Spells with activated abilities.

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc (More info?)

Hi,

Since everybody is showing their card ideas I'll tell you what I was
thinking last.

My idea was to have instants and sorcery with activated abilities
which can be played as long as they are on the stack. It could be cool
if the ability is very power while the spell has an effect that fixes
the power.

An example:

Insane Thoughts
{2}{U}
Instant
Discard your hand.
Discard a card: Draw a card. Play this ability only if Insane Thoughts
is on the stack.

Any ideas about the mechanic or the card?
--
David

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc (More info?)

David de Kloet wrote on Sun, 26 Dec 2004 00:20:12 +0100:
>
> On Sat, 25 Dec 2004, Rast wrote:
>
> > David de Kloet wrote on Sat, 25 Dec 2004 22:02:08 +0100:
> >
> >> My idea was to have instants and sorcery with activated abilities
> >> which can be played as long as they are on the stack.
> >
> > Creative, but not a healthy idea. The whole point of having a stack is
> > to give your opponent the chance to respond to your spell before it
> > resolves. If the activated ability can be used as soon as the
> > sorcery/instant is on the stack, what we really have is an enchantment
> > spell that resolves immediately without using the stack, just like mana
> > abilities do.
>
> Why wouldn't the opponent have a chance to respond? The activated
> ability still uses the stack.

"what we really have is an enchantment spell that resolves immediately"

Once the enchantment is in play (on the stack), you can play its
activated ability. The activated ability will use the stack and can be
responded to, although in the example you gave it could be activated
repeatedly anyway.

> The activated ability can be countered as every activated ability.

Right, which is essentially impossible, because players prefer cards that
counter spells to cards that counter activated abilities. That's why,
say, you'll generally see someone Mana Leak an Archbound Ravager rather
than Stifle individual Ravager activations.

Wrath of God
{2}{W}{W}
Sorcery
Remove Wrath of God from the game: Destroy all creatures and they can't
be regenerated. Play this ability only when Wrath of God is on the
stack.



--
"Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of
your death," answered Gandalf. "And only the heathen kings, under the
domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and
despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death." - Tolkien

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc (More info?)

On Sat, 25 Dec 2004, Rast wrote:

> "what we really have is an enchantment spell that resolves immediately"
>
> Once the enchantment is in play (on the stack), you can play its
> activated ability. The activated ability will use the stack and can be
> responded to, although in the example you gave it could be activated
> repeatedly anyway.

You think Storm is overpowered? Of course you can make overpowered
cards having the ability but this doesn't make the ability
overpowered.

> Wrath of God
> {2}{W}{W}
> Sorcery
> Remove Wrath of God from the game: Destroy all creatures and they can't
> be regenerated. Play this ability only when Wrath of God is on the
> stack.

The fact that this card is better than WoG most of the time doesn't
mean the mechanic is useless. The cards it's on just need to be
balanced very well. That's why my idea was to let them have a big
drawback when they resolve.

--
David