Ward—Draw a card

[Ryder]

A thought experiment, what should be the P/T of the following creature:

Capricious Thug 1R
Creature — Human (U)
Ward—Draw a card.
P/T

Bonus: What about the following version?

Loquacious Thug 1R
Creature — Human (U)
When Loquacious Thug enters the battlefield, target opponent draws a card.
P/T

[void_nothing]

So you can conceptualize "Ward - Draw a card" as a drawback of "your opponent using removal on this costs them only mana, not a card." With that in mind, the first version could be 3/3 (not great powerwise but probably more in line with the Human type) or 4/3 (a little more aggressive). Second version (ETB) strikes me as a 4/3 as well.

[OneAndOnly]

I'd want to clean the syntax up for casual users, to make certain that it's the controller of the spell or ability that draws the card, not the controller of the creature with ward.

Since ward triggers off of abilities as well as spells, I would find this an awful drawback, against the right sort of decks. Something like Unnatural Selection becomes "1: Draw a card", which is just hideous.

[Ryder]

I'd want to clean the syntax up for casual users, to make certain that it's the controller of the spell or ability that draws the card, not the controller of the creature with ward.

Since ward triggers off of abilities as well as spells, I would find this an awful drawback, against the right sort of decks. Something like Unnatural Selection becomes "1: Draw a card", which is just hideous.

The potentially confusing syntax is what prevents it from being Common. Not sure, but Uncommon might also be too low.
As for how it interacts with activated abilities... There are very few cards that would let you do what you described.

What P/T would you give those creatures? I'm still gathering opinions.

[OneAndOnly]

There are a *lot* of cards with targettable abilities and zero cost; everything from Mother of Runes to Prodigal Pyromancer. Flickering Ward becomes "WW: Draw a card." It's probably better if it doesn't remove the creature you propose, because then it's just an eternal card factory.

So, I wouldn't give a P/T to those creatures, because I don't see this as a 'cost' thast would see print. It's interesting in a thought-experiment sort of way; how much of a drawback is too much of a drawback? What other "costs" could we use?

[Ryder]

@OneAndOnly Somehow I don't see any of these two card combos as format threatening. In fact, it would be completely unplayable outside of Standard, and perfectly fine in Standard or even Limited.

[OneAndOnly]

I don't see that, given how available targeted, activated abilities with low cost are, that any player would willingly include a card with "Ward - Draw a card" in their deck. What's your counterargument?

[Ryder]

1. The point of the card is to give opponent cards in exchange for greater early punching power. You would play such a card in decks that don't care about long term card advantage, aiming to win by T4 - T5.

2. For the above reason, if you were looking to counter this card, you would do better just playing a removal spell and cashing in on that guaranteed 2 for 1.

[SecretInfiltrator]

The best thing though would be to play Pacifism and keep it around for further card draw, right?

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I could see some variants on this:

Inverse Stormchaser Drake - minor drawback, but avoids the ability issue rather than pretending it doesn't exist.

All spell Fugitive Druid: Being symmetrical there would be no need to increase the stats since the point becomes that you can abuse it as well. Still more important to avoid ability abuse here.

Add a cost e. g. "ward {2}" and "Whenever a player pays ~'s ward cost, they draw a card." Though for a red card a ward cost is not supposed to be mana...

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Speaking of which: I can see three, maybe four, other colors I would put that effect in before red. Colors are more aligned with giving out as drawback what they can themselves can provide. So I could see red paying back the mana used on removal by creating Treasures for the opponent (rather than paying back the card investment).

Maybe a cool red-feeling variant would be: "Ward - Discard a card." with "Whenever a player pays ~'s ward cost, draw [a card|two cards]."