Novice Witch
Creature - Human Warlock
When Novice Witch enters or dies, search your library for a curse, put it into your graveyard, and shuffle.
, Exile Novice Witch from your graveyard: Return any number of curses with total mana value X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, attached to target player.
"The spirit she has, but not the talent. Maybe in the next life." - Granny Thornapple1/2
seems fun. definitely a lot of potential card advantage, but the cheap curses aren't
great, so definitely a trade-off in power, and the 1/2 body for 3 is underwhelming enough that you really need to pull value from the activation. reminiscent of
academy rector in concept, although obviously a lot more balanced. flavor's nice.
4/5Hexdrinker Creature - Vampire Cleric (U)
Lifelink
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a cursed opponent, put a +1/+1 counter on ~ for each curse attached to that player.
"Few cocktails are as succulent as the blood of the living and their sorcery mixed together."[2/2] technically you don't need "cursed" since if they're not cursed it'll just put zero counters on it, but it also doesn't hurt anything. the card seems solid, not sure it's what a curse deck needs from an enabler but it does do good work at closing out the game, and
mesa unicorns always make good speed bumps for decks looking to build long-term value engines. I'm having a bit of a hard time parsing the flavor text, I get what it's going for and I think it's a good idea but the wording doesn't quite land for me and I'm not sure how to fix it. I could definitely see this working as a signpost, and Orzhov is an interesting color for curses: the most natural would probably be Rakdos, flavor-wise, but Orzhov is much more about slow-bleed styles so I like it as a way of emphasizing white's darker, more manipulative side.
3/5Accursed Pharaoh Creature - Zombie Noble (M)
When this creature enters or attacks, search your library for a Curse card with mana value 4 or less, put it onto the batlefield attached to target player, then shuffle.
Menace, lifelink
, Sacrifice two Curses: Return this card from the graveyard to the battlefield.
3/6
interesting. it's a tough call, since the whole point of a curse is to be this infinite recurring value source, but sacrificing them does get you a new one right away and a shot at a second one if you get to attack with it. I like the 3/6 stat line, lets the card be much more about its value than about the damage it can deal. might even go 2/6 to push that further. I wonder if it'd be better with a
recross the paths-style wording so you're not doing quite as much shuffling and you also can't just whip out your best curse the first time around. (I mean, you can if that's the only one you run, but this card doesn't really want to just be a one-off tutor so you're probably running a lot of curses anyway.) but it feels like a card that gets how curses work and what they want to do, and I definitely appreciate that.
4/5Jinxed ProwlerCreature -- Cat
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
When this creature becomes blocked, search your library for a Curse card, put it on the battlefield attached to defending player, then shuffle.
Crossing its path is bad luck for people and worse luck for mice.
1/1 I'd let you play the curse from hand, 'cause as-is the potential for a
cruel reality or something just makes this unblockable, which isn't nearly as fun as if you had to make real judgment calls on whether the risk was worth it. I was gonna say the
scroll thief ability shouldn't cost 2, but then I did a search and they've done it a
couple times, so what do I know. still, being functionally unblockable does complicate that significantly. flavor's adorable.
3/5Misfortune-Teller -
Creature - Human Witch
Spells and abilities you control that targets an opponent costs
less to cast or activate. This does not reduce its cost to less than
.
At the beginning of your end step, if an opponent is cursed, draw a card.
Her accuracy in foretelling misfortune is uncanny. Coincidentally, so is her talent at jinxes, hexes and curses.1/3
flavor's fun. card seems solid. straightforward but functional, and having a solid blocking body works well with the card. I do think it's maybe undercosted for what it does, although it's killable enough that it's more likely to just eat removal than generate a bunch of card advantage so maybe not. and in limited, where creatures are harder to kill, you're also gonna have a harder time getting it going. probably fine, and I think for the cost reduction effect 2 is the right cost, to get the discount going before you get enough lands to not really need it.
