Due to recent relevations in one of my favorite comics...

[Krishnath]

Castela Blackthorn 2WBG
Legendary Creature - Plant (M)
Indestructible, hexproof
Castela Blackthorn can't be sacrificed.
All creatures lose protection
If a player would take an extra turn, instead they don't.
2WBG, T: Exile target permanent with mana value 6 or greater.
4/4

The Character is from the webcomic Wapsi Square. If you haven't read it, you really should, it is a prime example of the genre of Urban Fantasy. It can get a little complicated at times, and sometimes deals with some very heavy issues, but it is really, really good.
The character in question is a half-human hybrid with the other half being a plant called a Blackthorn, a sapient but stationary plant that grows around natural dimensional portals. They are one of the few things in the in comic universe that is powerful enough to take on true faeries and win, and make Elder Gods and Titans wet their pants with fear. Castela, being half human, is mobile, which freaks some of the most powerful beings in the universe out like you wouldn't believe. While physically a teenager, Castela has just learned that Blackthorns have racial memory, and she has started to remember things from her plantbased ancestors. And no, she was not created by someone getting freaky with a plant, she was created in a lab by someone who wanted a superweapon on par with the one that wiped out Atlantis.

Anyway, the comic is great, it has everything: Immortals, Ancient Sapient Superweapons, Demons (that are closer to the original meaning than later interpretations), Aztec mythology, sphinxes, titans, gods, faeries, magic, magitech, vampires, werewolves, a tiny blue aztec god of alcohol (he's funny), native american mythology, east asian mythology, sirens and succubi, wood sprites (not related to faeries), half-orcs, shapechanging, golems, living metal, an eldritch extradimensional library with a mind of its own, merfolk, the granddaughter of poseidon, the men in black (as good guys), a creature who is a body where the soul has vacated the premises but the person's demons have taken over (she's nice, I swear), two of Charon's daughters, Charon, an Elemental that is a bunch of demons and a soul that have fused together, a giant and playful Kraken, at least two volcanic explosions, archaeology, and more. It's friggin' amazing.

As for the card, comments, critique, and constructive criticism is most welcome. Design wise it should be ok, but I am not 100% certain on giving her hexproof.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

I clicked on the link, and

SPOILER

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is that girl trash-talking EMRAKUL?!

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Imho, it's kinda pushed out the gate. With the story as you've described it, I would almost prefer if she gained the keywords and permanent-killing ability through something like Monstrous to show her evolution into a full-fledged superweapon from a humble teenager.

[void_nothing]

Imho, it's kinda pushed out the gate. With the story as you've described it, I would almost prefer if she gained the keywords and permanent-killing ability through something like Monstrous to show her evolution into a full-fledged superweapon from a humble teenager.

Agreed, because a 4/4 with indestructible and hexproof is already too strong, and what's more than that, noninteractive, for five mana. This card is basically entirely too much, and what's more it pushes both sides of the removal arms race to unfortunate levels.

[Krishnath]

I clicked on the link, and

SPOILER

Show

Hide

is that girl trash-talking EMRAKUL?!

Why yes, yes she did.

Imho, it's kinda pushed out the gate. With the story as you've described it, I would almost prefer if she gained the keywords and permanent-killing ability through something like Monstrous to show her evolution into a full-fledged superweapon from a humble teenager.

She was always an indestructible superweapon, she's just beginning to gain access to the racial memory of her plant side. In the comics, when investigating how she and her adopted sister became orphans she learns the circumstances of her creation. Even as a sprout she was fiercely protective of her older sister and literally put an indestructible shell of her own plant matter around her sister to protect her from gunfire, killed the agents who killed her sisters parents, and was about to tear the team of MIB agents sent to the distress call apart before she recognized them. And that was as what is essentially a newborn. There is basically only one creature in the setting of the same power level, and that was split into three beings and hidden after it literally leveled Atlantis, killing millions, and sent humanity back to the pre-stone age. You know Sahara? The biggest desert on Earth? It was created because of that superweapons anger and anguish from its creation where three young women got tortured and starved until they were burned alive just so they could be used to animate it. If it wasn't because one of the three souls restrained the others, it would have collapsed the sun into a black hole. This is the level of power Castela was born with and the Blackthorn bushes wield.

Seriously, read the comic.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Okay, but sheer invinicibility incarnate doesn't exactly make for a fun game piece. She should, by all right, be a strong card. But if the only opportunity to deal with her is on the stack AND she's removal within herself, she needs at least +4 generic to balance this. Heck, if she's really a being that can inspire fear in Emmy of all things, why not just make her a gamewinning 12/12 for 14 or something and then she can be as busted as you feel the flavour demands.

That being said, I stand by my previous statement, on the grounds of game design if not of flavor. The first draft is not a fun or fair design by any stretch of the imagination

[Krishnath]

Okay, but sheer invinicibility incarnate doesn't exactly make for a fun game piece. She should, by all right, be a strong card. But if the only opportunity to deal with her is on the stack AND she's removal within herself, she needs at least +4 generic to balance this. Heck, if she's really a being that can inspire fear in Emmy of all things, why not just make her a gamewinning 12/12 for 14 or something and then she can be as busted as you feel the flavour demands.

That being said, I stand by my previous statement, on the grounds of game design if not of flavor. The first draft is not a fun or fair design by any stretch of the imagination

That is pretty close to my own thoughts on the card. I will be dropping the hexproof part and upping the casting cost.

Castela Blackthorn 4WWBBGG
Legendary Creature - Plant (M)
Indestructible
Castela Blackthorn can't be sacrificed.
All creatures lose protection.
If a player would take an extra turn, instead they do not.
WWBBGG, T: Exile target permanent with mana value 6 or greater.
4/4

I doubled the casting cost, and increased the cost of the activated ability, making it more color intensive to both cast and activate. I also dropped the hexproof making the creature more susceptible to targeted removal.

[spacemonaut]

Indestructible, hexproof
Castela Blackthorn can't be sacrificed.
All creatures lose protection

I might instead write:

"Protection from everything
Other creatures lose protection and can't have or gain protection."


But yeah, the fun of the game is in interactiveness. Sucking the fun out of the game by stopping interactiveness was one of the main complaints against WAR Teferi. Just a handful of cards like Progenitus have "can't touch this" and they have it as their entire schtick and, well, Progenitus costs WWUUBBRRGG. I wouldn't also add on additional hatebear capacity or repeat removal to such a card.

But I'm gonna take your word for it

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@Krishnath

Love, love, love the second version. Feels like godlike power, but maybe buff the P/T now with the new cmc. For me, this feels like an 8/10 kind of creature. Heck, slap on some vigilance too! 10 drops gotta 10 drop, you know.

[Krishnath]

@Krishnath

Love, love, love the second version. Feels like godlike power, but maybe buff the P/T now with the new cmc. For me, this feels like an 8/10 kind of creature. Heck, slap on some vigilance too! 10 drops gotta 10 drop, you know.

Something like:

Castela Blackthorn 2WWBBGG
Legendary Creature - Plant (M)
Indestructible
Castela Blackthorn can't be sacrificed.
All creatures lose protection and can't have or gain
If a player would take an extra turn, instead they do not.
WWBBGG,T: Exile target permanent with mana value 6 or greater.
6/6

I am hesitant of making her to large or powerful. I want it powerful, not ban worthy.