DOM Balancing Ideas

ninjark

Akroma could use something to consider her over other red creatures of a similar cost (Darigaaz, Verix, Etali, Regisaur Alpha, Burning Sun's Avatar; all of which have an immediate impact).  

As @ZW2007- pointed out: she's a 17 to cast creature that commonly attacks for 9 after she survives a turn.  There's not much to see there.   

Having +3/+0 activated gems (or even +2/+0) would make her stand out a bit more.
Without a buff, I'd probably only run Akroma over another red baddie if I had Lyra.

wereotter

ninjark said:

Akroma could use something to consider her over other red creatures of a similar cost (Darigaaz, Verix, Etali, Regisaur Alpha, Burning Sun's Avatar; all of which have an immediate impact).  

As @ZW2007- pointed out: she's a 17 to cast creature that commonly attacks for 9 after she survives a turn.  There's not much to see there.   

Having +3/+0 activated gems (or even +2/+0) would make her stand out a bit more.
Without a buff, I'd probably only run Akroma over another red baddie if I had Lyra.

I don't own her personally, but I have found that first ability to not have her mana able to be drained or her cost raised to be pretty potent, if niche. It means that if you have her first in hand, Kiora can't take away her mana, and Sphinx's Revelation can't raise her cost which is nice. Also for a planeswalker like Koth it looks like it would be fairly easy to trigger her +1/+1 multiple times a turn since he blows up non-red gems, meaning you're more likely to hit them off a cascade from his ability.

I would definitely play around with her if I had her. Plus she's already larger than most creatures in red in standard at her cost and lower with the closest being Avaricious Dragon at 15 mana and Verix Bladewing at 18 mana.

ZW2007-

Bil said:

 For 17 mana, she's already a solid creature. I can understand that a +1/+1 doesnt look too useful but i think a +3/+3 instead would be too much. Its not too difficult to activate 2 or 3 gems among the 4 if you build a bit around it. A +2/+2 would be the compromise ... Maybe?
 As a sidenote, If we are really talking about making her close to the paper version, then her mana cost should be raised too (she's an 8 mana creature in paper .... Much harder to gather than the 17 mana of the PQ version ... ). To compare, Gaea's revenge is 7 mana in paper and costs 23 mana in PQ.

Well if we want to compare to paper and Gaea's Revenge, GR is a 7 mana 8/5 in paper and a 23 mana 16/9 in PQ. She's a 17 mana 8/8 here and an 8 mana 6/6 in paper (and she also has morph which lets you get her into play earlier than GR anyway). Mana cost tends to be relative to attack power. Since we're comparing the two, Gaea's Revenge is the much better PQ card.

I don't understand why +3/+0 would be too much though. She'd attack as an 11/8 and in some cases maybe pop more than one activate and swing even harder. She would never be good defensively without outside help and would still die to an 8 power blocker. I also think they could do something different like give her hexproof to blue and white since protection seems out of the question or just change it to Hexproof if your opponent is a Blue or White planeswalker.

(Disclaimer: I don't own Akroma, I just think the card looks uninteresting and not worthy of being an MP but a lot in this cycle feel that way.) 

Mburn7

*Updated with Akroma*

Wow, there are a lot of underwhelming masterpieces that could be really good with really minor tweaks.  Go figure.

ZW2007-

Mburn7 said:

*Updated with Akroma*

Wow, there are a lot of underwhelming masterpieces that could be really good with really minor tweaks.  Go figure.

8/10 in this batch meet that criteria imo. Living Death and Hanna just seem excellent. Deed, Piper, Magus, and Flash can be good but have very niche uses and generally don't seem worth playing. Akroma has already been discussed but her Vengeance is not really any better than Hour of Revelation (the only difference is you draw two cards). I have HoR and don't know if I've cast it more than a few times. Conflux is only good if you are Karona (aka never - forget the event and node name but it uses Karona, False God as an avatar). Port seemed good but a teammate has told me it is pretty useless.

We had a similar situation with XLN but that entire set got buffed while some of the MPs remain terrible (looking at you Aether Vial) or broken (looking at you Knight of the Reliquary).

Brakkis

I'm really not seeing how Living Death seems excellent. It's a one time board wipe and GY exile for 3 creatures the next turn. If those creatures don't then die, you have nothing in your GY to return the next time it's cast, which means you'd have to cast it twice in that scenario to just get those same creatures back.

Primeval's Glorious Rebirth just seems all around superior at Mythic. Use the right creatures in your deck and you can board wipe just as swiftly with that, and it doesn't exile everything else from your GY to boot.

khurram

Living Death exiles the graveyard and then destroys the board. So it does set you up for casting the next copy.

