputation as a youkai exterminator and general source of shenanigans. And of course, she still has no qualms about taking and improving on her enemy's techniques, generally by incorporating lasers. Lots of lasers.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LJkWl.jpg)
There are millions of trillions of stars in the sky, and this spell card seems determined to cram as many of them as possible onto the screen. At that rate, you're more or less bound to hit something, and the more things there are, the more times you tend to die :D.
While I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing Storm ever again (and for good reason), I think this is safe to print, and though you can still chain 20+ storm easily, having to be at a higher life total makes this easy enough to beat.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lM9Zv.jpg)
This does more or less the same thing as Milky Way, though the patterns are very different, so I decided to just take the name and go from there. The card can be powerful if built around with repeatable bounce, but it's harder to assemble and not as backbreaking as Reality Acid/Oblivion Ring with the same repeatable bounce.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UWCAW.jpg)
Marisa's signature spell, which she stole from a flower. Figures. It's powered by what is essentially an artificial reality regulator, and it's suggested that it's the same force that caused the Big Bang. I wanted to keep the effect simple but flavorful, with the end result resembling Wildfire, but requiring completely different cards.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NJ9DE.jpg)
Now this is all-in, kind of like if you could throw a brace of pistols as grenades when out of ammunition, while getting more guns. The nice thing about this one is that if you survive the group waves, what Marisa herself fires is pitiful.
In hypothetical gameplay terms, this is obviously a very powerful effect from a potential damage:mana ratio. However, if you just play land-go in the hopes of this resolving on turn 6 on the play for lethal, you're simply dead to aggro or combo, and getting this countered is obviously game over. While midrange might have trouble with a disruption-light draw, that's just the problem with midrange :D. It is much more suitable for a mono-black control deck running Phyrexian Arena (though probably not Dark Confidant ^_^) that just uses it as a 2-of as a finisher.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gGC8D.jpg)
Apparently Newton's Laws still hold in Gensokyo, because Marisa flies by using massive amounts of primordial energy as a broomstick propellant. This is a common to reflect that she does this all the time, with uncertain ramifications, and the activated ability represents going too fast and losing control. Getting to play an aggressive aura is nice in Limited, but this is probably more useful as a slow removal spell.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/obE2H.jpg)
I have yet to see what this spell card actually does, since I haven't played IaMP yet, so this design stands on its own, drawing from a few of the mechanical themes of earlier cards. This compares most readily to Memoricide, but this is playable only in mono-black, doesn't hit cards in their hand, but does hit lands. While it's not entirely far-fetched to do something like T1 accelerants -> exile 19 lands, that doesn't even guarantee a win. In the end it doesn't affect the board, doesn't really win the game unless you end up with more life than cards in their library, but offers a very splashy, very black effect.
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Please be generous and unabashed with your feedback, and let me know who you want to be portrayed next. Currently next up is Reisen Udongein Inaba, the allegedly insane but rather level-headed rabbit from the moon.
Cheers,
Michael
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I really really like the design of the legend...but I'm not sure if the last line is worded correctly.
If you intend for the spell to remain exiled, you must either 'play a copy of it' or have it cast and THEN exiled, because casting a spell puts that spell back in its owner's graveyard unless otherwise specified. And I feel that the card would be broken if it didn't leave the spells exiled because you could just use the same kill spell infinite times in the same turn and blow up their side whenever one of their guys died.
Yeah I know I harp on your cards a lot but I really like the feel of these.
I should set [MTG] tag to send me a pm...I love these threads.
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Ah, good point. I had thought of that, but implemented it incorrectly. I'll put up an update now.
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I don't understand a thing about MTG, but I still like this blog series a lot. Being able to infer what a card's effect actually means/does and seeing your thought process behind how you connected the character or her Spell Cards to said effect is pretty cool. The fact that you take requests for characters to do next is also a nice bonus.
I can't wait for Reisen!
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Dragon Meteor is pretty broken. It literally wins you the game. Just remove every single threat from their deck and there is no way to win. It's sort of like why life's finale in limited should read "I win". By removing three of the best creatures, you shut down most decks.
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A few notes...
As Marisa is the black-white witch who likes to perform spells based on the bright magic of the stars, shouldn't she be more of a W/B?
