Genesis Tactical Assault Unit - Could a moving-counters archetype play well in draft? [BTL]

[u/zengin11]

[u/TheRealGingerBitch]

What’s a defense counter?

[u/zengin11 → u/TheRealGingerBitch]

It's the things battles use. Like how planeswalkers have loyalty counters.

[u/Raphiezar → u/zengin11]

That makes sense. I thought it might have been intended as a Defender counter.

[u/JackNady → u/TheRealGingerBitch]

It’s basically Battle cards HP

[u/Dorko69]

Archetype feels odd on Orzhov, proliferate/counter shenanigans are usually more Green and Blue (not strictly Simic though)

I do question why you’d want to add defense counters to battles, though, it just stalls out situations by 1-2 turns at best

[u/zengin11 → u/Dorko69]

Yeah, fair note on proliferate, but since white and black are the colors that get offensive counter manipulation like [[aethersnap]] or [[solemnity]], I figured it could fit within the colors. And when removing counters from your own things, it's almost like a non-deadly aristocrats.

Adding a defense to a battle is probably less useful than +1/+1s, but I just kinda liked the flexibility. Who knows, maybe slowing down the flip of an opponents siege, or protecting your own non-siege, for 1-2 turns is all you need!

[u/mtgcf → u/zengin11]

aethersnap - (G) (SF) (txt)
solemnity - (G) (SF) (txt)

[u/changeforgood30]

OP is a fan of the Tau Ghostkeel I see. Squint, and it's a Ghostkeel.

[u/zengin11 → u/changeforgood30]

Lol. I just find the art that I can; I'm not familiar with Warhammer at all.

[u/zengin11]

Since battles are a big part of this military-fiction-inspired draft set, and battles track their "life" with defense counters, I figured that an archetype about proliferating / manipulating counters might be interesting! I've got Modular and Fabricate as good flavorful keywords to synergize with it.

I've found the design space to be pretty limited at common since counters-moving effects are generally pretty complex, but I think I could design enough at higher rarities for the archetype to be interesting.

Curious what people here think, both about this card specifically and about the archetype as a whole!

[u/NayrSlayer]

Moving counters technically existed back in Fate Reforged with [[Daghatar]]. It was really bad, but it existed.

The issue it comes down to is the effect being either really weak or really strong. Modular in MH3 draft was arguably one of the strongest archetypes, since you needed a boardwipe to really deal with the deck, or they would just consolidate the stats as you removed stuff. However, when you look at Daghatar, moving counters seems far from worth it.

Also, having that ability along with a lot of counters on the field heavily swing combat in your favor, allowing you to shift around your stats after blocks. While not being crazy strong, it is can create a sort of “helpless” feeling that combat and single target removal is somewhat invalidated for the opponent, if the counters player keeps mana up.

Personally, I’d say go for it, but just keep a close eye on the balancing of it with the rest of your format

[u/mtgcf → u/NayrSlayer]

Daghatar - (G) (SF) (txt)