Journey to the West Legendaries

[barbecube]

I'm still working on Guashan, and here's the cycle of legendaries representing the scripture pilgrimage party.

Sanzang, Seeker of Scriptures

1W

Legendary Creature — Human Monk

Vigilance
Whenever Sansang, Seeker of Scriptures attacks, exile a card from your graveyard.
When Sansang leaves the battlefield, return each card exiled by Sansang to your hand.

2/2

The Dragon Horse

U

Legendary Creature — Dragon Spirit

At the beginning of combat on your turn, up to one target creature can't be blocked this turn.
When The Dragon Horse dies, draw a card.

1/1

Marshal Zhu

2B

Legendary Creature — Boar Spirit

Whenever Marshal Zhu attacks, look at the top three cards of your library. You may reveal an artifact card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library.

3/2

Monkey King Wukong

4R

Legendary Creature — Ape Monk

Whenever Monkey King Wukong attacks, you may pay XX. Create X tapped and attacking tokens that are copies of Monkey King Wukong except they aren't legendary. Sacrifice them at end of turn.

3/4

Pilgrim of the Sands

3G

Legendary Creature — Spirit Monk

At the beginning of combat on your turn, put two +1/+1 counters on target land you control. Then any number of target lands you control become 0/0 Elemental land creatures with indestructible until end of turn.

3/2

Scriptures from the West

4

Legendary Artifact

If creature attacking causes its own triggered ability to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

[void_nothing]

Tang Sanzang is great but feels considerably more green than white; that is still the color that recurs any cards from graveyard to hand, after all.

The Dragon Horse is quite nice but feels more rare than mythic, pivotal character or no.

I like Zhu Bajie but he seems more like a blue card than a black one.

Sun Wukong is pretty good. Could he have trample?

Sha Wujing is perfect imho.

Scriptures from the West feels played-out after a recent run of things like Panharmonicon and a couple of "triggered ability tribal" legends, which isn't your fault, but there's also the issue of it not working with two of the Scripture Pilgrims.

[spacemonaut]

Great job. I really like their effects and I really really like Wukong. I want to use him and Pilgrim of the Sands.

Scriptures of the West

I suggest making Scriptures of the West red (3R) or red-white (2RW or 2{r/w}{r/w}). Only the early trigger doublers have been colorless while more recent ones have been aiming to be on-color for their triggers. Every color has a lot of ETB effects (justifying Panharmonicon being colorless even in a world where artifacts can be colored) but red and white are the most aggressive colors with the most use of "whenever (this creature) attacks" triggers. We see that pattern show up with the following frequencies in each color:

1. Red: 126 cards (or 89 monocolor)
2. White: 102 cards (or 67 monocolor)
3. Black: 79 cards (or 54 monocolor)
4. Green: 71 cards (or 50 monocolor)
5. Blue: 50 cards (or 33 monocolor)

Your set may vary in how many red or white cards use this trigger pattern. The Scrolls can still be an artifact; they'll be a colored artifact.

As red and/or white it's also basically giving you wiggly eyes to (a) be aggressive in those colors specifically and (b) use this with Wukong and/or Sanzang. I think both of these things are a good signpost to make.

The others

I think Sanzang's effect is OK in-color if it is changed to target only creature, artifact, and/or enchantment cards in your graveyard. It should not be able to return lands, instants, sorceries, or planeswalkers.

Sanzang carries a story implication that he tragically dies before the journey is over, and his death allows his friends to finish their journey. Is that intended? If so, great work.

I like the sudden "whoosh!" feeling of Pilgrim of the Sands each combat as it builds up into animating more or bigger lands. Somehow I don't like that someone might make the mistake of saying "I'll animate all my lands!" and then lose all but one. However, he is a Mythic, so presumably people will figure this out by the time they're using him for the first time. I am also not sure what we'd do differently to prevent this issue. Someone could have a "creatures you control get +1/+1" effect out and all their lands will be animateable and will be just fine.

Marshal Zhu's effect is cool, but might be off-color given Maro's commentary about which colors care about artifacts. It could be fine, black is still allowed to care about artifacts sometimes. It just may not be the most effective ability to have on a mono-black card. Blue, White, and Red would be more likely to do something like this

It bothers me that The Dragon Horse is a Dragon but not a Horse. Normally if you have a type in your name, you should have that type. Did you have a reason for choosing Dragon Spirit over Dragon Horse? (I'd 100% accept an answer of "having a Dragon Horse called The Dragon Horse is just gaudy" and also "he's more of a spirit and not really a horse".)

Any reason Monkey King Wukong is an Ape and not a Monkey? Both are valid types, but I imagine a Monkey King would be a Monkey. (Answers I'd 100% accept here: "He's actually an ape" and "Monkey Monk sounds awful".)

