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@hierarchnoble said in Possibly Misguided Vintage Card Design Theory!:
Here is my attempt:
Hum of the Forest - 2G
Sorcery
Surge G
Draw a card for each creature you control with power 4 or greater.
This is designed to create a modern Oshawa Stompy deck in the current metagame. It would be a deck using Survival of the Fittest and Bazaar of Baghdad to fuel quick Vengevines by casting cheap or free Basking Rootwallas and Hollow Ones. A deck like that requires card draw to make up for the card disadvantage of its engine.
I based this card off of Inspiring Call. The drawback of which creatures count is roughly similar, maybe even in favor of Inspiring Call. I figured slowing the card from Instant to Sorcery and removing the indestructable clause was enough to make a situational cost reduction. Since Vengevine already promotes casting multiple spells in the same turn, Surge seemed like an elegant way to reduce the cost.
The problem with this spell is the amount that it is win more. If I have 2 4/4s in play, I'm (usually) just winning the old fashioned way--no need to draw more cards. If I have 3, I'm winning even more!
A cooler example might be "draw a card for each creature with power 4 or greater in your graveyard" (and make the card an instant. it still has some clever tricks (around Vengevine+Survival, maybe dredging), but, but it's primarily excellent when behind and bad when ahead early, which gives a real tension in how many of the card you want in your deck.
