Cirel Riano

[Silverdawn Banisher]

Cirel Riano

Planeswalker - Cirel
0: Until end of turn, whenever a source you control deals damage to an opponent, put that many loyalty counters on Cirel Riano.
-X: All creatures get +X/-X until end of turn.
-X: Put an X/X red Elemental creature token with trample and haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
<2>

Check her out: http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/t...CirelRiano.jpg

[Magus Jr]

That first ability looks fun to abuse.

[mani]

Cirel Riano

Planeswalker - Cirel
0: Until end of turn, whenever a source you control deals damage to an opponent, put that many loyalty counters on Cirel Riano.
-X: All creatures get +X/-X until end of turn.
-X: Put an X/X red Elemental creature token with trample and haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
<2>

Interesting design.

I'm still against planeswalkers that need other cards to gain loyalty, for what that's worth. (If you've ever drafted Tibalt or little Liliana, you know how un-fun it is to sit there with a planeswalker on puny loyalty and not be able to activate its + ability because it'd be bad for you. I'd imagine being unable to activate a planeswalker because you're missing other cards is even more un-fun.)

The other thing to watch out for is the fact that - as with any 0 ability that gains loyalty as an effect - she can be killed by a Shock the moment you play her, before ever gaining loyalty.

That said, it's a neat idea, and feels really red: Big risk for big reward (i.e. potentially +tons of loyalty).

Having Flowstone Slide as the second ability is kinda cool, too. The difference between this and Flamebreak, though, is that this can kill a Kor Firewalker - so be careful with it, since it gives red a way out of the normal safety valves against it.

(And at a triple-red ccost, she will only be played in mono-red, if at all.)

I think you made a good call to give her two "ultimates," since without a traditional + ability you can't really make the normal planeswalker progression of abilities (that only works when the + ability does something you want). Two -X abilities makes it clear that you probably want to blow your load on one or the other, rather than worrying about trying to do both.

The last ability is nice on its own, but I don't think it fits too well with the rest of the card, though I could be looking at it wrong - I'd love to hear other people's thoughts:

The problem is that this is an ability that you only ever want to do when X is pretty high, generally, but the only way to get X pretty high is to be damaging the opponent a bunch, and the ability is then used to damage the opponent a bunch (maybe). It feels like if I can make the 0 ability work, I wouldn't need her to make a Ball Lightning with her; I can just use Flowstone Slide to clear their board intermittently while I throw a Lava Spike or two at their head.

On the other hand, maybe it gives her some reach for when you run out of gas but might have a clear board. So maybe I'm just way off on this.

Why does the token get exiled instead of sacrificed, out of curiosity?

[hotsauce]

I like the design, but I agree with Mani wrt to the 3rd ability. A couple of things that might work better:

-X: produce X red mana

or

-X: discard X cards then draw X cards

I think either of those would be more useful and versatile.

[Silverdawn Banisher]

With regards to the token being exiled, I've just followed the precedent set by red's other token making cards like Elemental Appeal, Feral Lightning, Zektar Shrine Expedition etc.

Her first ability's representative of red's high risk for high rewards nature - yeah she doesn't just sit there building up loyalty, instead you've got to work to charge her up. But when you do manage to find ways of "getting her started", she's quick to react, capable of loading up very quickly.

The second ability's there to protect her, as well as pump any of your critters strong enough to survive the Flowstone Slide gimmick.

The third ability's supposed to be her ultimate - creating a huge Elemental token to finish an opponent off after you've used your other resources to damage them earlier on (while powering Cirel up with loyalty counters in the process.)

What I really like about her is the way you usually have to alternate between filling her up and using her abilities. Though the option of loading her over and over till she's ready to go for one big bang is always a welcome action.

[kcon]

To go more with red's typical tokens, I would make her ultimate tokens X/1 instead of X/X. You could also consider having her make X X/1 tokens, though that may be too strong. A specific number might also work. Cool design. Nice job.

[S3ptic]

I love this 'walker. Totally different from usual ones, yet a perfect fit for red. Good job

[Silverdawn Banisher]

@Kcon
Most Elemental tokens indeed have a toughness of 1, but I chose to make her token similar to those of Devastating Summons since I don't want her "pet" to die to Gut Shot and the like. Besides, the token gets exiled at end of turn, so I believe it's alright to keep it X/X.

Edit: I'm so fond of her, I decided to give her a card rendition. See the first post of this thread to check her out.