[spacemonaut]

Templating nitpicks in case you're intersted. These put aside existing feedback to just work with your originals.

Sanzang:

Whenever Sanzang, Seeker of Scriptures attacks, exile target card from your graveyard.

Its leaves ability can say "exiled by it".

Marshal Zhu:

Last sentence needs to say "in a random order" or "in any order". I recommend random order. You may recall Silasary talking about how players can waste a lot of time needlessly trying to decide how they should order cards in this situation when it usually doesn't matter.

Monkey King Wukong:

Needs a "When you do, create ...".

"Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step." Compare Thatcher Revolt and Chandra, Acolyte of Flame.

[barbecube]

Thanks for the in-depth feedback! I will be using those wording changes for sure.

For Sanzang, how about target nonland permanent card? It captures planeswalkers as well as the other types white can usually regrow, which normally I'd be a little resistant to, but on a mythic I'm willing to be a little looser. Also, "When he died, a bunch of allies showed up to help on the journey" is a neat story. Does that address the color identity issue as well? I would hope to make the marquee character of the set feel like he is in-color.

The Dragon Horse's typed the way it is to express that it's a horselike Dragon but not really a horse. Also, all the "greater dragons" in Guashan are typed as Dragon Spirits (there are several "lesser dragons" that are all typed "Dragon and some type of animal") so it is nice to align with those. I'm not sure what to do to make it feel more mythic; at 1cmc there is a limited palette of effects available and I feel like it's already quite good on rate.

I'm open to designing a different ability for Marshal Zhu; I just want to make it very clearly greed-related. It can be anything that reflects that theme. I'll brainstorm about it.

As for the typing on the Monkey King, I honestly forgot that Monkey was a valid type, but you're right that Monkey Monk looks terrible and the rest of the monkey-people in the set are Ape typed already.

I think it makes good sense to make the Scriptures a colored artifact, although it breaks the tidy symmetry of the cycle somewhat. I'll think about it seriously though.

[void_nothing]

Yup, "nonland permanent card" is just fine for white imho. Compare the infamous Sun Titan.

I guess Marshal Zhu's ability is a dig at Pigsy's tendency to "borrow" items? Greed can be represented a lot of ways in black; drawing cards and losing life is serviceable but boring and was just done in Audacious Thief. Bit stumped at this moment.

[spacemonaut]

For Sanzang, how about target nonland permanent card? It captures planeswalkers as well as the other types white can usually regrow, which normally I'd be a little resistant to, but on a mythic I'm willing to be a little looser. Also, "When he died, a bunch of allies showed up to help on the journey" is a neat story. Does that address the color identity issue as well? I would hope to make the marquee character of the set feel like he is in-color.

Nonland permanent card works great. [mention]void_nothing[/mention]'s comparison to Sun Titan is apt. Maro even mentioned White would be most likely to resurrect planeswalkers just earlier today, so I think we're fine there.

The color identity issue seems fine to me: white's got its fair share of martyrs, people making sacrifices for the greater good. In this case the sacrifice and greater good aspects are just a little more coincidence than deliberately causational.

The Dragon Horse's typed the way it is to express that it's a horselike Dragon but not really a horse. Also, all the "greater dragons" in Guashan are typed as Dragon Spirits (there are several "lesser dragons" that are all typed "Dragon and some type of animal") so it is nice to align with those. I'm not sure what to do to make it feel more mythic; at 1cmc there is a limited palette of effects available and I feel like it's already quite good on rate.

Perfect reason. "It's not a horse" would be enough to make it not a Horse, but you've also got a theme going on.

I'm open to designing a different ability for Marshal Zhu; I just want to make it very clearly greed-related. It can be anything that reflects that theme. I'll brainstorm about it.

A couple of ideas for Marshal Zhu:

• When Marshal Zhu enters the battlefield, sacrifice any number of creatures. You draw a card and gain 1 life for each creature sacrificed this way.
• When Marshal Zhu enters the battlefield, each player reveals the top three cards of their library. Exile up to one card revealed this way and put the rest into their owners' graveyards. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast it.

As for the typing on the Monkey King, I honestly forgot that Monkey was a valid type, but you're right that Monkey Monk looks terrible and the rest of the monkey-people in the set are Ape typed already.

An existing Ape tribe in the set is a great reason to make him an Ape, especially if there's any kind of Ape Matters going on.

I think it makes good sense to make the Scriptures a colored artifact, although it breaks the tidy symmetry of the cycle somewhat. I'll think about it seriously though.

Cycles don't need a colorless member, so you've already got a perfectly good cycle.

With this you'd have a cycle + an accessory.