Street Fighter 2 Boss thread

[Neige]

Inspired by Secret Lair's 8 World Warrior cards, I've been trying my hand at the four end bosses. Please critique for flavor and fairness.

M. Bison, Shadaloo Tyrant 3RBU
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier (M)
M. Bison, Shadaloo Tyrant is unblockable.
Psycho Crusher -- Whenever M. Bison attacks, mill cards until you reveal a nonland card. M. Bison gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that card's mana cost.
Psycho Field -- {2}, Exile X cards from your graveyard: M. Bison gains Ward {X} until end of turn.
4/4

I like this design because it is simple, but it just doesn't interact with enemy cards. A toned down, 5 mana version would read like this.
M. Bison, Shadaloo Tyrant 2RBU
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier (M)
Afflict 3 (Whenever M. Bison, Shadaloo Tyrant is blocked, he deals 3 damage to defending player)
Psycho Crusher -- Whenever M. Bison attacks and after blockers have been declaired, mill cards until you reveal a nonland card. M. Bison gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that card's mana cost.
Psycho Field -- {2}, Exile X cards from your graveyard: M. Bison gains Ward {X} until end of turn.
4/4

But this might be too wordy. Thoughts? More bosses forthcoming.

[void_nothing]

Afflict is a bit random, although some of the other SL:SF cards have one-off returning keywords, so it's possible.

Bison has a fair share of unblockable moves, right? Given the fact that many of the cards try to translate SF mechanics as literally as possible, unblockability is a good idea, although to make it not so uninteractive it could be "can't be blocked by creatures without defender" or "can't be blocked by creatures with lesser power" (although that's more of a green ability).

Mill to get a p/t bonus does capture the spirit of Psycho Power, that should be fine.

Gaining ward as a reactive ability is not very good at all due to ward's nature as a triggered ability itself. "Counter target spell with mana value X or less that targets M. Bison," maybe?

[Neige]

Street Fighter doesn't have unblockables. It has chip damage, which Afflict kinda sorta emulates. Afflict was called Unstoppable in development, hence the idea. The goal is to prevent Bison from being continually chumped: with afflict, Bison gets through Planeswalkers. I'm trying to keep wording as simple as possible, so the next best alternative to Afflict is indeed "~ can't be blocked by creatures of lesser power". Even then, I have to keep the wordy timing of "after Bison attacks and after defenders have been declared" to the Psycho Crusher

As for ward...
Psycho Field -- {2}, Exile X cards from your graveyard: counter target spell targeting M. Bison unless it's controller pays {X}

When I added "spell or ability", the words wrote over the P/T value, so I simplified.

[Neige]

Well I was really testing the waters seeing what kind of engagement I could get here, glad the moderator responded but man... Not easy to get card feedback.

Still I said I'd post more SL:SF bosses so here's Vega

A mill commander that's easy to grasp. I like the backflip cost most of all so I built the card backwards from it. Probably overcosted.

And for the record, improvements on M. Bison below.

Adding a cost on psycho crusher seemed smart, but with no untap symbol on MTG.design, I'm struggling to find an organic way to reduce uses per turn

[kwanyeegor-ii]

Vega, pretty powerful design. The bouncing ability is definitely strong with the ETB removal ability. the cost reduction seems mean in the late game... still it works well ith its on abilities. Not sure why the bounce ability affects auras tho, since the rest of the card has nothing to do with them. Purely to make it stronger with beneficial enchants i guess?

[void_nothing]

The latest M. Bison is probably about where it needs to be in power and complexity terms.

I would argue that Vega is properly costed; any less and, well, you start getting into "too easy to have a creature destruction engine" territory. On that note, the Backflip ability is, I have to agree, overcomplicated by the Auras clause, and might need a timing restriction of some kind. Still, UUUUBB a pop at least to destroy creatures is hardly inexpensive.

[FoxHybrid]

I understand why Vega is an Assassin in his type line (I'm not sure if there is a more appropriate term), but it feels weird for a card to be called a ninja in its card name, and then be an Assassin, especially now that ninjas have received some tribal support.

[void_nothing]

I understand why Vega is an Assassin in his type line (I'm not sure if there is a more appropriate term), but it feels weird for a card to be called a ninja in its card name, and then be an Assassin, especially now that ninjas have received some tribal support.

Also valid!

Arguably all the Shadaloo guys besides Bison himself are Mercenaries? Not that the Mercenary type has been on a card in a long time, other than Crown-Hunter Hireling.

It makes good enough sense to put Ninja in the typeline.

[Neige]

Last to first-
Although Vega is called a ninja, his status in street fighter is specifically an assassin. I think there are precedents for discrepancies between card title and creature type.

Vega bringing back auras... Might have to be scrapped. It was meant to be auras attached to it but couldn't fit. With Bison being 9 lines and Vega being 8, I'll tool around with "return Vega and any Auras attached to it from the battlefield to your hand"

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Human Ninja Assassin

Although to keep it simple, a Ninja also does assassinations, so there's that.

Also I spent 5 minutes scrolling up and down confused why we kept switching from using the localized name M. Bison to the original Vega, until I realized an image got deleted.

[spacemonaut]

We can't see the mtg.design images in your most recent post. Avoid hotlinking mtg.design — as you update the cards (or delete them), the images might change or be removed. Treat the image files as temporary and instead save them and upload them here to your posts.

I'll focus on reviewing just M. Bison.

I'll note that the Afflict effect doesn't actually translate to chip damage. That's probably because 3 damage is not chip damage, it's a lot of damage. It would translate better if it was just 1 damage. This means if you want to do substantial damage it won't be chip damage. That said, the Afflict is basically fine to have as a concept, just be conscious about how it'll convey.