4/5Cassandrian Insight Enchantment - Aura Curse
Enchant player
Enchanted pla
At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep, they draw cards and lose life equal to the number of curses enchanting them.
interesting. 2 mana discount off
curse of thirst in exchange for giving them a lot of value, or it's a
phyrexian arena that doesn't scale well. (or scales very well, if you can keep up with the damage.) I wonder if the curse type is too distracting from the fact that you probably want to put this on yourself, but I think that's more of a rewarding deduction than it is an actual drawback. I also like that, since you can genuinely put it on either player, it makes better use of the Enchant Player ability, since most curses could, in a duel context at least, just be global enchantments that reference your opponent. I'm convincing myself to like this card more the more I think about it.
5/5Rapture [u]Sorcery (R)
Exile all nonland, non-curse permanents.
"And the cursed will know only each other, devouring wicked flesh until they are one and none the same."
—The Koriank Prophecies, invocation 898, scrawl 17 I love this. my one note is I think it's the wrong flavor: the card wants to be in a curse deck, to keep your value engines alive, so I'd have gone with a story that supports that usage. don't get me wrong, the flavor's really
good, I just don't think it quite fits the card. still, though.
5/5Manifested Guilt -
Enchantment - Aura Curse |
MREnchant player
Whenever a creature enchanted player controls dies, exile it. Then create a Memorial token and attach it to that player.
(It's an Aura Curse enchantment with ", Sacrifice this: Put target card with mana value X exiled with Manifested Guilt onto the battlefield.")At the beginning of your end step, enchanted player loses 1 life for each curse attached to them.
I think that's probably too niche an effect to trinketize. I'd probably spell it out. I'm also not sure the Memorials make sense as curses: they need to be for the last ability, but the flavor doesn't fit and the effect doesn't reference the enchanted player at all. also, as worded,
you get the Memorial, and can thus activate its ability and steal their creatures, which makes this a pretty huge upgrade over
curse of thirst for no extra cost. not sure if that's intentional. should also probably say nontoken, so they don't get a bunch of memorials that aren't associated with an exiled creature. I like the idea of a curse that collects guilt over dead creatures, but I think a lot of aspects of the execution here don't quite come together for me.
1/5Weight of the Past Sorcery (U)
Return target Nightmare or Curse card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
A trauma long forgotten still leaves its scars. cute! flavor's nice, card's very functional. potentially very scary, but the type limits make it hard to find a really broken target for it.
petradon is probably the worst thing you can do with it on turn 3, and that's only available in legacy and vintage. still dangerous to have the potential (reminiscent of how
sorin, imperious bloodlord was basically fine until four years later they printed
vein ripper) but it takes enough work for basically a 1-mana discount on
zombify that I doubt you'll have much of that problem. the flavor connection of curses and nightmares is clever.
4/5huh. that's a
lot of mana, but you really have to build into it pretty hard to be confident you'll have something to spend it on. and it's not like mana is the main thing holding back a curse deck anyway, so you might have room to push a bit there. seems huge but mainly just lets you get established a little quicker, giving the deck some explosive potential without
too much extra long-term power, although it does get you some of those 7-drop curses like
cruel reality on turn 4 if you're lucky. my guess is this is a great casual enabler that will tempt some people into bad limited decks and make no impact on competitive constructed, which is a good place to be.
4/5Lurking Misfortune Creature - Serpent HorrorWhen ~ enters, search your library for a curse card, reveal it, then add it to your hand. Shuffle.
~ can't attack unless the defending player is cursed.
~ can't block unless the attacking player is cursed.
6/6
reminiscent of my
Thousand-Eyed Witch, which got CotW a while back, but certainly different enough. I don't know if the drawback is sufficient to justify the body when it's also got a tutor attached that solves the problem the drawback creates: feels like a lot of card advantage to staple on a 6/6 for 4. it does force you to play the curse on your next turn if you haven't played one yet, but there's plenty of 1-2-drop curses so that's not a huge roadblock, and you can get something bigger and more valuable if you want. I wish there was a way to write the last two abilities as one, 'cause they read kinda awkwardly is sequence like that but I don't know a better way.
2/5Eater of Misfortune —
Creature — Horror (C)
Whenever Eater of Misfortune attacks, it gets +2/+1 and gains menace until end of turn if defending player is cursed.
