Hello everybody, and welcome to episode 128 of Ominous Designs. This week where are going back too simple Limited-minded cards. Our mechanic is a very straightforward one and yet strangely rare in the field of existing magic designs: dying creatures leaving smaller tokens behind – hence the title, and yes I am aware this is not how babies work.
We have three uncommons to look at but we could easily have had a dozen. Let’s get started with the white one.
Kerathan Mob is as promised a 3/3 that dies into three 1/1.
For 5 mana he is obviously pretty aggressively costed.
Getting 6 power and toughness four 5 sounds like a crazy deal but keep in mind that the creature has to die for that. Anything preventing it from dying makes it a 3/3 for 5.
Still, the potential is huge. Not Cloudgoat Ranger level, but getting there. I’ve actually just seen ranger and I thought the “goats” were 0/1 but they are actually 1/1 Kithkins! Cloudgoat is really crazy…
Now moving on to Rethik Summoner.
This one was even harder to balance. What we want here is an aggressive bunch of two creatures that we can still cost aggressively so that it’s not another 5 drop – red doesn’t love those. But how?
The best I could find is cost a meager 2/1 one and two red mana to give us leeway when the creature dies. For the free creature I went for something very brittle but still aggressive. If you consider that it makes it virtual 5/2 for 3 you might think it’s way over the top and you might be right. Cobblebrute costs 4 and is an ok common that doesn’t have to die. Based on this, summoner might be a great uncommon but not unreasonable. You tell me.
Lastly, Lakgreed Hellrats.
Those are actually the original design that inspired me with this cycle.
Nowadays a 3/3 for 4 is just not cutting it any more. You need some fairly good upside with that.
A 1/1 deathtouch is among the best upsides ever seen though, but I’m fine with that. I’m thinking this looks somewhat similar to Drunau Corpse Trawler. Remember, you need a 3/3 to die before you get your little chumper.
I feel like the dynamic of that is slightly off beat and will help justify the cost. I don’t know why but I really like the design.
That’s it for today! Like I said you could easily create dozen of those. I’m not sure why we don’t see more cards of this kind in regular sets, maybe you need an expansion that relies more on tokens and die triggers, maybe one with sacrifices outlets too. Feel free to come up with more and let me know.
Now is time to wish you a great week and fun games. See you next time!
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