Living death is excellent. If a board wipe and casting of 3 creatures in one card isn't good enough for people then I don't know what is. I don't think the brokenness of glorious rebirth is a good measuring stick to determine how good another card is. Casting 3 creatures is of course not as impressive as casting a bazillion creatures. But it is enough to put you ahead in the game if you were falling behind. The extra creatures cast by rebirth are just an overkill anyway.

Mburn7

ZW2007- said:

Mburn7 said:

*Updated with Akroma*

Wow, there are a lot of underwhelming masterpieces that could be really good with really minor tweaks.  Go figure.

8/10 in this batch meet that criteria imo. Living Death and Hanna just seem excellent. Deed, Piper, Magus, and Flash can be good but have very niche uses and generally don't seem worth playing. Akroma has already been discussed but her Vengeance is not really any better than Hour of Revelation (the only difference is you draw two cards). I have HoR and don't know if I've cast it more than a few times. Conflux is only good if you are Karona (aka never - forget the event and node name but it uses Karona, False God as an avatar). Port seemed good but a teammate has told me it is pretty useless.

We had a similar situation with XLN but that entire set got buffed while some of the MPs remain terrible (looking at you Aether Vial) or broken (looking at you Knight of the Reliquary).

As someone who pulled a Magus, I think he's pretty sweet.  I don't think niche=bad, at long as the card works well in the niche (looking at you pernicious deed).  He is slightly bugged, though, since if you lose him with Archive out only the first 4 cards in your hand gain mana and not all 6.

Brakkis

khurram said:

Living Death exiles the graveyard and then destroys the board. So it does set you up for casting the next copy.

Well that improves it quite a bit in my eyes and certainly makes it more useful then other board wipes that leave you nothing.

It sounds similar to how The Great Aurora should have functioned when put in PQ, though with supports in that case.

DumasAG

ZW2007- said:

Mburn7 said:

*Updated with Akroma*

Wow, there are a lot of underwhelming masterpieces that could be really good with really minor tweaks.  Go figure.

8/10 in this batch meet that criteria imo. Living Death and Hanna just seem excellent. Deed, Piper, Magus, and Flash can be good but have very niche uses and generally don't seem worth playing. Akroma has already been discussed but her Vengeance is not really any better than Hour of Revelation (the only difference is you draw two cards). I have HoR and don't know if I've cast it more than a few times. Conflux is only good if you are Karona (aka never - forget the event and node name but it uses Karona, False God as an avatar). Port seemed good but a teammate has told me it is pretty useless.

We had a similar situation with XLN but that entire set got buffed while some of the MPs remain terrible (looking at you Aether Vial) or broken (looking at you Knight of the Reliquary).

Conflux seems ok in Karn, but otherwise I generally agree with your assessment. 

rafalele

Flash

To be a Masterpice this spell should ask to the player if it has to be casted or not. There is no way to prevent it to be casted neither enabled nor disabled.

Rhasget

rafalele said:

Flash

To be a Masterpice this spell should ask to the player if it has to be casted or not. There is no way to prevent it to be casted neither enabled nor disabled.

And add Haste to the creature since it is useless if the creature doesn't have it from the start. A blocker won't do anything since it gets summoning sickness.
I don't know how cost adds up for abilities but adding that would kick it up 1 point to 9 and still be somewhat useable.

Mburn7

Rhasget said:

rafalele said:

Flash

To be a Masterpice this spell should ask to the player if it has to be casted or not. There is no way to prevent it to be casted neither enabled nor disabled.

And add Haste to the creature since it is useless if the creature doesn't have it from the start. A blocker won't do anything since it gets summoning sickness.
I don't know how cost adds up for abilities but adding that would kick it up 1 point to 9 and still be somewhat useable.

Since you play the creature on your opponent's turn, it should be able to attack on yours.  Does it not work like that?  Other things in game that give you creatures on the opponent's turn work like this.  I don't have Flash to test it, though.

Rhasget

Mburn7 said:

Rhasget said:

rafalele said:

Flash

To be a Masterpice this spell should ask to the player if it has to be casted or not. There is no way to prevent it to be casted neither enabled nor disabled.

And add Haste to the creature since it is useless if the creature doesn't have it from the start. A blocker won't do anything since it gets summoning sickness.
I don't know how cost adds up for abilities but adding that would kick it up 1 point to 9 and still be somewhat useable.

