Make Ornithopters worth being a masterpiece

PastrySpider

So the current ornithopter (4/4 flyer for 4 mana) in the masterpieces set is a joke and a really depressing one. Its awful and will be hugely depressing to get as your hard won masterpiece. Also, it annoyingly not actually close to the current card. I can see 0 casting cost cards being problematic because they will promote looping more easily by effectively making decks smaller. My suggestions is to make it a 0/8 flying defender for 1 mana. That a solid, useful early game card, especially in "lose less than X life" objectives.

Ampmp11

In a similar vein, can we make Masterpieces actually worth obtaining? Most of these feel like rare worthy let alone above and beyond mythics.

Let's see here 350 crystals for a guaranteed mythic vs 2000+ crystals for a guaranteed mythic and a chance at a masterpiece. These masterpiece cards should be like 5-6x better than mythics according to the prices you've set.

Steeme

Their intent with this card is likely something that synergizes with Saheeli. She can buff constructs +6/+6, and since it's not a vehicle, it doesn't clutter up her ultimate ability, which means you can run it with Boomship. It can also be used as a cheap chump troop. It can also be used to trigger Crew mechanics, so you can choose to run Heart of Kiran and Boomship together in a Saheeli deck, where casting the Ornithopter will actually net you a mana gain instead of loss.

I agree there are much better cards out there but this one can be put to good use. I think low cost options are underrated. Kari Zev is an absolute all-star in some of my decks because she either a) draws out annoying kill/bounce spells or b) is left alone to grow over time.

In addition, you could easily combine ornithopter with any of the new sword masterpieces.

buscemi

The main crime of Ornithopter I think is not that it's underpowered; indeed, it's probably going to be very useful in the decks of those Bronze/Silver Tier players who stumble upon it opening boosters, even tho it's very unlikely to see any play at all in Platinum Tier, since despite it's decent power to cost ratio, it's not worth an entire card.

No, Ornithopter's biggest problem IMO is that it's dull. Getting a Masterpiece is an incredibly unlikely event, and a player wants to open one that inspires them, not one without any text on it at all. What we really want is to open a card which has a text box full of complicated effects like Accursed Witch, Elusive Tormentor, Gonti Lord of Luxury, Quarantine Field, Tree of Perdition, Ulvenwald Mysteries, Void Winnower, Westvale Abbey, World Breaker, Yahenni Undying Partisan... sure, most of those cards are pretty rubbish, but it's the numbers on the cards that make them rubbish, not their effects.

jimilinho_

You know reading this made me think they could have made Yahenni cost like 4 or 5 mana. Make it actually so you could play him.

Obviously won't happen of course!

PastrySpider

Ornithopter is out classed by at least two KLD cheap mythic creatures: Kari Zev and Sram. That's not good for a masterpiece.

It ignores the three defining features of ornithopters, they are free, don't do damage and they are a great early defence. The cost isnt really a huge problem right now but it would be great if any match could cast them (cost 1). The biggest thing is giving them defence. Right now they don't actually work as a ornithopter.

Alternatively, have it be a spell for 4 which summons 4 1/1 thopters and then gives them defence. That would be awesome because it would synergize with other thopter cards and give your thopter stack defense.

buscemi

PastrySpider wrote:

Ornithopter is out classed by at least two KLD cheap mythic creatures: Kari Zev and Sram. That's not good for a masterpiece.

If you're going to make the case that cards of each rarity level should be more powerful than those of lower rarity levels, we're going to be here all day fixing all the other cards.

PastrySpider

buscemi wrote:

PastrySpider wrote:

Ornithopter is out classed by at least two KLD cheap mythic creatures: Kari Zev and Sram. That's not good for a masterpiece.

If you're going to make the case that cards of each rarity level should be more powerful than those of lower rarity levels, we're going to be here all day fixing all the other cards.

True, so lets work from the masterpieces down and starting with O. One day we'll get to you, Radiant Flames, but not today.

In all honestly, uncommons being better than rares (grip of desolation vs unholy hunger) is more forgivable since both are relatively available. Masterpieces should be special and more carefully refined given the effort that goes into getting them.