Dragon Meteor is exclusive to Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. It's simply an aerial Master Spark aimed diagonally downward. As for the card effect you chose, it's insane. The fact that, unlike Memoricide, its predecessor Cranial Extraction, or its distant ancestor Lobotomy, you neither have to commit to knowing your opponent's deck nor do you need to limit yourself to a single card. Combo decks will never work because you could play Dragon Meteor, have an exact read on their entire deck, and eliminate their only win conditions for 4-6 life. Control decks would have a similar issue in that they run limited win conditions and a whole lot of cards to try to stall your board position until then. Red decks wouldn't be as dead due to you only being able to eliminate card efficiency by pulling Lightning Bolts for 1 life each, but it's still a strong option kill. The fact that it's mono-black isn't that bad, either - play a Swamp, a Mox Jet (or a Chrome Mox, or a Mox Diamond), and a Dark Ritual, and essentially tell your opponent on turn 1 that he can no longer play his game.
Master Spark is cool. It completely ruins aggro decks, since their entire strategy is playing cards and tapping them and running on a very low land economy (while you can do something like play a Dark Ritual and avoid losing four lands), but still cool.
Blazing Star sounds red, granting flying without any drawbacks is either white or blue, and +1/-1 has seen use in red (strictly worse than firebreathing), blue (Morphling), and black (strictly worse than a shade). According to the Grimoire of Marisa ( http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/The_Grimoire_of_Marisa/Marisa_Kirisame's_Spell_Cards ), Marisa uses a Master Spark aimed behind her as the propellant for this spellcard. Perhaps a more fitting card would be something like...
1C: Enchanted creature gets +1/+0 and gains flying and "Whenever this creature deals damage, it deals that much damage to itself" until end of turn.
where C is a colored mana. Multiple instances of flying shouldn't make a difference, and the self-damage effect is more fitting than lowering toughness. Costing only C to boost under that form would be potentially game-ending, though, which is why I suggested 1C.
Correct syntax for Event Horizon would be "put the card exiled this way into your hand."
Correct syntax on Marisa would be "whenever a creature an opponent owns dies", as per M12 revisions ( http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/features/aftdzxretrxcghbcgsjxngcbkjm2.jpg )
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shoot the moon seems like it would be too easy to ohko with if you have emrakul/that 16 cmc dragon? in your hand. Just play some decent threats that must be answered then kill them when they tap out, pitching 1-2 cards at most (as long as you don't have to worry about force of will).
Master spark- I first thought this was sunblast angel but worse, then i reread and saw "permanents". I think it should cost at least 1 more because if the opponents taps out/taps 4-6 lands and you play this off dark ritual and a land then the game is over, which shouldn't be too hard to do.
I would love to play with event horizon, living close to the edge like that is always fun and it would give me a reason to play venser.
looks like lsb already covered dragon meteor.. that would wreck soo many decks. But i would definitely not play it vs red aisight. If you spend ever 4 life to remove their biggest threat they can probably kill you with whats in their hand.
Cool cards, unfortunately not that many people play both mtg and touhou
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Honestly, the funniest part about Event Horizon is that it continues to kill you even after you have the card you wanted. It might have potential with Form of the Dragon.
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I just remembered that a few cards need shuffle clauses.
EDIT: Thanks for the comments! It has been clear that my opinions on balance are not shared in part by others here, but I'm perfectly okay with that, and I can see lots of room for improvement on all of these. Maybe next time I should sleep on it before I post :D
LSB: Not affecting the board or their hand, while giving up life and tempo, does not automatically win you the game. Life's Finale is a wrath effect that you can easily plan around to net you a 2-for-1 or 3-for-2 at the very least, plus the exile effect, which is what makes it so good in Limited. Something that would improve this card would be to force the life payment as an additional cost, both to limit the flexibility and to weaken it against counterspells.
aisight: There is nothing in Marisa's character that is White. Sorry, but the palette and the color wheel only rarely correspond, and then only by coincidence. Even Reimu was a bit of a stretch, since she could easily be viewed as Black as well. As for Dragon Meteor, see LSB, and also note that if we're in an eternal format where I'm allowed Swamp + Mox + Dark Ritual + one other card, I can assure you that that card wouldn't be Dragon Meteor. At that point you might as well be playing Ad Nauseum Tendrils and just win the game. Blazing Star does indeed sound red, but I'm constraining spell cards to their character's colors, and black has given flying via auras (Fallen Ideal). Event Horizon references a card from another line, which is why that syntax is required. I also won't be using M12 syntax until its actual release.
DCLXVI: That's certainly one way to build Shoot the Moon, and I dare say that that would be acceptable :D
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ilgb9.jpg)