Psycho Crusher: the mill for +X/+X is a nice way to represent the variable damage output of the move. I do recommend sticking with the idiomatic "Whenever M.Bison attacks", or make the activated ability sorcery-speed (you must activate it before combat if you're going to attack). You're already putting the opponent in a dilemma (afflict or leave him unblocked), you don't need to also double down on making his attack completely unknown. You might've divined Emrakul to the top of your library for example.

Psycho Field: Gaining Ward as an activated ability doesn't really work because it needs to be present before he gets targeted. Others already pointed this out though. I'm interested to see what you changed in this latest version!

[Neige]

EDIT: Still learning how to use the Nexus card editor!

Anyway to post saved images? The thing is, I'd like people to see the finished product visually, as MTG is as much about aesthetics as it is about mechanics. I can and will use the cardtext format again, but MTGdesign is the best way for people to see whether my final product is accessible to a general public or not.

- M. Bison needs to damage to justify his 5 mana cost. I'm using Zangief as a baseline because he always destroys something when he attacks, so Bison can at least destroy planeswalkers even if he gets chumpblocked. I've toyed with plenty of ideas of rewarding Bison for destroying creatures but none seemed to hit (I certainly don't want to reuse the "excess damage" mechanic most of the SL:SF cards are using).
- Bison was always supposed to put the opponent into a "mystery power" dilemma. That is in fact my priority dilemma, if you will. Afflict was seen as a solution against chump blockers afterwards. I will consider a "Whenever M.Bison attacks" trigger, but I'll probably have to remove the mana cost due to lack of space.

Today's card is Balrog

Balrog, Savage Boxer

2RG

Legendary Creature — Human Warrior

Bloodthirst 1
Turn Punch -- Discard one, two or three land cards: multiply Balrog's power by the respective amount until end of turn. Prevent all combat damage dealt to Balrog this turn.
Dirty Headbutt -- Remove a counter from Balrog, : Destroy target nonland noncreature permanent

3/3

Art by vg247.com

01/280

This is the card I feel needs the most help. Turn Punch came first and it's what I'm most proud of, especially from a flavor standpoint. It makes him a knockout commander and completely captures limiting buttons for bigger power of the videogame. The rest... Well Balrog was originally meant to be Green-Black. As much because he's an evil boss as much because Blanka fills the Green-Red spot. And I hate the SL:SF Blanka: he's purely a spellstorm commander with no respect to his videogame origins. Balrog could almost pass as Green Black as it is, but everyone would rightly say he's more red than black. Other ideas for Dirty Headbutt involved fight(because of course). I do not want to make things too easy for his turn punch by giving him any kind of graveyard recursion, so you understand the dilemma I'm in.

Vega, Sadistic Ninja

3BBU

Legendary Creature — Human Assassin

If an opponent has less than half of their starting library remaining, Vega cost less to cast.
Flying Barcelona -- When Vega enters the battlefield, destroy target creature. Its controller mills cards equivalent to that creature's toughness.
Backflip -- : Return Vega and any Auras attached to it from the battlefield to your hand.

4/3

Art by Youtube Ryan Law

02/280

And here's how Bison would look if his psycho crusher worked at sorcery speed:

[spacemonaut]

Anyway to post saved images? The thing is, I'd like people to see the finished product visually, as MTG is as much about aesthetics as it is about mechanics. I can and will use the cardtext format again, but MTGdesign is the best way for people to see whether my final product is accessible to a general public or not.

When you're in the full editor for a post, there's an attachments tab below the post itself. You can upload files to the post there and then insert them into the post. If you don't insert them they'll just show up below the post.

If you're editing a post you'll be in the full editor and can do all of this from there; if you're replying using the thingy right below on this page then you'll need to hit the "Full Editor & Preview" button.

MTG Nexus's custom card editor also has pretty good presentation and has a natural embed feature, so that's an option, though I'm also still partial to mtg.design in most cases.

[Neige]

When you're in the full editor for a post, there's an attachments tab below the post itself. You can upload files to the post there and then insert them into the post. If you don't insert them they'll just show up below the post.

If you're editing a post you'll be in the full editor and can do all of this from there; if you're replying using the thingy right below on this page then you'll need to hit the "Full Editor & Preview" button.

MTG Nexus's custom card editor also has pretty good presentation and has a natural embed feature, so that's an option, though I'm also still partial to mtg.design in most cases.

I'm almost finished learning the basics. Any way to make the attachments display a bit smaller? They are huge on the screen

[Neige]

Change log: - I'm testing out a creatureball-ish version of Balrog in my preferred colors. You might think Red/Green or Jund would be more relevant but we already have Blanks and Zangief.
- Vega is now 5/2 to represent his dangerous and nimble physique. It also makes him more dangerous on an empty board, making more of a "closer" commander.
- I'm using sorcery speed Psycho crusher for no other reason than it's the that occupies the less text space. Evasion is therefore the way to go to force opponents into investing against him.

[Neige]

This is Sagat and like Balrog before him, he needs a lot of work. The initial idea was a lot more red: reward instant/sorcery casting with giving him invincibility on opponent's turn via Tiger Uppercut. I thought that'd be too much like Blanka's abilities so I made Sagat Alara colored and turned him into a cross of Angel of Avacyn and Prophet of Kruphix (so?). Combining two 5 mana creatures made me think Sagat was worth six, I wanted to justify his two kinds of fireballs with two different triggers, I needed to protect or justify a six mana commander and the end result is this guy. Really wish I could cut more but can't find where. Comments welcome