Mega Man Magic - Spoiler 15

Last one of the week. I had a few choices I was deciding between when I put this group together, which was good news. It means that I still have a few posts forthcoming with logical connections between the cards. It's more fun that way.

Anyways, this group of cards is tied together in a simple and straightforward way: they're the (remaining) various items you can pick up while venturing through Mega Man levels.

 

So I tried to have the small and large versions be related, and I think I managed to do pretty well. It should also be pointed out that neither of these are particularly amazing cards. The Large Power Capsule's second effect is useful, but because they're artifacts, your opponent knows they're available to you. So, for example, your opponent isn't going to waste Supreme Verdict or Wrath of God while you've got LPC on the battlefield. Still, I could see myself playing the Large version in some decks.

Once again, the idea was to have related effects, though this isn't quite as symmetric as with the power capsules. Basically, the weapon capsules are built to help equipment-heavy decks. As anyone who's played any Mega Man game can tell you, the weapon capsules are useless if you don't have weapons, but very useful if you've got them, especially in the Wily levels.

That said, I think these cards wouldn't see a ton of play in any format. Your deck has to be really, really heavy on equipment for them to be reliably useful, and in a deck like that, it's dangerous to have non-creature, non-removal spells in your deck. The last thing you want is to have a weapon capsule and a couple equipment in your starting hand with no creatures to put them on. Still, they help tie the set together a bit, so I'm happy with them.

The Yashichi is a very rare item. As far as I know, it only exists in the original Mega Man, and it only occurs once in that game, at the very end. It refills ALL of your special weapon energy bars, basically preparing you for any possible upcoming battle. As you can sort of tell from the graphic, it's in a treacherous spot, so I wanted the card version to have a certain level of risk associated with it. It's basically an all-or-nothing grab, which I feel like Magic tends to be missing (probably on purpose).

I like the flavor I was able to put together, and as I'm imagining a home game with some friends, maybe a multiplayer game, I like the drama of the coin flip. In reality, it's probably closer to an Un-card, but since my set isn't getting printed, I'm keeping it in.

The Magnet Beam was the predecessor to the three Items from Mega Man 2. You use it to get to impossible-to-reach locations in the original Mega Man, and it's a necessary item for advancing through Dr. Wily's castle. So, let's get to the flavor of the card.

The +1/+1 is basically an acknowledgment that you can use the card to put you in better positions, and giving flying makes sense since you can climb vertically using the item. Now, for the second part. Getting hit while on a magnet platform is basically a death sentence (assuming you're attempting to traverse a pit). So, the idea is that you receive the benefits, but with the risk of total annihilation. Sounds fun to me.

:)