[MtG] Arixmethes, Living Isle (written)

[heraldry_lord]

Arixmethes, Living Isle

Legendary Land - Island

 

({T}: Add {U} to your mana pool.)

 

Arixmethes, Living Isle enters the battlefield tapped.

 

{1}{U},{T}: Put a flood counter on target non-Island land. That land is an Island in addition to its other types as long as it has a flood counter on it.

 

{8}{U}{U}{U}: Arixmethes, Living Isle becomes a 10/10 blue Kraken creature with indestructible and islandwalk. It is still a land.

[Mysty]

Arixmethes, Living Isle

Legendary Land - Island

 

{T}: Add {U} to your mana pool.

 

{1}{U},{T}: Target non-Island land is an Island.

 

{8}{U}{U}: Arixmethes, Living Isle becomes a 10/10 blue Kraken creature with indestructible and islandwalk. It is still a land.

 

I have a number of problems with this. I will tackle each and provide a recommended solution.

 

Problem: Having just 1 of these in a deck is almost strictly better than having an Island in that spot, especially since this even has the Island subtype.

Solution: It's generally accepted practice to require nonbasic lands to either enter tapped under certain circumstances and/or only produce colorless. Since this produces blue, that defaults to the first solution. My parameter for entering tapped would be all the time, i.e. "[insert card name here] enters the battlefield tapped." That might not be enough to balance this card, but it's a great place to start. Another fix might be to remove the Island subtype, but that's essentially a judgment call.

 

Problem: Turning lands into Islands indefinitely. this has two-fold problems:

- It doesn't mark them with anything to help prevent memory issues. (Generally flood counters are used.)

- Turning a land into an Island removes all of its other abilities. This is particularly oppressive against any deck using a color other than blue since you can shut down their access to colors other than blue quite well.

Solution: the easiest solution is probably to make it say:

1U, T: Put a flood counter on target non-Island land. That land is an Island in addition to its other types for as long as it has a flood counter on it.

that keeps it niche enough IMO.

 

Caution: I'm rather cautious of the last ability. I know that's the shtick of the entire card, but it's an uncounterable, mostly unremovable beatstick that didn't cost a nonland spot in the deck. I'd recommend seeing what other people have to say about it.

 

Another note: If a land has the Island subtype, it doesn't 'need' "T: Add U to your mana pool." That's an ability all Islands inherently have. (In practice, though, the ability usually shows up in reminder text for non-basic Islands, though, so just put parentheses around that part.)

[heraldry_lord]

I gave it the Island subtype mostly for flavour reasons; in most cases, I wouldn't have given it that.

 

I was even debating whether or not I should have made him a land creature that couldn't attack or block until you paid the mana cost you're paying to animate him in this version.  As a land creature, he might also be eligible as a commander, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

 

In any event, is what I have now acceptable?

[Mysty]

I gave it the Island subtype mostly for flavour reasons; in most cases, I wouldn't have given it that.

 

I was even debating whether or not I should have made him a land creature that couldn't attack or block until you paid the mana cost you're paying to animate him in this version.  As a land creature, he might also be eligible as a commander, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

 

In any event, is what I have now acceptable?

 

Understandable.

 

The way you have it written now is best, mechanically speaking. Flavor only goes so far.

 

as I mentioned, I am cautious of it, but I'm not sure what else I would do. Seeing if this needs to be changed further will require the help of others.