Kelva had always felt a deep and profound loneliness since childhood. But today, she was about to meet her demons face to face.1/2
this feels entirely plausible, and the flavor's really good, but mechanically it also comes across as kinda unconnected. like, it doesn't really
care about curses, that's just a random marker to check for so it can do its unrelated thing. and that's fine! sets need things like that to make their themes work. I'm just not finding myself super inspired by it, because you could swap "if defending player is cursed" for any other themed condition and wind up with basically the same design in another context. it's not using anything unique about curses, which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
3/5Speficix Scribe
Creature - Salamander Wizard
Whenever you cast a spell that targets a player, copy it.
(If you copy a permanent spell, the copy resolves as a token.)2/3
I feel like this is a bit of a stretch for the criteria, in the same way that, like,
nyxborn behemoth technically also interacts with curses but it's not really a curse-specific thing, but this does at least engage with the main thing that separates curses from other enchantments. that said, this seems like curses are far from the best thing to do with it: it's a powerful enabler for a burn deck, doubling your
lightning bolts and making it much easier to get the necessary damage to blitz your opponent down quickly. compared to that, the option of getting a second copy of some of your big curses to slowly grind them out is... I mean, it's solid but it's far from the first thing I'd think of with this card. I do think the power level's probably about right, it's scary but also not too hard to control. maybe should be a 2/2, stray points of toughness can be deceptively impactful especially in limited, but that's a minor point.
3/5Abandoned trinkets
Artifact -Clue
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player may draw a card, then for each opponent who did you may attach a curse from your hand to them.
,
, sacrifice this artifact:draw a card
it's interesting: as with a lot of entries this round, I think the fear of a
cruel reality basically shuts down any opponent from actually taking the card, but to really make it work you do need to run a fair number of curses, which is a serious deckbuilding constraint. still, if you can scare them off it's a one-sided
howling mine for the same cost, which is absurdly powerful. I'm also not sure why it's a clue? I guess I don't fully get the flavor, but I think if you're gonna do a more powerful howling mine, it's best to not give the player an out if it does manage to start backfiring. still, the first ability is cool, I just think it should cost more.
3/5Witch-hunting MobCreature - Human
When this creature enters, destroy target enchantment an opponent controls. If it was a Curse, exile target creature that opponent controls until Witch-hunting Mob leaves the battlefield.
"Most witches deny their true nature, however, that's exactly what a witch would say."
—John Duncan, Captain of the Village Watch2/2
surprised more people didn't go for anti-curse cards, but I like this. might have to cost 4 given it's a potential 3-for-1, but it does require a specific set of circumstances so maybe that's ok. although not that specific, it's still a
war-priest of Thune even without the curse rider, but that's not amazing for 3. heck, it wasn't amazing for 2. feels like a solid hate card, my one question is if killing a creature does that much against a curse-heavy deck, but those do still benefit from gumming up the board so the answer is probably yes.
4/5Harbinger of Sadism Creature - Demon (R)
Flying
Whenever a triggered ability of a Curse attached to you triggers, each other player copies that ability. If it has targets, you may choose new targets for those copies.
(They own the copy and suffer its effects.)This creature gets +3/+3 for each Curse attached to you.
Suffering is its own reward.2/2
so... unfortunately this doesn't work. for starters, not all curses even have triggers (
curse of exhaustion,
curse of death's hold,
curse of the nightly hunt...) but more importantly, the ones that do mostly reference "enchanted player", not the controller of the ability, which is usually that Curse's owner. see
cruel reality, or
curse of the pierced heart. is that solvable? maybe. probably the easiest way is to do text-switching ("Replace all instances of "enchanted player" in the text of Curses attached to you with "each player".") but as you know, unbounded text-switching is just begging for corner cases where it creates a garbled, non-grammatical mess.
curse of echoes comes to mind as a difficult one to resolve the meaning of in that case, or
curse of misfortunes. and unfortunately, I don't have a better way to make this work. at least, not as one thing: you could maybe do it piecemeal with tokens. "When this creature arrives, for each opponent, create a token copy of each curse attached to you and attach the copy to that player." and then "Whenever a curse becomes attached to you, for each opponent, create a token copy of it and attach it to that player." but then you're looking at some pretty gnarly wording and just, like, a lot of text. I don't think this is salvageable, but I like the idea of the second ability and I respect the effort to try to make it work.
2/5cursed round. winner is
TP! congrats, nominating now, next round is up already.