Since you play the creature on your opponent's turn, it should be able to attack on yours.  Does it not work like that?  Other things in game that give you creatures on the opponent's turn work like this.  I don't have Flash to test it, though.

The creature gets destroyed on the turn it is played, not at the end of your next turn.
If it gets played in Gregs turn the creature destroys when his turn end.
Therefore it is mostly useless unless you have a specific build (like Flash out Ghishat to fill the next dino with mana).

Mburn7

Rhasget said:

Mburn7 said:

Rhasget said:

rafalele said:

Flash

To be a Masterpice this spell should ask to the player if it has to be casted or not. There is no way to prevent it to be casted neither enabled nor disabled.

And add Haste to the creature since it is useless if the creature doesn't have it from the start. A blocker won't do anything since it gets summoning sickness.
I don't know how cost adds up for abilities but adding that would kick it up 1 point to 9 and still be somewhat useable.

Since you play the creature on your opponent's turn, it should be able to attack on yours.  Does it not work like that?  Other things in game that give you creatures on the opponent's turn work like this.  I don't have Flash to test it, though.

The creature gets destroyed on the turn it is played, not at the end of your next turn.
If it gets played in Gregs turn the creature destroys when his turn end.
Therefore it is mostly useless unless you have a specific build (like Flash out Ghishat to fill the next dino with mana).

Ah.  Makes sense.  It really should give the creature reach, since the point of the card is a surprise blocker.  But nice ETB or death effects work too, I guess.

FindingHeart8

Mburn7 said:

Rhasget said:

Mburn7 said:

Rhasget said:

rafalele said:

Flash

To be a Masterpice this spell should ask to the player if it has to be casted or not. There is no way to prevent it to be casted neither enabled nor disabled.

And add Haste to the creature since it is useless if the creature doesn't have it from the start. A blocker won't do anything since it gets summoning sickness.
I don't know how cost adds up for abilities but adding that would kick it up 1 point to 9 and still be somewhat useable.

Since you play the creature on your opponent's turn, it should be able to attack on yours.  Does it not work like that?  Other things in game that give you creatures on the opponent's turn work like this.  I don't have Flash to test it, though.

The creature gets destroyed on the turn it is played, not at the end of your next turn.
If it gets played in Gregs turn the creature destroys when his turn end.
Therefore it is mostly useless unless you have a specific build (like Flash out Ghishat to fill the next dino with mana).

Ah.  Makes sense.  It really should give the creature reach, since the point of the card is a surprise blocker.  But nice ETB or death effects work too, I guess.

I use it in my Bolas deck with my Grixis-rainbow of Kamigawa Dragons, where it is fairly useful as I essentially can cast them (on my turn or theirs) for half-price and get their death-abilities that same turn.

Outside from comboing it with other masterpieces I would agree that yeah it really isn't that useful.  It really should be like 2 cmc (cost in paper mtg) to be useful with other cards, so you could insta-summon a decent defender during your opponent's turn to protect you from an attack

DumasAG

I thought the point of flash was that it ambushed opponent thinking they were safe against AI? Not so that you can attack the next turn. Seems good if you run with with prized amalgam and other zombays. Or as FindingHeart suggested - the Dargons.

Mburn7

DumasAG said:

I thought the point of flash was that it ambushed opponent thinking they were safe against AI? Not so that you can attack the next turn. Seems good if you run with with prized amalgam and other zombays. Or as FindingHeart suggested - the Dargons.

The problem is the "ambush" won't work if you play just any random creature.  It works best with funky effects or defender/reach creatures, of which there aren't enough to guarantee use.  If Flash gave the creature it cast reach until end of turn, it would be an awesome surprise blocker (just like in paper)

DumasAG

Mburn7 said:

DumasAG said:

I thought the point of flash was that it ambushed opponent thinking they were safe against AI? Not so that you can attack the next turn. Seems good if you run with with prized amalgam and other zombays. Or as FindingHeart suggested - the Dargons.

The problem is the "ambush" won't work if you play just any random creature.  It works best with funky effects or defender/reach creatures, of which there aren't enough to guarantee use.  If Flash gave the creature it cast reach until end of turn, it would be an awesome surprise blocker (just like in paper)

Oh true, didn't think about that. Still, it's got a place with death triggers and graveyard-matters shenanigans in both standard and legacy. Not sure I'd consider it useless (I know you didn't use those words, was someone else) - certainly not to the extent of some of the other really trashy MPs.

khurram

Conflux's effects should act on the colored gems present on the board instead of Mana bonuses. 

Insta jump from meh! to woah!!!