Today marks the one year anniversary of the very first Starstill thread. Now that I've let the cards in this set percolate in my head for as many months as we spent working on the set, I think I have a better grasp on what about the set works and what doesn't.
Let me start with Chronicler Sphinx. I think Chronicler Sphinx is actually an example of Starstill at its finest, because it serves an excellent role in the larger web of the set. What does
care about in this set? Artifacts, and spells. Chronicler Sphinx is so beautiful because it ties the artifact deck and the spell deck into one.But look at the other most powerful card in the set: Bahraz the Tyrant. What does he care about? Does he tie into the set's themes?
When you look at Bahraz, you must ask yourself: What does
care about in Starstill? Looking at Bahraz, you'd just think, "Control." But is that really what we designed Black to care about in Limited?It's my opinion that there shouldn't be such a stark disconnect between what's going on on the Constructed level and the Limited level with a color. In Limited, Black would be about Brittle Bones and Deathly Chill. How can we get that to click?
First of all, Black is too spread out. Artifacts are already a Thing in
, , and 
. There's no room in the set for black cards that care about artifacts. We should make the black cards that care about artifacts care about enchantments instead:Weight of Despair –
Enchantment – Aura
Flash
Enchanted creature gets -X/-X, where X is the number of enchantments you control.
Enchantment – Aura
Flash
Enchanted creature gets -X/-X, where X is the number of enchantments you control.
The
enchantment deck needs a color it can splash, anyway, and it's a good counterpoint to the spell deck.I think that Black should care about Creatures, but specifically, dead creatures. Scavenging Wendigo would be improved flavorfully and mechanically if instead of exiling two cards, it exiled a creature card.
The RG ETB doesn't really come together when you look at the spoiler. Sure, there's Viashino Sandscout, but without even a Primal Forcemage, it's not clear that that's, like, an archetype. And if we really do want that to be an archetype, we need to make creaturefall a thing that
has in this set so that players get it.But what if Viashino Sandscout were Spark Elemental? What if we threw in Fatal Frenzy? What if we made Irondeep Spelunker the star of the show by driving home the point that when
get together in limited, they want their dudes to die, so that they can do their dead creature thing. It's already there with Test Subject and Mass of Bones.Which brings me back to Bahraz. Wouldn't it make Black's goal so much clearer if the posterchild for Black in this set read:
Bahraz, the Tyrant – 
Planeswalker – Bahraz
Whenever a creature dies, put a loyalty counter on Bahraz, the Tyrant.
Destroy all creatures.
As long as Bahraz, the Tyrant has ten or more loyalty counters on him, he's a 20/20 Bahraz God planeswalker creature.
Planeswalker – Bahraz
Whenever a creature dies, put a loyalty counter on Bahraz, the Tyrant.
Destroy all creatures.As long as Bahraz, the Tyrant has ten or more loyalty counters on him, he's a 20/20 Bahraz God planeswalker creature.
This also makes Bahraz much more grokkable as a character from his card text alone.
My point is that focusing black on dead creatures will give it more options than just piggybacking onto other color's themes. And have enchantments be that secondary theme for the people who don't wanna pretend this in Innistrad.