Gold Boons
For this homebrew cycle, I’m reimagining one of the original cycles: the boons from Alpha. The original boons varied radically in power level from the abysmal Healing Salve to the perennial Giant Growth to the arguably overpowered Dark Ritual and Lightning Bolt and culminating in one of the most egregious affronts to game balance: Ancestral Recall. These boons seek to keep the spirit of the boons, but balance them as a common cycle.
I always like it when old card names become mechanics. The first one I can remember is Fear, and my favorite is probably Provoke. Here, we imagine that Scry was an old card whose ability got turned into a mechanic later on.
Thematically, this card replaces Ancestral Recall. Mechanically, it shares space with Ponder, Preordain, and Visions, but at instant speed and without the card draw.
Obviously, a one-mana black instant that discarded three cards would be too good. Here, we have a similar vein, but with better balance.
But is this card any good? Compared to Memory Sluice, it’s a little weak, but faster. Compared to Vision Charm, it lacks versatility but can still disrupt numerous tutoring effects. Seeing as its two-colored and instant, I think this card could see play in a dedicated mill deck or a spell deck.
I’ve said for years that Lightning Bolt is just too good. It’s not quite broken, but it is overpowered, leaving minimal design space for one-mana burn.
Accost here limits the burn to players and planeswalkers. The ability to hit dominating one-card combo engines I think is worth the price. It lacks the versatility of Shock, but with extra oomf and serves as a solid disruption spell for black against those darn walkers.
The closest thing on this list to an original boon. Giant Growth was an excellent card: affective, well-balanced, and versatile. And turns out, it fit perfectly in red when they gave us Brute Force.
I think this card is fitting and fair in either of its colors, and I don’t think having it be both breaks it. It’s good, but it’s not as powerful as Assault Strobe or Berserk.
Ah, Healing Salve. What a terrible card. There was a time in my career when Healing Salve was a solid combat trick, facilitating a disadvantageous trade and leading to dominant board position. The problem is, it wastes a card to keep a card with no other utility.
I was excited when they printed Healing Grace, and this is simply a variation on that theme. Effectively undoing 6 damage to yourself or a teammate ain’t nothing.
The first cards I remember making 0/1 tokens were Caribou Range, Breeding Pit, and Sengir Autocrat, and I still remember when Townsfolk was a creature type.
What this card does is fill your ranks with cheap fodder. Fodder that is ripe to be inspired by a Glorious Anthem or fit for sacrifice to Culling the Weak. White and black both have a history of instant-speed creatures, so this felt right.
Black and green have long used their graveyard as a resource, with dredge being the original keyword for the Golgari. They also have a shared history of recurring combos and milling as a cost.
This card provides additional utility by fighting back against mill. This is fitting for green, as the natural enemy of mill’s favorite colors: blue and black, and also for black, whose life drain effects have always let it recover as well as harm.
My first draft of this card simply said “Target creature gains ward 3 until end of turn.” Then it occurred to me that it probably wouldn’t do anything, since it won’t trigger against an ability or spell that is already on the stack.
So I went back to the idea of old cards becoming keywords. For the colors that get hexproof, a soft counter that can protect you as well as your permanents seemed fitting.
Obviously, draw three cards, discards three cards was right out for power reasons. What else do red and blue share? Fragile, ephemeral creatures. Ball Lightning, Spark Elemental, Psionic Entity, and Tidal Wave are great examples.
This guy’s not sticking around very long, nor does it need to. The name Thunderwave was taken, but this is definitely the kind of spell a Prodigal Sorcerer or Prodigal Pyromancer would cast.
I wanted so badly for Crossbow Infantry to be good, but it never was. Fortunately, the DICs (Dudes-in-Charge) at WOTC graced me with Catapult Squad. My Onslaught block deck can still hold its own against modern block decks, despite the power creep.
Here we see a toned-down Lightning Bolt that shares design space with white, just like Burning Oil and Fire at Will.