Un-Card: Legendary Host

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

@Pygyzy's comment from their Un-commander judging in Nexus Flamingo got me thinking:

Nasty [] Nepenthes Monster, Noya
2{B}{G}{U}
Host [] Creature - Plant <[Legendary]
When this creature enters the battlefield, at random
========================================
choose one:
-Create Lush Pitcher-Plant, a 2/3 green Plant host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token."
-Create Garden Slug, a 1/5 black Slug host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, exile target card from a graveyard. You gain 1 life."
-Create [Slimy], a blue +1/+1 blue Salamander creature token with hexproof, augment, and "[{2}{U}, Discard a card:]", then combine it with a host.
2/3

Note 1: I decided to make it random otherwise the optimal play every time is to choose [Slimy] first to give Noya hexproof.

Note 2: The art would be the inverse of other host creatures; Noya's "head" (or whatever passes for a front end) would be to the right, while its posterior pokes through the portal on the left. So adding any augment card gives the impression of a two-headed monster.

Edit:
Note 3: Once Noya is augmented, the ability is no longer random, as that text would be covered up by the augment half.

[spacemonaut]

"choose one at random" would need to be on the right-hand side of the stitch line.

I don't think this much text can actually fit on a standard Host frame, considering Strutting Turkey has absolutely tiny text and its text is only slightly longer than the very first of those three modes:

"exile target creature card with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard. If it has augment, combine it with a host you control. Otherwise, put it onto the battlefield."

I note also it's possible to randomly create Slimy when I have no unaugmented hosts, which... probably makes it fall off to the graveyard and vanish. So despite being ostensibly pretty powerful, it can make the ability whiff.

That said, I like the host token concept, and the host tokens you made. I am not sure what to suggest exactly. Most of the Hosts don't have much complexity at all; all of them are common or uncommon except for one Rare one which can destroy artifacts repeatedly.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

"choose one at random" would need to be on the right-hand side of the stitch line.

You are absolutely right, that was my original intent, and I have no idea why I did it the way I did.

However, you brought something to my attention; in its current form, the formatting implies the "random choice" is to the left of the sticth line, along with the CITB trigger. So when Noya gets augmented, that part gets covered up, and the ability stops being random; you can then choose the token you want.

It certainly boosts the power level a lot. An interesting take; I thank you for bringing it to my attention.

[spacemonaut]

However, you brought something to my attention; in its current form, the formatting implies the "random choice" is to the left of the sticth line, along with the CITB trigger. So when Noya gets augmented, that part gets covered up, and the ability stops being random; you can then choose the token you want.

It certainly boosts the power level a lot. An interesting take; I thank you for bringing it to my attention.

It doesn't stop being random, it stops being valid Magic card syntax because the "choose one" has vanished as well. If "When this creature enters the battlefield, choose one at random —" is inside the post-it note on the left, then a Bat-Nepenthes Monster, Noya has rules text that goes suddenly into a modal list with no instructions about how/what to choose:

At the beginning of each end step, if an opponent lost 3 or more life this turn,
• Create Lush Pitcher-Plant, a 2/3 green Plant host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token."
• Create Garden Slug, a 1/5 black Slug host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, exile target card from a graveyard. You gain 1 life."
• Create [Slimy], a blue +1/+1 blue Salamander creature token with hexproof, augment, and "[{2}{U}, Discard a card:]", then combine it with a host.

Definitely needs to stick with the "When this creature enters the battlefield," on the left and the "choose one at random —" on the right.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

However, you brought something to my attention; in its current form, the formatting implies the "random choice" is to the left of the sticth line, along with the CITB trigger. So when Noya gets augmented, that part gets covered up, and the ability stops being random; you can then choose the token you want.

It certainly boosts the power level a lot. An interesting take; I thank you for bringing it to my attention.

It doesn't stop being random, it stops being valid Magic card syntax because the "choose one" has vanished as well. If "When this creature enters the battlefield, choose one at random —" is inside the post-it note on the left, then a Bat-Nepenthes Monster, Noya has rules text that goes suddenly into a modal list with no instructions about how/what to choose:

At the beginning of each end step, if an opponent lost 3 or more life this turn,
• Create Lush Pitcher-Plant, a 2/3 green Plant host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token."
• Create Garden Slug, a 1/5 black Slug host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, exile target card from a graveyard. You gain 1 life."
• Create [Slimy], a blue +1/+1 blue Salamander creature token with hexproof, augment, and "[{2}{U}, Discard a card:]", then combine it with a host.

Definitely needs to stick with the "When this creature enters the battlefield," on the left and the "choose one at random —" on the right.

Oho, I see now.

But theoretically:

When this creature enters the battlefield, at random
========================================
choose one:
-Create Lush Pitcher-Plant, a 2/3 green Plant host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token."
-Create Garden Slug, a 1/5 black Slug host creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, exile target card from a graveyard. You gain 1 life."
-Create [Slimy], a blue +1/+1 blue Salamander creature token with hexproof, augment, and "[{2}{U}, Discard a card:]", then combine it with a host.

[spacemonaut]

That could do it.

If you're willing to let the modal be chosen and not random, any particular reason to not just make it always be that way? It'd solve the issue with Slimy.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

That could do it.

If you're willing to let the modal be chosen and not random, any particular reason to not just make it always be that way? It'd solve the issue with Slimy.

Oh, like I said, the original version was regular modal choice, but I realized the optimal play every time would be to choose Slimy whenever Noya entered the battlefield, so for all purposes 99.9% of the time it would end up a 3/4 Salamander Plant with hexproof that produces pretty good tokens. I wanted to encourage people to stick other things on it.

And I was okay with the ability occasionally whiffing; I previously had a card that simply produced an augment token that immediately died so it was useless if no hosts were around, and I found that hilarious.

But by keeping the host version random and the augmented version modal choice, I think brings the best of both worlds, although it does make it more powerful (might tweaking on the cost).

It does make it better as a host commander (which was the original intent), I intended to solve one of the difficulties with commander "tribal" augment-host was when you too little of one or the other, and you're forced to run only one copy of each. With hosts they are still playable without their augments, but augment cards are dead in your hand until you get a host, and even then you could only use one augment per host.